In watching recent events, I’ve come to believe more and more that this country is rapidly sliding towards Socialism, Marxism, and eventually Communism.  Extreme?  No, I truly don’t believe so.  The liberties and freedoms that have been taken from us are growing, and more and more are at risk.  So many people can’t see what is right before their eyes.  How quickly people will willingly give up their freedoms in the name of safety or entitlement or countless other excuses.  But what it really comes down to is the government controlling more and more aspects of our daily lives and our freedoms falling by the wayside.  For those who might say that this is just because I don’t like Barack Obama, think again.  This is not an Obama thing, although I do believe that in the last 9 months we have had our Constitution and freedoms assaulted more than ever.  This is not a Democrat or Republican thing, or a liberal and conservative thing.  This is purely about right and wrong; good and evil.  Yeah, that’s right – evil.  This assault on our Constitution and freedom has been going on for a long time, by both parties, and I believe it is time to stand up and say, “NO MORE!”  We cannot stand idly by while our children’s future plays out in front of us like some bad horror movie.  I want my America for my children!  I want my children to know “The Greatest Generation.”  I want them to know the America that brought freedom all over the world.  I want them to stand up with joy in their hearts and be able to proclaim, “I am an American!!!”  I remember growing up my mom telling me that I could do anything in this country; I could be anything, learn anything, and have freedom to make my own decisions.  She would tell me that there were countries in the world where that wasn’t allowed; where your career was decided for you; where you weren’t allowed to worship freely or speak your mind.  I remember sitting on the couch in the living room with her, watching on television, the Berlin Wall come down and then her explaining to me what that really meant.  I remember being so touched and moved by that and thinking I live in the greatest country in the world!  Will my children have that?  Will my children be able to know that they live in the greatest country in the world?  Will they be able to be anything they want to.  Will they have the opportunity to work hard and achieve their dreams?  Will they know this land was blessed by God and that the Founding Fathers were set apart by God to do a mighty work?  Will they know that our Constitution was inspired by that very same God?  Of course I will teach them all these things, but what evidence will they have in their daily lives for the greatness of the United States of America?  What kind of America will they grow up into?  Will they look at me and their dad and ask, “How could you all let this happen?  Why didn’t you see what was happening to the country?  Why didn’t you stop it?”  I pray that won’t happen!  I pray that the people of this country who have so clearly lost their way will wake up, before it really is too late. 

I’ve included an excerpt from Mormon Doctrine on Communism under my pages tab at the top of the page.  Even if you aren’t Mormon and don’t hold those beliefs, read it.  It’s not about Mormonism, but about Communism.

It’s clearly been a while since I’ve been visible on my blog.  See, I discovered Facebook.  So, because of its ease, I started putting all my “random thoughts” on there and sadly neglecting my blog.  It’s fun to play around on, but it’s just not the same.  So, old friend blog, I’m back.  Hopefully for good.  Facebook is great and has its place, but I’ll be putting many more “random thoughts” on.   here, also.  No reason why we can’t share, right? 

It’s been busy since I last posted, but not too much has changed.  I could talk about all the details of the summer, but that would really serve no point, except to bore people.  So, let’s suffice it to say that we’ve kept very busy, both personally and politically.  And, we’ll just go on from here.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and that’s for a couple reasons.  The first, I’ve been really super busy.  Second, sometimes words seem inadequate to express my thoughts on certain things, generally politically.  But, there are just way too many things going on that I’d like to comment on, so I’m going to touch on them today. 

First, what seems to have become a big story:  Sarah Palin vs. David Letterman.  I find it ridiculous that Letterman would joke about a 14year old (and yes, it was the 14 year old daughter not the 19 year old) girl being sexually assaulted.  I find it ridiculous that Letterman would joke and call Gov. Palin “slutty.”  On this, I have two questions.  1.  What would have been the repercussions if a conservative comedian made those kind of jokes about liberals, say Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, or the Obamas?  There would have been extreme outrage.  (And let me just say the jokes were distasteful, and I would think the same regardless of who the jokes were about.)  However, because the jokes were about conservative Governor Sarah Palin and her family, there are just excuses being made, none of which I buy, by the way.  It is absurd the extreme double standard that exists in mainstream media.  Of course that is nothing new, but it’s still irritating.  2.  What would Dave say if someone made jokes like that about his child or wife?

Second, the elections in Iran.  Initially, I favored the defeat of Ahmadinejad because I thought the contender, Mousavi, would be better on international issues.  However, I don’t think there would be much difference between the two as far a international policy.  However, I still think Mousavi would be great for the country because he supports more freedoms for the people of Iran, and he has a great deal of support from the citizens in Iran.  And, personally, I think any steps toward freedom are good, and in a country like that, they will be small steps.  Now, this morning, it’s coming out that Ahmadinejad has been declared the winner of the election.  The results are highly contested and controversial.  This was supposed to be a very close race, and it seems astounding that he would loose by such a huge margin, let alone in his own home town.  People have taken to the streets in protest, and frankly, that’s a great thing to see in a country so tightly ruled.  The Interior Ministry of the country has blocked communications, including text messaging, and pulled newspapers from the stands.  So, we actually know more here, than the people in Iran do.  Something is foul about all this, to be sure. 

What next?  Ah, yes, North Korea.  First of all, I think we can all agree that Kim Jong-Il is completely crazy.  The idea of this guy being in charge of weapons, let alone nuclear weapons, is terrifying!  So, this week the United Nations approved all kinds of sanctions against North Korea.  (Oh no, not the UN!  Now, that’s scary!  (Please note the sarcasm.))  Now, to be fair, countries are vowing to uphold and enforce the sanctions, including China.  And, in an “I spit in your general direction” move, North Korea has responded as any crazy infantile country would, and said that they will continue to enrich plutonium for weapons, and oh yeah, “Na nee na nee boo boo!”  They have also said that they will take military action in order to do so.  On a completely serious note, my brother-in-law is serving a mission in South Korea, and this whole thing really makes me nervous. 

Now, on to the homefront.  What can I say?  I think I must be living in the Twilight Zone!  What the heck is happening to my wonderful country?  Obama and the liberal Congress have moved much faster than I thought they would.  It is ridiculous some of the things that are going on!  In 5 months, he has nationalized 4 big industries.  I only wonder what is next.  They sold this “stimulus” as something that was absolutely necessary for the economy or the economy would collapse.  There were doomsday predictions falling out of the sky.  Personally, I never bought any of it.  It moved through WAY too fast, and they were clearly not being honest (not that I would have expected them to be).  And, let’s look at the results of this “economy saving” that has been done.  Many banks took TARP money, and yet still won’t loan to people.  The auto makers got a bailout, and still declared bankruptcy.  Unemployment wasn’t supposed to go higher than 7 percent, and it’s much higher than that nationally, and even higher in some states.  Wow, great plan!  “Oh, but it would have been so much worse had we not done anything!” say government officials.  Yeah, and if you believe that I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.  Here’s the thing.  The free market works!  Trick is, it has to be allowed to.  The government has gotten way too involved in the free market system, thus rendering it not a free market.  Then they declare that the free market isn’t working and has failed us.  NO!  That’s simply not the case.  The government has failed us, by causing the fall of the free market system.  See, with true capitalism and free markets, things fix themselves!  So, all we have to do is allow them to do so.  I know, crazy idea, huh?  Let things work how they are supposed to.  Capitalism, real capitalism, ALWAYS works!  If the government will just stay out of people’s business it would work.  I could go on and on about the horrible damage Obama’s policies are doing to the economy, but it would just aggravate me.   (And allow me to interject for a moment here, but what the heck is wrong with the Republicans?  We should be running ads like crazy talking about all the lies that have been told about all this stimulus stuff, especially in states with super high unemployment and in 2010 battleground states!  We need to start making the connections now!  We can’t wait, especially here in Nevada where Harry Reid will be up for re-election.  We’ve got to tie him to this stuff starting now!  Where is the leadership here?  We’ve got to wake up!)

And, I don’t really want to go too much into government run health care, but I have a couple things to say on it.  First, I don’t care what they call it; it’s SOCIALIZED medicine!  Second, it’s a terrible idea!  Sure, it sounds great to say that everyone will have health care, who wouldn’t want that?  However, that’s not the reality of the situation.  Just look at countries that have socialized medicine.  People get horrible care!  That’s why many of them come here to get treatment, if they can.  In those countries, there are often medications that are not available to people.  They also deny a lot of care for the elderly.  In Great Britain, women can’t get breast cancer medication.  The simple and brutal truth is that for these bankrupt government run systems, it’s just cheaper to let someone die, than to treat them, even when it’s something as treatable as breast cancer.  Most sane people can look at the facts and see that any kind of socialized medicine would be disastrous!  A quick personal example is a friend of mine that has a ridiculous amount of health problems, including Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Because of the Lupus, her immune system is very weak, and she is prone to illness.  Now, of course most things can be treated at home, but there are times when she has to see a doctor or even go to the hospital.  Oh, yeah, she has NO health insurance because her husband has been unemployed for a year.  She can even see the horrors that would be socialized medicine, and doesn’t want it.  At least now, if she needs to see her doctor or go to the emergency room she can do so.  While it is a sacrifice for them to pay out of pocket for the visits, they do so in order to get the care she needs.  They are willing to do so, in order to get quality care.  If we were to go to socialized medicine, yes, she would be covered, but what would that mean?  She could sit on a waiting list for a year and a half to see a specialist?  She could see a doctor, but not one of her choosing.  And, she wouldn’t get any quality health care.  Fact is, when you take out the incentive for doctors to do really well, they won’t.  You won’t get quality people in the system.  Competition (capitalism) is vital for quality.  I don’t want that kind of health care (or lack thereof), and I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would! 

Onelast thing.  What happened at the Holocaust Museum this week was horrific!  The act was committed by someone who was clearly deranged!  What a horrible thing for the media to take that tragic event and politicize it!  They are making this guy out to be a right-wing crazy conservative.  NOT TRUE!  They are then drawing ties from him to people like me who are peaceful, law abiding, non-racist conservatives.  I’m pretty tired of being labeled extreme and racist and bigoted because I am a conservative.  The only thing extreme about me is that I love my country and my family extremely!  I’m not a racist.  I’m not a bigot.  I’m not an extremist or a crazy whack-job!  I’m just someone that loves my country and wants to see the values that our founding fathers established preserved for my children.  I don’t like taxes, but realize that some are necessary, for example to create roads for me to drive on, but they shouldn’t be so darn high as to fund ridiculous programs that don’t work.  I don’t think people should have the right to kill their babies because its convenient (ie: abortion), and I don’t believe in gay marriage.  That doesn’t make me a bigot or hateful; it just means that I believe in traditional family values.  (And, oh no, watch out for this:  I think families run better when the mom can be at home raising the children while the dad works!  And I think that’s the ideal situation.  Of course there are times when that’s not possible, but it is ideal.)  To sum it up, “The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”  None of that makes me an extremest and I’m pretty darn tired of being labeled such! 

Alright, I think that covers it for now.

I know it happened earlier this week, but I’m just now getting to my blog, and I wanted to comment about Arlin Specter.  So, after almost 30 years in Washington, he’s decided to officially change his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.  There are a lot of people out there that are really worked up about this.  “This will give the Democrats the filibuster-proof majority!”  “Now the Democrats have the 60 votes they need!”  And other such statements.  Well, personally, I don’t see what the big deal is.  He was already voting liberal.  He was going to vote with them anyway!  It’s not like he’s magically started voting with the Democrats.  By switching parties, he just formally did what he’s been doing for a long, long time.  I, quite frankly, am glad that he left the party and I wish he’d take some of the other RINO’s, like Snow and Collins, with him!  He is truly helping the Republican party by leaving, because people will not associate his horrible votes with the Republicans.  It’s about time we got rid of some of the trash!  (Especially when he says that he switched parties because he thought the Republicans were moving too far to the right!  Really, I was thinking that we’re farther left than we have ever been! ) I hope the people in Pennsylvania get a really good CONSERVATIVE Republican to run against him, because he will be done then!  And, that would be fabulous!  It’s better that the RINO’s leave the party, so we can get ourselves together and get back on a truly conservative platform!  Hey everyone, remember Ronald Reagan?????  Yeah, let’s go back to those principles- and here’s a newsflash- THEY WORK!!!

So, another interesting development was the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Souter will be retiring, which means that President Obama will have the opportunity to fill a seat on the Supreme Court.  Interestingly enough, Souter was appointed by Bush 41, which no one would really be able to tell by the way he’s voted.  He’s moved farther and farther left.  So, having Obama appoint someone to fill his seat won’t really change the make-up of the Court.  It’s going to be interesting, though, because who ever he appoints will have to first make it through the Judiciary Committee.  To get out of the Committee, the nominee will have to have at least one Republican vote.  As a member of that committee, Senator Arlin Specter has often been that vote.  Well, now that he’s changed parties, he can’t be that vote any more, so the President is likely to have to put someone up as a nominee that is a little bit more moderate than he would like.  An ultra-liberal appointee is not going to make it through now.  Way to go, Senator Specter!

I love this.  There is a good group of videos that he has done, but this is especially great! 

I know that the words of Elder Holland are true!  What a marvelous and glorious truth it is!!

This was shown at our Stake Enrichment Night last night, and I thought it was very moving and good. 

So, let’s all get out there and CREATE!!!

I recently got an e-mail from the American Issues Project about this ad, and finally checked it out.  Wow.  It’s very eye opening. 

What do you think?

So, over the weekend, I went to three different food storage and emergency preparedness events.  Wow, it really opened my eyes to what I need to do and not do.  I learned so much information!  For tons of information, I suggest that you head on over to my friend Mike’s Emergency Preparedness site.  It’s really comprehensive and put together well.  Also, check out the Church’s info on all of this. 

One of the thinks I picked up was a survey to see how well prepared people are.  Thought I’d share it.  Here goes: 

Food Storage:    __72 Hour kit    __2 year supply    __Water    __Odds and ends    __None, I’m dieting    __Other

Fuel Storage:    __Propane tanks    __Gasoline tanks    __Generators    __None, I like to walk    __Other

Communication:    __Walkie talkies    __Short wave radio    __None, I like to shout    __Other

Housing:    __Camper, RV, motor home    __Tents    __None, I like the out of doors    __Other

Trade:    __Doctor/Nurse/EMT    __CPR/First aid    __Other medical training    __Engineering/Carpentry    __Electrical/Utilities    __Nothing significant, really    __Other

Tools:    __Hand tools    __Power tools    __Does a lawn mower count?    __Other

Camping gear:    __Coleman stoves    __Coolers    __Utensils    __Does a flashlight count?    __Other

Protection:    __Guns    __Bow and arrow    __Sling shots    __None, I usually run away    __Other

Special needs:    __Mobility    __Medication    __Yes, I am special!    __Other

Makes you think, eh?