I Want Your Money Trailer

This movie trailer was sent by our good friend Larry from the great state of Arizona. The film maker explains:

Set against the backdrop of today's headline - 67% of Americans don't approve of Obama's economic policies, the film takes a provocative look at our deeply depressed economy using the words and actions of Presidents Reagan and Obama and shows the marked contrast between Reaganomics and Obamanomics. The film contrasts two views of the role that the federal government should play in our daily lives using the words and actions of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you; the other believes that the elite in Washington know how to best allocate your wealth. One champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one's lot in life and even daring to dream and build big. The other holds that there is no end to the "good" the government can do by taking and spending other peoples' money in an ever-burgeoning list of programs. The documentary film I Want Your Money exposes the high cost in lost freedom and in lost opportunity to support a Leviathan-like bureaucratic state.

Pray for Muslims During Ramadan

I received an email from Pat, the Minister of Missions at Hunters Glen Baptist, alerting us to a new prayer guide called 30 Days of Prayer for Busy Christians on the Go. This one page daily reminder was developed by The Thirty Days of Prayer Network as a daily prayer guide to encourage Christians to pray for Muslims throughout the Islamic month of Ramadan. Pat writes:

As we continue to focus on the essentials of building relationships with our neighbors for the cause of Christ, let me remind you of an important event that is taking place around the world. Millions of Christians are joining together to pray for Muslims during the Islamic month of Ramadan. As we see more and more Muslims on our campus in our ESL classes and in our multi-ethnic churches, we want to reach out to them in the love of Christ. We have multiple mosques in our community teaching Islam to more and more people every week. We must be proactive for the kingdom of God and pray for those in our community and around the world. Please be diligent in praying for the hearts of Muslims to be open to the gospel message during this event, beginning August 11th for 30 days.

May God be glorified and honored through our prayer and outreach during Ramadan and may many Muslims come to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

While we must continue to oppose certain agendas of the radical wings of the Islamic religion, we must above all, pray for all Muslims, not just during Ramadan, but throughout the year. Political solutions will always fall short. The only permanent solution to Radical Islam is the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We encourage our readers to visit the Thirty Days of Prayer Network website for additional information, including articles and ebook downloads on Islam, the Muslim people, witnessing, culture and beliefs, and prayer guides in many other languages.

Christian Meditation

Many Christians stay away from meditation because they usually link the activity with eastern mystic philosophies. The Bible however, actually commands it.

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. (Jsh 1:8 - NIV)

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Php 4:8 – NKJV)

Of course, there are very few similarities between Biblical meditation and eastern mysticism. While the eastern forms stress an emptying of the mind, Christian meditation involves a focused reflection on God’s Word. Perhaps one of the best descriptions of meditation that I’ve encountered comes from JI Packer’s Knowing God.

How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God. We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask, for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.

Its purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace.

So, as we prayerfully practice the discipline of Christian meditation, we will observe a profound difference it can make in our lives.

Soldier Homecoming Surprises

I ran across this video on YouTube. There are many posted videos on soldiers returning home and surprising their loved one, but I think this is one of the best I’ve seen. Our son is due back in the states from serving in the US Marines in Afghanistan, so maybe…

A Long-Overdue Trip to the Vietnam Memorial

Here’s a “feel-good” story in honor of our brave men and women serving in the military, particularly the families of those who have paid the ultimate price. Robert Beavers died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam on Aug. 28, 1971, a week shy of his 21st birthday. His mother, Dorothy McLain, had dreamed of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC since it opened in 1982, but something always seemed to get in the way. Last month, a bunch of her high school friends, members of Woodrow Wilson High School's Class of 1969 got together and arranged the trip. This story first appeared in the Dallas Morning News a couple of weeks ago.

Members of Woodrow Wilson High School's Class of 1969 get together at the Fox and Hound on Skillman Avenue on the last Thursday of every month. Bobby Beavers had graduated with the class and then enlisted in the Army. Robert Fernandez and Mickey Castro struck up a conversation at the June meeting.

"Do you know if Bobby's mother is still alive?" Fernandez asked. "I think so," Castro said. "Why?" Fernandez, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, had just participated in Run for the Wall, a motorcycle ride from California to Washington, DC. Geared toward veterans, the ride is built around Memorial Day in May.

"Well, I went to the Vietnam Memorial and got the etching of Bobby's name on a piece of paper. I thought Mrs. McLain might want to have it, but I don't know how she might feel about it," Fernandez said. "I wonder if she's ever gone there herself," Castro said. "If she hasn't, then we need to take her," Fernandez said.

Castro knew he needed to contact Elise Melton, a Woodrow classmate who had grown up across the street from Beavers on Belmont Avenue in East Dallas. They went through Sam Houston Elementary, J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow together. Melton had stayed in touch with McLain over the years, and she accepted the assignment to call her and ask if she wanted to make the trip to DC. "She told me it was the one thing she wanted to do before she died," Melton said. "I had to do it. I like to get people together." And the trip was on.

The article then gives us some personal information on Mr Beavers:

Bobby Beavers was a freckle-faced boy with a quick smile and a sense of humor. He was a good student with a lot of friends... Bobby had bought a 1957 Chevy and he worked on it constantly. He put an eight-track tape deck in the dashboard and big speakers in the doors. He liked The Rolling Stones and learned to play rhythm guitar. He was even in a band for a few months. Castro remembers cruising East Dallas in Bobby's '57 Chevy – places such as Charco's drive-in, Keller's and Prince of Hamburgers. The car was fast and could burn rubber. "Mostly, we looked at girls," Castro said.

Bobby enlisted in the Army right out of high school. He loved to play Army as a child with a helmet on his head and a toy rifle slung over his shoulder. Later, as a teenager, he would enjoy hunting and fishing with his best friend, Greg Reno. Bobby became a helicopter mechanic in Vietnam. And it was ironic that he died in a helicopter crash, Reno said. "Of all the people to put into a helicopter, Bobby was not the one," he said. "He always had motion sickness when we would ride the rides at the State Fair."

Bobby's mother recalls when two men in Army uniforms came to her house on a hot summer day in late August 1971. She knew immediately that her son was dead. By the time the war ended in 1975, more than 58,000 Americans had died. Of course, McLain has never gotten over her son's death. "I've got his pictures," she said, "and his classmates and Army buddies still stay in touch."

The trip:

Early on the morning of July 17, the group met at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for the flight to Washington – McLain, Melton, Castro and Fernandez. They flew first class, courtesy of Castro, an American Airlines manager in the aircraft maintenance division. Reno wasn't able to make it, but he arranged for a limousine to carry the group around the nation's capital.

Their trip started at Arlington National Cemetery to witness the changing of the guard and to see the burial sites of the three Kennedy brothers. They toured the city and ended up at the Vietnam Memorial. Park rangers provided a ladder so McLain could climb up to touch her son's name. The memorial was crowded that day, but tourists cleared the way when they realized that the mother of a fallen hero was posing for a photograph. "I better put on my sunglasses," said a teary-eyed Castro.

Finally, McLain pulled out three photos to leave at the base of the Wall – Bobby with an Army helicopter, a photo of his '57 Chevy and a picture of a Sam Houston Elementary School memorial dedicated to his memory. McLain was happy and proud more than sorrowful. Still, tears were shed at the wall. "It was so touching," Melton recalled. "We did it for her," said Fernandez.

The First Un-American President

Like other bloggers, we often include short excerpts from other blogs to augment one of our own posts. This was my initial plan regarding an article posted yesterday by Alan Caruba on his Warning Signs blog entitled The First Un-American President. As a regular reader of Mr Caruba's works, I’ve often featured his articles in our “Picks” section, but wanted to include a few selections from his latest in our post. On this rare occasion however, after several attempts to reduce the article to a few selections, I finally gave up and decided to reproduce it in its entirety.

As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.” – Barack Hussein Obama, spoken at a White House dinner to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan!

Well, of course, he does. Why wouldn’t someone who thinks the sound of the call to evening prayers from a nearby minaret is one of the sweetest sounds in the world? Why wouldn’t someone who spent his formative years, age six to twelve, in Indonesia, the step-son of a Muslim father and the son of a Muslim father who had deserted his wife and child.

But, I hear you say, he spent twenty years in a Christian church in Chicago. Yes, with a preacher who said of 9/11 that “the chickens had come home to roost”; a preacher who embraced Black Liberation theology and maintained close friendships with Nation of Islam leaders in Chicago.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.”

What a pompous hypocrite. He’s been president since January 20, 2009 and has yet to have selected a church to attend in Washington, D.C., like every other president before him has done, but he makes sure to celebrate Ramadan.

That’s what you get when you elect a man named Barack Hussein Obama about whom you know nothing other than the fawning, worshipful puke served up by the liberal media all through the campaign and for most of his first year and a half in office.

Too late! The majority of voters selected a complete stranger; a man with virtually no available paper trail, including the one item most people can produce on request, a legitimate birth certificate.

Obama is not an American. He is the son of a former British subject, a Kenyan of the same name. He is the step-son of an Indonesian who married his mother and adopted him. When his mother divorced for a second time, he was shipped off to live in Hawaii with his grandparents.

The only overseas trip he took that we know of was to Pakistan with a college friend from there. Did he travel on an American passport? The State Department records have conveniently disappeared.

He’s one of those people who enjoys all the benefits of American citizenship, but considers himself an internationalist, someone more at home in the bowels of the United Nations than the chamber of the U.S. Senate; a place where he spent very little time because he was so eager to seize the presidency and begin to “transform” America.

This statement regarding the defiling of Ground Zero, favoring a mosque where the same religion that spawned the 9/11 killers would be preached, may finally convince the deniers that Obama is and always has been a Muslim.

First interview as president was with Al Arabia. First official act was to sign paperwork to close down Guantanamo. First major overseas speech was given in Cairo. Et Cetera!

He’s letting you know he has the reins of power. He doesn’t care what you think. And he has the rest of his term to finish destroying the nation. He knows it. Now you do.

America, take a good look at the first truly un-American president to hold that high office.

A lot of Americans voted for him. Those that did not are desperately reading the Constitution to find a way to rid us of this enemy of the people.

While Mr Obama refuses to participate publicly in the National Day of Prayer, any Christian holiday, or traditions such as the Boy Scouts One Hundred Anniversary, he rarely misses a chance to headline any Muslin or GLBT function. At the same time that he is fighting for the rights of Muslins (in the name of religious freedom), he continues to systematically purge the country of Christian freedoms and traditional moral values, particular though his appointment of activist judges and non-confirmed czars. More than ever, as we oppose these radical agendas, we must continue to pray for our country, including its leaders.

Iraq Soldier's Home Ownership Returned

We have an update on Capt Michael Clauer, the Frisco soldier that lost his house while deployed in Iraq. His HOA foreclosed and sold the $300k plus house to collect less than $1000 in dues. This was a somewhat complicated case and we’re happy to report that a deal has been reached to return the house to the Clauers. Details of the agreement have been sealed.

This case has renewed the debate over how much power a home owners association should wield. Perhaps a HOA should be limited to obtaining a lien on the property rather than forcing a sale without going to court. I’m not personally familiar with the Clauers or the HOA involved, so I’ll just offer a few brief independent observations on this particular case (see our previous story for additional background info). First, Ms Clauer must accept some responsibility. She didn’t open the certified letters from the HOA due to depression. Having a son in the Marines in Afghanistan, I can identify and sympathize; however, Ms Clauer must have opened and paid some bills such as the utilities.

That said, I believe this could also have been avoided if the HOA used a bit of common sense. While they were within the letter of the law, the morals and ethics of selling someone’s home to collect this small amount is certainly questionable, particularly in light of the fact that the officers, presumably the Clauer’s neighbors, didn’t even bother to pay them a visit. As a former officer of a HOA, I found that very few homeowners responded to notices that were mailed, but when we dropped by to respectfully talk over the situation, they almost always were more than willing to comply. In some cases, it was simply a misunderstanding. In others, the homeowner had simply neglected the issue or had a temporary setback such as a lost job, some medical etc, in which case we would work with them or give them more time. We also acknowledge that all HOA's do not operate in the same manner. Many are run by a select few individuals who attempt to impose their agenda on everyone else.

In this case, it appears that each side probably shares at least some portion of the blame for not resolving the issue in the earlier stages, but we don't have enough info to speculate on the extent with any accuracy. We can say that we are very happy that the home’s ownership was returned to Capt Clauer's family. We would also like to extend our appreciation for his service to our country.

Memories of Aunt Louise

A couple of weeks ago, Aunt Louise (my mom’s older sister) left this temporary life to go to her permanent home in heaven. I had not seen her in a while, so many of my memories are somewhat old and faded. Yet, because of her great love for her family, she always kept up with everyone else. Not a single birthday, graduation or any other special event would pass without us receiving a card at the very least. To a young man on a very hectic schedule, these cards and occasional calls brought a certain sense of normality, like an anchor in a turbulent sea. Unfortunately, she was an anchor that I all too often took for granted.

Aunt Louise and my mother, along with five other siblings, grew up in a small farm house in a rural area of Northeast Texas. As a kid, I used to love to play around the old barn, then one day found out that this “old barn” was the home in which they were actually raised. It was only used as a barn after my grandparents later built another house on the land. This other farm house became the family gathering place for Christmas and other special occasions.

Louise and my mom were typical sisters, always arguing among themselves but fiercely loyal to each other, probably because they were so much alike. During family gatherings, my mom and dad would sometimes get into petty (often good natured) arguments, and Louise would almost always take my dad’s side (along with her youngest sister Claudene). I suspected she did this just to agitate mom, and it usually worked. You could tell my mom was perturbed when she started calling her “Norma Louise”.

Read the entire Memories of Aunt Louise article, including additional pictures.

July 2010 – A Review

Once again, I got snowed under (if I can use this expression in July) on a couple of engineering projects, so here’s a brief rundown of a few happenings in the past few weeks.

Even with congressional approval at an all-time low of 11%, it appears big national money and voter amnesia may still win out this fall, as both John McCain and Harry Reid have now taken leads in their respective states of Arizona and Nevada.

In the “sacrifice is only for the common folks” department, John Kerry, who repeatedly voted to raise taxes in Congress, has moored his new multi-million dollar yacht in Newport, RI to avoid a six-figure state tax that he (along with Ted Kennedy) helped increase on the other citizens of Massachusetts. Mr Kerry’s chief of staff claimed that the Senator is only berthing his yacht in Rhode Island due to maintenance considerations rather than to avoid paying the tax.

Similarly, Al Gore, after calling for his subjects to decrease their carbon footprints while he maintains his mansion in Tennessee, has now purchased a nine million dollar ocean-view manor in Santa Barbara. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Doesn’t it seem just like yesterday when he was declaring that the California coast would soon be under 20 feet of water due to global warming? Due to Mr Gore recent massage scandal, he’s been keeping a low profile on the climate change issue, but Mr Kerry appears to have picked up the baton. Last week, he told a town hall meeting that the Arctic would be ice-free in 5-10 years. On the bright side, this will give him some additional ocean on which to sail his yacht.

Our final entry in this department, which could also be called “do as I say, not as I do”, is FLOTUS Michelle Obama taping all those commercials urging people to come on down to the Gulf Coast to spend their vacation and money, before jetting off with BHO for a Maine vacation. Meanwhile, their family dog was flying in on his own private jet. As Publius’ Forum notes:

As the rest of us toil on the unemployment line, as millions of Americans find their retirement accounts dwindling, their hours at work cut, and their pay scale trimmed, King Barack and Queen Michelle are flying their little doggie, Bo, on his own special jet airplane for his own little vacation adventure.

Now, Ms Obama is planning a five day trip to Spain during the first week of August for a "private visit in the company of old friends", reserving about 30 rooms at a five-star hotel on Costa del Sol. This will precede another a ten day vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.

Changing subjects, remember the op-ed that Rep Bart Stupak wrote in the Washington Post back in March on why he withdrew his demand for federal funding of abortions to be taken out of healthcare as a condition for his vote:

Therefore, I and other pro-life Democrats struck an agreement with President Obama to issue an executive order that would ensure all Hyde Amendment protections would apply to the health-care reform bill. No, an executive order is not as strong as the statutory language we fought for at the start. We received, however, an “ironclad” commitment from the president that no taxpayer dollars will be used to pay for abortions.

As we’ve seen this month, both Pennsylvania and Maryland received federal tax dollars to pay for abortions under the new health care law. At least Mr Stupak still has his airport grant money.

Finally, Mr Obama is now officially in campaign mode for the 2010 elections and the strategy continues to be “blame Bush and claim things could be worse”. He repeatedly claims that the economy would be much worse without his policies, and paints those of his opponents as “job killers”. He counts on the media to continue to cover up the facts, such as the two million new jobs created the final year that the Republicans controlled congress, and that the “Bush recession” only began after Ms Pelosi, Mr Reid and their fellow Dems took control of congress. The next few months will tell whether or not this strategy will work.

A Tale of Two Afghan Videos

It has been an interesting Independence Day weekend, to say the least. We had not heard from our son Justin, who is serving in the US Marines in Afghanistan, in about three weeks. Many other marine parents warned us to stay away from the daily news in order to retain our sanity. This is easy for me in that I get most of my news from the internet, since the nightly so-called news programs are merely a rehashing of the days talking points from Move On and the Daily Kos. Still, during especially rough times, I have other parents call and warn me to keep my wife away from the news for the next few days. I can only imagine the emotions of parents during the time when President Bush was in office, and the media always portrayed the war and the troops in the worst possible light. Now that the media’s messiah is the current commander in chief, they have sanitized the war news somewhat, but it can still be unsettling to watch.

This past week, the world witnessed the very graphic video of a British soldier under fire, bloodied with bullets splashing around him in the sand. Fortunately, he was not hurt seriously and returned to duty later that day. This video was a graphic reminder of the conditions under which our brave troops are serving.

The next day, our friend Starrla called to tell my wife that she saw our son Justin on CNN. Later, my brothers called to say that they had seen Justin in a Yahoo video that has since been taken down. We looked up the video, and sure enough, there he was. It was difficult to make a positive id since he was wearing all his gear, but he finally called and confirmed that he was in the five hour firefight, that he was safe, and that he had been on camera. So, while the first video brought worry, the second brought some comfort for the moment.

As we continue to celebrate on this Independence Day weekend, please remember to pray for all the friends and relatives back home. Above all, please continue to pray for our troops serving in harm’s way. While the liberal politicians are busy stripping away our freedoms and traditional values on which our country was founded, these brave men and women are putting their lives on the line daily to preserve them. May God bless our Troops.