Enough is Enough! Yet Another Terror Attack

Seriously... Enough already. Another terror attack in England, more people killed and a lot more are going to be suffering for life from injuries both physical and mental. When is enough going to be enough already?? When are the local municipalities and governments going to see that their policies and procedures to protect religious freedoms are now infringing on the safety and well being of its citizens? England and the rest of Europe, I get it. You restricted the rights of your people to practice their religions peacefully and you lost colonies, but you've gone overboard and exited the realm of religious freedom and tolerance into the world of pluralism and a dangerous multiculturalism that isn't blending cultures together, but separating them into sects, segregated and turning them into breeding grounds for dangerous ideologies that are hell-bent on destroying western civilization and all we hold dear.

There is a difference between saying come into our country, join us, become part of us and retain your cultural distinctiveness while being "us" (American, French, Belgian, whatever), and saying come in and continue to be you, believe whatever you want, you don't have to really abandon anything and we'll accept you unconditionally no matter what you want. Here's what I mean. The Irish came here and became Americans while retaining their unique "Irish identity", So did the Italians, the Germans, the Poles, French, etc.. Yet they were distinctively American. Ireland had the same distinctiveness over it's history, even the Anglo's that came to rule over the Irish, and the vikings who settled became adopted into the culture and were absorbed into society. It was a melting pot of sorts. But something's changed. It's now "en vogue" to not absorb cultures into our society. It's as if we are ashamed of who and what we are, and we in many ways push them away into their groups of Hispanics, Arabs, Africans, etc.

Now we have issues here in the States with MS13 and other Latin gangs, we have growing issues with Islamic Terrorism and segregated communities. If we want to continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, we cannot bury our heads in the sand like ostriches and believe that what is happening with the growing threat of terror are isolated attacks and not the norm. Let me expand on this:

Strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be 

unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is their destination 

Quran 9:73

Islam makes up 24% of the world's population. It is the fastest growing religion in the world. That means, as of 2015, there are roughly 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. Now I am not saying that they are all terrorists or even support terrorism, but consider this:

Former president Barrack Obama was quoted saying that 99.9% of all Muslims are peaceful. But does this jive with the facts? "Christians and their Bible advocate for killing of those who disagree with their religion", many who would defend Islam state. Yet, even if you only consider Jesus a "prophet" and not the Son of God, consider his words in comparison to Mohammed. Mohammed never counseled turning the other cheek as Christ did, he counseled putting them to the sword.
The Koran states:

“Fight against those who do not obey Allah and do not believe in Allah or the Last Day and do not forbid what has been forbidden by Allah and His messenger even if they are of the People of the Book until they pay the Jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” 9:29


Compare this with Jesus' words of "Bless those who curse you and pray for those who despitefully use you."?


“Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out from where they drove you out. Persecution is worse than slaughter.” 2:191


Didn't Jesus respond by saying: Luke 6:29  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.

I could go on and on, but you see the point, right? While one describes historical events and what happened (the Bible), the other gives present directives of how to live as a "proper Muslim".

Another thing to consider: If it was only 1% of Muslims who were radicalized, that translates to roughly... what? 15 million? Is 15 million potential terrorists and acceptable number? It's not the peaceful Muslims that are the problem, it's the ones who aren't and the "peaceful" ones who support the activities of the "radicals". So... Is 1% the actual number? According to a Pew report taken across the globe, between 10% and 25% of Muslims worldwide support terror in at least "certain circumstances". This does not include their belief in implementing Sharia in the west, female genital mutilation, or honor killings. That's a much more staggering number. In fact, a recent Pew research poll showed this about Europe:

"In France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, Pew found that 15 to 16 percent of Muslims endorsed violence against civilians “often” or “sometimes.” In France, another 19 percent gave the answer “rarely.” In other words, more than one-third of France’s Muslims support such acts at least on occasion, as do about one-quarter of those in Spain and the UK."

Now, let me break that total number down for you... 20%, what is considered a "conservative estimate" for those who believe in occasional acts of terror. That means that you are looking at about 300 million radicalized Muslims. That is no small number. 300 Million!! Sweet Christmas! If another 15% supports it "rarely" as the poll suggests, that number jumps to 500 million. That is half a billion followers (with a B). What does this mean? It means "captain we have a problem". We are looking at a huge percentage of a religion of peace that supports occasional terror! You don't see this with Buddhists or Hindu's or Christians and Jews. You do with Islam. Why?

Because a religion founded in violence breeds violence. A religion founded on predatory acts breeds predatory acts. A religion that was founded on terror breeds terror. Here's the hard truth.. Islam was founded by a maniac who married his uncle's wife, took a 6 year old and married her (consummated the marriage when she was 9, like that was any better), began his religion by slaughtering Christians, Jews and pagan Arabs to advance his own wealth and status, and then claims that the religion is peaceful. But Islam does not mean peace, it means peace through submission. It is ideologically inseparable religiously from its politics, because they share the same Sharia. Sure, there are always going to be liberals in every religion that redefines the meanings of what their religious tenets say. But the truth is, while Christianity says "thou shalt not commit murder", Islam says “Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out from where they drove you out. Persecution is worse than slaughter.”.

As much as we would like to believe that Islam is peaceful and that there really aren't many bad people in the world, it just ain't the truth. There are groups out there that are training kids as young as 8 years old to become terrorists. In just several hours after the latest London attacks there were 12 arrests of people connected with the attack. In the US, we have a number of training camps that are being monitored but in the age of political correctness, multiculturalism and pluralism, cannot or will not act to shut them down. Pluralism is killing western civilization. Our fear of offending is allowing people to be killed, maimed and injured.


This is serious stuff. They are trying at the least to subdue us, and at worst destroy us. Terror is no joke. It is a matter of life or death. Islam has a serious issue because it's "moderates" cannot really offer a real defense (or will not) against terrorists. it will not, because it cannot. Have you thought that maybe restricting the border to protect yourself and others isn't such a bad thing after all?

The New Global Fascism: AntiFa

There's a new fascism in town folks. That's right, I said it. Fascists. Remember reading about them in history class? Fascism is defined as " the regime/ideology of anti-democracy. The state is absolute and totalitarian and all citizens must follow the state." What's interesting is that this definition may apply to a regime or also to an ideology advocating this form of regime. In other words, do not question the authority structure or ideology, do not support capitalism, do not hold to any type of pride in your nation, only hold to the principles of revolution and anti-capitalism.

What do fascists do? Well for starters, they offer themselves as an alternative to individualism. They are engaged in group think. They describe their "black block" protests as a sort of hive mindset where the group moves and breathes as one. They silence individual expression and conformity is the rule. Secondly, the suppress Human Rights under the guise of protecting them. One writer has stated that in Fascism "There is an inherent disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need."". Our modern day homegrown fascists believe that because of a rising threat (anyone they disagree with, or tries to exercise free speech) that these people have forfeited basic human rights (liberty, the freedom of expression and speech, the pursuit of happiness and even life). Thirdly they identify people as scapegoats.They identify certain people or peoples as a means of rallying or unifying people to their cause. And finally, they try to suppress media they are not interested in. Media that disagrees with them, they have certain media spokespeople and believe in censorship. There is no discussion or debate with them and their statement from one page is "no more conversation, our reply is violence".

There are more, but I think this is enough for now. Let me explain where I am going with this. There are growing groups of people around the world and here in the United States, indoctrinated by liberal college professors and leftist politicians that have a globalist agenda bent on stealing and undermining the very principles this country was founded on. Primarily college aged men and women upset with capitalism. The very capitalism that gave them the streets they protest on, the Starbucks they gather in and later smash the windows out of, the colleges they go to that their parents pay for, and the cars and public transportation they arrive at the protests in.

Antifa is the group I am talking about. They hate our government, disdain our military men and women and hate anyone who disagrees with them. A simple YouTube search for "antifa" will help sharpen the focus of what I am talking about. These Anarchist-Communists (this is really what they are and openly stand for), have no problem sucker-punching someone, gang-jumping someone, or throwing bricks, glass bottles or M80's into a crowd. They carry boards and sticks and bats to their protests. One counter protester was recently hit in the head by one such antifa protester. Eric Clanton, a professor of ethics at a San-Francisco based college, assaulted a counter protester while he was speaking with another person. Clanton broke through the crowd, hit the man with a bike lock and ran back into the crowd.

This isn't isolated. It has happened several times in Berkeley, Boston, Portland, and in many places around the world. They are our growing domestic terror threat. They cover their faces to hide their identity to protect themselves from legal repercussions of violence, destruction of property and other crimes. They are emboldened by their numbers and are only brave in groups. They are cowardly middle and upper class youth who hide behind a mask and cry for social justice while repressing the rights of anyone they disagree with.

Think it can't happen in your town? Our capitol, Richmond, Va has a chapter. The Virginia Antifa page has over 100 members. From Virginia and DC,  California to North Carolina, to Ohio and New York, these communist anarchists are infiltrating and trying to take over the country. They think they are on a righteous mission to silence anyone who does not agree with their alt-left views.

Here's the problem. In a lot of areas, the police are being told to stand down and not interfere with these violent protesters. Liberal local governments are giving them a pass on their criminal activities for fear of looking like a totalitarian state. A lot of folks were worried about the coming revolution. That there was going to be rioting in the streets, that we would be left on our own. Here we are. We are at the beginnings of a Revolution. It starts like all revolutions. It is a battle of ideas, of ideologies, of world-views. It has started with the progressive left and spread to the media and now our youth.

Just remember the words of Irish Parliamentarian Sir Edmund Burke: All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Honor, Courage, Commitment: Always Faithful?

Those of you who know me, know that I served in the Marine Corps, active duty from 1988-1992. I served proudly and I love the Corps nearly as much as I love my country. I don't usually post blogs back to back, but I felt this was really important.

I just watched a documentary called Semper Fi-Always Faithful. It is about the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, which one scientist described as possibly one of the worst in the United States. Contaminants in the Water supply existed from roughly 1953-1987, with some contaminants registering between 80 and 3,400 times above the safe levels. The  drinking water was contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals.

The presumptive diseases are:

• Adult leukemia
• Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and
• Parkinson’s disease

According to the Wikipedia listing: "In 2007, Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine master sergeant, found a document dated 1981 that described a radioactive dump site near a rifle range at the camp. According to the report, the waste was laced with strontium-90, an isotope known to cause cancer and leukemia. According to Camp Lejeune's installation restoration program manager, base officials learned in 2004 about the 1981 document. Ensminger served in the Marine Corps for 24 and a half years, and lived for part of that time at Camp Lejeune. In 1985 his 9-year-old daughter, Janey, died of cancer"

I had the honor of being one of Top's Marines. I never knew top personally, but had the greatest respect for him. He was a Marine's-Marine. He embodied the principles that the Corps prides itself on... Honor, Courage, Commitment. Always Faithful. I have lost track of a lot of my brothers from the Corps over the years and was excited when I discovered that Top was in the documentary. What I didn't know until I began watching it was that my beloved Corps had failed its Marines. They denied culpability, they hid the contamination, they refused to cooperate and had to be forced to contact the Marines who were stationed there during this time. It simply wasn't on their radar. Top Ensminger however, had decided to follow through with the battle. He had lost his daughter to Leukemia, and as he began to discover what was going on, he decided to fight on behalf of those who needed to be defended. 

In 2014, the Janey Ensminger Act was signed into law, but the fight continues. While care is being provided for the military members, spouses still struggle to get care. Look, I could go on, but watch the documentary. It does a much better job than I ever could. You can watch it on Amazon.com, or from their website, http://semperfialwaysfaithful.com/,  which has vital information you need to know. Did you know 1 in 10 Americans live within 10 miles of a contaminated military site? It might affect you. Even if you live over seas. 

Can you do me a favor? Can you watch this video, share this post and help spread the word? Please help us be Always Faithful, Semper Fi!

A little bit of us dies each time.

Today marks 26 years since I came home from the first Gulf War. In many ways it seems like it was a lifetime ago. Heck, it feels like 3 lifetimes. The world has changed a lot in 26 years. Then, very few were protesting the war in Kuwait. Now, they are protesting democracy and free speech. It seems like the country was united then. Now we are divided with a civil war of conflicting ideologies. On one side we have those who work every day, they love their country and what it was founded on, and on the other side are those who want nothing more than to live free without consequence and feel safe to do anything they want.

I remember coming home, thinking everyone and everything would be the same. I was wrong. Things were different. Not in any major way, but in a way that was just significant enough that I had trouble reintegrating into life once I was back. I remember how angry I was that everyone had changed around me. My friends and family, my neighbors. The only people who didn't really change were my buddies.

Well, the truth is, I had it backwards. We were the ones who changed. The truth is, whenever you are in a high stress situation (like a war or something similar in its stress levels), a little bit of you dies there. You never come back the same because you really aren't you when you get back. My brothers who served after me and those who went before had it much worse. There are no safe places in trauma centers or during war. There are no safe places for first responders (fireman, cops and EMS).

Is it any wonder that so many who have served end up homeless or divorced? We live in a world where college kids need a safe space when the VP wants to come to their school and give a speech, they need safety pins to reassure them that their silly little ideas that their professors are feeding them are ok when they experience a conflicting worldview and they need to hug a puppy when the real world hits and they don't get a participation trophy for their candidate coming in 2nd place.

How does someone live and cope in a world so diametrically opposed to everything they left home for? Think about it. Our troops and soldiers and first responders are sacrificing their lives every day. They don't have the luxury of hugging a puppy when their sensibilities are offended. They aren't living in a world where a conflicting idea is presented in a classroom, it is presented on the street or battlefield where their lives are at risk. Conflicting ideas means death to those that serve. It means a gun fired at a cop or EMS worker, it means an IED or sniper fire for the soldier or sailor.

And I wonder... Everytime we see a tragedy on TV like a cop being gunned down, and innocent child caught in gangland crossfire, news about X number of soldiers dying in battle, does a little bit of us die each time? Are we so immune that our compassion has died?

I had a conversation with a Deacon in our old church. He once told me that there is no such thing as a "poor person" in America anymore. Only people who have done themselves harm. I won't tell you what my initial reaction was, but I remember restraining myself quite nicely and gritting my teeth to reply: "It must be nice to have always had enough to have never struggled in your life." Not directly related, but it illustrates my point. Are we so insulated that we've forgotten compassion? Have our ideologies become so ingrained that we cannot have civil discourse and are instead hell bent on a path to civil war? It's not a war progressives want. They don't want to piss off the vets, the first responders, the EMS, the people that have kept them safe and allowed them their (wrong and misguided) opinions.

I see what's coming and I don't think it is going to be pretty. I pray that our civil servants will respond and intervene before it comes to a head. I have had enough happen in my life that I look back and mourn the death of my own self, knowing that every time something happens that is major in my life, a little bit dies. I'm not the same dude I was 3 years ago, 10 years ago, 26 years ago. Every event has killed a little bit of me. I mourn the fact that so many of my friends are the same.

An Easter Message of Hope, Faith and Love

This week I had an opportunity to work with a man from Salvador. He came over in the 80's under Reagan and got his citizenship. He worked hard for it. He is very proud and happy to be an American, a citizen of a new country after leaving a war torn area depressed by civil unrest and war. As we were talking, he mentioned to me that he was a Christian and always wanted to learn Biblical Greek. I told him I could give him a book that would help him start to learn it and he asked me if I could teach him a word or a phrase to practice this week. I told him since it was Easter, his word for the week was "tetelestai". It is from John 19:28-30. Jesus' last words as he hung on the cross. You might remember the words: "it is finished".

John tells us in his gospel:

John 19:28-30  28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst."  29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 

 There are three interesting points to this passage worth noting as I write this. 1) Jesus knew that all was completed 2) The vinegar (sour wine) was on a hyssop branch 3) There was a real completion with his words, but what exactly did he mean?

Firstly, it is important to know that when John tells us that Jesus knew that all was now finished (and we will talk about what he knew in a moment), that Jesus did not just know in the "human" sense. Jesus knew. in verse 28 where it says that Jesus "knowing", it is important to note that the Greek  ēdē tetelestai, or "knowing the accomplished" is in grammar what we call a perfect passive indicative.  What it means in plain English is that Jesus knew the full significance of what was happening. Now, the only way Jesus could know was if he was more than a man. In order for Jesus to fully know, he must be both God and man. Historically, this is what Christianity has held to. That Jesus was not just a man, and he was not only God, he wasn't a demi-god, or some weird hybrid of meta-human. He was both fully God and fully man. We will come back to this in a moment, because its significance is great. Jesus would have to be both God and man in order to fulfill what was happening on the cross. Now, if you aren't catching the full significance of this here, bear with me. It will all come together in a moment.

Secondly, the passage tells us that when he was thirsty he asked for a drink was was given sour wine on a hyssop branch. Why is this important? Wine was a symbol of communion, of when things were joined together. During a wedding, after the husband and wife were joined, it was celebrated with wine. Contracts were sometimes ratified or made good over sharing a cup of wine. What about hyssop? What is its significance? Well, hyssop was a prickly thorny type plant used in purification services (exodus 12:22, psalm 51:7). in fact, it was a vicarious form of purification. Here is the importance of what's going on here. A hint, if you will, into the fullness of what is happening on the cross. See, one man cannot pay for his own sin. A good man cannot pay for another good man's sin, because he cannot even atone for his own. It takes a man who is both fully man and fully God to be able to atone for sin because of the great debt it puts us into with God the Father. See, here is the genius of God's plan of love for His people. That he loved us (you) so much that he sent Jesus to fulfill all the requirements, to pay all the debt, for us, so we would not have to. Now, there is a whole slew of theological rabbit trails we could go down here... We could talk about the sacrificial nature of Christ, the scapegoat, the Lamb slain, etc... but for now, this will have to suffice. Just remember this. A God-man was required to pay the debt of eternal separation from the Father. This is why Jesus, feeling that abandonment cried out "my God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?". I believe this was doubly felt and seen with the wine served on a hyssop branch. It was sour wine, I believe, signifying separation or broken communion. If good wine is served when communing, then spoiled wine shows a spoiled communion. Jesus, as our representative on the cross, also experiences that spoiled and broken communion. The fact that it is served with hyssop may point to the radical need for man's purification and cleansing from that sin. Jesus hints at the great love he has in doing this for us. He tells us in John 15 that love has no greater gift than this: That a man lay his life down for his friends. Now isn't that cool? Jesus loved us so much he laid his life down for us! The sacrifice was in essence a radical act of love for His people.

Now let's see if I can tie this all in with the third point. That Jesus, in committing the ultimate act of love by laying his life down, accomplished the ultimate act of redemption for those that believe and trust. See, Jesus, being God, knowing that the time of completion is approaching, knowing the great separation from God he is experiencing on the cross which is partially symbolized in the sour wine and hyssop, now, moments before his death makes, perhaps the most important declaration in the history of the world. He says tetelestai, it is finished. He's telling us that with his death, we can have the same love that he demonstrated towards us. He's telling us that the separation we so richly deserve from God because of our own sin is now no longer held to our account. He is telling us this and so much more. That we can have hope, because he took our sin and laid it to his own account (only one who is fully man and God can pull this off). We can have hope because everything that Jesus was born for, the fulfilling of the ceremonial, civil and religious law, was accomplished by him and reached its fulfillment in him.

And we can have faith too. Faith, because we have his resurrection that we celebrate on this day. A resurrection that tells us death no longer has a sting to it. It is not permanent, it is not final. Oh man, here's the thing about the death and resurrection... When Jesus accomplished his work, it left one thing... the application of that work. There is a looking forward as the application of the work Jesus performed works itself to its final completion. The love shown to us as symbolized on this day, gives us hope that it was for us, and faith as we look forward to the consummation of that work where death (which died in the death of Christ) will be no more. It points us to a time where John tells us:

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

(Rev 21:3-5)

Happy Easter--Tetelestai...

Progressive Politics and Chairman Mao

I wonder how many people have considered how influential Chairman Mao has been in our colleges, among our educators and their students. I know a lot of my friends have been somewhat baffled at how kids from even conservative backgrounds end up throwing burning chairs at windows and jumping and beating demonstrators, speakers at campuses and trying to intimidate those that disagree with them.

It is difficult for many to pin down how we lost a generation to liberalism, but I believe if we take a look at everyone's favorite Chinese Revolutionary, we can begin to understand a little better how we ended up with a class struggle/racial struggle/revolution in this country being fueled by our campuses and their progressive liberal professors and their students who act as their arm outside the classroom. Well, we gotta start somewhere, so let's start here. Mao wrote in "The Orientation of the Youth Movement":

“Our young intellectuals and students must go among the workers and peasants, who make up 90% of the population, and mobilize and organize them. Without this main force of workers and peasants, we cannot win the fight against imperialism and feudalism, we cannot win it by relying only on the contingent of young intellectuals and students. Therefore, the young intellectuals and students throughout the country must unite with the broad masses of workers and peasants and become one with them, and only then can a mighty force be created...But the intellectuals will accomplish nothing if they fail to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants. ”

In case that comes off as confusing, let me see if I can boil this down a little. Essentially, Mao is saying that in order for a proper social revolution to happen, you have to have 3 basic groups: 1) Intellectuals
2) Students, and 3) The working class.peasants. Now think about this... The intellectuals are our university professors and progressive politicians, they educate the student class, which once indoctrinated, moves into the working class, the broad masses. They demonstrate, recruit, and infiltrate society. I know, I know... This sounds very...um... conspiracy theorist... but hey, some conspiracies are true! Think about what we are seeing across the country. Soros paid activists, the wall street revolters, the Never Trumpers and BLM are all rooted in socialism/communism.

I believe what we are in the midst of, is a political revolution. That's where it starts. Every revolution has to rely heavily on the youth to make it work. It's from there that they integrate into what Mao refers to as the three parts: The workers, peasants and soldiers where physical revolution begins. Mao continues by warning about intellectuals as being opportunists and not being able to trust them, because of this, and their tendencies towards leftism and anarchism.

And this, is, I believe where we are today. We have had intellectuals teaching our children and they have moved towards Identity politics, political correctness and anarchism. The "rule of law" is no longer respected by the left, and political correctness is the law of the day. It is in essence, anarchism, self governed societies... Government is bad, laws are bad, law enforcers are the devil in this view, so revolution is their next logical step. Mao uses conservatives to steer clear of anarchism in the larger picture because it desire to overthrow all government, but uses it to help overthrow "imperial" or "feudal" (ie: Democratic) government.

What happens in the midst of this (I believe this is what is happening in our country right now) is that you have to tow the "party line", in order to be accepted. You have to accept the progressive agenda or you are a fascist, a Nazi, a racist, entitled, bigoted, misogynistic, or horror of horrors... A Christian... There are many more, but the truth is this: There is a script, a set cult-like response (some call it a party-line) that progressives follow, and deviation from it means exclusion from the herd. You become an outcast, a pariah worse than a leper. It is a philosophy of multiculturalism that destroys creativity and individualism because you cannot, just like in Mao's revolutionary China, speak out against it, or you are shunned. You are deplorable. If you stand against a culture (say the culture of Islam because you believe it demeans women and abuses them, or suppresses free thought), you are labeled racist and archaic. There is a failure to nuance positions, beliefs and ideals. There is no distinguishing between multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity. America has not been a multicultural country at it's heart. Sure cultures subsist within it, but at it's heart, it is a melting pot. Cultures are absorbed into American culture, not segregated into many separate subcultures competing for dominance. Historically, when immigrants came, they adopted America and became citizens. Multi-ethnic, not cultural. Never in the history of America have we experienced a cultural segregation as we have today.

Progressive politics is an ideology that is antithetical to free thought and expression. They fight against the very things that they claim to champion and divide rather than unite. At its heart, progressive politics, while their agenda might be slightly different (or maybe not) from Chairman Mao's, holds to the same philosophical underpinnings. They abandon the epistemological (epistemology = How do I know what I know) underpinnings of what our country was founded on (outlined in the constitution), and adopts instead a fluid epistemology that say "every man can do what is right in their own eyes", because they hold to an existential philosophy that is rooted in doing what you **feel** is right as opposed to what you **know** is right. You might read this and think I am crazy. You may be right, but it is something to think about...

Drunk as a Skunk...

This has been an interesting year for not only our country, but the world as a whole. Not so many years ago, we were enjoying a relative time of peace and stability, particularly in America. Even when war broke out, we experienced a kind of national pride and respect that made one proud to be American... But something changed. There has been a paradigm shift in the country in the last 10-12 years. I'd like to put it all on Obama, but the truth is, it began before that. Maybe it was the sustained war that seemed to drag on and on, with no clear end in sight. Maybe it was seeing our kids come home changed. Maybe it was a tanking economy and shrinking wages. Heck, maybe it was all of it. I don't quite know. What I do know is that things have changed in this country and around the world. Global liberalism has taken root. open borders, bankrupt nations and politicians with immeasurable power, not derived from the people, but from within their own organizations. It has resulted in an ever growing corruption in government, and politicians are drunk.

This election in America has been an interesting one. Why? Because we now have a president who has never been in politics before and he is in a giant swamp filled with power hungry politicians. Except something has begun to change yet again across this globe. I've said it before, the people are tired of business as usual. What has come to light as a result is this: Politicians are drunk with power, and the recent elections and votes not only in America, but worldwide have left them experiencing withdrawal. We (the people) are fed up with open borders and globalism. Brexit in Britain is proof of it, as is the election of President Trump. Denmark's Anti-immigration party is now the 2nd largest in Denmark. We want borders. Why? Let me put it to you in this way: Why do you lock your car in the parking lot, or lock your front door? Is it because everyone in the neighborhood is a criminal, or everyone coming out of Target want to steal your car? No, it's the realization that there *MAY* be someone like that out there. So we do it as a a precaution. This is why so many of us are in favor of a travel ban, in favor of a wall (it will only keep the honest people out, right? But just the thought of a crackdown has already reduced illegal immigration by 40%), in favor of a national identity.

Here's the truth of the national identity thing too. Those who are most drunk on their power are trying to destroy that. To reform it into something foreign to us. Identity is important. I identify as many things... Irish, Italian, American (most of all), a Marine, Father, Husband. To remove identity is to remove something that sits at the very heart of what we are as humans. Labels are important, it is not enough to just say we are all human. We were made to name things, to classify them. We are Americans for a reason. We left other places to come here for a reason. If you remove our identity as a nation, you strip the nation of who and what it is. We are a nation of legal immigrants and real refugees. Our laws are in place to help, not hurt.

And here's the rub. Those power drunk folks who are trying to make laws for us and legislate are trying to remove those laws. For some reason they forgot that boundaries are not only in place to keep things out, but also keep things in. Let me give an example: When my kids were little, they were allowed to play in the backyard without me sitting there all the time. Why? Because the fence kept them in. The border provided a measure of safety for them. Sure, it wouldn't stop someone hell-bent on breaking in, but there was a measure of protection there. Walls do that. So do laws. Even many of the seemingly stupid ones. Ones like the travel ban that say "if your country is unstable, if it is producing large amounts of terrorists, you need to stay home and not come here". Our laws are for us and not everyone else in the world. That is why we are unique.

This is what heartens me now... Those who are drunk with power and going through their withdrawal are showing their true selves. These leopards can't really hide their spots anymore. Their children are protesting in colleges across the nation, they are funding them, because they don't work. They are holding up laws and orders that are put in place to protect them, but they are more concerned with currying favors and winning demographics that they are willing to sacrifice everything for more power. They pedal the soft bigotry of low expectations for minority groups by providing them with special treatment instead of equal treatment. They do more disservice to them in the long run by this than help. They are handing out fish without teaching them how to catch a fish.  They encourage poverty to fund their coffers of social justice, they fuel a quiet racial hatred by creating special categories for people instead of putting them on equal footing. They encourage entitlement by giving things away without requiring anything in return.

And here's the interesting thing. America has had enough. The world has had enough. We want pride in our countries. We want people to earn what they have. We want our laws to be obeyed and to be safe, without fear of some refugee bringing terror to our soil (remember that the Boston bombers were refugees as were the 9-11 terrorists). We want to know that those we have elected have stopped drinking in their power and are now sober, serving the people instead of themselves.