Archive for the ‘Government’ Category

In Koheleth 3:1 (Ecclesiastes 3:1) it states,“Vanity of vanities, said Koheleth; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” It’s a much quoted, and as much interpreted, phrase. Recently, I have come to a new understanding of vanity.

Vanity, the isolated ego, likes to say, “I did this” or “What a great person I am to have accomplished this” or “I got this all by myself.” Vanity is the false belief that any one individual, solely of their own power, accomplishes success or greatness.

This thought immediately led me to President Obama’s recent statement that became so controversial during the campaign. The President said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” His statement, on its face, seems true and consistent with my definition of vanity, which caused me to reflect upon how I, and many others, had so negatively reacted to the President’s statement.

But I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about Abraham Lincoln. Mainly because I’ve been trying to figure out what has prompted the “revival” of his story. The sixteenth President seems to be suddenly emerging everywhere…in novels, new biographies, re-printing of former biographies, reissuing of his own writings, as well as movies. Why?

I’ve concluded that in no time since the Civil War has our Nation been so divided. While in 1861 it was North against South and abolition against slavery, it is today poor against rich, black against white, Republican against Democrat… but it’s the same deeply held differences and the same destructive hatreds. What saved the Union was President Lincoln.

Lincoln, who was not traditionally religious but deeply theological, believed in both Divine Presence and Divine purpose. To that end, he called upon Creator for guidance and strength. However, he also bound himself to certain behavior based upon Divine purpose. For example, he vowed to God that if, at the Battle of Fredericksberg (Virginia), the North was successful at turning back Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation he had written two weeks earlier. Upon the North’s success at Fredericksberg, Lincoln did just that citing his vow.

Lincoln none-the-less understood that Divine principles had to be realized within the context of the morality of the times. Therefore, he saw the error and danger of both the radical Abolitionists (who would have instantly forced the end of slavery and destroyed the Union) and the pro-slavery advocates (who would have had their goal reached at the same destructive price).

Lincoln knew he had a partner in his vital mission to preserve the Union. He also knew his partner had the grander vision and the greater plan. Which brings me back to President Obama’s statement.

Everyone, and every idea, has its “shadow side.” This is the person or idea turned on its head, so to speak, misusing its energy to accomplish not the highest good but rather the expedient and/or self-serving outcome. Both Presidents Lincoln and Obama tell us that if you build it you do not do so or succeed alone. You have a partner. The critical difference between these two leaders is the end to which their perspectives lead a nation.

President Obama would have us believe that our “partner”…with a small “p”…is everyone and anyone along the way who had any input into our journey. Therefore, they too deserve the benefits and profits of the outcome.  It is this belief in “entitlement” that has caused so much division and, now hatred, among the citizenry. This perspective generates a “right” not found in either our Bibles or our Constitution. Even God demands action on our part as a quid pro quo to Divine protection and prosperity.

President Lincoln had a “Partner” as well. However, that Partner was the Supreme Being Itself to whom Lincoln turned, drew upon, and publicly acknowledged. He was, after all, the President who initiated a Federal Day of Thanksgiving and signed a Proclamation for a National Day of “humiliation, fasting and prayer” during the Civil War.  President Obama is the first President in the history of the Nation not to mention God in his formal Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Contrary to President Obama’s words, which result in ego-based entitlement and the remedy of forced redistribution of wealth, President Lincoln’s actions sought spiritual and national unity engendered by submission to the purpose and power of Divine principles.

As a result of Lincoln’s certainty in his beliefs and willingness to publicly acknowledge the role of the Divine in human history, the Civil War was followed by a stronger Union than had ever before been achieved. We truly became The United States of America. This was in no small way attributable to the insight, foresight and deeply held theological beliefs of the Nation’s leader at the time.

My conclusion is my prayer. That the Nation awakens to the shadow side of the principles that President Obama supports and advocates. We will not be joined, and will not survive, so long as we believe not in God but in government as the authority and power that makes life worth living. As we traverse these potentially perilous times, we have had quite enough “vanity of vanities.” Let us now seek to rediscover humility by acknowledging Divinity.

Devotees of Ayn Rand ask “Who is John Galt?” I would concur adding, “and where is our Abraham Lincoln?”

General Petraeus testified on Friday before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. He was explicit in his assertion that within moments of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi he deemed it to be an an act of terrorism committed by al Qaeda-linked militants. Consequently, there are now only two options relative to President Obama, what he knew and when he knew it.

Either the President lied to the American people when he maintained, for weeks following the attack in Benghazi, that it was the video that spurred the attack or he is so lacking in leadership capabilities that members of his Cabinet knew from experience it was unnecessary to tell him what was going on because he doesn’t make command decisions…others routinely do.

The first hypothesis is more plausible, albeit much more troubling, given the fact that despite the uncovering of a blatant lie perpetrated on the America people, this President has not fired anyone and everyone who should have been fired had they failed to comply with the law and advised him of events as they were occurring. The President’s inaction in this regard speaks volumes.

When combined with his Administration’s ongoing refusal to name the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization (self-proclaimed to imposing global Sharia law) while appointing Muslim Brotherhood members and advocates to positions of importance within the Administration, aiding the enemy is a de facto conclusion.

I wrote a post on November 10^th that dared suggest treason may have been committed in relation to Benghazi and our government’s use of Muslim Brotherhood intermediaries to arm not Syrian rebels seeking freedom but radical Islamists seeking to do in Syria what this President supported them doing in Egypt.  I no longer feel compelled to use the words “suggest” and “may.” It now appears the President committed treason which demands resignation and prosecution.  In Egypt he publicly supported and encouraged a Muslim Brotherhood backed revolution which resulted in Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi. In Benghazi, he failed to adequately protect and rescue American citizens under attack; knowingly sought to shield our enemies from condemnation rightfully placed upon them; manipulated and withheld vital information from the American people in order to get re-elected and, lied to the American people for weeks following the attack in an attempt to cover up his deliberately dishonest actions thereby continuing to shield the enemy.

Politics gets sets aside on this one. This isn’t about “R” or “D.”

This is about a man so possessed by his own aggrandizement, and in such disregard for the Constitution of the United States, that he believes he answers to nothing and no one in the quest to impose his will upon the Nation. He must be stopped. Such men are dangerous and drive nations into dictatorships that are protracted, difficult to disgorge, and detrimental to society.

It is now up to “We The People” through our Congressional representatives to have the courage and determination to do what is right as opposed to what is easy.  It would be easy to turn a blind eye and deaf ear… then write this off to “politics as usual.” It is not that. These are the willful and destructive actions of a man who has neither earned, nor deserves, the office he has duplicitously obtained. Let us do the heavy lifting and right the wrong we allowed ourselves to be manipulated into believing. Then, perhaps, we can return to the Office of the Presidency the integrity it necessitates and the respect it was intended to engender.

 

Did the President of the United States, in his first Press Conference in months, just say he is looking for ways to make the Federal government “more customer friendly?” He did. Customer friendly? If that isn’t the Freudian slip of the century I don’t know what is.

Those of us who voted otherwise last Tuesday saw that mindset as one of the reasons he should not have been re-elected. This guy thinks we work for him. He’s got it backwards. He works for us, the American People, as does the rest of the Federal government. If you wonder why he appears to think more about himself and less about your best interest it’s because he has never run an actual business. So how could he have any experience knowing how an actual business owner views his customers assuming, wrongly, that the Federal Government were a business…which it is not.

Secondly, regarding the misinformation Ambassador Susan Rice gave on five talk shows on the anti-Mohammed video being the impetus for the Benghazi attack, the President threatened that anyone who questions her “service to this Nation better come after me and not her.” Okay. Let’ do just that. Let’s go after him and demand to know, in the Nixonian fashion, “Mr. President, What did you know and when did you know it?”

All in all, the more that those with eyes to see and ears to hear are exposed to this man, the more it is apparent that he has a different agenda than the one set forth in the Constitution. His agenda is to do what he wants, when he wants and demand it be how he wants regardless of what his “customers” think.

By the way, if you “bought” something from this guy and it turns out the product is defective or advertising misleading, good luck getting remedial action. I’m pretty confident no one answers the 800 number.

 

Ronald Kessler writing for Newsmax.com is reporting that the Obama Administration knew of General Petraeus’ national-security-compromising, extra-marital affair and deliberately held back on exposing it until after the Presidential Election. If this turns out to be accurate, then the lengths this President, now elected for another 4 years, will go to protect himself and those around him far exceeds the imaginable. Not only that, but his total disregard for the safety and security of the United States and its citizens reveals a pattern of behavior that, when combined with other occurrences, borders on treason.

Treason? That’s a serious charge. Well, you decide.

1.  A refusal to use the term terrorist or Islamist in relation to the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious/political organization dedicated to the eradication of Israel, domination of the United States, and the establishment of a global Caliphate run by Sharia Law.

2.  Public encouragement and support of the Arab Spring despite ongoing indications that the revolution was leading Egypt to a more radical Islamic state than had existed under Hosnai Mubarak’s downfall.

3.  Funding and arms to topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi leading to the arming of Al Queda which then used those weapons to attack the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and kill Ambassador Stevens and three others.

4.  U.S. Arms shipments through Turkey, by way of Muslim Brotherhood intermediaries, allegedly to support Syrian rebels opposing President Assad’s regime when in fact those arms were and are going to the radical Islamic extremists in Syria.

5.  Failure to come to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and the others who died in Benghazi despite advance notice of the threat to the State Department and real-time intelligence to State, Defense and the White House as the murders were occurring.

6.  Deliberately failing to identify the known terrorist organization(s) who attacked and killed U.S. citizens in Benghazi while simultaneously conspiring to deliberately mislead and misinform U.S. citizens by blaming it on an irrelevant and unconnected video.

7.  Information indicating that General Petraeus was seriously compromised by his own behavior and subject to blackmail, thereby potentially putting the U.S. in harm’s way yet deliberately withholding that information and refusing, for months, to dismiss the General until after the Presidential election fearing adverse consequences for the President’s re-election possibilities.

Treason is a crime that refers to extreme acts against one’s  sovereign or nation and is defined as “a citizen’s actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation].”

So the question remains, “At what point does this Administration’s knowing and willful actions that repeatedly put American citizens at risk while supporting known terrorist organizations seriously injure this nation and thereby reach the level of treason?

I’ll leave you with that question since this is both your country as well as mine. While we both ponder the possible answers, know that you continue to be lied to and fed misinformation by this President, his Administration, and the mainstream media.

Rethinking your vote yet?

 

Just when you think it can’t get any more absurd you find out you’re wrong.  Director of the CIA General David Patraeus resigning over an affair? Really? He couldn’t keep it a secret? Please. This is so tied to the shameful fiasco in Benghazi that caused four good Americans to die, two of whom were heroic ex-Navy Seals, that its hard to believe the “powers that be” would have the audacity to try and sell this cover-up.

But wait. Of course they would try and sell it to a nation that just re-elected Barack Obama.

Now, I believe in Divine Providence. I was certain that our Creator had a hand in the election results which is why I was disappointed, yes…but not angry or despondent as so many who contacted me. As of this latest news about the General, I have ever more certainty (if you can even increase certainty) that  there is a greater plan at work than anyone yet perceives.

One of the hallmarks of an “ascension” or “expansion in consciousness” is more energy…more Light…more clarity if you will. It becomes increasingly difficult to obscure the illusions usually perpetrated upon us. Which is why I have been saying for several years now, “There are no more secrets.”  What is deceptive and disingenuous will be revealed sooner or later and more likely, sooner.

On one level you have those who like to play in the darkness. They think they can power over others by deceit and manipulation. Hence, the “video caused the Benghazi attack” fiction…until it fell apart. You see, there’s the key. It fell apart.” Why? Because no matter how clever the darkness deludes itself into thinking it is, the Light always has its way.

This affair-driven resignation by General Petraeus reeks of dishonesty. Not the dishonesty to a wife for an extramarital affair bur rather dishonesty to a nation for failure to perform in the function for which he was hired.

Give up AM and FM. Stay tuned to “LM”…the LightFrequency Modulation for the latest and most accurate information on this and other scandals yet to unfold.  You tune in by going within your own  core while connecting directly to The Source of All That Is.

It’s going to be a much more interesting second term than they ever imagined.

 

 

I had many people reach out to me today via email and phone calls to express their disappointment, frustration, depression, anxiety, and even anger over the re-election of President Obama. I have responded in the same way to each of them. Since their range of emotions is likely indicative of all those who supported Governor Romney, let me share my response here for those of you who feel similarly.

There are no accidents. Life has a plan even when we lack our own or fail to recognize the grander one. I see profound meaning and glorious potential in what has occurred.

The Torah, the first five books of Moses, has God on occasion calling the Israelites a “stiff-necked people.” By that is meant that they can be, and at times were, resistant to following Divine Guidance.  I think the word applies to our culture here in the United States.

For quite some time, certainly for the past 50 years, years, we’ve lost our way in terms of prioritizing our values. We became too materialistic, too impatient, too disrespectful of life for both the unborn and the elderly, too condescending to Nature, and too lacking in compassion for our fellow citizens. We look to the state and the federal government to do what is ours to do. We’ve abdicated personal responsibility in so many ways that we’ve forgotten how, and why, to do things for ourselves.

Such behavior is inconsistent with all the great religions of the world and so we have become a stiff-necked people.  Where there is abdication there always follows consequences. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that as government continues to grow and more and more people become externally reliant rather than self-reliant, and the freedom that comes with personal responsibility is eroded to the point that all people feel the constricting arms of dependency…we will awaken. When that occurs, we will have the opportunity to pay the price for the personal liberty we thought we could bargain for nothing. It is good news though.  Such a payment is always worth it and, yes assuredly, there is literally Light at the end of this tunnel.

For those of us already awake, it will be a smoother ride knowing that Divine Providence is driving and has a plan. For those unawakened, the ride will not be without its treacherous moments for a stiff neck takes a greater hit than one that has bent itself to the Will of God.

There is neither rhyme nor reason as to how the November 6^th Presidential election turned out as it did. There will be a variety of hindsight quarterbacking with a variety of causes. Some will say money and a machine bought the win while others that the Republicans had the wrong VP candidate in Paul Ryan. The one certainty is that this is a Nation divided and that division is deep and seemingly irreconcilable.

That certainty is the only thing that matters and it needs to be our unwavering focus.

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Former Soviet Union Premiere Nikita Khrushchev knew it when he said, “You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright; but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you; we will so weaken your economy until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands.” Russian foreign policy expert and former KGB analyst Igor Panarin knew it when he predicted economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he said, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

No? Listen to the Obama supporter who, during the campaign, expressed that she was supporting Obama because “I never thought this day would happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car…I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage…because if I help him he’s gonna help me.”

We have two challenges ahead of us. The first is to quickly educate the American people that throughout all of human history abdication of personal responsibility always ends in bondage. The second is that we are not separate, we are One. Only the illusion of separateness, perpetuated by the few who would have power over the many, can cause us to see one another as adversaries and enemies to be destroyed or upon whom to seek revenge.

It may be too late for the former. It is not too late for the latter and should we get there, be certain there will be nothing and no one left to rebuild or restart.

Personal responsibility and Oneness.  A recipe to save a nation on the brink.

On September 4^th I posted a blog titled “Barack Obama: Father-in Chief” in which I claimed that Barack Obama’s real gifts are as a husband and father. He seems to have a sound marriage and be actively engaged with his daughters, who seem to enjoy being in his presence. As a parent and divorcee, these are no small accomplishments and ones for which success deserves recognition.

Good husband and father… perhaps, mentor.  But these qualities do not necessarily a leader make and in the President’s case these last three and a half years have painfully driven that point home.

Enter Hurricane Sandy.

Much of the mainstream media, as well as some voters, saw the President return to Washington from the campaign trail, don a flight jacket, make a public address, be embraced by a Republican Governor and concluded that the President “acted Presidential.” That conclusion gave him a slight boost in the polling in advance of Tuesday’s election.

I, for one, assert that what the President did in response to Hurricane Sandy was much more in line with his being a good husband and father than it did with his ability to lead, generally. Surely he must be emotionally available or his girls wouldn’t seem as close to him as they do.  So he gets the emotional component of the devastation wreaked by Sandy.  And certainly he’s repeatedly proven he knows how to seize a photo op and manipulate his public image by manipulating the press.

When you combine those two qualities you can see that he responded to the hurricane consistent with who he really is. Which is why on September 4^th I suggested that on November 6^th we send him home to Chicago (or Hawaii if that’s his choice) to be the husband, father and perhaps inner-city mentor to young African- American boys that is so desperately needed.

You see, I’m not interested in someone who can “act” Presidential for a passing engagement…I’m interested in someone who can actually be Presidential for as long as they hold the office.

The President’s response to the hurricane cannot be faulted. Not so for the prior term of his Presidency. Let’s stop thinking in snap-shot size thoughts and broaden our perspective and our willingness to identify patterns of behavior.

That done, there remains only one conscious vote on November 6^th.

Video of the statement of the father of the Navy Seal hero who was sacrificed along with three other Americans in Benghazi.

 

 

There’s a tragic story out of Canada about a teen suicide. It is the latest in the devastating effects of bullying. I found it so ironic that it followed the Vice Presidential debate by two days because, for me, the connection was unmistakable.  No, I am not blaming Vice President Joe Biden for the suicide of a Canadian teenager. What I am calling him on is his modeling of bullying as viable and preferred method of communication.

As a survivor of attempted suicide at age 24, I have a particular sensitivity to tragedies such as the one in Canada. As a talk radio host, I have a need to keep abreast of the news. As a citizen, I have an obligation to be educated, aware and hold my elected officials to a certain behavioral standard of public service and when they fail, to replace them. As a human being, I am personally responsible for not only my own choices but those of others whom I either condone or condemn.

In a nation plagued by bullying, cyber and otherwise, I was shocked and dismayed that in all the commentary and condemnation of Vice President Biden’s shameful behavior during the debate with Congressman Ryan this past week there remains, even as I write, an absence of awareness and identification of the fact that the Vice President was being a bully.

I make this accusation because his behavior was demeaning, condescending, intimidating, designed to make Congressman Ryan look foolish, stupid, out-of-touch and not worth the time or space the Congressman was taking up…in other words…worthless.  That is always a bully’s intention and modus operandi.

When bullies succeed, as they did in Canada, it ends tragically.  When they are rewarded, as would be the case in re-electing Vice President Biden, we validate them, their behavior and abdicate our personal responsibility to stand and say to the perpetrator, “You are the loser. You are the one who is deficient. You are the one lacking in self-respect.  I choose to condemn your behavior and, instead, stand with your intended victim.”

It is, sadly, too late for the teenager in Canada. It’s almost too late for the Nation…but not quite.

I saw President Obama disrespect Governor Romney by refusing to look at him throughout the debate and deeming him not worth the effort to prepare. I saw Vice President Biden disrespect Congressman Ryan by way of interruption and condescension. That’s all I need.

Hope and change?  I have hope and here’s the change we need.

We have a choice on November 6^th.  We can choose to reject the behavior and politics of bullying, name calling and destruction and choose decency instead. By so doing, we will reject the bullies and move toward ushering in a new era of civility in our public discourse. Perhaps when our leaders exemplify respect for one another, our youth will have new models to emulate and the bullies will be relegated to our national dustbin where they belong.