Thank You, President Obama

Rush Limbaugh Gives Thanks to the President

Thank You, President Obama

You're Skills as a Community Organizer Paid Off


When a starfish loses a leg it grows a new one.

Andrew Breitbart got up to speak at the National Tax Day Tea Party. He remarked that President Obama had just spoken in Miami at one of those thousands of dollars a plate fundraisers for big Democrat supporters [$30,400-per-couple] [1]. Touting his "middle class tax cuts" and other "promises" he's "kept," he had said the following:

"And so I've been a little amused over the past couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes, taxes," Obama said. "You would think they'd be saying, 'Thank you!'"

So, I really think it's time to say "thank you, Mr. President."

Let Me explain...

Riding up on the bus from Culpeper to Washington we were joined by Richard Viguerie, who has decades of experience electing Conservative candidates. He talked with wonder about the "leaderless" Tea Party movement that Mr. Obama has almost single handedly brought to life.

"For years I've been wanting to see this" Viguerie stated. The problem is not Reid, Pelosi and Obama but the vacuum that our inaction has allowed that permits them to exist. He went on to tell us the story of the Spider and the Starfish:

Cut off the leg of a starfish, it will grow another one. Cut off the head of a spider and you have no more spider. When the Spanish Conqistadores arrived in America they met Montezuma, head of the Aztec Nation. Once they did away with Montezuma the Aztecs were soon no more. The Incas presented a similar challenge. They too fell to the Spaniards.

The Apache Nation, on the other hand was to prove unconquerable. There was no single leader to eliminate. Thus the Apaches resisted Spanish rule successfully for many years.

That, Mr. Viguerie said, is our strength. Alost spontaniously this movement has come to life and it has many creative voices. It's no Astroturf, it's a Prairie Fire! For years, beginning with the Goldwater Campaign, Viguere dreamed of creating a self-energizing popular Conservatism. His direct-mail campaigns brilliantly presented men like Ronald Reagan and helped elect them.

Reagan proved to be one of the few who could keep the message in front of the people. Republicans lost their unique message and lost their mandate to govern in the process.

So Thank You, President Obama, for inspiring so many of us to stand up and do our part to preserve this great and precious gift... America!

Tax Day Tea Party at the Monument

Patriots Assemble in Washington April 15, 2010


The United States Capitol.


Virginia Sovereignty Rally at the Capitol.


Real authority recognized.


Richard Viguerie: "You are the leadership you are looking for."


The Crowd at the Washington Monument.


As evening descends we hear inspiring talks from Michele Bachman, Andrew Breitbart, Lord Christopher Monckton and many more.


Lord Monckton on the Jumbotron.

Tax Day Tea Party Information Kiosk III

Richmond Tea Party Tax Day Rally


Virginia State Capitol.

The day has finally arrived!

We hope you are coming and bringing all your friends, neighbors and co-workers. Please don't miss this amazing event.

Don't let Congress think you have given up after 12 months of fighting. Let's show every politician we are committed for the long haul! Come hear what we are about, what we have accomplished, and what we have planned for 2010!

Here are all the logistics you need.

Kanawha Plaza [click for map] (8th and Canal)Downtown Richmond
5:30 - 6:30pm Music
6:30 - 8:00pm Rally

MUCH louder sound system, porta potties on site this year, and the entire evening is FREE! We will be giving away some free RTP shirts. Be there or be square! Bring the family!
Some of our speakers for Tax Day Rally!

Doc Thompson of WRVA RadioMatt Whitworth of VCUChris Kinsel of American Family Radio
Joe Guarino, RTP Legislative ChairmanDonna Holt of Virginia 10th Amendment Revolution
Colleen Owens, RTP Activist and Tax Day Chairwoman
Patrick McSweeney, Constitutional LawyerChuck Hansen, Motivational Speaker and Columnist
Karen Cooper, Richmond Tea Party Activist
Rich Nielsen, Small business owner
Gilbert Wilkerson, RTP Board Member
Charles Payne, FOX Business News

Tea Party Code of Conduct [click to read]. ht/Richmond Tea Party

Staunton April 15th Rally:
Gypsy Hill Park Bandstand Area-5:30-7:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. Welcome, Pledge of Allegiance, and Invocation
5:40 p.m. Kate Obenshain (Likely topic is corruption)
6:00 p.m. Warren Grant (The Constitution)
6:25 p.m. Dr. Jim Grichar (America's Fiscal Crisis)
6:45 p.m. Charles Kraut (Natural rights vs. Human rights)
7:00 p.m. Ben Marchi (Health Care Reform and other key issues)
7:15 p.m. Former Governor George Allen
7:30 p.m. Closing Message ht/Phil

When Freedom Isn't Free...

In Britain, Compulsory Virtue Stifles Individual Liberty

Theodore Dalrymple [click to read] in City Journal gives us a look into what might be America's future. Acting on your own conscience might put you on the wrong side of the law.

Consider the story of the Wilkinsons, an Evangelical couple who operate a bed and breakfast. They refused to accomodate a homosexual couple because of their religious beliefs. In this case religious liberty was surpressed in the name of political virtue.

"Liberal reformers, who might once have wished to extend the realm of liberty, now wish to restrict it in the name of compulsory political virtue."

"The depressing, and perhaps sinister, aspect of the public commentary on the case is how largely it has ignored the question of freedom. For liberals, it seems, any trampling on freedom or individual conscience is now justified if it conduces to an end of which they approve. Thus liberalism turns into its opposite, illiberalism." -- Theodore Dalrymple

Tax Day Tea Party Information Kiosk II

Virginia Sovereignty March Rally4:30 PM at US Capitol

We will deliver signed copies of the Sovereignty letter from the VA Legislature and signed copies of the Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act to several US Congressmen from Virginia
Copies will also be delivered for President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority leader Harry Reid.

Members of US Congress, Richard Viguerie and Virginia government leaders who had a part in enacting HB10 Healthcare Freedom Act will address us from 5 to 6 PM.

Constitutional Tea Party [click to read] has details.

There is Limited Seating [click to read] on a FREE bus from Culpeper to Washington. When I called to get on the bus they had about 20 seats left. Act fast and don't miss this great opportunity.

Constitutional TEA Party
April 15th TEA Party Rally
Yowell Meadows Park Culpeper, VA
SPEAKER: Michael Farris
HSLDA Home School Legal Defense head and Chancellor of Patrick Henry College will speak on the Sovereignty of the US at 12 Noon
Rally will be from 12:00-2:00


September 12, 2009 at the US Capitol.

Tax Day Tea Party Information Kiosk

Information for Tomorrow's Tax Day Events


December 15, 2009 saw crowds in Washington to protest the healthcare takeover.

Tea Party is from 5:45 to 9:30 pm at the NW quadrant of the Washington Monument grounds directly across from the White House.

Freedom Works [click to read] Official Site for Washington Events.

Metro Map [click to read] to help you fiind your way in L'Enfant's Labyrinth.

Tea Party Patriots Site [click to read]. Listing of events nationwide.


If this is supposed to be an angry racist mob...


...then why is everyone I meet at these gatherings...


...so nice?


September 12, 2009 Had nice people as well...


...all concerned about the direction of the country.

Visit Faces of Freedom Gallery [click to read] to see more Tea Party Patriots and decide for yourself.

Model for Hugh Newell Jacobsen

Riggs Alumni Center, University of Maryland


A few years back we built this model for Hugh Newell Jacobsen's office of the proposed Riggs Alumni Center at the University of Maryland.


Detail of the Riggs Center garden.


The model in its plexiglass case.

"To Illuminate Beauty and Vilify Treachery"

The Mission of Arthur Szyk, Passing the Torch


Arthur Szyk, Artist.

"An artist cannot remain neutral in these times"
-- Arthur Szyk, 1934

Jewish World Review has This Piece [click to read] about an exhibition of the works of Arthur Szyk.

"He was a master of political art, a brilliant draftsman/artist whose evocative works had all the power of Goya's "The Execution" and Picasso's "Guernica." Above all he was the 20th century reviver of the medieval craft of the miniaturists and illuminators of sacred texts, a multi-patriot who devoted his enormous talents to the struggle for freedom and against political evil, an artist who so forcefully depicted the battle to defeat the Nazis and their Axis allies, that Eleanor Roosevelt declared him a "one man army against Hitler." -- Richard Z. Chesnoff

So You Want to Live in Socialist Utopia

It Can be Very, Very Dark There...


North Korea, seen from space at night, stands in stark contrast to its neighbor to the South. NASA Photo.

Encouraging Believers in North Korea

Send a Message of Hope [click to read] to North Korean Christians through Open Doors.

Thoughts on the 'Religious Left'

Dennis Prager Points Out that It is a Belief System

Dennis Prager [click to read] in Jewish World Review makes the astute observation about where religious people who consider themselves 'on the left' actually get their values. During the 2008 campaign I wondered how Donald Miller [1] [Blue Like Jazz] could overlook so many red flags and support Obama. Likewise I was concerned that some left-leaning Christians expressed contempt for America's policy in Iraq but neglected the reign of terror of Saddam Hussein and his barbaric sons. Good history, and good policy, digs deeper.

Prager observes that liberal American Jews, likewise, support Obama even though his policies put Israel at great risk. The President's treatment of Netanyahu and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is totally naive. Ahmadinejad, Obama would have you believe, is a rational man we can negotiate with while Binyamin Netanyahu is a threat to the stability of the region. Never mind that Israel is the one stable representative government in the region and Ahmadinejad states openly that he will wipe us off of the face of the Earth.[2] The Left has its template, firmly rooted in its belief system that sees individual liberty and exceptionalism as obstacles to the progress it desires:

"Leftism, though secular, must be understood as a religion (which is why I have begun capitalizing it). The Leftist value system's hold on its adherents is as strong as the hold Christianity, Judaism and Islam have on their adherents. Nancy Pelosi's belief in expanding the government's role in American life, and therefore her passion for the health care bill, is as strong as a pro-life Christian's belief in the sanctity of the life of the unborn." -- Dennis Prager

It is no accident that Jewish tradition and Christian ideas are wonderfully self-criticizing. The ability to recognize our own shortcomings is rooted in a healthy theology of man. All of us, Scripture teaches, are inclined to sink to our basest instincts. Redemptive Religions contrast human nature with the Divine and establish a benchmark for noble aspirations.

Liberalism retains the self-critical aspect of our traditions but eschews the Divine definition of Virtue. Everything is relative. Right and Wrong are no longer absolutes but somehow society is evolving into something better. We're still wrong, but we no longer have a standard for seeing true evil for what it is. We're no longer permitted to say that one society is better than another, but Western society, according to the Left, is clearly worse.

Without Spititual Boundaries [click to read] to tell us what is truely noble we are left with the need to assign ever more oversight to government.


Paper white daffodils.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day

We Will Never Forget...


Dogwood blossoms.

Today we remember one of the darkest moments in history. We dare not forget it. Nor should we put the least bit of trust in those who would deny it. We must resist with everything in our being those who would repeat it.


Bradford pear.

More Colors of Springtime Appear

Trees are Leafing Out in Brilliant Colors


Japanese maple leaves emerging.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume II, Issue V

Bribery Strikes Out

Bribery and empowerment are two different things. Heather MacDonald [click to read] in City Journal looks at a New York program that 'pays' urban poor to do the right thing. It is modeled [loosely] on a program in Central America that paid rural poor to keep their kids in school rather than pull them out to help with the harvest. As Ms.MacDonald points out, the situations are vastly different.

Poor farmers, who's survival depends on the harvest, are acting in their family's best interest at the moment when they focus on the harvest. America's urban poor, on the other hand, are not driven by such forces.

"The antisocial behaviors that contribute to multigenerational poverty also have nothing to do with suffocating economic pressures: very few inner-city students cut classes or drop out of school to help their parents work; they do so because their peer culture is toxic and because their parents exercise little control over their lives." --Heather MacDonald

Paying kids for good grades or paying mothers to stabilize their lifestyle and keep kids in school may indeed bring short term results but they fail to address the underlying dysfunction that perpetuates poverty in the first place.

A multigenerational underclass seems doomed to perpetually inhabit the deconstructing neighborhoods that once housed our immigrant fathers and mothers. The difference for our families was the strong influence of parents, church, the storekeeper on the corner who knew our parents and spoke to them at church... you get the picture.

Our forefathers worked to give their children a better life and drew us into their dream. They saw their children get more education than they did and build houses in the suburbs. For families who had never owned land in the old country, America offered incredible opportunity.

Sadly, incredible opportunity still exists in America but today's perpetual underclass denys itself the opportunities through peer pressure and disorganization. The success of programs like the DC Opportunity Scholarships should give us reason for hope. The true story of Baltimore Ravens player Michael Oher as portrayed in the movie 'The Blind Side' should suggest a way out of the cycle can be found.

'Organizing for America' and its community organizers will not address the problems. They will simply use people and their condition to usher in their Socialist agenda. Another generation will follow in their parents' footsteps, tied to government programs that purport to meet their needs while tying them to perpetual dependence...

We're America and we can do better.

Southern Republican Leadership Conference

General Session, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal

Today's Session [click to watch].

This is turning out to be a pretty inspirational event!


Governor Sarah Palin.

Creative Construction Capitalism

Creating a Free Market that Empowers Individuals


A dogwood blossom displays balance in design.

Two economic ideologies vie for the right to control the affairs of men. The idea of individual liberty and free markets stands against the ideas of Socialism, Statism and central planning. That the Statist's greatest success story is the old Soviet Union, which replaced a top-heavy aristocracy and serfdom, should give us pause. Clearly free markets are better but the problem of the disenfranchised dogs Capitalism constantly. 'Creative Destruction' which results in more and more disenfranchised citizens can be the vehicle by which Statists rise to stifle the marketplace.

Suzanne Fields writes in Towards a New Capitalism [click to read] that "If market capitalism is to survive the assaults of statists and populists, the former far more dangerous than the latter, we need what might be called a neo-orthodoxy — the development of new adaptations of the basic truth taught by great economists from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes. From these adaptations might emerge a new capitalism, the latest form of this most resilient of economic systems" -- Irwin Stelzer

Ms. Fields points out that: "Both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher accepted aspects of a socialistic past they didn't construct and didn't like because they recognized futile fights in dismantling the past and fertile soil in which to plant their own new ideas."

"Ronald Reagan, for example, accepted advice from Irving Kristol, who told him that conservatives should accept much of the New Deal even though it ran counter to their philosophy because it was now part of the economic architecture of America, "complete and irreversible." Reagan went on to change attitudes and spread a revolution of the values of individual obligation and responsibility."

"Swallowing hard, Margaret Thatcher left socialized medicine in Britain intact, but successfully privatized many of the enterprises Labor governments had stifled under state control. Tony Blair, who succeeded her, made the changes permanent, putting limits on the uncontrolled trade unionism that crippled British initiative and innovation."

Philip Blond may have some insight into how the modern free market may need to provide for people who have traditionally been thought of as the dependent class. Here is a Synopsis of Blonnd's Ideas [click to read]. "Blond told us how it began to go wrong when Disraeli failed to offer an economic stake to the poor. You cannot be a capitalist without capital, you cannot be part of a capitalist society without having access to capital, and in our society a significant proportion of the population will never have this access. During the 1960s and 70s the liberal left tried to pursue social justice through the state. In the 1980s and 90s the liberal right tried to encourage the creation of wealth by getting the state to back the financial market. New Labour tried to find the middle ground between the two but failed to foster a true ‘stakeholder society’. This failure was inevitable as Tony Blair et al were addicted to the liberal political settlement of post-war Britain. Politicians always confuse and conflate the term freedom with liberalism. For Blond, freedom cannot exist unless you have continued access to capital. The ‘free market’ is anything but free. It rigidly serves those who have capital to spare."

Blond offers such solutions as reformatting public assistance so that people and communities have more say in how the monies are spent. Indeed, if one looks at the modern welfare state honestly, it has destroyed community. Even the Soviet-style Le Corbusier blocks of human filing cabinets known as public housing tell this story.[1.] Better results come when people have a stake in their community and resources to invest.

Knowledge is Power

The DC Opportunity Scholarships [click to read], I would suggest, are an example of how Conservatives already own this type of empowerment. They involve using vouchers to enable students access to schools that will give them the tools they need to participate in the marketpace. It is very telling that our Socialist President is against them and most of us Conservatives are for them. Beyond programs like this, might we see new programs in apprenticeship undertaken by industry to bring people into the new market economy.

George Müller's Model [click to read] took orphans and gave them basic necessities, but the vision included apprenticing the boys to local tradesmen at fourteen. The young ladies remained in the homes until they were seventeen and received training as nurses, teachers and domestics. Could we accomplish great things by breaking the monopoly of the academy and providing similar career paths for young people today?

At the very least we should see more programs like the co-op program at Virginia Tech where students in the Engineering department spend a substantial amount of time actually working in private employment. At best, we would see industry create programs within the private sector to meet the challenges of providing an intelligent articulate workforce for the 21st Century.

Failure is Always an Option

The modern attempt to eliminate risk and provide equal but mediocre results needs to be replaced by a true safety net that does not create an entitlement mentality. Compassion will not allow your neighbor to starve but I would argue that compassion also will not allow your neighbor to be warehoused in public housing when he might be building up his community.

In fact, wouldn't charity require that we somehow bring our neighbors into the true spirit that built America, neighbor helping neighbor, working together, bringing in each other's harvests? Now that's an American Dream all of us can relate to.


Split rail fence at Humpback Rocks.

Phillip Blond Speaks [click to watch]. ht/Steve K

Springtime in Jarman's Gap

A Walk in the Woods in the Blue Ridge


New green surrounds a merry stream.


New poplar leaves.


The trail.

Truth, Beauty, Order and Why it Matters

Spring Carries a Divine Message for Mankind


Bloodroot.

The woods have beckoned as the warm Spring brings forth signs of new life everywhere. Buds have grown fat and opened up to reveal flowers and leaves. Predictable, yes, Oaks bring forth oak leaves and dogwoods bring forth their familiar flowers. The lifeless brown world of Winter is invaded by color. We know it is coming and we anticipate it.

Likewise our sacred texts tell us that G-d intends to renew the world. Against the world's sensless violence the Master of all things weaves a story of Divine Love and Renewal. It too is predictable. Read the 60th chapter of Isaiah and Revelation 21 and 22.


Dogwood.


Redbud.


Maple.


Oak.

Census Worker True Confessions

Michelle Malkin Shines the Light on Census 2010

My form is already mailed back. In all I got three mailings from the Census: First was the mailing telling you that the form was on its way; Then I got the form itself and then a follow up mailing to make sure I mailed the thing back. Government efficiency remains safely entrenched as one of the top ten oxymorons. Now the fun really begins as the census workers fan out to find everyone who didn't send in the form.

Michelle Malkin [click to read] has been following the census story. There is certainly reason for concern that the administration may try to tilt the results to help firm up one party rule. That and amnesty are real places for abuse.

Ms. Malkin Also Has This Story [click to read] where the census worker makes confession.

The much trumpeted 'improved' employment numbers reflect the large number of temporary census workers hired.

Who is Manee Singmueangphon?

...And Why You Need to Know

Every now and then I check in on Noam Bedein's site: Sderot Media [click to read] and pray for the safety of the residents of this city in Southern Israel. Manee Singmueangphon is a Thai greenhouse worker who was killed in a rocket atack recently. He worked alongside other Thais and Nepali guest workers in Israel's agriculture industry. He was 33 years old, a husband and father who's death left a grieving family back in Thailand.

Sderot Media Has More [click to read] on the tragic death of Mr. Singmueangphon and why the media needs to get an understanding of the type of terror attacks being made on Sderot by Hamas.

"As long as the world tolerates those Islamic jihadists who fire rockets against innocent Israeli civilians and accepts their legitimization for it, terrorism will continue to strike innocent civilians everywhere. The killing of Manee Singmueangphon by a Gaza rocket should serve as a constant reminder that people of all nationalities are indiscriminate victims of Iranian-sponsored Islamic terrorism."


A child's drawing from Sderot shows
the horror of war.


Sderot children have fifteen seconds to reach this pipe
when the missles start coming in.
Photo courtesy of www.sderotmedia.com

Staunton's Tomorrow

Carl Tate's Vision for the Queen City


Carl Tate, candidate for city council.

Phil passed this along. If you are lamenting the seeming lack of leadership in politics today take another look. Here's one Staunton resident who's ready to make a difference.

Carl was born March 8, 1981 in Staunton, Va and has lived in the Queen City all his life.

He received his high school diploma from Staunton’s Robert E. Lee High School in 1999 and a B.S. in Government from Liberty University in 2003 followed. After graduation he spent three years working on a few local, Republican campaigns in southwest Virginia before receiving a Presidential appointment to the Department of Commerce in 2005. He served in the Commerce Department as a data analyst, where he managed the public email account for then Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

In January of 2007 Carl was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security where he served as a Senior Liaison Officer. As a Senior Liaison Officer, he worked on the Department-wide clearance of National Application Office program, REAL ID implementation, E-Verify and the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Program. In August of 2008, Carl left DHS in August of 2008 to pursue his J.D. at the University of Richmond’s T.C. William’s School of Law.

A Brand New Way for a Brand New Day

By: Carl Tate

Nearly a year ago the American people went to the polls and signaled a desire for “Change” by electing Barack Obama the President of the United States. A mere month ago, the chants of “Yes, We Can” seemed to drown under a sea of tea, as Republicans swept into statewide offices in Virginia and New Jersey.

So what gives? Are the American people schizophrenic? Are they confused? Neither. And no they were not scared into voting Republican by fear mongering GOP operatives lying about the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda. Nor were they lashing out at the excesses of the Washington liberal establishment.

The American people are simply scared. Unemployment continues to tick up, economic growth is nonexistent and wages are persistently stagnant. People are looking for solutions to the problems that affect their everyday lives and they want those solutions as quickly as possible. What they don’t want is business as usual, the same old song and dance – and that’s exactly what they’ve been getting since Obama took office in January. The same Obama who promised them a post-partisan America.

The time has come for a true end to all the petty bickering and fighting in D.C. Our nation faces a crisis of unforeseen proportions – we’re attempting to fight a two front war while in the midst of economic recession/depression while the government is on the brink of taking over the nation’s healthcare system. Politics seems to be getting nastier and dirtier and darker just when our country needs our leaders to pull us together. Our leaders have failed us.

But what is to be done? People – young, old, middle age – need to stand up – be bold, be persistent and be courageous. Speak truth to power. Don’t wait to be led and be disappointed, be your own leader. This country won’t get moving again because of anything happening out of Washington, D.C. or Richmond, VA or Trenton, NJ – it’s because of what happens on Main Street, USA.

This is a Brand New Day, so let’s Come up with Brand New Way of doing Business. A Brand New Way for A Brand New Day.

More About Carl Tate [click to read]. ht/Phil

Why Free Speech Matters in School

Life's Most Powerful Lessons are Not in Academics


Bradford pear blossoms.

Graduation season will soon be upon us. Valedictorians will be polishing their speeches and hoping to share from their experiences to light the way into the future for their fellow students.

But, just as our new 'green' sensitivity mandates low wattage bulbs in literal lamps, look for low energy light coming from our halls of knowledge. Religious messages, even those given in personal testimony, are not welcome. Nat Hentoff [click to read] in Jewish World Review writes about the story of Brittany McComb, 2006 valedictorian of Foothill High School in Nevada.

She was a student who wanted to testify about G-d's influence in her life. "Brittany had been forewarned. Her high school required a prior draft copy of commencement speeches, and censored all references in hers to her religious faith. She went ahead anyway because, as a student of the First Amendment, she knew she was speaking as an individual — and not on behalf of the state as represented by officials of her public high school."

Her microphone was cut. She was not allowed to finish her speech. She knew her rights and brought suit with the help of John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville. The Supreme Court refused to hear her case!

"Thomas Jefferson, in his "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1782), emphasized that the government has no authority over the natural rights of conscience: "The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

The censored Brittany McComb did not injure anyone, but her public high school unconstitutionally deeply injured her free-speech rights — an injury in which the Supreme Court has become complicit."

Or consider the case of Kathryn Nurre of Henry M. Jackson High School in Snohomish County, state of Washington. It was the tradition of the school to allow the school's seniors in the woodwind ensemble to choose a piece to perform. When they chose to perform Ave Marie the school denied their choice. Their reasoning was that someone might find it "offensive."

If "offensive" is the criteria, why is it allowed for an official of the school to contradict parental values and offer, under the umbrella of school sanction, instruction in sensitive matters that might "offend" me as a parent? Why must I not be offended by the inclusion of "Heather Has Two Mommies" in the school library? Most of us do not find the religious practices of each other offensive. If I am in a Muslim country I expect to take the day off on Friday. I do not want people in an official capacity to prostelytize my children but I am not offended when they as individuals desire to speak.

Ms. Nurre's case was ignored by the Supreme Court as well.

Recently someone challenged me about "corporate greed. Isn't that what has brought down our financial system?" Indeed there is much evidence of CEOs who acted immoraly.

I responded: "You tell kids in school that there is no absolute right or wrong. You tell them in college that there is no right and wrong. You tell them that people who believe in absolute right and wrong are intolerant and deny them a platform to speak from... then these young people rise to positions of leadership in industry... AND GOVERNMENT... and they believe that there is no absolute right and wrong. What do you get? When a person's own self-actualization becomes the sole moral imperative, how WILL they decide in those instances we have always considered 'making the tough choices?' "

I went on to point out that Franklin Raines paid himself 90 million in bonuses at Freddie Mac [supposedly a GOVERNMENT corporation] while it was collapsing. Now we want to solve the problem by putting everything under the control of government.

It won't work. The founding fathers knew that liberty would only work when people were morally grounded. They wisely structured separation to avoid a state church but never intended for religious speech to be snuffed out. Such denial of religious ideas can only lead us down the path that Europe has already trod. The modern European lives in a secular vacuum where government is ever empowered to perform the functions that moral people once performed out of Divine instruction. Nature Abhors a vacuum, however. Witness the modern day 'Siege of Vienna" where Turks presently living in the Austian city may accomplish what two military attempts failed to do. [1.]

Home Schooling [click to read] looks better all the time.

Reinvigorating the Value of Virtue [click to read]. "Dangerous"[2.] Homeschooler Noah Riner's speech to the incoming freshman class at Dartmouth.

Spring Color Continues to Unfold

The Best Spring Color Seems to Follow Hard Winters


Azalea and bradford pear.