Month: December 2010

The Reading of the U. S. Constitution

With the Republicans taking over the House portion of Congress, they have put new rules into place. One of them is having the Constitution read in full on Jan 6, after the 112th Congress convenes. Okay, you may feel that this is just ceremonial and has no real deep significance. But those behind this new rule say the goal is “to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress – and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.” It is not just to remind the Democrats, but also the Republicans who in the past have lost their way when it came to limited government. I think it is a good idea. Read more from here.

Let’s face it, many of us do not know what is really in the Constitution. For example, we blame presidents for spending when if we truly knew  the Constitution, we would know that the blame is misplaced. The President cannot spend without the authorization from Congress. Remember a Democratic Congress authorized the spending in the last 2 years of Pres. Bush. That is in article 1, Section 8, which also stipulates that Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, not the President.

I finally received my pocket-sized Constitution and Declaration of Independence from the Heritage Foundation. It is free. Go here to get one of your own so that you can have it on hand for discussions and arguments on the Constitution and constitutional related subjects or just for your own knowledge.

Well, this post is supposed to be just an announcement, but I ended up blogging anyway. So the announcement is from this point on I am taking a few days of this Christmas week off from blogging. See you in the New Year.

Addendum: But please check in to see interesting headlines of choice in my Titter feed in one of the left sidebar columns.

Random Thoughts On Christmas

This year’s season of the Christmas wars is about to come to an end. The battle to do away with Christmas has evolved from the days of arguing over Santa Claus and the Christ centered side of Christmas to totally ignoring it all together, even though our government made it a national holiday a long time ago. Many Schools and child cares have done away with the Christmas celebration altogether. When I was in the child care classroom, I worked for a well-known church organization. Christmas celebrations and gift giving to the children dominated the month of December.

I am a ‘Merry Christmas’ person and avoid saying ‘Happy Holidays’ at all cost. I do say Happy Hanukkah, because it is a celebration of God’s people (Israel) getting  freedom from the oppressive Syrian-Greek before the birth of Christ. I do not recognize Kwanzaa, because it is a celebration against the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people see it as just a historical cultural celebration of a set of principles. When Kwanzaa celebrations first came on the scene in this country, some taught that those principle were originally gods. The originator of the American Kwanzaa celebration, Ron Karenga despises the God of the bible. Please do not make the mistake of stereotyping black people in general  as Kwanzaa celebrators.

Christmas to me is not Santa Claus all though there is a Christian connection through the German moniker, Kriss Kringle which derives from Christ Child. The Santa Claus image that was given to me for a short time as a child had nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. What I was given was a myth and a lie. My mother ended the Santa Claus thing with me early, because she did not like me believing that an imaginary character was responsible for the gifts under the Christmas tree. She made it clear that the gift came from my father and her, because they loved me.

In my household today, everyone believes Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Some say Christmas is pagan, but that is not so. Go here to read more. It is all about the birth of the Savior, who is God’s gift of eternal life to us. Linus explains it well in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

No Labels or a New Label for Liberal Democrats and Liberal Republicans

If this new ‘No Labels‘ movement was in place around 2004 to late 2005, I would have been an ardent supporter.  I drew closer  to politicians from opposite sides of the aisle coming together against partisan battling and getting bills passed into law. But I realized that I connected to  the Republican that went somewhat liberal  in order to come together with the Democratic representatives or senators.  In fact, in my pre-conservative days, the only Republicans that I liked were the so-called moderate (really liberal) ones.

No Labels sounds like a good idea, but it is really a label for  liberal Republicans and other liberals.  I watched a couple of No Label sessions on c-span. I saw moderating Republicans such as New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and Republicans turned independents, the soon to be former Gov. of Florida, Charlie Crist and Philly’s syndicated Radio talker and MSNBC’s Michael Smerconish. I remember when Mr. Smerconish was a right-wing war hawk during George W. Bush’s first administration. Years later, he supported Barack Obama over John McCain for the Presidency.  Columnist and CNN’s Kathleen Parker, whose conservatism continues to be questioned is in support of No Labels.  Read another interesting take on this No Labels thing here.

No Labels brought up the open primary issue one of the segments that I viewed on c-span. It is the only issue that I can see agreement, but from different perspectives. The discussion centered on open primaries getting people away from the Republican conservative and Democrat liberal label. I just see open primaries as allowing voting for all candidates as in the general elections. I am not for any kind of candidate restriction voting based on political party at any election level.

This No Labels group wants to do away with partisan rancor and personal attacks. I am against personal attacks on a person for any reason so I can agree with that and another issue or two, but I am a conservative. I left liberalism and left if for a reason. I agree with conservative core issues and values. That puts me at odds with liberals, especially with those on the far liberal left. This new group wants to do away with political and ideological distinctions. They want to blend out the differences. My ideological distinctions which are Christian based cannot be blended with someone of the left whose base their ideological distinctions in atheism.