Thoughts From A Conservative Mom

Posts Tagged ‘Discrimination’

The dam has broken, the curtain has been lifted, and the flood of scandals coming to light this week is finally beginning to open people’s eyes.

1. Benghazi.  Four Americans were abandoned to die in the middle of a terrorist attack.  In the aftermath the administration changed the talking points, lied about a stupid video being to blame, and spent months trying to hide the truth as they intimidated and blocked access to witnesses.

2.  The IRS admits to targeting Tea Party groups.  It turns out they were also targeting pro-life groups, pro-Israel groups, religious groups, and pretty much anybody who dared to criticize Obama’s policies.   They were also leaking confidential information about the opposition to their political friends.

3.  The Department of Justice secretly obtained months of phone records from over 100 AP reporters and sources, including Congress.   Guess the Obama administration likes to keep a jealous eye on his favorite mistress.

4. HHS Secretary shakes down companies she regulates for “donations” to implement Obamacare.   It’s the Chicago way.

5. The EPA applies a double standard when dealing with conservative vs. liberal groups.   If you’re “green,” you’re clean.  If you oppose EPA power grabs and agenda, you’re treated as an enemy.

Lest we forget, there is also Sestak, Solyndra, Pigford, and Fast & Furious.

So how is Obama trying to squirm his way out of trouble?

One unique excuse being offered by David Axelrod is that the government is simply too big for Obama to know what’s going on.  Yes,  you heard that right…the liberals’ favorite argument that more government is the solution to every problem has suddenly turned into an excuse for ruling class ignorance and incompetence.

Another approach has been to claim that Obama is simply a passive and aloof leader who tends to distance himself from the nitty gritties of governing, and therefore has no clue what his underlings are up to.

Obama’s consistent claim that he always finds out about these scandals the same way that we do – when they first appear on the news – has become such a running joke that even Jon Stewart tore into him over the absurdity of it all.

Whoever created this meme summed it up beautifully:

Yep.  That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

Scandal-Ridden Obama: Republicans Are Making Americans “Cynical About Government”

Obama Scandal Scorecard

A Quick Guide to the Four Major Scandals that May Bring Down the Obama Administration

And Then There Were Five Obama Scandals…?

Scandals Here, There and Everywhere

What we know Obama doesn’t know grows daily

What does the scandal cascade teach us about trust in government power?

Krauthammer Warns: Gay Marriage Case Could Lead to All-Out ‘Assault on Religion’

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Last summer, lesbian journalist  and activist Masha Gessen admitted in a radio interview that the purpose of pursuing gay marriage is to destroy the institution of marriage entirely:

“It’s a no-brainer that (homosexual activists) should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist. …(F)ighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie.

The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist. And I don’t like taking part in creating fictions about my life. That’s sort of not what I had in mind when I came out thirty years ago.

I have three kids who have five parents, more or less, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t have five parents legally… I met my new partner, and she had just had a baby, and that baby’s biological father is my brother, and my daughter’s biological father is a man who lives in Russia, and my adopted son also considers him his father. So the five parents break down into two groups of three… And really, I would like to live in a legal system that is capable of reflecting that reality, and I don’t think that’s compatible with the institution of marriage.”

Read more at the Illinois Family Institute

George Neumayr warns at American Spectator:

The end point of liberalism is a coercive secular state in which the religious have no meaningful rights. American church leaders are kidding themselves if they think the gay-marriage juggernaut is going to stop at civil marriage. It won’t. It will quickly travel past court houses to churches, demanding that all religions bless gay marriages.

Denmark casts a shadow of this future, where the gay-marriage juggernaut has smashed through church doors. Last year the country’s parliament passed a law requiring all Lutheran churches to conduct gay marriage ceremonies. “I think it’s very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married,” said Manu Sareen, Denmark’s minister for gender equality. Reluctant bishops have to supply ministers to satisfy the right whether they like it or not.

Iceland and Sweden have similar arrangements. Since many of the bishops are in the tank for gay marriage anyways and since these churches are “state” churches, this pressure generates little news. But it is instructive nonetheless. Where gay marriage exists, religious freedom gradually disappears, to the point where ministers have to choose between serving as secularism’s stooges or facing societal oblivion.

In America, this pressure will take the form of “discriminatory” churches losing government grants, permits, and participation in programs. It will be the death of religious freedom by a thousand little cuts here and there: canceled speeches of religious figures at state universities, lost HHS grants, the refusal of city governments to recognize churches that don’t permit gay marriages, “hate crime” legislation that extends to opposition to gay marriage, and so on. All of this will have the effect of pressuring churches into blessing gay marriages. A law forcing priests and ministers to preside at gay marriages won’t need to be passed; the invisible law of indirect governmental pressure will do the trick.

[...]  The goal of the gay-marriage juggernaut is to make Christians pariahs, as irrelevant to public life as racists. It doesn’t have to pass a Denmark-style law to force churches to conduct gay marriages; it can achieve the same end through punitive political correctness.

Read more at American Spectator

Gay Marriage Is Merely The Vehicle For Left’s Ultimate Goal: Destroying the Church

‘Don’t Care’ About Gay Marriage?  The Left Will Allow No Fence-Sitting.

“Marriage” Mayhem: Religious Freedom Being Trampled in the Scuffle

Adam Carolla: Gay Marriage Inevitable, So is Left’s March to Force Churches to Comply

Forces of Cultural Change: Explaining the Shift in Public Attitude on Same-Sex Marriage

What You Can Do About Same-Sex Marriage

Canada Offers Sobering Warning Of What Happens To Religious Liberty When Gay Marriage Is Legalized

Christians Targeted For Beliefs on Gay ‘Marriage’ – Is The Church Responsible?

The Dark, Intolerant, And Abusive Nature Of The Gay Agenda

The Agenda to Silence Christians

The application for Obamacare includes registration to vote. Guess which party they’ll be pressuring people to register with?

Mike Flynn reports at Breitbart:

ObamaCare provides millions of dollars in grants to hire community activists and others as “navigators” to assist individuals enroll in health insurance provided by state or federal exchanges and, according to recent reports, register people to vote. In a new rule proposed Wednesday, HHS lays out numerous guidelines for these “navigators”, including paying them up to $48/hour for their work. The rule, guidelines and voter registration effort are a potential vehicle to resurrect ACORN or an ACORN-like entity.

[...]  Requirements for “navigators” is that they have no existing insurance licenses or certifications, conflicting with several recently enacted state laws. They also must be attuned to racial, ethnic and cultural sensitivities, understand “underserved communities” and provide translation services for virtually every language. AARP, NAACP and SEIU are prominent members of Enroll America’s advisory board.

One health expert with close ties to HHS told Breitbart News, ”The navigator program, as evidenced by the leadership of Enroll America and yesterday’s rule from CMS, will be a jobs program for unemployable Obama For America campaign volunteers and ACORN remnants.”

[...]  October 1st is the first day individuals can enroll for a program through the exchanges. The government, as a result, will have to hire and train tens of thousands of workers on the complex subject of health insurance over the next few months. Think of it as an enormous census program with less training for a more complex subject.

Read more at Breitbart

Paul Bedard remarks at the Washington Examiner:

The rules allow navigators to come from the ranks of unions, health providers and community action groups such as ACORN and Planned Parenthood. They are required to provide unbiased advice.

Yeah, right.  Good luck enforcing that!

Suprise! Obamacare Application Doubles As Voter Registration, Sets Stage For Intimidation

Obama Admin To Pay Union Workers, Community Activists $48 An Hour To Work As Obamacare “Navigators”

Justice Department Partners With ACORN’s ‘Project Vote’ For Voter Registration Drives

Flashback: Obama Shakes Down Banks For $1 Billion To Pay For ‘Community Organizers’ For 2012 Campaign

CNN Exposes How ACORN Steals Votes For Democrats

In Oregon, there’s a big push to automatically register people to vote when they apply for drivers’ licenses.   Not coincidentally, there’s also a push to issue drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.   Oregon is typically a test case for liberal policies that the Left wants to implement nationwide.

Earlier this month, Obama issued an executive order to create a presidential commission “to address issues including long lines at the polls, voter registration and voter access.”   Translation: to make sure they register everyone under the sun whether eligible or not, and never check ID to make sure they’re legit.

Paul Bedard reports at the Washington Examiner:

The 61-page online Obamacare draft application for health care includes asking if the applicant wants to register to vote, raising the specter that pro-Obama groups being tapped to help Americans sign up for the program will also steer them to register with the Democratic Party.

On page 59, after numerous questions about the applicant’s identity and qualification for Obamacare, comes the question: “Would you like to register to vote?” The placement of the question could lead some to believe they have to register to vote to get health care.

[...]  In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Monday, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee, said HHS is overstepping its bounds by a mile.

[...]  Boustany, a Louisiana Republican, said the application raises two alarming issues: What does HHS plan to do with all the information it collects on each applicant, and will pro-Obama groups like AARP and Families USA — which might be tapped as “navigators” to sign people up to Obamacare — steer them to register as Democrats. Others have indicated that groups like Planned Parenthood and ACORN could also act as navigators.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

Remember – illegal aliens are not ineligible for Obamacare, so they can easily register using this application, and their legal status will likely never be checked.

Brandon Darby warns at Breitbart:

“This is classic community organizing on steroids — with the taxpayer footing much of the bill,” ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief told Breitbart News. MonCrief further stated:

ACORN solidified its power in whatever community it was in by helping people with government assistance applications and voter registration. After we processed your public assistance application, we knew where you belonged to each government program. When it came time to fill a bus to the polls, the same person that helped you get food stamps or tax advice could show up and press you to go vote.  Simply put, your local SEIU chapter or spin-off organization of ACORN will receive government funds and private donations to transition as many people into the Obamacare exchanges as possible – all while keeping tabs of your voter registration data to later run get-out-the-vote efforts. In California alone, the cost of navigators is expected to be in the ‘hundreds of millions of dollars.’

True the Vote and its Latino initative, Voto Honesto, expressed unease with the new arrangement Obamacare navigators will bring, citing the risk of increased voter intimidation in future elections.

“Voter intimidation can take many forms, all of which are felonies,” Engelbrecht said. “This navigator system brings with it the unabated risk that community organizers will attach strings between the public benefit and the recipient’s vote – especially in the minds of the most economically vulnerable among us.”

The election watchdog said it would be expanding efforts in emergent communities to expose such coercive activity in election cycles to come.

“We base our concerns over reports already received from the 2012 Election,” Engelbrecht said. “Our Voto Honesto initiative met a startling number of naturalized Americans in south Texas and Arizona who said their newly-minted citizenship was threatened if they did not vote correctly. The same people who helped register them to vote at the naturalization ceremony later showed up at their doorstep as part of a GOTV effort, pushing them to the polls. That’s unacceptable.”

Read more at Breitbart

The White House is mocking the idea that anything untoward is going on here.  Of course.  Mockery is a weapon for trying to disarm your opponents and put them on the defensive.

Help Fight Voter Fraud With ‘True The Vote’

The left’s ongoing assault on election integrity

Special Report: ‘The Rebranding of ACORN’

How The ‘Motor Voter Law’ Has Opened The Door To Rampant Voter Fraud

Mandatory Voting: Is This The Obama Administration’s Goal?

Why The GOP Won’t Fight Voter Fraud: Party Is Legally Barred From Doing So

Was the 2012 Election Stolen?

Ex-Dem Congressman: Voter Fraud Is Commonplace, Voter ID Is The Cure

In the twisted mind of the Left (the ideology of which the United Nations is the primary propagandist), telling a woman that she can’t murder her child is the same as genitally mutilating her.

Offering a person the counseling and therapy needed to address the deep wounds at the root of same-sex attraction is equal to torturing and beating them.

You can’t even reason with someone that detached from reality and logic.   Black is white, up is down, wrong is right, love is hate, night is day…and nothing you say will convince them otherwise.

Kirsten Anderson reports at Life Site News:

A recent United Nations report on torture and mistreatment in health care systems around the world singled out lack of access to abortion as a form of “torture,” classifying it as a human rights violation on par with female genital mutilation, forced sterilizations and state-sanctioned beatings.

The report also says governments should recognize the preferred sex of ‘transgender’ individuals without regard to biology, arguing that forcing such people to undergo sex-reassignment surgery in order to prove their case is equivalent to torture.

[...]  The report calls for the “elimination of homophobia” in health care settings, calling on “all States to repeal any law allowing intrusive and irreversible treatments, including forced genital-normalizing surgery … ‘reparative therapies’ or ‘conversion therapies,’ when enforced or administered without the free and informed consent of the person concerned.”

[...]  One of the main ‘protection gaps’ identified was a lack of easy access to abortion in some countries.

“The Committee against Torture has repeatedly expressed concerns about restrictions on access to abortion and about absolute bans on abortion as violating the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment,” Mendez wrote.

In the densely-worded 23-page report, Mendez devotes an entire section to “Reproductive Rights Violations.”  While a list of violations towards the beginning of the section includes female genital mutilation, forced abortion, and forced sterilizations, much of the text that follows is focused on abortion access.

Read more at Life Site News

United Nations Backs Report Calling Abortion a Human Right

U.N. Group Calls for Abortion as Human Right for 10-Year-Olds, Decriminalization of Prostitution

Irony Alert: UN Human Rights Commissioner Wants To Make It A Crime To Oppose Abortion

California Bill Seeks To Deny Those Struggling With Homosexuality The Option Of Reparative Therapy

Former APA president says organization controlled by ‘gay rights’ movement, positions no longer science based

It’s not just Catholics. They’re doing it to Protestants, as well.

Be prepared.

John Nolte warns at Breitbart:

If anyone wants to argue that the same government currently forcing religious institutions to purchase the abortion pill through ObamaCare will not eventually use civil rights violations in order to attempt to force the Church to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies — good luck with that.

But this would have been unthinkable five years ago.

It was just three months ago that the White House and media piled on a reverend for preaching the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality. The result was his invitation to speak at Obama’s inauguration being rescinded.

This would have been unthinkable five years ago.

With the election of Pope Francis, we have news anchors openly clamoring that the Church is out of step on same-sex marriage.

This would have been unthinkable five years ago.

Fifteen years ago, the same leftists and media assuring us today that same-sex marriage won’t be imposed on the Church were telling us that civil unions (which I’ve always supported) would never lead to gay marriage.

With all that in mind, am I really supposed to buy that, within five years (maybe five days), the left and the media won’t be incessantly asking this question: “If the Church cannot legally refuse to marry an interracial couple, how can it legally refuse same-sex couples?”

Read more at Breibart

Erick Erickson correctly concludes at Red State:

As long as there are still Christians who actually follow Christ and uphold his word, a vast amount of people around the world — never mind Islam — will never ever see gay marriage as anything other than a legal encroachment of God’s intent.

So those Christians must be silenced. The left exerted a great deal of energy to convince everyone that the gay lifestyle is an alternative form of normal. It then has exerted a great deal of energy convincing people that because the gay lifestyle is just another variation of normal, gay marriage must be normalized.

Meanwhile, those Christians are out there saying it is not normal and are refusing to accept it as normal because of silly God dared to say marriage is a union between a man and woman.

Any Christian who refuses to recognize that man wants to upend God’s order will have to be driven from the national conversation. They will be labeled bigots and ultimately criminals.

Already we have seen florists, bakers, and photographers suffer because they have refused to go along with the cultural shift toward gay marriage. There will be more.

Once the world decides that real marriage is something other than natural or Godly, those who would point it out must be silenced and, if not, punished. The state must be used to do this. Consequently, the libertarian pipe dream of getting government out of marriage can never ever be possible.

Within a year or two we will see Christian schools attacked for refusing to admit students whose parents are gay. We will see churches suffer the loss of their tax exempt status for refusing to hold gay weddings. We will see private businesses shut down because they refuse to treat as legitimate that which perverts God’s own established plan. In some places this is already happening.

Christians should, starting yesterday, work on a new front. While we should not stop the fight to preserve marriage, and we may be willing to compromise on civil unions, we must start fighting now for protections for religious objectors to gay marriage.

Churches, businesses, and individuals who refuse to accept gay marriage as a legitimate institution must be protected as best we can. Those protections will eventually crumble as the secular world increasingly fights the world of God, but we should institute those protections now and pray they last as long as possible.

Read more at Red State

Religious Liberty in Peril If Prop 8 Isn’t Upheld by Supreme Court?

Christians Targeted For Beliefs on Gay ‘Marriage’ – Is The Church Responsible?

The Dark, Intolerant, And Abusive Nature Of The Gay Agenda

The Agenda to Silence Christians

‘Gay’ Jihad

Canada Offers Sobering Warning Of What Happens To Religious Liberty When Gay Marriage Is Legalized

If the Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage, What Next?

He releases a video which shows this map just before flying over to Israel.  So “diplomatic” of him.

Washington Free Beacon Staff report:

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital.

The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon.

The itinerary on the White House website also implies that Jerusalem is neither Israel’s capital nor even part of Israel.

Read more at Washington Free Beacon

Rest assured, the eyes of radical Muslims around the world are watching.   They know this shift means they have Obama’s blessing to steal this land from Israel.

Palestinians’ UN Logo, Map Show Israel Completely Wiped Out

White House Refuses To Acknowledge Jerusalem as Capitol of Israel

Obama to Israel: Surrender Your Land and Holy Sites to Hamas Terrorists

John Bolton on the Difference Between Israeli-Palestinian Border and the ’67 Border Lines

Obama – The Anti-Israel President

Obama: ‘Israel Doesn’t Know What Its Best Interests Are’

Obama Condemns Israel For Construction On Their Own Land

Obama Chooses Anti-Israel Fanatic Chuck Hagel For Defense Secretary

Obama admin. ‘doesn’t accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity,’ claims construction ‘undermines peace efforts’

Second Term of Anti-Zionist President Means Trouble For Israel

From our nation’s founding until the Supreme Court ruling on Engel vs. Vitale in 1962, school children across the country began their day with a prayer like this:

“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.”

How shockingly “offensive” to ask God to bless us, huh?

Until 1963, students could voluntarily choose an elective such as “New Testament Survey,” which studied the most influential book in history (especially Western Civilization).   Teachers could read from the Bible in a historical context, and teach children to recite “The Lord’s Prayer” (seeing as it’s the most well-known poem in the world).

But now, no more.  American school children have no idea of where common cultural references such as “David vs. Goliath,” “The Golden Rule” or “going the extra mile” come from.   The have no frame of reference for understanding why the Reformation was such a pivotal point in European history, how Henry VIII’s break away from Rome was so significant, and the reason why the Puritans and Separatists were so intent on escaping to the New World.   Children today aren’t taught where Thomas Jefferson got the phrase “Nature’s God” for the Declaration of Independence, or why our founders built our nation on the idea that unalienable rights come from our Creator.

They have no idea of an absolute moral standard – a Natural Law – which no man, woman, king or president is above.

And that’s exactly how tyrants want it.  If there is no recognized authority above the state, the state reigns supreme in people’s lives, and can do as it pleases with no accountability.

Pope Francis witnessed this first-hand in Argentina, and he offered this warning:

In a 2011 book,  Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio, the new Pope Francis, stated that parents have a right to raise their children in accordance with their religious beliefs and that sometimes when the government intervenes to deprive young people of that religious element, it can produce terrible consequences, including “cases like Nazism” whereby many students were indoctrinated with views alien to those espoused their parents.

The book, in Spanish, is entitled Sobre El Cielo Y La Tierra (On Heaven and Earth), by Jorge Bergoglio and Abraham Skorka, the latter an Argentinan rabbi. The book is in interview-style and Skorka asks the cardinal a variety of questions throughout 29 chapters.

In Chapter 18, “Sobre la educacion” (On Education), the future Pope Francis says, “In the Bible, God presents himself as a teacher. ‘Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms,’ it says.  A believer is obliged to raise his children. Every man and every woman has a right to educate their children in their religious values.”

“When a government deprives children of this formation, it can lead to cases like Nazism, whereby children were indoctrinated with values opposite to those of their parents. Totalitarianism tends to take over education so it can use the water for its own mill,” said then-Cardinal Bergogolio.

Read more at CNS News

Why Christians Should Care About School Choice

IndoctriNation: A Powerful Film for Christian Parents

Why is the Church Silent on Education?

School Forces Child to Remove ‘God’ From Veteran’s Day Poem: ‘Separation of Church & State’

Calif. Teacher Punishes Students for Saying ‘God Bless You’

Second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus

Judge rules against student’s religious expression

ACLU suit forces NJ students to cover, avoid religious symbols by using side door to auditorium

God & Country Banned in Public Schools?

Canada Violates Religious Liberty, Forces Private Catholic Schools To Teach Moral Relativism

Exiled from Vanderbilt: How Colleges are Driving Religious Groups off Campus

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Freedom of association is under assault on campus.   Across the country, universities are using “non-discrimination” policies to force student groups to admit members and leaders who do not share the core values and beliefs of the group.

In practical terms, that means Republican groups would be required to allow Democrats to join and apply for leadership positions, pro-life groups would have to include pro-abortion activists, and religious groups would be forced to admit those who oppose their religion and seek to destroy their group through a “hostile takeover” with their own members.

Todd Starnes writes at Fox News Radio:

Vanderbilt University has informed a small Christian student organization that it will no longer be recognized as a student group because it requires its members to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, according to email correspondence provided to Fox News.

“It just shows how radical the Vanderbilt administration has become in enforcing a policy that is nonsense,” said Kim Colby, senior counsel for the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom. “A lot of jaws dropped when we saw how far the Vanderbilt administration was taking this.”

Colby told Fox News the Christian group did not want to be identified because “they just don’t want to be caught in the crossfire of the culture wars.”

The group reached out to the Vandy chapter of the Christian Legal Society so others would know what had happened, Colby said.

“They are a small group of students who want to gather together and worship God,” she said. “That’s basically all they want to do.”

According to email correspondence from the university, the group’s constitution was not approved because the university took issue with a requirement that leaders have a “personal commitment to Jesus Christ.”

[...]  Colby said the student group has decided not to comply with the university’s demands.

“They’re going to leave campus rather than take those five words out of their constitution,” Colby told Fox News.

Colby said it’s becoming clear that Vanderbilt University is specifically targeting Christian organizations.

Read more at Fox News Radio

Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident.  Similar policies are being adopted across the country:

Rollins College has determined that a Christian student organization is in violation of the school’s nondiscrimination policy because the group requires its leaders to be followers of Christ.

The college’s board of trustees voted unanimously not to exempt the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship from the policy – meaning the Christian group will no longer receive funding and will not be recognized as an official campus organization.

Read more at Fox News Radio

Will your alma mater or child’s university be next?   Go to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to learn more.

College Shuts Down Dorm Room Bible Study

University Punishes Pro-Life Student Instead of Vandals Who Destroy His Display

Woman Suspended From University Job For Signing Pro-Marriage Petition

Student Counselor Fired for Religious Views on Homosexuality Loses Lawsuit

Remediation for Those the Tolerant Left Won’t Tolerate

Is Academic Bias Against Conservatives Real? An Amazing Admission

Bias and Bigotry in Academia

How Radical Professors Indoctrinate Students

A Warning For Parents of New College Students From a Closet Conservative Insider

We hate you. Now give us your kids so that we can turn them against you.

Brainwashing U: Colleges’ sick ‘orientation’ game

The High Cost of College and What it Does to Your Children

Radical Speech: Dave Barry Talks About Politically Correct Campuses

Obama Supporters Accused Of Voter Fraud Testify In Ohio Hearing

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The surprise here isn’t that there was fraud.  It’s that they actually being investigated at all.   As long as this continues unchecked, with a slap on the wrist for those who get caught, a pat on the back for those who don’t, and accusations of “racist!” against anyone who dares to suggest voter ID, the Republicans will never win another significant election.   Democrats will fix the outcome long before the votes are tallied.

Fox News reports:

“Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.”

Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election.

“I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” Richardson vowed when asked about the voter fraud investigation that is now under way.

Richardson is one of 19 people suspected of illegal voting by the Hamilton County Board of Elections in the last election.

“I’m outraged, and every voter, regardless of their political affiliation, should be outraged,” said Hamilton County Board of Elections member Alex Triantafilou, who is also chairman of the county Republican Party. “It causes folks to have real doubts about the fabric of our very democratic process, and it’s dangerous. It is disconcerting that someone would be so bold as to admit their conduct in such a fashion … We fully intend to prosecute these cases.”

Read more at Fox News

On election day, there were poll watcher volunteers who were trained to spot this kind of fraud and report it before it got out of hand.

But the Obama campaign, intent on stealing the election, actually made lists of individual citizens to target specifically because they were there to help prevent voter fraud:

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, True the Vote shared emails between Obama staffers discussing targeting specific individuals they believed were associated with True the Vote in Hamilton County, Ohio. Official records obtained by True the Vote indicated that the private citizens on the Obama target list were poll clerks hired by the county–not observers placed by candidates.

The email’s author, current Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee Scott Pluta, stated with certitude that these people were affiliated with True the Vote locally.

“There are a number of elements to this finding that are concerning,” True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said. “The idea that an incumbent presidential campaign would build target lists on citizens that are specifically trained to detect fraudulent behavior in the polls is truly unnerving. You would think that kind of story would be told in developing nations, not the United States.”

Read more at Breitbart

That is downright chilling!

Even more chilling: this same Obama campaign apparatus is back in full operation – just under a different name – for the specific purpose of advancing his radical agenda.

How could an Obama supporter vote six times?

How Chicago and Obama Globalized Voter Fraud

The left’s ongoing assault on election integrity

Was the 2012 Election Stolen?

Voter Fraud, Irregularities Reported As Early Voting Gets Underway

Reports Of Poll Workers Violating Election Law, Voter Fraud Continue

Rampant Voter Fraud Leads To Questions Of Stolen Election

Why The GOP Won’t Fight Voter Fraud: Party Is Legally Barred From Doing So

Pro-Obama election flier marked with NAACP seal featured Klan, lynching imagery, says ‘If you like cotton and want to pick it, vote Mitt Romney on your ticket’

Help Fight Voter Fraud With TrueTheVote.org

Daniel Smyth writes at the Washington Times about a new scheme in New York to use anti-discrimination laws to force pro-lifers to either compromise their convictions or go out of business:

New York could soon shut down Catholic and other health care providers for not offering or referring for abortions. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with enough support in the New York state legislature, could sign a reproductive health act (RHA) this year. Among other actions, the act would declare that New York “shall not discriminate against the exercise of…[abortion] rights…in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.”

The New York State Catholic Conference argues this “no discrimination of abortion rights” provision could “permit state regulators…to require support for abortion from any agency or institution licensed or funded by the state.” As the state grants medical licenses, New York could deny licenses to — and thus shut down — such institutions as Catholic and other hospitals or clinics that refuse to support abortion. New York could also deny these institutions Medicaid payments and other funding, which some of these institutions need for financial stability.

Other provisions in New York’s RHA would establish abortion on demand in New York. For instance, the RHA would permit abortions until birth, allow public funding of abortion and repeal the requirement of parental notifications for minors’ abortions.

Read more at the Washington Times

Sadly, this is only the latest example in a larger agenda to attack and marginalize people of faith:

Catholic adoption agencies have been forced to close their doors in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., because their religious beliefs about marriage were deemed unacceptable by their jurisdictions.

A graduate student in Michigan was expelled from a counseling program because her religious beliefs about marriage were deemed unacceptable by school officials.

Christian pharmacists in Illinois were told to find other professions because their religious beliefs regarding when life begins were deemed unacceptable by the state.

Private business owners are facing enormous fines because their beliefs about when life begins have been deemed unacceptable by the federal government.

Pastor Louie Giglio did not deliver the closing prayer at President Obama’s inauguration ceremony because his religious beliefs about marriage were deemed unacceptable by the administration.

[...]  Compared with others around the world, people of faith in America enjoy extraordinary freedoms. Our lives are not in danger. We do not face imprisonment or torture for holding unpopular convictions.

Yet when people of faith are restricted from fully participating in society — owning businesses, entering the medical profession or providing much-needed charitable services — an intolerable trade-off has occurred. The government has exceeded its boundary, and the figurative wall between church and state must be strengthened.

[...]  The tide has turned, and we have begun to see the emergence of a state-created orthodoxy. It deems support for traditional marriage unacceptable. It discredits those who believe that life begins at conception. It disfavors their faith — held for centuries by their predecessors — and creates a regulatory framework to prevent them from fully participating in the public square.

When the government says, “You can believe whatever you want, but you will be penalized if you exercise those beliefs,” we have entered dangerous territory. We cannot allow a religious litmus test to determine who may participate in American life. We must defend the Constitution not only in form, but also in effect.

Read more at the Washington Times

Obama’s Coercive Secular State Leaves No Room For Freedom of Religion

Obama Campaign Ad Claims His Policies Based On Faith, ‘Following God’s Command’

Barack’s Bigoted, Secularist Social Engineering

Big Government is the rival and enemy of religion

Christians Called to Civil Disobedience Against Unjust Rulers

God our Provider vs. The State

The radical gay left could give lessons in bullying, which is a shame, since I have several wonderful conservative gay friends who oppose this kind of behavior, and these disgusting tactics give the gay community a bad name.

Since the owner of “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” bakery in Oregon declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony, the bullies have been out in full force.

Trolls came in droves to spam the bakery’s Facebook page with hateful, threatening and pornographic comments and images (all in the name of “love” and “tolerance,” of course).    They went after anybody who dared post comments of support.   They harassed the bakery’s recommended vendors, family and friends, and spammed their Yelp and other business review pages with hate and slander.

They “doxed” the family – who have small children – by publicly posting their personal information where identity thieves and dangerous people could find it:

They sent activists after Aaron and Melissa’s personal Facebook pages to harass them:

Someone even created a fake impersonator page in an attempt to slander them, by posting a racist, homophobic quote and claiming that it was Aaron and Melissa who said it (warning, foul language):

The conveniently cropped screen shot has since gone viral, and a reporter at the Examiner gave false confirmation that the quote was real.

What they’re NOT showing you is the whole picture (click to enlarge):

Notice, the impersonator page only has 8 “likes,” while the REAL page had over 600.  Notice also that under “Recent Activity,” it says “joined Facebook,” meaning that the impersonator page was only recently created, while the REAL page has been on Facebook since 2010.

The impersonator page, which used images lifted from their website, was only online for a couple of hours – long enough to post a couple of disgusting quotes and take screen shots to outrage the gullible.

The REAL page looks like this:

Several boycott pages have also been set up on Facebook, as well as one specifically designed to bully, called “Sweet Cakes by Melissa is run by Homophobes,” which uses the same photos as the real page in order to confuse people.   Facebook insists the page doesn’t violate their terms of service and refuses to take it down.

Sadly, much of the bullying has come from Christians who blame this family for the treatment they’re receiving and claim that they deserve it.  ”Just bake the cake! What’s the big deal?” “Who are you to judge?” “People like you are why gays hate Christians!” “Jesus loves gays, and you should, too!”  They compare the owner to the Westboro Baptist freaks, even though he NEVER said he hates gays or called them an “abomination,” or anything of the sort.  He simply politely said, “I’m sorry, I don’t make cakes for gay weddings.” When they asked why, he explained it violated his faith.  And now some Christians are harassing him for it.  It’s really sad.  There IS a balanced approach between the ridiculous claim that “God hates gays” and just caving to the entire leftist agenda.

This honestly has nothing to do with Aaron and Melissa or cake. They’re just the pawns these radicals needed to make a frightening example out of anybody that dared to stand in their way. I recommend that Christians and conservatives read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals,” so they understand the playbook tactics that are being used against us. My friend Barbara Curtis, a former radical leftist who became a Christian author and mother of 12, did a book study to help Christians understand what we’re dealing with.

Most of us innocently living our daily lives have no idea how cruel and dangerous these people can be if you end up in their cross-hairs. I hope the church is waking up to the fact that the enemy we are dealing with is VERY real, and ignoring the problem is not the answer. Neither is throwing our own under the bus, as many Christians are apt to do to save their own hides. We can’t afford to be naïve and think, “If we just give them everything they want, they’ll leave us in peace.” No. They want to destroy us and everything our faith stands for. They don’t need a provocation to come after us. Our mere existence is a threat.  That is the reality.

I hope the church is beginning to wake up and realize that we are ALL on the front lines of the culture war now.  Even a small family bakery is no longer safe and off-limits.

Thankfully, this family is also receiving lots of support from Christians, conservatives and libertarians (some of whom are gay) who recognize that nobody should be intimidated by government and harassed by bullies for exercising their 1st Amendment conscience rights.  Even if you disagree with their particular stand on this issue, it’s important to remember that someday YOU might be bullied and coerced because of YOUR convictions, whatever they are.

It’s also important to recognize that there are many people who support gay marriage who do NOT condone bullying of this sort.  There are some people who are genuinely hurt and offended, who will probably show up to protest, and who just need to be reached out to with love and respect. It’s a great opportunity to start a conversation, but that can only happen in a civil atmosphere where both sides feel safe.

No wonder the left does everything it can to make sure that this debate is hyper-emotionalized and anything BUT civil.  

Slew of online hate reviews plagues ‘Sweet Cakes’ bakery

Oregon AG Investigates Christian Bakery For Refusing To Bake Wedding Cake For Gay Couple

Gay Activists Demand Boycott, Investigation Of Christian Company For Refusing To Print Gay Pride T-Shirts

Intolerant Gay Activists Target Chick-Fil-A With Massive Intimidation Campaign

Were Christians Being ‘Unloving’ Towards Gays By Supporting Chick-Fil-A?

Christians Targeted For Beliefs on Gay ‘Marriage’ – Is The Church Responsible?

The Dark, Intolerant, And Abusive Nature Of The Gay Agenda

The Agenda to Silence Christians

‘Gay’ Jihad

Canada Offers Sobering Warning Of What Happens To Religious Liberty When Gay Marriage Is Legalized

Obama White House Embraces Anti-Christian Bully Dan Savage Who Attacked Christian Students

Schools Promoting Homosexuality to Students Under Cloak of “Anti-Bullying” Campaign

A small, family-owned bakery in Oregon is being investigated for “discrimination” by the Oregon Department of Justice because their faith compelled them to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony.

A woman and her mother came into the bakery asking about wedding cakes.  During the course of the conversation, the baker, Aaron, asked the groom’s name.  He was told that there was no groom – rather, a second bride.  At this point, he apologized and explained that he did not make cakes for homosexual weddings.

The woman apparently left in a huff, and her mother came back to give Aaron a piece of her mind.  A few days later, Aaron discovered that a formal complaint had been filed against him for “discrimination,” by the lesbian partner who hadn’t even been present for the discussion.   The Oregon Attorney General is now investigating.

Listen to Aaron tell his story to radio talk show host, Lars Larson.

Once upon a time in America, the exchange of goods and services was voluntary, unhappy customers were satisfied with taking their business elsewhere, and signs that said “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” actually meant something.

Now, the government wants to tell business owners who and what they must serve, regardless of their convictions.  But the sacrament of marriage is particularly sacred and holy to people of faith, and to redefine it in any way is a sin.  To take part in a ceremony which seeks to redefine that sacrament would be a violation of this baker’s faith.

Obviously, Aaron has no problem serving gay customers for occasions like holidays and birthdays.   This woman had bought a cake from him once before, and had been served with no issue.   If she hadn’t been happy with the service, she wouldn’t have come back.

But this time,  the customer was asking Aaron to participate in a ceremony which violated his faith.  He has a 1st Amendment right to abstain, and the customer has a right to be unhappy about it and never buy there again, but not to force him to accommodate her wedding against his conscience.

A quick peek at their website reveals the reason why this customer’s disgruntled fiance chose to make an intimidating example out of Aaron and his family:

No small business should be bullied into acting against their conscience.  I bet if he refused to bake a cake for a Westboro Baptist or Klan rally, nobody would bother him.  Or a cake to promote a candidate or cause he doesn’t agree with.  Or a Muslim “wedding” with a 6-year-old bride.   The only difference here is that he dared to refrain against a liberal pet agenda.

People have a right to discriminate against certain behaviors they find offensive.  They have a right to not be bullied by the government for honoring their conscience.   The Oregon Attorney General should be ashamed of wasting taxpayer money and pursuing such a spurious complaint.  Please show them your support!

Christians Targeted For Beliefs on Gay ‘Marriage’ – Is The Church Responsible?

The Dark, Intolerant, And Abusive Nature Of The Gay Agenda

The Agenda to Silence Christians

‘Gay’ Jihad

Canada Offers Sobering Warning Of What Happens To Religious Liberty When Gay Marriage Is Legalized

This is EXACTLY what this Alinsky intimidation campaign was designed to do: frighten away donors and dry up the funds for any group that dares to defy the radical leftist gay agenda.

Dan Cathy has to do what he believes is right for his business, and he may think that his decision has proved that he’s not a “hater” or “bigot,”  but in fact, this victory will embolden the bullies to use these tactics against other conservative business owners and organizations in the future.

Todd Beamon writes at Newsmax:

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and the head of a national gay-rights group have made peace.

“I’ve gotten to know Dan; he’s gotten to know me,” Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, told ABC News on Monday. “He’s shared concerns about young people, about Chick-fil-A being used for certain purposes.”

[...]  Chick-fil-A, he told ABC, had stopped donating to anti-gay groups, according to his review of the company’s 990 tax forms.

Chick-fil-A long has donated to socially conservative groups. In July, the anti-gay group Equality Matters examined tax forms and found that in 2010 the company had donated more than $1.9 million to “anti-gay causes.”

In September, the restaurant chain agreed to stop donating to anti-gay groups.

But Chick-fil-A said in a statement on Monday: “Over the past three years alone, Chick-fil-A has given more than $68 million in contributions to over 700 different educational and charitable organizations around the country, in addition to providing millions of dollars in food donations.

“While we evaluate individual donations on an annual basis, our giving is focused on three key areas: youth and education, leadership and family enrichment and serving the local communities in which we operate. Our intent is to not support political or social agendas. This has been the case for more than 60 years.”

Read more at Newsmax

Chick-fil-A Sets the Record Straight

Were Christians Being ‘Unloving’ Towards Gays By Supporting Chick-Fil-A?

More Lefitist ‘Civility’: Chick-fil-A Vandalized, Slapped With Bogus ‘Human Rights Violation’ Complaints For CEO’s Religious Beliefs

Chick-fil-A Restaurants Flooded Nationwide With Supporters Lined Up Around The Block On ‘Appreciation Day’

Chick-fil-A boycott fails spectacularly as hungry, supportive customers swarm to restaurants

Intolerant Gay Activists Target Chick-Fil-A With Massive Intimidation Campaign

Democrat Mayors Try To Ban Businesses Based On Owners’ Religious Convictions

Why is our military imposing the intolerant demands of Secular Humanism on our troops?   How is it any different than Sharia law, which seeks to suppress all religious expression at odds with its own ideology?

Todd Starnes reports at Fox News:

Religious liberty advocates are denouncing the U.S. military’s order to remove a steeple and dismantle Christian crosses from an Army chapel in Afghanistan.

“We can confirm that those items were removed from the chapel,” said a spokesman for the ISAF Joint Command. “These items were removed out of respect for the beliefs of other faiths.”

The Pentagon confirmed to Fox News that cross-shaped windows on the chapel were boarded up – until they can be replaced with non-offensive doors. Click here to read our original story.

The chapel, located at Forward Operation Base Orgun-E, became the subject of controversy after an atheist soldier complained and the president of American Atheists sent a letter to the Pentagon.

“Soldiers with minority religious beliefs and atheists often feel like second-class citizens when Christianity is seemingly officially endorsed by their own base,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “We are very happy the Pentagon and the Army decided to do the right thing.”

A military spokesman told Fox News the cross was literally dismantled and will be removed from the base to be in “compliance with Army regulations and to avoid any misconception of religious favoritism or disrespect.”

[...]  Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, of the Family Research Council, told Fox News a Christian cleansing of the military is under way.

“I don’t think you can categorize it any other way,” he said. “There is a strong effort, led partially by the Administration as well as by atheist groups to destroy the identity of who we are as a nation and that means robbing us of our history.”

Boykin said he fears that the attacks on the Christian faith of soldiers could destroy the morale and the readiness of the military.

“In the long term, the greatest casualty of the conflict in Afghanistan is probably going to be the First Amendment rights of the American soldiers and the faith upon which America was founded,” he said. “I’m very concerned what the administration is doing to the military on a number of fronts. This is another indicator of how we are trying to impose a liberal agenda upon the people that are protecting the very rights of all Americans to be able to worship freely.”

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Counsel, wondered why Christian soldiers must hide who they are.

“Why are we ashamed of one of the major reasons our Nation is the most generous and self-sacrificing for the benefit of others that the world has ever known – our inherently Christian benevolence,” he told Fox News. “We have freed the oppressed, fed the hungry, and restored nations throughout the world without anything in particular to show for it other than the satisfaction of making the world better than we found it for the sake of goodness and doing the right thing.  Why should we hide a major motivation that compels Americans to do this?”

Ron Crews, the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance, told Fox News he was extremely disappointed to hear the news.

“I’m so concerned that the military is caving in to an organization that does not understand the First Amendment,” Crews said. “Christians have every right to exercise their faith in the military.”

Read more at Fox News

If these Atheists were as tolerant and “respectful of other faiths” as they claim, they wouldn’t have a problem with a Christian chapel being designated with a cross symbol.

Military Chaplains, Veterans Report Increasing Censorship Of Religious Speech, Expression

Obama Apologizes To Rioting Afghans Who Killed U.S. Solidiers

Flashback: U.S. Military Defends Burning Bibles In Afghanistan

Postal Service Requires Packages to Troops be Sharia-Compliant

Three Things The West Doesn’t Understand About Islam