CovenantNews.com

Thanks Be To God For All Good Things

John Lofton / The American View Radio:
This program discusses: The first "Thanksgiving;" several past Presidential Thanksgiving Day Proclamations (there was a significant omission in President George H.W. Bush's 1992 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation); and - no surprise here - how the current President Bush, in his 2008 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, calls us a "democracy" which - thank God - we are not! - since our Founders feared and hated democracy. We are - or at least were founded as - a Constitutional representative REPUBLIC.

Five Sundays To Nationalization

Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
As a conservative, I grew up in the threat of socialism: the nationalization of the tools of production. What no one warned me was that this could be accomplished by way of a unique form of nationalization: the nationalization of insolvency. We have lived through this process in 2008. The process will continue for several more years. Insolvency is being transferred from the banking sector to the government sector. How much insolvency? So far in 2008, the government and the Federal Reserve System are on the hook for as much as an additional $7.7 trillion.

On Praying For Civil Magistrates

Darrell Dow / The Backwater Report:
Over at Baptist Press, Curt Iles writes that he learned to pray for presidents and other earthly political leaders from his grandfather: "My maternal grandfather, Sidney Plott, taught me to pray for our president. In all of my years of memory - from President Dwight Eisenhower to the end of George H.W. Bush's term - he always prayed for the president. At every meal, he sincerely asked God's blessings and guidance on 'Our President.' It didn’t matter who occupied the White House, 'Grandpa Sid' believed Scripture mandated prayer and respect (Romans 13:1), and he faithfully prayed it until the very day of his death." Yet this text like Romans 13 has been distorted. Here Paul is commanding believers to intercede on behalf of Caesar. It is Christians who are a royal priesthood crying out to God on behalf of The Man. In the Roman era intercession was a royal prerogative. In short the claim made by Christians was seen as sedition in the eyes of Rome.

F.O.C.A. - The Tyrant's Will

Art Helms / The Covenant News:
Speaking at the 2008 Denver Democratic National Convention, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that the party is united in supporting abortion rights, and that the right to abort a pregnancy is one of the party's "core moral values." That plank of the ratified platform states: "The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay." Therein lies the crux of the abortion issue.

Will America Survive? Soon We Shall Know

Alan Stang / NewsWithViews.com:
The event that will determine whether or not this nation survives was not the popular vote for Illegal-Alien Elect Hussein. It will be the decision the U.S. Supreme Court makes on whether he is eligible to serve. Some people in the other branches have said the Constitution is dead. The late Republicrud Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois – a purported "conservative" – said as follows: "The Constitution is old and needs to be rewritten."

Washington Old Guard Wins on Gates

Brent Budowsky / Consortium News:
Despite Barack Obama's emphasis during the campaign on the importance of showing sound judgment about going to war, judgment here is not a factor. Both Defense Secretary Gates and Sen. Clinton were wrong on Iraq early and long. As the President-elect moves to fill these and other top national security jobs, other qualities don't appear important either, like loyalty, clarity and principle. I must dissent.

Robert Gates: As Bad As Rumsfeld?

Ray McGovern / Antiwar.com:
"As Bad As Rumsfeld?" The title jars, doesn't it. The more so, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates found his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, such an easy act to follow. But the jarring part reflects how malnourished most of us are on the thin gruel served up by the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM). Over the past few months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has generated accolades from FCM pundits – like the Washington Post's David Ignatius – that read like letters of recommendation to graduate school. This comes as no surprise to those of us familiar with Gates' dexterity in orchestrating his own advancement. What DOES come as a surprise is the recurring rumor that President-elect Barack Obama may decide to put new wine in old wineskins by letting Gates stay. What can Barack Obama be thinking?

Iraqi Parliament OKs US Troops for 3 More Years

The Associated Press:
The long, costly story of American military involvement in Iraq moved closer to an end Thursday when Iraq's parliament approved a pact that requires all troops to be out in three years, marking the first clear timetable for a U.S. exit since the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. The vote for the security deal followed months of tough talks between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators that at times seemed on the point of collapse, and then days of hardscrabble dealmaking between ethnic and sectarian groups whose centuries-old rifts had hardened during the first four years of the war.

Related:
Iraq’s Status of Forces Agreement Narrowly Passed
Antiwar.com:
Numerous vote delays to allow time for extra politicking, a deal for a referendum next year to placate the major Sunni bloc (the Iraqi Accord Front), and last minute endorsements from the IAF, the National Dialogue bloc, and the Iraqi Communist Party seem like a recipe for success for Iraq’s controversial Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States. And indeed, the pact managed to sneak through parliament today with 149 votes in the 275 member legislature, narrowly finding the simple majority the government argued was required but falling far short of the two-thirds majority Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was hoping for and some constitutional experts had argued was needed.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

The Covenant News Thanksgiving Page:
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Thanksgiving and Marginal Utility

Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever (Psalm 136:1–3) This phrase appears in many of the psalms, but when you find the same phrase three times in a row, you can safely conclude that the writer was trying to make a point, and he thought the point was important. I know of no passage in the Bible where any other phrase appears three times in succession.

War on Thanksgiving, and Christmas

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
It's that most wonderful time of the year again. The time when Americans gather round the fireplace and tell tales of a time when Christian holidays were not a spurned tradition. It's a time when secularized college kids come home for turkey, dressing, and debate with their parents over the racist and theocratic history of American lore. It's a time of national debate, as disgruntled minorities whine incessantly about the offense of Christian America's last vestiges of religious tradition. It's a time when there are clear signs of the end of an era. Ho, ho, ho.

Jefferson's 'Wall' Not In Constitution

Daniel Dreisbach / The American View:
On New Year's Day, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, endorsing the persecuted Baptists' aspirations for religious liberty. The First Amendment, he wrote, denied Congress the authority to establish a religion or prohibit its free exercise, "thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." In 1947, the U.S. Supreme Court "rediscovered" Jefferson’s metaphor: "In the words of Jefferson," the justices declared, the First Amendment "erect[ed] 'a wall of separation between church and State' ... [that] must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach." This landmark ruling in Everson v. Board of Education had enormous repercussions for the role of religion in public life.

Christianity and War

Laurence M. Vance / LewRockwell.com:
On June 8, 2008, Laurence Vance gave the following speech at the Future of Freedom Foundation's conference Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties. Laurence M. Vance writes from Pensacola, FL. His latest book is a new and greatly expanded edition of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State.

Officials: Obama to ask Gates to stay at Pentagon

The Associated Press:
Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist Defense Secretary Robert Gates as head of the Pentagon - if only temporarily - and has chosen a retired Marine general to be White House national security adviser, officials said Tuesday. Gates and retired Gen. James Jones would bring decades of experience to the administration of a 47-year-old commander in chief who campaigned on a pledge to redeploy combat troops in Iraq within 16 months while simultaneously ramping up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Shlaes - The Forgotten Man

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:
I just finished Amity Shlaes "Forgotten Man." If you only have time for one book on the Depression I would recommend Jim Powell's "FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression." Still Shlaes book is quite good and comes to many of the same conclusions, even if she is far more gentle and circumspect in reaching them than Powell.

The FED Bail Out Rich Arabs In Citigroup

Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
For several days there was a fierce national debate over whether American car companies in Detroit deserved $25 billion of taxpayer money and whether American jobs should be saved. The automakers and a union representative were ridiculed, didn't get the money, and were told to come up with a "plan" to save the companies. After backing the $700-billion Wall Street bailout, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News said Detroit didn't deserve any federal money because the car companies had been mismanaged. This was a point made by many in the media. But Citigroup got $20 billion over the weekend from the Treasury Department without any national debate or discussion at all.

The FED Makes It Easier To Go In Debt

Mark Felsenthal / Reuters:
The Federal Reserve threw a massive life-line to consumers on Tuesday with two new programs aimed at making it easier for them to obtain loans for homes, cars and on credit cards. Under the new mortgage program, the Fed will buy up to $100 billion of debt issued by government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. It will also buy up to $500 billion of mortgage securities backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. The central bank also launched a $200 billion facility to support consumer finance, including student, auto, and credit card loans and loans backed by the federal Small Business Administration. This will lend to investors who hold securities backed by this debt.

Credit Card Piracy

Banks have played a large part in helping Americans to collectively achieve $850 Billion in credit card debt. Yes, hard working Americans make the decision to get into debt. But, it's the banks that enabled them to.

Watch "Secret History of the Credit Card" on pbs.org for background on how the U.S. banking industry enslaves Americans.

'Secret History Of The Credit Card'

PBS - FRONTLINE:
It's one of the most wonderful times of the year for the banking industry's most lucrative business: credit cards. In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will reach into their wallets and use plastic to buy an estimated $100 billion in holiday gifts. But at what cost? In "Secret History of the Credit Card," FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.

To My Readers: Thank You

Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
America's history is replete with expressions of thanksgiving. In our giant collection of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS (which we are now shipping, if anyone wants to order them), we have included The First Thanksgiving Proclamation. On June 20, 1676, by unanimous vote, clerk Edward Rawson was authorized to proclaim June 29 as a day of corporate thanksgiving. The proclamation says, in part: "The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour ... [T]he council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."

'Truth about the Confederate Battleflag'

Pastor John Weaver / Georgia Division - Sons of Confederate Veterans:
Pastor John Weaver is a native of Georgia, and a graduate from Bob Jones University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology and attended graduate school. He has been in the Christian ministry over 40 years. During that time, he has pastored, and helped plant several churches and Christian schools around the country. Pastor Weaver has traveled across America preaching and lecturing in churches, colleges and conferences. His knowledge of biblical truth is enlightening and greatly needed. Like Paul, his goal is to preach the whole counsel of God, something that is sadly missing in today's pulpits. If you would like to listen to the CD, click either High Speed Connection (DSL, cable or satellite) or Dialup modem below.

Who is Sovereign?

Darrell Dow / The Backwater Report:
Richard Land has written a column criticizing gay marriage advocates who are petitioning the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to define marriage. Land rests his argument on the alleged sovereignty of the people and even goes on to quote that great sage, St. Abraham. You know that whole "of the people, by the people, for the people" stuff.

The Bailout Surge

Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
This week the bailout of the Big Three automakers was under heavy consideration in Congress's lame duck session. I have always opposed government bailouts of private organizations. Back in 1979 Congress had hearings about bailing out Chrysler and I was on record pointing out that these types of policies are foolish and very damaging to the long term economic health of our country. They still are.

Fight the Power: End the Fed

Anthony Gregory / LewRockwell.com:
Based on a talk given outside the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, on November 22, 2008, during the first national End the Fed Rally, the grassroots protest at every Fed office and bank in 39 cities all over the United States. Last month, Alan Greenspan told a House panel that the current financial crisis has shown he had "made a mistake" in trusting the free market to regulate itself. As a true free marketer, I took offense at this. Here he was, the former head of the Federal Reserve, the governmental monopoly of the money supply, implying that what he had championed was free-market capitalism.

Chalcedon Position Papers

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Chalcedon Vice-President, Martin Selbrede, has prepared several position papers for the purpose of addressing pertinent issues facing the Christian church. These are in PDF formats that can be downloaded and printed for wider distribution.

Unwarranted Violence

William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
Government, as we must never forget, is force. And as Simone Weil so memorably observed, force is that mysterious influence "that turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing. Exercised to the limit, it turns man into a thing in the most literal sense: it makes a corpse out of him." Every government function, no matter how mundane or apparently harmless, carries with it the implied (and often overt) use of lethal force against those who do not submit.

Update on the FLDS Child Kidnapping

Gregory A. Hession, J.D. / The New American:
You may remember the spectacle of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) authorities removing 468 children from a west Texas religious community, based on an anonymous complaint of child abuse in April of this year. Using tanks and assault weapons, the child protectors invaded the property of the parents, and removed the children from their parent's care all through a terrifying night.

Do Presidents Have the Right to Kill?

James Bovard / The Right Source:
Should the president of the United States be exempt from both American and international law? Few people would instinctively say yes. But, in actual practice, presidents of the United States have been legally untouchable for most of the past century for the foreign killings they ordered. Even when their orders resulted in the killing of vast numbers of innocent people, it was almost never suggested in this country that the president should face charges for war crimes.

America's Forgotten Freedoms

Infowars.com:
A survey by the First Amendment Center in the US has reached the shocking conclusion that most American citizens don't know the five basic freedoms enshrined in the constitution. The study found that no more than 3% of Americans remember "petition" among the First Amendment's five basic freedoms. However, freedom of speech was remembered by the majority of respondents - 56%. The others freedoms enshrined in the constitution appeared to have made little impression: freedom of religion was named by 15%; the same percentage remembered press freedom as a constitutional right while just 14% knew they had a right to assembly.

The Lesser Magistrate Doctrine

Pastor Matt Trewhella / Mercy Seat Christian Church:
This sermon sets forth a little-known Christian doctrine, but one which is of huge importance for Christians, magistrates, and the people of our nation to understand. This doctrine stands as a check against tryanny in a nation. Given the dire state of our nation, that makes understanding this doctrine of paramount importance.

Related:
Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants
Attributed to Philippe Duplessis-Mornay (1549-1623) and Hubert Languet (1518-1581). Published in Amsterdam by Valckenier in 1660. The authors of "the Judgment and Decree of the university of Oxford, Passed in their Convocation, July 21, 1683, against Certain Pernicious Books and damnable Doctrines" included Vindiciae contra Tyrannos among those contemporary books to be burnt for including the proposition "That if lawful governors become tyrants, or govern otherwise than by the laws of God and man [as] they ought to do, they forfeit the right they had unto their government."

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Maryland State Song Correct - Lincoln A Despot

John Lofton & Pastor David Whitney / The American View:
On this program, recorded on November 19, the date in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln delivered the "Gettysburg Address," co-host John Lofton and "Institute On The Constitution" Senior Instructor Pastor David Whitney examine and analyze Lincoln's record of despotism and tyranny. You'll hear H.L. Mencken's comment that the "Gettyburg Address" was, in effect, a lie because it was Union soldiers who fought against self-determination. Also discussed: Lincoln's racism; his anti-Christianity; and a couple of books you can order that tell the truth about "Dishonest Abe."

Team of Liars

Thomas J. DiLorenzo / LewRockwell.com:
For the past several months the media have reported stories of how much President-elect Barack Obama admires the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns-Goodwin, the theme of which is what an incredible political conniver, manipulator and string puller Abraham Lincoln was. Goodwin uses more euphemistic language, but that indeed is the theme of the book by the confessed plagiarist Goodwin.

Obama's Plan for 'National Service'

Alex Newman / The New American:
A key platform of Obama's campaign is an effort to increase Americans' willingness to serve the government, along with more federal funding for service programs. "I won't just ask for your vote as a candidate," Obama told a group of Iowans in December of 2007. "I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States." In his "Blueprint for Change," Obama and Biden outline some of the major components of their plan in this regard.

Obama Service, aka Involuntary Servitude

Chris Brown / LewRockwell.com:
In my experience, most people seem to enjoy freedom. And yet it would appear most people fall prey to any government euphemism for slavery. Many even vote for slavery, albeit under a different name. This includes under the name of "service."

Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood's Racist Founder

American Life League:
The Smithsonian is honoring one of the 20th century's most notorious eugenics proponents, Margaret Sanger. American Life League exposes Sanger's racist plan to create a "master race."

Brainwashing Children Through Social Science

Erica Carle / NewsWithViews.com:
We have founded the new Science of Sociology, and as a deduction from Sociology, the Universal Religion. Auguste Comte, System of Positive Polity. The final blow was inevitably given to Theology . . . when the establishment of my system of Sociology cut from under it its old title to teach Morality and direct Society. In a word the new doctrine will institute the worship of Woman, publicly and privately, in a far more perfect way than has ever before been possible. It is the first permanent step towards the worship of Humanity.

Christian Website Owner `Forced' to Cater to Fags

LifeSiteNews.com:
A New Jersey gay has won a settlement forcing eHarmony.com, a leading dating website founded by Christian Dr. Neil Warren, to offer homosexual dating services through an equivalent website, entitled "Compatible Partners." Some pro-family voices are critical of the settlement decision, saying Warren kowtowed too easily to homosexual pressure. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth wrote a strongly-worded letter to Dr. Warren chastising him for having "sold his soul (or at least eHarmony's)." "You could have set an example to Christians and freedom-loving Americans everywhere by fighting on principle for your company's First Amendment right not to be bullied into submission by a politically correct state bureaucracy," said LaBarbera. "Instead, you capitulated.

Related:
Lawsuit Settled Against eHarmony, Class-Action Lawsuit Looms
Sodomite Publication: Feminist Majority Foundation
A lawsuit that charged online matchmaking service eHarmony with discriminating against gay and lesbian individuals was settled yesterday. As part of the settlement, eHarmony will release a new website, Compatible Partners, an online dating service specifically for same-sex couples, according to The Wall Street Journal. The suit was originally filed by a gay individual who alleged that eHarmony had violated his rights under New Jersey’s discrimination laws by omitting sexual orientation as a factor. Though the New Jersey suit is now settled, a California Superior Court judge ruled yesterday that a separate case against eHarmony can proceed as a class-action lawsuit. According to PC Magazine, this suit will allow individuals who were denied service from eHarmony on the basis of sexual orientation since 2004 to join the case.

Obama to Delay Sodomizing U.S. Military

Rowan Scarborough / The Washington Times:
President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say. Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said.

Haggard Returns, As 'Christian' Businessman

The Associated Press:
Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard. The former superstar pastor, disgraced two years ago in a sex-and-drugs scandal, had returned - this time as a Christian businessman preaching a message that was equal parts contrition and defiance. Haggard linked his fall to being molested in second grade and apologized again. His two sermons were posted, fleetingly, on Haggard's Web site under one word: "Alive!" While his exact plans remain unclear, Haggard is unmistakably making himself a public figure again, nine months after his former church said he walked away from an oversight process meant to restore him.

Bob Jones U. Sorry For Past Racism

Jeffrey Collins / The Washington Times:
Bob Jones University has apologized for racist policies including a one-time ban on interracial dating that wasn't lifted until nine years ago and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971. The private fundamentalist Christian school founded in 1927 in northwestern South Carolina said its rules on race were shaped by culture instead of the Bible, according to a statement posted Thursday on the university's Web site.

Economics, Justice, and Modern Preaching

Martin G. Selbrede / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Our nation's economy, like that of many other nations, has long been motivated by essentially economic forces. The architects of modern economic policy revel in the manipulation of such forces. Such manipulation always entails a dance near the edge of self-destruction, as our economists’ mumbling about maintaining a knife-edge balance between conflicting forces cannot help but underscore.

Against the Auto Bailout

Ron Paul / LewRockwell.com:
Although I was not in Congress when either the Lockheed or the New York City bailouts were enacted, I would have opposed both of those actions, as well as the proposed action regarding Chrysler, for many of the same reasons. Let me explain those reasons.

Listen to:
Lew Rockwell Interview Peter Schiff:
How the Government Wrecked the Economy
The Lew Rockwell Show
Lew Rockwell podcast interview with Peter Schiff.

Deal Reached on Auto Bailout?

Jonathan Karl / ABC News:
A deal has been struck in the Senate on a compromise bailout plan for the Big Three automakers. However, it is still unclear whether this will pass the Senate, and, if it does, whether it will then pass the House. The agreement was hammered out by Republican Senators Kit Bond and George Voinovich, who were working with Democrat Carl Levin. An auto industry source said the deal would use money from the $25 billion Congress made available to the automakers in October for fuel efficient vehicle programs.

Supreme Court to Review Barack's Citizenship

Bob Unruh / WorldNetDaily:
A case that challenges President-elect Barack Obama's name on the 2008 election ballot citing questions over his citizenship has been scheduled for a "conference" at the U.S. Supreme Court. Conferences are private meetings of the justices at which they review cases and decide which ones to accept for formal review. This case is set for a conference Dec. 5, just 10 days before the Electoral College is scheduled to meet to make formal the election of Obama as the nation's next president.

The Coming of Mahershalalhashbaz

Douglas W. Phillips, Esq. / Vision Forum Ministries:
What's in a name? Maybe more than you realize. Your parents give you many things, but one of the most important is your name. You begin and end your life with it. It is the one moniker that you carry with you all the time, wherever you go. It never leaves you.

Are You Going to Ethiopia Again?

David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
I've been teaching fulltime now for some 33 years, beginning with my alma mater, Biola University in Southern California. But for the past several years I've also been a fulltime "missionary." This is not merely a matter of semantics. By mediating scholarship and service, I'm trying to cope with the incessant tug-of-war between the classroom and directly facilitating the Great Commission.

From Mission America: Angry Homosexual Mob

Pass the Salt Ministries:
Watch this amazing video and listen to this angry mob surround these mild-mannered Christians. If the police hadn't come, what would have happened? And they are ironically yelling, "Shame on You!" That's what the homosexuals in SF who tried to disrupt our Folsom Street press conference yelled for 40 minutes. What is so threatening about a small group of peaceful Christians to the homosexual mob? It's the power of God to save...and they prefer hell.

ATF Infringes People's Rights

Gun Owners of America:
Last month, we told you how the ATF was trying to prevent the distribution of an electronic 4473 Form. This software has been developed by a private firm, Coloseum Software Corporation, and is intended to protect dealers against the "mistakes" that have allowed the ATF to prosecute or harass them into giving up their licenses. GOA issued a grassroots alert in mid-October explaining how the ATF had been dragging its collective feet for months -- keeping Coloseum from distributing its software, even while the ATF was developing its own competing software (and possibly, violating the copyright which belonged to Coloseum).

Now The Military Receives Forfeiture Kickbacks

Mark Nestmann / Nestmann Blog:
Asset forfeiture is a hugely profitable enterprise for city, county, and state governments, and the federal government as well. In the most-abused type of forfeiture--civil forfeiture--you need not be accused of any crime to lose your property. Instead, police allege that your property was used illegally, and then seize it. Unless you jump through a series of legal hoops, you’re not even entitled to a judicial hearing to determine if the seizure is legal. In the meantime, you’ve lost the use of your property.

How Obama Got Elected

HowObamaGotElected.com:
On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.

HowObamaGotElected.com

Anarchy Has Come

Coach Dave Daubenmire / NewsWithViews.com:
President Bush reportedly said that the Constitution was "just a G-D-n piece of paper." It is hard to believe that the report is true, but you would have to admit that recent happenings in this once-great Constitutional Republic reflect the opinions of many in power in the nation's capital. Despite what you might hear on the news, or out of the mouth of our elected officials, America is not a Democracy. In fact, according to our Founders, a democracy was the worst form of all governments.

Hamilton's Curse

William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
After examining the legacy of the first U.S. Treasury Secretary in Thomas DiLorenzo's timely and indispensable new book Hamilton's Curse, one might be forgiven for wishing the deadly round fired by Burr's pistol during the 1804 duel at Weehawken had found its target two decades earlier, or that Hamilton -- who displayed genuine valor as an artillery officer in the War for American Independence -- had died heroically on the battlefield before laying the foundations of the corporatist system under which we now live.

Should We Worry About Deflation?

Doug French / LewRockwell.com:
There is now world-wide worrying about price deflation again. After all, real estate prices have sunk, stock prices have hit the ditch, the price of oil has the sheiks concerned, and even Las Vegas hotel room rates have plunged. Sounds like all good news for those of us who buy things, at the same time being a bit of a bummer for heavily indebted sellers. ... Yes, the current economics brain trust is worried that consumers will collectively show the good sense to delay purchases, pay down debt and increase their savings (Read: Consumer Prices Drop Most In 61 Years). After all, this liquidation of malinvestments will likely take awhile. The prudent thing to do in times of uncertainty is not to ramp up debt and spend money you don't have.

Not All News Is Bad

Lew Rockwell / Mises.org:
The headlines say that a deal to bail out automakers stands little chance of success. One might hope that common sense alone would have killed it (it's never a good idea to throw good money at failing enterprises), but the Democrats are citing intense Republican opposition. So too for the "stimulus package" that contains a long list of bad ideas, almost like a recipe for prolonging the downturn: bailouts, welfare, unemployment subsidies, union privileges, and other devastating devices. Now the package is being considered largely dead.

Understanding the 'Monster' Fed

Ludwig von Mises Institute:
Alan Greenspan is not happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you'll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

For a higher-def version of this classic film on the dollar-depreciating, boom-bust factory called the Fed, go here.

Soros Think Tank Becomes Obama Policy Front

Bloomberg:
Three blocks from the White House, on the 10th floor of a sleek glass building, young workers pound at computers, with giant flat-screen TVs overhead. It has the look and feel of a high-tech startup. In many ways it is. The product is ideas. Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration.

Military 'Atheists' Want New Rules On Prayer

Leo Shane III / Stars and Stripes:
A coalition of atheists and agnostics wants the new White House to protect young military members from what they see as rampant religious discrimination in the services. The Secular Coalition for America held a news conference Monday urging new rules against proselytizing and more training for chaplains on how to handle nonreligious troops.

Can Obama Call Himself a Christian?

Christianity Today:
Cathleen Falsani interviews Obama: FALSANI: Who's Jesus to you? (Obama laughs nervously)
OBAMA: Right. Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher. And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

Obama's Church Choice Likely To Be Scrutinized

The Associated Press:
Churches in the nation's capital have started extending invitations to President-elect Barack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself. The choices are abundant. Numerous, thriving congregations are an easy walk from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Just across Lafayette Square from the White House is St. John's Church, an Episcopal parish known as the "Church of the Presidents," where presidents as far back as James Madison have worshipped. St. John's has a standing invitation: Pew 54 is the President's Pew, reserved for the nation's leader.

What Is Patriotism?

Ron Paul / LewRockwell.com:
"The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his country to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state. Resistance need not be violent, but the civil disobedience that might be required involves confrontation with the state and invites possible imprisonment."

It Takes More Than a Theory (Part 1)

Gary DeMar / American Vision:
In what way is the State to "bow to His ordinances"? Where are these ordinances found? "For matters which relate to its own domain as State, it is bound to the Word of God as the Church or the individual." For [Henry] Meeter, a "State is Christian" when it uses "God's Word as its guide." [Part 2]

Same-Old-Same-Old Two Party Charade

News Wire Service:
The Constitution Party, America's fastest-growing third party, points out that Monday's meeting between president-elect Barack Obama and former GOP rival John McCain shows the striking similarity of both candidates when it comes to the issues. Obama promised that his meeting with McCain was to "have a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country." Constitution Party National Committee Chairman Jim Clymer said, "It's ludicrous to hear Obama say he and McCain can talk about "fixing-up" the country when both these candidates supported the disastrous so-called "bailouts" which can do no such thing."

Now What?

Mary Starrett / NewsWithViews.com:
There is no sugarcoating the results of this election. Obama's been elected, and short of a victory in the court challenge of his citizenship status, we will see this man sworn in as president in a few short months. If you’re like me, you’ve vacillated from disbelief to despair to anger to ennui. Much like the four stages of grief- denial (he couldn’t possibly wind up winning this election) bargaining for time (the current lawsuits over his eligibility) anger (how could the American people be so blind?) finally, acceptance (ok, he won, now what?) Now that we face the unthinkable, we have to do just that. Stop and think about what to do next.

Obama Advisers: Bush Era War Criminals Will Walk

Prison Planet:
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture, a war crime. Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, the advisers said that the plan is to put a stop to current interrogation methods and to "look forward" as opposed to focusing on prior transgressions.

Dick Cheney & Alberto Gonzales Indicted

The Associated Press:
A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers. The indictment, which had not yet been signed by the presiding judge, was one of seven released Tuesday in a county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles in recent years. Another of the indictments named a state senator on charges of profiting from his position.

Sparks Fly As Sodomite Mob Swarms Christians

Chelsea Schilling / WorldNetDaily:
Residents of homosexual district: 'We're going to kill you. We know who you are'. Hundreds of homosexual activists rushed out of bars and swarmed a group of Christians who were singing songs in San Francisco's Castro District – and some even threatened to kill the worshippers. A group of Christians had been singing and praying in the "gay" district for several days, but they never expected an angry mob would run them out. However, that's what happened Friday night.

Paster Proclaims The Power Of Sex

Paul Proctor / NewsWithViews.com:
The Dallas Morning News recently reported the following in an article titled Grapevine pastor wants married couples to have sex every day for a week: "God may have rested on the seventh day, but the Rev. Ed Young wants married couples to have sex all week long. Once a day. Beginning this Sunday. The call to action will headline his sermon that day at Grapevine-based Fellowship Church. He plans to deliver his challenge while sitting on a bed." Here we have another pragmatic preacher from a seeker sensitive church competing with the culture for our attention by presenting a tantalizing topic that is sure to tickle the ears. And, considering all the press he has received thus far, it appears to be working – but maybe not the way he planned.

Focus On The Family Eliminating 202 Jobs

Bill Reed / The Gazette:
Because of a weak economy and cash-strapped donors, Focus on the Family said it is eliminating 202 jobs, the deepest cuts in the 32-year history of the Colorado Springs-based Christian nonprofit. The ministry laid off 149 workers, and cut another 53 vacant positions. The cuts announced Monday slash Focus' local workforce by nearly 18 percent - from about 1,150 to 950. Twenty percent of the cuts are in management.

ORU to Lay Off 100 Employees

The Associated Press:
Oral Roberts University will lay off about 100 employees, days after it agreed to a near-$450,000 separation agreement with its former president who resigned amid a spending scandal. The layoffs represent roughly 10 percent of the university's work force, but the school did not specify which departments would be targeted.

Is The Bible True Or Are Christians Arbiters?

Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News:
When poured into a sea of lies truth is dangerous and upsetting. The bearer can expect personal vilification -- how dare he write such things! I have never known nor had contact with a White Supremacist but one Agnostic accused me of being one and more than one "Christian" took me to task. "Acumen on Empty" was a controversial essay. Most Christians are not Bible-wise and leaders who are Bible-wise often evade difficult doctrines.

Make Yours A Patriotic Christmas

Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
A few years ago, I sadly discovered that it was next to impossible to find our nation's great historic documents together in one volume, so we decided to fix that problem. It took us a full year to research and compile over 50 of our country's greatest historical documents, but we did it! Now you can have these great documents at your fingertips in one beautifully bound, easy to read format. This compilation includes the documents that gave birth to the greatest free nation on earth. Nowhere else that we know of can you find these documents, complete in one volume, under one title.

Barack Obama Is An Uncle Tom

Dr. Patrick Jonston / Right Remedy:
Uncle Tom was the figure in Harriet Beecher Stow's famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Instead of resisting the enslavement of his race, he helped his slave-owners maintain their control over the lesser field slaves. Uncle Toms would be useful in mistreating and punishing the other slaves, and would receive preferential treatment for it. Obama's an Uncle Tom. Obama has officially consorted with Planned Parenthood in the slaughter of millions of black babies, and in office he plans to expand the reach of the child-killers. ... Barack Obama is the Uncle Tom of Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger, who had as their mission to "exterminate the Negro population."

Counterfeit Marriage And Its Counterfeit Movement

Matt Barber / Ether Zone:
With a unified voice amplified several million-fold through the ballot box megaphone, African-Americans have spoken on the issues of marriage, family and human sexuality. Whether young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican, blacks are justifiably fed up with the deceptive antics of the self-described and craftily contrived "gay rights movement." For decades now, well-organized, well-funded and highly influential "gay" political pressure groups have, with impertinence, hijacked the language of the authentic civil rights movement. In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, self-styled "queers" have disingenuously and ignobly hitched their lil' lavender wagons to a movement which, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice [sic].

Restricting Freedoms and Choices

Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
As the financial sector continues its tailspin despite efforts to bail out Wall Street, among the few gainers in recent stock trading have been those companies looking for a new "shot in the arm" with government funding from the next administration. With its strident rhetoric toward reestablishing the so called "pro-choice" agenda, the incoming administration has threatened a whole host of policies that would not only reduce restrictions on abortion, but would actually force people who wish to avoid participating in the procedure to support it.

The Triumph of Imperial Christianity

Laurence M. Vance / LewRockwell.com:
John McCain may have lost the election, but some of his core beliefs are alive and well among the majority of conservative Christians. True, some of these Christians had their doubts about the genuineness of McCain’s pro-life position, his devotion to real conservative values, his faithfulness to the Constitution, and his commitment to reducing wasteful government spending, but there was one principle that they were sure of: McCain is a war hero who served his country in the military, supported the war in Iraq, and would make an ideal choice for a commander in chief to lead the U.S. military in the perpetual war against Islamofascism.

Throne Language for the Postmodern Prince

Dr. Albert Mohler / AlbertMohler.com:
HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, turned 60 last week. This makes Prince Charles the longest-living heir to the throne in British history. It also raises the question of whether he will ever be king. After all, if Queen Elizabeth II lives only as long as her mother, that means adding another twenty years to her reign. The Man who Would Be King would then be 80 himself. The math is not on his side. Even so, the Prince has been working on changes he proposes to the 1953 Royal Titles Act. The most significant proposal is this -- Prince Charles, if crowned as King, wants to be known as "Defender of Faith" rather than "Defender of the Faith." This represents a seismic shift, but it perfectly fits the postmodern Prince.

Bailout Bonuses For Investment Bank Execs

CBS News:
One of the recipients of the taxpayer bailout is still struggling. CitiGroup said Monday it plans to cut 53,000 jobs by early next year, one of the largest layoffs ever by an American corporation. And what about the big bonuses Wall Street executives count on at this time of year? Despite massive layoffs, dismal earnings reports, and a rescue check from the federal government, CBS News correspondent Priya David reports Wall Street investment firms still plan to hand out roughly $14 billion in year-end bonuses.

Obama, McCain Bury The Hatchet

The Associated Press:
No longer foes but not yet allies, President-elect Barack Obama and John McCain buried their bitter campaign in public smiles and searched for common ground in private on Monday, discussing possible collaboration on climate change, immigration, Guantanamo Bay and more. The 40-minute session at Obama's transition headquarters, their first meeting since Nov. 4 when Obama handily defeated McCain, was just the latest effort by the president-elect to heal wounds from the long and bitter campaign and seek help from his former rivals.

Earthquakes Strike in California

San Diego Union Tribune:
Two small earthquakes struck in North County within hours of each other Monday morning, shaking parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. The first quake, which was reported at 4:35 a.m., was measured at a 4.1 magnitude, and a second, 3.8-magnitude earthquake was reported in the same location about five hours later, at 9:41 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

One World Religion?

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
[Karen] Armstrong's wish is to combine universal principles of respect and compassion into a charter based on a "golden rule" she believes is at the core of every major religion. The Golden Rule essentially calls on people to do unto others as they would have done unto them. "The chief task of our time is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony," Armstrong said.

Sooner Than We Thought

Yuri N. Maltsev / LewRockwell.com:
The new Obama regime is taking shape in Washington and provinces eager to take power and secure the "change you can believe in" using humungous propaganda machine of both government radio and television and still privately owned, so-called "mainstream media." These private networks are competing with National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in praising Obama’s first choices from his new dog to his new chief of staff. The thought scene in the US today resembles that of Russia in 1917, Cuba in 1959 or China in 1948. Incessant calls for "unity" and "fairness," attacks on "divisive," "toxic" and "hateful" language are nothing new – they resemble Germany of 1932 and Venezuela of 1996, today’s Putin's Russia and Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Acts 10:34 & Cognitive Dissonance

Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D. / NewsWithViews.com:
Concerning Obama's transition team, given the importance of Pakistan today, it's interesting that 4 of the 15 transition team members thus far are Indian-Americans (remember Obama carries a replica of the Hindu monkey god idol in his pocket). And Obama’s choice for chief-of-staff is Rahm Emanuel who was a director of Freddie Mac "when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency," according to ABC News. Also regarding Emanuel, there's a question of why, given Obama's criticism of "Wall Street," he would pick a chief-of-staff who had received millions of dollars in contributions from those in large investment and private equity firms as well as those in hedge funds.

What Congress & The Media Won't Tell You

Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
This is the latest on the Obama citizenship crisis and then some research resources for you on major issues. In my last column, Part II, was devoted to the growing crisis over Barack Hussein Obama refusing to prove he is a natural born citizen; see here. You can get involved with the effort to contact electoral college delegates to stop their vote on December 15, 2008 by clicking here; those links are identified as such.

Bretton Woods II-No Way

Patrick J. Buchanan / VDARE.com:
"Laissez-faire is finished, the all-powerful market that is always right, that's finished," said Nicholas Sarkozy, speaking ex cathedra, last month. As a result, said the diminutive French president, it is "necessary to rebuild the entire global financial and monetary system from the bottom up, the way it was done at Bretton Woods after World War II." Sarky's history is a bit off. The Bretton Woods Agreements were actually signed in July 1944, when German troops still occupied Paris, a month before France was liberated by the Americans, who let Charles de Gaulle and the Free French do the honors. Our European friends seem positively giddy about this weekend's meeting in Washington, where they hope to impose upon us a new world economic order like the one we imposed in 1944.

Iran Switches Reserves To Gold: Report

Reuters:
Iran has converted financial reserves into gold to avoid future problems, an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in comments published on Saturday, after the price of oil fell more than 60 percent from a peak in July. "With the plans of the presidency...the country's money reserves were changed into gold so that we wouldn't be faced with many problems in the future," presidential adviser Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi was quoted as saying by business daily Poul. (Has anybody seen Iranian gold coins in circulation yet? The LRC Blog)

Freddie Asks U.S. Taxpayers for $13.8 Billion

Dawn Kopecki / Bloomberg:
Freddie Mac, seized by the government two months ago, asked the Treasury for $13.8 billion after a record quarterly loss caused its net worth to fall below zero. The mortgage-finance company, which had a net worth of negative $13.7 billion at the end of the third quarter, said it expects to receive the money by Nov. 29. The net loss widened to $25.3 billion after the company wrote down tax assets and providing for bad mortgages and securities, Freddie said.

Officials: Bailouts Must Come With Strings

Rex Nutting / MarketWatch:
President-elect Barack Obama said that the auto industry needs federal help, but any rescue should come only if the industry makes major changes. Obama said any assistance should be conditioned on "labor, management, suppliers, lenders -- all of the stakeholders -- coming together with a plan: What does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?" In a lame-duck session later this week, Congress will look at providing additional money to the automakers beyond the $25 billion already authorized to help them build more efficient vehicles. ... In an interview on the ABC program "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that even state and local governments need to "prove that we have our fiscal house in order" to deserve federal money that may come in the next stimulus package.

Congress Wants Your Retirement Plan

Mark Nestmann / Nestmann Blog:
Bailing out Wall Street, not to mention paying for promised benefits to Social Security and Medicare recipients isn't cheap. Neither is fighting two wars on the other side of the globe. Nor is national health insurance, one of the cornerstones of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. How can the government pay for all these promises when deficits are at an all-time high, and in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s? One pool of capital is an increasingly tempting target to congressional do-gooders: your retirement plan.

Related:
Confiscation of IRAs and 401 (k)s
By Michael S. Rozeff / The LRC Blog
"Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration." So reads a press account. Congress already mandates Social Security and Medicare. It already restricts financial freedom with all the rules and taxes on investments and IRAs. Seizure of pension and IRA assets is a logical extension of its power, which it will pursue as far as it can. And if enough people gain from this seizure and the patsies (victims) are powerless to stop it, it will happen.

Second G20 Summit Planned for London

The Independent:
World leaders pledged Saturday to cut taxes and boost government spending (print money out of thin air) to drag their economies out of recession, and to begin work on a new system for regulating the battered global financial system. The heads of 20 countries, meeting in Washington, endorsed a series of broad goals to fend off future economic calamities and to revive economic growth. They are expected to reconvene in London in April, with the incoming US President, Barack Obama, to decide on longer-term measures.

Cursed California Burns

Chris Woodyard / USA TODAY:
Gusty winds driving the wildfire that has destroyed more than 800 residences across Southern California from mobile homes to millionaire mansions and led to the evacuation of thousands of anxious residents this weekend were expected to subside today, giving firefighters a needed break. After a night of carnage, crews were assessing damage from the most worrisome of blazes that started in the inland community of Corona and drove a path of destruction through housing tracts in Yorba Linda and the Anaheim Hills. On Sunday morning, the fire was threatening tracts in the Chino Hills area.

Related:
LA Times Blames 'Global Warming' for The Curse on California
Instead of God's Just Wrath for the People's Deviant Behavior
Margot Roosevelt / Los Angeles Times:
Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires -- climate change in California could be expensive. For the first time, the costs of global warming's projected effects in the nation's largest state have been quantified: About $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires, with a projected annual price tag of between $300 million and $3.9 billion, according to a new report, "California Climate Risk and Response," written by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst.

Schwarzenegger Tells Homosexuals: Don't Give Up
Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Sacramento and Lake Forest -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already wed would not see their marriages nullified by the initiative.

Schwarzenneger Says Prop 8 Could Be Overturned in Court
News TV-8, CA
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is once again weighing in on the debate over Proposition 8. On the Sunday morning talk shows, Gov. Schwarzenegger said he thought the marriage ban, if challenged in the courts, would again be overturned by the Supreme Court, despite last Tuesday's vote approving the measure.

Dr. Paul on the Global Financial Summitt

Campaign for Liberty:
Congressman Ron Paul discusses the G-20 summit taking place in Washington this weekend that will address the global monetary system.

G20 Nears Deal For Global Oversight Of Banks

Eoin Callan, Financial Post:
The Bretton Woods conference held in the dying days of World War II at a rural retreat in New Hampshire started off with modest expectations, but went on to create a new global financial system after weeks of painstaking work by mostly-anonymous officials from 44 countries. In contrast, world leaders are gathering Saturday morning in a grand hall of towering marble columns and classical splendour tasked with the lofty ambition of remaking history in a single day. The outline of the agreement is scheduled to be announced later Saturday, and will then be handed over to a cluster of international working groups that will try to negotiate details in select areas in as little as 100 days before a second summit expected to usher in a new era for global banks, according to diplomats, finance officials, central banker officials and chief executives from Canada and other members of the Group of 20 most economically influential nations.

The TARP Is Dead, Long Live the TARP

Robert Higgs / LewRockwell.com:
Think back. Think far, far back into the past. Think all the way back to the last week of September 2008. Historians tell us that at that time many Americans took leave of their senses. Despite all the evidence of their own eyes, ears, and noses, they became persuaded that the world as they had always known it stood on the verge of utter destruction. Hysterical "journalists" and "experts" on radio and television told them so. What else could they do? Because life without a flush 401(k) lay beyond their wildest imagination, they concluded that "something must be done." That realization became the signal for hundreds of devoted public servants to leap into action to save civilization.

Troubled Assets Relief Program, TARP

Global Push To Create Multi-National Spy Agency

Jim Kouri / NewsWithViews.com:
Under a United Kingdom government security plan examined by reporters from the London-based Daily Telegraph, all countries would submit classified -- even secret -- information into a central intelligence unit so that any member nation will have access to it. But the proposals risk hard won intelligence gathered by British agents being leaked by less scrupulous security services, particularly in the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, according to security experts and writers Bruno Waterfield and Duncan Gardham.

American Churches an Instrument of State Propaganda

From Dave Black's Blog:
Good morning, blogging buddies. I've reflected a good deal lately on the anti-Muslim sentiment of a large segment of "Christian" America and have concluded that the problem is essentially theological. Too many modern evangelicals believe that the kingdom of Jesus is of this world. For them the cross is a sign of military victory as it was for Constantine. This political kingdom has to be installed by military power. To support the military crusade one needs a propaganda campaign.



This view, it seems to me, is held by a goodly number of conservative, Bible-believing Christians who undoubtedly think they are doing the right thing. An alliance between church and empire seems as natural to them as going out for supper after Sunday church. But I am frightened to see how readily the church has accepted this attitude. In my devotions this morning I was led to Rom. 1:14-15, in which I am instructed not to make any distinctions between people based on their ethnicity or level of education. How can the church, then, participate in the mistake of Constantinianism or advance the propagandistic line that "we must fight them" -- the "them" currently being all Islamic states? In reality the church ought to renounce all this. It should refuse to serve as an instrument of political force or propaganda. Yet how is this possible when the American flag flies proudly in our sanctuaries? The church of the martyrs wanted to obey God and not men. We have traded all that for padded pews, titles, honors, money, and "patriotism." The church is now politicized to the hilt. And therein, I believe, lies our problem.

There are many excellent churches in which the announcement that the U.S. flag is being removed from the place of worship would be about as winsome as the announcement that certain forms of contagious disease were to be put on display the following Sunday. But God is able to run His church without the pledge of allegiance. When Paul wrote to the Philippians he addressed them as "saints" (1:1). He could have addressed them as "Philippians," as he did in 4:15. But he was not concerned about their political status or nationality. Politically they were Philippians -- and to be such was a great honor in that day -- but God's amazing grace had made them saints. They now lived in a completely different sphere of existence. They belonged to a different order of things. They had been separated unto God. They existed for His glory, not Rome's.

Paul was very clear in this regard. "Our citizenship is in heaven," he wrote in Phil. 3:20. "Live as good citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the Gospel," is the letter's first and most comprehensive command. The Book of Acts and Paul's letters show that political liberalism (or conservatism) is but an illusion. It is not against flesh and blood that we have to fight but against thrones and powers and authorities and against the princes of the world of darkness. The scandal is that the church continues to be used as an instrument of state propaganda, expecting many advantages from the state in return (tax exemption being one). Funny, I have never seen a national flag in the sanctuary of churches in other nations I have visited or preached in -- India, South Korea, Britain, China, France, Switzerland, Armenia, Germany, Holland, Romania, Israel, Ethiopia, etc. Jesus' attitude is not just apolitical but antistatist. I just don't know why it is so hard for American evangelicals to see this. We are to be citizens of heaven. All else is a perversion.

At U.N., Bush Says Faith Leads to 'Common Values'

Dan Eggen and Colum Lynch / The Washington Post:
Employing unusually vivid religious imagery for the secular United Nations, President Bush on Thursday praised the "transformative and uplifting power of faith" and said religious belief "leads us to common values." Addressing a two-day interfaith conference that has prompted mixed reactions from other leaders, Bush said religious belief "changed my life" and "sustained me through the challenges and joys of my presidency." He also suggested faith can transform relations between nations and cultures.

Charles to Defend Faith, Not The Faith

Telegraph, London:
The Prince of Wales, who turned 60 yesterday, plans a symbolic change when he becomes king by taking the title Defender of Faith to reflect Britain's multicultural society. The move requires only a small grammatical change: dropping the definite article from the monarch's present title of Defender of the Faith. But it is very symbolic because it would mean that the king, as head of the Church of England, would no longer be known as Defender of the Faith, a title bestowed on Henry VIII for his support for Catholicism by PopeLeo X in 1521.

Interview With Dr. Laurence M. Vance

Michael Peroutka & John Lofton / The American View Radio:
Exclusive Veterans Day Interview: Bible-Believer Dr. Laurence M. Vance On Christians And What God Says About War - Not good news for Bush cheerleaders. In his newest edition of "Christianity And War," Dr. Vance has 79 essays, organized under the headings of Christianity and War, War and Peace, The Military, Christianity and the Military, The Iraq War, Other Wars, and The U.S. Global Empire. He says all these have one underlying theme: His opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our liberty, our money, and in some cases our life. Here is a link to the MP3 audio.

Vance Publications
Publisher of Books by Laurence M. Vance

Laurence M. Vance: Archives on LewRockwell.com

Terrorist Nation U.S.A.

Bill Van Auken / Global Research:
Since 2004, the Bush administration has secretly authorized military raids against up to 20 countries without any declaration of war or even any explicit congressional authorization for armed action, according to a report published Monday in the New York Times. The report, which cites recent attacks on targets in Pakistan, Syria and Somalia, establishes that under an order issued by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President George W. Bush in the spring of 2004, the US military's Special Operations forces were given license to attack alleged al Qaeda targets "anywhere in the world."

FED Covers Up Financial Crisis

Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
Our "adversary" media have been extremely deferential toward those promoting the looting of the American taxpayers during the ongoing economic and financial crisis. However, Bloomberg News should be congratulated for filing suit against the Federal Reserve in an effort to disclose the securities the central bank is accepting on behalf of American taxpayers as collateral for $1.5 trillion of loans to banks such as Goldman Sachs.

Related:
October Budget Deficit Hits Record Of $237.2 Billion
The Associated Press:
WASHINGTON -- The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system. The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year.

The Good News: It's Not About Race

William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
As the USA careens toward bankruptcy and, perhaps -- hopefully -- some variety of schism, I find myself taking ironic consolation in the fact that the conflict won't be defined by racial or ethnic divisions, despite the best efforts of our rulers to cattle-pen us into such categories. Granted, this could change very easily. Madame Obama could change her name to Winnie and start hanging around with a murderous "football club." The Holy One Himself (peace be upon him) comes under armed attack by some disposable dimwit with a conveniently conspicuous paper trail through Klan and neo-Nazi groups and a jones for The Catcher in the Rye. But there's ample reason to believe that the Obamas -- despite their successful shared career in racial shakedown politics and their cynical use of race to make themselves a marketable brand -- aren't interested in pursuing identity politics.

Redistribution Blather

Bruce Fein / The Washington Times:
Sen. John McCain's fulminations against President-elect Barack Obama's socialism or infatuation with redistributing wealth were as risible as would be former President Bill Clinton lecturing Pinocchio on the evils of mendacity. For the last century, both the Republican and Democrat parties have embraced the morality if not the economic wisdom of the progressive income tax and government spending to redistribute wealth. The parties differ in inches as how much redistribution would be morally or economically optimal.

Krugman's Prescription for Disaster

David T. Beito / LewRockwell.com:
Paul Krugman calls for Obama and his advisors to push an expanded version of the New Deal. According to Krugman, they should boldly throw caution to the winds and "figure out how much help they think the economy needs, than add 50 percent. It's much better in a depressed economy, to err on the side of too much stimulus." Obama should reject this advice. If he listens to Krugman, the likely result will be a wave of stagflation that makes the experience of the 1970s look mild by comparison. Such a prescription would both continue and accelerate Bush’s fiscally reckless policy of propping up malinvestments through massive increases in spending, deficits, and easy credit by the Federal Reserve.

Big Three Carmakers Line Up For Another Bailout

The Associated Press:
All aboard, there may be another bailout train leaving the station on Capitol Hill. Talk of a $25 billion emergency loan package for the Big Three carmakers that could see a vote in a postelection session of Congress next week has a wave of business lobbyists clamoring for action - and a slice of the pie. They're dusting off their call lists and preparing for a furious round of vote-hunting that comes little more than a month after lawmakers approved the $700 billion bailout designed for banks and other financial firms.

Automakers Bailout In Doubt 'This Year'

John Crawley / Reuters:
A senior Democrat senator raised doubts on Thursday that an attempt to bail out U.S. automakers had enough support to clear Congress this year. As Republicans amplified their concerns about a bailout, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd raised the biggest red flag for fellow Democrats trying to craft a $25 billion rescue and pass it during a post-election session set to start next week.

Hillary Eyed As Secretary of State

The Associated Press:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state, according to two Democrat officials in close contact with the Obama transition team. Mrs. Clinton, the former first lady who pushed Obama hard for the Democrat presidential nomination, was rumored to be a contender for the job last week, but the talk died down as party activists questioned whether she was best-suited to be the nation's top diplomat in an Obama administration. The talk resumed in Washington and elsewhere Thursday, a day after Obama named several former aides to President Bill Clinton to help run his transition effort. The two Democrat officials who spoke Thursday did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff.

'The March Toward Dictatorship'

Ron Paul / Special to CNN:
The questions now being asked are: Where to go from here and who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party? Too bad the concern for the future of the Republican Party had not been seriously addressed in the year 2000 when the Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Now, in light of the election, many are asking: What is the future of the Republican Party? But that is the wrong question. The proper question should be: Where is our country heading? There's no doubt that a large majority of Americans believe we're on the wrong track. That's why the candidate demanding "change" won the election. It mattered not that the change offered was no change at all, only a change in the engineer of a runaway train.

A Spectre is Haunting America. Don't Let It

Dr. Richard A. Jones / American Vision:
Now that what some might call the "unthinkable" has actually happened, it's certain that a vital remnant in the Church will wake up and realize that, "It's time to start paying attention." Had McCain won, the Christian Right likely would have given another overconfident sigh of relief, hoping that the other side would somehow not be able to advance its anti-Christian offensive in 2012. (It would have advanced anyway.) Either way, it's folly to forget that the difference between the American Dream-killing, wealth-redistributing leftist, Obama, and the RINO McCain is negligible. A tip-off that both are operative socialists was made clear last primary season when mainstream media palmed off these two inexplicable "choices" onto us. Values voters never had a say. But that's all spilled milk. It's time to explore how it was that what was once essentially a Christian-leaning, U.S. voting populace was so easily set up for passive acceptance of a clear-cut socialist candidate in each party. Don’t be surprised by the major cause.

More Fiat Money Won't Solve This Crisis

Doug French / LewRockwell.com:
It is often said "there are no atheists in a foxhole." The other week, as world financial markets melted down, CNBC go-to wise man Art Cashen put a market spin on that familiar line drolly saying, "there are no libertarians in a market crash." The crusty Cashen is certainly right for the most part. Plenty of financial talking heads who argue for free markets and smaller government on a daily basis suddenly screamed that government must intervene to "save capitalism." Of course, the idea that government must print multiple blizzards worth of money to save a system where individuals and businesses trade with each other unfettered makes as much sense as presidents who claim that war must be waged to "protect the peace."

Unprecedented Rape Of The American People

Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
Rape is an ugly word usually attributed to an attack on a woman. It also means an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside. There is no other word to describe what has been happening in Washington, DC., for the past two and a half months. The so-called bail out of lending institutions and banks has turned into a free for all that is mind boggling, already running in the TRILLIONS with no end in sight. As the layers have been unfolding over the past few weeks, only someone in complete denial can say with a straight face that this unconstitutional looting of the people's labor has been anything but mass rape.

China's Path to World Power

Patrick J. Buchanan / VDARE.com:
Across the Pacific, a nation that studied how America rose, and watched as America declined, chose a different path. China adopted and pursued a China First policy of economic nationalism. In July, Charles McMillion of MBG Services testified to the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission on China's progress. Beijing began its astonishing rise by devaluing its currency 45 percent in 1994, slashing the prices of exports in half and making imports twice as expensive. As America threw open her market and invited China to come in and capture it, China had erected a Great Wall around her own. Results: China's worldwide trade surplus in manufactures, $31 billion in 2001, hit $401 billion in 2007, a 1,300 percent increase, and may reach $500 billion in 2008.

Congress Examines $700 Billion 'Bailout' Program

The Associated Press:
While the Bush administration shifts course on its $700 billion rescue plan, Congress is examining whether even bigger changes should be made in the program in light of the deteriorating economy and soaring mortgage foreclosures. The debate may not be resolved until President-elect Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20 and pursues policies for administering the rescue program that are likely to be more closely aligned with his Democrat allies in Congress.

Democrats Urge Federal Stake In Auto Companies

The Associated Press:
Congressional Democrats are pushing legislation to send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hope for quick passage of the auto bailout during a postelection session that begins Monday. Legislation being drafted by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would dip into the $700 billion Wall Street rescue money, approved by Congress last month, for the auto aid.

Nationalizing the Auto Industry

Karen DeCoster / The LRC Blog:
Obama has said that "righting" the auto industry is one of his top priorities. The government's plan to prop up GM with 'confidence protection' has not worked. Even they can no longer keep GM afloat without overt intervention. GM burned through $7 billion in cash in the 3rd quarter. I've been criticized for criticizing GM for years. Back in 2003 I blogged about the UAW negotiations, where government-empowered, union thugs grabbed a bunch of insane benefits that gave everyone short-term spoils at the expense of their own long-term survival. The union has been sucking the Big 3 dry and having a hunky-dory time doing it.

Will Homosexual Indoctrination Become the Norm?

Pass the Salt Ministries:
A California school system refuses to say what action, if any, it will take after it received complaints about a kindergarten teacher who encouraged her students to sign "pledge cards" in support of gays. During a celebration of National Ally Week, Tara Miller, a teacher at the Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science in Hayward, Calif., passed out cards produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to her class of kindergartners.

Homo-Haggard Breaks His Silence

Dan Harris and Lee Ferran / ABC News:
Ted Haggard, the disgraced former evangelical leader, recently broke his silence on the second anniversary of the scandal that brought him down. He gave a pair of sermons at a small church in Illinois where the pastor is an old friend of his. "The first thing I want you to know is I sinned," Haggard began. Haggard's comments were quite revealing. Haggard told the congregation that a sexual incident with a man when he was 7 years old may be related to the scandal involving a male prostitute and crystal meth use that cost him his job two years ago.

Faggot Foley Breaks His Silence

The Associated Press:
Even today, two years after Mark Foley's very public fall from grace, the former congressman can't explain why he sent lurid, sexually explicit computer messages to male teens who had worked as Capitol Hill pages. Sitting in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York this week, the Florida Republican, wearing a yellow tie with blue elephants, finally broke his silence. "I'm trying to find my way back," Foley said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first public comments on the scandal since resigning from Congress on Sept. 29, 2006. Foley insists he did nothing illegal and never had sexual contact with teens, just inappropriate Internet conversations. Investigations by the FBI and Florida authorities ended without criminal charges. And while he concedes his behavior was "extraordinarily stupid," he remains somewhat unwilling to accept full public scorn. These were 17-year-olds, just months from being men, he insists.

Related:
Sodomite Republican Foley Hits Morning News To Apologize, Reflect
By Tony Doris / Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH -- Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, who lost his seat two years ago amid the revelation of a barrage of lurid e-mails and instant messages he sent to male pages, took to the local airwaves this morning to make amends. In a lengthy interview with Channel 5's Roxanne Stein that began airing in their 5 a.m. news hour, Foley covers everything from being gay, to the sting of being called a pedophile and his empathy for successor Tim Mahoney's recent fall from grace after revealed extramarital affairs. Foley tears up often during the interview conducted in his West Palm Beach offices and is solemn throughout the first segments that aired this morning.

American Christians Need to Repent

Pastor Matt Trewhella / The Covenant News:
Do you hear that wooshing sound? That's America going down the toilet of history. I was already amazed at how quickly this nation was going down morally, but now having elected a Marxist to president, the speed of our nation's demise will increase. Just like the feces slowly starts rotating in a circle after the flushing, but then picks up speed, so America will now go down quicker than ever. And the deluded state of Christians during this flushing is even more unnerving. This election cycle revealed the nakedness of both black and white Christians.

Religious Toleration and the End of Morality

Gary DeMar / American Vision:
We've become a nation of moral bystanders. Deep down we know certain behaviors are wrong, but we've been cajoled into believing that nothing can be said in objection to the new amoral climate. If we do react, we are labeled "intolerant" and "insensitive" to different "lifestyle choices." Christians are told that they are not being "loving" when they enter an opposing opinion on moral questions. These changes in moral perceptions and attitudes have been stunning.

McChristians

Laurence M. Vance / LewRockwell.com:
To the dismay of many Christians, John McCain was not elected president of the United States. Were it not for the support of evangelicals and other conservative Christians, McCain would have been more soundly defeated in what was probably his last election. It didn’t really matter what McCain believed or didn’t believe; these Christians turned out in droves to vote for him because he was a Republican. As bad as Barack Obama was, most Christians who voted for McCain would have voted Republican no matter who the Democratic and Republican nominees were.

Conned Again

Paul Craig Roberts / VDARE.com:
If the change President-elect Obama has promised includes a halt to America's wars of aggression and an end to the rip-off of taxpayers by powerful financial interests, what explains Obama's choice of foreign and economic policy advisors? Indeed, Obama's selection of Rahm Israel Emanuel as White House chief of staff is a signal that change ended with Obama's election. The only thing different about the new administration will be the faces.

A Long Train of Abuses

Alexander Cockburn / The American Conservative:
If there's one thing defenders of civil liberties know, it's that assaults on constitutional freedoms are bipartisan. Just as constitutional darkness didn't first fall with the arrival in the Oval Office of George W. Bush, the shroud will not lift with his departure and the entry of President Barack Obama. As atrocious as the Bush record on civil liberties has been, there’s no more eager and self-righteous hand reaching out to the Bill of Rights to drop it into the shredder than that of a liberal intent on legislating freedom. Witness the great liberal drive to criminalize expressions of hate and impose fierce punitive enhancements if the criminal has been imprudent enough to perpetrate verbal breaches of sexual or ethnic etiquette while bludgeoning his victim to death.

Economics, Justice, and Modern Preaching

Martin G. Selbrede / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Our nation's economy, like that of many other nations, has long been motivated by essentially economic forces. The architects of modern economic policy revel in the manipulation of such forces. Such manipulation always entails a dance near the edge of self-destruction, as our economists' mumbling about maintaining a knife-edge balance between conflicting forces cannot help but underscore. Rushdoony cites several key passages in connection with economics in general, and monetary policy in particular, that tie the concept of justice (righteousness) and money together. The concepts of justice and money are so tightly interrelated that it is possible to diagnose how just a society is by examining the foundational nature of the money used by that society.

Why Obama Will Be Worse Than Bush

William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
To my substantial delight, a movement is already coalescing to impeach President-Elect Obama. My reaction doesn't simply reflect my opinion that Obama is uniquely unsuitable to the office he will acquire next January. I'm of the view that all presidents should be simultaneously inaugurated and impeached, and that there should be a streamlined procedure to expedite their conviction and removal from office upon each president's first documented violation of his constitutional oath.

Obama To Inherit 'New Global Order' From Bush

Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
The bankruptcy of Iceland, now receiving a $2.1 billion two-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "to support an economic recovery program," has been depicted as something that could never happen to America. Is the U.S. too big to fail? Or is the U.S. going through the same process, albeit on a slower basis? Will we wake up to discover that America is now a bit player in a "New World Order" dominated by China, rich Arab nations, and international institutions? The politicians from both major U.S. political parties are attempting, with the help of the media, to mask what is happening by passing what they call a financial "rescue" and economic "stimulus" packages. The word "stimulus" is sort of like "rescue." This is actually a process of piling up more debt and spending on top of more debt and spending. This puts us more at the mercy of those who decide to lend us money.

Bush Domestic Spy Policy to Stay Largely Intact

Siobhan Gorman / The Wall Street Journal:
President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create tension within the Democrat Party. Civil-liberties groups were among those outraged that the White House sanctioned the use of harsh intelligence techniques -- which some consider torture -- by the Central Intelligence Agency, and expanded domestic spy powers. These groups are demanding quick action to reverse these policies. Obama recently voted for a White House-backed law to expand eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency. Obama said he opposed providing legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided warrantless surveillance, but ultimately voted for the bill, which included an immunity provision.

Georgia Congressman Warns of Obama Dictatorship

The Associated Press:
A congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may - may not, I hope not - but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

Hamas: Secret Ties with Obama

Israel National News:
Hamas is claiming close and ongoing ties with America's upcoming Obama Administration, according to a report published Tuesday in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat. The relationship was kept under wraps until after the U.S. elections so as not to harm Obama's election prospects. The U.S. has classified Hamas a terrorist organization.

Obama Supporters Depressed Over Meaningless Existence

Congressional Quarterly:
While the election of Barack Obama was met with widespread elation on election night, many of the new president's most fervent supporters woke up the next day to the cold realization that their lives are empty and pathetic.

Communist Amerika, Are We There Yet?

Robert Higgs / LewRockwell.com:
[H]ave we become a communist country yet? Yes, I know you probably think this question is silly, but I intend to treat it with the seriousness it deserves in the light of past, present, and likely future government actions. To ensure that I do not adopt an irrelevant or tendentious set of criteria in my inquiry, I will consider the question with reference to the list of ten measures that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels presented in the Manifesto of the Communist Party as "pretty generally applicable" for the establishment of communism "in the most advanced countries."

Fascism with a Smile

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Don't be swayed. I know there is a great deal of reason to be fearful, upset, or confused. Don't be. All of this is taking place in front of God's sofa. These are men. These are mere vapors, or withering grass, that disappear at the sudden blast of God's nostrils. I encourage you to pray with great rejoicing as the God of the Universe brings judgment and fear to a civilization that has either despised His rule or walked in Christian compromise. The Lord knows how to preserve His elect. Be filled with faith. The promises of God are sure and steadfast.

McVeigh No Christian

John Lofton / The American View:
It's a Big Lie that's been repeated many times since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But it's demonstrably not true. And the fact that it is not true was easily discoverable with just a little research. The big lie? That Oklahoma bomber and mass murderer Timothy McVeigh was a Christian.

Fighting the 'Human Rights' Machine

Lee Duigon / The Chalcedon Foundation:
While others sink under the firepower of Canada's "human rights" machine, a British Columbia businesswoman stands directly in front of it and, like John Paul Jones, declares she has not yet begun to fight. "Now that my four children are all grown up, and three of them are married, I can really get down to business," Kari Simpson told Chalcedon. She's been fighting her battle for eleven years, so far; and now she’s ready to go on the offensive.

A Collision of Lives

Gary DeMar / American Vision:
"You can't change just one thing" and "You can't beat something with nothing" are foundational to American Vision's mission. While American Vision has been working for 30 years to set the intellectual and apologetic foundation for the development of a comprehensive Christian worldview, there has always been a missing element. I've been having conversations with lots of people who have no idea what’s going on in the realm of colliding worldviews. What you and I argue instinctively, there are tens of millions of Americans who don’t even know the categories of the ongoing debate over the existence of God, the role of the State in society, church-state issues, eschatology, economics, and morality.

The Final 'Rescue' That Bankrupted America

Cliff Kincaid / NewsWithViews.com:
It is the story of our lifetimes: a financial crisis is underway and getting worse. As the recession deepens, our jobs and savings are threatened, and our children and grandchildren will probably live in a country with lower living standards and fewer opportunities than what we have enjoyed. America may be reduced to the status of a second- or third-rate economic power, dependent on international agencies like the International Monetary Fund and Arab governments for investment dollars and foreign aid handouts. However, the looting of the taxpayers, which was initially $700 billion for Wall Street and has now ballooned to an estimated $1.8 trillion and is not over yet, was not labeled as corruption by our media. Instead, it was called a "rescue" and was demanded by many anchors and reporters. We were told it would stabilize the markets and help ordinary people. It didn't.

Election 2008: Deja Vu All Over Again

Doug Newman / The Fountain of Truth:
In 1933, millions of gullible Germans welcomed a young, energetic charismatic Fuhrer as their national savior. Some of the most enthusiastic support came from Christians. In 2000, when GWB was running for president, he said something about Jesus. Based on just once sentence, millions of spiritually blind Christians from Maine to Hawaii elevated him to a totally undeserved level of power and glory.

No Turning the Other Cheek Here

Jerusalem Post:
Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks brawl at Church of Holy Sepulcher. Police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb. The clash broke out between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection. It began as Armenian clergymen marched in an annual procession commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. It ended with the arrival of dozens of riot policemen who separated the sides, seizing a bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead. Both men were taken away in handcuffs.

Electing An Aberration

Al Cronkrite / The Covenant New:
With the complicity of Christian leaders who blindly support an evil two party system our people have elected a man to the office of President of the United States who refused to confirm his Constitutional conformity, whose lineage is alien, whose political inclinations are Marxist, and who has surrounded himself with the same gang of CFR members that are pursuing world government and destroying the United States.

Obama's Council On Foreign Relations Crew

Steve Watson / Infowars.net:
Out With The Old Regime, In With The Old Regime. Meet some of president elect Obama's leading foreign and domestic policy advisors and likely administration members, every one of them a prominent member of the Council On Foreign Relations. Will these people bring about "change" or will they continue to hold up the same entrenched system forged by the corporate elite for decades?

Related
Obama's Economic Advisers: at Least 9 CFR Members
Jake Tapper / ABC News:
President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden [met] with a group of a dozen experts on the economy -- their Transition Economic Advisory Board. The members of the group include:

• a former member of the Bush administration (former Securities and Exchange Commissioner William Donaldson);

• business leaders (Warren Buffett via speakerphone, XEROX CEO Anne Mulcahy (CFR), Time Warner chairman of the board Richard Parsons(CFR), Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Residence by Hyatt CEO Penny Pritzker(CFR));

• state and local public officials who can share information about what an economic slowdown does to their governments' abilities to operate effectively (Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa); and

• various economic experts ranging from liberal (former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich.) to more moderate (former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin(CFR), former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers(CFR), former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley(CFR), former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors Laura Tyson(CFR, former/present? Trilateral Commission), former SEC Commissioner Roel Campos, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Roger Ferguson(CFR), and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker(CFR, former/present ? Trilateral Commission).

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Membership Roster

Lawsuit Continues Over Obama's Birth Records

Jim Kouri / NewsWithViews.com:
Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Pennsylvania attorney who filed a lawsuit suit against Barack H. Obama, challenging Senator Obama's lack of "qualifications" to serve as President of the United States, filed a Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. Berg is taking legal action in order to view President-Elect Barack Obama's birth certificate and other similar documents. Surprisingly, no one has seen Obama's birth records and any effort to view them has been thwarted by his campaign and the so-called mainstream news media.

Arming Yourself for the Future

Greg Perry / LewRockwell.com:
I was sad to see that AmmoMan.com, the best place on earth in my humble opinion to get ammo for the past several years, increased its prices 25% basically overnight Tuesday. AmmoMan is not alone as the news today was filled with stories about gun stores across the country running out of weapons and ammunition. The reason is obvious. What was about $200 per case of 1,000 rounds Monday is now $249. I only checked the 7.62 stock but my friends tell me the higher prices are uniform elsewhere on all ammunition. I looked up the prices on some small pistol reloading primers I am selling on GunBroker.com right now and I was shocked to see that many mail-order companies are currently "Out of Stock" on them.

Guns and God

Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
There is an estimated 80-plus million gun owners in this country. For nearly a half century gun owners have been fighting Congress and the state houses over one anti-Second Amendment bill after another. For half a century, gun owners have continued to win a skirmish without ever winning the war. Barack Hussein Obama is dangerous to freedom and liberty and your gun rights. In the weeks leading up to the hoax called the November 4, 2008, elections, gun sales went through the roof; the pace continues. Gun owners who paid attention to Obama's record and position on the Second Amendment became very, very afraid. With a Democrat controlled Congress, there will be no one to stop Obama from signing unconstitutional guns bills into law.

Barack Obama, Legal Scholar

Ed Lasky / American Thinker:
Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. These promises are symbolized in his campaign themes: hope and change. But just how likely is he to fulfill his own promise and the promises he has made to the American people? Judging by his previous career, not very likely. We have seen this movie before in Barack Obama's life, and the end is not a happy one. In fact, when you examine his career in its various dimension, it seems to be marked disturbingly often by failure.

Worse Than Bush?

Ted Galen Carpenter / The National Interest:
The central theme of Barack Obama's successful campaign for the presidency was his call for "change"--albeit often with few details. There is an imperative need for change in America's foreign policy. Even during the cold war, Washington's strategy led to security free-riding by allies and clients, caused the republic to blunder into ill-advised military crusades, most notably the Vietnam War, and imposed unnecessary financial burdens on taxpayers.

Bill Threatens Homeschooling

Lee Duigon / The Chalcedon Foundation:
Homeschooling families in New Jersey have won the opening skirmish in another battle with encroaching statism. But the battle is by no means over. Jersey legislators on September 22 introduced a bill, A3123, that would burden homeschoolers with increased regulation and give public school districts a virtual power to draft homeschooled children back into public education. The overall effect of the proposed law “would cause a catastrophic destruction of homeschool freedom in New Jersey,” said an October 2 press release from the Home School Legal Defense Assocation (HSLDA).

Be a Peter!

David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
Today I have a brief word for all my Christian blogging friends, especially those of you who have no formal biblical training. Be a Peter. Yes Peter, who had never been to Bible school. Peter, who had never earned a theological degree. Peter, who had never studied homiletics or elocution. Yet when he spoke on the Day of Pentecost, thousands were pierced to the heart by his holy boldness. There was no polish to his speech. He spoke like a Virginia farm boy – or like a Galilean fisherman might have spoken 2,000 years ago. He shocked without offending. People have a way of listening to preachers like that. Friend, I want to encourage you to keep on preaching. People may call you an amateur. Some may question your right to say what you say. “Who is he?”

No, Mr. President-Elect, We Are NOT A 'Democracy'

John Lofton / The American View Radio:
Greetings, John Lofton Recovering Republican, feeling a lot better now because the republicans - deservedly so - lost the presidency - though I expect no real change of any substance since, for openers, president-elect Obama does not know what kind of govt he will be heading. No, no, no, Mr prez elect - we are not a democracy, sir, we are, or were founded as, a Constitutional Representative Republic - a Republic - not a democracy.

Cursed Be the Christian Coalition

Laurence M. Vance / LewRockwell.com:
I never cease to be amazed at just how ignorant, naive, and gullible Christians can be -- and especially conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians who profess to be in subjection to the precepts of Scripture. This is especially true when it comes to politics. Although I am a Christian who loosely identifies with the above persuasions, my authority is the Holy Bible, not the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the pro-life movement, or the Religious Right – and certainly not the Christian Coalition.

Republican Party Cheerleaders Left Behind

David Waters / Newsweek-Washington Post On Faith:
Returns are still coming in, but the Christian Right's early reaction to Barack Obama's election as president ranges from gracious to courteous to deeply concerned. It's also worth noting that the reactions do not include conciliation or surrender. In his blog this morning, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, acknowledged that the "margin of victory and sense of a shift in the political landscape point to greater disappointments ahead" for conservative Christian voters.

How Obama Lured Millions of Religious Voters

Steven Waldman / The Wall Street Journal:
Though the economy clearly was the defining issue of the election, Barack Obama forged a new coalition by luring millions of religious voters who had avoided Democrats in recent years. Here's what Sen. Obama did: He narrowed the God Gap. President George W. Bush beat Sen. John Kerry among weekly churchgoers by 61%-39% four years ago. Election night, Republican Sen. John McCain was ahead of Sen. Obama among the same group 54%-44%. Most of that gain appears to have come from Protestants rather than Catholics. He won Catholics back. Early exit polls indicate he won 54% of the Catholic vote compared with 45% for Sen. McCain. Mr. Bush won the Catholic vote 52%-46%.

No Change In Obama's White House

Judicial Watch Blog:
Barack Obama infamously coined the term change during his presidential campaign and he promised a fresh bipartisan style if elected, yet his top advisors and cabinet look like a replica of Clinton’s White House. Obama’s chief of staff, Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, was a top aide during Bill Clinton’s presidency and the president-elect is seriously considering naming Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers to the same post. Among Emanuel’s recent accolades is that he served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac when the agency misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors.

Change? The Rhetoric Remains The Same

Joel McDurmon / American Vision:
The anointed leader took the podium and proclaimed the message that a hopeful America--an America pleading for change--longed to hear: "Yesterday, the people went to the polls and they cast their vote for a new direction. . . . I'm confident that we can work together. I'm confident that we can overcome the temptation to divide this country between red and blue." You heard it yourself, didn't you? The great surprise: those are the words of President Bush. Perhaps you thought I was quoting Obama's well-publicized comments from Tuesday night, where he said, "we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."

Obama's Chief of Staff: Compulsory Universal Service

J.D. Tuccille / Examiner.com:
Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, President-Elect Barack Obama's choice for chief of staff in his incoming administration, is co-author of a book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America, that calls for, among other things, compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25. Emanuel and co-author Bruce Reed insist "this is not a draft," but go on to write of young men and women, "the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service."

Obama and ACORN Officials Set Sights On Gunowners

Jim Kouri / NewsWithViews.com:
ACORN, the publicly funded national organization linked to voter fraud in several states is now actively interfering with the exercise of firearm civil rights in New Jersey, and the Second Amendment Foundation is calling for an immediate federal investigation. One example of ACORN's gun control activism is when its officials intervened in an unsuccessful attempt to defend Jersey City, New Jersey's local gun control ordinance, which was struck down December 13, 2006 in New Jersey state court as a violation of state law pre-empting stronger local gun ordinances.

Leftists Have Long Legislative Wish List

The Associated Press:
Gays serving openly in the military. Voting rights for more ex-convicts. Paid sick days and family leave for most American workers. Those are part of a long wish list that liberal advocacy groups hope will become reality as Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats take full control in Washington. Activists concede that political pragmatism - and the economic crisis - may force them to be patient, but they also don't want to let this opportunity pass without pressing hard for their agenda.

Billy Graham's Work With Presidents Is Ending

The Associated Press:
Billy Graham's work as a pastor to presidents is coming to an end, but he is praying for Barack Obama as the nation's next leader begins his work, Graham's son said Friday on the ailing evangelist's 90th birthday. Franklin Graham said in an interview that his father's mind remains sharp even as his body continues to fail. But the preacher who has counseled every president beginning with Eisenhower is not in line to mentor Obama. "My father feels like his time and day for that is over," Franklin Graham said. "But he would certainly like to meet (Obama) and pray with him."

Conservatives Lost More Than An Election

Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News:
For all intents and purposes, conservatism--as a national movement--is completely and thoroughly dead. Barack Obama did not destroy it, however. It was George W. Bush and John McCain who destroyed conservatism in America. Soon after G.W. Bush was elected, it quickly became obvious he was no conservative. On the contrary, George Bush has forever established himself as a Big-Government, warmongering, internationalist neocon. Making matters worse was the way Bush presented himself as a conservative Christian. In fact, Bush's portrayal of himself as a conservative Christian paved the way for the betrayal and ultimate destruction of conservatism (something I also predicted years ago). And the greatest tragedy of this deception is the way that Christian conservatives so thoroughly (and stupidly) swallowed the whole Bush/McCain neocon agenda.

My Brief Post-Election Analysis

Chris Ortiz / Chalcedon Blog:
Obama won. McCain lost. Face it, the election was an unprecedented blowout. Democracy has spoken, and the majority of Americans could not stand for what they perceived to be another four years of Bush/Cheney. I do welcome the misguided optimism, and it will be nice to put the animosity of the past eight years to bed. However, America is politically clueless in that regardless of who won last night, the basic stronghold remains in tact: statism. As I've often said, "If I had a dollar for every time Rushdoony mentioned the state, I'd be a rich man." My hope is that Conservative Christians will now become more aware of the true nature of our conflict. The full blossoming of autonomous man is humanism's incarnation in the state.

Cal Thomas: Religious Right, RIP

Cal Thomas / TheDay.com:
When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements - from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) - had mixed results.

The Great Conservative Hypocrisy

Joel McDurmon / American Vision:
Let's face the truth: both major political parties are inherently socialist. Both believe in the creation of wealth via fiat money (created out of nothing by the federal reserve) and the control of the vast majority of these created reserves by government decision. Even when the people oppose the creation of —and it is a rare event to get a near-unanimous voice as we recently did—the parties do not. Both Senate and House ignored the flood of calls and emails of vast and vehement opposition to the “bailout” (later re-dubbed “rescue”), and they voted it through. This was a fundamental failure of democracy (and yet Obama had the nerve to praise the “power of democracy” in his victory speech, after he himself voted for the bailout against the democratic voice). Both parties were partners in crime in this disaster and this was only one of many.

Sustainable Fascism

William L. Anderson / LewRockwell.com:
The voters have spoken, and so has Al Gore. It seems that the United States has no choice but to outlaw the burning of all coal and pretty much lay a chain saw to most of the energy industries and embrace something akin to the Great Leap Forward. In calling for "sustainable capitalism," Gore and his business partner David Blood write in the Wall Street Journal: At this moment, we are faced with the convergence of three interrelated crises: economic recession, energy insecurity and the overarching climate crisis. Solving any one of these challenges requires addressing all three.

Markets Need Time, Not More Poison

Robert P. Murphy / Mises.org:
A recent story from the front page of the Wall Street Journal illustrates the bankruptcy of mainstream macroeconomic thinking. The piece contains so much nonsense that the only appropriate critique is to go through the article step by step: Shrugging off a flurry of grim economic news, stock investors pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 10% as they anticipated new medicine from the Federal Reserve.

Barack Obama, Fabian Socialist

Jerry Bowyer / American Vision:
Barack Obama is a Fabian socialist. I should know; I was raised by one. My Grandfather worked as a union machinist for Ingersoll Rand during the day. In the evenings he tended bar and read books. After his funeral, I went back home and started working my way through his library, starting with T.W. Arnold's The Folklore of Capitalism. This was my introduction to the Fabian socialists. Fabians believed in gradual nationalization of the economy through manipulation of the democratic process. Breaking away from the violent revolutionary socialists of their day, they thought that the only real way to effect "fundamental change" and "social justice" was through a mass movement of the working classes presided over by intellectual and cultural elites.

Let The Games Begin

Coach Dave Daubenmire / NewsWithViews.com:
Well, the Republicans got their butts kicked and I don't know of anyone who is surprised. John McCain was not a conservative no matter how much Republican-radio tried to convince us he was. Come on now, we're talking about a guy who had considered being John Kerry's running mate, had entertained the idea of adopting Al Gore’s running mate Joe Lieberman as his own, who led the "gang of twelve" in blocking the filibustering of Supreme Court judges, who stuck his hand "across the aisle" so much he was as flexible as Gumby.

54 Percent Of Catholics Voted For Obama

Jean Torkelson / Rocky Mountain News:
Is Barack Obama closing the so-called "God gap"? Pundits on Wednesday were calling the president-elect's national support from 54 percent of Catholics one of the more startling outcomes of the election. It's 2 percent higher than George Bush's Catholic support in 2004. Among Protestant evangelicals, about 25 percent went for Obama, compared to 21 percent for John Kerry in 2004. Obama's strong Catholic support comes despite a flurry of statements from Catholic bishops in the waning days of the campaign, which warned of Obama's loyalty to abortion rights. Evangelical Protestants also have been staunchly anti-abortion and support other social issues such as a federal amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which Obama opposes.

Chuck Baldwin's Post-Election Message

Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate:
The results of the presidential election come as no surprise. While we all will struggle with the choice Americans have made, we will in no way hang our heads in defeat. The progressive development of our 16 year old political party has been, in itself, a great victory and a tribute to the efforts of Constitutionalists all across the country. So, we will continue the process of building the Constitution Party all across America, use the next four years to educate even more Americans about the necessity to return to Consitutional government and we will continue the fight to regain America.

Message to America: Christians Can Make a Difference

Doug Phillips / The Vision Forum:
Republican leaders would be well served to learn that as long as they continue to send left-wing, big government, socialist candidates like John McCain who have a track record for being pro-abortion with exceptions, they will fail to inspire Christians and they will lose elections. On the other hand, where Christians are united under a holy, biblical, and constitutional cause, we can make a big difference.

Why McCain and the Republicans Went Down

Gary Benoit / The New American:
During the Republican presidential debate in Durham, New Hampshire, in September 2007, Congressman Ron Paul warned that "we've dug a hole for ourselves and we've dug a hole for our party. We're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it." Paul's warning was in the context of the Bush administration's interventionist foreign policy, particularly the war in Iraq. Indeed, the year before, the Democrats captured majority control of both the House and Senate based largely on the growing public opposition to the Iraq War, which was associated not just with President Bush but with Republicans in general.

Life on the Reservation

Gary DeMar & R.J. Rushdoony / American Vision:
While I was eating lunch on Election Day 2008, I was reading an article written by Michael McVicar titled "`First Owyhee and Then the World': The Early Ministry of R. J. Rushdoony" that was published in the November/December 2008 issue of Faith for All of Life, a publication of the Chalcedon Foundation. As the title indicates, it's about the early life of Rushdoony's ministry work. Rushdoony served for eight and a half years as a missionary to the Shoshone and Paiute Indians on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in a remote area of Nevada beginning in 1944. It was his time on the reservation where he deduced correctly that the state "is the giver of all things, the source of power, of land, and (having built a reservoir for irrigation here) even of water. . . . The government hospital delivers the children, and the government army taketh them away, and blessed is the name of the government each Memorial Day and Fourth of July." The government’s “management” of the Indians ruined their lives.

Communists Celebrate Obama Win

Judicial Watch Blog:
Latin American communist leaders, including a murderous dictator and a Marxist guerilla, are thrilled that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. president and several in the largely socialist region were quick to offer congratulations. The enthusiasm is not surprising considering that two of the region's most prominent communists--Cuba's Fidel Castro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega--officially endorsed the Illinois senator during his lengthy presidential campaign. Others such as Bolivia's Evo Morales and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also backed Obama’s presidency early on. Obama is also a favorite of Latin America’s radical Marxist terrorist group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or its Spanish acronym FARC).

Comrade Barak Obama

Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
America took the single largest step towards becoming a communist nation in my life time with this alleged election of a Marxist-Leninist. In April, I began describing Obama as a Marxist. My mail box filled up with angry email insisting that Obama is a "progressive," liberal Democrat. This is the ignorance of a dumbed down population who have no idea what Marxism means: The political and economic ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as developed into a system of thought that gives class struggle a primary role in leading society from bourgeois democracy under capitalism to a socialist society and thence to communism. Redistribution of wealth is the major tenet of communism.

Useful Idiots Elect Communists

Betty Freauf / NewsWithViews.com:
The core belief of Communism's Lenin and Marx is that religion is the "opiate of the masses." They also believed left-wing liberal religious leaders were to be used as "useful idiots" to promote communism, i.e. Reverend Wright, Presidential candidate Barack Obama's mentor for twenty years. When Senator Joe McCarthy tried to warn us about the infiltration of communists in America, the mainstream media vilified him. He died under suspicious circumstances at a government hospital in 1957. Time proved McCarthy was right.

Corrupt Origins of Central Banking in America

Thomas J. DiLorenzo / Mises.org:
Central banking has been a corrupt, mercantilist scheme and an engine of corporate welfare from its very beginning in the late 18th century. The first central bank, the Bank of North America, was "driven through the Continental Congress by [congressman and financier] Robert Morris in the Spring of 1781," wrote Murray Rothbard in The Mystery of Banking (p. 191). The Philadelphia businessman Morris had been a defense contractor during the Revolutionary War who "siphoned off millions from the public treasury into contracts to his own … firm and to those of his associates." He was also "leader of the powerful Nationalist forces" in the new country.

Realm Of Nature ... Realm Of Grace

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:
"Throughout the nineteenth century in the United States there was an unstable synthesis of intense private religion and a public order that officially recognized no god except the people... . Public life was left to the realm of nature, while grace was reserved for private life. This arrangement of private religion and public irreligion produced religious peace for the most part, while American society slowly became secularized....Nature was slowly devouring grace. In other words, the parts of life governed by autonomous human reason expanded, and the areas devoted to Jesus Christ contracted. Worst yet those parts of life left outside of Jesus Christ tended to become hostile to Him." Dr. William Edgar – Reformed Theologian, God And Politics – pg. 187-188

Are You a Teacher?

David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
Are you a teacher? Do you have something to contribute to the Body by way of "upbuilding, encouragement, or consolation" (1 Cor. 14:3)? I'm quite positive that you are, and that you do. Fear not then to express your spontaneous zeal in teaching others what the Lord Jesus has taught you. It matters not what level of formal academic training you may have had or not had. If we are members of the Body of Christ, we have the privilege and, yes, the responsibility of teaching one another.

Post Election 2008 Thoughts

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:
In light of the election results I think there are some things that we need to be realistic about. 1.) First, the pollsters were not correct. Except for the IBD-Tipp poll which called the final total at 2.9% the pollsters were overwhelmingly wrong. Remember that the RCP average ended with a 7.4% spread between Obama and McCain. Without all the votes fully counted the spread between McCain and Obama stands at 3%. 2.) I think we have to admit that the country may stay as left as it went tonight for quite some time. I say this for three reasons. (a.) Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Obama and Democrats. This is significant because given the amnesty for illegal aliens that Democrats will shove through this will anchor the country in its newly minted left tilt as more and more Hispanics will become voting citizens.

A Debt Beyond Redemption

Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
The word "redeem" means "buy back." It is used in Christian theology to describe what Jesus did for mankind in general (common grace) and individuals (special grace). It was used during the era of the gold standard to describe the right of a holder of paper money to redeem this money for gold coins at a fixed price. The debt of the United States government is now beyond redemption. The only way for this debt to be redeemed officially is through mass inflation. If this is the way of redemption, then the economy is beyond redemption. There will be a great default. The question is when, not if.

Who Are The Real Mystery Worshippers?

Paul Proctor / NewsWithViews.com:
The Wall Street Journal recently addressed the subject of mystery worshippers in an October 10th, 2008 article, as did the Tennessean in a subsequent piece, comparing these undercover church troubleshooters to the mystery shoppers and mystery diners often hired by department stores and restaurants to objectively critique their establishments for the purpose of ascertaining and correcting problems new visitors might encounter that could discourage their return. It’s easy to see how useful mystery worshippers might be in today’s church environment since so many of them are run like businesses now – being incorporated and catering more to consumers than to God.

The Messiah-Dictator More Dangerous Than Bush

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones / Prison Planet.com:
The messianic fervor which has preceded Barack Obama's expected ascension to the White House has alarming implications for freedom and is a painful reminder that most Americans have once again been suckered into believing that the two-party monopoly offers any kind of solution to the crisis that we face.

Obama the Messiah to Produce Profound Disillusion

Janet Daley / Telegraph.co.uk:
There is a video clip running on YouTube at the moment which shows a black woman moved nearly to tears at an Obama rally, telling a television interviewer that all her problems will be at an end when he is elected president. She won't have to worry anymore about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage because "he will help me". It would be easy to find this absurd - the blind faith of an unsophisticated voter who has clearly mistaken Barack Obama for Jesus - but in truth it is both sad and alarming.

Note to Pro-Life Traitors

Jim Rudd / The Covenant News:
To you pro-life traitors who supported pro-abort Republican John McCain: How do you feel now? You should feel like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. Instead of standing strong for the pro-life cause by supporting a candidate like Chuck Baldwin, you sold your Christian right to preach repentance to pro-abort sinners by voting for a pro-abort sinner! When Obama sits in The Oval Office and expands the baby killing industry, what are you going to do then? Are you going to point you finger at Obama and call him to repentance for murdering babies? You will be laughed to scorn! You will be labeled a hypocrite and your preaching will be called jackassery because you supported a blood-guilty man.

To all you who endured incredible abuse by the "traitors" for supporting a Christian man for office, you can feel good that you kept the faith and secured for yourself the commandment to "do the work of an evangelist" when Obomination takes office. Lord knows we'll need all the help we can get.

McCain Concedes Presidency, Congratulates Obama

The Associated Press:
Republican John McCain concedes the presidential race to Barack Obama, saying the Democrat has achieved a "great thing" for himself and the country with his historic victory. McCain - with wife Cindy on one side and running-mate Sarah Palin on the other - urged his supporters to put aside partisan differences and work to get "the country moving again."

Chuck Baldwin's Message To America

Presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, describes the choice America has this November: "the battle today is not between conservatives and liberals or Republicans and Democrats. It is a battle between Americans and globalists. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am an American!"

One Vote

Endorsements Rolling In: For Chuck Baldwin

Red Phillips / Ether Zone:
Constitution Party Presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin has received several recent endorsements from prominent conservatives. I don't understand how any serious conservative could vote for anyone other than Baldwin, who has been fighting the good fight for years while McCain was voting for amnesty, bailouts, and stem-cell research, making common cause with Kennedy and Feingold, stabbing his Republican colleagues in the back, pandering to the liberal media, and vilifying Christians, but I understand that some conservatives may still be contemplating a vote for McAmnesty. Let’s see what these other wise conservatives have to say.

Election Day In Hobbiton

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:
The first Tuesday in November had always been election day in Hobbiton. Traditionally Hobbiton ballots had been filled with last names like "Hornblower," "Took", "Proudfoot," "Barrowdown," and "Brandybuck." The 2008 ballot still had many of those names but at the top of the ticket of the two major parties were names that weren't as common or familiar to Hobbiton ballots. When it came to voting on who would lead the West the Hobbits had the choice of Sauron vs. Saruman. Now there were third party candidates like Gandalf, Elrond, and Faramir, but the majority of Hobbits had been convinced that those third party candidates didn’t stand a chance and so like cattle heading to the milk parlor to be milked, the Hobbits headed to the polls to vote for Sauron or Saruman.

The Pentagon Is the President's Private Army

Fred Reed / LewRockwell.com:
The Pentagon, methinks, is out of control. We no longer have a military in service to the state, but a state in service to the military. Few notice (I suspect) because of two ingrained habits of mind. First, we think of the President as just that, the President, the country's civilian governor who, oh yeah, is technically the Commander-in-Chief. "Technically," because he isn't really in the military and doesn’t strut about in a uniform with ribbons and feathers. He seems more a CEO than a general. Second, we tend to think of the military as a federal department under civilian control. The Pentagon carries out policy, we believe, but doesn’t make it. Would it were so. The military today is hardly under civilian control. Note that Congress long ago gave up its power to declare war. This is crucial. Politically it is far safer to acquiesce in a war than to declare one.

Small Town Tyranny

William Norman Grigg / Pro Libertate:
Molly King met Daryl Crandall in May 2000 in the worst possible circumstances. Both of them were residents of the microscopically small community of Banks, Oregon. She was president of the local Homeowners' Association; he was Chief of the town's three-man police department. And he had been sent with a sealed warrant for her arrest on a charge of felony theft.

Leftists Call on U.N. to Monitor U.S. Election

William F. Jasper / The New American:
A coalition of left-wing organizations petitioned the members of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations on October 30 for international election monitors for the November 4 U.S. presidential election.

Bush to Attend UN Dialogue on Religions

The Associated Press:
President Bush will join several other world leaders at a General Assembly meeting to promote a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values, U.N. and U.S. officials said Friday. The meeting is a follow-up to an interfaith conference in Madrid organized by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Juan Carlos of Spain in July which brought together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and representatives of other religions and sparked hopes of a new relationship among religions.

Why We Need to Call a Pig a Pig

Jennie Yabroff / NEWSWEEK:
In 1944, a young British writer named Eric Blair sent the publisher Jonathan Cape a manuscript for a novel-length parable about the rise of Stalin. The book had already been rejected by one editor for its inflammatory content. Cape also declined. While he personally enjoyed the manuscript, he wrote, he believed it was "highly ill-advised to publish at the present time." Perhaps Blair might have better luck were he to change the identity of the main characters? "It would be less offensive if the predominate caste in the fable were not pigs," he wrote. Blair finally found a publisher, and the book, "Animal Farm," released under Blair's pseudonym, George Orwell, became a bestseller.

Election Day Sermon 2008

Dr. Joe Morecraft, III / Chalcedon Presbyterian Church:
The Future of Politicians Who Give Bad Advice: Election Day Sermons have been preached in America from our very beginning. "As early as 1633 in Massachusetts and 1674 in Connecticut the practice of preaching election sermons arose. These were delivered before the governor and assembly, (and in meetinghouses in local towns), year by year. Frequently these sermons were printed at government expense and distributed among the town, and the themes discussed were rediscussed in the pulpits throughout New England."- William W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America, pg. 177.

The Case Against McCain

Bret McAtee / The Backwater Report:
McCain's pro abortion credentials were clearly seen in his votes to confirm mega abortionists Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Beyer. No man who is pro life in any significant sense votes for judicial murderers. Second, McCain's culture of death credentials are clearly articulated by his support for stem cell research. Third, abortion is crucial but in this campaign it is not the only issue worthy of consideration. McCain's stance on granting amnesty (McCain-Kennedy) to illegal immigrants (a policy that will destroy whatever is left of the homogeneity of this country as well as whatever is left of Protestant Biblical Christian influence) should be enough to oppose McCain.

Who Will You Vote For?

David Alan Black / Dave Black Online:
I received a rather humorous email the other day from a lady asking me why I was voting for Obama instead of McCain. The inquirer had obviously not taken the trouble to read my website. If I may be so bold as to say so, I believe that the more rabidly pro-McCain evangelicals, like the disciples of Jesus in Acts 1, are held in bondage to the traditional idea of a temporal messianic kingdom.

Stop The Election: Accurate Vote Count Impossible

Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com:
Before I get into the massive vote fraud and what ALL of us must do the day after this gigantic hoax tomorrow, I would like to give an update on the lawsuits regarding Obama's citizenship status. First, Berg v Obama, et al. Phil's web site has had more than 86 MILLION hits since he filed. The day after Phil Berg filed an 'Application to Justice Souter for an Immediate Injunction to Stay the Presidential Election of November 4, 2008' and Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, a news wire story flashed around the world, Oct. 31, 2008: Obama's Hawaii birth certificate confirmed. "The director of Hawaii's Department of Health confirmed on Friday what Barack Obama has been saying all along: the presidential candidate was born in Honolulu....Citing her statutory authority to oversee and maintain Hawaii's vital records.

Electing Obama Will Void The Constitution

Nathanael / Ether Zone:
The most radioactive news story of this election is Barack Hussein Obama not being constitutionally qualified to be President. Technically and legally Obama has admitted such in a court case filed by Democrat and ex-Deputy Attorney General from Pennsylvania, Philip Berg. The Great Obama Swindle of 2008 by attorney Raymond S. Kraft covers a spectrum of issues raised by Obama's illegitimate candidacy. Attorney, constitutional scholar and true patriot Dr. Edwin Vieira elaborates in Obama Must Stand Up Now Or Stand Down on at least eight areas of constitutional breach to be caused with his election. Neither of these excellent articles addresses a crucial subject. ... There is no constitutional mechanism to fix this situation. The union would necessarily be dissolved -Abraham Lincoln be damned - on account of election fraud. If there is no chief executive, then all federal laws would be void.

Before You Vote What You Must Do

Alan Stang / Ether Zone:
As the people head for the polls, many shell-shocked Americans are wondering how Senator Hussein could get where he is. He is the most mysterious candidate for President in the history of our country. We don’t know a little thing like where he was born, and he won’t prove it. He won’t release many of the documents that would validate what he says he has done. His birth certificate has been sequestered. We can’t get his college records, etc. Now it appears that we don’t even know for sure who his father was.

Why Austrian Economics Matters More Than Ever

Lew Rockwell / LewRockwell.com:
I originally conceived of this talk -- a case for abolishing the central bank -- as an applied update to my 1995 lecture at the Heritage Foundation on "Why Austrian Economics Matters." That's because so many of the policy ideas suggested within the Austrian framework can be subsumed under the need to abolish the central bank. The Austrian school has been battling the central bank since 1913 and before. Right now, the writings of our tradition are more prominent than ever before, thanks to our great predecessors, our faculty, our students, our donors, our publishing programs, our electronic media, and the desperate search on the part of people all over the world for an explanation of the current crisis, and a new way out.

Do You Solemnly Swear To Ignore the Constitution?

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano / LewRockwell.com:
There is no power in the Constitution for the federal government to enter the marketplace since, when it does, it will favor itself over its competition. The Contracts Clause (the states cannot interfere with private contracts, like mortgages), the Takings Clause (no government can take away property, like real estate or shares of stock, without paying a fair market value for it and putting it to a public use), and the Due Process Clause (no government can take away a right or obligation, like collecting or paying a debt, or enforcing a contract, without a fair trial) together mandate a free market, regulated only to keep it fair and competitive.

Incumbents Paying For Backing Bailout

David R. Sands / The Washington Times:
The $700 billion Wall Street rescue package isn't playing favorites on the campaign trail: Both Republican and Democrat incumbents are under fire for backing the bailout. While presidential rivals Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama both supported the Bush administration's rescue plan, the congressional vote on the bailout is figuring prominently in a large number of close House and Senate races this fall, with supporters of the bill in the hot seat in race after race.

U.S. Border Patrol Arrest Mexican Troops

Reuters:
U.S. border police arrested seven Mexican soldiers after they accidentally strayed over the international boundary into Arizona, authorities said. The U.S. Border Patrol said agents encountered the troops in a Humvee a short distance north of the border near Yuma, in far west Arizona, early on Friday. "The Border Patrol agents on scene established a dialogue with the subjects, who identified themselves as members of the Mexican military," the Border Patrol said in a news release.

Police: Minister Shot Dead Near Church

USA TODAY:
A Cincinnati minister was killed and a deacon at his church was wounded in a shooting Saturday morning as they arrived for a funeral at Ninth Street Baptist Church. Police said the shootings happened around 10:50 a.m. outside the church, at East Ninth and Prospect Street. The Rev. Donald Fairbanks Sr., pastor of New St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on Freeman Avenue, was taken to St. Elizabeth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, hospital officials said.

To Vote For McCain Or Obama Is Sin

John Lofton / The American View Radio:
Those who disagree that a vote for McCain or Obama is sin either do not know what sin is, it is the violation of God's Law, or they do not know what God says must be the qualifications for those who hold His civil government offices, one of these qualifications being that such office holders must be men who fear God. Since neither McCain nor Obama have a Biblical philosophy of government, a view of civil government governed by God's Word, neither individual is a God-fearing man. Thus, Christians are forbidden by God to vote for either McCain or Obama. It really is that simple.

Yes, God Does Tell Us Who To Vote For

Scott T. Whiteman, Esq / The American View:
Since every Evangelical Christian and man of worldly wisdom knows that God's preferred mode of government is theocratic-monarchy, and that in a monarchy, the fiat will of the King rules, and the wishes of "the People" are irrelevant, you are probably already objecting to the premise, that God instructs us how to vote. 1.) God instituted a Monarchy, 2.) People don't vote for kings; therefore, God does not regulate the vote. "The proposition is clear, because God's law doth not regulate a non-ens, a mere nothing, or an unlawful power."

Expanding War, Contracting Meaning

Tom Engelhardt / LewRockwell.com:
Even as the Bush presidency wears down, the Global War on Terror only expands. Perhaps the word should be "metastasizes." Just this week, the U.S. military, using SOFA-less Iraq as its launching pad, sent four helicopters with U.S. special forces soldiers across the Syrian border in an operation in which a number of people were killed. (The Syrians claim the assault was on a farm and that "a father and his three children, the farm's guard and his wife, and a fisherman" all died; the U.S. claims that its forces took out a key al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia operative.) After a several day delay, American officials told the Washington Post that the raid was "intended to send a warning to the Syrian government. 'You have to clean up the global threat that is in your backyard, and if you won't do that, we are left with no choice but to take these matters into our hands,' said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cross-border strike."

Do We Need More of Keynes Now?

Frank Shostak / Mises.org:
Now that governments and central banks are subjecting their economies to aggressive monetary and fiscal-stimulus policies, many people say that the ideas of Keynes are back in fashion. We heard that Keynesian remedies can save world economies from plunging into a severe economic slump. In the United States, for instance, Republicans and Democrats are competing against each other to subject the American economy to various stimulus packages.

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
The Smashing of Dreams Is Not Over - The dreams of easy retirement are disappearing. So are the dreams of automatic wealth. Americans, more than any other people, bought into the dream of automatic wealth. "Just buy a larger home with 5% down and wait. You will get rich." The dream of leveraged money trapped homeowners. It also trapped hedge fund investors. This dream has yet to play itself out in a wave of bankruptcies. It will. Hedge funds, leveraged 30 to 1, have few reserves apart from stocks in their portfolios. When the stock market falls, they receive margin calls. They must sell more stocks. This depresses the stock market, which triggers more margin calls.

Supremes Asked To Halt Tuesday's Vote

WorldNetDaily:
The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to help the nation avoid a constitutional crisis by halting Tuesday's election until Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama documents his eligibility to run for the top office in the nation. Democrat attorney Philip Berg had filed a lawsuit alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because of possible birth in Kenya, but a federal judge dismissed the complaint claiming Berg lacks standing to bring the action. The 34-page memorandum that accompanied the court order from Judge R. Barclay Surrick concluded ordinary citizens can't sue to ensure that a presidential candidate actually meets the constitutional requirements of the office.

Bush's $2.2 Billion Gift to Planned Parenthood

John Lofton / The Covenant News:
The October 2008 issue of Citizen magazine has in it (page 6) a full-page article with the headline: "Thanks, Mr. President." A smaller headline reads: "Pro-life taxpayers can thank President Bush for keeping their dollars from being misspent." This article is an interview with Ashley Horne, a "federal policy analyst" for Focus On The Family Action. But, there's a slight problem here that keeps me from thanking Mr. Bush, and that problem is that during his term in office he has approved giving Planned Parenthood at least $2.2 billion in federal tax dollars! Is this money that has been "misspent"? Hmmmm, I'd say "yes."

What Does The Future Of Our Nation Hinge On?

Pastor Matt Trewhella / The Covenant News:
Every four years I hear the same mantra. "I believe the future of our nation hinges on this presidential election!" This statement is made by countless Christians with much anxiety in their voices. Though it is good to know that there are Christians out there who are not just concerned about their own personal peace and affluence, the truth is the future of our nation does not hinge on the presidential election.

Striking the 'S' Word

Ricardo Davis / Georgia4Life.org:
As the political drama of the 2008 presidential election unfolded, I was intrigued when McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. As the endorsements from Christian leaders and groups started rolling in, the campaign hit its first speed bump -- the revelation that Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol was pregnant. As conservative leaders made their statements in solidarity with the Palin family, I sensed that something was missing but couldn't identify the source of my concern. Meanwhile commentators rolled over the speed bump, talking about the non-problem of Bristol Palin as something common in the American experience. The fact that the McCain campaign treated this as a non-issue was not surprising. McCain advisor Steve Schmidt said, "Life happens." McCain speechwriter Mark Salter commented, "An American family." I didn't expect the conservative pundits to even blink at the revelation.