Read this very important article about the economy and why we are where we are:
Obama’s Re-Election Case Rests On 5 Phony Claims – Investors.com.
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Conflicting Feelings For a Parent.
Your author, step-mother Terri, my Dad Jerry Schuett, and brother Jeff.
I’m not the only one out there with conflicting feelings about my parents, or any specific parent. I can’t be. And this blog and other blogs I’ve written confirms this for me.
Today, had he lived my Dad would have been 75 years old. Unfortunately he was only on this planet until he was 64. At 48 years of age I can say with far more assuredness than I felt at the time of his death, that’s too damned young.
My Dad died of liver disease brought on in part by medical malpractice and in part, I’m guessing, with his life long habit of enjoying a cocktail whenever he felt like enjoying a cocktail.
Jerome Mathis Schuett was born September 26, 1937 to Delores and Shelby Schuett in Bellingham, Washington. He was born to people of moderate income and moderate everything else. Which is to say…he was born an American.
He was fiercely proud of being American, but his pride came from little effort of his own. He lived a life in which he tried to do what he wanted, when he wanted, and be damned anyone who in any way inhibited his selfish desires. He was American.
I clashed with my Dad through much of my teens and early adulthood. I never felt he was racist, but in today’s context few would say he wasn’t. He opposed me marrying a black woman. I distinctly remember jokes told in a family setting in my childhood that were racially tainted and disturbed me. But I also remember him speaking highly of people of color who impressed him. I remember him calling me Jackie Robinson for having ignored his opposition to marrying a black woman and saying, “You showed that it was all right”.
I felt he lacked ambition. And I felt a lack of respect for him because of it. But he worked for himself the last 27 years of his life, running his own business. Having done the same for the past seven years I have a new-found respect for how difficult that can be.
My Dad lost his temper far more than anyone would like. He never showed a reverence for Jesus, that I feel. My Dad seldom showed much reverence for anything that didn’t immediately serve his specific need or purpose. But he always counseled me not to hurt others. He always counseled me to NEVER start a fight, but if I did I better finish it.
It’s hard to imagine how my life would be shaped without him. But 25% of our nation is raised without a father. It’s frustrating to think of all the angry episodes he displayed for me in my formative years for all to see; and how in spite of my vow to not do the same how I have on far too many occasions done so.
What I can’t get over, what I can’t reconcile in my heart and in my mind……………………..is how much I miss him and wish he had been available to me for counsel during some of the more trying times in my life.
My Dad was an extremely flawed man. Which, I guess, means that I am likewise. Because I will never forget his death-bed. At one point when he could no longer talk I said, “I hope you’re proud of me.” Though he couldn’t speak he almost cried, and with his reaction told me all I needed to know to forgive him his many flaws, and to love him the rest of my life.
You have parents. Hopefully they are loving and free of the contradictions that cause my conflicted emotions for my father. But as I’ve written before, if he/she is there, if they are present in your life, they have fulfilled more than what more than 25% of American fathers fulfill. Be grateful. Because someday, like my friend Rob McBride told me a long time prior to my own fathers death and a short time after his own father’s death, “forgive him for your own sake. You’ll miss him/them when they’re gone.”
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Think I’m Conservative? Your Wrong. I’m American.
Number of self-identified Democrats vs. self-identified Republicans, per state, according to Gallup, January-June 2010
What follows comes in response to a comment from my wife. She’s a Democrat, as is her mother. My VERY Democratic in-laws are not on Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media; but members of their and our extended family are. My wife told me that my Mother-in-law was complaining that “I talk about President Obama like he’s a dog” on Social Media posts (obviously getting feedback from the extended family). Well, I would maintain that I talk about the President and other Democrats in regard to the issues, and not as a dog. But this revelation got me thinking it might be time to clarify my position and remove the “hardcore” label from my reputation.
Conservatives are Pro-Life and want to ban abortion. Right?
I’m Pro-choice. Like half of all Americans. I am in favor of an adult women being able to end a pregnancy should she choose to do so with little intervention or regulation from government.
Clarification
I am not in favor of any adult woman taking a life. In my mind it’s as simple as determining when life begins. I’ve often said its absurd to say that a wiggling, crying baby JUST removed from their mother’s womb is a life but 60 seconds earlier it wasn’t. That is why I support the Republican position restricting abortion. Life begins either at birth, at conception or somewhere in between. And as I’ve already said the idea that it doesn’t begin some time prior to birth following a nine-month pregnancy is ridiculous. In my mind NEARLY as ridiculous is the concept that life begins at conception. Whatever THAT is that remains as small as a finger nail at least 2 months into a normal, health pregnancy I wouldn’t call it human life.
Our nation’s Declaration of Independence claims the God-given Right to Life. So once Life is established and viable some time in the womb, at that point the woman’s right to abort should end. Prior to that point the woman’s right’s are paramount. Hardly a Conservative position.
Conservatives oppose higher taxes
This current election cycle is not unlike past ones. It’s just so much more clear the difference in tax policy between Barack Obama
and Mitt Romney.
Obama has stated repeatedly, and even staked his election, on the premise that taxes need to be raised for people making $250,000-a-year or more. Romney wants to lower taxes and eliminate loop holes. I absolutely don’t agree with Obama’s policy. Romney’s is much more to my liking and belief system.
Clarification
I think wealthy people could and should pay more in taxes. I also believe the lower 47% of Americans who pay nothing in Federal Income taxes could and should pay something. Anything. But I absolutely don’t want any taxes raised on anybody until after our Federal and local governments learn to live within their means. They need to quit spending money they don’t have. Since that doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon whether we be under Republican or Democrat rule I stand with the Republican stand opposing higher taxes.
Conservatives support gun right
The National Rifle Association has always maintained a position opposing any restrictions on the ownership and possession of firearms. The Republican position seldom drifts far from that same position. Democrats platform calls for respect for the 2nd Amendment, but also calls for regulations requiring background checks, banning assault weapons and “eliminating the gun-show-loophole” that allow guns to fall into the hands of those irresponsible law-breaking few”. Actually reality is that Democrats anti-gun positions are far more prominent outside their party’s platform.
Clarification
I see no need for hand guns. They are only used for killing people. Nothing else. I’ve never owned one and I never will. Studies have repeatedly shown that if you own a hand gun you substantially increase your likelihood of dying or having someone in your household die from gun violence. I wouldn’t oppose legislation opposing handguns. What’s that do to my Conservative credentials?
I oppose Democrats opposition to “assault” weapons. I oppose this simply because defining an assault weapon and what exactly would be banned is too unclear and impossible to enforce. By some definitions my 35-year-old automatic 22-caliber rifle is an assault weapon, because it’s automatic. Some say my manual, pump 12-gauge shotgun is an assault weapon…because its a shotgun.
My position is closer to the Democrats written platform, than it is to Republicans. But in the real world of legislative politics its closer to Republicans.
Conservatives oppose gay marriage
Democrats are in favor of it, including our President and Vice-President. In Washington State polls indicate my state will become the first in the Union to legalize Gay Marriage by popular vote.
Clarification
On this one I am 100% behind the Republican party position. Under most state’s laws as they have existed a gay man can marry anyone I can marry and is restricted from marrying anyone that I’m restricted from marrying. So where is the discrimination? And the argument that people ought to be able to marry who they love is absurd and childishly naive. Should I be able to marry my sister (if I had a sister) and commit incest with her just because I love her? No. Should I be able to marry a woman who I love if I’m already married to another woman I love? That’s called bigamy. And while such marital practices are legal in other parts of the world, our country and society has deemed it illegal. So, no. Should I be able to marry a girl of 12 years of age? What if she and her parents consent? No. The age-of-consent is different in different states all over the country proving THAT age is arbitrary and thus capricious. And if Gay Marriage is made legal all these other restrictions on marriage MUST also be removed in order to not discriminate and allow people to marry whomever they love. Is that what our society wants? On this issue I pass the Conservative test.
Conservatives are racist. Right?
Of course the above statement is wrong, and divisive. But unfortunately those few remaining Americans who harbor hateful racist viewpoints toward minorities find their political home in the Republican party far more often than in the Democratic party. Fortunately there aren’t many of them; which is a good thing for lots of reasons including the fact that however few there are they stain the GOP too much already.
Clarification
I am not a racist. My black wife of 25 years and our three children will back me up on this one. But, I detest group thought over individualism. And unfortunately the Democratic party is all about labeling and classifying people based on race, age, religion, disability, sexual preference, etc. It’s not something I understand. For instance when “Hate-Crimes” legislation became law I couldn’t, and still can’t, understand why an assault on a black man for bigoted reasons was any worse than an assault of equal severity against a white man or woman. An assault is an assault. It’s illegal. It should be punished.
Democrats seem to think that a white person even mentioning race or religion makes them hateful racists. On CNN today I saw Carol Costello looked pained and distressed and comment accordingly because Mitt Romney was seen on a video joking he might stand a better chance of winning were he Latino. Bad joke? Ya. Factually questionable? Certainly. Racist? Puhleeeez!
Conservatives are Hawks and believe in war.
Democrats have continually tried to de-fund the military and Republicans have continually tried to keep funding as-is or increase it. Democrats, including Barack Obama, want us out of Afghanistan and never wanted us in Iraq. Republicans support or supported both wars and belief we should only leave Afghanistan when there is peace or when the Afghan government can stand on its own.
Clarification
Like most Americans, and Democrats in Congress, I supported the interventions in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Like Democrats I want them out…yesterday. Our presence in Iraq should have ended long before it did. I am glad that President Obama followed George W. Bush’s withdrawal plan and got almost all of our troops out of that troublesome nation. To me, Afghanistan makes no sense. It serves no strategic or military or political purpose to have Americans continue to fight and die in that backwards far-away land. Obama already uses drones continually in Pakistan and Yemen to hit terrorist/enemy targets. I want to know why he can’t pull all of our troops out of harms way, park an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean and bomb the crap out of the Taliban or El Qaeda whenever they pop their heads into the open. But my hawkishness ends when no beneficial purpose remains for the killing.
What probably defines me as a Conservative and Republican more than anything else is the Social Nanny-State mentality Democrats have fully embraced. It seems to me that by wanting to do more and more for each individual and group of individuals from cradle to grave Democrats sell-short the capabilities of us all. We’re all so much more capable than they seem to want to give us credit for. When you continually grow government for the purpose of taking care of its citizens Thomas Jefferson, among others, had a word for that. He called it tyranny. And so do I. The safety net for our truly most needy must and will always be there. But it’s not our governments job to ensure that we all have the same size house, television, car, or bank account.
So there you have it. I’ve probably disappointed some of my more Conservative friends. And I seriously doubt I’ve newly endeared myself with my more Liberal friends, most of whom stopped listening to me long ago. But it bothered me to be labelled a hardcore Conservative for no other reason than I knew it not to be true. I am hardcore vocal for what I believe in. And I will continue to be so.
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An Act of War, not a Movie Protest – The Orange County Register
Barack Obama in Las Vegas, NV – September 12th
An extremely well written piece on exactly what happened this week in the Middle East and with our President. I hope it’s read by everyone. Click on the link below.
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Cardinal Dolan’s Prayer Closing the Democrat National Convention
Cardinal Dolan also delivered the benediction at the Republican National Convention a week earlier.
Timothy Dolan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York
“With a ‘firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,’ let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love,” Cardinal Dolan began at the Democratic convention, continuing:
Let us Pray.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.
We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.
We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.
We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community. May we welcome those who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom, adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.
We praise and thank you for the American genius of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself. With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.
And finally Lord, we beseech your benediction on all of us who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn to conduct their lives in freedom and justice. We beg you to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.
And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country.
For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust.”
So dear God, bless America. You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen!
Related articles
- Cardinal Dolan’s pro-life, pro-family prayer rocks the Democratic convention (lifesitenews.com)
- Cardinal Dolan’s Benediction At DNC Get’s Shut Off; Gives Pro-Life Shout Out (theamericanteaman.com)
- Cardinal Dolan Appears to Pray for Marriage Protection at DNC (advocate.com)
- CHARLOTTE: Cardinal Tim Dolan Slams Abortion Rights During DNC Prayer (joemygod.blogspot.com)
- Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan gives pro-life shout-out at DNC (twitchy.com)
- Liberals cuss out Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan (twitchy.com)
- Romney: Cardinal Dolan to offer convention prayer (miamiherald.com)
- The Republican Party Cardinal (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
- Cardinal’s Rule: Nonpartisan (utsandiego.com)
- Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan gives pro-life shout-out at DNC (thebusypost.wordpress.com)
M Schuett blah blah blah 