Roe v. Wade was Overturned, and I Lived to See It!

Roe v. Wade was Overturned, 

And I Lived to See It!

    I wept today.  I couldn't keep tears from my eyes...nor did I want to.  I was nine years old when the notorious Roe v. Wade decision was force-fed to our states by a grossly-presumptuous, over-reaching Supreme Court that was determined to legislate from the bench.  It gave rise to a parady of the words of the crier who opens the Supreme Court (Think: "Oyez, Oyez, Oyez" becomes "Oy-vey, Oy-vey, Oy-vey" and "God save the United States and this honorable court" beccome "God save the United States from this dishonorable court"). It was funny, but funny with a barb to it---the august respect of the Supreme Court was irrevocably tarnished. 

            Those who know me personally know that I was a prom night baby.  My unwed, teenaged birth mother went away to a home for unwed mothers, and then she placed me for adoption and got on with her life.  The circumstances of my birth were complicated and inconvenient for her--but she didn't have me killed.  She chose life for her baby (me), then went home and got on with her life.  Knowing this, I got involved in the pro-life movement early on, and I've been militantly pro-life all my adult life.

        As the years of gone by, I have noticed major trends among pro-abortion-rights people.  In the first place, they gravitated toward the political Left, and the political Left began taking over the Democratic party.  These people always thew out the worst-case scenarios in an attempt to justify their positions while all while using abortion as a form of birth control.  The fact is, the vast, VAST majority of abortions do not involve those hard cases at all--it was all a smoke screen all along. We've been fighting for years---decades now--and to be honest, I wasn't sure I would ever see the day when Roe v. Wade would be overturned.  Sometimes the darkest night is just before the dawn, however, and that's the way it was today.

    I was on a Zoom call this morning when I glanced at my phone and saw a notification regarding Roe. I couldn't grab that phone fast enough!  I think I was holding my breath while I looked---and sure enough, there it was---after nearly fifty years, I had lived to see the day when a truly honorable set of justices on a much better Supreme Court finally put the kibosh to one of the biggest travesties and most hideous black marks on our history. 

    I knew we had a trigger law in Oklahoma to make abortion illegal in our state (except to save the life of the mother).  I immediately sent a text to my congressional representative to see how quickly that law would go into effect.  She let me know that as soon as our state's Attorney General certified the Supreme Court decision, that would be it---and that it was what happened. Every abortuary in Oklahoma had it's license revoked fast enough to make heads spin.

    So I've been rejoicing today.  Sometimes, the right really does win out---and this day was worth fighting for, even if it did take five decades. 

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The 2020 Election--Where do we Go from Here?

 So the 2020 Election Day is past, and the resulting chaos, confusion, and embarrassing ineptitude with regard to handling a fair election are leaving everybody reeling.  The results are still up in the air, and some of the shenanigans (i.e. FRAUD) that has become evident practically has us laughing when we hear Democrats pull their "there's no evidence of corruption" line.  No, of course--nothing to see here!  Just 240+ sworn affidavits from people who witnessed voter fraud, 138,399 votes showing up overnight for Biden in a state he was winning, Arizona being called so fast that the governor of the state even questioned it, a postal worker blowing the whistle on supervisors backdating ballots, and I could go on and on and on.  But "nothing to see here", folks---yeah, right.

Here's the deal--I do not wish to live in a corrupt, banana republic, under a fraudulent system in which only certain people--ahem--"win" every election.  If we can't have fair, even-handed, transparent voting, and do it in a way that circumvents fraud, then we're not longer a democratic republic.  I don't want that for America.  No matter who wins, this whole election needs to be THOROUGHLY investigated, all of these instances of fraud need to be tracked down, and the results of the election need to reflect the truth.  That's not too much to ask.

Secondly, after what happened with Fox News refusing the call Florida and Texas for President Trump for ridiculously long amounts of time, yet calling Virginia and Arizona for Biden so fast that it made heads spin, a lot of conservatives who are used to relying on Fox for balanced news coverage are not shaking their heads and wondering whom they can trust.  I want to make a few suggestions: The Epoch Times is fantastic.  I subscribe to their newspaper, and I also read them digitally on a daily basis.  I've been hearing good things about Newsmax, and I love the commentators on the Daily Wire.  Blaze TV has proven to be excellent as well.  The Daily Caller has a news app (as does the Epoch Times after you subscribe).  

I've been impressed with several YouTube independent journalists and political personalities who do on the scene news and commentary.  Tim Pool (Timcast News) is NOT a conservative (though he has moved further toward the right over the years, and has become a Trump supporter) has done a lot of respectable, on-the-scene reporting.  John Doyle from Heck Off Commie (excuse the name) and Elijah Schaffer (who joined Blaze TV) are great resources, and Right Side Broadcasting has been fantastic.  For just pure, common sense commentary, Prager U cannot be paralleled, and Blue Collar Logic is also great.

I am hoping that this starts a conversation--please leave comments and tell us who your go-to sources are for reliable commentary, on-the-scene news, and solid information.  Finally, I want to recommend Sandy Rios in the Morning from American Family Radio (AFR--93.1 FM if you live near Pauls Valley) as a terrific talk show that always gives insightful commentary on what's happening.  During this program (archives are available on the AFR app) you'll also get Todd Starnes commentary every day.  Todd has his own podcast as well, along with terrific guests--toddstarnes.com.

It's more vital than ever that we, as patriots, stay informed.  Passion + Information STILL = Push Back!

Troy  

Civilized Privilege

I'm here to acknowledge my privilege.  I really was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  Know why?  Because I was raised surrounded by civilized people.  I could care less what color they were--in my small, northwest Illinois town, I saw how civilized adults handle conflicts with the police.  And my "civilized privilege" marked me for life--let me explain how:

We had an overzealous cop in our county named Jeff.  I had a run-in with Jeff at a football game: I was just walking with the crowd, minding my own business, and ran across a can someone had thrown on the ground.  Being a typical kid, I kicked it out of the way.  Nothing malicious, no mischief--I just kicked a pop can out of the way.  Jeff was behind me--he ORDERED me to pick it up and throw it in the trash or he was going to haul me off to jail.  No, I'm not exaggerating, and no there isn't more to the story than this.  When I told him that I hadn't put the can on the ground, he said "I don't care" and made sure I picked up the can--someone else's litter--and threw it away.  Due to the way I was raised, I didn't defy his authority.  But that was just a taste of Jeff's love affair with being a cop.

Jeff had an annoying habit--he'd regularly arrest teenaged boys for stupid garbage and haul them off to the county jail.  Clearly, he loved his job.  The at the county jail, someone would have to come out and apologize to the boys, let them know that Jeff had no legal right to arrest them, and let them go home.  As you can imagine, people got disgruntled.  Before long, they had had it. 

So one afternoon, I walked into a local Hallmark shop. The owner was circulating a petition (notice the word I used--"PETITION"--not a "WE DEMAND" letter, not a threat) asking the authorities to send Jeff for more training so he'd know when he could and could not arrest people.  They weren't trying to get him fired.  They didn't want him punished.  In fact, I heard the lady say, "we're not trying to make trouble for Jeff, we just want...", you get the idea.

The result?  Well, someone got the message and calmed Jeff down--whether that meant more training or just getting his butt chewed out by the chief, I never knew--but Jeff grew into his position and went on to have a long-term law enforcement career, and everybody was happy.  I've seen other examples of over-aggressive police that did not have such a happy ending as this, but the problem always got resolved the same way: people went to board meetings, went to the mayor, wrote letters--you know, things that civilized people of all racial and cultural backgrounds do to get action--and made sure that their voices were heard.  They DID NOT bow up to the cop, get shrill and "in-your-face", or treat the cop with contempt while demanding their version of justice.  There's something to be said for "save it for the judge" (or the mayor, the city council meeting, the news, etc.).

Once my cousin--as a teenager--got stopped by the state police in front of the post office.  Thinking he was a wanted criminal, the trooper had him out and jacked up against the car getting padded down and--I believe--put in handcuffs.  My cousin remained polite and respectful.  They soon figured out that they had him confused with someone else and turned him loose with apologies.  When his mom and dad asked him how he responded, he said "I wasn't going to back-talk a cop!"  He was right.  There is nothing to be gained by resisting the police at the scene, talking back, getting vulgar, yelling and being belligerent--civilized people don't act that way. 

So yeah, I had "civilized privilege"--and it has helped me out in a lot of conflict situations.  Wish more people had it.

They're Not Laughing About FISA Abuse "Theories", Now

Wow — it’s only been three years and two months since this article came out lampooning how outlandish and nonsensical it supposedly was for President Trump to even IMAGINE that his phones were being wiretapped or that the Obama administration was illegally spying. Here it is:

“Citing No Evidence, Trump Claims Obama Administration….”

Even the title of the article, from the first three words, was set up to underscore how absurd and laughable President Trump’s “claims” were…uh, except they weren’t.

Let’s remember one important detail about Obama and the Leftist Democrats: they honestly believed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the 2016 election. If Clinton had won, all their tracks would be covered. With national media outlets proudly trying to change the cultural narrative with a steady diet of Leftist propaganda, with outspoken liberal lunatics hell-bent on moving the Overton Window, trying to put any questioning of their social issues outside of the realm of decency (and on par with Nazism and the KKK) and with Clinton, in her overweening smugness, calling the rest of us all a “basket of deplorables”, it apparently just never occurred to these people that they were ever going to get caught. Well, surprise, surprise…President Trump won the election — no wonder they’ve spent the last three years trying non-stop to impeach him.

But is it even plausible? Could things REALLY have gotten this bad? It was Lord Acton, the British politician, who so accurately observed that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Let’s go back to that time during Obama’s regime and refresh our memory on just how corrupt and despotic things were becoming and just see if the whole Spy-gate scandal could possibly fit with the way those time were.

During this era, when this FISA abuse was occurring (including a Clinton-bought-and-paid-for fake Steele dossier being presented as evidence in a secret court), when Lisa Paige and her…uh, “colleague” Peter Strzok were discussing their “insurance policy” to make sure Clinton won, and when Obama’s FBI was trying to get rid of General Flynn by getting him to lie so they could get him fired or prosecute him (their words), let the record reflect that other notorious scandals were erupting right and left involving breath-taking government lawlessness. We practically got to the point where it was a scandal a week.

The “Fast-and-Furious” gun-running scandal (and Eric Holder getting off scot-free with contempt of congress) happened on Obama’s watch. The Lois Learner scandal in which conservatives were targetted by a weaponized IRS was right on schedule, smack-dab in the middle of the Obama regime. There was Benghazi. There was the Iran deal. Clinton’s e-mail malfeasance was going on, along with Uranium One — these were some of the more glaring issues — scandals that made the international headlines and held us up for ridicule and embarrassment around the world.

Now, when we couple all of this with Obama’s penchant for writing executive orders to evade the congressional process, the spate of inexplicable “leaks” to the media of private communications, and the fact that they thought H. Clinton was going to get in and that they’d have this thing all sewn up, is it any wonder that these people thought they could do whatever they wanted? It’s abundantly clear what happened: Obama and his entourage overplayed their hand. Why wouldn’t they start engaging in wiretapping, espionage, and FISA abuse? They thought they’d never get caught — and that even if they DID, nothing would ever be done about it.

When people show us their true colors, that’s not the time to go color-blind and fail to notice. The Democratic Leftists showed us their true colors — they thought they had absolute power. As such, they had become absolutely corrupt.

Where Were You 18 Years Ago Today---When "Somebody Did Something"?

You know, sometimes I think America has collective Alzheimer's.  Our nation, as a whole, seems cursed with an awfully forgetful nature.  On 9-11, 2001, I was sitting at my desk at my old job when my secretary gasped for breath, turned around, and in an incredulous voice blurted out that someone had just flown a jet into the World Trade Center.  Soon, another jet followed.  The country was under siege--because "somebody" (who happened to be Islamic terrorists) did "something" (attacked our Pentagon, took down our World Trade Center, and killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans in an act of Islamic jihad).  Since then---18 very short years ago--collective national amnesia seems to have set in.

When President Trump tries to put a temporary travel ban from known Muslim terrorist hotbeds, AND GETS SEVERE PUSH-BACK for it; when people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib can run for congress (AND get elected!---waaaah?); when they can then say the awfullest things, and still stay in office; when loud-mouthed idiots like Senator Cory Booker--a man who used agreement with Brigitte Gabriel (who lived in Lebanon and knows what she's talking about) as a litmus test against a judicial nominee--can literally run for PRESIDENT and get some traction...it makes you shake your head at the country and wonder---"Are you people playing with a full deck?"  Because some people obviously are not.  Liberalism apparently warps the mind, and this isn't the first time I've thought that.

Fortunately, some of us haven't drunk the Kool-Aid, we still have our faculties, and we can CAMPAIGN and VOTE.  Let's use today's remembrance to remind ourselves that about half the country is walking around in a stupor in Leftist la-la land, and let that spur us to action as we head into this next election year.  It's not the time for singing  Kum-ba-ya around the campfire with our enemies as they plot our destruction--it's time to take in a good dose of reality and to get busy. 

Eight Years Is A Long Time...

Can you believe it's over?  Yes, it really is!  Obama is OUT of office.  Trump is in.  It has been a long eight years, and I am so thankful to Almighty God that our nation has survived.  Who ever thought that so much damage could be done by one president?

I can't even begin to recount all of the damage that Obama has done.  Everything from dissing Israel, to paving the way for Iran to have nukes, to social experimentation with our military, to trying to shove transgender bathrooms and even shower rooms down the throats of our public schools--it's been a hideous, revolting eight years.  Did you ever notice that when conservative (especially RELIGIOUS conservative) people said what they thought about something, it got to where it was always with hushed voices, it was always subdued, and people tended to keep their opinions private---but the liberal Left was out-and-proud with whatever garbage they wanted to spew--they could even be militant about it--for you to disagree made you a "hater", a "racist", a "bigot", a "____________-phobe" (fill in the blank with anything you want).  Well, no more.  The era of run amok political correctness has come to a screeching halt.

Still, a lot of damage has been done that is going to take time to undo.  Baronelle Stutzman still lost her floral business.  Aaron and Melissa Klein still lost their bakery.  Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran still lost his job, and the Rowan County Kentucky Clerk, Kim Davis still spent time in jail.  Seeing our White House bathed in rainbow colors to celebrate (?) the Supreme Court making homosexual "marriage" legal is so revolting that it practically amounts to blasphemy--and reminds us all just how close we were to losing it all.  It's a sobering thought to consider that, if the Left had gotten their way, a new wave of Orwellian viewpoint discrimination was about to engulf our nation.  Christian colleges and universities would have been denied eligibility for federal money (student loans and grants) if they didn't bow to the Leftist agenda, people would have been denied jobs, people could have lost their parental rights---we came "this close" to absolutely seeing our nation go over the cliff.

I had certain plans for this Inauguration Day that I have observed--making a point of flying our flag, dressing up in a special set of clothes in honor of the occasion, playing "Happy Days are Here Again" after lunch at work, going out with my wife for a special celebration meal this evening, setting aside special time for worship and expressing thanksgiving to God---even updating this blog with my thoughts were all on my agenda.  I have one other thing I must do before I retire for the evening--and this will no doubt be repeated often: I'm going to pray once again for the hand of Almighty God to guide the heart of our new president.  He's going to need divine intervention, and so are his closest advisers, to reverse all the damage that has been done over the last eight years.  He's also going to need the hand of God to keep him safe--I'll pray for the salvation of his soul while I'm at it.  I'm so thankful tonight to be an American---and for the hope that, one more time, God has granted us a reprieve.  Let's redeem the time, as the Scriptures say, and not while away our day of grace.

Bittersweet Fourth of July

So it's the Fourth of July.  Time for sparklers, firecrackers, and patriotic zeal, right?---Yeah, I suppose. And we're doing the Fourth of July thing--there's a nice red, white, and blue bouquet on the table; we've got plans for a picnic party and fireworks this evening--yet I can't escape a sense of mourning today, like being at the hospital bed of a dying relative and sensing that a final good-bye is coming near.  I almost had tears in my eyes as I unfurled our flag this morning and hung it out. As much as I want to believe in a hope for a recovery, now it looks like the disease process is just too far gone.  Sad.  It's been a nice country.

And just like someone working through the impending loss of a loved one, I'm remembering the good times.  Remember when people were proud to be an American?  Remember when they called it "the Good Ole USA"?  Remember when it was "let freedom ring!"--Liberty and Democracy would always prevail and eventually ensure that right would win out--wasn't that what they taught us?  I think about glorious July Fourths of the past--times when the bands at parades played patriotic songs, and I knew the words--because they taught us those songs at school!

Yeah, they really did.  Our hearts would swell with patriotic pride and excitement as our grade school teachers taught us to love America--back when more people thought there was something here to value and something to love.  They didn't teach us to duck our heads in shame and to apologize--they were too busy teaching us about Benjamin Franklin, the pilgrims, the founding fathers.  And then there was the Liberty Bell--when they told us its peal was heard "around the world", in our childish innocence that took everything literally, we really thought it was somehow, magically true!  But children grow up, and sometimes innocence gets violated by reality.  And just a few days ago, that happened to this entire nation.

Friday, June 26, 2015 marked a death-knell day in America.  The Supreme Court, a body I had always been taught to admire and hold in the highest esteem, in an act of jaw-dropping judicial overreach and crazed lunacy mandated that homosexual "marriage" would be legal in all fifty states. Could it really have come to this?  People are now talking about stripping tax exempt status from churches.  Here?  In America?  Christians who cannot, in good conscience, decorate cakes or provide flowers for homosexual "weddings" are now being run out of business, sued, fined, and financially destroyed---and our Republicans in congress sit there...doing nothing...and letting it all happen. Again.

Just like they did with Obama-care.  Just like they're doing with our defenseless borders and run-amok immigration. Just like they're doing with Eric Holder and Fast and Furious, Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal, Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi attack.  They sit there indolently, maybe hold a few hearings and beat their chest, spouting rhetoric--but unless there are dollar signs attached to it, nothing gets done...ever.  When all of this was brewing, the majority of our leaders looked the other way, and now they appear to have walked away entirely.

So yeah, it's been a nice country.  I hope it survives...I really want it to.  But if someone doesn't stand up and stop the train from barreling over the cliff, it's just a matter of time before this once glorious and beautiful train crashes and burns, becoming one more entry in the death registry of historic nations.  Perhaps the epitaph on the tombstone should read, "having had every chance to preserve our freedom to be a righteous, prosperous nation, this is what we did with it".

Please, God, my prayer today is "let me be wrong--let this all be just an overreaction on my part." And I'm looking around the hospital room (or is this a hospice?) asking for somebody, please, anybody to tell me that somewhere, somehow, there may still be a glimmer of hope for our once glorious, so-beautiful nation. After all, sometimes even false hope is better than no hope at all.