Conviction

I read an incredible story on the Bound4Life blog about a courageous young woman who bucked the pinheads in her school to do a speech on abortion. You should check it out. And here is the speech that she gave:



Oh that God would raise up millions of young people like her. This is what it means to be salt and light.

HUZZAH! Tom Daschle Backs Out!

Oh this is some of the best political news I have heard in a long time. Tom Daschle didn't get a free pass on his failure to pay his taxes. It is one thing to not pay when you don't have the money to pay, but an entirely different matter when you are making millions of dollars a year. And it seems terribly suspicious for someone who helped to write the tax laws to not understand them. If he really didn't understand them, then how are the rest of us proles supposed to?

I hope that the President will begin to do a better job of selecting people with the character to fill the offices that he is appointing them to instead of selecting his old Washington insider buddies for these jobs. I thought we were supposed to be getting change? I guess it is like Cal Thomas said in his article Leona Helmsley Lives,

"Recall President Obama's vow to "change the culture of Washington." With Geithner and Daschle (and prior to them, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract), we are still waiting for "change we can believe in."

The article I read points out that not one, but FOUR of the President's nominees have been tarred with character weakness. Thank God that three of them won't be "serving" (most likely themselves) in these roles anymore. I'm glad that America still gets ticked off about some moral issues. Too bad that the list doesn't seem to include outrage over the wholesale slaughter of the unborn in our nation.

The White House announced that Daschle had asked to be removed from consideration as health and human services secretary and that that Nancy Killefer had made the same request concerning what was to be her groundbreaking appointment as a chief performance officer to make the entire government run better.

"They both recognized that you can't set an example of responsibility but accept a different standard of who serves," said spokesman Gibbs.

Sounds like the same old Washington to me.

Need more? Here it is:

Bill Richardson had been Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, but the New Mexico governor bowed out amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors. And last week, the Senate confirmed Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, but only after days of controversy over the fact that he had only belatedly paid $34,000 in income taxes....

Democratic lawmakers were surprised, too - and disappointed. Axelrod rushed to Capitol Hill to soothe frayed nerves.

"I was a little stunned. I thought he was going to get confirmed," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the panel that would have voted on Daschle's nomination. "It's regrettable."

Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Daschle's former Democratic colleagues had leapt to the former Democratic leader's defense. And it seemed that the clubby way that senators treat one of their own was likely to help Daschle survive the controversy.

But particularly after the divisive Geithner debate and vote, it apparently became too bitter a pill. Tax issues are easy for the public to understand, and also particularly easy to resent in wealthy officials at a time of widespread economic crisis.

They also created an opening for a drumbeat of criticism from Republicans and on newspaper editorial pages that Obama was engaging in a double standard: proclaiming his administration to be more ethical, responsible and special interest-free than his predecessors' and yet carving out exceptions almost daily.

All I can say is "THANK YOU JESUS!" I hope that the Lord will continue to expose every single scalawag in Washington and remove them - even though that might mean starting from scratch. I am sure that we wouldn't be worse off than we are now.

God Help Us

I just read a very distressing article about the downward ethical trends among our nation's youth. According to the article:

The Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey in class; their anonymity was assured.

Michael Josephson, the institute's founder and president, said he was most dismayed by the findings about theft. The survey found that 35 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls — 30 percent overall — acknowledged stealing from a store within the past year. One-fifth said they stole something from a friend; 23 percent said they stole something from a parent or other relative.

...Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse. Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and 38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent in a 2006 survey.

Thirty-six percent said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent in 2004.

Forty-two percent said they sometimes lie to save money — 49 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the girls.

Despite such responses, 93 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know."

Is it just me or does anyone else detect a disconnect between the data in the first part of this quote and the statement in the last paragraph? This is utterly appalling to me. Such a discrepancy would either indicate to me that there are some really bad people not accounted for in this survey or that a whole bunch of people have absolutely not clue about what is moral or ethical.

Just as scary as the results of this survey is the responses that the article reported from educators that were presented the results. A typical response came from Peter Anderson the principal of Andover High School in Andover, Massachusetts. He said, "This generation is leading incredibly busy lives — involved in athletics, clubs, so many with part-time jobs, and — for seniors — an incredibly demanding and anxiety-producing college search."

Another "educator" said, "We have to create situations where it's easy for kids to do the right things," he added. "We need to create classrooms where learning takes on more importance than having the right answer."

I think though that Michael Josephson hit the nail on the head when he "contended that most Americans are too blase about ethical shortcomings among young people and in society at large. 'Adults are not taking this very seriously,' he said. 'The schools are not doing even the most moderate thing. ... They don't want to know. There's a pervasive apathy.'"

Why are many adults not taking this seriously? I would suggest that a similar survey given to adults about the age of the kids' parents would find that they are no better than the kids surveyed. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, America is in a serious moral crisis.

Good grief! The guys I quoted above made excuses instead of even acknowledging that these behaviors are wrong. I wonder if the tone of these individuals would have been different if the survey showed that intolerance, ethnocentrism, or conservatism were on the rise. And one suggested that if we make it easy enough then they won't have to cheat! These people are morally bankrupt! It is a classic case of the blind leading the blind. No wonder we're so screwed up!

Information like this just convinces me that a reckoning is coming and coming soon. God help us.

John McCain

Many of you know that I was not a big fan of John McCain at the outset of the campaigning season, but I have to say that my opinion of him has been greatly boosted after watching him through the campaign. I have to admit that I misjudged him. John McCain is a true patriot and servant of our nation. I wish we had 99 others just like him in the Senate... and one in the White House.

I was especially proud of his concession speech that ended the Presidential race of 2008. His words and poise showed great character, vision, and devotion to our nation. In case you didn't get the chance to hear what he said, I have provided the text below.

John McCain is a fine man. I wish that I could have called him my President, but that was not to be.

I dare say that it was necessary for the election to end the way it did if real change is to come to our nation. Had John McCain won the Presidency I believe that the trials that are coming our way would have been postponed. The Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) would have done everything in their power to resist the reform that he wanted to bring to Washington. He would have been a very frustrated man because as surely as I breathe as I am writing this there would have been no change.

The people would have remained as they are or gotten worse.

As things are now, I believe that the trials to come will purify our nation and cause a real change in the place that matters most: the hearts of the people of this nation. As John Adams put it:

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. "

So true. Our fallen nature sees to that.

Senator McCain, my hat is off to you. Thank you for your service to our country. I pray that you will still be in office to see the changes that you have so earnestly desired to see.

The Text Of John McCain's Concession Speech For the 2008 Presidential Election

JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.

(BOOING)

Please.

To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now...

(APPLAUSE)

Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans...

(APPLAUSE)

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

(APPLAUSE)

It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)

We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.

AUDIENCE: No!

MCCAIN: I am so...

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)

MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)

MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.

I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother...

(APPLAUSE)

... my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.

All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.

I am also -- I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen...

(APPLAUSE)

... one of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength...

(APPLAUSE)

... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children...

(APPLAUSE)

... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.

(APPLAUSE)

To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.

I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.

(BOOING)

Please. Please.

I would not -- I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.

half a century.

Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.

Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama -- whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

(APPLAUSE)

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

Busted

Someone asked me the other day what I thought about the whole John Edwards situation. I can say that I am absolutely not surprised. And I'd bet you a dollar to a doughnut that he's still lying. You can't cover up character flaws. The flaws that were blatantly obvious to me since he took office as a NC Senator have merely been shown to the world.

In all of the hoopla surrounding this story the only candid thing that he has said that I believe is that he didn't believe that he would get caught. I guess he figured that the rules don't apply to him because he is so pretty and because he was slick enough to dupe several juries (and quite a few of the American public) into believing his various assorted loads of bull.

I personally hope that this removes his name forever from consideration for any public office.

The problem is that he isn't the only one - and I'm not just talking about Democrats either. The level of corruption in our society has reached such a level that it just nauseates me to think about it. It seems like fewer and fewer people have any notion of what holiness is and even fewer care if they are pursuing it. I am so tired of the constant disappointment when people all around me continue to fall, and when I hear time and time again of people who claim to be Christian who openly assent to the fact that they are going to do what they want to do even if it flies in the face of scripture.

I have been praying for quite some time now that God would expose those in our government who are cheating, stealing and living immoral lives. It would seem that He is answering my prayer.

Died On The Fourth Of July

I was saddened to learn this morning that Jesse Helms died yesterday, July 4, 2008. Yahoo! News ran a no-gloss story about him this morning. It seems appropriate that he would die on our nation's birthday. Some truly great American statesmen (including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) have died on the anniversary of our freedom. Jesse Helms was certainly worthy of this title and the honor of dying on the 4th of July.

Jesse Helms was the only other American politician that I know that was as maligned and hated as much as George W. Bush. I think that is because both of them had something in common: they both believed in standing up for what they believed was right and in the best interest of their constituency and frankly didn't care who it offended.

It turns out that there are a lot of people who really don't like it when you tell them the truth. I guess Jesus Christ found this out too. Not that Jesse or Dubya are or were perfect - far from it. I never liked Jesse's racist tendencies. But no one would question that these men stood for what they believed. (Whether you like what they believed or not.) Perhaps the good news is that there are a lot of people who DO like people who have some character and some spine.

I decided to post the headline picture today because Jesse Helms had so many really bad pictures published throughout his lifetime. I guess a pretty big part of that came from journalists who hated him (this was nearly universal it seemed) and picked the worst, most unflattering picture they could to run with stories about him.

I had the opportunity to meet Jesse when I was in High School. I wish I had a picture. I was honored to receive a nomination to West Point from Senator Helms back in the late 80s. It was then that I began to respect him more and more as a sharp-minded conservative. I began to take a greater interest in politics, and noticed how he voted. I cannot recall a single time that I checked that Senator Helms had not voted in a way that was pleasing to me. Both he and Ronald Reagan influenced my political thought significantly. They will always be my two favorite politicians. Dubya comes in a close third. It is just sad to me that two of them have died, and one is very close to the end of his political career.

Perhaps one of the most shocking things that happened during Jesse's tenure in office was his meeting and befriending of U2 lead singer Bono. It caught even his (probably both Bono's and Senator Helms') fans totally off guard. It was this friendship that caused Senator Helms to soften the stances that he had taken on a few issues. And in a way, I think that it shows that there was far more to this man than the media allowed us to learn. I believe and hope that history will vindicate him one day.

As far as I am concerned, Jesse Helms will be missed sorely. He was one of the pillars in American society that made me believe that everything wasn't so bad - that there was still hope. Ronald Regan was another. Even though they weren't actively involved in American politics it was comforting to know that they were still there. Now both are gone, and that makes me wonder if anyone will step up to take the mantle that they have left behind.

Hypocrisy

Many commentators are indicting Spitzer mostly for hypocrisy, but aren't we the real hypocrites? We watch and tolerate the most salacious television programs; we produce soft pornography to sell in grocery stores, displaying it on checkout line shelves, we post hardcore porn on the Internet; we feature on magazine covers women who have had babies with sperm donors they call boyfriends, but do not marry them; girls are sexualized at ever-younger ages; we equate shacking up with marriage as equal moral choices and then express shock when members of both political parties behave in ways that emulate what they see the rest of us tacitly approving….

Culture once produced gobs of shame for people who engaged in such activities, but no more. Now the question becomes whether such laws are outmoded and if it should be considered a private matter between Spitzer and his family. This is the legacy of the Bill Clinton years. "It was only sex," cried Clinton's defenders of his tryst with Monica Lewinsky. It was no one else's business, except his family. Each time such behavior is excused, we ensure we will get more of it.

- Cal Thomas (excerpts from "Sex And The Married Governor" in Jewish World Review, March 12, 2008)

I wish that my writing was as consistently cogent as Cal Thomas'. Read the entire article. He hit it on the head.


Aside:
Don't know if Washington is like NY, but if it is the Gideons may have not been welcome to place their Bibles in his hotel.

Happy Fathers' Day

On Fathers' Day I just want to pay tribute to my dad. It is so easy to take parents for granted. They are always there, they are always the same, and so it is easy to get accustomed to the way that they are. I never really realized how good I had it until I went away to college. There I met so many people who came from broken homes or came from homes where the father (or mother) weren't the most supportive of their children. I actually had one fraternity brother whose parents threw him out of the house because he believed in speaking in tongues. Unbelievable.

My father is a good man who loves Jesus Christ very much and has done his best to train me to follow the Lord. I'm glad that he was successful in that pursuit! He has also taught me so much more than that. He has taught me about integrity and about what it means to be a good employee. I'd have to say that most of my business ethics I developed as a direct result of watching and learning from him. He has taught me about hard work and diligence and responsibility. There were lots of times that it would have been easier for him to check out when I was growing up, but he stayed put.

Over the past year and a half I have had the honor of working with my dad in his business. I have heard so many horror stories about that kind of arrangement, but I have to say that our partnership has been wonderful. Of course we rub each other the wrong way sometimes - mostly over failure to communicate well with each other - but the love and respect that we have for each other always seems to overcome that.

One of the neat things that I have been able to learn about my dad while working with him is that he has a "steel" side. I never saw so much of that growing up, because most of the time he was very gentle with my siblings and me, but I have absolutely no doubt that this man has a spine! Seeing this trait in him has helped me to strengthen my own.

I appreciate my dad for not being afraid to discipline me in love too. I don't care what the psychologists say out there; physical discipline is indispensable in character development. He is also not afraid to correct me when I'm wrong even now. Granted, I am hardly EVER wrong! ;-)

One lesson that I'll never forget regarded fidelity. My dad was in a discussion with someone about a marriage that had broken up and the question of fidelity came up. The other person commented that one could hardly blame the husband if he had been unfaithful due to some of the personality flaws in the wife. My dad instantly (and forcefully) said, "There is never an excuse for infidelity." I'll never forget that.

It is a lesson that he has lived out for nearly 40 years, and I really appreciate that too. When I see how many people don't have parents that have stayed married it makes me really appreciate my parents for working through the rough spots. It helps me to have faith that marriage can still work.

So here’s to my dad for all the many things that he has done for me and for the many lessons that he has taught me. I’m so very grateful to have you for my father and for my friend.