Big Brother watchin': Southern Style.

Isn't it great how other bloggers can inspire stir critical thinking? Commenting friends at Walt's blog, stimulated my thought as they discussed the sense of over-protectiveness that the Media has about Mr. Obama. They commented that it's almost scary how quick 'they' are to accuse & vilify anyone who even so much as sneezes in Mr. O's direction. I couldn't help but share my $0.02 with them. And you know I've gotta post it here, too.

...Yes, and the Left (Gabriel Range, "Death of a President") can make a film about President Bush being ASSASSINATED; & make a PROFIT from it...But when some redneck in Chatham County, NC has one too many & spray-paints a highway underpass with a veiled threat against BO, the freakin' SECRET SERVICE is called in!! (True. I live in NC & saw it on my 10:00 news last night.) Oh, please, somebody tell me I've landed in Oz...

No kidding, folks. Chatham County's finest, upon seeing the ill-articulated graffiti, called in the Secret Service. You know, the ones who protect the President - who's currently in DC, not Pittsboro or Siler City. Funny, it reminds me of the bartender who called 911 because Jenna Bush was underage & having a beer...This, thankfully, was not in Chatham County (no? really?), nor anywhere in NC.

Where were they when Mr. Range was shooting the dramatization (using real people & a well-crafted plot) of our Head-of-State being murdered?!! It blows the rational thinking mind...

As one of Walt's commenters said, we ought "be afraid; be very afraid..."

~~~

Voices floating across the wind...

Ever had this happen: you have a lurking sense about something, but can’t put your finger on what it is? You’re watching it happen, but can’t seem to describe what you're seeing? Yeah, me too. It's so frustrating not to be able to articulate what you know in your gut, & just as glorious to have your mind freed by the melodic tones of someone who just knows!

Every once in a while I run across a Master Wordsmith who knows just what I’m thinking & has a national stage to speak it. It happened just today. (Get the whole enchilada with the links, but here’s the jist of it.)

Peggy Noonan on stimulus rediculous (emphasis mine):

“Look At the Time”

“President Obama could have made big history here. Instead he just got a win... But do you know anyone, Democrat or Republican, dancing in the street over this? You don't. Because most everyone knows it isn't a good bill, and knows that its failure to receive a single Republican vote, not one, suggests the old battle lines are hardening…Not very inspiring. The president will enjoy short-term gain…But for the long term, the president made a mistake by not forcing the creation of a bill Republicans could or should have supported…

The final bill was privately agreed by most and publicly conceded by many to be a big, messy, largely off-point and philosophically chaotic piece of legislation…This newspaper [Wall Street Journal] argues that only 12 cents of every dollar is for something that could plausibly be called stimulus.”

“There's a broad feeling…that we lived through magic times the past half-century, and now the nonmagic time has begun, and it won't be over next summer…That's what the stimulus bill was about—not knowing what time it is, not knowing the old pork-barrel, group-greasing ways are over, done, embarrassing. When you create a bill like that, it doesn't mean you're a pro, it doesn't mean you're a tough, no-nonsense pol. It means you're a slob. (Oh, no she di'ent!)

That's how the Democratic establishment in the House looks, not like people who are responding to a crisis, or even like people who are ignoring a crisis, but people who are using a crisis. Our hopeful, compelling new president shouldn't have gone with this bill. He made news this week by going to the House to meet with Republicans. He could have made history by listening to them.” (ouch!)

And then Peter Bergowitz on Bush Hater/ObaManiacs & twisted alter egos (emphasis mine, again):

“Bush Hatred and Obama Euphoria Are Two Sides of the Same Coin”

“Now that George W. Bush has left the harsh glare of the White House & Barack Obama has settled into the highest office in the land, it might be reasonable to suppose that Bush hatred & Obama euphoria will begin to subside. Unfortunately, there is good reason to doubt that…these dangerous political passions will soon lose their potency.

At first glance, Bush hatred & Obama euphoria could not be more different. Hatred of Mr. Bush went well beyond the partisan broadsides typical of democratic politics. For years it disfigured its victims with open, indeed proud, loathing for the very manner in which Mr. Bush walked & talked. It compelled them to denounce the president & his policies as not merely foolish or wrong or contrary to the national interest, but as anathema to everything that made America great.

In contrast, the Euphoria surrounding Mr. Obama's run for president conferred upon the candidate immunity from criticism despite his newness to national politics & lack of executive experience, & regardless of how empty his calls for change.”

“In fact, Bush hatred & Obama euphoria -- which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed -- are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred & those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who don’t share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion. Bush hatred & Obama euphoria typically coexist in the same soul.

Bush hatred & Obama euphoria are particularly toxic because they thrive in & have been promoted by the news media, whose professional responsibility, it has long been thought, is to gather the facts & analyze their significance, & by the academy, whose scholarly training, it is commonly assumed, reflects an aptitude for & dedication to systematic study & impartial inquiry.

From the avalanche of vehement & ignorant attacks on Bush v. Gore…to the remarkable lack of interest in Mr. Obama's career in Illinois politics…wide swaths of the media & the academy have concentrated on stoking passions rather than appealing to reason.

Some will speculate that the outbreak of hatred & euphoria in our politics is the result of the transformation of left-liberalism into a religion, its promulgation as dogma by our universities, & students' absorption of their professors' lesson of immoderation. This is unfair to religion.

…By assembling & maintaining faculties that think alike about politics & think alike…our universities cultivate intellectual conformity & discourage the exercise of reason in public life. It is not that our universities invest the fundamental principles of liberalism with religious meaning…Rather, they infuse a certain progressive interpretation of our freedom & equality with sacred significance, zealously requiring not only outward obedience to its policy dictates, but inner persuasion of the heart and mind. This transforms dissenters into apostates or heretics, and leaders into redeemers…” (That's gonna leave a mark...)

And now back to little ol' me...

When you see your own previously-unsorted thoughts right before your eyes, written from someone else’s mind, “it’s like the galvanizing encouragement of hearing voices floating across the wind, when you fear you’re stranded in the valley. It’s the hope that spurs your search for them, the joy of recognizing their language as your own, & the assurance that settles deep in your soul when you find that you are, indeed, not alone.” (Okay. Please forgive a nascent wordsmith for quoting herself – I’m really sorry, it just seemed to fit the moment)…

It’s a glorious sensation really, like a thrill running up my leg, that – if people with bigger, smarter, more respected voices than yours keep talking - maybe, just perhaps, things might eventually be okay after all.

Let’s hope, & let's pray.

~~~

To Whom it May Concern (aka Evidence)...

A gentle, 4 minute reminder of whose fault is whose...




...and evidence that the MSM suckered the American public with Bush tied to the whipping post. Wake up, friends. Then speak up.

~~~

Memo to DCCC: I don't want Obama to succeed either...

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched an assault against Free Speech. Make no mistake, their current 'online petition' against Rush Limbaugh is nothing but an effort to lay groundwork for resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine. But my friends, I'll say it here - and run no risk of Big Brother stifling my political speech (yet...) - I'm with Rush. I don't want President Obama to succeed. That may seem rather unpatriotic. Trust me, I'm one of the more patriotic people that I know (& I know some real red-white-&-blues). However, at this point, I believe I'm taking the most patriotic position.

Hear me...I'm not saying that I want our government to come crashing down. I'm not saying I want Mr. Obama to fail as a President in the eyes of the world, or even in the eyes of our people. What I am saying (& what Mr. Limbaugh was saying, too) is that I want his agenda to fail. Oh, how I want his agenda to fail...

I want his anti-capitialist, income-redistribution-socialist, pro-abortion, dismantle-traditional-marriage, environment-before-common-sense, foreign appeasement , terrorist-assuaging agenda to fail...and fail miserably. That would be best for our country. I desperately want what's best for our country.

There, I've said it . Enjoy your afternoon.

~~~

Farewell Mr. President, and thank you.

My friend, Nicole, sent this to a group of us yesterday. It's from the Time White House photo blog site, so I couldn't get the video to paste (if anyone knows how to post video from sites other than Youtube, please teach me!). This link will take you to a lovely photographic essy of George W. Bush as captured by the Time photographers over the past 8 years.

Enjoy!

~~~

Big Dreams, Fairy Tales & once upon a time...

Friends, the TV hasn't been on today, & it won't be (except TV Land) until Biggest Loser/American Idol tonight. I simply can't stomach it.

My kids are home from school playing in the snow. I'm blogging. My friend Sandy just called. She's at home w/ snow-day kids, too, & has been watching it. She says she can't suffer anything but Fox News. She says Network coverage is ripping Bush to shreds, saying he's leaving office "disgraced" (yes, that's a quote). Excuse me? Disgraced?? Who do these people think we are, that their propaganda-passing-for-news really has a finger on the pulse of the nation...?

Based on Network News (& cable, or any form mainstream Journalism) you'd think that Mr. Obama won the election by 98% of the vote. You'd think we're all raging & frothing at the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. waving torches & brandishing firearms (the ones we'll soon have to surrender to Big Brother) to drag our erstwhile President into the streets. According to sweet Sandy, who has a stronger stomach than I, you'd never know that "55 million people voted for a Republican [i.e., against Prince Obama] despite the worst economic times since the '30's," despite 2 wars which the MSM can't stop telling us are dreadfully unpopular, despite a Republican Presidential candidate who rolled over & wouldn't fight the campaign fight...Even with all of that, Prince O. only won 52% of the vote...Folks, it should have been a landslide. (I know, I know, some say it was...dear, deluded souls that they are.) But, alas, a win's a win. And here we are at Inauguration Day.

If I've learned one thing in the past 6-8 months, it's to no longer believe the media. Don't trust what they say, but sift through it very carefully. And in some situations, like today, just don't even go there. Sometimes it just drips too thickly of tainted syrup, & I get cranky trudging through molasses uphill.

So, I'm taping it. It's history, after all & I get that. I respect our country's foundational principles, & today is the end result of those principles at work. I also respect the Civil Rights victory that this day represents. I understand that he embodies a victory for Dr. King's Big Dream for his people (though, Prince O. isn't really one of those people, is he?). And I really am thankful.

So, I'm taping it. Because I will want to see it, sans commentary & media effusiveness. I will want my children to see it, sans the same. My husband & I will make sure our children know, despite our vehement political differences w/ Mr. O, that this is an historic event & it is important. Our children will someday be able to say they saw it, the same way I can say that once-upon-a-time I saw Prince Charles & Lady Diana's wedding at 00:dark:thirty on a bleary-eyed summer morning. I only saw it because my Grandmother hauled me out of my kinder-dreams & propped me in front of her beach-house TV (complete w/ tin foiled rabbit ears). Today's inauguration will mean about as much to my children as Lady Di's dress meant to me so long ago. But they'll be able to say they saw it.

Funny. There's one thing I do remember about Charles' & Di's wedding. The media salivated & effused over that too. They could hardly contain themselves over the "fairy tale come true." They said it represented every little girl's Big Dreams - she landed a real-live Prince! So much Hope for the British people! So many Big Dreams it represented for the entire world! It's really too bad, actually...As much as that media machine tried to convince the world otherwise, in the fullness of time, Lady Di's Prince showed himself to be exactly what he had been all along - a Royal Toad.

~~~

For such a time as this...

Hi friends~

I started this blog because of Sarah Palin. Not because she's a smart, lovely woman who had a meteoric rise in politics. Rather, that she gave me hope that the voices of millions of conservative women (including mine) would finally be heard on women's issues. She gave me hope that conservative women could now join in the Women's Conversation of our time, & that the Left would no longer monopolize "issues that women care about." Get the Big Idea sprang forth - for better or worse - & then big ideas began to build. At the risk of sounding quirky (again...) I believe that God continued to whisper through "Read My Lipstick", "The Big Ben Silent Minute"& other small incidents.

Then, remember a few weeks back, when I found myself at a loss for words? I have continued find myself at a loss for words in recent weeks, not really knowing where this is going...where the proverbial ball of this-season-in-my-life is rolling. I know God has a perfect plan, but I'm a little fuzzy on the particulars lately, & that gets a little uncomfortable from time to time. (Can anyone relate?)

Here's the thing about trusting God, the notion that He has designed each of us for this generation, for this very time in history, for His purpose: I get it with my head (& occasionally I really get it), but when the details get blurred by life, trusting can take on a certain gritting of the soul. It's in these times that I find myself surprised by the tenderness of God's voice (like in the Dec. piece). Sometimes I find myself waiting, only to learn that "being still & knowing, staying & resting" is the point. And even if I don't see clearly, God is there; always moving & working toward His purpose for my life. And - if I pay attention & listen - I just may catch a vapor of His Spirit passing over me.

One such vapor passed me two days ago. I've had a desire to be in a study, & I've certainly been seeking God's purpose. On the "upcoming studies" table @ church, the Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman study nearly leaped off the table into my arms. I know Esther's story: a woman who had a destiny; & even when she seemed powerless, God used her toward a profound purpose.

I signed up immediately. If anyone can teach about purpose, it's Esther! This was God's gift to me, & I know the Word will speak about living "for such a time as this."
Here's the promo video:

Beth Moore's Esther, Web Promo from LifeWay on Vimeo.

God is continuing to work, friends, in the seen & unseen. I know it. We all are here "for such a time as this." We all have a voice & God intends to use it!

~~~

It's dog time!

I've found myself a friend, folks. You all have probably known her for a while, but she & I are just getting to know one another. Almost as importantly, we're getting to know our canines. Yep, you read it - DOGs! Frasy had a post yesterday about her dog, 'Frasier.' Go on over & see it b/c he's a Jack, & they're the coolest breed known to man.

Maybe you've seen my sidebar, w/ pics. of our Otis (if not, scroll down for a peek). Frasy inspired me to post about Otis, bringing him out of the sidebar & into the mainstream. Here he is on a hunt for moles in the back yard:



Otis loves to go to the races, & he's done it a few times at this little community festival where the Jack Russell people (the ones who are far more into the breed than us) set up the course. It's great fun! I wish I had video of O. racing, but it's just so fast, we didn't get a chance. Here's a video that I found on youtube that shows a little of what racing is like. (Beware, these are dogs gone wild!!)



Okay, so maybe now I've gotten that out of my system...

~~~

Themes

Projection (& I hope I’m wrong): They’ll only learn if & when they start whining to DC for a bailout…

I’m into themes lately; broad sweeps of identifiable motifs, recognizable variations of the same point at issue.

In an early post in November, journalism in decline became a focus of the ‘Just Say It’ theme. I don’t recall precisely what prompted that particular piece of literary eloquence. It could’ve been any number of things, given it’s proximity to the Presidential election defeat. (I confess, I was a little testy then, & easily egged-on…and I did submit that letter to the Editor.) However, today is a new day, & I’m revisiting this issue with renewed clarity, having found fresh inspiration.

Author Jerry Bledsoe’s interview with his publisher about his book Death by Journalism? revived the theme for me yesterday. This 2002 book tells the story of journalistic abuse of power at the Greensboro News & Record, which arguably led to the death of the subject of it’s alleged abuse. The interviewer goes to a question about media bias as chronicled in Bernard Goldberg’s Bias, & Mr. Bledsoe answers with pristine clarity:

“The amazing aspect of this is that so many in the news media simply can't, or won't, recognize the bias that has been so transparent to so many of their viewers and readers for so long. That was more or less Goldberg's position. The way the media reacted to his book, though, is quite telling. They either ignored it, dismissing it out of hand, as they do most claims of bias, or they responded with ridicule and vicious personal attacks instead of addressing the legitimate issues he raised.”

Such was the point of the Nov. 10th post . The Editor had bemoaned the loss of readership, which forced job cuts, and wondered ‘why…why-oh-why??’ I considered my letter to his staff a courtesy, a nudge toward the truth about “the bias that has been so transparent to so many of their viewers and readers for so long.”

I’m not surprised, but still a little disheartened, to report that my letter to the Editor was never printed. Thankfully, I wasn’t a victim of ridicule or attacks like Goldberg, just the ‘soft bigotry’ of having my views ignored & dismissed, even by my local media. So much for the editorial page of newspapers being an open forum for voices of the community…

The newspaper industry won’t get it until the community to which they profess dedication disappears from their ‘accounts receivable’ legers once & for all. Enter my projection (here's hoping I'm wrong). They’ll go the way of banks & automakers: scheming to suck the tax payer dry for a bailout of their ignorance. I’m into themes lately, but frankly friends, “poor-us-we-need-rescue-because-we-didn’t-serve-the-public-well” is a theme that’s getting really old.

~~~

Epiphany 2009

Epiphany: 1) the Christian festival commemorating the showing of Jesus to the Magi, celebrated on January 6th (Oxford Amer.); 2) a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (Merriam Webster).

Today is 'Epiphany' - per definition #1.

I trust that everyone has had a full and Joyous Christmas season & a Happy ringing-in of 2009! It has been a while since I've posted, but Christmastime around our house is - well - busy & full. (Many of my die-hard blogging friends haven't missed a stroke of the keyboard. I'm amazed at their stamina...I must confess, I can only multi-task just so many things! If you've happened back by this blog, I'm GLAD you're here. If you're here for the first time, the same goes.)

Back to Epiphany.

Last week, I was reading Jerry Bledsoe's The Gift of Angels. Jerry Bledsoe is a North Carolina writer; a "local". He's well known for his chilling 'true crime' stuff, but this book is a poignant story of his adult search for a childhood friend. As the prelude to the book's "part 2", he quotes part of the Prayer of St. Francis . I've seen & read this prayer before, but for some reason, I was struck in a new way as I read these words,

"...Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive..."

I'll call my being 'struck' an epiphany (definition #2). See, I've read & even prayed this prayer before. But in 2009, and today on Epiphany, I'm moved to try & live it. No short order, I don't think. It'll take a lot of other prayer to try to live this one.

I guess that's what my epiphany was: to try & live each day with a deeper trust & understanding that Christ has come, is here among us, & is ever-present. That I'm seeking Him. And, to celebrate - not just on January 6th, but every day - that when I seek Him, He will be found. Hallelujah!

But, isn't that the point of Epiphany anyway? The Wise Men, the Magi, trusted & understood that Emmanuel was a reality, & they sought Him sight unseen. And He was found.

Praise be to God!

~~~