At the U.N., a Dangerous Leap of Faith

President Bush traveled to the United Nations Wednesday to join Gordon Brown of the U.K. and Shimon Peres of Israel at a two-day conference presided over by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The conference is a continuation of last July's summit of world religions held in Spain and also organized by King Abdullah and the Muslim World League. Later today, the U.N. is expected to endorse a statement issued at the conclusion of the Spain conference on the importance of religion and humanity's common values. Among them is "respect for religions, their places of worship, and their symbols ... therefore preventing the derision of what people consider sacred." All religions deserve respect, but the devil is in the details. As Leonard Leo and Donald Argue, members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, point out, this language is "a cleverly coded way of granting religious leaders the right to criminalize speech and activities that they deem to insult religion." In other words, this may be giving U.N. approval to Islamic "blasphemy laws," which are used to stifle dissent. If King Abdullah and other supporters of the Madrid statement truly care about the value of religion, they must allow people to freely practice the faith of their choosing, as prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rather than give cover to blasphemy laws.

Texan Holds 'Em

After a year-long battle with congressional Democrats, President Bush had the last word on online wagering yesterday, after the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department issued a joint rule that will finally put a stop to illegal Internet gambling. FRC had worked extensively on the issue with House conservatives, helping them fend off members like Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who were scheming to keep government agencies from implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Without these new regulations, the law, which passed easily (317-93) last year, would have been useless. Now that the final puzzle piece is in place, banks and other payment agencies will have until December 2009 to stop credit card and other electronic payments to illegal gambling websites. This is a huge win for the family movement, which had argued that the banking industry had the technology to enforce the bans on Internet betting but not the will. Thanks to President Bush, who recognized the importance of closing the deal on UIGEA before leaving office, financial institutions will be obligated to protect Americans from a predatory industry that spawns an addictive habit which devastates families.

More Cultural Cold Feet?

Marriage proponents in California had hoped the passage of Proposition 8 would bring an end to the emotional roller coaster for state voters. Unfortunately, the relief of protecting marriage in America's biggest state has been somewhat clouded by threats of litigation and statewide demonstrations. This weekend, churches were hounded by protestors, angry at the role Christians played in beating back the cultural tide. At a rally outside of the Mormon temple, homosexuals even turned on their own, hurling racial insults at gay African Americans who were there to demonstrate with the "No on Prop 8" crowd.

Perhaps the most surprising revolt of all on marriage is the one brewing among some Republicans. Although marriage proved to be the most winning issue on Election Day, a handful of high-profile Republicans insist on distancing themselves from it. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime opponent of Proposition 8, sounded more like a blue-blooded liberal on CNN Sunday, saying he hopes the state Supreme Court would "undo" Prop 8. "I think the important thing for the Republican Party is now to... look at other issues... and not to get stuck in ideology." On the contrary, November 4 made it painstakingly clear that the GOP's only hope for survival is moving back toward a solidly conservative ideology.

Smash & Grab

This was written by a fellow pastor:

While watching a documentary on violence and self-defense I saw a scene that contained a road sign which stated: "Warning, Smash and Grab Area." It got me to thinking....

On Jan 20 the following will immediately become a "smash and grab" area for the new administration:
- abortion limitations
- oil and gas drilling
- stem cell research
- tax dollars for abortion

“There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for Congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that,” John D. Podesta, a top transition leader, said Sunday. “He (Barack Hussein Obama) feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set.”

PRAY FOR GOD'S INTERVENTION
PRAY FOR GOD'S PROTECTION

PRAY FOR BOLDNESS FOR THE LORD'S PASTORS & CHURCHES (added by me - RGH)

McCain / Palin

Unrestrained - Judges Gone Wild

Once again the California Supreme Court displayed a total lack of judicial restraint today when it denied a request to put the creation of same-sex "marriage" on hold until Californians go to the polls in November. As we reported yesterday, the petition was certified with far more signatures than California requires, placing on the November ballot a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Refusal to "stay" the decision sets up a tangled legal web in which potentially thousands of same-sex "marriages" may be legally unrecognizable when and if the amendment is approved by voters. Homosexual activists have set the stage for legal theater and will tell voters that it's up to them to prevent it by playing along with the court's creation. Voters in California must realize that the court's irresponsibility does not negate their responsibility to provide the needed checks and balances to the court by upholding the historic and biblical definition of marriage for the good of all society.

It's Not Easy Being Green

When Congress adjourned for Memorial Day recess, marriage was in disarray, gas prices were soaring, circuit courts sat empty, and our troops were still waiting for funding to replenish supplies. Now, fresh off a holiday weekend in which most families paid $4 a gallon to drive to neighborhood barbecues, American patience has worn thin. Imagine the frustration this week, as Congress returned to work--not on judges, marriage, or the war supplemental bill--but on changing the weather. By a 74-14 vote, the Senate agreed to devote days to the Lieberman-Warner legislation on global warming. Desperate to prove their environmental mettle, liberals are fighting for a policy that would bankrupt the economy and burden American taxpayers. The leadership says its goal is to slash CO2 emissions by almost 20 percent in 12 years, but conservatives argue the cost to American businesses and taxpayers far outweighs the negligible climate benefit. The bill's 500 pages are a complicated mess of distorted science, pork projects, and a tax-and-trade solution that will send U.S. jobs overseas and result in the most massive expansion of the federal government since the New Deal. In just 10 years, the tax burden to American families would skyrocket by $1 trillion. The average American would face higher heating and cooling bills, more pain at the pump, and expensive consumer products. From the less fortunate, the bill saps even more. As Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) points out in the Wall Street Journal, the poorest Americans already spend almost a fifth of their monthly budget on energy. By 2030, gas prices could climb anywhere from 45 cents to $1, and the U.S. economy would be on the hook for an extra $4.8 trillion. And for what? Even environmental advocates admit that in the end these concessions may do nothing to affect the earth's climate. After 40 years of Lieberman-Warner, the most that the Environmental Protection Agency is willing to promise is a one percent reduction in CO2 emissions. To hardworking Americans who are struggling to provide for their children, this entire debate is baffling. Sen. Inhofe, who has fought this global warming hysteria since 2003, challenged his colleagues to get back to business. "Will you dare stand on the Senate floor in these uncertain economic times and vote in favor of significantly increasing the price of gas at the pump, losing millions of American jobs, creating a huge new bureaucracy and raising taxes by record amounts?" Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this bill is that the evidence is still very inconclusive about the climate threat. If anything is heating up, it's marriage. This Congress is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the real crises facing this nation as they refuse to intervene.

Power of Attorneys

The weeks leading up to June 16 in California are proving to be anxious ones for both sides of the marriage debate. On that Monday, the state Supreme Court will announce whether homosexual pairs can wed immediately or whether California will hold off on implementing its decision until voters cast their ballots on the marriage protection amendment in November. While homosexual activists are already claiming victory, pro-marriage allies from across the nation are bolstering the court's case for "staying" the ruling. The attorneys general of nine states, all of whom have a stake in the outcome of the June decision, urged the justices not to instigate same-sex "marriage" until the November election. In a strong showing, the attorneys general of Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah echoed our concern that a premature walk down California's aisle could mean legal bedlam in several states. Unlike Massachusetts, California law allows couples from other states to obtain marriage licenses. If out-of-state couples exchange vows before November, then travel home and sue their home state for recognition, American courts will be tied up for years trying to sort out what was preventable chaos. For the 26 states with marriage protection amendments, homosexual activists face an uphill battle even if the June 16 outcome is favorable to them. Last week, we witnessed the potency of a marriage amendment in Oregon when a federal court threw out a legal challenge to the state's definition of marriage. On Friday, a Wisconsin court followed with a second blow to same-sex "marriage" by dismissing a lawsuit to overturn the Badger State's marriage amendment. While everyone from Macy's bridal registry to New York Gov. David Paterson (D) is trying to accommodate same-sex weddings, public opinion is still opposed to gay "marriage." On Thursday, the Pew Research Center announced the results of a new poll in which "28 percent of voters view the issue as 'very important' in their decision about who [sic] to vote for in the fall." Despite cries that the issue is losing traction, Pew's research shows that the resistance to same-sex "marriage" has held steady since 2004. This is certain to trouble most Democrats leading up to the general election, particularly since large pockets of that opposition reside in one of their most reliable voting blocs--black and Hispanic women. As Ben Wattenberg of the American Enterprise Institute says, "...Democrats always say social issues have gone away and they never do. They [haven't] gone away since 1968."

Come On Down ToThe Farm

This song gets "straight" to the point.

Come On Down To The Farm

War Bill Supplements Planned Parenthood

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has a funny way of expressing his appreciation for our troops this Memorial Day. Rather than honoring our soldiers with the funding they need, the Senate is stuffing the war supplemental bill with pro-abortion paybacks for groups like Planned Parenthood. By fattening up the legislation with controversial earmarks, the leadership has not only jeopardized the timetable for the bill's passage but raised the possibility that it will not pass at all. Despite the urgent needs of our servicemen, Reid and his liberal allies are more concerned about funding the war against the unborn than the war in Iraq. The bill is rolling in pork, including a provision that would give groups like Planned Parenthood a big discount on contraceptives and Plan B, which can act as an abortifacient. It would also be a massive cash cow for university health centers, which would also be eligible for a discount on such drugs. Keep in mind that these clinics already make profits on the pills when they mark them up for resale. Nor are many of the recipients suffering in the financial department, thanks to a hefty investment of your hard-earned tax dollars. So the $165 billion question is: What does any of this have to do with Iraq? Absolutely nothing. Reid's personal political agenda is exposing our active-duty troops to new risks as they wait on Congress to duke out the abortion provisions. The bill is bloated with millions of dollars in other unnecessary pet projects for infrastructure, health care, NASA, and more. Until Democrats put their anti-war vendetta aside and both parties rein in spending, the supplemental faces failure on the floor or due to the President's veto pen. Contact your Senators today and remind them that this is no time to make a political statement. Now is the time to support our troops!

California Marriage Law: 4,618,673 to Four

After a brief period of judicial restraint, California voters watched in horror this afternoon as judicial activism returned with a vengeance in one of the most egregious rulings in American jurisprudence. It took just four activist judges to overturn the historical definition of marriage, not to mention the vote of more than four and a half million Californians, as the state supreme court issued a much-anticipated ruling on the question of same-sex "marriage." By a 4-3 margin, the justices struck down a law, adopted by 61 percent of voters in 2000, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. By imposing same-sex "marriage" on voters, the California Supreme Court knowingly usurped the right of the people to effect change in public policy. This outcome is even more troubling than Massachusetts', in that California voters had already won the right to put a marriage protection amendment on the ballot in November. If the court cared at all about the democratic process, it would have stayed its decision until the people's voice was heard on the November amendment. Instead, these justices trampled on the legislature and created same-sex marriage by judicial fiat. This is nothing more than a judicial shotgun wedding that forces a redefinition of marriage on the people of California and potentially the rest of the nation. We trust that the voters of California will act in November to correct this exercise in judicial activism and to permanently enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in the state constitution. Clearly, this decision highlights the need for a federal amendment defining marriage in the U.S. Constitution. Only then will this campaign to shatter the family's foundation be ended once and for all.

Making The Exodus From Public School Indoctrination

by Cal Thomas

The government schools want to shape a child’s mind in ways that reflect a mostly liberal, humanistic worldview. This has implications for a child’s understanding of economics, foreign policy, American history and the size and purpose of government, in addition to what once was know as “traditional values.” It is about reflecting the worldview of the teachers unions, who are in the pocket of the Democratic Party. In other words, the Left uses public schools to produce the next generation of Democrats.

The tragedy is that too many conservative Christian, Republican parents who want their children to have a different worldview -- their own -- willingly participate in the destruction of their children’s minds by turning them over to a way of thinking that is antithetical to their beliefs. Parents who worship at conservative churches on Sunday willingly send their children to schools five days a week where what they are taught undermines what they learned in church and at home. They would never think of taking their kids to a church that teaches doctrines opposed to their beliefs, but they don’t give a second thought to doing the same thing by sending them to government schools. It makes no sense.

Mr. Gleason (a California minister who urges parents to take their children out of public schools) has found it difficult to start a fire among conservative Christians because apathy is like wet underbrush. But he is undeterred. He thinks that like those other fires with which California is familiar, the best time to get out is while you still can.

What the Liberals Think of the Lord's Churches

Click the picture to enlarge.

Change We Can't Believe In

Responding to accusations that his campaign has been too quiet on homosexual issues, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stated his views in detail in one of his most pointed interviews to date. Sitting down with reporters from the gay magazine The Advocate, Obama was frank about the major current issues. Here is the Democratic frontrunner in his own words:

"I have actually been much more vocal on gay issues to general audiences than any other presidential candidate probably in history... I reasonably can see 'don't ask, don't tell' eliminated. I think that I can help usher through an Employment Non-Discrimination Act and sign it into law... The third thing I believe I can get done is in dealing with federal employees, making sure that their benefits, that their ability to transfer health or pension benefits the same way that opposite-sex couples do, is something that I'm interested in making happen... And finally, an area that I'm very interested in is making sure that federal benefits are available to same-sex couples who have a civil union... I, for a very long time, have been interested in a repeal of DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act]."

WHAT IS AL GORE GOING TO DO NOW?

WHAT IS AL GORE GOING TO DO NOW? ARE WE GOING TO TAKE BACK THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FROM HIM?

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

Getting the Facts Straight on Pro-Gay Pamphlet

A joint project by the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) is giving parents 16,000 new reasons to question the agenda of national teachers' union leaders. The NEA and APA have partnered to produce a booklet titled, "Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth," which they plan to distribute to every superintendent in America's 16,000 school districts. Among the so-called "facts" in the 24-page document is the opinion, that homosexuality is "a normal expression of human sexuality." The booklet also warns teachers not to discuss "transformational ministries" that suggest homosexuality is a condition that can be changed. Religious-based views are regarded as harmful, if not dangerous. This is no surprise to those who have followed the leftward drift of the NEA leadership. For years, the organization has used teachers' dues to subsidize its top officials' left-wing fanaticism, which includes everything from promoting homosexuality and abortion in schools to pushing birth control. The APA is no better. In the past few decades, the group has gone from listing homosexuality as a mental disorder to becoming one of its biggest champions in the public square. Now both groups are using their influence to transform public schools into incubators for their radical social agendas. These lessons in political correctness must stop! Log on to www.frc.org and download the real facts about "Homosexuality in Your Child's School."

A Recession of Confidence

(From the Family Research Council)
An advanced degree in economics is not necessary to understand the current challenges to America's economy. A simple trip to the gas pump is an education in itself. While oil prices are up the latest employment numbers are down. The Federal Reserve has reduced interest rates three times in the last year in an attempt to prevent the economy from stalling. Before leaving for his Mideast peace pursuit, President Bush acknowledged the economic trouble and said he was considering a stimulus package to jumpstart the economy. The biggest challenge for our economy comes when consumer confidence drops. A proven measure that can help stabilize the economy would be to act now to make permanent President Bush's 2002 tax cuts that eliminated the marriage tax penalty and increased the per child tax credit. While the economy is sputtering the liberal majority on Capitol Hill is counting the new money they will have when the tax breaks for families expire in 2010. Since 2002, when the President's tax relief first kicked in, America has experienced 65 months of uninterrupted growth. If congressional leaders hope to ease this wave of uncertainty, they would be wise to stop fueling it with strategies that increase the tax burden on the American family. Rather than wasting valuable time debating temporary solutions, why not pursue what continues to be the best stimulus for growth--making the President's tax cuts permanent? While liberals argue that the country can't "afford" permanency, America is fast approaching a situation where we can't afford not to have it. For the first time in almost 20 years we have a president who believes that tax cuts and reform are important issues. If now is not the time to enact full and permanent tax relief for families, when is?