Evolution to Pro-Life

My Pro-Life evolution continues.

Yesterday we received a mailer from Ken Cuccinelli who is running for Attorney General in the Commonwealth of Virginia. From an edited version of an email I sent to Mr. Cuccinelli...

100% Pro-Life?

You proudly proclaim to be "100% Pro-Life" on one page of your recent mailer and yet on another you highlight on the facing page your record as a "Strong defender of Virginia's death penalty". Then later headlined with the title "Defend Human Life" you underline, "Human life is our most basic right, and it deserves protection from conception until natural death". My question is this... How do you hold these plainly contradictory beliefs? To explain... there's nothing natural about a life ending by Execution. Frankly, if someone has committed a crime so terrible the State would consider ending that persons life, is it worth the Millions of dollars from taxpayer contributions to put that person to death?

Even if we were to do so, what have we gained? With such a great cost, what opportunities have we lost?


Position Politics
While Ken Cuccinelli is pointed out in this instance, it's his mailer which illuminates a problem with Position Politics. Republicans and Democrats take up sides and over the course of debate have switched and traded sides as time has passed. One paints the other unfavorably with some brush and the electorate has to choose the lesser of the evils they are presented. A Pro-Life stance and a Pro-Death Penalty position are incompatible with each other if we're honest with ourselves. The Pro-Abortion and Anti-Death Penalty views held together are also incompatible, intellectually.

Intellectual Dishonesty
You have to hold simultaneously that the essence of innocence, life as it is beginning, is somehow less precious than a life which the State might seek to end because of egregious acts committed against others... that's if you are a party line Democrat. On the other hand, saving the innocent and executing the viciously guilty is not a Pro-Life stance. It is a Pro-Punishment position.

Name Calling
Pro-Choice is anything but... Pro-Life is not necessarily.. Pro-Abortion isn't used much and isn't claimed by those who believe in it. But that goes just as well for Pro-Death.

Summary
"100% Pro-Life" means all mankind, to me. I agree wholeheartedly with Candidate Cuccinelli when he stresses, "Human life is our most basic right, and it deserves protection from conception until natural death." He just doesn't seem to agree with himself.

Life without the possibility of Parole satisfies a Pro-Life stance as it assumes God knows better than Man and leaves the ultimate fate of the criminal up to Him.


see you on Tuesday November 2nd, 2010.

e.

From W to Orwell

On the Eighth day of the reign of Obama...

Millions heard the back to back soundbites of the President on the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday. 20 days ago the theme from the lips of the President Elect was that only government can fix the problem... which raised hair on the backs of the necks of centrists and moderates who pulled the lever for the first black elected President. Not to mention the abject fear being realized by more conservative minded Americans. "Only Government..." means more Government. "Only Government" means higher taxes, greater inefficiency, more wasted time and expense of each dollar which is contributed by someones hard work.

Nearly three weeks later, "Only Government..." becomes "only the private sector...". Wellsprings of nostalgia came forth as the Reaganesque words reached the microphone, finally "Hope" for the rest of us. News of recent conversations between the House Minority Leaders and the President revealed the Presidents called for his version of a "Listening Tour" was nothing more than a snatch and grab robbery. Obama snatched the good will of the Republicans by asking for their opinions and ideas for "solutions that work" as he grabbed the language they used to describe the benefit from their perspective. Masterful? No... Orwellian.

When pressed about tax cuts Obama told members of the House Minority, "we have a difference of opinion" and as he explained why he wouldn't be open to tax cuts the President replied,"we won." Fiction becomes Fact as President Obama comes to the podium later and talks about the expansion of government, the largest expenditures in history for a "stimulus" package a so called "Recovery Act" which even the Democrat held CBO says will only stimulate by 12 cents on the dollar and doesn't do even that right away. Fiction is now Fact when he speaks as if he were channeling Ronald Wilson Reagan.

So what is the normal person to do who hears the 7 second clip about the "Recovery Act" when it sounds like it could have been penned by Reagan? "Hey Barb! This guy sounds pretty good after all." Barb yells into the den, "Don't forget to take your Soma, Bill." It is after all the "Hope" and "Change", the dawning of a Brave New World

see you on Tuesday November 2nd, 2010.

e.

Post it Notes

Great Post on the American Thinker by Larry Anderson. The comments section is also full of thoughtful responses. This is where we need to begin the conversation.

e.

Where Wheat Is Seperated From Chaff

Is your Senator or Congressman expressing your views in Washington DC? Try this... go to the American Conservative Union website where they rate the House and Senate members. The website is acuratings.org. There are other sites which craft the statistics to meet their own criteria but the ACU site, as I find it, should serve you well.

Here's where we begin... we have to know where we are.

e.

Start Counting the Days

Okay... now I'm getting hot under the collar.

Everybody is out there already talking about 2012. So we want to muddle through for three years until it's time to elect a President? We choose to simply hand the keys to the kingdom to Obama/Pelosi/Reid ( OPR )? Really?

Remember 2010! All the seats in the House are up for re-election. A third of the Senate is up too. Remember that! Remember that each member of the House is looking at re-election... now! Now it's time we choose a new way. By the time the weakest and the laziest among them figures it out, they should be fighting for their lives in a primary race they can't hope to win... that's unless they get their minds Right. Convert or be Conquered.

Remember 1994. The truth is that the Republicans had great leadership and that's saying something since the elected rank and file had hardly a dozen sturdy spines between them. So we have a model there. Nationalize the election. We have to start now.

It's the Economy afterall! The Media will do what they can to prop up OPR and the Dems as best they can and look to blame anyone with an (R) in front of their name. The biggest target is likely to be Bush. 43 is the personification of Incompetence and the Evil in the modern era, in the 21st Century. But he'll be gone and like OBL will simply be the Boogyman in the shadows. The twists and turns to prop up OPR and the Dems should prove to be funny. I'll let others who consume their time with the daily reaction to the Media roll the tape. We can laugh as they do.

Remember that the Local and State elections show themselves to be a proving ground for the future. We have to win seats on every school board, city council, county board... every elected body in the nation. We have to figure out how to do so. In the meantime, we have to take back our schools from political correctness, liberal textbooks, and corrosive course study. We have to go to every meeting where these decisions take place in every voting district in the land.

The history of politics shows that Conservatives must make hay with the buyers remorse that is already setting in over the selection of the Democrat Party nominee. Barak Obama doesn't even have two years when you start to break down the logistics of the matter. First he has a transition to go through. Granted he seems well aware that he must be up and running come Jan 20, 2009 and seems as if he will be, also. And... to his credit, 43 seems to be making the transition as smooth as possible. In times as we face, an obstructionist program is ill advised. So kudos to the outgoing GWB.

No seats can be safe this time. You may love your guy. Let's face it... everybody loves their own guy. But what has he done for the cause of Conservatism and the upholding of the Constitution. Time to hold all their feet to the fire by running good solidly Conservative opposition.

Remember... the House and a third of the Senate will have to start running after the Summer 2009 recess and by the Fall recess for the "safe" seats. This leaves conservatives a little bit of time. Only a little. With Primaries starting in the Summer/Fall of 2009, we need better candidates! So folks, I hope you enjoyed the Holidays but now it's time to get to work. We're looking at a long row we have to hoe.

Remember... these are TWO year cycles.
two year cycles.... 2 yr cycles...

e.

Let Freedom Dream

"Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York." --Dr. Martin Luther King from his famous I Have a Dream speech.

It's a difficult task to point out in a moment of joy over crossing a threshold many thought impossible in their lifetime, that the same racism beat back by the Nov 4th 2008 election will instead be enshrined by it.

How could one remain unmoved at the tears of joy streaming down the face of Jesse Jackson at the acceptance speech of President-elect Obama in Chicago? The dream of racial equality crossed another hurdle and stands as a great marker in the history of this land. I am proud America has overcome race to the extent we have.

We have not yet attained the high goal set by Dr. Martin Luther King in his famous I Have a Dream speech. We have not. There will for some long time be petty prejudices held by the lesser among us. We can not perfect ourselves and yet we can aspire to be much better.

The Ludlum Elementary School in the Hempstead Union Free School District of Long Island, NY is now called Barack Obama Elementary School. How does this redefine the wishes expressed in the dream of Dr. King? It serves to enshrine racism.

From the AP story which reports the renaming... Officials for the Long Island district say they think the school is the country's first to be named after the first black president-elect, although similar efforts to rename schools, parks and streets are under way elsewhere.

Barack Obama is being honored for the color of his skin, not for the content of his character. It's just that simple. We have yet to see what the man is made of to determine how his character fares.

The office of President for which he will take an oath, Jan 20, 2009 will test him like no other. We can only wish him good luck and the good sense to follow the great guidance that God provides.

Fresh Blood

Had the pleasure of meeting an Iraqi War vet, last night. We had shots of Bushmills over post-election talk and the role of Putin in the future. Great perspective. This guy had come to the USA in the 90's as an immigrant and since has served a couple tours in Iraq. When asked by a self described "moderate" lefty sitting nearby, which did he prefer, Russia or the USA?... he listed all the reasons he's here in America. Lefty didn't get it. He kept asking as if there were the chance this guy who'd fled Soviet style Communism might still long for it. Well you might have guessed as much from a Gore/Kerry/Obama supporter.

For some time the role of immigrants like this proud soldier, especially from the former Soviet Union states has been on my mind. The newly freed are our best reminder of what we have come to take for granted. Or they can be. The sting of real oppression is fresh in their minds.

Our friend Lefty said he is a German-American. His family has been in the US for seven generations. When I pointed out to him that he was an American since he didn't speak German and parents and grand-parents didn't either he realized it was a long time since he considered himself as simply an American. That's really taking what you have for granted.

I want to hear more of the voices of those who are recently freed from oppression. Next time you here an accent which seems unfamiliar, ask about that persons story. So many times you will be amazed at the lengths to which people will go just to have the chance at freedom. It will inspire you.

Remember to thank a Vet for having done that bold work.