God Save America

Sharon Hughes
The Center for Changing Worldviews

Every time Memorial Day and Veterans Day comes around my minds goes to the many times I've attended parades and special observances put on by the cities in our area and the various veterans organizations. Several of those times my husband, Duane, participated in the events as a candidate for State Assembly and U.S. Congress. As a decorated Vietnam Vet he always received a warm welcome. Well, except for a couple of the very left-coast towns.
When our sons were growing up we would get out the picture albums of Duane's time in the Army, read together about why we observed these holidays in America out of the encyclopedia, and after dinner, which was usually a bar-be-que, we'd sit down and watch a movie or documentary on one of the wars our Armed Forces have fought in.

Some will think what we did was to indoctrinate our sons in a pro-war mindset. But, actually we were educating them in the realities of war. We wanted to instill in them an appreciation for those who laid their lives on the line to protect the rest of us, and the freedoms we enjoy, during times of war. We also wanted to make sure they had no romantic ideas about war as boys can have. If the time ever came for them to go to war it would be with their eyes wide open and the cost counted.

There is no glamour in war. War is hell. But, even the Bible states there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is, unfortunately, part of life on planet earth. While we debate and work and pray for peace, wars still rage. And while I understand the reasons some chose a passivist position, passivity never brings peace, only the rule of aggressive, totalitarian governments and leaders.

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According to today’s Sacramento Bee, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to veto SB 1437, one of three transsexual-bisexual-homosexual “education” bills in the California Legislature. 

The newspaper, which contacted Campaign for Children and Families for response late Wednesday, wrote in Thursday’s edition that, according to the Governor’s communications office, Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto SB 1437 if it reaches his desk.

“We’re very pleased that Schwarzenegger is listening to the concerns of parents,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California-based pro-family organization that strongly opposes SB 1437. “Now the Governor needs to pledge to veto the two remaining sexual indoctrination bills, AB 606 and AB 1056. Parents and grandparents are demanding it.”

All three bills rely upon the strange definition of “gender” in Penal Code, Section 422.56, reading: “Gender” means sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth. 

“This terrible trio of bills would promote cross-dressing and sex-change operations to children as young as kindergarten,” said Thomasson. “Schools should be about academics, not about promoting alternative sexual lifestyles to impressionable schoolchildren.”

SB 1437 would prohibit textbooks, instructional materials, and school-sponsored activities from “reflecting adversely” on trans-sexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality; it requires positive portrayals of these sexual lifestyles in curriculum in all grades in all public schools. Consequently, schools would have to promote “same-sex marriages” and even sex-change procedures. STATUS: Assembly Education Committee, no hearing scheduled.

AB 606 would authorize the California Superintendent of Public Instruction to arbitrarily withhold state funds (around 2/3rds of a school district’s budget) from any district that does not adequately promote trans-sexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality in its school policies. AB 606 repeals the current state law prohibiting transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual curriculum from being forced upon local schools, and authorizes the state Superintendent to develop new curriculum that affirms trans-sexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality in all its forms. STATUS: June 21 hearing scheduled in the Senate Education Committee.

AB 1056 would spend $250,000 in taxpayer dollars to promote transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual lifestyles under the banner of “tolerance education." STATUS: On “suspense” file in Senate Education Committee.

For comprehensive analysis of SB 1437, AB 606 and AB 1056, visit http://www.savecalifornia.com.

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President Bush’s so-called “plan” to close the border between the United States and Mexico is nothing but a great American Scam. First of all putting 6,000 troops on the border sounds good, but these troops will not be allowed to patrol the border, to watch for Illegal Aliens, to arrest Illegal Aliens or to report Illegal Aliens.

This so-called “plan” is a lot of noise which in reality means nothing is being done. The Department of Homeland Security has said that sending 6,000 troops to the border will free up only about 500 border guards.

Mike Huckabee, the Governor of Arkansas agreed that the current plan does not secure our borders. Talking about the President’s latest plan Huckabee said, “We are going to have to close our borders at sometime in the future.” Why not now?

As you may remember there is an approved plan to add about 2,000 border guards each year which has never been put into effect. The new Senate Bill, approved yesterday, now does not even MENTION the idea of going after EMPLOYERS who hire Illegal Aliens.

“When will America wake up to the fact that our elected officials in Washington DC are only concerned about how to get re-elected,” said Don Swarthout, President of Christians Reviving America's Values. “America is being sold out by our elected officials. Why don’t they do their job and protect the citizens of America,” Swarthout said.

Watching the pro-immigration marches and we saw thousands of people waving the Mexican Flag, we saw them holding up signs which read TODAY WE MARCH, TOMORROW WE VOTE, we heard people chanting “Hell no, we won’t go,” and we saw signs which read, WE DIDN’T CROSS THE BORDER, THE BORDER CROSSED US.

This should give us some idea about the fact that Illegal Aliens believe they have a right to be here.

“When will America wake up to the fact that our nation is being invaded by Illegal Aliens and that our nation is being stolen from us… right from under our noses,” Swarthout said.

Contact: Don Swarthout, President of Christians Reviving America's Values, CRAVE, 859-219-1222, 859-619-2811

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"We don't need a Democratic congress or a Republican congress; we need an American congress." — Patrick J. Buchanan 

Regardless of which political party is in control of Congress, problems seem to be nurtured rather than solved. The reason is that the problems themselves are used by each party as weapons with which they hope to bludgeon each other in the next election.

The parties today have come to see their success as dependant on stopping the other from implementing any solution, regardless of its merits. If this results in a crisis of one kind or another, politicians can deftly point the finger at colleagues across the aisle.

The folks back home, none the wiser, can be counted upon to pick up the cudgel and participate in the melee of accusations and blame. The result is that everyone's attention gets misdirected until the country is divided on every issue and the people gather in the streets to spew hate at one other. Problems that began as mere scabs are allowed to fester into bulbous pustules ready to pop.

For decades, our elected officials have watched these problems grow and fester, and even nurtured them as they blossomed into genuine crises. With the nation now buckling under extreme stress, there is still no urgency to develop and implement solutions.

In addition to the education and immigration crises, there is a border security crisis, healthcare crisis, economic crisis, social security crisis, energy crisis, the trade deficit crisis, and the long term debt crisis, just to name a few.

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A statement by the Heritage Foundation on the pending imigration bill that is being discussed in Washington by our lawmakers. 

Washington, May 19, 2006—Heritage research analyzing the original Hagel-Martinez immigration bill estimated it would increase the number of legal immigrants in the United States to 103 million by the year 2027.

The White House has subsequently tried to cast doubt on our careful research.

The Heritage Foundation stands by its original research and by its subsequent analyses which reflect amendments to the bill (adopted largely in response to our findings) which will have the effect of lowering our estimate of legal immigrants to 66 million by the year 2027.

We will continue to weigh in on this vital issue with timely, rigorous research that has always characterized the work of Heritage scholars.

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by Sharon Huges

Invasion of privacy is a subject that, well, makes me upset. How about you? There are certain inalienable rights that are clearly self-evident, and one of those is the right to privacy. Another one is the right of personal property, of which your finances, computer, and mail, including emails, are a part. When manufacturers build something into a product that violates our privacy without telling us, or internet hackers and pirates invade our computer to read our emails or steal our credit card information…it makes me mad! This is a major violation of privacy as all thievery is. If banks want to put all our personal information on a Smart Card they should communicate this clearly and get our permission before they do it. That's what integrity and valuing a person's privacy would do. GM should tell potential buyers everything about the OnStar system, including that it has a passive listening device which can allow their conversations to be heard…but then, how many cars with OnStar would sell if customers understood someone would or could be listening?

I hope everyone made that important call a few months ago to remove your name from telemarketers' lists. The constant phone calls at dinner time and throughout the day are the least of concern. Did you know that after a telemarketer wears you down enough to buy what he is selling, he can directly charge your account without having to get your signature or credit card number. How? Before he called you he conveniently "preacquired" your account number from your bank which, of course, gets some of the profit, to "make it simple" for you. Can this be a problem? Well, let me give you just one example…

In 1999 the Attorney General of Minnesota discovered that in one year's time a certain bank had to cancel 173,543 membership plans, policies, and other purchases which were charged to the accounts of their customers who did not authorize them…such as an 80 year old retired janitor who was charged for a home insurance plan, although he lived in a nursing home; an auto club membership, although he had no car; and a dental plan, even though he had…no teeth! I am not anti-technology! To the contrary. However, when our privacy is violated it is not only a form of invasion, but control. That is not only outrageous! It's absolutely criminal.

Sharon is the President of The Center for Changing Worldviews, and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is heard on KDIA AM1640 San Francisco/Vallejo; KGDP AM660 Santa Maria, CA and WITA AM1490 Knoxville, TN, as well as online daily at Oneplace.com. Her column appears on several online news sites including CaliforniaRepublic.org, ChronWatch.com, MichNews.com, NewsBull, NewsWithViews.com, RenewAmerica.us and others. For further information go to http://www.changingworldviews.com/ or comment at http://changingworldviews.blogspot.com/
Contact sharon@changingworldviews.com

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Paolo Bassi

The long and expensive trial of the French-Moroccan, Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker" of the 9-11 attacks in the United States , finally ended on May 4, 2006, when he received a life sentence instead of the death penalty sought by the prosecution. Unless it was false bravado, Moussaoui had taunted the court during his trial, seeming not to care about the possibility of death. Leaving a legacy of martyrdom may have been on his mind.

Given the incredible emotional pressure generated by the 9-11 attacks, the death penalty would not have been a surprise. Yet the American criminal justice system, with all its imperfections and biases, worked as it should. All of the constitutional safeguards for the protection of criminal defendants were applied to Moussaoui’s trial. Above all, Moussaoui received the most fundamental of rights – the right to be heard and treated like a human being whose freedom and life could not be taken unless convicted under the strictest standard in American law – something far more than Moussaoui was prepared to give to those he had planned to kill. The very system Moussaoui sought to destroy ensured him the dignity and security of a public trial and in the end, even spared his life.

The Moussaoui trial naturally raises a troubling contradiction with the treatment of prisoners being held in legal limbo by the United States at Guantanamo Bay . Some of these prisoners may well have been involved in terrorism. If so, they must be charged and brought to trial, or otherwise released, in keeping with American law. This is the only resolution the international community should accept. 

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by Karen Boyer 

Heavens, what are we up against?

It seems these days that we are inundated with worsening situations, not just in Canada but worldwide:  Increasing terrorism threats; Global arrests of Al Qaeda operatives; More corruption in our Canadian Liberal federal government; A backlash against Official Bilingualism resulting in Mini Official Bilingualism referendums, that incidentally are overwhelmingly against implementing Official Bilingualism in Canada’s Capitol; A new Republic of Western Canada demanding separation of the West from the Canadian Constitution.  Worrisome issues that all Canadians should be concerned about.   

Take heed, people. 

There is another pending crisis that may be even more serious than all of the above that you should be aware of.  A threat looms on the horizon that mainstream media mentions only in blips.  A crisis that will disrupt our lives and could possibly destroy our way of life.  It is time to pull our heads out of our parochial issues and understand what is happening in the rest of the world and how it will impact our lives. 

Not many of we ordinary people have been paying much attention to the corporate battles raging in the oil industry.  Yes, we have been angry as the price of gasoline has risen, going to almost a dollar a liter this spring.  In the U.S., Americans are paying more for gasoline than at any other time in history.  Perhaps it is time that we paid more attention to what is going on in the oil industry.  Especially since I have seen some predictions that the price of gasoline could go as high as $10 per gallon in the U.S.  And according to my research, they may not be wrong. 

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Orlando, FL - Early last week, Liberty Counsel filed suit against Osceola County, Florida, on behalf of a church called Men of Destiny Ministries ("Church") to protect the ministry from being shut down by the county and to stop the fines being levied each day the ministry continues to operate.

The Church's primary ministry provides healing and regeneration to men who have chemical additions to drugs and alcohol. The goal of the Church's "Regeneration Program" is to disciple men by introducing them to Jesus Christ and to help them gain freedom from addiction and become productive members of society.

The ministry in question involves fourteen men who live in a 6,300 sq. ft. home. The men work during the day and have Christian meetings in the evening, Monday through Thursday. During these evening meetings, Pastor George Shafter leads the men in prayer, teaches them about Jesus Christ, and instructs them on overcoming drug dependency. The meetings also serve to support the men and provide accountability.

On April 10, 2006, the Board of County Commissioners voted to shut down the ministry. The men can continue to live in the home, but the Christian-based drug regeneration program and teaching must stop. In other words, these men can play cards, discuss the events of the day, debate politics or watch football, but Pastor Shafter cannot lead them in prayer, nor may he encourage and support them to overcome their chemical addictions.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated, "It makes no sense to say men can live in a home and play cards, talk about the events of the day or debate politics, but cannot pray, talk about Jesus or encourage one another to remain drug-free. Osceola County has violated numerous constitutional and federally protected rights. We should encourage this church and these men who want to live productive lives in the community, rather than penalizing them with unconscionable fines."

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Those of us who live in America have become “Fat Cats.”

We simply no longer take time to care about America or what is going on in our nation.  The ACLU, Illegal Aliens, Islamic Radicals and many other groups just do not matter to us anymore. We have become “Fat Cats.”

What have we become so busy doing?  Maybe we have become so busy living our lives we just don’t have time to pay attention.  Maybe we have become so worldly we don’t have time to fight for what is just simply right. Maybe there are just too many things going on and we feel unable to fight against them anymore.

Maybe we think we are just too busy to really get involved.

Whether you are a Democrat, Republican or an Independent, we believe the vast majority of us are patriotic Americans.  We believe in America and what the Founding Fathers started when they wrote our Constitution.  We must follow the idea that we are all Americans first, last and foremost.  Then we could stop the silly game of political bi-partisanship which is going on in Washington DC today.

The vast majority of you are good people who want the best for America and for your grandchildren.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad people in the world who just cannot wait to do the next wrong thing.  We have never figured out why there are bad people in the world, but they are here.

The ACLU, Illegal Aliens and Radical Islamic followers seem to think freedom means no rules, no standards and no personal responsibility for our own actions.  The good sounding arguments of the ACLU, Illegal Aliens and Islamic Radicals are leading America down a path of self destruction.

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