Obama Doing End Run On Gun Control?

This one by Guy goes with his next one:
ATF

Is There a Cover-up in Border Patrol Murder?

Guy wants to move on from Wisconsin to some other hot topics so he sent this:
Border Agent's Murder

Newt Gingrich Obama Could Be impeached Over Gay Marriage Reversal

Guy says he is tired of so much on Wisconsin, so he proposes another hot topic:
OBAMA'S 180

Union Influence with Obama vs Everyone Else

"A full 88% of America is union-free. Yet, despite the fact that the vast majority of American taxpayers do not belong to a union, let alone work for the government, we Americans are being held hostage by a loud and thuggish minority who feel that it is their right to force the vast majority of Americans acquiesce to their demands." Redstate
UNION INFLUENCE

Zogby Poll: Majorities Say States Can Cut Employee Salaries & Void Collective Bargaining Agreements

TODAY'S ZOGBY POLL

Answer Poll: What Should the Wisconsin Governor Do?

POLL RESULTS FROM What Should the Wisconsin Governor Do?
Negotiate a compromise bill with State Senate Democrats 4.51% (2,616 votes)

Ask Republicans to pull the bill and find another way to cut spending 1.45% (841 votes)

Draw a line in the sand: If you want to keep your job, get back to work -- otherwise, you're fired 93.34% (54,130 votes)

Read more: CAST YOUR VOTE

Shameful Quack Doctors Give Medical Excuses

Doctors Giving Fake Medical Excuses

FDR Warned Government Unions Are Wrong

INTIMIDATING LEGISLATORS WHO SERVE US TAXPAYERS
GOVERNMENT UNIONS ARE WRONG

Related articles

• The case against public sector unionism (professorbainbridge.com)

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Liberal Protest of Gov. Walker's Budget Repair Plan

Here Come the Republican Cuts

Republican Cuts

Conservative, Looking for the Dream Candidate

CPAC members had their straw poll. Now it is time for the rest of us. So, I invite the conservative readers (unless you are a lib who plans to vote conservative) to tell us your choice to win against Obama in 2012. If you don’t mind, I would like you to describe your dream person and why. I will first give you mine beginning with the background of events against which I make my choice. Then I will follow with the characteristics of my dream person. Think about giving us a person who can win, not necessarily a person you are enamored with. (Obviously, this means the person can take the independents, otherwise it is no ball game.)

First is the background of events:

1. This election, as was the November one, will be decided by the independents. In that election, independents demonstrated that they could comprehend the conservative message and they were willing to take a chance on us.

2. Events are happening around the globe at a pace, the likes of which, I have never lived through in my entire lifetime.

Therefore, here is what I am looking for in my dream person:

1. A charismatic communicator who can clearly articulate to the unaffiliated what we have to do, how we have to do it, and why we have to do it the way we have to. The November election revealed that Americans sense we are in trouble. At the same time, polls have revealed they aren’t ready to make necessary sacrifices. We need a good explainer like Ronald Reagan.

2. Because this is such a dangerous world, I want someone with foreign policy experience and vision. I don’t want us to have to wait for on-the-job training like what we have just suffered through.

3. Finally, my dream person has experience as a manager, someone who has managed something of consequence.

I want all of the above in one person. I have looked at the polls of the presidential wanna-bes. So far, I just get a queasy feeling.

CPAC Straw Poll Results:
Rep. Ron Paul: 30 percent
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: 23 percent
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson: 6 percent
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 6 percent
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: 5 percent
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: 4 percent
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann: 4 percent
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels: 4 percent
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin: 3 percent
Former talk show host Herman Cain: 2 percent
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: 2 percent
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum: 2 percent
South Dakota Sen. John Thune: 2 percent
U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman: 1 percent
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour: 1 percent
Others: 5 percent
Undecided: 1 percent (Count me in this group.)

Troops don’t believe the media hype that this is still Obama’s election. As of now, there are only 7 states whose electoral votes are up for grabs. Along with that information is the fact that this year we get to redistrict a lot of former blue states.

If we can find our dream person, we can take Obama.

Sarkozy Joins Merkel and Cameron in Acknowledging the Peril to Their Countries of Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism: for the first time, Sarkozy bluntly described multiculturalism as "a failure". "The truth is that in all our democracies, we're too concerned with the identity of the people coming in and not enough with the identity of the country that's taking them in,"
Sarkozy
Merkel

British PM Revealing Clear Thinking

British PM David Cameron needs to be paid attention to. He declares: “A passively tolerant society says to its citizens, as long as you obey the law we will just leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values. But I believe a genuinely liberal country does much more: it believes in certain values and actively promotes them. . .It says to its citizens, this is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe in these things.”(emphasis mine)

To Lib Who Loves PC

Waves of Conservative Dem Officials in South Join GOP

The LA Times tallies 24 state senators and representatives who have switched to the Republican party in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. In some cases, the changes have shifted the balance of power, the Times notes.

NewsMax

Cameron: State multiculturalism has failed

N C GOP Came Ready To Govern

NC Leaders Rep. Thom Tillis, right, and Sen. Phil Berger,left.
I cannot recall anything like this before in 34 years of covering the place - where members came to Raleigh ready to work right away, announced a schedule for when the budget would be voted on or when a final version would be approved.
Wrote Jack Betts Charlotte Observer

Earmarks are gone!

Published by Dick Morris

First the Senate and House Republicans agreed to give them up. Then President Obama followed suit in his State of the Union. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid initially scoffed at his president's proposal, but he was forced to back down by his colleagues and the Senate Democrats have now adopted a two-year moratorium on earmarking.

So the FY 2012 and 2013 budgets will be earmark-free!

Thanks go to the Tea Party activists, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz), and some stalwart Republicans for this achievement.

Several years ago, earmarks topped out at $60 billion a year. Last cycle, they ate up $15 billion of spending. Now they will go to zero.

This reform puts an end to a singular form of corruption in which Senators and Congressmen passed out earmarks with one hand and raked in campaign contributions from lobbyists for the projects with the other. This form of legalized bribery has accounted for between one-quarter and one-third of the typical campaign war chest of Democratic Senators up for re-election in 2012. But no more! Bravo!

Michelle Tickles Charlotte's Ribs

Michelle Wrong NC Town

St. John of the Cross Says Don't Debate Christianity on this Blog

What mystics of all faiths have discovered is that, before you can enter the mystic realm, the cognitive system must shut down. In Zen for example, an unsolvable Koan (sound of one hand clapping, etc.) brings the discursive mind (the intellect) to its knees, causing it to flat line. With the discursive mind out of the way, the psyche can encounter directly the mystic realm. In Hinduism, some meditation systems accomplish this state by overloading the discursive processes. Others underload them. Islamic Sufi’s dance and twirl. The outcome is the same. The cognitive processes flat line and the person breaks through into the mystical experience.

St John has given us the Christian way of accomplishing this entrance into the mystic realm. Staying true to our belief system, it is God Himself (not our meditation efforts)Who accomplishes the results. He achieves this closing down of the mind by challenging the discursive system to the point it has to accept that reaching the mystic realm is above its pay grade. (My ways are higher than your ways.)

St John includes in the discursive system, the “understanding,” the will,” and “the memory”–the cognitive processes. I translated the discursive system as “psuche” as the word soul carries too much baggage. St. John writes:

“. . . .it is God Who is now working in the psuche; He binds its interior faculties, and
allows it not to cling to the understanding, nor to have delight in the will, nor to reason
with the memory. For anything that the psuche can do of its own accord at this time serves only, . . . .to hinder inward peace and the work which God is accomplishing . . . .” p. 67

Thus, St John will call the result, the Dark Night of the Soul. The Dark Night, however is actually a negative experience only from the point of view of one’s intellect. This darkness is not a pleasant experience for the intellect which believed itself capable of understanding everything. St. John explains:

. . . .the Divine wisdom is not only night and darkness for the psuche, but is likewise, affliction and torment . . . because of the height of Divine Wisdom, which transcends the talent of the soul and in this way is darkness to it. p. 100

By Dark Night, St. John is describing the mental anguish that comes as the mind is being forced to surrender. His fellow monks were straining to know God. He was teaching them to let go and let God take the mind into darkness. Those who rely on their intellects cannot make the journey.

On the other hand, from the point of view of the entire psychological system, The Dark Night is a positive experience and has a happy outcome.

“When God leads the soul into this night of sense in order to purge the sense of its lower part (psuche) and to subdue it, unite it and bring it into conformity with the (higher part ) spirit, by setting it in darkness and causing it to cease. . . . the soul gains so many benefits that it holds it to be a happy chance to have escaped from the bonds and restrictions of the senses. . . .” p. 74

(The above article was written earlier for another purpose. I have two internationally known friends, one who writes Christian books and the other who writes Metaphysical books. Both of them were using St. John’s Dark Night of the Soul erroneously as many writers do. They don’t study St. John’s work in depth, choosing instead to assume from the title he just meant the sort of spiritual blahs that people endure. As a psychologist, I am better equipped by training to unlock the insights of St. John of the Cross, one of the most important Christian writers in history.)

Another reason for writing this is to communicate to the non-believers, or lukewarm ones, why I probably won’t be debating Christianity much on this blog. I quoted St. Paul on this blog recently: “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” One commenter responded: “I don’t have a clue what you are trying to communicate.” Gee.

More Comparing Christianity and Islam

Admitting my limited knowledge regarding Islam, of course I am interested in comparison with my own faith.

In the history of Christianity there are a high number of people, beginning with St.Paul and St.John who have visited Heaven and returned. Over the years,an amazing array of Christians have visited Jesus in Heaven. Many have told their stories–numerous books have been written. Even naive children have given their accounts with descriptions almost identical to others. Those of us who are privileged as psychotherapists to be invited into the secret lives of others, hear fascinating revelations of heavenly trips which were shared with no one before. Perhaps you know someone personally yourself.

One of my best friends for example, died on the operating table. He had a spellbinding visit to Heaven, but just as he was reveling in all the glory, he was informed that he had to go back. He still had much work to do, including caring for his wife. I know him to be a credible witness.

The point I am headed to is this. Where does this confidence of a heaven come from in Islam that makes one willing to kill oneself violently?

I posed the following question to a scholar who has been identified as a leading expert on Islam in this country. I asked him if there exists in Muslim literature, this sizable volume of writings of trips to heaven and returning.

To my surprise, he seemed nonplussed by my question. His answer was “Of course, the Prophet.”

Can Islam Reform Itself as Chritianity Does?

Many evil things, including the three great evils of slavery, racism and denigration of women, have been done by Christians. However, at the same time, Christianity has demonstrated it has within it the seeds of self-reformation and self-cleansing. Examples: Martin Luther’s Reformation made every person a priest, reading and interpreting the Bible for himself/herself. William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian, inspired by his faith, defeated slavery. The Quakers were the first to challenge slavery in the U.S. The Rev. Martin Luther King was motivated by his Christianity. These revolutions were achieved within Christian societies.

As to those three evils supported by the church, St. Paul planted a solid seed when he wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” It takes time, but eventually Christianity, using its own principles, reforms itself.

I do not know Islamic history, but I am not sure Islam has within it, the seeds of its own reformation. So far, it has not had the great reformation we saw with Martin Luther and the other reformers.

Middle East--Still About the Brothers Isaac and Ishmael

Our Lib has been challenging me to bring up the Egyptian situation. O.K. Lib here it is. The Egyptian problem is critical, but always the Middle East is about Israel. Lib brought up Helen Thomas, so I respond: I am shocked that you brought Helen Thomas up. Don’t you remember what made her a pariah? She said: "Tell them (Israel)to get the hell out of Palestine." She continued to say that the Palestinians are "occupied" and that the Jews should "Go home" — to Germany, Poland, America and "everywhere else." Lib, you need to know your Bible.

Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

Jump in and Participate with YouCut

If you have not already discovered this opportunity, here is a way to participate. The Republicans are hard at work doing what the people sent them to do. Their problem is that Tucson, Egypt, and the snows have buried them (pun intended). YOU CUT

Thanks to All

Thanks to all who contribute to this blog. A few years back, the blog ranked around 2,700,000 on Technorati. Today we rank 20376 (as in golf, the lower the better). Pingdom estimates that in 2009 there were 126 million blogs. CNN ranks 14. A NPR blog Political Junkie ranks 38581 for example.

Google Analytics track visits. In the first month of this new year we had 2,383 visits, 625 visitors were absolutely unique i.e. new, and the average time all readers stayed on the the blog was 11 minutes 17 seconds.

Thanks to all who make this blog so good.

E-mailer Gives Reason for Supporting Green Bay

Emailer request to support Green Bay, source unknown.
Every Red Blooded American owes a debt of gratitude to; the Green Bay Packers! The Packers defeated the Chicago Bears thus earning them the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl; By doing so, they saved the Hard-Working, Red-Blooded, Taxpaying Americans literally several million dollars of tax money. How you say? Simple... we were told that if the Chicago Bears had won; President Obama (and probably his family) would be attending the Super Bowl to cheer on his hometown team; Since the Bears lost...the President won't be attending. The money saved from not using Air Force 1, the limousines, all the additional security, and let's not forget Michelle Obama's entourage, is literally several million dollars! Therefore every American should cheer on the Green Bay Packers at the Super Bowl to show them our gratitude; With that said...let's circulate this e-mail to everyone we know so they can understand why they should cheer for America's; team ....The Green Bay Packers!

Colonel Allen West Answers a Marine's Question

Ditzy Susan Collins Wants Kill Switch

KILL SWITCH

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The Debt Ceiling Spin Begins From the Democrats

DEMS SPINS DEBT CEILING

NC Republicans Vote to Protect Citizens

NC Protection Act

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