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?

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

The Exciting Adventure of…

Queen Jezebel and the Purloined Vineyard!

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/

ACCUSE YOUR VICTIM OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING!

For pictures go to  http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/2009/08/accuse-your-victim-of-what-youre-doing.html

* The picture above Left shows Milada Horakova, a really dangerous-looking elderly lady who was a Czech dissident put to death after a Soviet show trial simply for disagreeing;  above right, a recent town hall.

This is just a short observation on the White House’s campaign against the citizens’ anger expressed at Town Halls this month about Obama-care. Many have pointed out in the last 48 hours that this is a page right out of the Saul Alinsky ‘community organizing’ book: attack, mock and marginalize those who might stand in your way. That’s true enough. But its similarity to another Marxist tradition rang a bell with me.

In the Soviet Union, they used to have ‘show trials’. The victim was already doomed to death or gulag. The purpose was propaganda. In virtually all cases there was no truth whatsoever to the allegations, but Marxism is never about truth, it is about power. What was truly ironic about all this was that the secret state, the Comintern and the KGB actually did all the crimes of which the victims were accused and yet were innocent! The Soviets were the ones conspiring behind the scenes, intimidating, etc.

This knee-jerk reaction on the part of the White House betrays Marxist muscle memory. The SHOW TRIALS railroaded people by the dictum ‘Accuse the victim of what you’re doing’ and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do in these TOWN HALLS.

How interesting is it that the ‘community-organizer-in-chief’ and his forces are accusing the ordinary citizens at the town hall meetings of organized, disruptive behavior, of trying to achieve political ends by subversive means. Isn’t it painfully obvious that this behavior is at the very CORE of the identity of ACORN and all the other far-left activists who engage in ‘community organizing’?

I feel very confident that the vast majority of these people this month were not ‘bussed in’ or paid to disrupt the meetings. They are just ordinary people, many of them Democrats, who are justifiably fed up. On the other hand, the very behavior falsely attributed to the town hall attendees is exactly what ACORN and their ilk has done, by their own admission. Their PLAN is always to hire claques of haranguers to harass and intimidate, not to ASK QUESTIONS like the people at the town halls did.

The bottom line is, in the Marxist tradition, they are accusing their victims of doing exactly what they are doing, despite the fact there is no truth in the accusation. The one difference is that Obama and his Communist Czar and his Marxist Czars haven’t quite got totalitarian control yet.

I’m just saying….

IMAGINE ALL THE COMRADES!

(to the tune of “Imagine” by John Lennon)

Imagine no health insurance

I wonder if you can?

All the rich cats leveled

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the comrades

Enrolled in collective plans

You may say I’m a secret dreamer

But I’m not the only one

Barney Frank and Barack Obama

Will sneak this plan past everyone

Imagine no rich doctors

Instead of many, few

Doctors not giving orders

Comrades telling them what to do

Imagine all the doctors

Learning proletarian views

You may say I’m a secret dreamer

But I’m not the only one

Barney Frank and Barack Obama

Will sneak this plan past everyone

Imagine no religion

“Hospices” for all the old

Everyone paying for abortions

Old capitalists doing what they’re told

Imagine all the private health care

Beginning to die and fold

You may say I’m a secret dreamer

But I’m not the only one

This way everyone must join us

And the U.S.S.A will live as one

 see also http://mlajoie2.blogspot.com/

OBAMA’S PRIDE, ADAMS’ SHAME

OR Obama’s Pride: a Damned Shame

"Have you considered the meaning of that word 'worthy'? Weigh it well….I had rather you should be worthy possessors of one thousand pounds honestly acquired by your own labor and industry, than of tens of millions by banks and tricks….I had rather you should be worthy makers of brooms and baskets than unworthy presidents of the United States procured by intrigue, factious slander and corruption" -  Letter of John Adams to his grandson

"It is an idea of the Christian religion, and ever has been of all believers of the immortality of the soul, that the intellectual part of man is capable of progressive improvement forever. Where then is the sense of calling the 'perfectibility of man' an original idea or modern discovery….I consider [this idea] as used by modern philosophers [e.g. French Enlightenment thinkers] to be mere words without meaning, that is mere nonsense." - Letter of John Adams to Benjamin Rush

The last month or so, I’ve been enjoying the Pulitzer Prize-winning book on John Adams by David McCullough. [It was recently turned into a highly acclaimed HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti with McCullough serving as consultant.] It’s pretty LARGE in more ways than one. It’s funny how examining ‘roots’ helps us figure out what feathered ‘wings’ we’ve got fluttering around our ears these days. There are several correlations between then and now I would like to point out.

JOHN ADAMS

Adams:  Clear-sighted & Accurate Predictor

One thing that has become clear to me is just how far ahead of the curve Adams was in several important ways. It is almost breathtaking how much Adams saw and predicted things correctly, but the flip side of that is just how unappreciated this was at the time. He foresaw that Washington would be THE leader because of his character, morality and determination, and his unique circumstances, despite his lack of experience as a general. He foresaw that the Navy would be the critical factor in the coming War and beyond. Almost alone, he sensed that help should be gotten from France, Holland, Prussia and Portugal without becoming entangled in their political battles; just about everyone else wanted to back some horse or another. Looking back, he was almost certainly THE key figure in pushing “independency”, in getting financial help from Holland and in providing the theoretical backdrop for the New Constitution. He saw that human nature demanded the bicameral legislature and strong executive with an independent court system and that the unicameral model was fraught with enormous danger. He was right about the good outcome of the first in America and the violent, chaotic outcome of the French Reign of Terror in the second. He predicted what happened before it did because his analysis was dead on. And yet, he was smeared as being a little crazy, much too old, a closet royalist (!) and hopelessly out of touch!

John Adams was almost a sitting duck for criticism in that his ethic precluded his benefiting from what he saw as his duty. Adams was a very unusual diplomat and politician in that he was almost apolitical in certain ways. He consciously battled his own ambition and made love of country and heroic virtue his standard. He lamented the standard view of diplomacy as deception, deep compromise and double-mindedness in favor of polite but spirited preaching of the attractiveness and power of true principles coupled with an ingenious insight into human character and motivations.

Oh, he had his faults. The musical “1776” lampoons his famous lack of sensitivity to others and his own oversensitive nature. His writing was sometimes slap-dash, not organized and not well-expressed. His thoughts seemed to others at times to come out of nowhere in ways that were strange and weird. But lack of perseverance, charity and regard for others were certainly not among his faults. His character and capacity for deep friendship were recognized even by his enemies.

Adams vs. Jefferson: Faithful Realism vs. Ambitious Idealism

This brings us to a second great theme of this book: the love-hate relationship Adams experienced with Thomas Jefferson. They were the two key collaborators on the Declaration of Independence. They had become bosom friends in the many years they spent together in Europe, to the point where even Abigail Adams helped Jefferson with his daughter and corresponded with him on a regular basis in an impressively deep way.

They grew apart in the first years of the new Republic. Jefferson, surreptitiously, became the main moving force of the Anti-Federalist Party. He stopped writing to and visiting the Adams family. Adams, meanwhile, deplored political parties and angered people of both parties. Though he often spoke ill of the character of Hamilton from his own Federalist Party, he rarely spoke publicly about Jefferson. He made several overtures of regard toward Jefferson and, at the beginning of Adams’ Presidency, for a fleeting moment, it seemed they were going to work together, but Jefferson drew back again.

Privately, Adams worried about the character flaws he saw in his old friend. The one amazing thing McCullough hits on is that Adams was more correct about his appraisal of Jefferson’s character and motivations than Jefferson was about himself! Adams saw that despite Jefferson’s brilliance in linguistic expression and his sharpness of insight in things impersonal and mechanical, he was, unbeknownst to himself perhaps, truly driven by ambition and a theoretical idealism which did not fit reality. He trusted in his own persona and tended to think anything was justifiable because he was right about his pro-French stance. He even wrote, after most were horrified by the Reign of Terror in France, that all the violence was entirely justified! ‘Let only an Adam and Eve be left in every country if that is the way it has to be.’ Such an ‘ends justifies the means’ attitude seems to betray a disquieting self-centered radicalism that anticipates the Marxism of our day.

Jefferson eventually came to admit implicitly much that Adams had seen long before. He was ashamed of some of the political underhandedness to which he had resorted. He was so scarred by his experience as President that he deliberately did not mention it on his gravestone. His secret rationalism and lack of personal faith warmed in later years, I believe. Though he had criticized declarations of days of prayer, intercession or thanksgiving being declared by Washington and Adams, he ended up doing such things himself when he became President.

In fact, the two great Founders would become intimate friends again by the time they both died on the same day, amazingly the Fourth of July 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of their Great Collaboration. Adams said, “Oh, yes, it is the glorious fourth of July. God bless it. God bless you all…Thomas Jefferson lives.” And Jefferson said, a few hours before, “I resign my spirit to God, my daughter and my country.” Despite his complicated personality, Jefferson seemed to die with a laudable faith and a renewed regard for the insight of Adams.

[By the way, I am not condemning Jefferson. I admire and honor him. The Revolution would not have happened without him and his work on the Declaration. He was absolutely right in a great deal of his thoughts and was brilliant in expressing them. We wouldn’t have key elements of our common political faith without his further emphases on the Bill of Rights, for instance. Everyone, including Washington and Adams, had notable faults, too. However, there can be little doubt that Adams’ laser-like insight was right again about Jefferson in that he wasn’t very consistent about practicing what he preached and this affected his politics.]

Contrast in Leadership Styles

The big lesson here is about leadership attitude. Washington and Adams modeled a serviceable humility as opposed to ideology and ambition. We can't presume to decide what the mission is; we have to find out what the Lord's mission is for us on the basis of submission to human nature and nature’s God. The law has to be greater than the man. John Adams understood that; Jefferson didn't, though he sometimes professed it. That's why Adams accurately predicted the outcome of both the French and the American Revolutions and Jefferson was dead wrong. Like his friend Washington, Adams routinely appealed to Providence and grace in regard to the nation’s destiny and purpose. Jefferson earlier tended to worship his reason as a god; Adams worshipped God for good reason.

(By the way, the one big rap on Adams’ Presidency was the Alien & Sedition Acts. McCullough concedes it was public relations fiasco, but points out that the context was imminent war. EVERYONE thought war with France was GOING to happen, and the XYZ Affair indicated the espionage threat, so some radical measures had to be taken.

OBAMA

Obama et al: Ambitious Idealists

Now what about Obama, Reid, Pelosi et al? Can there be any doubt that theirs is well-concealed but rabid ambition matched with blind far-left idealism that is also driving them, that they are the antithesis of what was good about Adams? Because their orientation is not a humble faith attitude and realism, their ability to see what’s really going on and to predict what will happen is seriously crippled. Their expectation of 'perfectibility' or constant progress is nonsense.

It seems very clear to me that Obama, like Jefferson, has enormous faith in his own reason, charm and personal appeal. Meanwhile, the founding principles are sloughed aside. We are NOT a Christian or religious nation, he says, we are secular in origin (although Turkey is a Muslim nation!). http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/06/03/its-official-our-american-president-declares-american-one-of-the-largest-muslim-countries/  He can sometimes talk a good game about democracy and the founding principles on the surface, but many of his other words and all of his actions betray the Marxist marination he undoubtedly has experienced in his life. So, he waits for long agonizing days as the pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran suffer, then he jumps on the perfectly legal deposing of a Marxist dictator in Honduras. http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/06/29/obama-calls-honduras-coup-illegal/  Like Jefferson, his vision is skewed by his secular faith.

The new Triumvirate seems to want to overpower, circumvent and frustrate the checks and balances the Federalist Founders Madison, Adams et al so wisely put into the Constitution. As Obama let slip early on, he sees the Constitution as a barrier to his purposes. http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/obama_bombshell_redistribution_of_wealth_audio/ He is setting up “Czars” beyond the reach of appeal, responsibility or reason at a record-setting clip http://www.hillarynme.com/2009/06/11/hey-wheres-obamas-common-sense-czar/ while he relies heavily on the Presidential pen-wielding he criticized so much in his predecessor.  They mouth the catch-words of “bipartisanship” or “no politics as usual” while brutally overpowering any remonstration or even thought; we can’t even read the bills. http://www.floppingaces.net/2008/02/26/the-obama-tax-plan/ It is a violent legislative Reign of Terror rationalized because the ends will justify the means.

How are Those Promises and Predictions Going?

Obama said he would be able to ‘talk’ with North Korea and the Iranian despots. Things are not going quite as he said they would, are they? http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/06/02/obama-iran-has-a-legitimate-need-for-nuclear-power/ He stood at the Caterpillar plant and said they’d be hiring very soon. They’re firing. http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/05/18/despite-obamas-boast-caterpillar-readies-fourth-round-of-work-reductions/ He made many promises about levels of taxation. Any and all of those promises have now quite obviously and laughably gone up in smoke. He promised to close Guantanamo and then accepted the status quo. He heartily criticized Bush’s Iraq Policy and then did the same. He rejected Presidential directives as imperial and now is doing more of them than ever…and on and on and on.

Jefferson was totally blindsided by the violence in France but still predicted they would defeat England and spread ‘democracy’ throughout Europe within a very short time. Adams predicted the violence and said a dictator would surely follow. Jefferson was totally shocked by the rise of Napoleon; Adams said ‘I told you so’. Who does Obama resemble more?

CONCLUSION

We can only hope that these people, like Jefferson, will come to their senses before they, too, meet their Maker; let them change like Jefferson before all the likely economic chaos and loss of freedom they might cause!

Obama fails to see as John Adams did that “our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”. An American President should take Washington or Adams as models. It wasn’t all about them, their genius or their persona; it was about humble but strong service. Adams would feel shame that the founding vision is being so abused. If Adams’ words and example cannot melt Obama’s pride, it’s a damned shame.

CHAMBERS OF HORROR: “WITNESS” TO THE FUTURE

“SILLY, SENSELESS DOVE!”

*pictures on mlajoie2.blogspot.com: right, an icon of the Prophet Hosea; left, a rock dove with a pin through his brain, a ‘pinhead pigeon’

This little essay is about a turn of phrase used by the prophet Hosea in regards to some mistakes being made by the leaders of his day; and it is about the similarity of the mistakes being made by our leadership right now.

In the mid-700’s BC, the chickens – or should I say, the pigeons - were coming home to roost for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They had been warned about the coming destruction by Amos earlier but they hadn’t changed. Hosea arrived on the scene to plead with even greater urgency, because now the horrible threat of the Assyrian Empire was becoming clear to everyone, not just prophets.

The Assyrians were the first great world empire, centered in Nineveh in Northern Mesopotamia. Their standard modus operandi was the use of intimidation and terror to cow their subjects; they were universally feared and hated and their cruelty was calculated and legendary. [They would eventually get their comeuppance at the hands of the Babylonians.] They were beginning to bully and hector the Kingdom of Israel. What were the leaders of Israel going to do?

Now, the advice of Amos and Hosea was to ‘turn to the Lord’. The cause of the nation’s problems was their lack of identity and social cohesion. Israel’s unity, uniquely, was not purely racial or ethnic; it was centered on a belief in one God and a moral code not mere genetics. In turning to the worship of the fertility gods and goddesses, they were also engaging in the immoral practices associated with them. Since those primitive religions were divorced from moral requirements and did not involve a sense of a personal relationship with their gods (using a magical or instrumental approach) the Israelites began turning away not just from their unifying belief in one God and their common set of moral values, but also from their personal obligations to the needy among them as emphasized so often in the Law of Moses. If what unifies you is weakened, the result is weakness, disunity and chaos.

“Without a vision, the people perish” is what the Book of Proverbs tells us. Even so, without the glue of their common beliefs, the Kingdom of Israel began to come apart at the seams. The Prophets describe a justice system that no longer worked: ever-rising violence, crime and fraud; what justice there was could only be obtained by bribe or government influence. The leaders in the capital Samaria were especially excoriated. They spent a lot of time lining their own pockets and did little to foster a sense of nation. Amos had mocked the character of the rich women there who abused the needy and overindulged their appetites as “cows of Bashan”.  Private charity withered on the vine and social solidarity was destroyed as the government in Samaria grew in size and power like in the time of Solomon. Those who had power took advantage of those who could not fight them.

In regard to our present topic, Hosea noted a response of the leadership to the coming crisis and mocked it as well. Israel apparently preferred the prestigious role-playing of high politics. They wanted to become one of the gang of nations, becoming mixed up with them: “Ephraim mingles with the nations”.  They apparently tried to ‘negotiate’ with the Assyrians to save themselves. From our perspective, the very thought is utterly ridiculous. The Assyrians had already made it abundantly clear they were the qualm-free terror agents of their day. To ‘sit down’ with them was desperate and futile. Israel, also (like their Southern sister Kingdom Judah later in the face of the Babylonians) tried to rely on alliance-building with the nations around them. They even apparently reached out to the Egyptian Empire for help. It seems they did everything BUT turn to their OWN God.

This is from the book of Hosea, Chapter 7: [By the way ‘Ephraim’ is one the sub-tribes of the tribe of Joseph which is often used to represent all of the Northern tribes.]

8        Ephraim mingles with the nations, Ephraim is a hearth cake unturned.

9        Strangers have sapped his strength, but he takes no notice of it; Of gray hairs, too, there is a sprinkling, but he takes no notice of it.

10      The arrogance of Israel bears witness against him; yet they do not return to the LORD, their God, nor seek him, for all that.

11      Ephraim is like a dove, silly and senseless; They call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12      Even as they go I will spread my net around them, like birds in the air I will bring them down. In an instant I will send them captive from their land.

Hosea 7:8-12 (NAB)

When you try to mix up an amalgamated ‘nations’ pancake and you forget to turn it over, what happens? It starts to burn and the smoke alarms go off. When you start making deals with all these other nations, and becoming just another one of the gang, you begin to imperceptibly lose your national identity and strength. Like the proverbial boiled frog, you don’t even notice how it’s slipping away.

And then, he calls them “a dove, silly and senseless”. Have you ever watched doves? The mourning dove, or turtle dove, has a tiny little head in proportion to its body, and, hence, a tiny little brain, and they act it. They are not the sharpest tools in the shed. But there’s another dove which might be more applicable: it’s the ‘rock dove’ more popularly known as the pigeon. We all know pigeons. Once again, not a whole lot brain power happening there. Hosea pictures Israel dumbly ambling along – duuhhh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duuuhh – totally clueless and oblivious to the fact that the Assyrian’s net is just about to be plunked down on them to capture them.

In 723 BC, this is what happened and the Israelites were scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire, becoming the famous ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’. {Descendants of all these tribes have been discovered and confirmed through DNA testing in places like East Africa, Cambodia, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Many of them have been returning to Israel recently, seemingly as predicted by the Prophets. This has caused some friction with Jews descended from the tribe of Judah, of course, but it sure is an interesting development!}

Now, we have a set of leaders in our country who apparently want to “mingle with the nations” in an unprecedented way, trying to be part of the gang to the point where other nations might be given power to control our economy, for instance. Obama seems to want to lose our uniqueness in the mixture of the cosmopolitan pancake.

Obama and company also want to sit down with people like Iran, N. Korea and the Taliban who make the Assyrians look nice. Future generations will probably look on in as much mystification as we do when we look back at Israel trying to ‘negotiate’ with the Assyrians.

He does NOT rely on our national identity but downplays it, saying we are not a Christian or Jewish nation; we are “citizens” indistinguishable from any other nation. Our national identity is a VERY similar thing to that of the ancient Hebrews. Yet it is this very thing he denigrates. (Tell me, is Turkey not a Muslim nation in its history? Is India not a Hindu nation culturally? Why is it that we only we are not allowed to acknowledge our undeniable Judeo-Christian heritage that makes us what we are?)

Obama is denying us our national vision, the glue that has held us together for all our history, based not on race or happenstance but on values which inform our moral and social conscience. He prefers, like a silly, senseless dove, to seek alliances and cheap approval while our strength and identity imperceptibly seep into the socialist soil. How can the results be any different than what happened before?

It’s time to call it what it is. This is betrayal of our national identity. This is silly. This is senseless. It is a mistake that has already been made that does not need to be made again.

I wonder, if a metal rod were driven through the brain of THIS leadership, would they just keep on going with their foolhardy policies? I suppose it wouldn’t matter - if the policies are brainless springing from dumb instinct or blind ideological fervor and not from reason. Let us pray and raise our consciousness prophetically like Hosea tried to do with the Northern Tribes.

Let’s not let our leaders move on with this course of action unchallenged. I’m going to a Tea Party April 15^th, are you?

They don’t think we can see what they’re doing. They don’t think we’re going to do or say anything. We’ll see about that. Silly, senseless doves!!

Sign The Petition!

I invite all of you to sign a petition protesting the University of Notre Dame inviting President Obama to speak there. When challenged about this, the University uttered platitudes about keeping the lines of ‘dialogue’ open. Steer droppings! Would the University be inviting ‘dialogue’ with Doctor Kevorkian? On the positive side, Bishop D’Arcy of  South Bend has pulled out and given a great statement.

Stop the madness. Sign the petition:

www.NotreDameScandal.com

OBAMA – FOOLISH SOLOMON RETURNS? 

We have probably all heard of WISE Solomon and the many references to the wisdom of the third king of Israel, the son of David. True enough, Solomon began with humility and asked for wisdom to serve his people and we are told that he was given it. There is much evidence given in the First Book of Kings for this wisdom of his. He wrote many proverbs and he promoted knowledge and arts. His shrewd insight into human motivations and character was revealed when he judged the case of the two women and the baby. He did oversee the creation of the First Temple, one of the most beautiful edifices ever created. He did build a seeming political peace with those around him. The Queen of Sheba traveled from far away to see this astounding wisdom for herself and was suitably impressed.

But there is more to the story than that. God warned Solomon ahead of time of TWO main dangers to him and thus to his people. He must avoid IDOLATRY and the immoral practices associated with it; and he must not OPPRESS his people or put unreasonable burdens on them. If he did not heed this warning, his kingdom would be split at his death.

You would think he would have studiously avoided any hint of these two dangers. But human nature being what it is, very gradual change can fool us. If you put a frog into boiling water, it jumps out, but if you simply put up the heat slowly by degrees, the frog will boil to death without realizing it. What was it that fooled Solomon into his fatal errors? Faith in the power of Government!

One way he began to expand his Empire was through the diplomacy of marriage. This meant not only the daughter of the Pharaoh, but the daughters of every small city or state in the area, assuming them into the Empire or making an alliance. We are told he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. He brought them all to Jerusalem, built them palaces and temples to worship their own gods. As time went on, he began to join them in their temples ‘for company’s sake’ but, eventually, of course, he began to join in their IDOLATRY and immoral practices. (Now what was it that unified Israel as a nation? It wasn’t an ethnic unity but the uniqueness of their belief in one God and their morality very much like the United States today. What happens when that glue of unity is weakened by becoming “like the nations”? King Solomon was dooming the future identity of the nation.)

We’ve seen he was building many palaces for all those wives; well, he built many more, all with the most expensive materials and needing many servants to support them. He rejected the traditional tribal organization and artificially imposed a massive bureaucracy beholden to his government; this was very troubling to his people but he did not respect their wishes to keep the religiously significant Twelve Tribe pattern. He began to build more and more roads. For the first time, he established a large standing army (including the famed “stables of Solomon”). How was this enormous expansion of government going to be supported? You guessed it: TAXES and FORCED SERVICE! Farmers had to surrender large amounts of their produce and livestock to the government. Their sons and daughters were forced to give long parts of their lives to serve in the palaces, working on the roads or in the army.  He ended by crushing his subjects, something he was specifically warned about.

In I Kings 10:14, the author makes an offhand, seemingly innocuous comment that is actually very significant. He tells us the amount of yearly income that Solomon’s government took in: “SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY SIX gold talents”. (One talent, by the way was an enormous amount of money in itself.) Now, I’m sure that wasn’t the exact amount every year. Why use that number? The perfect number is SEVEN, the number of the Covenant with God, where there is peace and wisdom; in fact, the Hebrew word for making a Covenant with God is literally “to seven”.   Six Hundred and Sixty Six will always fall short of ‘Seven’. This is a way of saying Solomon had fallen short of the Covenant and broken it. He was the very powerful ruler who turned to Apostasy, the seeming peace-maker who brought the dis-ease of massive social injustice.

[No doubt, you may have recognized this number from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. This verse in First Kings is what John was referring to. When trying to describe the future Antichrist or Man of Sin who will lead all to Apostasy, the seeming peacemaker who will bring Apocalypse, John could think of no one better than Solomon and that evocative number of his. The Antichrist will be very much like Solomon. By the way, I in no way am implying I think Obama or any of these people is the Antichrist! I don’t. I am comparing them to Solomon in what they have done and in their practical results. It’s the pattern I want to underline, not a conspiracy theory.]

After Solomon died, his young, inexperienced and arrogant son, Reheboam, refused to lighten the horrible government load and succeeded in splitting the Kingdom, just as predicted. The resultant fledgling kingdoms were doomed to be swallowed up by the Assyrians and Babylonians in future years.

There are too many parallels between this foreboding example and the present cabal’s behavior to list them all. The seizing of the Census, spending more money than has been spent in the history of the world, the biggest Government power grab in history in the ‘porkulus’ bill, ‘required voluntarism’, the diplomacy of go along to get along with no thought to future consequences, the looming threat of Universal Health Care and domestic militias: all of this points to the same kind of blind grab for power that seduced Solomon. Whatever they think they will get out of this, the power-grabbers should know that history does not lie; they will bring horrible disunity and injustice and suffering, if they do not change. Let us pray that they will be changed or thwarted in their deluded schemes. And let us all do everything we can to avoid these mistakes.

LEZ MIZ: Capitalist Whiz Brings Better Biz 

Here is a thumbnail sketch of this wonderful tale. Jean Valjean, a woodcutter, is imprisoned for stealing a piece of bread. Because of failed escapes he ends up being imprisoned for nineteen years; he reenters the world in a hell of hatred and desperation until the good Bishop of Digne ‘buys his soul’ back for him and commissions him to live for others the rest of his life. Taking a new identity, he becomes a prosperous business man in Montreuil-sur-mer and becomes a pillar of the community through his factories and private charity. Eventually, his secret identity is discovered by the maniacally legalistic public servant Javert. Javert pursues Valjean relentlessly through much of the rest of the story, but Valjean’s mystical moral depth triumphs in the end over the harsh legalism of Javert.

Hugo himself was a ‘liberal’ Bonapartist and that does come out in some places in his novel. However, I think everyone agrees that’s not really what he was pushing or talking about in his classic. Like Dostoevsky and Dickens in that time, he was making a spiritual and cultural point about our need for God in a secular age and how that affects how we treat each other.

As I was recently reading this great work, this was the thing that struck me quite hard. Jean Valjean in his first new incarnation after his escape is a CAPITALIST HERO! He comes up with a great idea. He reworks a marginal process into a truly useful one and sparks the growth of an industry. He provides jobs and prosperity for his town and the entire area. Far from being the stereotypical greedy magnate, he uses his private charity to build a non-governmental framework of community and social support. He promotes a spirit of solidarity while respecting the subsidiarity of all the small groups.  The respect and trust he earns propels him into the office of mayor, where he presents us the ideal ‘public servant’ very much in the traditional American model as opposed to the controlling bureaucrat.

In stark contrast to this is the all-smothering spirit of government control personified in Javert. To Javert, it is government and law which orders all, subsumes all; government is something he BELIEVES in and worships. In one scene he turns himself over to the mayor (Valjean) for dismissal because he feels he has filed a false report on him. He as an individual is unimportant in comparison to the all-wise government regulations and bureaucratic process. If he must be sacrificed for the sake of proper functioning of the controlling rules then ‘so be it’. He is willing to do almost anything in this story as long as it serves the letter of the law and the government; the ends justify the means.

After all, the socialism of the French Revolution was a massive experiment in cultural transformation where the government entered everything, going so far as to change the calendar and attempt to produce social results. The State and Reason became the Gods that were worshipped. (These trends continued even during the short-lived Monarchist ‘restoration’.) Despite the mantra of ‘Liberty’, intrusive control became the by-product of this precursor to Marxism and Communism. Javert’s misplaced ultra-sincere idealism results in oppression and suffering whereas the practical capitalism of Valjean brings concord and community.

[Parenthetically, it should be noted that Hugo believed the overall effect of the Revolution was positive, and I don’t think he’s all wrong. However, we, having the benefit of hindsight, can see things in his own writing that maybe he could not. His brand of ‘liberalism’ perhaps has much more in common with a ‘conservative’ today than the pseudo-socialists who now use the title.]

As we now watch the spectacle of a massive government takeover without any parallel, I see the fanatical stare of Javert fixing upon us all, determined to bring justice and order to us for our own good. His certainty is alluring; he promises high ideals. Misery and ‘les miserables’ is indeed the real result. I choose to look into the warm forgiven eyes of Valjean, shining with the light of the God of agape love. If Javert tries to give me something, I know there are hooks inside. I prefer Liberty in the classical American model. I think I’ll go to Valjean.  He’ll give me a job or help me start a business and he will respect my Liberty.

RWANDA’S LESSON ABOUT GOVERNMENT

Her story is a truly amazing one. She came from a fairly well-to-do, religious Catholic family in a small town in Western Rwanda. Her parents were educators, heavily involved in charities and community-minded. Then the horrible genocide of 1994 began. She got home from college just as the maelstrom of killing began. Her father sent her to the local Protestant pastor in hopes he would hide her from the machete-wielding Hutus bent on wiping out the Tutsis. The pastor did hide her with seven other women in a tiny bathroom (see the picture above) where she spent three months praying and becoming transformed in mind and heart. It is a story replete with miracles and palpable evidence of the Providence of God. Her entire family (save one brother) and most of her friends were wiped out and at several times she really should have met their fate, too. But she feels she was saved for the purpose of warning the world at large about the dangers she saw herself. Her remedy?: Faith, Family, Forgiveness, Fortitude. These are the most powerful forces in the world building a Kingdom that is unshakeable.

After reading her books, one fact struck me pretty hard: this was a GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED genocide. Some blame can be laid at the feet of the Belgians for the adversarial structures they purposefully left. For decades, the dominant Hutu tribe used government social policy and rules to marginalize the smaller Tutsi tribe (also known by some as the ‘Wahtusi’). Immaculee experienced this when she was forced to always show her tribal identification card at school, for instance. [Immaculee finds this quite ironic in that centuries of intermarriage have made the physical distinctions almost useless, much as the ‘Aryan’ ravings of the Nazis had little factual basis.] The government also co-opted media sources, making them into propagandistic hate sites. Tutsis were routinely labeled ‘cockroaches’ or vermin and were increasingly barred from access to knowledge and power. When the Hutu President was killed in 1994, the government officially closed everything so that killing squads, trained for years, could devote alltheir energy to implementing the ‘final solution’ of killing ALL Tutsis.

It’s amazing how powerful government and media can be. Immaculee’s own friends and neighbors, people she knew and trusted, were among those taunting her in the house where she was hiding, describing how they would slowly torture and gang rape her. About a million people were killed in ways so heinous it was like hell on earth.

And yet, partly thanks to people like Immaculee, a grass-roots movement (not a government mandate!) of forgiveness and charity has helped make Rwanda a re-born jewel of prosperity and peace. (The Benebikira Sisters, a Catholic order of nuns, which takes care of hundreds of orphans, is part of this general effort.)

There is certainly a lesson here for us in this country right now. It’s never a good thing to give any government too much of the power we the people have by right. What are this remarkable story and this remarkable woman trying to teach us?

I invite you to read what Immaculee has to say. And please spread the word. It’s too important to keep it under a bushel basket.

POPE POPS PELOSI OVER PERVERTED PRO-LIFE PROCLAMATIONS! 

This tack taken by the Pope is in obvious and conscious contradistinction to the very public & loopy statements of ‘theology’ put out by Pelosi on the topic of human life [e.g. http://www.catholicsinpubliclife.org/page2/page14/files/1908780af1e21f6b66f30772f8234fa8-14.html].

Way to go, Pope! This is the sort of things leaders are SUPPOSED to do! Now it’s time for the U.S, Bishops to follow up, because the media will obviously try to hush this result up. Let’s do our best not to let them, too.

And let’s pray for Pelosi or some other unforeseen stalwart to have a change of heart and step forward on this and all the other important issues. Whittaker Chambers was a sold-out undercover Soviet spy who had given up everything to destroy capitalism and democracy, the sort of fanatic who doesn’t get turned from their path. In his classic autobiography, “WITNESS” it was the party’s demand that he and his wife abort their child which began his slow Exodus to sanity. He was forced to think about what he believed. “I felt like I was joining the losing side,” he commented. Yet, he and others like him helped to turn the seemingly inexorable tide of Marxism. Maybe this meeting will be the sort of shock to Pelosi’s moral system that she needs.

This is another time we need to turn the tide. We need more ‘witnesses’. Can I get a witness?

THE MIRACLE INSIDE THE MIRACLE

Here is a story worth sharing from the Divine Mercy website:  [http://thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3493].  Miracles are only pointers or signs indicating the real miracle of grace in human hearts.

By Felix Carroll (Feb 4, 2009)

A banker on a business trip in New York City, Fred Berretta had just checked into his hotel room. He had about 20 minutes down time before he had to meet his colleagues.

For some reason he decided to clean out his briefcase, something he hadn't done in a long time. As he emptied it out, he came across a booklet he had stuffed into a pocket years ago on praying the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy. He recalls having prayed it a few times years ago. But by Jan. 15, 2009, it was a good intention mislaid — among spreadsheets and quarterly reports and matters that seemed far more pressing.

Only two weeks prior, Fred had made a New Year's resolution to try to get into better spiritual shape. Here in this hotel room was an opportunity to fulfill it. So he followed along in the booklet and prayed the chaplet, a prayer our Lord gave to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s during a series of revelations that have sparked the modern Divine Mercy movement.

The time happened to be 3 o'clock, known as the Hour of Great Mercy, when Jesus died on the cross. Fred would consider that detail the following day — as he was preparing to die.

He would be among the 155 people to board a jet airliner at LaGuardia Airport bound for Charlotte, N.C., his home town. Ninety seconds after takeoff, the jet would apparently hit a flock of geese, the engines would explode, and the plane would lose power at 3,200 feet. The aircraft would be out of reach from any airfield. It would lose thrust and altitude. Everything would become eerily quiet. Fred would cinch his seatbelt. His left hand would clutch the armrest, his heart would race, his face would be flush.

He would think about his family — his wife and four young children. He would think about God, about death, about trust, about an extraordinary promise made by Jesus that he read the previous day in that booklet.

"Prepare for impact," the pilot would say over the PA system.

What was the promise? Suddenly, it would come to him, the last passage he read before heading off to his meeting. Jesus said to St. Faustina, "This is the hour of great mercy. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion (Diary of St. Faustina, 1320).

As the ground surged into view, Fred would look at his watch. It would be 3:30, the Hour of Great Mercy!

"I prayed with every fiber of emotion and sincerity I could muster, 'God, please be merciful to us,'" Fred would recall two weeks later.

'Miracle on the Hudson'?

You've probably heard about the crash landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on Jan. 15. No one was seriously injured. Politicians and news anchors quickly dubbed it the "Miracle on the Hudson." In the history of aviation no jet airliner had ever made an emergency landing on water without casualties.

Then, there were the news images of a US Airways Airbus floating gently down the frigid Hudson, like some sort of breaching, people-friendly, aquatic creature. The passengers stood on its wings, calmly awaiting rescue. Amidst all the news of economic collapse, of tens of thousands of layoffs on a weekly basis, of families in peril, of a reckoning at hand for a culture of greed, this plane, these passengers, its pilot, all served as a sort of restorative balm on our nation's collective conscious.

The story made you gasp, gulp hard, smile widely, and be thankful. Thankful for what? For good news. For heroes in the pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, and the rest of the crew. Thankful in the knowledge that in the panic-filled moments when the plane lurched to a stop it wasn't every man and woman for himself or herself. Thankful that humanity's better nature was on display. Thankful the incident wasn't terrorist-related, but apparently geese-related. Thankful that a guy like Fred Berretta, 41, would live to walk through the door of his home once again, hug his wife and children, and make sure they knew he loved them — that he always had and that he always will.

Vinny Flynn who?

For devotees of Divine Mercy, Flight 1549 serves as further proof that the Lord keeps His promises.

We may never have learned Fred Berretta's story if it weren't for Vinny Flynn. Following the crash, Fred felt compelled to send an email of thanks to Vinny, the former executive editor at the Marian Helpers Center, in Stockbridge, Mass. Though Vinny and his family are seen daily at 3 p.m. (EST) on EWTN singing the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy from the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Fred had never heard of Vinny until about two hours before he boarded Flight 1549.

Following morning meetings on Jan. 15, Fred found himself in the unusual position of having some free time on a business trip. It was noon. He stepped inside Manhattan's St. Patrick's Cathedral. He stayed for the 12 p.m. Mass. Afterwards, he went into St. Patrick's gift shop. A book caught his eye — Vinny's 7 Secrets of the Eucharist (Mercy Song Ignatius, 2006), which, with citations from St. Faustina's Diary, gives a greater understanding of the mystery of the Eucharist. Fred also purchased a St. Michael's scapular.

In an interview with thedivinemercy.org this week, Fred explained what happened next:

"I got into a cab and went to the airport," he said. "My flight was delayed about 15 minutes, so I sat there and started reading Vinny's book. I was really taken by it. I boarded the plane and continued to read. Just as we were rolling out for takeoff, I put the book away and closed my eyes and began to reflect on what I had been reading. Then, I heard the impact, then the explosion, and the plane shook violently. I was sitting in seat 16A, which is behind the wing. I could see smoke coming out of the left engine. You could smell the jet fuel."

As soon as Fred, a private pilot, realized the second engine was also not functioning, he became tense, like everyone else around him.

He heard some cries from the cabin.

"Some of us looked at each other," he said. "There was nothing to be said. I knew that the only thing I could do was pray."

A Resolution

These were the other things he knew: This sleek, high performance jet airliner had suddenly and irreversibly become a 73-ton glider sinking fast above one of the nation's most densely populated regions. It would touch down somewhere, somehow, very soon, at a speed of about 120 mph. The chances of survival were almost nil.

He thought about his family, how hard his death would be on them. Indeed, that was the most painful part of the experience for him, his concern for them.

He thought about the very thing all these years that seemed to stand in the way of growing deeper in his faith. It came down to this: trust. He didn't have much. Ever. He had once fancied himself among the titans of commerce. He once trusted that money would bring security and peace of mind. This flight wasn't the thing that taught him otherwise. Rather, it was this past year. The bottom fell out of the economy, and with it, much of Fred's savings of the last 20 years.

By Christmas, the self-described "half-hearted Catholic" knew in his heart the only security in the world is the security found in God, which led to his New Year's resolution; which led to him praying the chaplet in a hotel room; which led him to buy Vinny's book; which led him to close his eyes in seat 16A, his trajectory heavenward, and reflect upon how God is real and He loves us and that He wants us to turn to Him in trust.

Which is exactly what Fred did when he suddenly realized it was the Hour of Great Mercy and he would probably be dead in a matter of seconds. He trusted, truly, for the first time.

All these fragments of thought seemed to piece themselves into place. The plane was going down, yet everything was making sense. He admits he was in shock. But he also felt at peace, a deep peace. God had allowed him to find the Divine Mercy booklet in his briefcase. God had steered him to Vinny's book. God did all this, he thought, to prepare him for death.

He hunched over in his seat to brace for impact. He prayed for God's mercy. Then he prayed two Hail Marys and one Our Father. He made it halfway though a prayer to St. Michael, the archangel, when the plane hit the water, came to a stop, and bobbed up and down like a toy in a kiddy pool.

'True Peace'

"Under the most precarious situations I could ever imagine," says Fred, "God taught me what true peace is all about — that it's found in accepting God's will. That we must try our best in this life, but not sweat the small stuff, and hand control over to God."

One more thing to mention. A couple weeks before the flight, Fred had prayed the Rosary for the first time in years. He had recently learned of the 15 promises that, as legend has it, the Virgin Mary made to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan to all who pray the Rosary with a faithful heart. Fred remembers thinking at the time, "Are those promises real?" He feels he recently received his answer.

"I still have my boarding pass from the flight," Fred said this week, "and I couldn't help but to notice all the 15s associated with the flight. We left on Jan. 15, from gate 15. It was Flight 1549, with 155 passengers. Also, it took off during the 15th hour, by military time, which is what the world of aviation uses. I smiled when it hit me later. There was my answer right there."

He's vowed to embrace the Eucharist, thanks to Vinny; the Rosary, thanks to all those 15s; and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, thanks to that booklet.

God was doing more than preparing him for death: God was preparing him for life.

SOMEONE PUT U.S. IN A PICKLE BARREL!

Joe was walking down the street, when who did he see walking toward him, but Good Old Uncle Sam with nothing on but a big pickle barrel held up by a pair of straps!

“UNCLE SAM!” cried Joe, “What in Sam Hill happened to you?”

He pointed up the hill toward a white house. There were a group of guys meeting in front of the house. “That O’bummer feller up there tricked me out of my clothes and took over my house, that white house up there.”

“You don’t say. How’d ‘e manage that?”

“Well, I can’t rightly figure it. I already had my suspicions. All’s I know is he came at me with a whole bunch of words and had me sign something. He was telling me I had to save all the people with no clothes and no house and before I knew it, my wallet was cleaned out and my clothes and my house were snatched up from right under my hook-ed nose. It’s the durndest thing. He keeps talking about a ‘stimulus’. Well, I don’t want the Liberty kids overstimulated.”

“And, Uncle Sam, who are all those strange people milling around up there with him?”

“Why, they popped up straight out of the woodwork, or so it seems. I had never seen hide nor hair of them until after all these shenanigans were done. From what I hear, a good number of them are tax cheats and scalliwags.”

“Who is that squirrelly guy using all that bad language?”

“Well, I heard them calling him ‘Bloggerovitch’ or some such thing. Maybe he’s a Russian guy from the World Web. All’s I know is he’s up to no good.  There’s the police coming for him now.

“Look at guy with the big glasses,  Sam. ‘Al Frankman’ I think he’s called. He don’t look ‘frank’ to me. Someone said he was stealing notes, I think. Yeah, they sure are an unsavory looking gang.”

“Sure ‘nough, but it worries me more that they look like the gang that can’t shoot straight. There’s some mean hombres out there and these small-timers won’t be able to charm, cheat and ‘change’ their way past them like they did nice old Uncle Sam. They’ll be looking down the wrong end of a gun barrel and then what’s gonna happen to my kids?”

“And what’s gonna happen to you, Sam?? You’re in a real pickle.....barrel, that is…..”

Just then the Liberty Kids came rushing down the street.

“UNCLE SAM! UNCLE SAM!” they screamed, “What happened?!”

“Hi, kids! I dun been hoodwinked.”

“Oh, no! What are you going to do now?”

“Well, kids, this isn’t the first time I’ve had the wool pulled over my eyes and it probably won’t be the last.”

“That’s sure right, Uncle Sam, they sure have and they sure will!”

“But has anything ever stopped me afore?”

“No, Uncle Sam!”

“And nothin’s gonna stop me now, nither. Slow and steady wins the race and I’ll ‘ventually take care of these rapscallions just like I dun all those others. You children, remember?”

“We sure do, Uncle Sam!”

“So, don’t you worry ‘bout me! All’s I need right now are some proper duds. This loaner barrel is just a trifle splintery and nippy for your Uncle. You kids are the ones that can always dress me up in proper Fourth of July red, white and blue stripey clothes.”

“We’ll take care of you, Uncle Sam!”

“Well, I know you will and I’m right thankful to you. When someone else gives me a dressing down, you all will be dressing me UP! And they’ll be OVER a barrel themselves soon enough. And once I get me a shirt I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and getting to WORK!!”