Independence Day!

Yesterday in church we sang “America the Beautiful” for our opening hymn; I don’t think I’ve sung that fully since grade school. As you may have guessed, I have a few thoughts.

The first verse, we’ve all heard, I’m putting an asterisk at the beginning of the chorus: 

“Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain! *America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” 

The second verse is where it gets interesting:
“Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness!

*America! America! God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.” 

Do you see it? It’s almost a prayer! “God mend thine every flaw”

As if to say “We know we’re not perfect, but we implore God to make us better!” 

Ok, let’s go on:

“Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life! *America! America! May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.”

There it is again, this time, a hope that God will refine us and make us the best we can be! 

Now the fourth verse:

“Oh beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears! *America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” 

The expectation of the future; we will grow and prosper in our freedom, and not even the grief we may experience will dim the light of our Republic. 

Now I’m fully aware that you may see these verses differently; that you may not have the same message that I got today; but the spirit bore witness to me today of the greatness of this country, of the Divinity of our Constitution and the exceptionalisim that is the United States of America, and I needed to share that with you. 

As a Latter-day Saint, I know that the Constitution of our Republic was inspired of God; that our Heavenly Father raised up wise men for the very purpose of forming this country.

Brigham Young said “The form of the government of the United States differs but little from that of the Kingdom of God.” (Thank you DoriAnn!)
When Isaiah prophesied about the Savior’s birth, and said the “government will be upon his shoulders”, most people look at that as meaning during the Millennial era; I think it means that, of course, but I believe it also means now, today. We have the document, a sacred document, to rule ourselves in a Godly fashion.  We need to take more time, more care in defending and preserving and restoring that sacred document. 

Let the words to the sacred patriotic hymns buoy you up, fill your soul with love for the Constitution and our Founding Fathers. They’ve left us a legacy that is hanging by a thread; let’s not let it break.

Hip Hip Hooray!...or...What Now?

A Florida judge, today,  ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional; the cheers here were loud and clear!

Here is a link to the entire ruling:

Florida vs. the US Dept. of Health and Human Services et al

I have not read it all, but a friend highlighted this particular section and I thought it was an excellent analogy:

Pg. 42:

"It would be a radical departure from existing case law to hold that Congress can regulate inactivity under the Commerce Clause. It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power”[Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564], and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended. See id. at 592(quoting Hamilton at the New York Convention that there would be just cause to reject the Constitution if it would allow the federal government to “penetrate the recesses of domestic life, and control, in all respects, the private conduct of individuals”) (Thomas, J., concurring)."

As it stands now, two for and two against; this will surely go to the Supremes now. If we are to save the Republic, prayer is in order. We are a nation in peril, we must raise our voices to our Heavenly Father; He alone has the power to sway the court for Liberty.

Agenda 21

Please, please take time to watch this video and do some research on "Agenda 21". The U.N. has wrangled it's way into our lives more deeply that we had imagined, and our freedom is at stake.
This video is a compilation of speakers, expounding some of the points of the Agenda 21 manual. This is frightening stuff, and we must work diligently to remove the United States of America from the grasp of the One World Government bent on controlling our existence, indoctrinating our children and swallowing up our autonomy.
Please, get involved; write letters, attend a Town Hall, make calls to your government representatives; you can't afford to let someone else handle your Liberties.

What Has America Become?

I found this letter to the Editor on Facebook, but was unsure of it's origins; I Googled it, and found it to be real.
I've posted it in it's entirety, and want to thank Mr. Huber for articulating this so well.

What has America Become?

Has America become the land of the special interest and home of the double standard?

Let’s see: If we lie to the Congress it’s a felony and if the Congress lies to us it’s just politics. If we dislike a black person, we’re racist and if a black person dislikes whites it’s his First Amendment right. The government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and does almost nothing for the victims. In public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK but you’d better not use the word “God” in the process. You can kill an unborn child, but it’s wrong to execute a mass murderer.

We don’t burn books in America — we now rewrite them. We got rid of the communist and socialist threat by renaming adherents “progressives.” We are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea. If you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your First Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the Internet, but you’d better not put a Nativity scene in a public park during Christmas. We have eliminated all criminals in America — they are now called sick people. We can use a human fetus for medical research, but it’s wrong to use an animal.

We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don’t want to work. We all support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology. We still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct. Parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games. The land of opportunity is now the land of handouts. The similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.

And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who’s at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes, and tells us the problem is solved so incumbents can get back to their reelection campaigns.

What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?

© Ken Huber, all rights reserved.

Old Glory

Today is Flag Day; a day to honor the symbol of our freedom.
I love our flag and a get a catch in my throat during the Processional, whenever the flag is brought out.

I’ll not bore you with my heartfelt feelings for the flag; instead I thought I’d give you some quotes and thoughts from others through the generations. They’re in no particular order, but I’ve loved each.

Each piece is left with the original punctuation-you have no idea how I long to fix the punctuation!

“O Beautiful Banner”
Concord Song from "A Book of Songs," 1924
Homer H. Harbour and Birdsall Otis Edey

O beautiful banner all splendid with stars,
That in the breeze is flying,
Proud emblem of the free!
My heart and hand salute you,
Dear flag of liberty.
From ocean to ocean you brighten our land,
O'er prairie, forest, mountain,
Superb against the sky.
Oh flag for which men labor!
Oh flag for which men die!

“It was God Almighty w ho nailed our flat to the flagstaff, and I could not have lowered it if I had tried.”
Major Robert Anderson

“One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation evermore.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“In all the world there is not such another flag, that carries within nit’s emanations of hope, as our dear old American flag, made by, and for liberty, nourished in its spirit and carried in its service; it’s priceless value cannot be estimated, wherever our flag has gone, it has been the herald of a better day; it has been the pledge of freedom, justice, order, civilization and of Christianity.”
J. C. J. Langbien

“Twine close around your hearts each thread of our country’s flag, that dear old flag which has so often led us to victory. Its stars and stripes have waved in triumph from the snow of Canada to the burning sands of the Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. They have waved over the halls of Montezuma’s and over every portion of the great seas, leading the brave and the free to victory and glory. They waved over our cradles, and let us ever pray that they may wave over our graves.
“What lessons we may read in our country’s emblem. Its white teaches us of purity of purpose; its red typifies the blood which has so often and freely been shed in its defense; and its blue, with its constellation, reminds us of the starry canopy of heaven, behind which is the eternal camping ground, where the pure and good, when discharged from service here, are mustered into the mighty army of the saints which guards the throne of the Most High God.”
R.S. Robertson, Fort Wayne, IN

“Today the flag of our country floats over a land undivided, a Union saved, a government vindicated, a people free. As it waves above us in the calm atmosphere of peace, it seems transfigured by the mighty deeds that shed upon it unfading glory, and clothe it with an influence that shall one day loose the bands of despotism in other lands than ours, and open the gates of power throughout the world to the triumphant march of human freedom.
J.M. Craveth, Lansing, MI

I wasn’t going to include “The Star Spangled Banner”, because I believe you all know it; however I recently heard someone sing the fourth verse, and I was moved to more tears, and felt it needed to be shared.

The Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I leave you with a piece by Johnny Cash that I love:

That Ragged Old Flag

May God continue to bless America.

Mark Levin with Neil Cavuto

Mark Levin, Constitutional laywer, explains exactly why this health care monstrocity is not Constitutional. It's about 5 min, and it's worth listening to.
He points out that what they will be sending to the president's desk won't even be a bill.

The American Trinity

The American Trinity is an idea that needs to spread. It's not a theological idea, but the ideas that make America unique.




Thank you Mr. Prager, and Amen.

Sad Day for America

Today our elected officials have robbed us, and our posterity of their future financial security and numerous freedoms as well.
The great French political economist Fredric Bastiat, in his work "The Law," calls taxation "legalized plunder". After today I know fully what he means. The Stimulus Package was passed in all it's bloody glory.
This will not be a good thing for this country. This will not be a good thing for the rest of the world. Socialism marches forward.

Two good things may come from this however: When it fails, no Republicans will be culpable, and therefore able to remind them they asked for a better way, and it will be a lightning rod for the Democarts, their constituents will hopefully complain in droves.
This indeed could bode well for Conservatives everywhere.

NO Republicans voted for this egregious trampling of our Liberties, and eleven of the Democrats also saw reason.

Please write to them. 177 Republicans voted no; it may be too hard to write to EACH of them, but write to YOURS, or better yet, CALL them. The White House Switchboard number is 202-224- 3121. Then, Please, call ALL of the Democrats as well!! We have to let them know they did the right thing. It can be a form letter, a call, whatever, but THANK THEM! They did good, and need to be reminded.

Obama thinks because he won the election that it means everyone is ready to play his game.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
He won the election because: 1.) It was a vote against Bush, and 2.) He's Black.

If you take the very large percentage of blacks and Hispanics who voted FOR Proposition 8 in California, it will give you some idea of the magnitude of the problem. Blacks and Hispanics came out in overwhelming numbers to vote FOR Obama. They also vote in overwhelming numbers to uphold the sanctity of Marriage between a man and a woman. This leads me to the conclusion that just because they wanted a black man in the Oval Office, it doesn't mean they agree with him. So, Obamas supposition that because he won everyone else needs to do it his way is the biggest fallacy on the planet at present--aside of course from Al Gore's scare tactics, but that's another post, for another day :)

So my request to everyone is to please write. Write to every Democrat who voted no. Write to your Republican representative. Thank them for their common sense and ask them to stay the course.
The eleven Democrats are listed below. These should be hot links to their own pages.
Allen Boyd, Bobby Bright, Jim Cooper, Brad Ellsworth, Parker Griffith, Paul Kanjorski, Frank, Kratovil, Walt Minnick, Collin Peterson, Heath Shuler, Gene Taylor