I suppose there are some republicans like me who feel like the whole world was just turned upsidedown with the election of Barack Obama.

I was so concerned about the Clintons getting back into the white house, I spent a great deal of time and energy rooting for Barack, simply because I could not stomach the Clinton Gestapo taking the reigns of power again.

A few weeks before the election I started to do some serious research about Obamas past associations and marxist worldview. The more I read, the more I gagged at the thought of him being our president and commander in chief of our armed forces.

If its not concerned citizens arming themselves tooth and nail against the world government thug - o - crats who are about to launch perhaps the biggest nanny state takeover of american life, just reading the chats at Free Republic the past few weeks has convinced me that many freedom lovers are feeling the same angst that I am.

Concerns about Barack Obama stem from his unwillingness to prove that he is a Natural Born American Citizen.

His complete ties to Communists like Bill Ayers who has been accused of writing Obamas Biography Dreams from my father and will likely be very involved in an Obama Administration.

His motivation to suspend US Sovereignty in order to hand America over to a World Collective.
Ron Paul was interviewed by Alex Jones on this topic recently.

And for me the ultimate betrayal of the American Psyche and trust is the many claims that Mr. Obama is a closet Bi Sexual and has been cheating on his wife Michelle for the whole of their marriage. A MAN WHO WILL CHEAT ON HIS WIFE WILL CHEAT ON HIS COUNTRY!!!

I was watching season one of 24 last night, (never watched that one as I did not get into the show until season 2). As I watched the set up for the dynamics of the show, it reminded me of a claim by Larry Sinclair on his web site. He claimed that Mr. Obama as president has so many skeletons in his closet, (along with the bodies of some dead gay men), that he will be very prone to extortion and bribery as Commander in Chief. Larry claimed this presented a unique national security risk. I had never thought of that side of it before, I was just angry that some members of the homosexual community were being snuffed out so he could be president, but Mr. Sinclair is exactly right.

And it is why I am deeply concerned about the criminals of the world collective stepping in and taking over our government.

Clinging to my religion and gun in Colorado!

Jenny Hatch

I'm third generation Detroiter, with my heart tied in a very real way to the motor city. I have family members who work for the car companies, and I loved growing up in that great city.

Pat Buchanan wrote a piece yesterday asking who killed the auto industry.

And Mitt Romney recently opined in The New York Times that it would be best to just let Detroit go bankrupt.

As a free market proponent, I believe nationalizing the car companies would be about as terrible as nationalizing the banks and the hospitals.

No more bailouts!!!

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

Jenny Hatch

Yesterday in church it was announced that the Mormon.org web site has been completely updated and I wanted to share a few links with my readers.

Jesus Christ: Our Savior

Our loving Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to show us how to live meaningful and happy lives and experience eternal joy after this life.

Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to live in His presence after this life. His plan, called the gospel of Jesus Christ, will lead you back to Him if you choose to follow it.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. It begins with faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is believing in Him, trusting Him, and depending on Him. Faith in Jesus Christ leads you to want to change your life for the better. Through repentance, you change those thoughts, desires, habits, and actions that are not in harmony with God’s teachings. Heavenly Father promises that when you repent, He will forgive your sins.

Faith in Jesus Christ and repentance prepare you for baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ taught that everyone must be baptized of water and of the Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. Through baptism by one who holds God’s priesthood authority and through receiving the Holy Ghost, you will be spiritually reborn. After baptism, God promises to give you the gift of the Holy Ghost, who will guide, comfort, and help you know and recognize truth.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through revelation from God to the Prophet Joseph Smith and other prophets. You can know for yourself that these things are true by asking Heavenly Father in prayer.

Learn More

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Through the Atonement, He saves you from your sins as you follow Him and as you sincerely repent

The gospel of Jesus Christ The gospel of Jesus Christ includes all teachings, commandments, and ordinances that make salvation possible through the Atonement.

Faith in Jesus Christ Faith in Christ means having a firm belief that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God and the Savior and Redeemer of the world and you accept and apply His Atonement and His teachings.

Repentance As you study the gospel, you will recognize that you have sinned, or acted against the will and teachings of God. Through repentance, you change thoughts, desires, habits, and actions that are not in harmony with God’s teachings.

Baptism When you are baptized by one with priesthood authority given by God, you receive a remission of your sins. You also make a covenant, or promise, with God to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, to follow Him and to keep His commandments.

Gift of the Holy Ghost Jesus taught that God would send us the Comforter, “which is the Holy Ghost” (John 14:26). The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, is separate from the Father and the Son, and is a personage of spirit.

Enduring to the End Once you have been baptized you must exert every effort to live the teachings of Christ. This lifelong commitment is often called “enduring to the end.”

How can I know this is true? You can know if the gospel of Jesus Christ has truly been restored to the earth. Ask your Heavenly Father in prayer and you will receive an answer from Him through the Holy Ghost.

Free Media from the LDS Church

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

I testify in the name of Jesus Christ that the greatest path to Happiness in this life and in the world to come is found within the teachings of the Savior Jesus Christ. Learning his law, his covenants, and his ways will lead any person to the greatest Joy found on the Earth.

I pray that any of you who are reading this will take a few moments to commune with your Father in Heaven. He is literally just a prayer away.

Jenny

Go Here to read 1984 on line!

Orwell even told us, by name, the professionals who would lead us into the nightmare of 1984: "sociologists," "teachers," "bureaucrats," "journalists," "professional politicians," "scientists," "trade union organizers," "publicity experts," and "technicians." (The term "community organizer" was unknown to him.) Those who enslave were those who taught students, who created the news, who sat in the halls of government power, and who defined official "truth" (at least truth de jour.)

Orwell's Children live among us now, not in tiny numbers in weird Marxist cults like Jim Jones' People Temple, but as leaders of Congress, as the establishment of academia, as the producers of news and entertainment, as the administrators of public schools, as the "experts" in a thousand myriad and odd fields of putative "expertise." They infatuate our bored children with the only reality and the only diversion that many can find. They wait for the rest of us to grow older and to die.

Will these children inherit the earth? History, not theology, has shown a single defense against the spreading contagion of Orwell's Children. Solzhenitsyn found God in the godless Gulag. Michael Power in early 1939 wrote: "In the Christianity of the German people, the National Socialist has found the one enemy it could not vanquish" - and Christians in Germany, alone, chose to voluntarily seek death before selling their souls to Nazism.

The Jewish refusniks proved indigestible to the brutal Soviet police state. When all else failed the Jewish people under the Nazis, devout Jews like my wife's mother clung to the Blessed Creator and survived the Holocaust. God can touch us all. God can protect us all from evil (not from harm - we all suffer and we all die - but from the much greater danger of the sort of evil Orwell described.)

Education, science, technological gadgetry, good medical care - all of this can not stop us from sliding into a massive Jonestown, a realized Oceania, a place marked by Dante's grim caution "Abandon hope, all you who enter here." We are all anchored in belief, but it is what we believe that matters. We can believe in the lies of Big Brother, which change each day with the needs of the party or we can believe in the truth of a living God. We can become the children of Orwell or the special creatures of God. Everything -- our nation, our world, our families, our communities -- flows from that choice.

Bruce Walker is the author of two books: Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie, and his recently published book, The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity.

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

The ending of 1984 by George Orwell

"Assuming we, the people, actually manage to pay for health insurance for every American–how in God’s name will we also manage to pay for a quality of care giving that is professional, and above all, compassionate?"

Impossible!

Here is my comment

Thanks for sharing, this is the very reason that many mothers are opting for home childbirth. Nightmares during the birth process can lead to post partum depression and very toxic babies from too many drugs.

Socializing the whole mess will just make it that much more dangerous for families.

Jenny Hatch

Please watch this video from a mother who experienced “typical western medical care” during his first birth and then gave birth alone at home during her second birth.

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

Los Angeles ringed by wildfires.

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Fires whipped up by hot hurricane force gusts ringed Los Angeles on Saturday, charring thousands of acres and hundreds of homes in California's largest city and threatening the city's power supply.

More than 10,000 residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as a fire that exploded overnight in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest barreled into the San Fernando Valley and burned more than 6,500 acres."

(Click on the image to get to the article at Meridian Magazine where these photos were found)

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

Here is the link to my sunday school lesson that I will be teaching to the twelve and thirteen year old teens in my ward.

In our premortal life we shouted for joy because of the opportunity to progress to our second estate (see Job 38:4, 7). We were aware that during mortality we would experience sorrow, pain, disappointment, problems, and trials, as well as happiness and joy. With all this knowledge we felt peace and security, because we knew that our Father in Heaven would always be mindful of us. Help class members see Christ’s admonition to “be of good cheer” as a reminder that, regardless of our circumstances, we can find peace and joy in life.

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

Well, here we are.

David over at NRO has an interesting piece....it's sort of written in code. You have to have a certain level of literacy and political awareness to get his meaning. You PhD's are mostly WAY TOO SMART to understand what he is talking about. But for the regular folks...give it a read.

And then weep, and then like so many in the conservative sphere, I'm thinking it's time to start SHRUGGING.

My husband is a computer geek genius. Many times over the years he has worked himself to the edge of his health. The latest "death march" marathon at work culminated in him saying to me with tears in his eyes, "Sometimes I feel like I have this whole company resting on my shoulders."

Now Paul has never read Atlas Shrugged. He is a sports fanatic who loves to follow his favorite teams in his spare time. He passionately watches his childrens ball games. Yet he is exactly the "heroic" man of the mind that Ayn Rand so eloquently describes in her books. When he made that statement to me after several nights with no sleep with managers and clients literally screaming at him to work harder, faster, better. I looked him right in the eye and I said, "SHRUG".

Granted, he is well compensated for his mental efforts on behalf of his company and I told him that I supported whatever he chose to do. But for me, losing his sleep, his health, his ability to function for a job was just not worth it.

I told him I would be willing to go live in a shack and just do menial labor with him for the rest of my life if it meant he could relax and be healthy. But he takes his responsibility to provide for our family so seriously, he just looked at me like I was nuts.

When pondering the looters coming into the pocketbooks of those of us who produce to be used for whatever purposes they feel is the definition of hope and change, I have come up with some suggestions for ways that mothers and fathers can better hold on to what they produce so that the tax collectors and mob are not able to steal the fruits of our labors.

What is most chilling to me when considering the collective taking over, is the lifestyle they may impose on dedicated homemakers. I see the outlawing of homeschool and forced preschool as the beginning. The Collectivised countrys in our world like Cuba and China have no problem stealing children from their parents to be used for the collective good of the country. I watched all those little chinese gymnasts at the olympics who had been taken from their homes to serve mother china at the tender age of three and four.

And the Cuban government kidnaps the children when they turn six.

I wonder how many ignorant and naive mothers of large families who just voted in the election for hope and change will be gobsmacked when the collective tells them (or their daughters) how many children from their wombs mother earth can manage to sustain. And if those mothers choose to become pregnant with more than one child will they be sterilized or aborted like our sisters in China?

Well, time will tell.

Practical ideas for stay at home mothers intent on providing a legitimate financial future for their children and grandchildren.

1. Put in a supply of survival foods and a large garden and while you work with your children teach them the principles of Constitutional Government

2. Learn the self reliant skills of Mothering like home nursing, childbirth, herbs, and cooking from scratch so that you do not have to pay cash for these services

3. Learn a practical skill that can be used as a bartering tool. Instead of paying cash for cutting hair, dog walking/grooming, tutoring, child care, pre school etc, etc...learn one or two of these skills yourself and be ready to barter with other women so that you do not have to be involved in the cash flow of our American Economy.

4. Ecourage your children to learn a basic skill or start a small home business to provide the necessities of life, and then work that skill to give food, clothing, and shelter to his or her family with an emphasis on farming and homesteading - but pull back from participation in the economic world of colleges, universities, and media while continuing to study, as time permits, all areas of technology, political science, commerce, international relations, and the Arts, so that when the collapse comes (And I'm thinking maybe twenty years), a whole new generation of young americans will be ready to rebuild. I know many of you homeschoolers already are doing and planning these things as it is, but I believe it is time to take it to a much higher level.

5. Get a shotgun, lots of ammo, and learn how to use it.

6. Don't be afraid of the Looters.

Some ideas for the fathers who work the jobs that provide for the mothers and the children

(And I know I am being somewhat sexist in these gross stereotypes, assuming that Fathers are the bread winners in a given home - if the situation is reversed and Dad is the at home parent, and Mom works, please don't shoot the messanger, just take these ideas as food for thought)

1. If you are a small business owner making between $250,000.00 and $300,000 per year, consider making certain that your profits etc are never more than $249,999.99 per year. That is IF Obama's tax plan truly will only penalize companies that earn over 250. If you are a small business owner that makes more than $250,000.00 per year, consider dividing your corporation into parts, re-incorporate them all and make certain no business makes more than $250,000.00 per year.

2. If you work for a corporation, consider asking your employer to keep you in the income bracket that will make it impossible for the Looters to steal your money. For example: If you are making $65,000.00 per year, and are up for a raise and that raise puts you into a catagory where your money can be stolen at a much higher level, ask your employer to let you have one day off per month to spend with your family, rather than getting the raise. Or if your employer is planning to give you a financial bonus, ask instead for a gift that cannot be taxed - more time off to spend with your wife and children...etc..

3. If you are an inventor, scientist, thinker, or person who works with your mind, consider taking a four or eight year sabatical from the marketplace of ideas and put your mind into a vault (lock box) so no looter can rob your intellectual property. Grow a garden and peddle your food door to door, or consider setting up and running your local black market from a garage sale in your home. Do as much bartering of goods as is humanely possible, with no exchange of cash money.

4. Support your wife in her efforts to learn the skills of self reliance, by making sure she always has fast internet connectivity, has a couple hours a week to chat online and/or in person with other mothers who are also preparing and living providently, and is able to gradually wean from the infrastructures of government money using peer support. Be patient as she masters Family Sovereignty. It takes time to learn all of these skills. You should also learn as many self reliant skills as possible, and help her in her mothering by purchasing timely books, curriculums for self education, and the tools of home making.

5. Buy a shot gun, lots of ammo, and learn how to use it to defend your family.

6. Don't be afraid of the looters.

And remember: "Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!"

Reporting from Galts Gulch in Colorado:
(Oops temporary blindness from Obamamania and wishful thinking)

Reporting from The Peoples Republic of Boulder:
(AKA The Belly of the Beast!)

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

PS From beloved writer Leo Tolstoy who believed it was wise to study fiction to learn the truth:

"The anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a revolution."

Who is John Galt???

THE MEN OF THE MIND and VALUE AND VIRTUE Ninth section of an ongoing project to explore Galt's Speech from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand using images and video from current events.

Text by Ayn Rand
Read by Christopher Hurt
Edited for YouTube by XCowboy2
Music by John Williams.

Anthem from my favorite rock band Rush:

Ayn Rand's Anthem, a novelette

This novelette depicts a world of the future, a society so collectivized that even the word "I" has vanished from the language. Anthem's theme is: the meaning and glory of man's ego.

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is widely known for her best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

She is known as a defender of objective reality, absolute reason, a morality she called rational selfishness/rational egoism, laissez-faire capitalism, and romantic art.

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine."

Howard Roarks Speech from the Movie, The Fountainhead

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Onion Satire

Hope and Change

LOS ANGELES (AP) -

In an election otherwise full of liberal triumphs, the gay rights movement suffered a stunning defeat as California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages that overrides a recent court decision legalizing them.

The constitutional amendment—widely seen as the most momentous of the nation's 153 ballot measures—will limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the first time such a vote has taken place in a state where gay unions are legal.

Jenny Hatch

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Of which I am a faithful member) has issued this statement about the passage of Proposition 8 in California:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SALT LAKE CITY 5 November 2008 COMMENTARY

Since Proposition 8 was placed on the ballot in June of this year, the citizens of California have considered the arguments for and against same-sex marriage. After extensive debate between those of different persuasions, voters have chosen to amend the California State Constitution to state that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Voters in Arizona and Florida took the same course and amended their constitutions to establish that marriage will continue to be between a man and a woman.

Such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life — family, identity, intimacy and equality — stirs fervent and deep feelings.

Most likely, the election results for these constitutional amendments will not mean an end to the debate over same-sex marriage in this country.

We hope that now and in the future all parties involved in this issue will be well informed and act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different position. No one on any side of the question should be vilified, intimidated, harassed or subject to erroneous information.

It is important to understand that this issue for the Church has always been about the sacred and divine institution of marriage — a union between a man and a woman.

Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.

Some, however, have mistakenly asserted that churches should not ever be involved in politics when moral issues are involved. In fact, churches and religious organizations are well within their constitutional rights to speak out and be engaged in the many moral and ethical problems facing society. While the Church does not endorse candidates or platforms, it does reserve the right to speak out on important issues.

Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society.

Even though the democratic process can be demanding and difficult, Latter-day Saints are profoundly grateful for and respect the ideals of a true democracy.

The Church expresses deep appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the many Latter-day Saints and others who supported the coalitions in efforts regarding these amendments.

Our youngest child Benjamin turned six last saturday and we had a party for him at the local rec center. His birth was a milestone in my life, well documented on this blog. These past six years have been pure bliss as I have had the joy of mothering him.

Ben with his cousin and brother Andy

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company
Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!
The Natural Family BLOG

HONOLULU – "Even though Hawaii officials now claim to have verified the authenticity of Sen. Barack Obama's birth certificate – in hopes of ending widespread speculation and even multiple lawsuits challenging the Democrat candidate's constitutional qualification to be president – it turns out there is still reason for serious questioning.

In fact, there is considerable evidence that Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii as the candidate and his campaign have maintained.

...The controversy is further fueled by a video posted on YouTube in which Obama's Kenyan grandmother Sarah claims to have witnessed personally Obama's birth in Kenya. The YouTube.com video tape also features Sayid Obama who was interviewed by WND.

To date, Obama and his campaign have refused to disclose the name of the doctor delivering the candidate or the precise hospital where he was born.

The main reason doubts persist regarding Obama's birth certificate is this question: If an original Hawaii-doctor-generated and Hawaii-hospital-released Obama birth certificate exists, why wouldn't the senator and his campaign simply order the document released and end the controversy?

That Obama has not ordered Hawaii officials to release the document leaves doubts as to whether an authentic Hawaii birth certificate exists for Obama.

Rather, the failure to release the document fuels the theory – true or not – that the Obama family, shortly after Obama's birth overseas, returned to Hawaii and registered at the Hawaii Department of Health the original Obama birth certificate that had been issued by the doctor and hospital that delivered Obama in Kenya."

From the You Tube Video:

"Everybody in Kenya seems to know something about Barack Obama, that Americans don't know! Hear what they have to say about Barack Obama's religion and where he was actually born. I guarantee you'll find it interesting whichever political side you may be on. Remember that the United States Constitution requires that a President must be a "natural born" citizen of the United States - born to American parents on American soil! Stay up-to-date on the latest and hottest issue sparked by the revelations that Obama had posted a fake birth certificate on his website (the forgery was later confirmed as shown in another video). What is Barack Hussein Obama up to? "

Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family Company

Free Republic Thread on this post

Here is an election roundup from my favorite political commentators:

Mark Steyn: Obama in 2-D (Must Read!!!)

Victor Davis Hanson: The End of Journalism

Thomas Sowell: Ego and Mouth

Ben Johnson: Socialism we can believe in

Michael Freund: Look who's rooting for Obama

Mark Levin interviews Sarah Palin

Phyllis Schlafly: Big Media Pull Out All Stops to Elect Obama

Cal Thomas: Smoking audio I blogged this story here.

Peter Wehner: Liberals and the Surge (Must read!!!)

QUOTE:

In his April testimony, while stipulating that “the situation in certain areas is still unsatisfactory and innumerable challenges remain,” Petraeus presented an avalanche of statistics illustrating the degree to which “security in Iraq is better than it was when Ambassador Crocker and I reported to you last September, and . . . significantly better than it was 15 months ago when Iraq was on the brink of civil war and the decision was made to deploy additional U.S. forces to Iraq.”

To which Crocker added:

Last September, I said that the cumulative trajectory of political, economic, and diplomatic developments in Iraq was upward, although the slope of that line was not steep. Developments over the last seven months have strengthened my sense of a positive trend.

Which did not stop Barack Obama from taking to the op-ed page of the New York Times two months later to insist that “the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true.” A week later, ABC’s Terry Moran asked Obama if, knowing what he knew now, would he support it? Obama’s answer was “No.” That is, he was still against the surge despite his own belated acknowledgment that it had, in fact, “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

In the effort to reconcile this blatant contradiction—akin to a diagnostician’s continuing to oppose the treatment that made the patient well—he twisted himself into an intellectual pretzel, asserting that the decrease in violence was the result not of any new American strategy but of “political factors inside Iraq that came right at the same time.”

...And so it goes. By the time General Petraeus handed over the flag of his command to General Raymond Odierno in September, the situation in Iraq had been utterly transformed.

...For some liberals, hatred of the President was clearly so all-encompassing that they had developed a deep investment in the failure of what they habitually dismissed not as America’s war but as “Bush’s war.” To an extent, this passion was driven by merely partisan considerations: Iraq had become a superbly effective instrument with which to bludgeon Republicans. It had helped the Democrats take control of both the House and the Senate in 2006; might not a thorough “Republican” defeat in Iraq lastingly reshape the political landscape in their favor?

This is, admittedly, an unpleasant line of speculation, and those foolhardy enough to venture upon it have been loudly condemned for questioning the patriotism of their political adversaries. But patriotism is not the issue—judgment is. When politicians acting in good faith misjudge a situation, nothing prevents them from acknowledging their error and explaining themselves. For the most part, we await such acknowledgments in vain.

In partial extenuation, it might be contended that politicians have an elementary obligation to be responsive to the opinions of their constituents; since Iraq had become a certifiably unpopular cause, stepping out of line on the issue was likely to be regarded as an offense punishable at the polls. But what, then, are we to say of the opinion shapers, the editorial writers of our great newspapers, the essayists and columnists and book authors who, unconstrained by petty interest, present themselves as stalwartly independent spirits willing to follow the truth wherever it may lead? What was at work in them when the evidence of American progress—which started as a trickle, and then became a river, and eventually became a flood—could no longer be denied? For not only did they continue to deny it, but they actively promoted an alternative policy of withdrawal and retreat that would have made an American defeat, and a jihadist and Iranian victory, inevitable. Is it not fair to say that what was at work in them was an ideological antipathy not just to an American President, but to America’s cause?

Fortunately, as I noted at the outset, Americans at large are not so ready to deny the evidence of their senses, and appear open to reasoned argument on the basis of that evidence. For a political leader in high office, this is a great blessing. Some eyes will refuse to open and some ears will refuse to hear and some voices will always be raised high in derision. To act rightly in such circumstances is difficult and often enormously costly; but it is the very essence of leadership. If a leader’s decision is wise, there are grounds for hoping that in time this wisdom will be vindicated and, perhaps, recognized—even in the case of a war once massively unpopular but now winnable."

Donald Kochan: Selfishness IS a Virtue

As Adam Smith described:

"Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of society, which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer employment which is most advantageous to the society . . . . [H]e intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it." -- Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk. IV, ch. 2, 397, 399 (D.D. Raphael ed., 1991) (1776).

In his book "Capitalism and Freedom" (1962) Milton Friedman (1912-2006) advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom.

And the final, to me most important, column written about the election in the past month.

Erik Rush: Obama and the Trinity United murders

Members of Chicago's Trinity United Church (the house of worship attended by Democrat presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama for 20 years) already had their Christmas trees up when members of the Chicago press circulated through the city, interviewing many of them as they mourned Donald Young, their 47-year-old choir master who has been found shot dead in his South Side Chicago home on December 3, 2007.

Young, known for having a flamboyant persona, was an openly gay man.

The choir director's murder and the execution-style murders of two other gay Trinity United congregants within 60 days of each other had gays and blacks terrified over the winter of 2007-2008. They feared that a serial killer targeting either blacks, gays or both might have hung out his shingle in Chicago.

Curiously, neither Sen. Obama, his surrogates nor law enforcement had anything to say regarding the circumstantial connection. Nowhere in the news reports of the killings has there been any mention of Obama, or the questioning of him or any of his cohorts or staffers by Chicago police.

To suggest that Sen. Obama was somehow involved in these murders is obviously a leap. However, one would imagine that if any other prominent citizen had been publicly accused of being a closet homosexual, then three gay men from their church were murdered in the months that followed, local law enforcement would have crawled up one of their excretive orifices with an entire forensics lab.

Although this columnist and Fox News' Sean Hannity have been accused of similar transgressions, the Rev. James David Manning appears to have taken on the mission of preventing the election of Barack Obama as a holy and personal crusade. The minister, who presides over New York-based Atlah World Ministries, has released a flurry of anti-Obama videos that depict the candidate as "an emissary of the devil."

Manning asserts that Barack Obama is at least bisexual, if not a closet homosexual and former drug abuser, an unregenerate sinner who is only using the issue of faith to advance himself in the political realm. Manning is also opposed to the progressive agenda for blacks, maintaining that it has only served to render blacks irresponsible and dependent.

Although former Obama associate and accuser Larry Sinclair — who precipitated Obama's short-lived "gay bimbo eruption" at the beginning of his campaign — failed a polygraph test following his assertions that he had done cocaine and had sex with Obama in 1999, it does give pause that the candidate continues to be linked with sex and drugs.

Though Obama did admit to experimentation with drugs years ago, some speculate that he was concerned that his experimentation with (or immersion in) sexually adventurous realms might not sit so well with American voters. If Rev. Manning's charges contained any truth whatever, it might lend credence to accusations that the three men murdered in Chicago were victims of a conspiracy to silence those who might bring Obama's homosexual dalliances to light.

Left wing blogs and some YouTube posters portray Manning as a veritable psych ward escapee. Others find him — though brutally frank — as one who simply possesses a certain orthodoxy as regards literal obedience to Christian doctrine in the tradition of a Pat Robertson, though possibly being singled out because he is black (an because some are so slavishly dedicated to Obama).

In conversation, Rev. Manning is entirely lucid. He maintains that his sources and information pertaining to Obama are "rock-solid and incontrovertible" He has met with Larry Sinclair and while Sinclair "obviously has other things going on in his life relating to his credibility," the pastor said that, in general, Sinclair speaks easily and knowledgably when he talks about Obama's bisexuality and crack cocaine use.

So what do we really know? What we know is that three gay members of trinity United Church were murdered in close temporal proximity during late 2007. It is extremely unlikely that Obama never met these men, particularly the choir director. We also know that somewhat earlier, a former Obama acquaintance claimed that he and Obama had participated in gay sex and drug use. Though it was revealed that the man was lying about something, law enforcement operatives know that polygraphs are not universally reliable and even pathological liars don't lie all the time.

The tabloids The National Enquirer and The Globe have been investigating Obama's alleged homosexual adventures and drug use for some time. A private investigator who works with the Chicago Police Department allegedly told the tabloid The Globe that Donald Young was silenced because of something he knew about Obama.

As we know, despite the outlandish tales sometimes spun by these publications, quite often they are spot-on as regards the lives of people in the spotlight. A prime example is the case of Sen. John Edwards' love child. If the tabloids know anything, however, they are clearly biding their time.

As may be some others..."

© Erik Rush

Erik Rush broke the story on Rev. Wright in 2007

I don't have anything to add to these excellent comments on the current political situation, except to challenge my readers to go vote!!!

Let Freedom Ring!

Jenny Hatch

Quotes from the article:

"We understand the struggles you face every day in keeping the commandments of the Lord. The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning. However, you have within your physical body the powerful spirit of a son or daughter of God. Because He loves you and wants you to come home to Him, our Father in Heaven has given you a conscience that tells your spirit when you are keeping the Lord’s commandments and when you are not. If you will pay more attention to your spiritual self, which is eternal, than to your mortal self, which is temporary, you can always resist the temptations of Satan and conquer his efforts to take you into his power.

You must be honest with yourself and remain true to the covenants you have made with God. Do not fall into the trap of thinking you can sin a little and it will not matter. Remember, “the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (D&C 1:31).

Some young men and women in the Church talk openly about sexual transgression. They seem to forget that the Lord forbids all sexual relations before marriage, including petting, sex perversion of any kind, or preoccupation with sex in thought, speech, or action. Some youth foolishly rationalize that it is “no big deal” to sin now because they can always repent later when they want to go to the temple or on a mission. Anyone who does that is breaking promises made to God both in the premortal life and in the waters of baptism.

The idea of sinning a little is self-deception. Sin is sin! Sin weakens you spiritually, and it always places the sinner at eternal risk. Choosing to sin, even with the intent to repent, is simply turning away from God and violating covenants.

Gratefully, many of you young men honor your priesthood and many young women “stand for truth and righteousness” as stated in the Young Women’s motto. We commend you for your fidelity and integrity."

Here is a video of one of Elder Ballards conference talks. It remains one of my all time favorite talks ever given in conference:

Look Beyond Yourself

Honest in all things

Be Ye Clean

Jenny Hatch

Families can be together forever