The Patrotic Post

Brief · June 27, 2011




The Foundation

"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." --Benjamin Franklin



Political Futures

Barack Obama is reminiscent of simpleton Chauncey Gardiner"Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Well, Obama announced his candidacy in Lincoln's hometown two days before Abe's birthday, and he did expand the size and scope of government. But no one seriously compares him with Lincoln or FDR anymore. Conservative critics have taken to comparing him, as you might imagine, to Jimmy Carter. ... But there is another comparison I think more appropriate for a president who, according to one of his foreign-policy staffers, prefers to 'lead from behind.' The man I have in mind is Chauncey Gardiner, the character played by Peter Sellers in the 1979 movie 'Being There.' As you may remember, Gardiner is a clueless gardener who is mistaken for a Washington eminence and becomes a presidential adviser. Asked if you can stimulate growth through temporary incentives, Gardiner says, 'As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well in the garden.' 'First comes the spring and summer,' he explains, 'but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.' The president is awed as Gardiner sums up, 'There will be growth in the spring.' Kind of reminds you of Barack Obama's approach to the federal budget, doesn't it? In preparing his February budget, Obama totally ignored the recommendations of his own fiscal commission headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Others noticed: The Senate rejected the initial budget by a vote of 97-0. Then, speaking in April at George Washington University, Obama said he was presenting a new budget with $4 trillion in long-term spending cuts. But there were no specifics. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf was asked last week if the CBO had prepared estimates of this budget. 'We don't estimate speeches,' Elmendorf, a Democrat, explained. 'We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis.' Evidently 'first we have the spring and summer' was not enough." --political analyst Michael Barone



Government

"[American seniors] want their Social Security and their Medicare to stay the way they are -- and their anger is directed against those who want to change the financial arrangements that pay for these benefits. Their anger should be directed instead against those politicians who were irresponsible enough to set up these costly programs without putting aside enough money to pay for the promises that were made -- promises that now cannot be kept, regardless of which political party controls the government. ... Many retired people remember the money that was taken out of their paychecks for years and feel that they are now entitled to receive Social Security benefits as a right. But the way Social Security was set up was so financially shaky that anyone who set up a similar retirement scheme in the private sector could be sent to federal prison for fraud. ... Despite irresponsible political ads showing an old lady in a wheel chair being dumped over a cliff, the people who are really in danger of being dumped over a cliff are the younger generation, who are paying into Social Security but are unlikely to get back anything like what they are paying in. ... What needs to be done is to allow younger workers a choice of staying out of a system that is simply running out of money." --economist Thomas Sowell

THE OLD DENTED BUCKET

What a neat story and a good lesson in life for all of us!


> >

> > THE OLD DENTED BUCKET

> > Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore . We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic.

> > One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my 8-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.

> > Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."

> > He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face .... I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments .."

> > For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning."

> > I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No, thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.

> > When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her 5 children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

> > He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going...

> > At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch.

> > He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind."

> > I told him he was welcome to come again.

> > And, on his next trip, he arrived a little after 7 in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen! He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. And I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.

> > In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

> > Other times we received packages in the mail , always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk 3 miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.

> > When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning.

> > "Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"

> > Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But, oh!, if only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear.

> > I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

> > Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse, as she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"

> > My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."

> > She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven.

> > "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."

> > All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.

> > The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b)

> > Friends are very special. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear and they share a word of praise. Show your friends how much you care. Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.

> > Nothing will happen if you do not decide to pass it along. The only thing that will happen if you DO pass it on is that someone might smile (because of you).

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I HOPED YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY AS I DID.

Why Are Food Prices Rising So Fast?




http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/





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If you do much grocery shopping, you have probably noticed that the cost of food has been rising at a very brisk pace over the past year. So why are food prices rising so fast?



According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, inflation is still very low and the economy is improving. So what is going on here? When I go to the grocery store these days, there are very few things that I will buy unless they are on sale. In fact, I have noticed that many of the new "sale prices" are the old regular prices. Other items have had their packages reduced in size in order to hide the price increases. But with millions of American families just barely scraping by as it is, what is going to happen if food prices keep rising this rapidly?



The food prices are especially painful if you are trying to eat healthy. Most of the low price stuff in the grocery stores is garbage. Eating the "typical American diet" is a highway to cancer, heart disease and diabetes.



But if you try to stick to food that is "healthy" or "organic" you can blow through hundreds of dollars in a heartbeat. In fact, the reality is that tens of millions of American families have now essentially been priced out of a healthy diet.



Soon there will be millions more American families that will not even be able to afford an unhealthy diet.



Some recent statistics compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are absolutely staggering. According to a recent CNBC article, over the past year many of the most popular foods in America have absolutely soared in price....



Coffee, for instance, is up 40 percent. Celery is 28 percent higher while butter prices rose 26.4 percent. Rounding out the top five are bacon, at 23.5 percent, and cabbage, at 23.3 percent.

Unfortunately, it looks like the trend of rising food prices is accelerating. Just look at what the CNBC article says happened in the month of April alone....



Just in April—the most recent month for which data is available—grapes went up nearly 30 percent, cabbage jumped about 17 percent and orange juice surged more than 5 percent.

Meat is becoming more expensive as well. Since March 2009, livestock prices have risen by 138%.



So when Ben Bernanke tells us that inflation is very low, that really is a lie. On the stuff that people spend money on every day (like food and gas), prices have gone up dramatically.



Sadly, this is not just a phenomenon that is happening in the United States. The truth is that the entire planet is rapidly approaching a horrific global food crisis.



Over the past year, the global price of food has risen by 37 percent and this has pushed approximately 44 million more people around the world into poverty.



When food prices rise in the U.S. it may be painful for millions of American families, but around the world a rise in food prices can mean the difference between surviving and not surviving.



That is why it has been so alarming that the global price of wheat has approximately doubled over the past year.



But it is not just wheat that has been soaring. Check out what a recent Bloomberg article had to say about what has been happening to many key agricultural commodities over the past year....



Corn futures advanced 77 percent in the past 12 months in Chicago trading, a global benchmark, rice gained 39 percent and sugar jumped 64 percent. There will be shortages in corn, wheat, soybeans, coffee and cocoa this year or next, according to Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank Groep. Prices also rose after droughts and floods from Australia to Canada ruined crops last year. European farmers are now contending with their driest growing season in more than three decades.



Even before this recent spike in food prices the world was struggling to get enough food to everybody. It has been estimated that somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds, and 75 percent of those are children under the age of five.



So what is going to happen if food prices keep on rising at the current pace?



That is a very good question.



We really are starting to move into unprecedented territory. Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.



So why is all of this happening?



Well, a lot of people are blaming the Federal Reserve. All of the "quantitative easing" that the Fed has done has flooded the financial markets with money. All of that money had to go somewhere. Much of it has pumped up the prices of hard assets such as oil, gold and agricultural commodities.



But it is not just the Fed that is to blame. The truth is that central banks all over the world have been recklessly printing money.



When the amount of money in an economy goes up, the purchasing value of all existing money goes down. In the United States, that means that your dollars will not go as far as they did before.



But it is not just monetary policy that is affecting food prices. In 2010 and 2011 we have seen an unprecedented wave of natural disasters and crazy weather. This has caused problems with crops all over the globe.



In addition, U.S. economic policies are also playing a role. At this point, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is used for fuel. This is putting a lot of stress on the price of corn.



Also, there are some long-term trends that are not in our favor. For example, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn "America's Breadbasket" back into the "Dust Bowl". If you have not heard of this problem I would encourage you to do some research on it.



Things are going to get a lot worse, but already America is having a really hard time feeding itself. According to Feeding America's 2010 hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.



So is that number unusual?



Yes, it sure is.



The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.



That is not a good trend.



Another stat that I talk a lot about in this column is the number of Americans on food stamps.



Right now, there are 44 million Americans on food stamps. Nearly half of them are children.



How did we ever get to the point as a nation where more than 20 million children end up on food stamps?



It is estimated that one out of every four American children is currently on food stamps, and it is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.



So what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse?



What is going to happen if there really is a major food crisis in this country someday?



Food prices have been going up for decades and they are going to continue to go up. But the frightening thing is how fast they are increasing now.



As the U.S. middle class continues to be destroyed, the number of Americans that can't afford to buy enough food is going to continue to rise. Food prices are rising much faster than wages are, and that is not likely to change any time soon.



Food is rapidly becoming one of the most important global economic issues of this decade. The farther one looks down the road, the bleaker things look for the global food situation.



I hope you are prepared for that.

Jews from "Lost" Tribe of Manasseh in India to Return to Israel




http://www.jpost.com/





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Thousands of kilometers to the east, in the furthest reaches of northeastern India, a long-lost community continues to nourish its age-old dream of returning to its ancient homeland, the land of Israel.



The Bnei Menashe, or “sons of Manasseh,” are descendants of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, which were exiled by the Assyrian empire more than 27 centuries ago. The community, which numbers 7,232 people, resides primarily in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh.



Despite generations of wandering, the Bnei Menashe never forgot who they were, where they had come from, or where they aspired to return.



Three times a day, every day, they turn in silent prayer toward Jerusalem, pleading with the Creator to put an end to their long exile and bring them home to Zion.



That dream is now poised, at last, to become a reality.



This past Monday, an extraordinary meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption took place in the Prime Minister’s Office. At the top of the agenda was the issue of the Bnei Menashe.



As chairman of Shavei Israel, an organization that has been assisting the community for over a decade, I had lobbied intensively for much of the past year for the committee to address the issue.



Testifying before the assembled ministers and bureaucrats, I spoke of the 1,700 Bnei Menashe who have already made aliya, and of the success they have had in integrating into Israeli society.



Approximately 96 percent of Bnei Menashe immigrants are employed, supporting themselves and their families and contributing to the state and its economy. A mere 4% – less than half the national average – are reliant on social welfare to make ends meet.



Nearly all young Bnei Menashe men are drafted into the army, with a majority serving in combat units. Some 50 Bnei Menashe are currently in uniform, and recently the first Bnei Menashe officer was commissioned.



I pointed out that a growing number of Bnei Menashe youth are pursuing higher education at Israeli colleges and universities in fields ranging from computer science to social work, and that several have also received rabbinical ordination after years of study in yeshiva.



And rest assured, I told the ministers, the Bnei Menashe are our lost brethren. In March 2005, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar recognized them as Zera Yisrael, or the “seed of Israel,” and said they should be brought to the Jewish state.



He also ruled that because they were cut off from their people for millennia, the Bnei Menashe are required to undergo conversion to remove any doubt about their personal status. All those who have made aliya have already gone through this process.



Put simply, I said, the Bnei Menashe are a blessing to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel, and they strengthen us no less than we do them.



Nonetheless, the government of Ehud Olmert inexplicably froze their aliya in 2007, dividing families and stifling the flow of this talented and highly motivated immigration.



So I turned to the members of the committee and made a simple yet forceful plea: It is time for Israel to let the remaining Bnei Menashe come home.



And then a miracle took place. After deliberating the matter, the ministerial committee, headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, formally decided to draft a government resolution and bring it to the cabinet for approval no later than the end of July.



The resolution will permit all the remaining Bnei Menashe in India to make aliya, and will finally bring an end to their years of waiting and uncertainty.



Both the foreign minister and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver said they were behind the measure.



This means we are just one month away from an historic turning point, one that will restore 7,232 precious souls to the Jewish people.



But there are obstacles that may still stand in the way.



The Treasury is likely to object, not wanting to spend a shekel more than it deems necessary. And then there are the naysayers and post-Zionists who have lost sight of Israel’s mission to serve as the homeland for all Jews.



We cannot allow them to prevail.



There is simply no good reason for this aliya to be stymied. The Bnei Menashe are part of the extended Jewish family. They are committed Zionists who observe the Torah and its commandments, and who are reaching out across the centuries to reconnect with our people. We need to extend a welcoming hand back, and bring them to Jerusalem.



I urge all people of faith and goodwill, Jew and Christian alike, to pray for this undertaking to succeed. Write the premier, contact MKs, and tell them in no uncertain terms: Bring the lost tribe of Bnei Menashe home now! This past Monday, as I listened to the committee approve its decision, I truly felt as if I was standing on the banks of the Red Sea, watching the waters begin to part.



Soon enough, I am sure, the Bnei Menashe will cross the sea, reuniting with the Land and people of Israel after a remarkable journey.



Just as the prophets foretold, Manasseh’s children are at last coming back. And all one can say is: Thank God.

Phophecy News

Iran, The Bomb & The Return of the Mahdi




http://www.washingtonpost.com





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The procession of cars carrying Fereidoun Abbasi Davani sped down Vienna's Wagramer Strasse this Monday and into the underground car park of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Outside the building, on the bank of the Danube River, some 30 protesters from the Stop the Bomb movement demonstrated, waving signs denouncing the Iranian nuclear scientist. But Iranian security officers seemed more concerned about the prospect of someone trying to exploit Abbasi Davani's controversial visit to finish the job.



On November 29, 2010, anonymous assailants tried to assassinate Abbasi Davani as he emerged from his home in Tehran. He and his wife, seated next to him in the car, were hit by gunfire, but survived the assassination attempt. Iran blamed the Mossad for the failed operation.



The assassins were more successful in a different attack launched that same day, which killed another nuclear scientist - Majid Shahriari.



The Iranians claimed that Abbasi Davani was nothing but an innocent physics professor. Intelligence sources countered that his university position was just a cover for his secret activity as one of the leading experts in Iran's weaponization, which is working on the final and decisive stage of developing a nuclear weapon under the auspices of the Revolutionary Guards. His name appears on the UN Security Council's blacklist, compiled after the council voted in March 2007 to impose sanctions on companies, organizations and individuals involved in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. It also appears on similar lists compiled by the United States and the European Union, which ordered that his assets be frozen.



About two months after Abbasi Davani was shot, in January 2011, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed him as his vice president and as head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, a defiant move that seemed to say Iran would continue its nuclear program and no one could stop it.



Some two weeks prior to his arrival in Vienna to take part in the IAEA's Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety, Abbasi Davani announced that by the end of the year, Iran would triple the amount of uranium it has enriched to a level of 20 percent. Though uranium enriched to this level is intended mostly to fuel Tehran's small nuclear research reactor, which produces medical isotopes, it also bolsters the knowledge of Iranian nuclear experts and their ability to control all stages of enrichment - including to a level of 93%, which enables the production of fissile material used in making a nuclear weapon.



This announcement by the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization was very disturbing to Israel, the United States and other Western countries. It indicates that Iran is determined to continue its nuclear program at full speed and is even accelerating the pace. It means Iran's leadership is undaunted by the sanctions imposed on the country, or by the damage the Stuxnet computer worm caused to the program that operates the centrifuges at the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. The Stuxnet worm has been ascribed to a sabotage operation undertaken by the Mossad and the CIA. According to foreign sources, it is one of the major achievements of former Mossad head Meir Dagan.



In the same announcement, Abbasi Davani said Iran has developed an advanced centrifuge model whose rotors spin at greater speed, thus enabling the enrichment of a larger amount of uranium in a shorter time. Such centrifuges, he said, will be constructed at the second uranium enrichment site that Iran built secretly near the Revolutionary Guards base just outside of Qom.



According to the reports of IAEA inspectors who visited it, the site, built deep inside a mountain, looks like a fortified facility made to withstand aerial bombardments. Its existence was revealed in September 2009 thanks to information obtained by the intelligence agencies of Israel, the U.S. and Britain. According to both diplomatic sources in Vienna and intelligence experts, the site at Qom, which contains only 3,000 centrifuges, can only have one goal - enriching uranium for the production of a nuclear weapon.



Worrying new questions



Two crucial new questions are now worrying all those who follow Iran's nuclear program. One is whether Qom was chosen as a site for uranium enrichment due only to its strategic location, or if any meaning should be attached to the fact that Shi'ites consider it a holy city, the place of residence of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic.



Ahmadinejad and several of his ministers, as well as senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guards, belong to a small but influential group in the Iranian government that adheres to a mystical belief in the coming of the Mahdi - the Twelfth, or hidden, Imam - who is considered the Shi'ite messiah. One of the conditions for the Mahdi's coming is that a huge proportion of the world's population be annihilated in a great war.



This radical Shi'ite doctrine has parallels in the idea of the War of Gog and Magog in Christian eschatology, which is prophesied to take place in the Jezreel Valley not far from Tel Megiddo (Armageddon in the Greek translation ). Is the site at Qom Ahmadinejad's Armageddon, where a weapon will be developed that will annihilate the unbelievers and hasten the coming of the Messiah?



Another cause for concern is an article published about two months ago on a Revolutionary Guards website. In it, for the first time, the author talked about "the day after" Iran carries out a successful nuclear test that would transform it into a nuclear power. Previously, Iranian government officials had always maintained strict silence on this subject. Was the article a fluke, the result of negligence by inattentive censors, or was it written to prepare public opinion, both at home and abroad?



It is difficult for a Western rationalist to accept the possibility, even if its likelihood is negligible, that Iran is motivated by religious belief in its determination to obtain a nuclear weapon, and might even use such a weapon for religious reasons. After all, aside from Ahmadinejad's domestic troubles, including calls in parliament for his ouster, the one who decides on sensitive strategic issues like the nuclear one in Iran is not the president, but supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who is not known to have any messianic leanings.



But the sum total of all these developments - the appointment of Abbasi Davani, his announcements about the acceleration of enrichment and its transfer to Qom, the unusual article - all these, especially in light of the Arab revolutions that have diverted the world's attention from Tehran, may indicate that Iran is closer to reaching a decision than experts had previously thought.

Why is Obama so tough on Israel and timid on Syria?




http://www.washingtonpost.com





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One of the hallmarks of the Arab Spring has been the emergence of a new and more modest American foreign policy. The Obama administration has insisted on not taking the lead in promoting democratic change; it has declined to act unless not just the French and British but the Arab League go first. It still can’t bring itself to say that Bashar al-Assad, a dictator and implacable U.S. enemy who is using tanks and helicopter gunships to slaughter his people, is not qualified to lead Syria to democracy.



Yet there is one big exception: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On a Middle Eastern front that has remained mostly quiet in 2011, the position of the United States is: a) it possesses a detailed solution; b) action must be taken immediately; and c) it doesn’t matter whether the people concerned — Israelis and Palestinians — are agreeable or ready.



Obama the timid suddenly turns tough when the “peace process” comes up. He has spoken in public on Syria just twice since its massacres began three months ago. But he chose to spell out U.S. terms for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without the agreement of Israel’s prime minister, on the eve of meeting him at the White House and with only a few hours’ notice — arguably the most high-handed presidential act in U.S.-Israeli relations since the Eisenhower administration.



Now, with prodding from the European Union, Obama is attempting to strong-arm Israelis and Palestinians into beginning negotiations on the parameters he set. The talks must be agreed to this month, says Washington; they should begin by September. U.S. and European envoys were shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah last week in an attempt to extract a “yes” from Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.



It would be interesting if this imperialist diplomacy succeeded. If it does, it will disprove the Obama administration’s nascent doctrine about the limits of U.S. power and influence in the Middle East.



Consider the two parties who would be dragged to the negotiating table. Netanyahu heads a right-wing coalition that would almost certainly collapse if he agreed to Obama’s terms — which, in any case, he opposes. A senior Israeli official last week gave me a long list of fixes he said would be needed before his government could accept the Obama formula — and even then, he added, the proposal wouldn’t fly “unless there was a deep reservoir of mutual confidence” between the two leaders, “which doesn’t exist.”



Then there is Abbas, who at 76 is planning his retirement. He has committed himself to spending the next year seeing through a reconciliation with the Hamas movement, arranging elections for his successor and seeking recognition for Palestine at the United Nations. For two years he has refused to negotiate with Netanyahu, whom he despises. Even Yasser Arafat appeared more disposed than this Palestinian leader to make the wrenching concessions needed for a deal. And who would guarantee that the Palestinian president elected next May would pick up where Abbas left off?



What’s extraordinary about Obama’s initiative is not its details, which don’t differ meaningfully from the ideas of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or, for that matter, several of Netanyahu’s predecessors as prime minister. It is, rather, its superpower chutzpah — the brazen disregard for the views and political posture of this Israeli government, and the fecklessness and disarray of the current Palestinian leadership. Never mind, goes the implicit Euro-American line: We will make this happen.



What could account for such an attitude, given the timorous approach to the rest of the region? Part of it is understandable frustration with years of Israeli-Palestinian impasse, which is magnified by the conviction in much of official Washington that the terms for peace are well known and widely accepted, and need only be implemented. Part is legitimate worry that the Israeli-

Palestinian front, though quiet now, could explode later this year after a United Nations vote, helping extremists in places such as Egypt. Yet the damage to U.S. interests from a U.N. resolution on Palestine would pale compared to the consequences of an Iranian-backed victory by Assad in Syria or the failure of NATO in Libya. Those crises have not moved Obama to lead.



There is, in his diplomacy, an implicit conviction that the United States must first of all deal with the sins of its own client. “Here are the facts we must all confront,” Obama declared in his speech to the AIPAC conference last month, before proceeding to deliver a lecture about Palestinian demography, Arab politics and the United Nations. It wasn’t that he was entirely wrong. But it’s revealing of this president that he is determined to speak truth to Binyamin Netanyahu — and not to Bashar al-Assad.

AUL Reports That Reversing Roe Gaining Momentum
















With surgical precision, Americans United for Life Action has been targeting political races across the country, to lay the groundwork for reversing Roe legislatively while AUL is working simultaneously on a legal track. AUL and other pro-life groups are playing the long game with strategic intent. In an analysis titled “The New Pro-Life Surge,” Christianity Today’s Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra noted that pro-life advocates are having tremendous success at the state legislative level.



“By early April, 142 abortion-related provisions had passed at least one chamber of a state legislature, compared with 67 in 2009. More than half of the 142 bills (57 percent) introduced this year seek to restrict abortion access, compared with 38 percent in 2010.



About 40 new anti-abortion laws were on the books by mid-April,” reported Zylstra.



“Republican victories in the 2010 mid-term elections account for much of the legislative surge. Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and made gains in the Senate. But their success at the state level was more significant. They took 29 governorships and 680 seats in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”



AUL President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest told the reporter, “We've been tilling this ground for a while,” noting that the forward momentum began when the Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortion in 2007.



"They chipped away at the absolute right to abortion," Yoest said. "The Supreme Court said that states do have the right to limit abortion. That was a seismic shift." Pro-life advocates began to see how far they could get with restrictions, such as parental notification and informed consent laws, she said.



The legislation has been snowballing since the Republican sweep: "Just in the first three months of this year, we've provided testimony on 17 life-related legislative matters," she said. In previous years, the average number of testimonies provided was two or three for the entire year.



For the complete Christianity Today piece on national, pro-life trends, click here.







Defunding Planned Parenthood

Becomes a Campaign Issue



Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Pawlenty, & Romney

On the campaign trail, fiscally and socially conservative candidates are beginning to make defunding Planned Parenthood one of their top pro-life issues.



Taxpayer subsidies for abortion providers were central to the debate over President Obama’s health care plan and now are front and center in budget debates. The president has put the weight of his administration behind efforts to push funding to abortion providers, weighing in with threats of legal action and of cutting all Medicaid funds against the states where abortion providers are denied taxpayer dollars. Already, Indiana is embroiled in legal action. Last week, a Louisiana lawmaker told Reuters that fears of losing that state’s Medicaid money led legislators to drop some pro-life measures. Click here to read more.



Dr. Yoest noted: “Elections have consequences, and President Obama is clearly supporting the use of federal government power to influence states in favor of abortion-subsidizing policies. It is an area where voters will be able to see clear distinctions between the candidates.”



One pro-life leader told Politico that cutting Planned Parenthood funding is a “must-have” in any candidate’s resume. It is a position that could impact the outcome of an election.



LifeNews’ Steven Ertelt, also reporting on this issue, noted that in the last election cycle groups like AULA “were successful in defeating several lawmakers who voted for the Obamacare bill that contained loopholes allowing abortion funding.”



On the campaign trail, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Michele Bachmann and businessman Herman Cain have recently taken on cutting funding to Planned Parenthood recently, reported Ertelt. And in the past, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have also supported ending such funding. To read Ertelt’s entire account, click here.



“In these harsh economic times, directing dwindling resources to the highly profitable abortion industry is outrageous,” said Yoest.







International Telemed Abortions Used to

Circumvent Pro-Life Laws

AUL’S Mary Novick noted a disturbing trend in international policies related to drug induced abortion. A pro-abortion website is targeting women in pro-life countries like Poland, Ireland, Malta and others for distribution of the abortion drug, RU-486. The goal of this website is to undermine pro-life laws.

Womenonweb.org directs women through an online questionnaire, where they answer questions about gestational age etc. Then this organization will ship abortion drugs to the women in these pro-life countries, where the woman will take the drugs at home. The physician disseminating the drug does not physically examine the woman before sending her the drug, nor is he/she available should complications arise. And complications can arise. To read more about this disturbing development, click here.









In the News

According to the Omaha World-Herald, “The head of Nebraska's oldest anti-abortion group believes in making hay while the sun shines. And the sun has been shining plenty recently for abortion opponents.” To read more on AUL’s involvement in pro-life victories in Nebraska, click here.



AUL’s Sr. Vice President and Sr. Counsel William Saunders weighs in on the reason why the abortion lobby is attacking pregnancy care centers in a blog post. Click here to read more.

Dear Friend of Life,




We need your support now, more than ever.



One by one, states across our nation are refusing to subsidize abortion with your tax dollars!



Indiana just passed a bold, new pro-life law squeezing off much of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers' federal and state funding. In response, as punishment for the state's pro-life policies, the Obama Administration's Department of Health and Human Services is tacitly supporting Planned Parenthood's lawsuit against the State of Indiana.



But thanks to the outpouring of support for the people of Indiana, the pro-life movement is ready to strike back. Will you follow this secure link to make an urgently needed contribution of $50, $100, $250 or more as a show of support for our friends in Indiana and to sustain all AUL's life-saving activities?



One by one, the states are rejecting Planned Parenthood's culture of deception and death. Just this week, the state of Tennessee joined the fight against Planned Parenthood's shady abortion business. With the exception of one county, Tennessee has revoked a $335,000 federal grant from Planned Parenthood! It is almost certain that pro-abortion advocates, backed by the Obama Administration, are preparing to file suit against Tennessee as well, to continue to fight against the pro-life movement.



Make no mistake about it: this issue is much larger than one or two states – it's about a pro-life grassroots uprising to de-fund Planned Parenthood, one state at a time. States across America are refusing to accept Planned Parenthood's lies and Congressional negligence in getting to the bottom of taxpayer subsidization of abortions.



We need your immediate donation to show support for the brave citizens of Indiana and Tennessee who are fighting back against Planned Parenthood's highly paid army of Washington lawyers and lobbyists, who have the strong backing of the Obama Administration.



Tennessee is the latest state to see past Planned Parenthood's well-disguised ruse—funding its abortion clinics by funneling your tax dollars through its jumbled bank accounts. Planned Parenthood has fought hard to strong-arm votes in Congress and the state legislatures (over $4.8 million spent on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past five years alone), in a poorly disguised attempt to secure a future for its abortion business through dirty politics.



Thanks to your efforts, pro-abortion advocates are quickly learning that their efforts are being undermined. State governments are fighting back against their deceptive politics and dirty money, growing tired of the misleading efforts to steamroll them and raid state funds.



On our 40th Anniversary this month, we are facing a real challenge in meeting our year-end fiscal target. Just imagine how many more states we could help rise up against Planned Parenthood if we can reach our year-end goal! It is crucial that we raise $81,000 by June 30 in order to maintain all our life-saving activities.



So will you follow this secure link to make an urgently needed contribution of $50, $100, $250 or more to help us defeat Planned Parenthood and sustain all our life-saving activities? Seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stand with your fellow pro-lifers in Indiana and Tennessee. Make your voice heard today.



Yours for Life,



Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.

President & CEO

Americans United for Life





P.S. We need your support now, more than ever before as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. I want to make sure we're around for another 40 life-saving years. So will you follow this secure link to make an urgently needed contribution of $50, $100, $250 or more to stand with Indiana and Tennessee while sustaining all our life-saving activities? Thank you for your continued investment in life. – Charmaine

Alexander's Essay – June 16, 2011

Alexander's Essay – June 16, 2011




Who Needs a Father?'It Just Takes a Village' to Raise a Child, Right?

"It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness." --James Wilson

In 1996, Hillary Rodham Clinton published "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," in which she asserted that organizations outside the family could meet the needs of children, and that society, her euphemism for "government," has an obligation to meet those needs.



Part of Clinton's thesis was correct in that millions of children are victimized when their parents do not fulfill parental obligations. Unfortunately, the rest of her thesis suggests that parenthood can be outsourced.



Some 15 years later, Barack Hussein Obama and his socialist cadres are fast-tracking the redefinition of "marriage and family," which, in effect, perpetuates the neglect of children, thus necessitating institutional solutions.



Not surprisingly, the Left's primary mode for indoctrinating neglected children with the "village model" is government schools. "The education of all children," as Karl Marx wrote, "from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense." (Note: He never even mentioned the "father's care.") Marx's disciple, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, concurred: "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."



Obama understands that to "fundamentally transform America" into a socialist state, the Left must successfully destabilize the three pillars of Essential Liberty: Individual Liberty, Economic Liberty and Constitutional Liberty.



Founder James Wilson once described an indispensable common denominator supporting each of these pillars: "[T]hat important and respectable, though small and sometimes neglected establishment, which is denominated a family ... the principle of the community; it is that seminary, on which the commonwealth ... must ultimately depend."



If the pillars of Essential Liberty, which have suffered much degradation in recent decades, are to be strengthened, then the place to start is within our families, and most particularly with fathers.



Marriage is the foundation for the family, which in turn, serves as the foundation for a free society. This principle is especially embodied in the spirit of natural law upon which our Republic is founded.



In 295 B.C., Mencius wrote, "The root of the kingdom is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head."



When fathers do not take on their parental responsibilities, broken marriages and families are the result. These, in turn, lead to broken societies.



Thus, the failure of fatherhood has much more than mere social or cultural consequences; it is a menacing national security threat. The collective social pathology of the fatherless presents a great obstacle to Liberty and the survival of our republican form of government as outlined by our Constitution.



Father's Day should thus be a call to action. Indeed, the majority of social entropy afflicting our nation today originates in homes without fathers, which definition includes those without functioning or effective fathers.



Currently, almost 60 percent of black children, 32 percent of Hispanic children and 21 percent of white children live in single-parent homes. (See Bill Cosby's "Truth about Black America.") According to the CDC, DoJ, DHHS and the Bureau of the Census, children who live apart from their fathers account for 63 percent of teen suicides, 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions, 71 percent of high-school dropouts, 75 percent of children in chemical-abuse centers, 80 percent of rapists, 85 percent of youths in prison, 85 percent of children who exhibit behavioral disorders, and 90 percent of homeless and runaway children. (When these children become "adults," the social consequences become even worse.)



Generationally, daughters who have been abandoned by their fathers are seven times more likely to have children as teenagers and 92 percent more likely to divorce.



A successful fatherhood begins with a healthy marriage. To be good fathers, we must first be good husbands.



I have been blessed with many mentors, including Dr. Jim Lee, director of Living Free ministries. Jim taught me that the Christian marriage paradigm is built on a foundation of five principles: "First, God is the creator of the marriage relationship; second, heterosexuality is God's pattern for marriage; third, monogamy is God's design for marriage; fourth, God's plan for marriage is for physical and spiritual unity; and fifth, marriage was designed to be permanent."



Concern about marital infidelity and the consequences for children are timeless. John Adams wrote in his diary on 2 June 1778, "The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. ... How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?"



I note here that while most fatherless homes are the result of neglect on the part of fathers, an increasing number of fatherless homes result from mothers who separate without reasonable grounds from the fathers of their children.



Fortunately, some young people reared by a single parent, or in critically dysfunctional or impoverished homes, overcame that impediment. Either they were blessed with a parent who, against all but insurmountable odds, instilled them with the values and virtues of good citizenship or, somewhere along the way, those children were lifted out of their misery by some other grace of God -- often in the form of a significant mentor who modeled individual responsibility and good character.



However, the vast majority of children from homes without fathers are not so fortunate, as statistically confirmed above.



Of course, some fatherless children successfully fill the "daddy deficit" by becoming overachievers in the corporate, political or sports arenas, and not usually in a Rule of Law way. A textbook case study would be Barry Obama.



On the official White House website, the bio for Obama claims, "His story is the American story -- values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family..." While this is certainly the image Obama would like to project, it is most certainly not accurate. Like so many Leftists, his roots are shallow and broken, and they are in no way a reflection of "values from the heartland."



In effect, Obama is the consummate poster child for the consequences of fatherlessness. Though his pathological narcissism has driven him to the most powerful political post on the planet, the phony façade of "a middle-class upbringing" has all but worn away.



The fate of fatherless children like Obama is, at best, a broken heart. At worst, it is the root cause of contemporary American social entropy. It is also the greatest threat to Essential Liberty as established by natural law, because, I would argue, it is directly linked to the broken faith of the fatherless. Broken trust with earthly fathers often results in a lack of trust in our Heavenly Father, our Creator.



On this Father's Day, let us pay tribute to the irreplaceable and inseparable institutions of marriage and fatherhood -- and the importance of a father's love, discipline, provision and protection for his family. Every day of the year, let those of us who are fathers encourage other fathers to be accountable for their marriages and children. Let us seek to mentor the fatherless by volunteering leadership through our places of worship, youth groups, scouting, coaching, tutoring, or working through inner-city ministries with high-risk kids, to name just a few.



As for me, I was blessed with a loving and dependable father, who I profiled a couple years ago in a Memorial Day essay, "The Class of '44." By extension, it is a privilege beyond all others to be a husband to Ann and father of three. Indeed, no reward could be greater than the close relationship I enjoy with my children, and to see their steady progress as Patriots-in-training -- as responsible young citizens committed to carrying forward the flame of Liberty.



Above all, the greatest inheritance I hope to leave my children is not material, but spiritual.



(For excellent information on fatherhood and parenting, visit the resource and research sections of First Things First, an outstanding organization under the leadership of my friend Julie Baumgardner. There are very good national fathering initiatives like Tony Dungy's All Pro Dad. James Dobson's Focus on the Family has great resources, as does the National Center for Fathering and the National Fatherhood Initiative.)



Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!



Mark Alexander

Publisher, The Patriot Post

From Rev. Londa

Sorry that I haven't worked on this. It's been way way to long. It's a long story on what has happen. I'm gonna try & get back in this! Which I will.
I Love the Lord our God!!!!