Apr 10, 2016

Charles Krauthammer: Maybe The Best Columnist, Reporter In America

Common Sense Commentary: Here is one of the finest columnists is America. He is an investigative reporter, scrupulously honest, bold as David against evil Goliaths and courageous in his commentary. He even talks back to Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. You have seen him many times on TV interviews, mostly Fox News. He is one of my favorites, and a real patriot. RB

    Columnist Charles Krauthammer, MD is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, author, political commentator, and physician. His weekly column is syndicated to more than 400 newspapers worldwide. Wikipedia

KRAUTHAMMER ON THE CLINTONS

The Clinton Foundation is "organized crime" at it's finest, and we are financing it. Here is a good, concise summary of how the Clinton Foundation works as a tax free international money laundering scheme. It may eventually prove to be the largest political criminal enterprise in U.S. history.

This is a textbook case on how you hide foreign money sent to you and repackage it to be used for your own purposes. All tax free. Here's how it works:

1. You create a separate foreign "charity." In this case one in Canada.

2. Foreign oligarchs and governments, then donate to this Canadian charity. In this case, over 1,000 did - contributing mega millions. I'm sure they did this out of the goodness of their hearts, and expected nothing in return. (Imagine Putin's buddies waking up one morning and just deciding to send untold millions to a Canadian charity).

3. The Canadian charity then bundles these separate donations and makes a massive donation to the Clinton Foundation.

4. The Clinton Foundation and the cooperating Canadian charity claim Canadian law prohibits the identification of individual donors.

5. The Clinton Foundation then "spends" some of this money for legitimate good works programs. Unfortunately, experts believe this is on the order of 10%. Much of the balance goes to enrich the Clinton's, pay salaries to untold numbers of hangers on, and fund lavish travel, etc. Again, virtually all tax free, which means you and I are subsidizing it.

6. The Clinton Foundation, with access to the world's best accountants, somehow fails to report much of this on their tax filings. They discover these "clerical errors" and begin the process of re-filing 5 years of tax returns.

7. Net result -- foreign money, much of it from other countries, goes into the Clinton's pockets tax free and untraceable back to the original donor. This is the textbook definition of money laundering.

Oh, by the way, the Canadian "charity" includes as a principal one Frank Giustra. Google him. He is the guy who was central to the formation of Uranium One, the Canadian company that somehow acquired massive U.S. uranium interests and then sold them to an organization controlled by Russia. This transaction required U.S. State Department approval, and guess who was Secretary of State when the approval was granted. As an aside, imagine how former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell feels. That poor schlep is in jail because he and his wife took $165,000 in gifts and loans for doing minor favors for a guy promoting a vitamin company. Not legal but not exactly putting U.S. security risk. Sarcasm aside, if you're still not persuaded this was a cleverly structured way to get unidentified foreign money to the Clinton's, ask
yourself this:

Why did these foreign interests funnel money through a Canadian charity? Why not donate directly to the Clinton Foundation? Better yet, why not donate money directly to the people, organizations and countries in need?

This is the essence of money laundering and influence peddling. Now you know why Hillary's destruction of 30,000 e-mails was a risk she was willing to take.

Bill and Hillary are devious, unprincipled, dishonest and criminal, and they are Slick! Warning: They could be back in the White House in January 2017. Don't let it happen. Remember, most people are not well informed. You must inform and educate them.

Warm Wishes and May God Bless America

Apr 7, 2016

God's Creation Is A Perfect Certainty, Including You

Common Sense Commentary: The universe you look up to on a star studded night is a magnificent display of the perfect, created order of Him who said in Genesis one ... "Let there be" and His Word went out and created it. The Universe is a perfectly organized phenomenon as is the earth and every other thing God created, oceans, animals, vegetation, minerals, fresh water, oil, gas, and the atmosphere. Only humans were created in the image and likeness of God... including a free will to do good or bad. RB

When GOD solves our problems, we have faith in HIS abilities.  When GOD doesn't solve our problems HE has faith in our abilities.  God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs. Those of the canary in 14 days; Those of the barnyard hen in 21 days; Eggs of ducks and geese in 28 days; Those of the mallard in 35 days; The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days. Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week and the number of perfection or completion.

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant. . . . The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction.  No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily. The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.

How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation! Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind. Each orange has an even number of segments. -Each ear of corn has an even number of rows. Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains. Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of  bananas, and  each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number which creates its desired shape.

The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty six to the minute in all kinds of weather. All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed.

The lives of each of us may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if we will only entrust Him with it. If we try to regulate everything about our life, we will live in frustration and it will only be a mess and a failure. We must learn to yield to the perfect will of God. That is a free will decision we all must make.

Only God, who made our brain, heart, and body can successfully guide them to a beneficial and desired end.

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Rom.1:20.



Apr 5, 2016

Two Moral Slugs Vs Two Common Sense Governors On Bathroom Separation Of The Sexes

Who would have thought this would 
ever be an issue in America?

Common Sense Commentary: So when the Governor of North Carolina signed into law a bill protecting women and children from having to share all bathroom facilities and showers with men, the Liberal Governors of New York and Connecticut took punitive action against North Carolina and influenced the NBA to do the same. This appears to be just another example of Trump's now famous boast about New York Values as though his home state has some especially high moral standards. I tell you, dear friends, with absolute certainty that the Liberal, Socialist agenda is the thread that runs from Lucifer's gut in Eden for 6000 years throughout the Earth to every vile, filthy act of human depravity right up to this latest trend of antichristic apostasy. It is so opposed to common sense and integrity that you would think any idiot would know better, but no, not in New York or most of the states attached to it. I can tell you that I am proud of Gov. Pat McCroy of N.C. and my own Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott who recently signed a similar bill to protect Texas women and children. Write your Governor and ask him to follow their example.

Here is the article in the Texas Values Newsletter which declares itself  as ....

"Standing For Faith Family And Freedom In Texas"
Their site is located at 
http://txvalues.org/


Common sense can get you in a lot of trouble these days!

Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina is under a lot of pressure from activists on the left -- all because he signed a bill into law that protects women and children from being forced to share bathrooms with men. The widely supported N.C. law stops men from going into women’s restrooms, showers, and locker rooms, and it stopped a dangerous bathroom ordinance in Charlotte, similar to the law Houston voters resoundingly defeated at the polls last year, from going into effect.

In response, the Governors of New York & Connecticut have banned state travel to North Carolina, and the NBA is threatening to move the All Star game out of Charlotte.

Apparently, the Governors of New York & Connecticut are okay with men being allowed access to women’s restrooms and showers. Meanwhile, North Carolina Governor McCrory believes in common sense and protecting the privacy and safety of women and young girls in the Tar Heel State.

Right now, it is important to join with our friends in North Carolina, and to honor Governor McCrory for doing the right thing. (Check out Governor McCrory’s strong stand for common sense when it comes to bathrooms: Watch here)

Apr 4, 2016

Would I Join The Military Today? Not With This Commander In Chief

Every Time I See Him Salute, I Get Nauseous.

Common Sense Commentary: Here is a boil-over of the military's molten slag melt pot at the heart of the mill. The real warriors, trained and ready to die for America are being fired or leaving the military in droves. Military suicides are increasing. It is being brought on by an irresponsible, executive management who is more interested in appeasing masculine women, effeminate men and Liberal idiots than in protecting our nation, killing the savages, decapitating the decapitators and defeating our sworn enemies before they destroy us.... Which they are determined and prepared to do. And what is the Left-wing think tank proposing? Draft women. Meanwhile, on the civilian front, thousands of our producers, Patriots and tax payers, have also had enough, and are abandoning their citizenship and leaving the country for friendlier nations who welcome that kind of immigrants from the U.S. of A. Thank God for the remnants of our military and law enforcement who are still willing to bear arms in our defense. But, how long can they endure the abuse? RB

This from

US Defense Watch

At the Pentagon, General Chaos is in Charge

By Ray Starmann
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/The_Pentagon_US_Department_of_Defense_building.jpg
Recently the US military was humiliated by the Iranians before a worldwide audience.
The surrender of two US Navy vessels of war and their crews to the Iranians without firing so much as a shot and the subsequent and sickening apology by the commanding officer, speaks volumes about the current fighting spirit, training and state of readiness of the US military in 2016.
The conduct of the US Navy officer in charge, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was nothing less than a complete and utter disgrace.
No doubt the order to surrender came from the Pentagon; and at the Pentagon, General Chaos is in charge.
At the Pentagon, General Chaos is a destroyer; a social engineering Visigoth intent on wreaking utter havoc and destruction on the Armed Forces of the United States. General Chaos will not rest until the fighting spirit and the combat readiness of the US military is reduced to a Third World status.
Left-wing loonies have been trying to change the US military for forty years. The relatively all male, macho culture, with its unique camaraderie and .... rough and tumble lifestyle was anathema to the liberal mindset.
After all, if every other bedrock of America could be feminized and paralyzed by political correctness, why couldn’t the military be next? With its zero profit incentives and personnel whose careers ride on rigidly pleasing the boss, the military was a ripe target of opportunity and perhaps the last great classical institution of America to be hen pecked and destroyed by the radical left wing nuts.
Since the 1970’s, the Gloria Steinem’s, the Patricia Schroeder’s, the Geraldine Ferraro’s, the Hillary’s all had some hand in minutely altering the way the US military did business. By the dawn of the 1990’s and the advent of the Great Draft Dodger, Bill Clinton, the foundation was laid for the beginnings of the demolition project. Women would be allowed to fly jets, combat helicopters and to serve in support units that would put them in Harm’s Way. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was implemented across the services. Coed basic training became the norm for Army support personnel, the Navy and the Air Force.
The Clinton Administration wanted to do even more damage to the military, but there was enough push back from the military that their efforts were stymied, albeit temporarily.
But, the cracks in the dam were already beginning to appear.
Flash forward to 2016, and the Obama Administration, where the systematic, calculated Armageddon of the US military is continuing like some kind of cultural Marxist blitzkrieg.
Since 2008, the US military has been subjected to edicts that have authorized open homosexuality and transgenders to join the military. On April 1st, women will be able to serve in the Crown Jewels of the military; the combat arms branches and special operations.
An inordinate amount of training days, weeks and months are now wasted on sensitivity training, physical fitness while wearing pregnancy simulators, marching in red high heels and putting out breastfeeding and lactation memos to worldwide commands.
Recently, Ray Mabus ordered the Marines and Navy to replace every male job title with a gender neutral nomenclature. Henceforth, infantryman will now be infantry person or perhaps infantry thing or infantry it. The insanity knows no bounds.
Hundreds of generals, admirals and other high-ranking officers have been fired or forced to resign in a purge not seen since Nazi Germany’s Night of the Long Knives.
Only last week, Ash Carter announced that he is considering demoting American hero, General David Petraeus.
To do the dirty work of the White House and the radical feminist lobbyists, the Obama Administration needed henchmen, bureaucratic sycophants, modern day Fouquets who would rubber stamp every bit of insanity coming forth from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Enter, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, former Secretary of the Army John McHugh, the current Secretary of the Army Eric K. Fanning and retired General Martin Dempsey.
Obama and Carter and Dempsey and Mabus and the rest of the wrecking crew have been able to get away with it all because the military as an institution is not as strong internally, morally, psychologically and spiritually as it once was. While the enlisted personnel and lower-ranking company grade and field grade officers are solid, the senior leaders of the US military have failed to stand up for what they know is inherently right.
The generals and the admirals who remain at their jobs in 2016 are there for one reason, they know how to keep quiet and say nothing as the political correctness angel of death passes by them each night.
But, their reticence to speak up, to put their feet down, to defend the greatness of an institution that is 240 years old has severely weakened the US military as a whole.
We are weak and our enemies know it. This is not to say individuals in the military are weak or don’t know their jobs. But, as a whole, the US military, under Obama has lost its edge.
Where is all of this going to end? It’s going to end in disaster; in wars lost, in lives plundered, in our nation put in mortal danger because a perfect storm of left wing radicals and cowardly senior leaders came together to create a US military that won’t be able to fight its way out of a wet paper bag.
Want to see the future of the US military in war? You already have two weeks ago. What happened in the Persian Gulf is a harbinger of defeat that is coming to the Armed Forces of this great nation unless changes are made, changes that can only be made by a President Trump or Cruz or Rubio.
The Shining City on the Hill is in danger, because we are losing the one force that has always defended it, the United States Military.

Apr 2, 2016

Extreme Testing Works Endurance, Perseverance , Experience... And Only Then ...True Success

Common Sense Commentary: Human history records no normal or consistent success, survival, arrival or worthy accomplishment apart from planning, hard work, immense effort, determination, struggle and pain. That has always been the price of honest gain since God told Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ...." Gen.3:9. There is benefit and reward in difficulty and tribulation. "Tribulation worketh hupomone...." which is endurance, continuance, perseverance... and only then, out of that, the "experience" which produces "hope" and all true accomplishment (Rom.5:3-4). Experience speaks louder than assumption, anticipation or self assurance.

The Donner Party was a group of  Eastern Americans who had a dream of selling out and moving west, across the continent of wilderness, rivers, deserts and mountains, through Indian territory, and a thousand other hazards, to California. A wagon train was formed and they left their homes, relatives and friends  and set off with all their worldly goods, essentials, and far too much non-essential stuff, in covered wagons their horses, mules or oxen could barely pull. After months of hard travel, weariness and discouragement, they grew slower and slower. The women and children especially were so tired they lingered longer each morning and tarried long at noon stops. The men also wasted time and wouldn't allow themselves to be pushed along. Autumn and Winter were drawing nigh, but they finally arrived at a point in the western desert where they met a stranger who told them of a short-cut across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Some of them wanted to stick to the known trail around most of the mountains to the right. But the majority wanted to take this new route over the mountains to "save time". They were worn out as were their animals and wagons, and they had dallied away so much time that agreement was reached to take the short-cut. To their chagrin, when they got up in the Sierra Nevada, there was a horse trail, but no wagon trail there. They had to cut trees and brush to make a way and double team their wagons to ascend mountain passes. They were horrified but it was too late go go back to the old trail. Blizzards caught them far into the tops of the mountains. They were stuck there, with little food, no shelter and no hope of getting through to Sacramento.

During the long months of winter they suffered constant temperatures far below zero, starvation, sickness, many deaths and even cannibalism of the dead. Their experience was one of the most terrifying, desperate, starvation and survival stories in the history of America. Those few who survived were finally rescued in the waning days of winter and carried to Sacramento where they recuperated and lived out their lives.  They were never the same.

One of the survivors was a 16 year old girl who wrote her best friend back in the East, and ended her letter with two hard earned lessons arising from her deadly experience. To the best of my memory, here is what she told her friend... "Two things I learned, Sarah, never dally around but hurry right along, and don't never take no short cuts."

The Donner Party, those who survived, knew a lot more about crossing the continent in a covered wagon ... after the fact than before they started. It's called EXPERIENCE and is gained only by .... the long exposure of ignorant self assurance to the reality that "tribulation works" ... endurance/perseverance. When they departed their homes back east, yes, they planned, prepared and prayed... but they didn't have the experience required to plan, prepare and pray sufficiently. What they gained through the "experience" is better planning, preparing and praying ... as well as greater precaution, absolute punctuality, perseverance and preservation or time, energy and resources. They also learned a lot more about the God of all these attributes and where they come from.

Three Principle Points of critical decision derived from my own experience:

1. The first critical decision toward progress in reaching a worthy goal or destination is not the ease or difficulty or speed at which you travel, but it is always moving in the right direction.

2. The second critical decision in any endeavour is to stay on the track, trail or target and keep moving no matter how slowly the difficulty restricts your advance. There is great distance in a thousand thousand baby steps.

3. The third critical decision in the accomplishment of  your goal, destination or dream is, do not habitually linger and tarry around wasting precious time, and avoid short-cuts, 95 percent of which result in lost time ... or worse. Stay on the trail. Usually the long way around a mountain saves time and trouble.... if the trail is there.  The trail is there for a reason. Many trails evolved over hundreds of years by thousands of experienced walkers. Do not waste your time, energy and resources on short-cuts or non-essentials.

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein." Jeremiah 6:16.




Apr 1, 2016

I Saw It With My Own Eyes, Heard It, Smelled It And Tasted It... Putrid

Eat the meal before you. Don't look for a better one at the Outhouse Cafe.

Common Sense Commentary: In 195a0-51 I fought a war with Atheistic Socialism known as Communism, in Korea. First against the North Korean Communists, supplied by the Russian Communists, and then against the Chinese Communists. I saw hundreds of executed civilians in the ditches of the roads leading back to North Korea in the wake of the Communist retreat from South Korea. Later, when the Marine Corps left North Korea, 98,000 North Korean civilians followed us out of North Korea and boarded our ships to South Korea. They had all the Socialism they could take and were starving to death under a dictatorial Socialist Regime. The entire nation was a disaster. Many years later, Socialism had finally bankrupted the Soviet Socialist Union, and Russia declared Perestroika, and opened the door in the Communist wall to outsiders. Buddy Nichols, Fred Good and I took a load of Russian language Bibles through that narrow door into the heart of the beast. We were among the first Westerners allowed in. We flew on Royal Romanian Airlines into the dying USSR where we saw the shabby, unmaintained, broken down airplanes, baggage handling equipment, streets, stores, cars and hotels throughout the several nations of the Soviet Union.... But they had free education.... to the chosen few. You just couldn't buy a coughdrop, toothbrush or practically anything else but 5 squares of toilet paper from a woman in the restroom where there were a row of holes in the floor along the wall.  So don't you idiotic smart alec supporters of Bernie Sanders or Hillary tell me about the "Superior Socialist System" of government. You have no idea how utterly stupid you reveal yourselves to be.

Here is the testimony of a man who was raised under that Communist Utopia so many morons believe in and want in America ... Your lunacy is terminal. RB


From The College Fix Paper

Professor raised under communism explains academics’ love of socialism – and why they’re wrong


The difference between ideas and facts is lost on leftist scholars 

Today Professor Florin Curta is a professor in medieval history and archaeology at the University of Florida, but his road to the sunny vistas of north-central Florida came by way of communist-controlled Romania, where growing up he grappled with empty grocery stores, power outages, and an oppressive government that discouraged creativity and free enterprise.

Curta grew up under the iron-fisted regime of Romanian President Nicolae Ceau?escu, a dictatorship characterized by unrelenting state-control, extreme poverty and widespread dilapidation and deprivation. Ceau?escu was overthrown and executed by firing squad in 1989, leaving his country in shambles.

Curta, meanwhile, managed to earn his bachelor’s degree from the University of Bucharest in 1988, and left his country in 1993, having been invited to pursue a Ph.D. at Western Michigan University after delivering a speech before the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Mich.

He hasn’t looked back. Discovering academic and personal freedom unlike anything he could have in post-Communist Romania, Curta permanently relocated to America.

“There’s a certain atmosphere in which scholarly thinking can grow in the United States that it cannot grow in any European country,” Curta said. “I left after communism collapsed, but it was a regime that left a deep, deep imprint on people’s minds. Even though there was no official communism in the government, a lot of people continued to think in communist ways, specifically in the academic world.”

Curta is one of the world’s most distinguished scholars in medieval history and archaeology – and is co-founder of the University of Florida’s medieval and early modern studies center, where he directs its certificate program.

He recently shared his experience growing up under a communist regime and discussed the rise of socialism in America during a phone interview with The College Fix:

Tell us about growing up in communist Romania. What was the quality of life?

Curta: Stores were completely empty. There was no food. There was a black market where you could buy some things, but obviously at much higher prices. Besides the fact that there was no food, every now and then electricity would be cut off in the apartment, at a sudden moment in time. You would not know when and for how long. Sometimes there was no running water at all, and there was no warm water at all. We’re talking about life in an urban environment, we’re talking about an apartment, not one or two, but thousands in which people lived in such conditions. I was in college in that time, and I remember actually studying in the library with gloves on my hands because it was so cold. So not a happy place.

Socialism appears to be a popularly embraced ideology in American academia. Why do you think this is? What is so tempting about this mindset?

FlorinCurtaCurta: I think that there’s an idealism that most people in academia, specifically in the humanities, share. We live in an era of ideological morass, especially with the collapse of communism that has left no room for those idealists in the academic world. No matter how you can prove that system doesn’t work, with an inclination to go that way perhaps because most people associate socialism with social justice, while the former is an ideology with concrete ideas and concrete historical experiences, while social justice is a very vague abstract notion.

You have to understand, the difference between ideas and facts is what is of major concern here. As my father used to say, it is so much easier to be a Marxist when you sip your coffee in Rive Gauche, left-bank Paris, than when living in an apartment under Ceau?escu, especially in the 1980s.

Why do you think socialist ideology has been gaining popularity with some Americans? Why do you think Democrat presidential candidate Bernie BernieStudentsSanders, whose platform is based-off of socialist ideas, gained such traction with the electorate, especially millennials?

Curta: First of all, I would not be willing to put a blanket on all of the population that is drawn toward that idea. It’s a matter of certain segments of that population, especially the young ones, and I think that has something to do with two factors, one of which is the distance in time between the real experience, the historical significance of communism. In other words, the parents of those young people who are now very enthusiastic about socialism and Bernie Sanders were those lived during the Cold War. So to them, socialism, or even more so communism, was a real threat. And they could see under their own eyes how that form of living was out there.

posterAlso the lack of historical knowledge. I would say the school system is responsible for that. You get courses at the university on the Holocaust, but you don’t get courses on the history of communism. Last time I checked, [it was estimated] 100 million people were killed under communism by various regimes in various parts of the world. That seems to have passed without a note in the academic world. I think that lack of prominence in the curriculum, in other words, not teaching what really happened, and the sheer ignorance about the disaster in terms of human cost, economic cost, in tragedy in general is responsible for this rosy picture of socialism.


poster

Mar 30, 2016

Where Does The Bible Say Preachers Must Avoid Politics?

There is no other legal segment of our society which more actively embraces and employs any more deception, lying, stealing, and every other sin and perversion forbidden in the Bible than Politics.

Common Sense Commentary:  Politicians have perverted our laws and legalized our crimes. They have undermined self reliance and self respect by offering government largess in place of employment and robbed half of Americans of their responsibility to hold a job and pay their own way. They have twisted the truth and lied to the American people about just about everything. They have legalized illegal drugs, provided paid for abortions, persecuted Christians, promoted same sex marriage and decriminalized a host of other crimes.  And even worse than the Politicians are the preachers who have looked the other way and preached tiddle de wink sermons on improving one's self and criticized preachers who stood up against the political corruption and ministerial compromise of God's word. It is expected of criminals to act like criminals, but God called preachers are supposed to be the "Watchmen on the wall" to sound the alarm so the people have warning of the devil's devices. Preachers do not give up their citizen's rights when they surrender to the ministry, they are commissioned with an even greater responsibility to speak out for truth, honesty and Biblical principles and against error and falsehood..... if they are truly called of God. RB



The New England Pulpit and the American Revolution From Godfather Politics at this link ...
https://usmg205.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.partner=sbc&.rand=2f1l0ghgndas9#mail

Why Do Pastors Not Stand Up Like This Anymore?

The diminishing light of civil liberty in this land is linked directly to the lack of preaching on it in today's pulpits. Dr. Alice Baldwin's wonderful book is a welcome antidote to this problem, should we be willing to take it.

Dr. Baldwin illustrates how the preachers of the early American era thought and practiced just the opposite as today. Mountains of research in colonial sermons, tracts, pamphlets, and other publications, reveals how the pulpits of colonial America rang constantly on all aspects of the public square: good rulers, good laws, good forms of government, and the blessings of liberty. We especially hear of those choice values of biblical order that became the battle cries of American independence.

Covering the entire revolutionary era, she concludes that the central force behind it all was the pulpit's application of the Word of God to politics and government. She says, "It must not be forgotten, in the multiplicity of authors mentioned, that the source of greatest authority and the one most commonly used was the Bible." And she proves that "from the law of God they derived their political theories."

It is long past time to recover the great and powerful preaching of our founding era–a time when pastors did not fear to preach politics, resist tyranny, and found their governments on the Bible. Dr. Baldwin's nearly-forgotten book is a powerful resource toward that end. We recommend it to every pastor and every Christian in hope that they follow the example of its subject matter even more.

The diminishing light of civil liberty in this land is linked directly to the lack of preaching on it in today’s pulpits. Dr. Alice Baldwin’s wonderful book is a welcome antidote to this problem, should we be willing to take it.

Dr. Baldwin illustrates how the preachers of the early American era thought and practiced just the opposite as today. Mountains of research in colonial sermons, tracts, pamphlets, and other publications, reveals how the pulpits of colonial America rang constantly on all aspects of the public square: good rulers, good laws, good forms of government, and the blessings of liberty. We especially hear of those choice values of biblical order that became the battle cries of American independence.

Commenting on the classic paraphrase of “life, liberty, and property,” Baldwin proclaims,

“No one can fully understand the American Revolution and the American constitutional system without a realization of the long history and religious associations which lie behind these words; without realizing that for a hundred years before the Revolution men were taught that these rights were protected by divine, inviolable law.”

Covering the entire revolutionary era, she concludes that the central force behind it all was the pulpit’s application of the Word of God to politics and government. She says, “It must not be forgotten, in the multiplicity of authors mentioned, that the source of greatest authority and the one most commonly used was the Bible.” And she proves that “from the law of God they derived their political theories.”

It is long past time to recover the great and powerful preaching of our founding era—a time when pastors did not fear to preach politics, resist tyranny, and found their governments on the Bible. Dr. Baldwin’s nearly-forgotten book is a powerful resource toward that end. We recommend it to every pastor and every Christian in hope that they follow the example of its subject matter even more.




Can You Give Me A Clear, Concise Definition Of The Electoral College?

If Not, Don't Tell Me Why 
Simple Majority Is Better

Common Sense Commentary: Most criticism of the "Electoral College", which is required by our Constitution, is a debate in favor of a simple "Democratic" majority vote in the selection of our President. It must be remembered that, when our Founding Fathers were designing the Constitution, they totally immersed themselves in study, prayer, analysis, discussion, correction and revision of the first drafts and then adjusted the instrument as any flaws arose. Their eventual choice of the  Electoral College, was not arrived at hastily or without long and arduous debate over every future, possible, negative eventuality. There is a very complicated, but sound reason they finally settled on the Electoral College method. Consider, for instance, that today, with more than half of American voters receiving some sort of Federal assistance or so called entitlements, most of whom who pay no income taxes, that a President could be elected by voters who are either non-employed, by choice, employed by or supported by the Federal government, or by the large population Democrat controlled states where most of the crime is being committed. If, in this entitlement obsessed age, a simple majority elected the President, we would never again have a strong, Conservative, Constitutional  President. We are simply out-numbered by those on the Federal dole. We are now a minority and we need every conservative voter voting just to preserve our National Constitution and freedom. RB

How little do they see what really is, 
who frame their hasty judgment upon 
that which seems to be. Daniel Webster
__________________________


The Electoral College

Excerpt from an original document located at Jackson County, MO Election Board

by William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director FEC National Clearinghouse on Election Administration 

In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that: 
  • was composed of thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and powers and suspicious of any central national government
  • contained only 4,000,000 people spread up and down a thousand miles of Atlantic seaboard barely connected by transportation or communication (so that national campaigns were impractical even if they had been thought desirable)
  • believed, under the influence of such British political thinkers as Henry St. John Bolingbroke, that political parties were mischievous if not downright evil, and
  • felt that gentlemen should not campaign for public office (The saying was "The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office.").
How, then, to choose a president without political parties, without national campaigns, and without upsetting the carefully designed balance between the presidency and the Congress on one hand and between the States and the federal government on the other?

Origins of the Electoral College

The Constitutional Convention considered several possible methods of selecting a president.

One idea was to have the Congress choose the president. This idea was rejected, however, because some felt that making such a choice would be too divisive an issue and leave too many hard feelings in the Congress. Others felt that such a procedure would invite unseemly political bargaining, corruption, and perhaps even interference from foreign powers. Still others felt that such an arrangement would upset the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.

A second idea was to have the State legislatures select the president. This idea, too, was rejected out of fears that a president so beholden to the State legislatures might permit them to erode federal authority and thus undermine the whole idea of a federation.

A third idea was to have the president elected by a direct popular vote. Direct election was rejected not because the Framers of the Constitution doubted public intelligence but rather because they feared that without sufficient information about candidates from outside their State, people would naturally vote for a "favorite son" from their own State or region. At worst, no president would emerge with a popular majority sufficient to govern the whole country. At best, the choice of president would always be decided by the largest, most populous States with little regard for the smaller ones.

Finally, a so-called "Committee of Eleven" in the Constitutional Convention proposed an indirect election of the president through a College of Electors.

The function of the College of Electors in choosing the president can be likened to that in the Roman Catholic Church of the College of Cardinals selecting the Pope. The original idea was for the most knowledgeable and informed individuals from each State to select the president based solely on merit and without regard to State of origin or political party.

The structure of the Electoral College can be traced to the Centurial Assembly system of the Roman Republic. Under that system, the adult male citizens of Rome were divided, according to their wealth, into groups of 100 (called Centuries). Each group of 100 was entitled to cast only one vote either in favor or against proposals submitted to them by the Roman Senate. In the Electoral College system, the States serve as the Centurial groups (though they are not, of course, based on wealth), and the number of votes per State is determined by the size of each State's Congressional delegation. Still, the two systems are similar in design and share many of the same advantages and disadvantages.

The similarities between the Electoral College and classical institutions are not accidental. Many of the Founding Fathers were well schooled in ancient history and its lessons.

The First Design

In the first design of the Electoral College (described in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution): 
  • Each State was allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade according to the size of each State's population as determined in the decennial census). This arrangement built upon an earlier compromise in the design of the Congress itself and thus satisfied both large and small States.
  • The manner of choosing the Electors was left to the individual State legislatures, thereby pacifying States suspicious of a central national government.
  • Members of Congress and employees of the federal government were specifically prohibited from serving as an Elector in order to maintain the balance between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.
  • Each State's Electors were required to meet in their respective States rather than all together in one great meeting. This arrangement, it was thought, would prevent bribery, corruption, secret dealing, and foreign influence.
  • In order to prevent Electors from voting only for a "favorite son" of their own State, each Elector was required to cast two votes for president, at least one of which had to be for someone outside their home State. The idea, presumably, was that the winner would likely be everyone's second favorite choice.
  • The electoral votes were to be sealed and transmitted from each of the States to the President of the Senate who would then open them before both houses of the Congress and read the results.
  • The person with the most electoral votes, provided that it was an absolute majority (at least one over half of the total), became president. Whoever obtained the next greatest number of electoral votes became vice president - an office which they seem to have invented for the occasion since it had not been mentioned previously in the Constitutional Convention.
  • In the event that no one obtained an absolute majority in the Electoral College or in the event of a tie vote, the U.S. House of Representatives, as the chamber closest to the people, would choose the president from among the top five contenders. They would do this (as a further concession to the small States) by allowing each State to cast only one vote with an absolute majority of the States being required to elect a president. The vice presidency would go to whatever remaining contender had the greatest number of electoral votes. If that, too, was tied, the U.S. Senate would break the tie by deciding between the two.
In all, this was quite an elaborate design. But it was also a very clever one when you consider that the whole operation was supposed to work without political parties and without national campaigns
while maintaining the balances and satisfying the fears in play at the time. Indeed, it is probably because the Electoral College was originally designed to operate in an environment so totally different from our own that many people think it is anachronistic and fail to appreciate the new purposes it now serves. But of that, more later.

The Second Design

The first design of the Electoral College lasted through only four presidential elections. For in the meantime, political parties had emerged in the United States. The very people who had been condemning parties publicly had nevertheless been building them privately. And too, the idea of political parties had gained respectability through the persuasive writings of such political philosophers as Edmund Burke and James Madison.

One of the accidental results of the development of political parties was that in the presidential election of 1800, the Electors of the Democratic-Republican Party gave Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (both of that party) an equal number of electoral votes. The tie was resolved by the House of Representatives in Jefferson's favor - but only after 36 tries and some serious political dealings which were considered unseemly at the time. Since this sort of bargaining over the presidency was the very thing the Electoral College was supposed to prevent, the Congress and the States hastily adopted the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution by September of 1804.

To prevent tie votes in the Electoral College which were made probable, if not inevitable, by the rise of political parties (and no doubt to facilitate the election of a president and vice president of the same party), the 12th Amendment requires that each Elector cast one vote for president and a separate vote for vice president rather than casting two votes for president with the runner-up being made vice president. The Amendment also stipulates that if no one receives an absolute majority of electoral votes for president, then the U.S. House of Representatives will select the president from among the top three contenders with each State casting only one vote and an absolute majority being required to elect. By the same token, if no one receives an absolute majority for vice president, then the U.S. Senate will select the vice president from among the top two contenders for that office. All other features of the Electoral College remained the same including the requirements that, in order to prevent Electors from voting only for "favorite sons", either the presidential or vice presidential candidate has to be from a State other than that of the Electors.

In short, political party loyalties had, by 1800, begun to cut across State loyalties thereby creating new and different problems in the selection of a president. By making seemingly slight changes, the 12th Amendment fundamentally altered the design of the Electoral College and, in one stroke, accommodated political parties as a fact of life in American presidential elections.

It is noteworthy in passing that the idea of electing the president by direct popular vote was not widely promoted as an alternative to redesigning the Electoral College. This may be because the physical and demographic circumstances of the country had not changed that much in a dozen or so years. Or it may be because the excesses of the recent French revolution (and its fairly rapid degeneration into dictatorship) had given the populists some pause to reflect on the wisdom of too direct a democracy.

The Evolution of the Electoral College

Since the 12th Amendment, there have been several federal and State statutory changes which have affected both the time and manner of choosing Presidential Electors but which have not further altered the fundamental workings of the Electoral College. There have also been a few curious incidents which its critics cite as problems but which proponents of the Electoral College view as merely its natural and intended operation.
For more on the Electoral College 

© David Leip 2008 All Rights Reserved

Mar 29, 2016

Your Doorbell Is Ringing

Common Sense Commentary:  Staggering truth packed into one single minute.


"PowerLineBlog” recently held a competition for $100,000 for
whomever could most effectively and creatively dramatize the
significance of the federal debt crisis. Several entries have
gotten a lot of attention, but the one gone most viral so far is
‘The Doorbell.’ If you haven't yet seen it, you may watch it
here. It’s 59 seconds long:

Mar 27, 2016

Americanism Simple As ABC - 123 Explained by Prager University Video And 5th Grader

None So Blind As He Who Will Not See

Common Sense Commentary: American Exceptionalism isn't quite dead yet.
There is hope when we still have people like this University Professor, from the top of the Educational Ladder, to a 5th Grade boy on the bottom rung, both explaining America's success in terms any child can understand, but too deep for Liberals. RB

America's Socialist Origins Failed 
This short video from Prager University 
at the top of the Educational scale.

Click here