Today is the second anniversary of my father's passing into the next life.  If I don't think about it, I'm okay, but of course certain unrelated things like a tie, or a Yankees game (he was a big fan) will remind me of him. Sometimes it will make me tear up.   He was not the most emotionally expressive man but his eyes told me many things.  I could look at his eyes and see worry, fear, anger, pain and moments of joy and delight . It was rare that he was outwardly happy except for moments of prayer or recounting tales of his life in India, you could see him light up.  After his stroke and quadruple bypass surgery in 1999, he smiled but they were not the deep smiles I saw before, nor did I hear his hearty laughs.  Neither did I see his outbursts of anger either anymore. He was quieter, sweeter and more contemplative and even more depressed, which is symptomatic of post-stroke patients.  He read his Bible everyday till he was no longer able

It is still hard to believe on many days that he is gone.  Holidays and birthdays come and go and they feel emptier knowing he is not here.  Not that he said or did much but his mere presence was comforting.  I will remember our trips as children to Bear Mountain NY,  the Bronx Zoo, Coney Island, Great Adventure and then later to Albany and Vermont to visit my sister at college.  Certain foods will remind me of my father because he was a good cook.  I miss his Biryanis and Beef Curries.  I remember my Mom and Dad staying up late during the holidays making Indian sweets. We didn't put up a Christmas tree or color Easter eggs but I certainly remember what it means to know Jesus as my personal savior and what we must do in order to be ready for his second coming.  With the events in our country and abroad, those signs of the end times ring clear in my heart.  For those spiritual gifts I will always be grateful.  Rest in Jesus Dad.

All of us as supporters of traditional marriage, have been watching the aftermath of Governor Sanford's affair with an Argentinian woman.  I am not here to condemn him.  I am here to remind him and all of us what marriage is about.  It starts with the proper perspective on marriage and investing time in the most important of all earthly relationships.

If you married in a court, then it is a civil contract, and perhaps the traditional ideas will hold the marriage together.  But if you marry in a church in the presence of God, marriage is for keeps.  We understand that some situations like abuse and unrepentant infidelity give pause in a marriage. 

Governor Sanford has mistaken his new "soul mate" as his new love.  She is not.  He married his soul mate many years ago and his home and family have settled in and now the "wow" factor has been replaced by the mundane.  Being a soul mate is not dependent on feelings but rather on how God has put you together to care for each others' soul.  As with faith in God,  in marriage we should not put our feelings ahead of our trust in or in the meaning of permanence in marriage.

 Infatuation is not love.  Love is a choice and a commitment.  All those wonderful feelings we experience when we first date are misleading.  I was against arranged marriage when I was younger, but now I think in some ways, when we marry for love, we delude ourselves into thinking that life should be one continual date.  Neither am I saying that there shouldn't be happiness and joy in marriage.  Love should consist of respect, admiration and deep trust; not whim and infatuation. That fades with maturity and time. If you don't prepare for marriage with that in mind you will be disappointed.

Marriage is till death do us part.  It means you stay there beside your husband or wife whether you like them or not on any given day. It is for better or for worse, when the jobs come and go, when your spouse puts on the pounds and isn't as attractive as they once were.  When they are sick and lying in a hospital bed, you don't tell them to fend for themselves. It means you stay when every cell in your body wants to leave.  It is not for the faint of heart. There usually is as much or a whole lot worse than there is for the better in marriage.  Marriage is not glamorous or a happy fairy tale.  It is about struggling beside each other through situations and sometimes because of each other.  You may be happy or unhappy in marriage but you commit to stay no matter what happens.  Situations are good and bad, they are not always a reflection of your marriage.

Being married is not about you and your happiness, it is about your spouse and their welfare and how you can be that support in their life.  If you are unhappy, get happy, even if it's partly due to your spouse, stay there and don't leave.  Marriage is about living alongside another person and going through all its ups and downs and experiencing it with that person.  It is not about candlelight dinners every night, it is hard work loving another sinful person.   It means allowing God to teach you about himself through your spouse.  It is about bringing that person to the sunset of their life no matter the personal sacrifice, knowing that God has divinely placed you in each others' lives for that express purpose. Marriage teaches us forgiveness, patience, perseverance and most of all unconditional love.

In a Christian marriage we marry not only for love but also to mirror the love God has for us through creating a family and sharing our faith with others.  One of the main functions of marriage is to create a family. Sometimes biology does not allow that.  Marriage is also for the purpose of fellowship with each other, your children and God.  As a Christian if we ignore the spiritual or relational aspect of marriage, we do not experience all that it was intended to be. 

Governor Sanford please don't tell the public you have found your soul mate in an Argentinian woman, do not dishonor your wife in that way.  Don't tell us you intend to fall in love with your wife again. Marriage is not about falling in love, it's about keeping your vows.  There are many people in this world, but you made a commitment to your wife, till death do you part. Stay with her and keep your Christian commitment by honoring her and God.

Tonight at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA,  I couldn't help but feel as though I was at one of those ACORN rallies they had last fall.  There were vigorous chanters shouting, "Yes, we can!"  Community organizers held their nicely mass produced pro-health care signs proudly.  Their signs didn't meet the 8.5 x 11 size for floor seating, so they even made a special exception for them. How nice!  We angry mobs were told we couldn't hold up our signs on the center floor.  But I did hold my sign up after these ACORN revivalists continued to hold up their blue signs and even bigger green ones on the main floor. 

   In order to get inside the school, you had to fill out a paper with your contact info. If you weren't a resident in VA's 8th district then you weren't going to be allowed inside.  I wrote down an 8th district address with a fake name and then stopped to take a picture with a burly SEIU member before I was whisked into the building and allowed in.   They happened to accept people from Arlington too. Huh. So much for the "rule."

  Somehow I missed the table on the way into the gymnasium where questions could be submitted on index cards.  No big advertisement there.  Moran said during the introduction that questions from both sides were selected and going to be asked after he and Dean had a chance to coddle the masses, the dumb ones who didn't read the 1,017 pages of the bill.  Moran said that he had taken four hours to read and discuss the bill with his staff.  He must have taken a speed reading course.   Moran also had the nerve to say that the spending deficit was a result of the war in Iraq not the current stiff-all-of-us Obama and Congress passed. 

The auditorium had reached capacity at 3,000 and there were still more people outside. Inside community organizers were fawning over their socialist leaders.  They were so happy to know that Dean was a doctor that served as governor for 3 terms in VT.  If he's a doctor and wants the government option well then he must know what he is talking about.  Why wasn't it last week when Obama sounded like he was backing down that Screamin' Howie said, " Yeeeeeaaaaah! We need that government option Obama, don't ruin it now, hold steady and I'll make sure that there's a good crowd at that silly little town hall in Reston."  ACORN must have emailed all their pre-election lists for a good turn out tonight because there was a sea of blue Obama signs tonight.  Maybe they were confused, the election was last November.

Moran imparted 11 myths that the "angry mob" had shoved down the throats of those beautiful ACORN community organizers who wanted to change the world.  How dare we tell them the truth?  After all they just want to take down those bad, rich people whose companies employed them. 

They didn't mention the fact that Lois Capps of CA had pushed through a House Committee government funded abortions as a necessary medical procedure. That's why they had to throw out Randall Terry, Pro-Life Advocate to make sure he was silenced along with the babies.  Nor did they mention the Cadillac health care that congressmen have. August is quickly coming to an end.  Perhaps there will be a few more town halls and then Congress comes back into session.  Will they ram government run health care through as a tribute to the late Ted Kennedy?  I am uninsured currently and I don't want Obama's antidote for healthcare.  It is a poison that will kill us all slowly. Just ask the Canadians and the Europeans that now want to rid themselves of it.

With the surprising announcement and resignation of Governor Sarah Palin, I think what annoys the MSM and the liberals is that they have no good reason, no foul play to attach to her decision.  There are no unrepentant stories of philandering like Mark Sanford. Nor are there dark conspiracies of exploitation, greed and murder woven in like a fine mystery novel, co-authored by Blagojevich and Burris of Illinois. Nothing, nada, zip. The leftists have only 15 or so false allegations of impropriety that were all disproved and thrown out. 

Opponents really tried hard in Alaska to frame her and accuse her of liberties taken while in office. They even resorted to the big "D" word over a quiet weekend after they had all but shredded the reputation of the two older Palin daughters.  Palin took the imposed shroud of divorce and flung it right back.  Sarah Palin will not tolerate the liberal double standard even for a minute.

President Bush will be remembered by his legacy of humanity, deep faith and conviction for fighting the war on terror despite his compassionate overspending.  But the libs will not let it go. Instead they will find a puppet like Eric Holder to begin prosecution on the War on Terror.  Bush began to defend himself after he finished his term.  Was it because he was a gentleman or had he learned to be the kicking dog of the Left? President Obama still pontificates on the failures of Bush supposedly resulting in his inability to get the country back on course quickly.  But after almost 9 months he can no longer point the finger at George Bush.  He must now start to look at himself and his administration for core problems of catastrophic proportion.

President Bush took the punches but Sarah Palin is fighting back.  Her strong stand seems almost like a scorned wife to some.  But she knows how to play the game and win.  In life, if you are the brunt of accusation, you will have to make a choice; to fight back or give up. Even if you are innocent, people choose to believe their version of the story, blinded by their own lies and distortion of reality. Instead of pleading innocence till the moose come home, give those bullies a run for their money and shock them.  Being nice or telling the truth doesn't work with them, whether with a world dictator or the average pesky liberal.  You have to be on the offense and not give them what they expect.  Give them a surprise just like Sarah did.                                                              

The Fairness Doctrine designed to silence thousands of conservative voices on the airwaves is not meant to create a “fair and balanced” message by streaming in the liberal viewpoint alongside the conservative one, but rather to drown it out completely. This action is not only meant for just broadcasting but for the whole conservative movement whether it is in a church, a classroom, on a street, at a Tea Party or in congressional hearings.

The liberals are hell bent on getting their message accepted as the right, normal, decent and even American way to think and process our way of life in the United States and around the world. We have enjoyed a period of relative freedom that has come with some persecution and venom since President Reagan vetoed the legislation in 1987. In the words of President Clinton on February 13, 2009 on the Mario Solis Marich radio show, “Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side, because essentially there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech was meant for just the liberals.

We have been on a downward spiral for a long time but as of recent the liberal movements of gay marriage and abortion on demand have attempted to eradicate the need for morality and belief in God. Here are a few rules we now have to accept as “Bible Truth” on the way to fair and balanced views in America:

Rules of the Un-Fairness Doctrine:

1. Never speak out on questionable actions of any liberal President especially the “Anointed One” or his Cabinet members or the now democrat Senate majority or you will be put on a DHS watch list as a right wing extremist otherwise known to liberals as Bible thumping, gun-clinging and homophobic psychos just for starters.

2. No Tea Parties ever. President Obama just doesn’t acknowledge them. They don’t exist and are a figment of our crackpot conservative imagination. Only 5 people are allowed to protest in front of former (but greater) President Bush’s ranch in Cranston, TX and that is a protest worth reporting about from every media outlet all over the world.


3. Schools can wholeheartedly embrace and endorse every Democratic candidate in their government classes, but those scary Republicans are going to make us all go to church and take away all our fun. Teaching about sex in health education at the age of 10 is okay, because every child at that age is eager to know how to put their first condom on a banana and pick out their first gay lover. And it’s important to talk about the Hindu goddess of wealth and fortune Lakshmi and October holiday Diwali, the September Muslim holiday Eid along with Kwanzaa and Hanukkah in the month of December and completely leave out Christmas because it’s the only religion that conflicts with the separation of church and state. Talking about other gods and religions is okay; just don’t bring up Jesus in December and April.

4. All pastors of real Bible believing churches need to embrace homosexuality as a valid lifestyle and not offend them if they come walking through their doors with why they need to be straight as Jesus was.

5. Tax cheats in the Cabinet are okay, but everyone else must pay their taxes.

6. Everyone must spread the wealth but Michelle Obama; she is going to cling to her $500 haute couture sneakers she wore to the soup kitchen. Michelle apparently doesn’t know how to share, poor thing!

7. We must love and accept all terrorists into our country and give them free reign to become productive members of their terrorist cells.

8. Water boarding and all other torture is really cruel and doesn’t work on terrorists. It just works on 24 when Jack Bauer does it.

9. Hollywood celebrities are wise old sages and they really have worked their way up to the top. We should respect them and their facelifts.

10. Liberals never lie and are not in denial. Borrowing money from China is a good thing. Our children’s children to the 4th generation paying off our current debt will promote a healthy and vibrant economy.

11. The liberal media is not biased and therefore does not need to present conservative views on their broadcasts.


12. We must apologize to every country that we have offended in protecting our country’s freedom, prosperity and sovereignty. After all we have never tried to help any of them in any way whatsoever.

13. Illegal aliens should be welcomed without any consequences because they will do the jobs the Americans won’t do. They also won’t pay their taxes and get free health care and schooling just for putting their toe across the border.

14. President Obama is not arrogant, we are. And he didn’t bow to the Saudi king. What were we thinking?

15. Michelle Obama is the prettiest and most hip First lady ever! Ever!

While we have had years of discourse on the subject of torture as a means of obtaining information from reluctant spies, terrorists and other pond scum, Jack Bauer clearly answered the question last night, torture works. Had not the distraught President and the cynical senator been convinced that Jack would not be able to get exactly what he needed to know from the Senator’s staffer through violent treatment, the White House would have remained intact on last night’s episode of 24. The staffer was about to give crucial intelligence on the location of the attack when security blew down the doors where Bauer was interrogating him quite successfully with a stun gun. Last summer at the DNC, street theater by Jason Mattera demonstrated that there are people gullible enough to believe that detainees at Guantanamo have rights and deserve every convenience afforded to them be it cable TV or work out equipment . After some detainees were released from Guantanamo under the new Obama administration, at least one was accused of committing acts of subversion. Thanks President Obama for giving them the benefit of the doubt. What liberals don’t get is that terrorists are just that, terrorists. They have the bare minimum as far as rights are concerned. Getting a trip to Guantanamo is not some prestigious honor, it is a sign of certain suspicion. The truth is discovered not through talking by a candlelight dinner as our newbie president would like to think, but through rigorous torture and interrogation. That is the only way valuable information is ever obtained.

Ahmedinajad is a royal loser, but since he’s really not royalty, he’s just a loser.   He wants world control, to annihilate the Jews and the Christians and anything that gets in his way.  When Ayatollah Khomeini ousted the Shah of Iran, it was horrible.  But this is worse, and so unimaginable, that the United Nations has no idea what sort of madman they seem to praise within their walls.  I can’t believe now that I once wanted to be a translator for the UN.   Ahmedinajad along with Kim Jong- Il and Osama Bin Laden are more than capable of pushing the button to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the American people and our allies.  Heaven help us if Obama doesn’t see this and hopes  to sit down and talk with these crazed men.  What is rule one in any movie or law enforcement scenario when lives are at risk?  Do not negotiate with terrorists. Maybe Obama needs to catch up on some episodes of 24 in the White House theater and see how Jack Bauer deals with crazed men.

According to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, it is defined:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions."^[2]

The Third Geneva Convention states:

(Article 17): "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind."

And how does the anti-torture group expect prisoners to give the interrogators vital information if they aren’t “coerced”?   Will a warm bath and 700 count sheets on a bed with a five course halal meal do the trick?  It is only when we think that our lives are in danger or when we are in excruciating pain that we will do just about anything to spare ourselves.  Torture is torture whether the law forbids it or not, defines it or not. These acts could be named anything else other than torture but these are proven interrogation techniques that work.

  And we have to use torture on the few so that millions of US citizens can live free from torture.  I have not heard of a POW being completely innocent and wrongfully tortured.  If a POW is captured, they tend to carry information helpful to the other side.  And if I am in error, let me know.

 

 

I try not to laugh at the demise of others, but in this I must relish the manner in which Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken sore loser to a new low.  Yes it’s been a few weeks now since the reluctant concession but since she clung on for dear life for so long, I think it’s only fitting to take my sweet time in picking her apart piece by piece.

Her campaign discredited by tall tales of pregnant women turned away from hospitals while the baby died for lack of insurance were examples of scant information run amuck with liberal rant.  Didn’t she think that there were going to be fact checkers or did she think that her supporters had lobotomies before attending rallies?  Like they wouldn’t care since they were so enamored of her?  Americans had enough of the Clintons in the 1990’s why would they want seconds? Could we have called Bill Clinton “First Gentleman”?

She claims that she was a victim of feminism in her campaign.  Gloria Steinem and the like tried to explain that America wasn’t ready for a woman president.  But were they really ready for a Black man either?  If they were willing to endorse a Black man for president, then why not a white woman?  Surely in the American eye, a black man is the equivalent of a white woman when it comes to minority status and power?

Her flip flop views on the war must have been nurtured by John Kerry, while she was creating her platform based on the living Constitution blown back and forth by the winds of change, not the original meaning penned by our forefathers.

Her staff changed as quickly as her campaign stories did, and while she inflicted horror on them they in turn also continued the vicious cycle.  Toxic woman, toxic staff, toxic stories and toxic platform, why do we want her at the White House? We don’t want her and told her so, and it took her a long time to accept the answer.

In a moment of brief compassion though, I feel sorry for her family, her friends and her staff.  I feel sorry for her that she cannot get over herself or the fact that the world does not revolve around her.  God have mercy on her. 

 

 

 

 

No sooner did I post President Bush's support along with Senator McCain denouncing water boarding as torture did he turn right around and agree that water boarding was a necessary tool to win the war on terror.  Does your neck hurt as much as mine?  I wore a neck brace for almost a month.  I am assuming this change of heart was brought on by pressure from key people.  Or maybe he realized that he didn't want to appear as the weak-willed diplomat that sings to the tune of Live Aid or American Idol Gives Back.  No I hope not. 

 Winning in Iraq is a humanitarian effort equal to helping AIDS patients in Africa or Hurricane Katrina victims. It is reshaping the lives of the Iraqi people and setting up a democracy. It does require sacrifice and it is one that our troops have willingly accepted. It is preserving our way of life in America.

We support a fighting machine called the U.S. military.  Our intelligence community will use water boarding as deemed necessary and does not need to adhere to the U.S. Army Handbook on Interrogation techniques.  The Clandestine Service will and should use every method to smoke out the enemy.

I hope that our rough around the edges, not well spoken President continues to send a hard cold message to the world that we will not cower to threats or attacks made on the American people here or abroad.  We will win!

 

There has been much discussion on the difference between coercive interrogation and torture. President Bush recently retracted his original view on water boarding and, “accepted Sen. John McCain’s call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.”  Associated Press (MSNBC)

Attorney General Michael Mukasey stated that water boarding could be regarded as torture if it were done to him.

“For everyone out there who has to have a definition, there it is," proclaimed [Stephen]Colbert. "Waterboarding is torture when it's done to Michael Mukasey. When it's done to everyone else, it is irresponsible to provide an answer." Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane, Rawstory.com

Where do we find our definition of torture? Human rights groups would advocate that, “mildly coercive "stress" interrogation methods are clearly illegal and indistinguishable from torture.”  National Journal

Or shall we be emotionally swayed by the clear message given by the TV show “Law and Order SVU”? In the episode “Harm,” a white American woman was helping at a refugee center where she met a woman whose husband Abbas, was detained in Iraq and tortured (by Americans). He then fled to the U.S. (the country from where his interrogators came).  He was tortured again in the U.S. which led to a heart attack and subsequent death.  SVU detectives questioned the physician overseeing the torture and then she was brought to trial for negligent homicide. Toward the end of the episode they show “victims” of torture telling of their experiences. Would the U.S. military take prisoners without just cause or suspicion? 

Did we not lose some of the most beautiful buildings in New York City on September 11^th along with thousands of lives that day? It turned out that this man Abbas who was tortured and died was the brother of a well known terrorist.   Pass the Kleenex please. Oh my, these people are being tortured. We should stop such senseless acts and let these people come to bomb and destroy our way of life.

We are fighting the war on terror, not trying to preserve our oil rights in the Middle East as the unhappy Americans known as liberals would like to think. It is obvious that September 11^th proved to the world that we have enemies that would rejoice in the annihilation of the American people. Why wouldn’t we use every method available to extract information from these crazed men?