And the State of the Union is..........

The State of the Union is Strong, and together we will make it stronger!-Bush

Yes that is the state of the Union.

The President's speech was awesome! He NAILED the arguments that have been thrown at him for the past couple months, re-iterated WHY we are in Iraq, WHY we are staying the course, told us the progress we have made there, adn reminded us that freedom is NOT free, but is worth the cost. He showed us how, contrary to popular belief from talking points and so on, our economy is THRIVING!

It was an excellent speech that connected to every American, if you didn't see it, you really missed out.

-kierstyn

The Few...Stand!

God brings the answers where we least expect, sometimes its just better to simply be direct and Stand while the world is laughing stand on crooked feet, stand up and be counted, Stand or you might get beat, when you're too tired to retreat just stand... ["Stand" by eLi]

One thing that we lack in this awesome country is people with the ability to stand up for their beliefs even if they get ridiculed for them. Why don't people want to stand?

As far as I can tell it all boils down to one thing, Acceptance. Acceptance is something that everyone wants, we all want to be loved and accepted by someone: either by our parents, our friends, our colleagues, teachers, pastors, even the media. The question that we are faced with is: are our beliefs worth giving up in order to maintain our acceptance?

When its put like that, the answer should be obvious. The problem is, thats easier said than done. How many people like to talk about how their beliefs, but when the time comes to defend them, they back down?


How many people say that they're going to do something, then after being pressured change their mind and don't follow through?


How come people are afraid of being ridiculed and persecuted?


Oh, and I'm not denying that its hard to go through, but why are we putting what OTHERS think about us before what our beliefs are, and wether or not our beleifs line up with God's word?


Margaret Thatcher said that " If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing."

That comming from the Iron Lady, She accomplished MANY things, primarily because SHE DIDN'T BACK DOWN.
You will find that many people in history that accomplished great things were also great leaders, they knew how to stand up for thier beliefs even in the midst of being ridiculed. They didin't care about popularity, they cared about accomplishing something that they believed was important.

Lets imagine for a minute, what would happen if our founding fathers only TALKED about their beliefs but when they were under pressure backed down?
(and they WERE under pressure, if we lost the war they would have been guilty of treason and been killed in horrifying ways)

What would have happened if George Washington went into his first battle and after that decided that this war isn't worth it?

Chances are, that we wouldn't exist as a nation today if they had backed down.

but they didn't, why?
Because they believed that the Freedom to worship God, and that every man has certain unalienable rights endowed by thier CREATOR, were so important that they were willing to DIE for these beliefs. Imagine what it must have been like for them to realize, that upon signing the declaration of independence they were going to war with the world's superpower, and all they had to combat it was a rag tag militia and a cause.

What would have happened if when Christ came down and he saw how sinful we were, decided: you know what, they're not worth scrificing and dying for, I'm leaving?

We wouldn't have the free gift of slavation today. yet he did, and HE was persecuted and sacrificed MORE than our founding fathers did, He paid the highest sacrifice of all for what He knew God had called him to do, and not backing down on that. He sacrificed his LIFE, so that WE can be free in Him!

Today we need leaders like that, people who are wiling to stand up for their beliefs in God no matter what.
There are a few people today who do, and THOSE are the people that you will be hearing about in the near future. They're the few who will stand up for what is right, and will not conform to the world.

It is the few that stand and make a difference, What we need is for Christians to act on their beliefs and CHANGE America for the better!

-Kp

Domestic Spying justified?

got to hear FOX yesterady!!!! so now to the domestic spying issue.

Its been a very controversial topic recently. Here is my take on it.

I believe that Bush IS justified in using it, He has shown congress what he has seen, and he has other people supervisng his use of it. NOT to mention that unlike the Clinton administration's use, this is LEGAL!
He is using the program to intercept INTERNATIONAL phone calls comming from people affiliated with terrorist organizations overseas that are contacting US citizens. it is illegal when you tap into a domestic phone call between other citizens (your phone call to your grandma) with out a court order.

My question is now, and has been, and will be, how come when the opposite party does something illegal you never hear a peep, yet when Bush does it the media makes a scandal out of it? *shakes head*

Well there is my commentary, maybe if I find time I'll add to it!
Have a good one!
Kp

Let us never forget...:)

Ok, on the subject of Freedom.*drumroll* a shorter version compared to the last entry, this may be kind of redundant...(but David, if you're reading this, this is the edited article...I'm not sure if I need to edit it any more or not)But anyway, this one isn't a speech, its an article which explains the difference in the way its formatted and written....
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We Stand here, on the only island of freedom that is left in the whole world. There is no place to flee to...no place to escape to. We defend our freedom here, or it is gone. There is no place for us to run. Only make a stand, and if we fail, I think we face telling our children, and our children's children, what it is we found more precious than freedom. Because I am sure that someday-if we fail- there will be a generation that will ask. Ronald Reagan.

Freedom is one of the many things that we have a tendency to take for granted in this country. We use it each and every day. Yet how many of us take the time to really think about the cost of Freedom? How much did it cost us to obtain and continues to cost us to keep? Why is our freedom valuable?
How many of us fully understand that our freedom can and is being taken away?


First and foremost, how much does freedom cost?
Freedom's cost consists mainly of 2 parts: Lives and money.
To obtain freedom (in 1775) 25,324 lives were lost. Today we can hardly imagine what that must have been like to fight England; The World's super power at the time, with a rag tag militia. That same spirit, the yearning for freedom and defense of it, is evident throughout these next wars from 1775 until October of 2005, 1,298,391 soldiers have died defending our Country and our freedom. Over one million lives lost in defense of our freedom, and our national sovereignty. The millions of American lives lost prove that people believe that freedom is worth fighting and dying for! Those numbers alone show that Freedom is valuable. Especially because soldiers are still putting their lives on the line, so that you and I can live in a country where we have the Freedom to worship any way we see fit, to stand up and be counted...or choose not to!

Freedom, while the cost can be measured in lives lost, also has a large monetary cost. The following chart from the American War Library has the numbers on how much money has been spent in wars, to gain and protect our freedom.

• American Revolution: $3.2 billion.
• War of 1812: $1 billion.
• Mexican War: $1.8 billion.
• Civil War: $50 billion Union, $21.8 billion Confederacy.
• Spanish-American War: $6.5 billion.
• World War I: $588 billion.
• World War II: $4.8 trillion.
• Korean War: $408 billion.
• Vietnam War: $584 billion.
• Persian Gulf War of 1991: $82 billion. Contributions from U.S. allies ended up covering more than 90 percent of this war's costs.
• Operation Iraqi Freedom: $159 billion, as of 10 Sept 2003.

Billions, even trillions of dollars have been spent just to ensure our freedom!

Now, we can make the logical assumption, that if Freedom costs that many lives, and that much money to obtain and to keep, than it must be important.
People don't volunteer to be put in a position where they could die, for something that they don't think is important enough to protect. Yet, over one million Soldiers have died, and those numbers don't even include the ones that were taken as Prisoners or War, Missing in Action, wounded, or still fighting!

Ronald Reagan once said that "Freedom is a fragile thing and is only one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation for it only comes once to a people. Those who have known freedom and lost it have never known it again." I thank God that we have always had a generation ready and willing to defend that freedom, and I pray that we will continue to have those brave Americans ready and willing to defend it.

Our freedom is so valuable not only because of the money spent, not only because it is less than one generation away from being lost. It is so valuable because we have always had a generation willing to pay the price.
That is what makes the following so grievous; they have protected our freedoms on the foreign front. However, our freedoms are slowly but surely being taken away on our domestic front.

While we have the US Military protecting us on the foreign front, we have groups like the ACLU trying to undermine our rights on the domestic front.
In past and recent history, the first amendment has been one issue in which certain organizations have tried to take away the freedom of religion and our freedom of speech.

The first amendment reads: Congress shall make no law Respecting Establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So in other words, congress isn't allowed to dictate that you are only allowed to worship whatever god they deem appropriate, and you can only do so in a certain way, and in certain areas.

This Freedom however, has constantly been attacked over the last few decades. Not only by foreign threats, but by our own United States Supreme Court! This is also happening in our own public schools!

In "Syracuse, New York,(1999) Antonio Pecks' kindergarten teacher at Catherine McNamara Elementary School gave Antonio the assignment of creating a poster that would depict what could be done to save the environment. Antonio drew a picture of Jesus praying in the captioned drawing, "The only way to save the world" and "loves changes things". The teacher refused to display the picture saying that it promoted one religion over another. (Of course Anthony [Antonio] was promoting his religion over others, but it was Anthony doing the promoting, not the school.) Anthony went back to the drawing board and sketched people picking up garbage with a robed man beside them kneeling with his hands raised to heaven. The robed man was not identified as Jesus. The teacher agreed to display the second poster but on the condition that the part showing the robed man was folded over so it could not be seen. The Pecks have sued the school for religious discrimination and denial of free speech" ("Persecution" by David Limbaugh Pg. 38 paragraph 2)

There are many more instances like this in the book "Persecution" by David Limbaugh. But it doesn't end there, things like this are still happening today!

The fact that this actually happened to a KINDERGARTENER in AMERICA is amazing! Our First Amendment rights are slowly, but surely being usurped. And this is just one of many evidences of it.

You might say...well it is only the first amendment, it's not like we're going to have our right to a trial by jury taken away or the right to vote or anything like that.
Not only is the 1st amendment being taken away, our 10th amendment is constantly being overridden by the federal government. The 10 th Amendment reads: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

That means that if the rights were not granted to the federal government specifically in the constitution, or if the rights were not prohibited to the States by the Constitution then those rights belong to each of the 50 States or to the Citizens.

Constantly the government has tried to, and has overridden this amendment. I consider this amendment to be one of, if the not THE most important amendment to our Constitution because that amendment preserves the sovereignty of the States to govern themselves. Yet, the federal government is overstepping its Constitutional bounds and interfering with decisions that should be made by the states individually.

In a recent Supreme Court decision, we passed something called "Eminent Domain". Eminent Domain means that if a Developer like Wal-Mart wanted your land so they could build, they are allowed to do so WITHOUT your consent, if they can prove that it will benefit the county.

Not only does this take away you're constitutional right to own property, but ALSO overrides the 10 th amendment. It is not the federal Government's job to say that if someone comes along that wants to develop your land than you must give it to them.

What we need in this country is a generation that is willing to stand up for what we believe and fight on the domestic front as well as the foreign front. We need a generation that remembers what freedom Costs. We need a generation that has the courage and the perseverance to take a stand and make a difference. Ronald Reagan said that " Freedom is a fragile thing and is only one generation away from extinction" don't let our generation be the one that loses it by forgetting how important our freedom is, Let our generation be the one that impacts society and preserves it.

The Obtaining, Cost, and Loss, of Freedom

Here in America we have been attacked almost constantly.

Attacks on our Economy and Government and the American way of life have occurred numerous times in history.

While those were the specifics of the attacks, they were mainly attacking our Freedom.

Defending our freedom is a choice we make, yet so many Americans take it for granted and seem to forget the high cost we have paid, and that while our Freedoms are being fought for and preserved on the foreign front, they are being gradually taken away on the domestic front.

Attacks on America...

The 9/11 attacks were not just mere attacks on some buildings, they were attacks on the American way of Life.

The terrorists tried to do so by instilling a fear in the American people, a fear of flying.

This in turn, affected our economy negatively.

Our economy plays a vital role in the American way of life.

We can see that throughout history.

One of the most common analogies would be the great depression. Our economy collapsed which resulted in unemployment for many of the American people, which negatively affected the American way of life.

While we didn't go into a Depression after 9/11, our economy did suffer. Not only did it suffer, it was attacked.

The World Trade Centers stood for free trade and capitalism, which is Part of the fiscal American culture.

By hitting those buildings they temporarily shut down our economy.

However, free trade and capitalism were not the only things that were attacked. Our government was too.

The investigative office was attacked, and there was believed to have been an attempted attack on our Legislative branch.

Had both gotten hit, it would have been detrimental to our society.

Both of those offices are important to the American culture.

The investigative department was a key attack because they gather intelligence to help counter terrorist attacks.

The legislative branch-had the terrorists gone unstopped-would also have been a key attack because that branch helps to keep the Executive branch in check by:

Making sure that it isn't overstepping its bounds, or by keeping pieces of legislation that shouldn't be considered, from reaching the Executive branch.

Choices

Ronald Reagan truthfully said "Freedom is a fragile thing and is only one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation for it only comes once to a people. Those who have known freedom and lost it have never known it again."

Which means, each generation has a choice to make. Do we defend our Freedom-even if it means acting unilaterally- or do we back down?

That is the question each generation has been faced with, and has answered.

We ourselves were faced with that decision most recently in the 9/11 attacks. We could have done one of two things.

We could have acted in fear (like Spain did after the Madrid bombings) and responded how the terrorists wanted us to.

While clinging on to whatever promise the terrorists made in order to satisfy us, while they proceeded to cripple the country.

However, instead of backing down like Spain, we took the initiative, and went on the offense.

The only course of action we could have taken-besides cowardice- was war.

A few days after 9/11 President Bush went to ground zero and gave the 30 second pep talk that made Americans proud.

" I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people that attacked these buildings are going to hear from all of us soon"

That speech united a Nation –well for a little while anyway- On that day, our generation chose, once again to defend our freedom.

Our freedom is not even close to being free! Millions of American soldiers have died just so you and I can have the freedom to say what we want to.

From the American war for independence, to Afghanistan, to Iraq, our military has always remembered that freedom costs us millions of lives to obtain, and we can't let those hero's lives be lost in vain.

Our military are not the only ones who have risked their lives for others.

On September 11^th 2001, United Airlines flight 93 originally destined to San-Francisco was merely an hour on its way when Hijackers-armed with box cutters decided to take over the cockpit.

Then several strong young men decided to rush the Hijackers. The plane crashed killing those on board, but those heroes saved many other lives that day.

They sacrificed their lives, so that others could live free.

While freedom is mainly measured in lives lost, there is also a very distinct financial cost.

Trillions of dollars has been spent on defending our freedom abroad.

The fact that to THIS DAY people are STILL fighting, and there are more preparing to defend our freedom makes, this already priceless gift, even more valuable.

Though we do have people defending our freedom abroad, we have to remember that it can be taken away.

Historically, when we believed that something couldn't possibly happen, it did.

For example:

Everyone declared the titanic unsinkable, and it sunk.

After the war to end all wars-world war one- there was another.

We saw the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as our barriers which no man would cross, and Japan crossed the Pacific in World War 2, and the Terrorists crossed the Atlantic on 9/11.

Now, many Americans have the tendency to think that our freedom is something that can not be taken away.

But unless we're ready to defend it, it can.

The sad thing is, that while our freedoms ARE being preserved and fought for on our foreign front, they are slowly but surely being taken away on the domestic front.

There have been many attacks on our freedom, not only by terrorists, but by our own public schools and Supreme Court!

In the book Persecution by David Limbaugh, there was a true story in there about a kindergartener named Antonio Pecks.

He was working on a school assignment, which was to draw a picture on how we can help the environment.

The first picture he had was a picture of Jesus saying "the only way to save the world" and "love changes things".

Of course, he wasn't allowed to use THAT picture because it had Christ in it. So the teacher had him draw another one, in the second one he had a picture of people picking up trash and an unidentified figure in the middle with his arms raised to heaven.

The teacher agreed to put this picture on display ONLY IF the figure in the middle was folded over.

The family sued for religious discrimination and denial of free speech.

Not only are our 1^st amendment rights (the freedom of religion and freedom of speech) being attacked, but our 10^th amendment is constantly being usurped by the federal government.

The tenth amendment says: those rights not delegated to federal government, nor prohibited by it to the state, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.

Recently the US Supreme Court passed something called eminent domain.

Eminent domain basically means that if a developer wanted to build on your private property they can, WITHOUT your consent, if they can prove it will benefit the county.

That particular ruling not only undermines the 10^th amendment (because that issue should be decided on a State by State basis) it also undermines your right to own property, and keep it.

This is happening right under our noses, and we don't even NOTICE IT!!!!!!!

So what, the federal government is overstepping its bounds, but that's nothing new, it does it all the time, it hasn't hurt me, why should we care?

Lets focus for a minute, on the 2^nd amendment, the right to own and bear arms.

Imagine that one day a criminal came to YOUR house.

You both are armed, he –not wanting to risk being identified, takes out his gun to shoot- you're faster and shoot in self defense.

Then YOU are the one that ends up being arrested, because the court just ruled that the 2^nd amendment is no longer constitutional.

Now lets move on the 7^th amendment, the right to a trial by jury.

Lets say, that your grandma had to go to the Dr. because she had a stroke. The Doctor knows this, but doesn't acknowledge it.

Instead of treating her for the stroke, he gives her blood thinner, which causes hemorrhages in the brain, and she ends up dying.

You and the Dr. BOTH know that blood thinner causes a hemorrhage, so you go to sue, but you can't because the dr. is federally protected.

You lost your right to a trial by jury.

I already brought up a story about our first amendment, but to really touch base. What if something similar happened to you?

Imagine that one day you go to Church, and right in the middle of the worship service, the police came and arrested your pastor because what he was preaching did not line up with what the government believed.

Now our first re-action should be, wait! That's COMMUNIST!!!!!!! That can't happen in America! We defeated communism in the cold war!

But it IS happening in America.

Slowly and steadily, Our freedoms are being taken away by Supreme Court decisions, right under the nose of the American people.

Ronald Reagan once said that "We stand here, on the only island of freedom that is left in the whole world. There is no place to flee to...no place to escape to. We defend our freedom here, or it is gone. There is no place for us to run. Only make a stand, and if we fail, I think we face telling our children, and our children's children, what it is we found more precious than freedom. Because I am sure that someday-if we fail- there will be a generation that will ask"

What we need is the next generation to rise up and fill the voids in our government, State, Local, and Federal, to change for the better.

Don't let this generation be the one that loses our freedom by forgetting. Let our generation be the one that remembers, we are the only island of freedom left in the world, if we lose it here, it is gone.

Let us never forget!

One of the topics that I believe God has put on my heart to talk about recently has been freedom (Re: America's freedom). Why is it important, what makes it valuable, and why we can't forget it. Like a wake up call. Hello America! your freedom is being taken away, but you have been so caught up in Hollywood that you don't even realize it! One day you're gonna wake up and all your freedoms will be gone, and you'll be asking WHAT HAPPENED? Then you'll find that, while you were being swept away with the tide, following the crowd, talking about who your favorite actor was...that the government slowly started taking away your rights.

I'll go into more detail later.......

~Semper Fi!
Kp

Well as my first post, I guess I should give all of you a fair warning (if the url wasn't a dead give away). this is a Politically INCorrect Zone. and that means that I am talking about controverial issues...and stuff that is now deemed politically incorrect by society. Such as :Freedom, Politics, Military (possibly), Oh and of Course....You can't g et much more politically incorrect than talkng about Christ, and God, and what my beleifs are...now can you?