A Question of Faith

  America is truly one of the greatest experiments in world history. Prior to it's founding, no people on Earth had ever governed themselves, had the freedom to speak out about whatever they wished, even the government. The freedom to assemble freely, and the freedom to worship the God (or Gods), of their choice, without fear of government retribution.
  Freedom of religion. Freedom from religion. People have come here for one of those two things since day one. They have come with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and risked their lives for this simple idea.
  Two recent cases of people coming here to be able to worship freely, and the Obama State Department barely lifting a finger to help in either case is truly disturbing.

  Pastor Saeed Abedini is an Iranian who became an American citizen in 2010. He and his wife, both converts from Islam to Christianity. Abedini traveled back and forth between Iran and the U.S. to work with the underground house church movement, and most recently, was helping to build an orphanage. On his last trip to Iran, he was arrested, and sentenced to eight years in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. The State Department did not provide a witness at a hearing last week where Abedini's wife Naghmeh spoke. The U.S. Representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, has been very vague in her statements to the Council, even failing to comment on this specific case. Rep. Frank Wolf R-Va, and other lawmakers have sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, urging him to make this case a top priority, as the Iranian government does not recognize Abedini's American citizenship.
  Uwe and Hannalore Romeike, evangelical Christians from Germany, applied for and were granted political refuge in the U.S. in 2010. Under German law, it is illegal to home school children. The Romeikes maintain that their children are being taught things in German schools that go against their beliefs. The Department of Homeland Security is now attempting to deport the family, claiming that the German law, originally implemented during the Nazi era, does not violate the family's human rights. If the family is deported to Germany, they face fines, possible imprisonment, and almost certain loss of the custody of their children to the State.
  So what could be the reason for the Obama administration's reluctance to help people who have escaped religious persecution in their home countries and sought refuge in the United States? They seem to have no trouble accommodating Muslims whenever they want to build a mosque, even a block away from Ground Zero. Is it the entire anti-Christian sentiment that seems to permeate our culture today? Certainly the mainstream media does nothing but encourage it. Hollywood does everything it can to portray Christians as Bible-thumping, judgemental neanderthals, who tell everyone around them that they are going straight to Hell if they do not repent and become one of them this instant. But society as a whole is rather good at that, notice the stereotype of Witches next fall around Halloween.
  Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement late last week condemning Iran's treatment of Pastor Saeed, and calling for his immediate release. But we all know how much weight that will hold with the Iranian government. The Romeikes appeal to the 6th Circuit Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on April 23.
  Are we learning that if you are a Christian who merely wishes to practice their faith without fear of persecution, that perhaps Barack Obama's America is not the place for you?

 To help Saeed Abedini and sign a petition for his release, and find out more, go to www.Savesaeed.org.
 To help the Romeike family, and find out more about their case, visit the National Home School Legal Defense.

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New Kids On The Block

  As the dust settles from the annual pilgrimage to Washington D.C. by Conservatives, otherwise known as CPAC, several things were on display that made for an interesting weekend.
  All the big names, and rising stars of the Party were on hand. Paul, Rubio, Palin, Santorum, Cruz, Gingrich, Romney, Ryan. Of course, this is not the complete list, and no doubt some of those names were auditioning for bigger and better things.
  One thing was glaringly obvious, the names that were not there. McCain, Graham, Boehner, Rove, and others of their ilk. The names that are often collectively known as "the old guard".
  The Old Guard are not happy campers these days. Life is just a tad precarious if you are what is commonly known as an "establishment" Republican. There are fresh faces, demanding fresh ideas. The old guys are having trouble keeping up.
  Poor Old Guys. It's just not their father's GOP anymore. Back in the good ol' days, they didn't have to worry about the message, or how it was getting out, and to whom. Messages were for campaign season. As soon as they got to Washington, it was business as usual. Go along to get along. They knew that if they just kept trying, kept being nice, the Democrats and the media would like them and say nice things. Well, no, it hasn't happened yet, but they will! Just you wait!
  Well, Old Guys, there are new kids on the block. They are young, educated, informed, articulate, hungry, and tired of being nice. The New Kids were were hanging around way back in 2011, even voted Ron Paul the winner of the Presidential Straw Poll. But the Old Guys sniffed at them, and promptly dismissed them. Then came 2012. The Old Guys did not do so well.

  So the New Kids came back in 2013. Ready to take over and get to work. The New Kids don't care whether or not the Democrats and the dinosaur media like them or not. They have their own media. The New Kids are tired of losing elections. The New Kids want smaller government, free markets, and adherence to Constitutional principles. The New Kids don't want to change the message. They want to tweak it, make it better, and make it resonate with all who are able to hear.
  The bending and stretching of the Republican Party between the old and the new may not be pretty, but it is necessary. A growing pain that must be felt in order to get to the next level. Some will emerge on the other side. Some will not. It is the next phase that has to happen, so that no one else but ourselves will identify who we are, and what we stand for.
  Fur may fly, and hair may be pulled, but it is our fight.
  The true Conservatives will emerge victorious.     

Boys Will Be Boys

  We have all heard this old, tired cliche.  It has been said about professional athletes, politicians, and frat boys to name a few.  But a case out of tiny Steubenville Ohio may make a lot of Americans wonder, is this just an old saying, or is this attitude alive and well?
  Friday night football attendance and participation in Steubenville is practically mandatory. and the case of two of the Big Red's star players have the small town split over charges that a rape is being covered up to protect the team, or that high school kids are being tried and convicted in the media.
  Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were at a series of parties last August. parties that were reportedly  flush with teenagers and alcohol, but sorely lacking any parental supervision. The victim remembers little to nothing of what happened that night, piecing together Facebook and Twitter postings to get even a part of the evening's events. Witness accounts range from incriminating photos of the girl, intoxicated, naked, and sem-conscious, being taken and posted to social media, to eye witness accounts of a sexual assault, and highly likely, a rape.
  With little physical evidence to go on, there is a chance that the two boys could be acquitted of all the charges. Teen agers have been having illicit beer parties since beer and parties were invented. What happens when the next crop of star football players engage in bad behavior with girls who might not have officially consented to anything? Will they feel a sense of entitlement? Would a guilty verdict in this case deter them? The answer to that is probably no.

  At the risk of sounding 150 years old, the one thing that Facebook, Twitter, and the Internet in general has robbed us of is any sense of decorum and shame. The old saying, "just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should", does not seem to apply to today's young people. We all did stupid things in high school and college that those of us over 30 are thanking our lucky stars was not captured for all eternity on some one's timeline, or in a series of tweets. Young men have always been guilty of some level of disrespect towards young women from time to time. But the lengths it goes to now, is quite frankly, ghastly. Is it the number of boys with no decent male role model in their lives that can not only teach them to properly respect women, but just teach them how to be a man? Granted, teen age boys are creatures like no other, but will these boys, and others like them, continue to treat the females in their lives in this manner when they are 20? 25? 35?
  The trial begins this week in a Steubenville courtroom. Will the legacy of Steubenville Big Red Football remain intact, or will boys continue to be boys?                 

Can't We All Just Get Along?

  We Americans are a welcoming bunch. We love meeting people from all over the world, asking them questions about their home countries, and we are eager to share with them, all of the things that make America the exceptional, amazing place that it is.
  Within the last few years however, some people have come here for reasons other than becoming Americans. They come for jobs and education, and unfortunately, sometimes they come for more sinister purposes. And they have no desire whatsoever to assimilate.
  Ironically, since September 11, 2001, the Muslim population in America has grown exponentially. For the most part, they are peaceful, hard working people. But for a small faction, it seems as if it is all about imposing their way of life on us.
  From writer and blogger Debbie Schlussel, comes the story of 24 year old Kevin McCarron. McCarron and a group of friends from Andover Massachusetts were leaving a pizza parlor in New York's Greenwich Village on January 17 around 5am when they encountered a group of Middle-Eastern men. Words were exchanged between the two groups. The Muslim men claimed someone in McCarron's group called them "f--- Arabs." The Muslims proceeded to produce a tire iron, bat, and other weapons from the trunk of a car. How convenient for them that they just happen to have these weapons on hand. McCarron's skull was fractured so severely, that he may have permanent damage. According to Schlussel, McCarron "was beaten for the 'crime' of being a non-Muslim tourist in Greenwich Village".

  If one is looking for any accounts of this story at all, you will only find them online. The mainstream media, of course, would not dream of being so politically incorrect as to put any Muslims in a possible bad light. CBS News online, The New York Daily News, and even the local Andover Massachusetts paper, The Eagle Tribune, would give no possible motive for the attack. But they made sure to include the possible racial slur allegedly made by someone in McCarron's group to the Muslims. The NYPD would not release an incident report. Why?
  One would have had to crawl out from under the rock of their choice to not know that the media operates on a series of double standards that has become all to familiar to people such as  Conservatives, especially African-American Conservatives, church-going Americans, and most recently, gun owners. But the kid gloves they reserve for Muslims is extra special. No no, don't want to make them mad! Why not? We know that if Kevin McCarron had been beaten within an inch of his life by a bunch of Gadsden flag waving Tea Party members, it would be front page news. Why must one search for this story? Maybe for the same reason why the Fort Hood shooting is classified as "work place violence" If a Muslim is accused of a crime in this country, should it not be treated the same as any other that is reported in a newspaper or online news site?
  As of this writing, Kevin McCarron is home, and recovering from his ordeal. His attackers are all due back in court in April, two of them facing 11 counts of attempted murder. It remains to be seen if this case will be prosecuted as a hate crime.
  It is probably as safe bet that Kevin McCarron and his friends have lost that welcoming feeling.