Stupid Stupak:

When Catholics Trust the Untrustable

Go to http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2010/03/stupid-stupak-when-catholics-trust.html for pictures

(Let me start by saying that I do not use the word “stupid” as a childish insult to Representative Stupak.  I use it to describe the act of trusting someone about something which only the most naïve could possibly trust.  The only way to describe such an action is “foolish” or “stupid”.)

In the aftermath of the stunning betrayal by Bart Stupak on March 21, 2010, one historical precedent has filled my consciousness with its eerie, stomach-churning similarity.  This precedent is the role of the Catholic Centre Party  in the accession of the Nazis in the early 1930’s.  (Before I go any further, let me also make it clear that I do not intend to directly compare Hitler and Obama.  My purpose is to underline the foolishness of Catholics who trust those who have displayed unmistakable antagonism to moral issues of relevance to Catholics.)

Pictured above is Franz von Papen.  He led the Catholic Centre Party, presenting himself as promoting the interests of Catholics in Germany, but in the end, he was just another short-sighted politician about whom Hitler commented, “These men are ghosts.”  Hitler played him like a violin, used him for his own purposes and tossed him aside.  We need not delve into great detail.  Suffice it to say, Papen made deals with Hitler, a man whose virulent anti-Catholic rants were public record and easily accessible to any curious man, not to mention his perverse hatred of the Jews and others.  Further, his main stated socialist and statist goals were totally repugnant to the Catholic ideals of subsidiarity and solidarity.  Papen thought he could guide or control Hitler for his own purposes.  Hitler made promises to von Papen.  Von Papen used his influence, in his turn, to get Hitler appointed Chancellor, just when it seemed he had been stymied.

Papen used his influence for an altogether disastrous intrigue. In spite of all assertions to the contrary, it was he who took the initiative in establishing an alliance with Hitler, who was already beginning to despair of attaining power. Any hesitations he may have had about entering into this suicidal partnership were doubtless swept aside by his natural recklessness, his arrogant assumption of his own right to lead, and an itch for revenge upon his rival Schleicher, now Chancellor in the new cabinet. At all events, the offended Papen cleared away the last personal obstacles to a partnership between the nationalist right and the NSDAP….but this time with real chances of achieving power.

He really should have known better.  If he had only stood his ground, we might have avoided the horrors of Holocaust and World War.  A Catholic can’t ‘make deals’ with people who have consistently espoused moral values inconsistent with true social justice theory.  You can’t get pure water from a thoroughly contaminated well.

Stupak should know better about this health care bill, too. Those who wrote and influenced it or, those whom Obama plans to use to administer the bill, like Ezekiel Emmanuel, Cass Sunstein and the like, have supported the use of government health care to promote federally funded abortions and maybe even infanticide in the words of some of them.  Their own words, associations and actions have given us all more than ample opportunity to figure out what their REAL purposes are.  These people have already let slip their real intentions in regard to life and other moral issues important to Catholics.

What in the world has Obama or his friends ever said in all their ‘public-consumption’ commentary that would give anyone any confidence in their most earnestly argued reassurances?  Their credibility on ‘transparency’, on deficit-cutting or anything else has reached laughable lows.  Why should Stupak trust an empty promise to do something which is inherently nonsensical:  executive altering of legislation??  When they have made it so clear that widespread access to abortion and euthanasia is virtually number one on their list, why should he expect them to change their spots, unless it’s for a tactical maneuver?

HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?

This is a sad day for all those who feel conscience should have some sort of real-world relevance.  Alas, it seems there is no ‘social justice’ for the most innocent and helpless among us like the infants and the elderly.  We were hoping Stupak would stand tall.  He failed.  We still have a chance to and MUST stand up for life and freedom after this display of stupid gullibility.

Remember November is coming.  Reports are already arising of a massive surge today for Stupak’s opponent.  There’s one thing among many that we all can do.  Let’s get back to work again!

The Lyin’ King:

Summit at Hubris Pride Rock!

*for pictures go to http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2010/02/lyin-king-summit-at-hubris-pride-rock.html

All the lions gathered around the big flat rock for the big meeting on hyena-run health care.  King Obamba cleared his throat dramatically and began:

Obamba:    Listen to me and listen long.  We’re talking about how I’m going to take care of all the lions by using the hyenas. I’m going to let you lions on the right do some of the talking and you lions on the left do more talking than that, but, of course, I will do more talking than all of you lions on the right combined, OK?

McCain:     Wait a minute, why is that?

Obamba:    I AM the King, after all, right?  There was a reason I couldn’t wait to do this, wasn’t there?

McCain:     Well, I….

Obamba:    I have to look like I’m being fair.  Let's see. Who should go first?

Biden:        Don't look at me.  I don't have to do anything.  Just Biden my time!

Obamba:    Be quiet, Vice Lion Biden.  I will call on one of your lead lions on the right.  So, go ahead, Lemur.

Lamar:       That’s “Senior Lion Lamar….”

Obamba:    Whatever. Go ahead, Lemur.

Lamar:       Mr. King of the United Lions, back when you kept saying “I just can’t wait to be king” all the time, you promised to do things a certain way and now you’re not. A lot of the lions are saying they don’t want the hyenas taking care of the lions and rumors are flying that you are going to force us all to do it.  The RBO – the Rafiki Budget Office – says it will be a lot more costly to the lions than the way we do it now.  Will you promise here and now not to Rahm this thing down our throats so we can all discuss this honestly and actually do something that will really help?

Obamba:    I’m going to totally ignore that last thing you just said and I’m going to say that you are factually incorrect about the RBO…

Lamar:       But I have it right here…

Obamba:    No, sorry, little Lemur, I’m right, you’re wrong.  Rafiki is a good friend of mine…before we’re done here, I’ll make you eat your words.

[Obamba's little bird advisor ZatU approaches.]

ZatU:        (quietly)  …won’t be much else left to eat….

Obamba:    ZatU, iz zat you again?  I didn’t realize you were still there.

ZatU:        (softly) You hardly realize anyone else but you is there.

Obamba:    Well, I am the really important one here, after all.

[ZatU hands Obamba a piece of paper.]

Obamba:    What’s this? (whispering to ZatU)  RBO says that?  (to all) Well, let me make this perfectly clear.  What I meant to say is that certain types of lions at certain times will be doing better in certain ways.  Why, it’s perfectly obvious that that’s what I meant to say about all that. And, you, Lemur….

Lamar:       (sighing) Senior Lion Lamar….

Obamba:    Whatever. You have got to stop getting us off track here with all your partisan, mean, power-grabbing type stuff….

Lamar:       We haven’t had any power or say since you….

Obamba:    Whatever. You see, I’ve got to look like I’m considering your ideas before I shut you down and your bringing up things like that is just less time for me to talk and look King-y and all that.  Yes, My Cane, what is it?

McCain:     That’s McCAIN!

Obamba:    No, it’s not MY cane.  You’re the one who needs a cane, you toothless old lion.

McCain:     Well, anyway, I object to the PROCESS.  You broke your promises when we were competing to be King.  You said you weren’t doing business with the jackals and now you’re meeting with them and the hyenas all the time in secret caves.

Obamba:    Toothless John, stop that, this has been very open.

McCain:     Yeah, and what about the Zebra Kickback and the Smelly Warthog Purchase and all the Pork. Phew!  There are so many pigs around here now.

Obamba:    John, stop flapping your toothless gums, the campaign for King is over and I am the King – and you’re not.  Besides, no one wants to hear you talk.  They want to hear me.  Well, maybe we’ll let a lion on the left talk a little.  Senior Lioness Slaughter?

ZatU:        No, but we will soon if these hyenas in the king’s government take over.  Then you’ll see your ‘lioness slaughter’….

Obamba:    Oh, is zat you, ZatU?  I forgot you were there and I’m paying no attention to you.  Go ahead, Lioness.

Slaughter: If we don’t let the hyenas take care of the lions, then we’ll see TERRIBLE trouble. The way things are now just won’t work. For instance, I know an old lioness that lost her teeth and she had no hyenas to give her teeth from other lions so she had to use her dead mother’s teeth, which don’t fit, and she’ll probably starve.  Lions will be starving everywhere.  It will be a…It will be a…a…

ZatU:        Slaughter?

Slaughter: Yes?

ZatU:        Never mind.

Slaughter: Well, anyway….

Obamba:    All right, that’s enough of someone who’s not me.

[Obamba talks and talks and talks with his lion chin held high….]

Obamba:    What is it, Ryan?

Ryan:         Can I point out the obvious that we are in drought and near famine?  Does it make any sense to go all in with the hyenas when it’s never worked with anything else we’ve done with them?  Most lions reject this path.

[Lion Ryan goes on several minutes with great intelligence, passion and expression, bringing a whole series of facts.]

Obamba:    You’re lyin’, Ryan.

Ryan:         Well, yes, I am Lion Ryan!  I can’t believe you used my title, Mr. King of the United Lions!

Obamba:    Just stop all that now.  You’re embarrassing yourself.  Well, I’m done with all this and I trust I’ve dazzled everyone with how well I’ve seemed to be balanced and listen and all that stuff.  You, right lions, well, actually I’m the only lion who’s right, here, Now, if you right lions don’t be reasonable and come over to my way of doing things….  [Obamba pounds one paw into the other and slashes a paw over his throat.] My gang, RahmU, Axle Hotrod and the Chicago Thugs will have to slip you the convincer.  What choice do I have?  I gave you every chance today in my very munificent munificensy.  That’s enough of all this hog waste.  I’m going to do what I really wanted to do in the first place now.

Obamba:    (exits singing, with his lion chin in the air): "Everybody look left, everybody look………LEFT some more!  Everywhere you look I'm standing in the spotlight!  Every body look LEFT!"

ZatU:        He just couldn’t wait to be King, all right.  Now the rest of us can hardly wait till he ISN’T!!

Pro-Life House Dems Now on Front Line

[Pictures at http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2010/02/pro-life-house-dems-now-on-front-line.html]

*Published on Flopping Aces*

At one point President Obama promised: “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”  Obama released his own version of Obama-care yesterday. Now that we’ve had a chance to look at the massive health care plan monstrosity the White House finally put out for itself yesterday, we can add this to the list of lies, false promises and insinuations.  He apparently met several times with Planned Parenthood.  How many meetings with pro-life groups?  You guessed it:  none! The group Americans United For Life  has put out the following report (which includes some very informative links):

“On Monday morning, February 22, 2010, President Obama unveiled a ‘new’ health care reform proposal, purporting to combine ideas from the Senate-passed bill, the House-passed bill, and Republican proposals.  However, a careful examination of the White House proposal (which lacks actual legislative language) and statements made by members of the Obama Administration during a health care conference call on Monday reveal the truth – the “new” proposal is simply a modified version of the anti-life bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve. 

Unfortunately, while the White House was crafting modifications to the Senate bill, they failed to remove the anti-life language.  Therefore, all of AUL’s concerns about the bill’s abortion-related provisions, conscience provision, and end-of-life provisions remain.  Further, the White House proposal dramatically increases funding – by 11 billion dollars – for “community health centers” which will include Planned Parenthood abortion centers.  Because the proposal lacks a blanket prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortions, these new funds could be used to directly pay for abortions.

For detailed analyses of the anti-life provisions in the Senate health care reform bill, please see the following posts:

Legal Analysis of Life Concerns in President’s Proposal (Same as the Senate Health Care Reform Bill)

Abortion Tax and other Problems in President’s Proposal (Same as the Senate Health Care Reform Bill)

Abortion Funding Chart (In President’s Proposal and Senate Health Care Reform Bill)

Comparison Chart of Hyde Amendment, Senate Bill/President’s Proposal, and House Bill”

It is time to write and call all of the pro-life Democrats in the House and point out their Stupak Amendment just got thrown under the bus.  (That bus is going to be a mile high before Obama gets done.)  Strongly encourage them to vote AGAINST this bill now that the reason for their previous positive vote is totally gone.  They are now manning the barricades against an existential threat against the American way of life.  Many of them are Catholic.  Will they move towards Obama or towards the call of Benedict XVI to value innocent human life?  We need to help remind them how crucial this is to our land and all humanity.  Call now!

 

The Four Corpsemen of the Obamaclypse

*pictures at http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2010/02/four-corpsemen-of-obamaclypse.html

*posted on Flopping Aces*

In recent days, concurrent with the apocalyptic “Snowpocalypse” in Washington and the earthquake in Chicago, a deluge and a great shaking of another sort has been shaking the Chicago cabal of President Obama in Washington, D.C.  It is awesome serendipity that such similar cataclysms are mirroring each other in this way!

 

Many leading reasonable Democrats are lashing out at the inner sanctum of Chicago chosen ones surrounding Obama.  Steve Clemons, Edward Luce, ex-Governor Doug Wilder of Virginia and others are, for the first time, beginning to be honest about the administrative incompetence and unsuitability of, in particular, Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.

 

The reasons these people are remonstrating spring, of course, from a far different place than those of the majority who are opposing health care and apocalyptic spending.   Many of these liberals are frustrated that their once-in-a-lifetime chance to push certain pet causes is slipping through their fingers.  Nonetheless, any amount of honesty is precious and praiseworthy.

So many of us tried to warn of the danger of hiring someone with SO little administrative experience who was so entangled with the questionable mindset and tactics of the ‘Chicago Way’ and far-left radicals. Perhaps, all Americans of good will can now agree about the destructiveness of this fearsome foursome and press for their ouster.  How much further must we go to realize that the man in charge of hiring and organizing all of this is even more culpable than those he has appointed?  I think a lot of Americans have already taken, or, are about to take, that short step to sanity in this election season of 2010.

 

[I must say that I am indebted for this potent title to Mark Steyn.  Such a brilliant turn of phrase bears repeating!]

Obama “Faith” Advisor Attacks Pope

*pictures at http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1905086499587707582&postID=6402850052934900546

*published on Flopping Aces*

Over the past year we’ve already seen ample evidence that Obama has indeed been affected by the Marxist marinade he stewed in over the years.  Some of us were not so shocked by the massive spending, government takeover and the nascent socialism in most of his proposals.  But the sheer radical nature of so many of his appointments was truly eye-opening, wasn’t it?  (See among other articles, “Czar She Blows” earlier this year.)  As the year went on, we saw many other disquieting examples.  (Anita Dunn comes to mind, as well as his subsuming of the Census.) Well, it seems the radical Marxist, anti-religious beat goes on.

 

The Catholic News Agency is reporting that former minister Harry Knox, appointed by Obama to his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership, is standing by his comments attacking Pope Benedict XVI as “hurting people in the name of Jesus”.

 

Pope hurts people 'in name of Jesus,' Obama faith-based advisor restates 

Washington D.C., February 4 (CNA)

Knox, a former licensed minister of the United Methodist Church and a leader with the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), originally made his comments in March 2009 in response to Pope Benedict's comments about the effectiveness of condoms in fighting AIDS in Africa.

"The Pope's statement that condoms don't help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus," Knox had said in a HRC statement. "On a continent where millions of people are infected with HIV, it is morally reprehensible to spread such blatant falsehoods."

CNSNews.com spoke with Knox at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Asked if he stood by his comments, he said "I do."

Asked about Harvard AIDS prevention researcher Dr. Edward Green's claim that the Pope was correct, Knox said Dr. Green was "simply incorrect."

"All the other evidence of science shows otherwise."

In March 2009, Dr. Green told CNA that researchers cannot find an association between more condom use and lower HIV rates. He has also written that programs to increase fidelity in relationships and to reduce the number of sex partners are effective.

Previously, Knox has described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as "discredited leaders" because of their opposition to same-sex "marriage."

Though acknowledging the Knights of Columbus' "good works," he also called the Catholic fraternal order's members "foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression", because of the organization's support for the successful California ballot measure Proposition 8. That 2008 measure restored the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

My school’s religious order has many institutions serving the people in Marxist-ruled Zimbabwe and many other countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic.  It is a truly catastrophic situation.  Those who aren’t orphaned are often being raised by older grandparents.  The money our schools are raising in this country is helping many of these orphans live at our schools in Africa.  Programs discouraging promiscuity are getting results.  Handing out condoms isn’t working.  What the Pope says is a very simple statement of fact that is encountered in every day life down there, and not just in the convincing statistics referred to by Dr. Green.

I can offer an anecdote of my own in regard to the practical counter-disease effectiveness of condoms in real street life.  Many years ago, I got the chance to visit and stay at Covenant House in New York City for awhile.  (Covenant House is a shelter for runaway kids.  A lot of runaways in New York, many very young, are picked up by pimps and forced into white slavery:  forced prostitution.)  I got to talk to the workers serving these kids there about the real statistics they got straight from the street.  Can you guess what the failure rate is for condoms in real street use?  It’s one in five.  Can you guess the average number of tricks these kids have to turn a day?  You guessed it:  five!  It’s basically Russian roulette.  The STD’s all these kids get is no abstract papal religious propaganda; it’s horribly real.

Who would you rather trust in this African AIDS crisis: all the Catholic religious orders in Africa who are actually serving the orphans and shattered families, or someone denied ordination for not adhering to his own denomination’s rules?

It seems many of those surrounding Obama betray antipathy to authentic religion.  If they are ‘religious’ at all, it is the Marxist model of Reverends Wright and Fleger, HEAVY emphasis on Marxist not ‘religious’.  All this makes me wonder about Obama’s year-long search for a church to attend. Could it be that any ‘church’ he would really want to attend would not look good in a PR sense?  I almost hate to speculate like that, but in view of the ever-increasing evidence from so many of his appointees, like this Harry Knox, what else are we to think?

Beware of far-left idealogical zealots offering ‘spiritual’ advice, or ANY advice for that matter. Their grasp on reality is so skewed that, every time they try to “help”, a lot of people are actually going to get very hurt! 

President Queeg

&

 The Brown Mutiny

*pictures at http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2010/01/president-queeg-brown-mutiny.html

*published on Flopping Aces*

If you want to see a truly great classic movie, allow me to recommend The Caine Mutiny released in 1954.  Why that one?  Well, I’m beginning to see some resemblances in the plot of that movie and the STRANGE things going on around the Obama administration since the Massachusetts Miracle election of Scott Brown.

 

The short version of the plot is that a poorly-run ship gets a new captain who, it is hoped, will restore discipline and purpose to the crew.  On the surface he looks like the perfect person to lead, though he’s never had such a task before.  He’s seen hard duty and maybe he might be good in an essentially training job.  It soon becomes apparent to all, however, that this Captain Queeg is damaged goods, psychologically.  He seems to be on a megalomaniacal power trip and obsesses about trivial issues while being oblivious to true dangers.  Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia summary:

 

The next day, the Caine is assigned to tow a target for gunnery practice. Queeg berates both Keith and Keefer over a crewman's appearance and, while distracted, cuts off the helmsman's warning; as a result, the Caine continues in a circle and cuts the towline to the target. Queeg refuses to accept responsibility and tries to cover it up.

 

Other incidents serve to undermine Queeg's authority. When the remains of a quart of strawberries is stolen from the officers' mess, the captain goes to absurd lengths to hunt the culprit. More seriously, in combat, Queeg breaks off escorting a group of landing craft during an amphibious assault long before they reach the fiercely-defended shore, dropping a yellow marker in the water instead and leaving them unsupported. Afterwards, Queeg makes a speech to his officers, not explicitly apologizing for his behavior, but bending enough to ask for their support. His disgruntled subordinates do not respond.

 

Keefer begins trying to convince Maryk that he should relieve Queeg on the basis of mental illness. Matters come to a head during a violent typhoon. Maryk urgently recommends that they steer into the waves and take on ballast, but Queeg fears that the ballast will foul the fuel lines with salt water. Queeg's decisions seem to Maryk to threaten the capsizing of the Caine. When Queeg appears to become paralyzed and unable to deal with the crisis, Maryk relieves him and takes over, with Keith's support.

 

Part of the crew is court-martialed for their mutiny.  At first, Queeg presents himself as perfectly logical and a victim of jealousy and it seems to be working.  Queeg is going to be cleared and the crewmembers convicted.  Then, in a climactic scene, Queeg, played to the hilt by Humphrey Bogart, comes apart on the stand under the pressure of truth, his constant rolling of those metal balls in his right hand serving as the background for his mental collapse.

 

Now, let’s see what happened to Obama last week.

 

He had been brought aboard the ship of the body politic to straighten things up.  He had never done anything like it before and there was some suspicion that he was ‘damaged goods’, having been stewed in a Marxist marinade and perhaps scarred by an unusual background.  But he actually seemed to LOOK like the perfect antidote for what ailed us, just as someone like Queeg might SEEM to be perfect as a trainer; he had seen active duty; so, though he had never actually had such duty as a training captain, he might do well.

 

But as soon as he became our ‘captain’, Obama began to betray annoying symptoms of clueless behavior. He obsessed about the Olympics, global warming and the Nobel Prize, while our ship of state cut the towline of international respect.  He conveyed massive energy and resources towards a health care monstrosity no one wanted while the real crying need for jobs lay like a target cut off and adrift in the water.  When our Army cried for a quick decision in Afghanistan, he obfuscated and dithered.  While Fort Hood and the Underwear Bomber cried out for a strong response, Obama dropped the yellow marker of apology and unprecedented civilian treatment of terrorists, including trying KSM in New York City.

 

Far from being the transparent post-confrontational ‘trainer’ he had promised to be, he practiced a Queeg-like paranoid secrecy everywhere, in his many secret czars, the subsuming of the census, the Cambridge policeman acting stupidly, the total closed-door secrecy in the health care process, the silencing tactics with Fox, media and citizenry alike, and so much more.

 

Queeg had good attorneys to mask or spin the stories about him.  Obama had almost the entire media and elite to try to spin the behavior we began to see with our own eyes.  So, it looked like he might be able to get away with it.  Until…

 

Enormous political pressure came to bear on Obama with the unexpected win by Brown in Massachusetts in the wake of New Jersey and Virginia, and then, IT HAPPENED.  The veneer cracked.  Hordes of once true-blue liberal pundits, politicians and power brokers began to say out loud what those watching closely have known all along.  [For instance, Mort Zuckerman has repented with a vengeance] People began running from the health care bill like the plague, pointing fingers, jumping off the ship. Voila. The Emperor has no clothes. Everyone is staring at Obama in the witness chair, tumbling those balls in his hand, totally obsessed with an ideological madness, unable to face the reality surrounding him.  He just can’t seem to deal with it, resorting to absurd comparisons that now fall completely flat with everyone.  We’ve all seen it together and called it what it is. EVERYBODY KNOWS WHO HE IS NOW.

 

The one key, even crucial, difference is that Obama has not been relieved of command as Queeg so obviously needed to be, and was, at the end of  “The Caine Mutiny”.  Even though we have uncovered a similar paranoid obsession in Obama, he will most likely remain our ‘captain’ until 2012.  There is still plenty of damage he can do, so many more yellow markers to drop, so many fruitless strawberry hunts to waste our money upon.

 

What do we do?  Let’s all find something to do in making 2010 a sea-change election.  This is a matter of patriotism not partisanship.  “It is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” Choose a local candidate who gets it and become involved in their campaign.  If you have a lot of money, it won’t do you any good if our country goes aground on some reef of socialism; give it where it will do some good.  Are you a good writer?  Write editorials, letters to the editors, on blogs, anywhere you can.

 

We’ve already managed to do so much up to now.  Why stop? Let’s effectively take this captain’s hands off the wheel and limit the damage he can do.  Like Paul Revere on Brown Beauty, let’s ride!  Let’s mutiny against stupidity and RAISE SOME CAINE!!

 

The Sisters & the Swashbuckler

* for pictures, go to http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/

In the run-up to the miraculous come-from-behind victory of Scott Brown in oh-so-Blue Massachusetts, some conservatives were agonizing about supporting Brown (who is not strictly pro-life) or the ‘true conservative’, the ironically named Mr. Kennedy.  In their agony to be ‘right’, they almost missed the rescue boat!  Kennedy ended up getting less than 1%.  Thank the Good God, most conservatives felt the inspiration of the Spirit and did the right thing by not insisting on such litmus test purity.  Believe me, I think orthodoxy or defining truth is an important matter, but that’s not really the mistake being made in such cases.  The problem starts with not recognizing that judging the worth or ultimate destiny of any person is a job that belongs to God alone.  If God wants to use someone that’s not OUR idea of someone worthy, then so be it, that’s not our job.  What is our job?  We’ve got to do WHATever we can with WHOever we can!  The Lord Jesus spelled it out in his Last Judgment of the Sheep and Goats. The question wasn’t ‘Have you believed the right things’; it was ‘What did you DO to, for or with the LEAST’.  Mother Teresa didn’t interrogate those she helped about their worthiness or background and she worked with many unlikely allies.

 

It reminds me of the man on a roof in a flood begging the Lord for help:  he refuses a rowboat, a police boat and a helicopter and says he’s waiting for God’s special help.  As he’s drowning he complains to God, who replies:  ‘Gee, I sent you two boats and a helicopter.  Why didn’t you take any of them?’  Thank God, we jumped in Brown’s pickup!

 

The mistake of the hand-wringing conservatives, a ‘Brown-out’ of short-sightedness, is a common one in history.  Truly wise men and authentically called leaders are usually humble enough to see the rowboat, even when it’s coming in a disconcerting or unexpected package while the puritanically proper are so ‘right’ that they’re actually wrong.  I see such an example in the events surrounding the great Battle of New Orleans.

 

[I should preface my remarks by saying ahead of time that I realize Andrew Jackson is a controversial and troubling figure.  Some of the things he did were so amazing and admirable while others were horrific and inexcusable.  Suffice it to say that what he did at New Orleans was amazing.]

 

Colonel Jackson was about to face the greatest army in the world.  The Redcoats racing up the Delta had just defeated the mighty Napoleon and were the best organized, provisioned and experienced soldiers in the world. Now, Jackson could have gone with a conventional plan solely based on U.S. regular soldiers, but what he did was visionary.  For one thing, he actively enlisted every level of citizenry in the city on many levels.  And then he turned to two very unlikely sources for help.

 

First, he asked for the help of Catholic Religious nuns, the Ursulines.  We must remember, Jackson was a Protestant in a time that was generally distrustful and biased against the minority Catholics, but he did not hesitate to ask.

 

“…the Ursuline Sisters prayed that they would be spared loss of life in the Battle of New Orleans led by General Andrew Jackson against the formidable British Army. In spite of overwhelming odds including huge numbers of highly trained British soldiers, the Battle was won. General Jackson, publicly, and in a letter to the Sisters, acknowledged “heavenly intercession” in that victory. The Sisters welcomed the many injured British soldiers and nursed them back to health. (Jackson’s letter resides in the Ursuline Museum on State Street).

 

In years after the Battle, President Jackson’s trips to New Orleans always included visits to the Ursuline Convent.”

 

The other unlikely source was the notorious pirate, Jean Lafitte.  Now, Lafitte actually saw himself as a “gentleman” and a “privateer”, but there was no doubt he had done some bad things.  Nonetheless, Jackson met with him and saw something admirable and even trustworthy in this remarkable tactician and organizer and decided to ‘overlook’ what didn’t fit with his idea of propriety.  Lafitte truly wanted to help for reasons that were at least partly laudable.

 

We can all read in history the results of this unlikely alliance, the glorious Battle of New Orleans. The way everyone planned and gave every ounce of energy they had together was a true inspiration.  It was a truly miraculous unforeseen victory achieved through the hard work, co-operation and determination of many different yet like-minded patriots, very much like that joyous election of January 19, 2010.

 

So, let’s keep our eyes peeled for the next rowboat and the next allies in the glorious and righteous cause we share.  Keep your powder dry and your boots on.

 

You might want to listen to Johnny Horton’s classic “The Battle of New Orleans” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxB42cjHTGg

“Brown Beauty” Rides Again!

OR

The “Scott” Heard Round the World! 

* for pictures go to http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/

My motto has always been ‘puns are fun’ and, my, what a feast presents itself in the current Special Election with Martha Coakley and Scott Brown!  I employed several in my recent posts.  Many, and rightly so, have seen an awesome parallel with the beginning of the American Revolution in Massachusetts in 1775.  There, too, we saw the regular populace revolt against an out-of-touch, domineering aristocracy and top-down government bureaucracy.  Outsiders have no idea to what similar depths of corruption and clueless entitlement the Democratic establishment in the Bay State has descended.  (Oh, wait, actually you do since the Obama Presidency.)  At any rate, I am reveling in the sweet happenstance of several fortuitous puns!

 

In the original Massachusetts uprising, Paul Revere borrowed a horse to embark on his famous ‘midnight ride’ popularized by Longfellow’s wonderful poem.  What was the NAME of this heroic equine messenger, you ask?  Why, BROWN BEAUTY is that name, of course.  How appropriate that the workmanlike messenger of this present oh-so-sane revolt is also named BROWN, and that his campaign has been a thing of BEAUTY?  In the immortal words of Jackie Gleason, “How sweet it is”!

 

The happy result of said ride of Revere was, need we say, the “shot heard round the world” at Concord. How curious!  Have you noticed that “shot” rhymes with SCOTT?  I was just reading in several foreign papers online that everyone around the world seems to have taken notice of this little-known State Senator and the revolutionary import of what is happening in Massachusetts.  So, that means we might call this current confluence of events – dare we say it – “The SCOTT Heard Round the World”!  [For more sublime wordplay, go to Howie Carr’s latest irreverent masterpiece.]

 

Some might regard such ruminations as of little importance.  But results of wordplay like this often serve as distillers of the essence of very important truths.  A whole range of events, meanings and movements can be summed up in such short summaries as “The XYZ Affair” or “Wall Street Lays an Egg”.  What Cary Grant’s marriage to heiress Barbara Hutton meant in reams of gossip commentary has forever been encapsulated as “Cash & Cary”! I view these merry jests in much the same way.  These phrases may be fun & trivial but the struggle for the future of all humanity is there in the fibers of their cloth and in the lilt of their short cadences.

What Can Brown Do For You? He Can WIN!!!

*published on Flopping Aces*

A few days ago I posted that Scott Brown was gaining significantly on Martha Coakley in the special election for Senate in Massachusetts. This is especially significant because the 60-vote filibuster-proof margin of the Democrats in the Senate hangs in the balance. The election is in less than two weeks. Well, a newer poll from PPP shows the race is now a dead heat. One could argue about the methodology and reach of these polls but the Real Clear Politics chart shows a definite trend and reveals a highly motivated opposition to ‘politics as usual’.



Here in New Hampshire, we experience a lot of the campaign. Scott Brown has been appearing regularly on “The Howie Carr Show” on radio and he comes across very well. The TV ads in his favor are spirited and enthusiastic. Brown’s own ‘200,000 mile pick-up’ ad is very effective. The one ad I saw for Coakley was a dis-spirited reading of vague campaign promises. In short, BROWN DELIVERS! Meanwhile, Coakley’s performance betrays a certain overconfidence.



One point Scott likes to make that is particularly appealing to me is that ‘this is not Ted Kennedy’s seat, it is the peoples’ seat’. Very true!



The bottom line is this seems to be a delivery van that’s worth putting gas in! Other important causes might not be so urgent at this moment. Send your patriotic package today so it can arrive there on time! Link to my previous post above to link to Brown’s campaign. Remember, UPS can offset the DOWNS…

What Can Brown Do For You? Plenty! 

*published on Flopping Aces*

Don’t look now.  The news has just hit that Scott Brown is within striking distance of Martha Coakley in the race for the Senate Seat in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Rasmussen’s poll of likely voters has seen Democrat Coakley’s lead shrink from 30 % to 9%. The special election is coming in two short weeks.  He is absolutely committed to stopping this health care monstrosity in the Senate, and, if elected, he would be that 60^th vote guaranteeing the protection of filibuster! He is also opposed to Federal funding for abortion and several other items of interest to pro-life voters.  The time is NOW to act.

 

‘What can I do?’ you may ask, ‘I don’t live in Massachusetts’.  Easy: send CASH at his website.  Call relatives in MA and ask them to go get an absentee ballot now.  Pass this post on or post or write yourself somewhere accessible to Bay State voters.

 

We’ve had enough DOWNS; let’s have some UPS with BROWN that isn’t B.S.  Let’s get this country moving again!

 

Just do it.  Now.

Casey (& the Whole Blue Dog Team) Strikes Out!  Casey Junior’s Coming OFF the Tracks!

 

Isn’t it ironic that the more the nation turns “pro-life” here and an ever-increasing majority recognizes how bad the monstrous health care plan is here the more certain ‘conservative’ or ‘pro-life’ Democrats are caving in on these very issues?  These are times that try men’s souls apparently.  What sort of moral foundation of principles have you built for yourself when you so loudly declare something about your core beliefs and then so easily betray them exactly when support is building among the people you serve?!?  Such historic crossroads as we face now certainly provide a test of all that.

 

Senator Nelson from Nebraska is the prime case du jour; he has not only accepted what is bribery in all but name (the Cornhusker Kickback), but he has accepted the so-called “Casey compromise” on abortion which puts the lie to all he has said in recent days.  Casey produced a list of “faith” groups that support his euphemisms, but the US Bishops and all authentic pro-life groups have seen through the ruse.  It effectively provides the opportunity for massive Federal funding for abortion.  (See here and here.)

 

Yes, as indicated above, Senator 'CASEY JUNIOR' of Pennsylvania (son of the that brave Senator Casey who experienced being blackballed at his own convention in 1992 and other real sacrifices for remaining true to his Faith) was way ahead of Nelson in betraying pro-life conservatives.  He is opting for the same ‘symbolism-over-substance’ ploy used by Obama at Notre Dame.  The Catholic Center Party in Germany during the 1930’s fell to this same tactic; they received reassuring ‘language’ from the National Socialists in return for some absolutely key votes that effected the transfer of power, which in turn negated any of the empty rhetoric used to co-opt them. .  It's possible none of the disaster that followed would have happened if it weren't for the 'compromise’ of Franz von Papen and company.

 

We have every right to judge our representatives on such bases.  True, only the “Judge of he living and the dead” has the right to assess the worth and ultimate destiny of anyone, but we have not only the right but the DUTY to assess their moral probity in carrying out their service to US.  As I said last year regarding Barack Obama, we are “hiring” them and we have the right to take into account their moral standards as part of our assessment.

 

What do you say about the moral standards of “representatives” who act in such a way?  I obviously do not want to vote for someone who espouses political views that directly oppose mine.  That’s the easy part.  Many commentators recently have realized that party politics are now in order.  That is the judgment I think we have to make now.  The Democratic Party is now so thoroughly infected by the Marxist, anti-life virus, that true pro-lifers and patriots must in good conscience now reject the label, though that would certainly not, as usual practice, be the modus operandi for believers.  Such are the strange times we live in.  Perhaps more patriotic, pro-life Democrats should follow the lead and logic of Representative Griffith of Alabama and abandon the Democratic Party all-together! 

 

 

 

 

HAVE THEY LOST THEIR CENSUS?!?

 *for pictures, go to http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/

A few months ago, Senator Judd Gregg refused to go ahead with his nomination to Commerce Secretary after he learned that the White House had taken over the work of the Census. "[He] didn't want to be a powerless GOP token, and that's where this was headed." said one friend of his. Judd intimated the Census had “tipped the balance” for his decision. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/12/gregg.nomination/index.html I remember how horrified I was at the time by the very idea and I could understand Judd feeling the necessity for his embarrassing and wrenching action.

The idea of the White House subsuming the Census just seems so wrong on so many levels. Even assuming the probity of any Administration taking such a step, the very act is per se, in itself,a horrible precedent and ripe with potential for, at least, non-intended problems and injustices. ACCOUNTABILITY is a hallmark of our American system. If this Census is taken away from the purview of the Cabinet, we are, in effect, putting our representative power further out of our hands (in that oversight of the process is further removed). To paraphrase one of our cherished ideals, “Enumeration without Representation is Tyranny”! The fact that the Obama group, in particular, was doing it seemed even more worrisome to me and, I’m sure, even to a lot of his more honest supporters. His team, throughout the campaign, kept betraying the “Chicago Way” mentality over and over again (just ask all those Hillary people!). Not only is the action itself almost unthinkable, having THESE people do it made it far worse.

Since then, one shocking and unnerving revelation about these people’s OTHER plans has leaked out bit by bit, making the Census problem one more brick in an ever-rising patterned wall that should alarm thinking patriots in terms of giving them hidden blanket powers. The Census problem worsened. The news came out that the group who caused so much turmoil with their unethical practices during the campaign, ACORN, is going to be asked to be part of the Census! http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/19/acorn-gets-plum-census-assignment/ I don’t really care WHAT role they will be playing. If it’s coming out of the White House, and using ACORN, a group notorious for inflating numbers for political gain, the very least we can assume is horribly gauche lack of consideration for the appearance of impropriety. At the least, it is a slap in the face of those who still assume freedom is an American ideal. And shouldn’t history and experience warn us about the worse types of impropriety we have already SEEN?

Just when I thought it couldn’t be worse, we now learn that materials are being sent to children across the country, involving them in the process directly. Previously, teachers had to request such materials. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2009-08-26-census-kits-schools_N.htm As a teacher, I have received an email already from the government. As a Catholic, the principle of subsidiarity, guaranteeing that the larger organs of society should try not to excessively interfere in the smaller groups such as families and schools seems to be violated. Using the force and prestige of the Government to enroll children in a process that is not accountable doesn't jive with this sense:

One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity. This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be. This principle is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State. http://www.acton.org/publications/randl/rl_article_200.php

Why reach the “Tendrils” of powerful government so far unnecessarily? And children? Pervasive early submersion in powerful government direction is not the optimum way for Americans to 'be involved'. After what we have seen already on the Census, and, in view of all the talk of mandatory volunteerism, civilian armies, and 'not being allowed to NOT join in', perhaps I may be excused for my suspicions without being accused of paranoia. This is yet one more thing that “We the People” have to raise a stink about and not let it be done in darkness. The reach of this Census should not be lengthened if it is being done in the way it is. The goal should be to return the Census to an accountable Cabinet Office; if that is not possible we must unveil it for all to see as we did with the Health Care threat. Shock them back to their SENSES!

 

Czar She Blows!
Radicals Gone Wild

Are you pro-life? A majority of us are now apparently willing to describe ourselves that way in this country. If that is so, then you really need to heed the words and spread the facts I will discuss here. This is something we have to inform people about (because, after all, the Main Stream Media has uttered not a word). There is an alarming pattern developing in the TYPE of person Obama is appointing as his “Czars”. [Glenn Beck, to his credit, has done a lot this week to inform us about who these people are.]

Obama has made noises about “dialogue” with us but actions and associations speak - in this case, scream - louder than mere words.

First of all, even many Democrats are wondering why so very many czars [34? “more than the Romanovs” in Russia] are being appointed and why the extent of their power and the use of our tax dollars are beyond scrutiny; is it constitutional? There had been only a handful of them before in our history. It smacks of ‘shadow government’. (Perhaps, radicals know Americans would not go along with their plans if they were plainly stated.)

But something worries me most of all: the views that these unassailable appointees have expressed on human life. The main point is that many of them seem to be not just standard “liberals” on life issues. Some liberals might actually be authentically described as “pro-choice”, sincerely though ignorantly supporting what they don’t understand. This is not true of these friends of Obama; they are not just ‘fellow travelers’ or dupes of the Far Left Marxists. No, they ARE the Far Left Marxists!

{There are many places to investigate all of this. Look for yourself. Here is an example: http://jscafenette.com/2009/08/22/a-czar-for-this-a-czar-for-that/. Start there and keep on looking.}

Let us peruse a few of Obama’s appointees:

1. Van Jones

 
Mr. Jones has been appointed “Green Job” Czar. His radical connections are too myriad to count. Suffice it to say he calls himself a Communist (of the ‘Maoist’ variety) and a “rowdy Black nationalist”. He was a member of STORM, a radical group indeed. His lack of respect for life in general and willingness to take extreme measures reminds me of Bill Ayers’ rants about re-education.

2. John Holdren

 
Holdren is the new “Science Czar”. He remains a proponent of the discredited theories of Paul Erlich (who in his book, "The Population Bomb", has given us one of the most stupendously failed attempts at prediction in history). These are among his anti-life pronouncements:

- babies are not human until they’re socialized and may be killed if needed
- we should have a planetary regime to force abortions and sterilizations
- sterilizing agents should be put into the drinking water of the population

3. Ezekiel Emmanuel M.D.

 
The brother of Rahm Emmanuel, he is Obama’s “Health Policy Adviser”, the moving force behind Obama’s supposedly benign Health Care Plan. In his own writings, he supports “Social Value Allocation”, which, when you get beyond the euphemistic language, advocates radical anti-life ideas, including infanticide, forced abortion and many hints at euthanasia.

4. Cass Sunstein

 
He is the new “Regulatory Czar”. Following a pattern present among many of these people, he is, like Professor Peter Singer, a radical animal rights supporter. This view sees absolutely no uniqueness or value in human life as opposed to animals. He has proposed giving animals the right to sue! What about unborn and newborn humans, I wonder?

I suppose I could go on, but I’m not writing a research paper here. I just want to wake up as many as possible about this pattern. Let us send appreciation to the Democrats who are trying to challenge the constitutionality of these Czars or any who might do so. Send emails to as many people as you can to let them know this information. Above all, I think this should put to rest, once and for all, any tendency to want to buy ANY part of this horrible HR3200 or any other version of “health care reform”. If they insist on ramming this down our unwilling throats in whatever form, we can reasonably surmise that it is merely a wedge to gain the radical anti-life goals of those who wrote, influenced and promoted the monstrosity. Keep on working. We cannot let up. As our Founding Fathers knew, such work is its own reward and also beckons the blessings of Providence.

ADDENDUM:

Here are some links to start with:

Nat Hentoff expresses his fears about life: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff081909.php3

Van Jones, Newsbusters: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/sam-theodosopoulos/2009/07/10/fox-news-notes-communist-past-green-jobs-czar

FoxNews, Holdren, forced abortions and sterilization: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/21/obamas-science-czar-considered-forced-abortions-sterilization-population-growth/

Zeke Emmanuel: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/hello_obamacare_goodbye_grandm_1.html

Sunstein: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=614400

Glenn Beck has a segment this week called "Know Your Czars"!

 

The Exciting Adventure of…

Queen Jezebel and the Purloined Vineyard!

For pictures see http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2009/08/exciting-adventure-of-queen-jezebel-and.html

*published on Flopping Aces*

In the current brouhaha about the Obama health care proposal and the town hall meeting anger expressed in opposition, it seems like proponents of HR3200 want to use the language of “choice”, “freedom” and the like to support it, while, at the same time, they are labeling opponents as “un-American”. In my previous post, I described the phenomenon of accusing your victims of what you’re doing. Now, I want to talk about how those ideologically and radically opposed to traditional American beliefs and practices are actually using the language of that same authentic Americanism in order to destroy it. They, secretly, or not so secretly, hate it! Do you think this is the first time such a thing has happened? Of course not!

In the First Book of Kings in the Bible, there is some of the best historical narrative and story-telling anywhere. In Chapter 16, we first meet Ahab, King of the newly split northern Kingdom of Israel, someone who is a central figure in the story we will tell. We are told “he did evil in the sight of the Lord more than any of his predecessors.” He introduces the worship of fertility gods and goddesses with their obscene rites; he builds temples to Ba’al. As a result, a drought of three and a half years befalls the land as predicted by Elijah. [This is very symbolic: three and a half is exactly half of SEVEN, the number of Covenant with God. The measuring stick of the people’s promise to God has been, as it were, snapped in two.] Ahab even marries the daughter of the King of Sidon, JEZEBEL!

{We should stop to understand the significance of marrying someone from Tyre or Sidon. The Sidonians were Phoenician pagans. Even other pagans, like the Greeks and Romans, tended to look down upon them [such as those famous Phoenicians at Carthage with whom the Romans fought in the Punic Wars]. They looked down on them because they not only engaged in human sacrifice (how awful compared to gladiatorial games!) but they also specialized in killing children; and their fertility rites involved cult prostitution publicly carried out in their temples. The degradation of their culture was unsettling to others, above all what they did in their homeland around Tyre and Sidon.}

This brings us to the other main character in the story we will tell: Jezebel. The name, Jezebel, by the way, has become, for many, synonymous with the quintessential evil woman. Bette Davis starred in the movie “Jezebel”, set in the Antebellum South; she plays a truly BAD woman in this movie! 

*Bette Davis in “Jezebel”*

But I think this stereotype misses something very crucial about the real Jezebel. Jezebel was not only a princess of Sidon, she was a high priestess of her religion. In fact, reading in between the lines of the Bible’s depiction or her, it becomes clear that her motives are not typical evil motives per se. One insight explains everything: Jezebel was a religious FANATIC! She hated the RELIGION of the Israelites with an irrational passion. She was willing to do ANYTHING to further her own religion and destroy her own kingdom’s religion. Now, this would seem to put her in a somewhat delicate position. She was the Queen of ISRAEL, after all, and had duties, at least in appearance, towards the ancestral religion and traditions of her adopted people. How, did she deal with the conundrum of such a divergence in heart and persona?

She talked one way and acted another! She gave lip service to her duties as Queen; but most all her actions of power, actions that really meant something, were leading to the opposite place. Like the Marxists today, her concern was not truth but power. She had all the prophets of the God of Israel put to death for false reasons (save for Elijah). If the people had no one to speak out for them or challenge their consciences, then “without a vision” ‘the people’, as traditionally envisioned, would perish. She diverted funding and favor to the temples of Ba’al.

As First Kings goes on, Elijah defeats Jezebel’s prophets of Ba’al by means of an amazing miracle (which is quite a story in itself). She sends her army to kill him. He flees to Sinai, aided by the angels, to prepare for his next prophetic step.

At this point in Chapter 21, we come to a very revealing incident indeed, the event to which we have been leading: the story of Naboth’s Vineyard.

I Kings 21:1-12. 15-16

1        Some time after this, as Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria,

2        Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it is close by, next to my house. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money."

3        "The LORD forbid," Naboth answered him, "that I should give you my ancestral heritage."

[There was a deep religious significance to the original gift of the land from God to his Tribe, sub-tribe and family. To a devout Israelite, things like genealogies and land titles were objects prompting devotion, to be treasured, kept and remembered. To give it up would be, in effect, a betrayal of God and country. Ahab had apparently lost all sense of his ‘roots’ as an Israelite.]

4        Ahab went home disturbed and angry at the answer Naboth the Jezreelite had made to him: "I will not give you my ancestral heritage." Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.

[How telling this is as to the character of Ahab! He his is weak, wishy-washy and self-centered. I picture him curling up in a fetal ball and sucking his thumb! He’s sulking. The next line shows us how little respect he has elicited from his wife.]

5        His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, "Why are you so angry that you will not eat?"

6        He answered her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, 'Sell me your vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in exchange.' But he refused to let me have his vineyard."

7        "A fine ruler over Israel you are indeed!" his wife Jezebel said to him. "Get up. Eat and be cheerful. I will obtain the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you."

[I guess we know who wears the pants in this family! Her fanatical certainty impels her to go where less brave, and perhaps wiser, ones would not go. She is used to getting her way and is supremely self-confident. It’s clear just how much she despises and undervalues Ahab.]

8        So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and, having sealed them with his seal, sent them to the elders and to the nobles who lived in the same city with Naboth.

[Now, wait a minute. She’s using the King’s own SEAL!?! She has become the secret power driving things behind the scenes.]

9        This is what she wrote in the letters: "Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.

10      Next, get two scoundrels to face him and accuse him of having cursed God and king. Then take him out and stone him to death."

11      His fellow citizens--the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city--did as Jezebel had ordered them in writing, through the letters she had sent them.

[Wow, what a dastardly deed! She will stop at nothing. Notice that she has Naboth accused of cursing God and king, breaking the Law of Moses! Isn’t SHE cursing the God of Israel day after day under her breath? Hasn’t she cursed and disrespected her husband the King to point of mocking him and usurping his power? From the appearance of the one statement recorded from the mouth of Naboth, I highly doubt that Naboth ever tried to offend God a day in his life. And yet, it is HE who must suffer. Jezebel is once again achieving her end of trying to appear to support God and country, all the while, furiously working to destroy it and transform it into the Phoenician homeland she knew and loved: CHANGE!]

15      When Jezebel learned that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Go on, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to sell you, because Naboth is not alive, but dead."

16      On hearing that Naboth was dead, Ahab started off on his way down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

How nonchalantly Jezebel snuffs out a life and tosses the carcass to the man she treats like her underling. How blithely Naboth acts!  He immediately runs to “take possession” of what he coveted. We can picture him like a spoiled little kid, clapping his hands and yelling, “Yippee! Goody! Goody! I got it!” blissfully unaware of the horrible injustice and loss of innocent life that was the price for this illusory, passing pleasure. He is deadened and asleep spiritually; he can’t see what’s happening right around him.

Elijah, strengthened by his sojourn to Sinai, and no longer afraid, returns at this absolutely crucial moment to uncover everything that has been going on. Elijah confronts Ahab in the Vineyard with the full truth of everything that has happened with the Vineyard and, surprisingly, Ahab wakes up spiritually, changes his ways and asks for mercy. He begins to realize the wider implications of this small incident and begins to make the changes he needs to make. Elijah reassures him that the doom that had already been threatened for Ahab will not occur. On the other hand, Elijah predicts that the dogs will lick the blood of the corpse of Jezebel right where she had oppressed Naboth. And so it happens later in the story. [Cue the Twilight Zone Intro. music!] Some admire the defiance of Jezebel at her death as she dresses in all her best finery before she is killed by those around her. She is thrown from the window. It is a tragic end.

It seems to me that there are some similarities to the present situation. Obama and his friends speak the language of traditional American values but they are trying to hide where their heart is on purpose. They say you have a “choice” and all those reassuring platitudes but they plan to eventually get to  a very UN-traditional, very UN-American single-payer system as some have let slip: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=330913 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk. They are ideologues like Jezebel.

Like Jezebel, they despise the traditional values of God and country and are zealots for socialism at least and Marxism at the worst. No matter what they’ve been SAYING for public consumption, it’s crystal clear what they really want from their private words and by their actions, by what it is they are DOING and plan to do.

Like Jezebel, they try to silence any prophetic voices that are pointing out any inconvenient truths. They try to cow and threaten, to flood the air with their powerful rhetoric, just like Jezebel silenced the prophets of the Lord.

Like Naboth, let our devotion to our land and to our traditions stand and not bend under the pressure of the whims of a short-sighted and selfish government which does not respect our God-given freedom and property. Though they hire “scoundrels” (paid liars) to besmirch and mock us, calling us what those liars really are, like Naboth, let us not give up the heritage that is more precious than life itself.

Like Elijah, at this crucial moment, now that HR3200 has been providentially delayed and we can reveal ALL the truth about it, let us not be afraid to confront our friends with the truth and with the tough love that is needed. Look up the page numbers; make the contrast with our traditions obvious; use the tools you’re good at using to expose it. Like the Vineyard Incident, let us use this Bill to wake up the country to the wider implications.

Yes, like Ahab, let us help ourselves and our country wake up to the true situation. We have ‘married’ ourselves to an attractive ‘wife’ (Obama and all he represents) with great attractiveness and promises and yet have not noticed that she despises us and is working behind our backs to neuter our identity as Americans and usurp our power (the power that for us rests not in a king but in “We the People”). We have been confronted by our modern-day Elijah’s; let us, like Ahab, do something about that realization and avoid the consequences we have been warned about. The time is NOW! Elijah is pointing his finger at our Ahab. Let us change the “change” we are threatened with. Once, we have committed to the slow path to Government Health Care, there is probably no going back. Let’s NOT go through with it! You know the saying: MARRY IN HASTE, REPENT AT LEISURE. Let’s get the word out. Let’s roll!

http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/