“The United Nations has perverted the idea of democracy as Americans understand it. Rather than empowering people and protecting their rights, it empowers and protects even the most brutal and anti-democratic governments.” The Heritage Foundation

A report by AP reporters Angus Shaw entitled, “Hungry in Zimbabwe: ‘If you rest, you starve’” and John Heilprin, “U.N. vote shows growing support of the death penalty”, further validate and substantiate our need to sever our ties with the United Nations as it relentlessly attempts to encroach upon our sovereignty. This body that replaced the League of Nations in 1948, more often than not fails to achieve it stated goals which are to; facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and world peace. Its influence on the world stage has waned and deteriorated and it struggles to maintain relevancy. It frequently aligns itself opposed to our priorities and opinions that have long been standards of liberty and freedom to the world.

Mr Shaw’s article laments the plight of a woman named Kati from Zimbabwe. Kati is in her 70’s and he finds her picking up spilled corn kernels that dropped from trucks ferrying it to the market. Shaw states that Kati hadn’t eaten for 3 days. Rebecca, a 9 year old, is observed prodding a termite mound in search of insects for her family’s evening meal. The cause of these horrific scenes is Zimbabwe’s political paralysis brought on by the of the power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change. Michael, a trader in the country, says that he has seen villager’s plucking undigested corn kernels from cow dung to wash and eat.

The food crisis started in 2000 when Robert Mugabe seized farms from owners and gave them to the veterans of his guerilla war against white rule over the farmer British colony. Mugabe officials recently toured this district, where these scenes of despair daily play out, and told the ‘new farm owners’ “The government could not supply their needs.” They were advised to make do with what seed they had left and with animal manure for fertilizer.

In contrast, Mr Heilprin reports on the United Nations recent vote that supports the abolishment of the death penalty. Oddly, he states that the United States ‘took the steps to side’ with countries such as Iran, China, and Syria in opposing the resolution, opposite our usual European allies and Israel. What is Mr Heilprin trying to say? From the tenor and tone of this statement, he comes accross as self loathing. I do not make the connection of our country to the haters our way of life, liberty, freedom, and due process under law.

Mr Heilprin went on to report how the resolution, though not legally binding, carries moral weight coming from the 192-nation world body. Many past and recent United Nations resolutions are laughable because they do not contain teeth and will to enforce what it resolves. United Nations resolutions are worth less than the paper and ink with which they are written. I'm hard pressed to recall recent or near history UN resolutions that have made a difference in the world.

My local paper ran a story addressing the shakeup of leadership in the House of Representatives on both sides of the isle. The Democrat Party is firmly in the majority and will exercise to the fullest its privilege to appoint, at will, the chairs of the various sub-committees. Rest assured, the bickering, fighting, and arguing will continue.

What caught my eye in the article is the power struggle between Representative Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan. The outcome of this power struggle may be decided before I get to post this blog. In any case, Mr Waxman has won endorsement from the House Steering and Policy Committee for chair leadership of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I assume that endorsement from this committee bear weight on who is ultimately appointed chairperson of the various committees. Mr Waxman is challenging Mr Dingell’s leadership of this committee.  

What is notable and what I will expound upon from this article is the length of time Mr Dingell has been has been in Congress. He has represented the people of Michigan for 53 years. Put into perspective, Mr Dingell has represented his district the span of my lifetime, plus 10 years. He has been a member of our Federal Legislative Body for over half a century. He has been elected 26 terms by the people of his district.

My question is this; can anyone justify the ‘awesome’ job Mr Dingell is performing for the people of Michigan, given the situation of the state? I’m not completely familiar with Mr Dingell’s record, but the State of Michigan is in economic hardship and turmoil. It is one of many mirrors that reflect the current situation of our Union, of what we as a nation are now experiencing as a whole. Without argument, we did not arrive to our current situation overnight; but rather by the reckless collusion of the entrenched residents of both the House and Senate.

‘We the people’ need to revisit for our own safety and future posterity, the idea of Constitutional amendments that require term limits or breaks in congressional service. Familiarity breeds complacency and inefficiency. At what point in time should we require representatives pack it up and move on or pack it in and allow others an opportunity at governance? We can govern ourselves effectively and efficiently without fundamentally changing the founding principles of our country.

Personally I hold the Legislative Body in contempt as this is these same resident who voted themselves pay raises without out approval.  They all either maintain or fall in line with the ‘go with the flow’ mentality prevalent in Washington. Sadly, it’s to our detriment that this body is so gravely apathetic and ineffective. It is needful that our legislative bodies be made to feel uneasy and on edge in order to bring back a sense of urgency in their elected duty and a restoration of accountability to the general constituency. 

Look at term limits and breaks in service from a physiological point of view. Blood is produced from marrow. As we understand the function of blood, its purpose is to carry or move nutrients through the body to nourish it. Over time blood cells become wary and worn, they become incapable and inefficient in the job they are expected to perform. It becomes necessary for the body to produce new blood cells to replace the old ones. The new blood cells are produced from the same marrow as the old blood cells. New cells perform the identical function as the old cells, but they are far more efficient and effective in moving nourishment throughout the body. Eventually, they too will need to be replaced in order for the body to remain healthy.

Our legislative body at this point and time epitomizes old blood cells. They have become incapable, ineffective, inefficient, diseased, and decayed. It is time for many within that storied body to move on. Term limits or mandatory breaks in congressional service are necessary to the survival of our Republic. The same people who have been around for years are still around making the same mistakes over and over.

“When marriages and families are healthy, communities thrive; when marriages break down, communities break down.” The Heritage Foundation

Have you heard the story out of Nebraska concerning the abuse of their ‘safe haven’ law? Safe haven laws and provisions are prevalent throughout the country. In Texas where am from, for example, a baby can be dropped off at a fire station or library with no questions asked because these are designated as safe haven drop off points. The law in Nebraska is similar in that its intent to allow a parent to abandon their child in a safe place, rather than in the nearest dumpster.  

However, we have learned that the good intentions of this law have turned into a gross misuse and abuse. We now know that parents have dropped off teenage children, up to 19 years old. My first question is why are children so old being abandoned? Out of 17 children who have been dropped off, 4 have been younger than 10. Of the 4 that were under 10, they were among a group of 9 siblings who were abandoned in an Omaha hospital!

There was a story aired on Fox News this past Sunday which concerned a mother who dropped her child off because of behavioral problems. She said she attempted to remedy the problem by taking the child to medical experts. However, she said that those visits began to take on and air that she was part of the problem. She said she feared for her and her child’s safety. So that neither she nor the child would be harmed, she felt the best solution was to drop the child off.

In both situations it appears seemingly reasonable people did unreasonable things. There has to be more information to these stories than what a brief news article or television interview can bring out. But what is evident and glaring to me is that there is a serious breakdown in the American family structure. Breakdown is what caused these reactions. I’m not here to criticize because surely the whole of these stories haven’t been told. But these stories have caused deeper thought about the ongoing erosion of the American Family Unit.

It may be debated that the parent who dropped 9 siblings did so because of economic hardships. What caused the hardship to spur this action? Was it because of a loss in income due to our faltering economy? Was it because of income loss due to job loss? Could there have been a failure in personal financial management? I empathize with the economics of raising a family of 9; I come from a family of 9. Raising 9 children in our day and time is a ginormous task. I wonder what would drive parents to abandon 9 children. Whatever the reason, ultimately this was an act of desperation. I attribute this action to a breakdown of a faulty ‘value set’.

Now the parent that abandoned their child because of behavioral problems concerns me even more. What is wrong with our children’s attitudes? Why are they so angry? Does this child have a mental disability? Given the ‘symptom to medicated’ culture we live in, I’m sure there is a name for what this child is experiencing. I believe the problem is a simple as the loss of control of the home by the parents. I believe somewhere down the road this child gained immunity to   ‘time out’. A ‘time out’ in my day was time mom took to catch her breath in the middle of a ‘good old fashion’.

We have arrived to a point in our society where we cannot impose discipline in our homes, other than what is government approved. Government thinking I that one size fits all, and as far as discipline is concerned that‘s not the case. I’m not advocating ‘open game’ in disciplining children. But as a parent we know what works best in disciplining our children without them getting off free when they commit an infraction. My impression of this parent is that she believed she would be scrutinized to the ninth power by a social service agency for her disciplinary technique.

 There is a right way to discipline a child and our ways of doing that is as varied as our households. The right way is to not to do discipline our children while we are angry. The right way is not to discipline our children because their last action was the last straw on a pile of straw. The right way to discipline them is out of a sense of love and concern for them. The goal of our discipline should be to ensure that our children are disciplined to the norms of society and are not a ‘menace to society’.

We need to return our disciplinary authority back to our homes and to our families, without the fear of retribution from our local social service agency (government). How reasonable is it to allow a peace officer to crack over our children over the head or choke them out? They don’t know our children, yet have more authority over our children than we do as parents. We should be able to discipline our children, as we deem necessary and without abuse, before it reaches that stage. The fact is, if children are taught a healthy respect for authority at home, the problems in our cities and towns would minimize. It’s cool to have a rapport with our children, but it’s even cooler when we establish ourselves as an authority figure for our children. We serve them beyond friendship by being their lead, guide, and moral compass.

This question formulated as I took issue with Bonnie Erbe of Scripps Howard News Service column posted yesterday in my local newspaper. The title of her column “What does Obama’s win mean” reminded me of a column I read last year by Francis Rice entitled, “Why Martin Luther King was a Republican”. My contention is beyond Obama’s win and lies directly with Erbe’s interpretation of The Strategy and what it was to accomplish.

Erbe stated in her column that President-elect Barack Obama’s win signifies the death of the Old South and President Nixon’s infamous “Southern Strategy”. She says the GOP has used The Strategy successfully for almost 40 years to affect and win presidential elections. Does Erbe give an accurate representation of The Strategy?

Rice stated in her column that The Strategy was an effort on the part of President Nixon, to get Christians in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were still discriminating against their fellow Christians who happened to be black.

In contrast to Rice’s interpretation of The Strategy, Erbe interpretation appears misrepresented and takes on a racist tone. Erbe went on to state that when President Johnson ‘championed’ the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans saw a potential gold vein (presumably racism) in the South. According to Erbe, the party restructured itself and became a safe haven for white voters uneasy with Democrats or who were downright hostile to them for advancing the cause of black people.

If Erbe’s interpretation of The Strategy is accurate, it is distorted. Rice reminds us that President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. He also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the Warren court in 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education decision ended school segregation. Erbe’s representation of the Strategy flies in the face of reason and that there would be such a dramatic reversal in principle after these monumental events. 

Revive Love for America, Its Founding Principles, History and Language

We need to restore the understanding of the Constitution, restate the appropriate role of religion and moral values in our current civic life, and work to bring back limited government. We need to emphasize that we are one people and not a collection of competing groups. We need speak out about the meaning of our National Holidays and point out the historical achievements and principles of the United States that people have forgotten.

Win the War against Islamist Terrorism Abroad and at Home

Terrorist say there can be no compromise or dialogue with those who reject their extreme vision of the world. They must be unequivocally defeated.

Restore our Military Capability

It is essential to our freedom that we are capable of protecting ourselves and this can only be achieved by ensuring our military has the resources it needs to keep us safe. We must continue to develop emerging missile defense systems and continue to develop weapons to combat future threats

Protect our Sovereignty and Strengthen our Alliances

We need to re-think how we work with our allies and international organizations. In dealing with allies our main goal is to defend our security and liberty and to provide strong leadership on the world stage. In the past many countries have been able to create expensive social systems because we have been paying for their security and defense; we need to hold them more accountable for their own defense.

The United Nations has perverted the idea of democracy as we understand it. Rather than empowering people and protecting their rights, it has empowered and protected the most brutal and anti-democratic governments. What we need is an organization of free democracies. Our closest allies: Great Britain, Japan, Canada, and Australia would qualify. Other nations who are free, politically and economically, could participate within the organization but do not vote.

We cannot not bend to international pressure and become party to treaties that endanger our interests or violate our sovereignty. Whether we like it or not, we are the world’s leader and as the leader, we need to advocate to the world our values that have proven themselves – economic, religious, and political freedom. We need to stand strong and defend these values in the world.

Promote Family and Religion as Foundations of Freedom and Civil Society

Our government needs to refrain from imposing laws and regulations that weaken the family. Some examples are tax laws that penalize marriage, welfare programs that make it more profitable for mothers to remain single, laws permitting same-sex marriage or civil unions, laws and practices that weaken parental rights and laws that make adoptions subject to challenge.

The huge growth of government programs has weakened the family by taking over functions the family has traditionally performed. The acceptability of single parenthood has deprived countless children of intact families they need and deserve. While religion is a private function, the government and the culture need to give it a place in the public square and recognize its great benefits to society.

Essential to Individual Preservation and Future Posterity is our Renewal and Understanding of Economic Liberty and Entrepreneurship

• Re-explaination the virtues of entrepreneurship and free market principles from the 'kitchen table' point of view.
• To keep, reduce, and continue to insist on a low, flat, and simple federal tax system that taxes our income only once.
• Insist on a reduction in bureaucracy that discourages taking a chance.
• Secure an environment in which every person’s property is secure.
• Insist on policies, not regulation, that control inflation.

Thanks to all personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines. You put it on the line, every time. We thank you with a heart of gratitude for the continued sacrifices you make. They keep us safe, protected, and free.