Now for Change I Can Believe In

I've been waiting patiently for something to excite me about this presidential campaign. I've been trying to find an alternative to McCain because I felt he was not the best we have to offer this country and certainly that Obama, despite his claim to not being the traditional politician, was business as usual for the leftists in this country. I like Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, but he's got no shot at all. The way things were going, it appeared that I might do something I've never done since I was able to vote: stay home.

Yeah, by staying home, I would likely by default help elect Barack Obama. And by staying home, I would also lose my right to complain about the policies enacted by whoever won.

But then it happened. Friday, 29 August, on John McCain's birthday, he unveiled his gift to all of us conservatives, Sarah Palin of Alaska. Sarah is a God-fearing, gun-toting, ethical politician that strongly represents all of us that Obama said were bitterly clinging to our guns and religion. Despite her lack of foreign policy experience, she has more executive experience than Obama, Biden, or McCain possess.

This, Sen. Obama, is change I can believe in. A strong woman who talks the talk and walks the walks. She has been an agent of reform her entire political career. Someone who actually has a real record of producing change for the better. Where is Obama's record showing he has changed anything for better or worse?

In 4 years in the US Senate, Sen. Obama has been running for President for half of them. Is that what the people of Illinois elected him to do? Is the change he speaks of just a change of job description?

No, Gov. Palin is the ray of hope in this election that has finally gotten me excited about November and the next four years. No longer can the Democrats attempt to lay claim to the party of diversity. They had an opportunity to put forth a ticket that featured a minority and a woman and they went with the career politician who spent the last forty years inside the beltway.

McCain got this right and got it right in such a huge way that I can finally state unequivocably that I will pull the lever for the Republican ticket in November. The best part is knowing that with Gov. Palin on the ticket, she will be the conservative standard bearer beyond this election and potentially into the end of the next decade.

Did I mention that I'm excited?

God Bless Americans on this 4th of July

Abby Spangler, founder of Protest Easy Guns, stated to the Washington Post the other day in reference to the VT massacre:

"I knew nothing about gun laws and gun control before this happened. Zero," she said. Now, she is a fountain of statistics, data and arguments and counter-arguments on all facets of gun control. Now, she says things such as, "There is a continuing calamity of Titanic proportions, and we Americans need to right the ship" and "What's the point of us teaching our little Johnnies and Janes to be good people and allow them to walk in the streets with criminals who have easy access to guns? We might as well be throwing them into a tank of sharks."

Ms. Spangler, you are so close to the answer, you can't see it! 232 years ago, our forefathers sought to throw off the shackles of British rule over our daily lives. The only way to accomplish this was through armed revolt after declaring our independence from Great Britain. We were able to assert our independence only because we were armed. Now, 232 years later, we beseech our government to step in and reassert the role that Great Britain had held because we have a subculture in this country that fear firearms.

The answer that stares back at you, Ms. Spangler, isn't that guns are too easy for criminals to obtain. The answer is that our little Johnnies and Janes are forced to walk the streets with criminals at all. It is the criminals who are at fault, not the firearms. And ultimately, our government is to blame for allowing these criminals to walk amongst us. Throughout the history of our great nation, firearms have been a part of our heritage and it has only been in the last half of the 20th century that the irrational fear of all things firearms has begun to grip our nation. Our violent crime rates in urban areas did not come as a result of too many firearms. It came because of draconian laws that forbid the possession of firearms.

Furthermore, the doctrine of rehabilitating violent criminals had also began to rise in the last half of the century. Ask the family of Brooke Bennett what they think about letting violent criminals out of jail. It wasn't a gun that killed young Brooke. The early reports stated she was killed by asphyxiation.

As we celebrate our freedom and independence today, Ms. Spangler, you need to ask yourself where we would be today if our forefathers had not had easy access to firearms. You also need to ask our government why, despite over 50 years of gun control measures, that the violent crime rates continue to climb. As I said, the answer is staring you right in the face.

It's not about easy access to guns. It's about easy access to criminals. Less criminals, less crime. God bless America - because Ms. Spangler is doing everything she can to damn us all.

D-Day Prayer

As broadcast by Franklin Roosevelt on 6 June 1944:

My Fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.