"The U.S. commander in Afghanistan has criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.
With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
Petraeus said he was concerned by the political repercussions of the church's plan.
"Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," he said. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."
He said extremists would use images of burning Qurans to inflame public opinion and incite violence." CNN
I agree with the General.Burning copies of the Koranis needlessly provocative and will cause our troops to be in danger. It will cause riots and probably deaths. The Muslim world may erupt.
That being said one has to wonder about the constant protestations from the Muslim world that Islam is a religion of peace. If even a drawing of Muhammad can incite riots and if a ten minute movie can justify the murder of Theo Van Gogh how can this violent religion continue to present itself as peaceful?
Are there peaceful Muslims? Yes. I would argue however that this is in spite of their religion, not because of it. The reaction to anything the Muslim world considers blaphemous is ALWAYS violent. There is a cause and effect relationship here, Islam/violence, that cannot be denied without a blindness to reality.
Have Muslims, or anyone else burned Bibles or destroyed and mocked Christian symbols and the faith itself recently?
June 18, 2007:
"After defeating their rivals in Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, Muslim extremists are focusing their attacks on Christians in Gaza City. Christians in Gaza City have issued an appeal to theinternational community and a plea for protection against the increased attacks by Muslim extremists.
Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza's Latin church, told the AP that Muslims have ransacked, burned and looted a school and convent that are part of the Gaza Strip's small Romany Catholic community. He told the AP that crosses were broken, damage was done to a statue of Jesus, and at the Rosary Sister School and nearby convent, prayer books were burned.
Gunmen used the roof of the school during the fighting, and the convent was "desecrated," Mussalem told the AP." Associated Contnet
December 6, 2006:
"Two Muslim students have been expelled from an Islamic school in Melbourne for urinating and spitting on a Bible and setting it on fire.
The explosive incident has forced the East Preston Islamic College to call in a senior imam to tell its 650 Muslim students that the Bible and Christianity must be respected.
Anxious teachers at the school have also petitioned principal Shaheem Doutie, expressing "grave concern" about an "inculcation of hatred and radical attitudes towards non-Muslims" at the school, including towards non-Muslim teachers.
The Bible desecration took place last week at a school camp held near Bacchus Marsh, about 50km west of Melbourne, attended by 33 teenage Muslim boys ranging in age from Year7 to Year 10.
A school report of the incident, obtained by The Australian, says it happened late at night and involved three students and another two watching.
"The main perpetrator (a Year 7 student) urinated on the Holy Bible, tore some pages from the Holy Book and burnt them then finally spat on the Holy Book," the report says.
The second boy, from Year 9, "tore pages from the Holy Book and burnt them", while a third student, from Year 7, "tore pages from the Holy Bible and then he rolled it up like a cigarette and pretended to smoke it"." The Australian
June 4, 2008:
"Have you heard the cries of outrage in conservative Christian circles about the burning of hundreds of Bibles by religious extremists in the Middle East? Probably not — and I suspect that the reason is because the "extremists" in this case were Jews, not Muslims. Had Muslims burned hundreds of Bibles, we'd be hearing calls to burn and deface Qu'rans. So why can Jews get away with it?
In Or Yehuda, Christian missionaries distributed hundreds of New Testament Bibles and other missionary material. Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon drove around and urged residents to hand it all over to religious students who were going door-to-door collecting it back. They took it all to a synagogue where it was burned in a large pile." Atheism.about.com
And what has been the Christian response to this?
Which religion is the religion of peace, Christianity or Islam?
Christian history is violent. We've made many mistakes and I wouldn't try to deny that. However, the faith has matured and along with maturity has come understanding. Christianity is moving towards peace while Islam is moving towards violence.
Until Muslim leaders come out forcefully against the violent actions perpetrated in the name of Islam I'll stand by my belief that Islam is a religion of war and conquest. We hear the quiet voices of Muslims protesting the actions of the Imams on occasion but by and large the silence is deafening.
If Muslims were smart they would use the burning of these Korans as a time to show the world just how peaceful they are. Gather at the site of the burnings in prayer. Stand in silent, prayerful and peaceful protest and witness to this stupidity, just as Christians do at abortion clinics. Do that and earn some respect.
However, even if a few would do this the vast majority that will erupt in violence will overshadow them. But it would be a start.
"(B)y this time, the era of cut-and-run economics ought to be finished. Such an economy cannot be rationally defended or even apologized for. The proofs of its immense folly, heartlessness, and destructiveness are everywhere. Its failure as a way of dealing with the natural world and human society can no longer be sanely denied. That this economic system persists and grows larger and stronger in spite of its evident failure has nothing to do with rationality or, for that matter, with evidence. It persists because, embodied now in multinational corporations, it has discovered a terrifying truth: If you can control a people’s economy, you don’t need to worry about its politics; its politics have become irrelevant. If you control people’s choices as to whether or not they will work, and where they will work, and what they will do, and how well they will do it, and what they will eat and wear, and the genetic makeup of their crops and animals, and what they will do for amusement, then why should you worry about freedom of speech? In a totalitarian economy, any "political liberties" that the people might retain would simply cease to matter. If, as is often the case already, nobody can be elected who is not wealthy, and if nobody can be wealthy without dependence on the corporate economy, then what is your vote worth? The citizen thus becomes an economic subject." Wendell Berry
As fall approaches the attention out here in the rural hinterlands turns to the last things; preserving the harvest, getting the last hay from the fields, the impending hunting season, butchering animals and processing the meat that comes from them.
All this put me in mind of one of my very favorite poet-author-thinkers; Wendell Berry. His understanding of "The Great Economy" and its centrality of God and the land has always rung true to me. He understands that subsidiarity, the idea that all power and decision making should be kept at the lowest possible level, is the right and proper way of life as given us by our Creator.
"Berry points out that current economics have severed all connection with the real economy, which he calls “The Great Economy.” More of that economy in a moment, but what really occupies most of our “economists,” he points out, is not really economics at all, but chrematistics. Economics (from oikonomia, “household management”) is about the material provisioning of society; chrematistics is about individuals amassing abstract wealth in the form of money, and has no necessary connection with the material well-being of society, that is, with the production of real goods and services. And although chrematistics is poorly connected to real world oikonomia, its predominance over the real economy can bring that economy down, as it has now and many times in the past. And as long as we practice chrematistics rather than real oikonomia, it will continue to bring the economy down until there is no economy left to raise up. “Our economy,” Berry notes, “has become an anti-economy, a financial system without a sound economic basis and without economic virtues.”
If we all only concern ourselves with the real economy, our homes, families and communities, everything else will fall in place. If we all take care of the little things then the big things will take care of themselves.
This agrarian view is one that Thomas Jefferson would have been completely in agreement with. 40 acres, a mule and a gun and every family their own kingdom.
In these days of 24 hour news cycles and multinational corporations most have bought into the lie of globalism and "free" markets that our political leaders, on both the right and the left shove down our throats. They expect us to believe that somehow using slave labor to supply the goods we need to retailing monopolies at the lowest possible price benefits society.
Now we find ourselves in debt to our enemies and unable to produce damned near anything here at home. Americans have lost, for the most part, our ability to create anything of value. We've bought into the lie that we could be the worlds banker, sipping lattes while our foreign slaves creat luxuries for us to buy with money that has no value. We rely on foreign fuel to run our trucks that ship us our food from all over the world. Our crops are genetically modified and our meat is something far different than it was ever intended to be, stuffed full of hormones and raised in pens filled with shit, being fed scraps of meat from its own kind, spreading disease and filth throughout the food chain.
All this because we've lost sight of the true economy.
So read a little Wendell Berry on this Labor Day and think long and hard about how your labor is used. Does it go to support the real economy or to line the pockets of the multi-nationalists? Can you change the economy? Your economy? The real economy?
Damned right you can and this weekend is a good time to start.
Since the core principle around which so much of our political discord in America today revolves is the right to property, whether it be land (eminent domain), money (health care bill and taxation) or any number of regulations and laws written with the commerce and general welfare clauses in mind, I thoughtthe article by Hilaire Bellocquoted below would be something to consider.
For the Catholic Church, the right to property is a basic, fundamental individual and corporate right. Without property rights we have no control over our destiny. If we cannot strive to own and control our little bit of this earth for the benefit of ourselves, our family and our community then we are slaves. Only property can lift us out of slavery. With it we can achieve a certain level of self sufficiency that we could never achieve without it.
Of course, as with all rights, certain responsibilities exist alongside the right to property that cannot be denied without serious repercussions. Belloc does a masterful job of describing this exact relationship in the article quoted below.
One more thing. I humbly suggest that reading and understanding Catholic social teaching is vital to the survival of our Republic. We seem to swing back and forth now between two equal evils, Socialism and unrestrained Capitalism. One makes us slaves to the state while the other sells us to the corporations. Neither is what God intended.
"Let us now examine the exact doctrine of the Catholic Church in this matter [the right to property].
I think it may be fairly stated as follows :-
1. The right to property in material things is a moral right, attaching not only to the community, but also to private corporations, .i.e., corporations other than the community, to families, and to individuals.
2. This right extends not only over objects consumed in use, but also over objects consumed in production, and over land. It does not attach to particular categories of things. Its boundaries may vary with varying customs and traditions. But its presence as a normal institution of human society is essential to the health of that society.
3. Like every other right, this right stands in a certain scale of proportion to the rest. It may be suspended for the service of a greater right; it must not be suspended for the service of a lesser.
4. Finally, this function of property, like all other human attributes, is distorted when it is defined in isolation. It must be taken in with the mass of all other human functions, and is subject, as is every one of them, to the general modifications imposed by the generalities of human existence."
It's interesting that Belloc talks about property rights in relation to other lesser and greater rights. I wonder if the opening of the Declaration of Independence is structured as it was, "...Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." because Jefferson was acknowledging this ascendancy of rights? After all, the word happiness was originally intended to be the word property. Without liberty we could not own property and without life, nothing would be possible.
Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia’s decision to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08.
In Mozambique, where a 30 per cent rise in bread prices triggered riots on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said seven people had been killed and 288 wounded.
Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Thursday extended an export ban first introduced last month until late December 2011, sending wheat and other cereals prices to a near two-year high. It came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage. Financial Times
Russia is the fourth largest exporter of wheat in the world. They have chosen to restrict exports due to worries that the poor production in their fields may not even feed their own people. This will cause a huge shortfall in wheat for many areas of the world, already causing riots in Africa that will spread to other areas. Even if America and Europe can make up the difference the cost of wheat will rise to a level that the undeveloped nations will be hard pressed to afford.
When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come " I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine." Revelation 6:5-6
Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror,... Ezekiel 4:16
So, are we seeing the beginning of an apocalyptic scenario, something straight from the pages of the Bible itself? I don't know. However, it doesn't hurt to keep your eyes open to the signs all around us.
Let's face it; the world has seen many, many years when crops failed. We've made it through those and we will probably get through this. Of course, throughout most of our history most people have grown a significant portion of their own food on their own little piece of ground so crop failures were somewhat more localized and less likely to affect the world as a whole. Today, however, we rely on farming done on a massive scale to supply the food to an increasingly urban people that depend entirely on someone else to grow their food for them. Crop failure is no longer a local event.
So how important is wheat, anyway?
Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a grass, originally from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (784 million tons) and rice (651 million tons). Globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein content than either maize (corn) or rice, the other major cereals. In terms of total production tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop, and ahead of maize, after allowing for maize's more extensive use in animal feeds.
Wheat was a key factor enabling the emergence of city-based societies at the start of civilization because it was one of the first crops that could be easily cultivated on a large scale, and had the additional advantage of yielding a harvest that provides long-term storage of food. Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous and for fermentation to make beer, other alcoholic beverages, or biofuel. Wikipedia
Wheat, like corn, is part of nearly everything we eat. Fortunately, it seems that the wheat crop in America has done rather well this year.
"US farmers will reap the benefits from failing crops round the world, the US Department of Agriculture said on Thursday as it forecast the country’s second-largest wheat exports in 15 years, worth billions of dollars.
The USDA cut sharply its forecast for global wheat production following Russia’s worst drought in more than a century and lower output in the European Union, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
But it predicted that US farmers would harvest a bumper wheat crop, leaving them well-placed to meet the needs of importing countries, which have been scrambling to secure new supplies after Moscow banned all grain exports last week." CNBC
Since we live in a free market society where supply and demand generally sets prices, guess what's going to happen to our cost of living?
"With wheat futures soaring to their highest level in two years, you could soon find yourself paying more for a loaf of bread at the local grocery store.
The price of wheat has surged more than 80% from its seven-month low in June, rallying to its highest level since August 2008 this week, as Russia said it would ban grain exports until Dec. 1 due to a drought that has destroyed more than 20% of its wheat crop. Prices retreated Friday but still remain up 10% for the week.
If prices resume their upward trajectory, you could wind up paying 25% to 30% more for a loaf of bread and at least 10% more for a pizza by the end of August or early September, said Darin Newsom, a senior analyst at Telvent DTN, an agriculture and commodities information company.
That would translate into a price hike of as much as 90 cents more for a $3 loaf of bread, and a bump of $1.40 for a $14 pizza." Money.CNN
Knowing that wheat is an essential part of many of the foods we take for granted I would suspect that the prices of more than just bread and pizza will be on the rise. All while unemployment is going up and even those that are working are doing it, in many cases, for a whole lot less than they used to make. Full time jobs have become part time and wages, for many at least, have fallen in a big way.
Of course, you'd never know that we are in the economic shape we're in if you follow the numbers published by the government. They distort everything to paint a rosy picture while they attempt to keep this giant lie of financial prosperity going for just one more day.
What if they've been lying about our food supplies as well?
"Early in 2009, the supply and demand in agricultural markets went badly out of balance. The world experienced a catastrophic fall in food production as a result of the financial crisis (low commodity prices and lack of credit) and adverse weather on a global scale. Meanwhile, China and other Asian exporters, in an effort to preserve their economic growth, were unleashing domestic consumption long constrained by inflation fears, and demand for raw materials, especially food staples, exploded as Chinese consumers worked their way towards American-style overconsumption, prodded on by a flood of cheap credit and easy loans from the government.
Normally food prices should have already shot higher months ago, leading to lower food consumption and bringing the global food supply/demand situation back into balance. This never happened because the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), instead of adjusting production estimates down to reflect decreased production, adjusted estimates upwards to match increasing demand from china. In this way, the USDA has brought supply and demand back into balance (on paper) and temporarily delayed a rise in food prices by ensuring a catastrophe in 2010.
It is absolutely key to understand that the production of agricultural goods is a fixed, once a year cycle (or twice a year in the case of double crops). The wheat, corn, soybeans and other food staples are harvested in the fall/spring and then that is it for production. It doesn’t matter how high prices go or how desperate people get, no new supply can be brought online until the next harvest at the earliest. The supply must last until the next harvest, which is why it is critical that food is correctly priced to avoid overconsumption, otherwise food shortages occur.
The USDA—by manufacturing the data needed to keep supply and demand in balance—has ensured that agricultural commodities are incorrectly priced, which has lead to overconsumption and has guaranteed disaster next year when supplies run out." Market Skeptics
Isn't that special? If the article above is true then the abundant harvest in America will only push off the inevitable. If we have to sell our wheat around the world to offset the failure in Russia we won't be able to rebuild our depleted storehouses. We may be able to cover the shortfall temporarily but if we were already short on food stores then it will all end in the same place, starvation. If we do the logical thing, that is keep our wheat and store it to build up our short supplies, then others will starve. If we sell it then we will, if not starve, be hard pressed to feed ourselves and probably completely unable to absorb the rise in cost for a scare commodity, our daily bread.
Since there is a short term profit to be made you better believe we'll be selling our lives along with our wheat as quickly as we can. If the government has been lying about the numbers regarding food then the chances are that most of the people involved in the process don't understand the damage they're doing, anyway.
Have we sown the seeds of our own destruction? Has our way of living, reliant on others for our daily bread created a situation that will truly became a disaster of Biblical proportions? Has our global interconnectedness set up a game of dominoes so that if one falls the rest go with it?
Our we about to pay the price for putting ourselves in the place of God?
But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.
Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.
The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me...
The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed. Deuteronomy 28; 15-20;24
Enjoy the holiday weekend and make sure to fill yourselves with plenty of good food and drink. This just may be one of the last big holidays we can afford to do it.
A reader named Gregory sent the poem below as a comment to my last post. Perfect! It captures exactly my understanding of where we are called to be as we move inexorably towards...something. There is no doubt in my mind that we are on the brink of changes that will be studied for a long, long time. Not the end of the world, mind you, but something so cataclysmic that it will only be understood as the change of an era so complete that nothing will remain as it was. Our world will never again be the same.
We are called as believers to stand strong for those that don't. Many, many souls will be lost in the coming storm but many will also be saved. It is, in many cases, our actions and response to tragedy that will open the door to salvation for many. So it will be imperative that we remain strong, faithful, hopeful and kind for the rest that will be in complete despair.
I do believe that for those that stand in God's grace, and use it as a shield against the coming storm, a new day will dawn, a day of peace and joy unlike anything seen before on earth. Our children and our children's children will hear tales of those that stood with God against the forces of evil and marvel at their strength and resolve. The coming days are the days of heroes and triumph, miracles and redemption. But only if we stay with God.
By Gracious Powers
By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered
And confidently waiting come what may,
We know that God is with us night and morning
And never fails to greet us each new day.
Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
Still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened souls the sure salvation
For which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.
And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
With bitter suffering, hard to understand,
We take it thankfully and without trembling
Out of so good, and so beloved a hand.
Yet when again, in this same world you give us
The joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
We shall remember all the days we lived through
And our whole life shall then be yours alone.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For some reason, I'm put in mind of this, from Henry V, my favorite of Shakespeare's plays:
So, how's that economic recovery working out for you? If you are a member of the middle class or working class the links below pretty much tell the tale.
I don't care if the rich get richer or if they spend their money like crazy. Actually, if they spend their money they'll create jobs, which is a good thing. The links above are meant to point to a bigger problem; we are splintering into two separate realities in America. For the majority of Americans, things are getting worse. But for those at the top, life is just swell. The problem is that those at the top, the ones that have the power to make the changes necessary to get the economy going again don't feel the economy the way the rest of us do. In their world, things are fine.
They use the government to create programs and taxes that take the little bit of money the normal guy has to send it to themselves through bailouts, TARP and healthcare. And along with our money comes control over our lives.
And this is where it'll get ugly. If the people begin to believe that their leaders are living in a world of luxury and privilege, and that the people are being excluded from the opportunity to achieve the same level of success by laws and regulations created and passed by those at the top, and worse yet that we are being forced to pay for this luxury and privilege, something will give.
We've always had the minority of people in America that want redistribution of wealth and won't be happy until the wealthy are destroyed. That's a stupid, childish and incredibly dangerous political viewpoint. The average American, on the other hand, doesn't mind at all if someone makes boatloads of money because they worked hard and earned it. Hell, most don't even care if it was inherited or if somebody won it in the lottery. As long as we have the same OPPORTUNITY to achieve success ourselves.
The thing is, it seems like now everyone at the top, from the politicians to the Wall Streeters, to the bankers and attorneys are doing their damnedest to pass laws and regulations that will effectively consolidate their wealth while closing the door to the rest of us. The upper classes seem to get all kinds of public monies thrown their way when they make stupid decisions that invariably rob the average guy. So they not only get us on the front end but then they force us to pay for it through taxation. And then they take expensive vacations, buy expensive stuff and live in private neighborhoods while the rest of us fight to keep a roof over our heads.
Can you see where this is going to lead?
The French Revolution comes to mind. And that may be exactly what some at the top are hoping for. They may believe that they have the power to control and squash massive civil unrest, and that it would present the perfect way to suspend our Constitution and the protections it affords us. I used to think that stuff like this was crazy talk and conspiracy nut territory. Not so much anymore.
Too many buttons are being pushed. I don't think that the powers at the top are stupid so I have to think that the decisions they're making are being made with a rational goal in mind. The only end that I can see is a collapsed economy and a population enraged. If this is the goal then there is a rational reason for it. The only reason I can see is to seize control and consolidate power. Why else would someone intentionally destroy our country and economy?
I've been surprised that we've lasted as long as we have but I suppose that is mostly because it has allowed the money guys to extract as much wealth as possible from the system. Since we seem to be running on fumes now, and if this is truly a plan designed to collapse America, our time must be short.
What happens next? I don't know but I'm sure it won't be pretty. All we can do is pray and ask for guidance and protection. The forces in play are so great that there is nothing we can do to stop them. It seems that every part of our economy has been pushed to the edge and all we're waiting for is the final nudge to send us over.
I hope and pray that I'm wrong, that somewhere behind all this evil that surrounds us we see there is a plan, not to destroy us, but to set right the country and return America to what it was meant to be.
"If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.
Everything from the microscopic — the New Black Panther party — to the massive –- think bailouts — is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO.
Republican staffers say there won’t be any self-destructive witch hunts, but they clearly are relishing the prospect of extracting information from an administration that touts transparency." Politico
As the November elections draw nigh I find myself already tired of the typical gotcha' politics being displayed by the leadership of the GOP. Do we need investigations? Not really. Most of us know that the Obama administration is corrupt and a bunch of us believe that the current administration is actively working to destroy our country.
What we don't need is millions and millions of dollars we don't have being spent on a political sideshow. What we need is a clear plan to right the ship of state. While Issa and Boehner spend their time planning to get even, Rep. Paul Ryan has developed a comprehensive plan to get the country back to fiscal sanity and freedom with his"Roadmap for America". Of course, guess which Republicans will get all the media attention?
The Republican Party leadership is more worried about the party than they are the country. If they don't begin to focus on the real danger they will find themselves marginalized by the people. Most of us are tired of parties and politics. We want leadership.
So instead of worrying about investigations, if the GOP wants to have a real chance of changing the direction that the country is headed, start putting real leaders like Rep. Ryan out in front and start a real, thoughtful and well reasoned argument in front of the American people. Show that there are solutions and that they can be implemented. If the GOP insists on playing these games with investigations they are going to be playing on an emotional rather than logical battlefield, giving the home field advantage to the Democrats.
"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth."
1st John 2:18-21
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”
Dante Alighieri
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
John Quincy Adams
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
George Washington
“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”
Thomas Jefferson
" I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
Willard Duncan Vandiver
"The issue is, to use a sporting metaphor, whether in the game of life the government shall captain the national team or shall act as referee."
S. Harcourt-Rivington
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
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