The accomplished Alaskan governor can gaze into the face of tiny Trig and inherently know that she still has much to learn, even from her little guy. Meanwhile, her less accomplished critics gaze mostly into TV cameras (and mirrors) and have convinced themselves that they already know it all.
Well gosh darn. Who is right? (Complete article here)
President Obama will be the keynote speaker at The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) dinner this weekend, a day before thousands of people are expected to march on Washington in a demonstration calling for greater legal protections for "gays, lesbians and transgendered Americans" named the "National Equality March". HRC is "the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization".
According to the HRC website:
'We are honored to share this night with President Obama, who has called upon our nation to embrace LGBT people as brothers and sisters,' said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. 'It is fitting that he will speak to our community on the night that we pay tribute to his friend and mentor Senator Edward Kennedy, who knew that as president, Barack Obama would take on the unfinished business of this nation – equal rights for the LGBT community, and for every person who believes in liberty and justice for all.'
The late Edward Kennedy has been of thought to my blog, latley: here and here.
Over the Summer, The New York Times ran a story with a flavor of accusing political shifts on gay rights to lag behind culture.
In that article Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said Mr. Obama’s reluctance to push more assertively for gay rights reflected public opinion.
In discussing the recent announcement of Obama to speak at the HRC engagement, Anne Maire Riha said,
Many gays and lesbians have questioned Mr. Obama's commitment to their cause since taking office. President Obama backed down on his promise to dismantle the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This speech is seen as the latest token to hold onto support from the group. In June, Obama signed a presidential memorandum requiring the federal government to provide several spousal benefits to domestic partners of federal employees, including homosexual partners. Last month, when the President declared September 28th "National Family Day," he gave brief mention to "same-sex couples" who are raising children.
Will this upcoming warming likely to light the fire for gay rights, despite the majority of public opinion against gay rights (e.g. recent outcome of the people's vote against gay marriage in California)?
How will Obama walk the tight wire of pleasing popular opinion and pleasing the gays?
"Without this organization, my life would not be the way that it is right now, and to be very honest about it, my life is really great right now. " - Elizabeth (ACORN Member).
This week, congressman, Steve Austria (R-OH) sent me an email to notify me that he had joined some of his colleagues in signing a letter* to President Obama requesting that he act to disclose and immediately terminate federal funding for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In the email, he said it was important that Congress and the President move forward on this issue to ensure transparency and accountability of taxpayer dollars. He said that ACORN employees were advising individuals on how to conduct illegal operations and that the same organization receives a substantial portion of its funding through the federal government. In fact, the Office of the Minority Leader estimates that since 1994, ACORN had received nearly $53 million in direct funding from the government. Finally, he mentioned that it was likely that they have received substantially more through funding mechanisms at the state and local level.
According to Austria, in response to ACORN's recent events, both the IRS and the Census Bureau have severed ties with the organization. Separately, the House of Representatives and the Senate have signaled their disapproval of ACORN’s actions and acted to eliminate the organization’s federal funding. Now he and others are waiting for the President's response.
It was once said that ACORN was instrumental in accumulating votes for Obama (some of which were said to be fraudulent) (story here), so there is suspicion that he will not take any major actions against ACORN.
ACORN, headquatered in New Orleans in a said small house, is a large organization with over 400,000 members.
In terms of "illegal operations", according to The Daily Evergreen, "in a sting operation conducted by an independent filmmaker, a man from the San Diego ACORN office advised him and his confidant posing as a prostitute on how to pick up El Salvadorian sex slaves transported to Mexico, along with the best way to sneak them across the border. The undercover man unequivocally stated his intentions when he said, 'We’re going to have a house with a dozen underage prostitutes.' The man doesn’t bat an eye at this and advises them that he 'knows a lot of people' in Tijuana and gives the two filmmakers his phone number."
But apparenty this was not an geographically isolated incident. Other branches included in the operation were Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn and San Bernardino, CA. All of these branches advised the filmmakers on how to set up an illegal brothel and report the income on the IRS statement.
Controversy is not new to ACORN. For example, last year The New York Times published an explosive expose detailing how ACORN covered up nearly $1 million embezzled funds by its founder's brother. (Story Here).
ACORN members are loyal nevertheless. For example, Pat Hollins, according to the ACORN webpage said:
- "I've been a member for five years now. One day I was at home in my bed and my daughter came in and said, 'Mama, there's a man at the door.' I said, 'It must be Jesus' – but it wasn't, it was ACORN, and I've been a member ever since, fighting for the rights of the little man, asking people to stop the war on the poor. If you've got a problem, you call ACORN, and we will sure help you out."
Apparently, to some ACORN workers that includes assistance on how to obtain an underage prostitution ring.
How should Obama respond to ACORN's illegal actions? Should he endorse termination of government funding to the organization?
* I have requested a copy of the letter and still waiting for a response.
It's Yom Kippur and one of my favorite Jews was Sigmund Freud. I particularly like when he said:
"Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity."
A new group dedicated to addressing the cultural wars is now on Vox. Deals with the debates of liberals and conservatives. Covering gay opponents and advocate disputes. Covering cultural disputes in morality issues (e.g. sexuality, abortion), education, war, literature, religion, media, child rearing, politics, and society. Please post and comment. Link: http://culturalwars.groups.vox.com/
This book offers a series of fast-paced, sometimes-hilarious essays that examines the way America has veered a little to the womanist side in education and popular culture, and how men and boys have been short-changed in the process. While cultural criticism is the book’s strength, the general thesis has less to do with rejuvenating the diminishing status of men, than it does attacking the modern, feminist ethos. The author takes the stance that feminism and its evil twin political correctness have tweaked our culture in a decidedly, unhealthy anti-male direction.
Interestingly, it is written by a woman! And appeartanly she has had a gleaming impact on some women readers. For example, one Amazon reviewer said:
"[Parker] isn't advocating the return of tribal patriarchy, but presents a dry, even-handed appraisal of a society that has become grid-locked in wrong thinking - thinking that one day might have a hugely negative impact on our country and our lives. The subtitle of the book reads: why women should care, and I have to honestly say that after reading the book, I really did care."
It was hard to find a negative review, at least on Amazon. One reviewer summed things up like this:
"...no number of books like this one are going to change things. As long as "males" are content to remain second-class citizens and human door mats, they will continue to be treated in a manner which applies to their behavior."
American men, in general do need amelioration, and I do agree, there are many that still need to step up. The fact that the number of children living in fatherless homes has tripled, since 1960, points evidence to the decline of men in the home, and the paternal masculine identity needed for their children.
The author, Kathleen Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist whose twice-weekly column runs in more than four hundred newspapers around the country. An H. L. Mencken Writing Award winner, she frequently appears on radio talk shows and is a regular guest on The Chris Matthews Show.
This Random House Book is available from the publisher and at Amazon
Same-sex marriage is now legal in Vermont and Vermont's very own Ben & Jerry's has announced that it will temporarily change its "Chubby Hubby" ice cream to "Hubby Hubby" in honor of homosexual marriage. However, some pundits are not celebrating. For example, Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality tells OneNewsNow that companies like Ben & Jerry's neglect to talk about the dangers of the lifestyle.
"The left is really making a fool of itself when it comes to homosexuality. They talk about transparency, but they don't want to tell anybody about the health risks of homosexual behavior," he points out. "They claim to follow God and to be Christian, and yet they celebrate all the things that God opposes...abortion, homosexuality. This is just par for the course."
Ice cream also presents a health risk.
LaBarbera feels other "immoral" flavors could follow.
Besides scoops of ice creams, the legalization of same-sex marriage brought on both protests and parties.
"His extraordinary life on this Earth has come to an end. An extraordinary good that he did lives on" - President Obama, Ted Kennedy's eulogy.
"Ted Kennedy kept an appointment to narrate Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait. As Time magazine noted at the time, this engagement included a bit of irony: The opening lines of Lincoln read by Kennedy that night included this passage.
'Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We ... will be remembered in spite of ourselves'." - Mary Jo Kopechne and Chappaquiddick: America's Selective Memory, by Carl M Cannon.
According to one reviewer:
"Michelle Malkin did an excellent job of laying out a coherent, well-researched, and systematic roadmap of corruption, self-serving favors, and criminal activity -- all linked to our President and his network of thug insiders. She clearly lays out the proven links between the players and the overwhelming evidence of the role of money and corruption on how things get done in Washington. I had heard of many of these players through other research and reading, but Ms Malkin brought to light NUMEROUS relationships between these players I was not aware of, and which cause an even greater disgust for business as usual. President Obama has somehow convinced all the drones that he's above "Politics as Usual", but the sheer weight of the evidence clearly shows he's neck deep in the "cesspool", but his lips are still moving".
Another reviewer was not as pleased with the book:
On what basis was the research of this pointless book conducted? Barely seven months into the presidency of Mr Obama, Malkin has taken it into her own hands to foretell what history will tell about Obama's time in the White House. This is bizzare and a desperate attempt of attacking the president's agenda of which many are not yet implemented and let alone come to fruition. A classic republican agenda of letting people forget about Bush, W. Bush [sic].
According to the LA Times, when Malkin appeared on the liberal-dominated, estrogen-loaded The View to promote her new book, the highly anticipated cat fight may not have been the bloodbath some viewers had hoped for, but the tension between the right-wing pundit and the mostly left-wing View panelists was clear from the get-go.
Malkin had barely started talking when former Vagina Monologuer Joy Behar, who has been a vocal critic of Malkin in the past, interrupted to ask for clarification. Malkin later asked Joy if she had read the book, to which she replied, "I read some of it". The real answer: "No".
Whoopi Goldberg, who once acted as a nun who taught a few Motown tricks to a sisterly choir, seemed even less familiar with Malkin's new book. After misquoting Malkin, Goldberg revealed that she was reading questions that her staff prepared for her and had not actually read the book herself.
Many of you know that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held their 2009 Churchwide Assembly 13-17 of August in Minneapolis. Of course, because they were discussing the proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality and issues of ordination, the meeting was being covered extensively throughout the media. Many of you also know that a tornado hit downtown Minneapolis damaged the roof of the church building where parts of the Churchwide Assembly were meeting.
When the more than 1,000 delegate votes were counted, those in favor of opening the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) “to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships” won the day, according to a press release from the denomination.
The simple majority vote of 559 to 451 was the culmination of years—even decades—of serious and oftentimes heated debate. And the result of the debate left some individuals and churches reconsidering their continued membership within the 4.6 million-member denomination.
Well-known Baptist pastor John Piper, in a blog, offered a "twist" on explaining exactly why the tornado came to Minneapolis. For some people of faith, it may make sense. According to Piper,
The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.
Some Christians believe it was entirely appropriate for Piper to blog on the ELCA’s policy changes, but believe it inappropriate to attribute the storm to God’s wrath. Some gays totally believe his view is wack.
Rather than speculating about how God is judging others through natural calamities, Jesus tells his audience they should be concerned with their own relationship with God.
In terms of homosexuality, one blogger commenter said
While I disagree with Piper’s pronouncement of the tornado being an act of God, He was still accurate on the correct view of homosexuality (as well as other sins) as prescribed in Scripture. ELC's decision to allow gays to serve in ministry are mixed for sure. For the Rev. Wells and St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, the decision has already been made. “Twenty years ago our congregation committed itself to leave the ELCA immediately if it officially sanctioned gay ordination,” Wells said. “We will immediately begin to leave..." For those who supported the vote to allow those in same-gender relationships serve as pastors, the vote was a victory for justice and acceptance. In a press release from the ELCA, Bishop Gary Wollersheim of the Northern Illinois Synod, said, “It’s a matter of justice, a matter of hospitality; it’s what Jesus would have us do." There is certainly a whirlwind of religious and cutural wars.
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