• Will freedom and democracy rise to the top in Egypt and in Tunisia?
• And will this trigger enough momentum to topple other countries?
• Lastly, will it come here?

Gov Scott released his proposed budget and we need to take the time to look it over and kick the tires. I listened to his presentation and I was very encouraged that he clearly addresses concerns about government pensions. I use to work for a county law enforcement agency and I have many friends that work for that and other county agencies and some only know what the mush for brains local media tell them, and top that off with water cooler gossip. The gossip is making some worried about their retirement, which they have been working so hard and believing will be theirs, is going to be diminished or taken away somehow by him. NOT so! And since the local media isn’t doing the job of informing, we need to do so. Please help get the truth out if you live in Florida.

“we’ve gotta make sure, we’ve… made a commitment, let’s make sure they’re stable, that people have something they can rely on” and SECOND, “the other side of it is, they should participate and help pay for it. So we’re gonna do the same thing private companies do and almost every other state, we’re gonna require govt employees to contribute 5% to their own retirement. We can not ask Florida taxpayers – most of you do not have a pension at all – to bear ALL the cost of pensions for govt employees”

It’s the right thing to do, and I think if the people who are concerned heard this, they would be greatly reassured. This is good for all of Florida. And my husband works for an agency where we already contribute, it’s part of their pension plan. We don’t mind, we are glad to have it.

Here’s the link to kick the tires on the budget.

We all are created with the desire for liberty and that desire coupled with poverty and hunger are being exploited by American and Israel hating forces, such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. I do believe there are a lot of naive and desperate protesters on the streets of Egypt. I just don’t think it was them who kindled the fire. They are more like the kindling…Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood the lighter fluid.

Egypt is strategic in several ways. Outside of Israel, they are at the top of our list of allies in the Mid-East, their leadership is secular and respectful to us and Israel. Toppling them puts incredible pressure on Jordan. They have refused to allow Hamas passage through to Gaza.

The benefits to militant Islamists and groups like Hamas are obvious, and it would be foolish to doubt who is manipulating this human drama. Whomever is most determined and organized is who will win, whether that is freedom loving youth or hard-line Islamic instigators – well, time will tell. There is not a lot of reason to expect Mubarak to outlast this upheaval. And I want to believe in brighter days for Egypt, I just don’t see it, I don’t see organization on their side…I do on Hamas’ and the Muslim Brotherhood’s. The chance of Egypt’s desperate and hopeful youth trading in a secular dictator for an Islamic dictator is likely.

Jordan next? What then? Pray for Israel, pray for us. Here’s a great article over at Big Government.

By now most of us know something about the latest known atrocity of sex in the classrooms of our public schools. Granted this occurred in Oakland, California, which makes it easy to think, it’s an aberration, don’t be too quick to think so.

While the latest allegations being investigated in Oakland are so terribly egregious because they involved not just two 2nd graders, but that their entire classroom witnessed the oral sex as the teacher looked on, there was also a reported incident of all the children getting naked in the classroom.

We have just as shocking incidents in Indiana and in Louisiana, and there are more.

Combine this with the soft porn masquerading as adolescent television via shows like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Skins, and you see our society through entertainment, and all too frequently through the zoo of the public school system, sexualizing of our most precious treasure, our children.

A parent viewer commented at this site the following thoughts on Pretty Little Liars:

No redeeming messages to this one, just glamorizing bad morals. Hate it – glamorizes all the wrong things: Teacher and student lover affair, lesbianism, popularity, materialism, etc., etc.

What does it mean to sexualize our children? I’m so glad you asked. The American Psychological Association put together a Task Force and studied the impact on our young women (and don’t think this is not impacting boys, by the way). They describe SEXUALIZATION as “when a person’s value comes only from his/her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified e.g. made into a thing for another’s sexual use.” They found, in 2007, what we all KNOW to be true, that a multitude of negative impacts are the result of the flood of media images, through ads on TV, on-line, in magazines, through television and movies, and even video games and music videos. And that parents have a tremendous influence, either to the good or the bad.

Don’t let it overwhelm you, because you have the power and responsibility to protect your children. Educate (you, yes you, not the public school system – YOU), inform, discuss, keep the communication lines open. Help them to each day as much, as you are able, know they are loved, that they live in a world they can set healthy boundaries in, and they are wise to be wise, wise to work, to learn, to better themselves, to protect themselves and look out for others. Help them to understand the education system, the media and the entertainment industries are tools for their use, but they are not to be trusted and should be utilized with eyes wide open, hearts and minds on guard, and they are this way because our culture has become secularized and amoral. Maybe they will be the generation that turns our Nation back to biblical principles. At all times, be in the world, but not of it!

I woke this morning and did all the things one does to perpare to face the day, for me that includes stretches, shower, make-up & prayer! Otherwise by the time I turn on Fox News and check out the news sources on-line, I maybe too fired-up and ticked off to think straight. This keeps me somewhat sunny and hopeful. The alternative is not pretty! I’ve tried it!

What do I see but two freshly alarming things. Not new necessarily, but much more present and looming than I had hoped for at this state of the game. I’m only going to cover the tax issue, today. I’ll save that other treasure for another post! It deserves it’s own unique treatment!

We know that the federal budget is sunk times 1,000, and that means we are too. China practically owns us, much as it pains me to say it. Unless we grab hold of this runway freight train, we are looking at a world of hurt as My Dad calls it. Washington is turning its ravenous eyes towards a VAT – Value Added Tax – (what a false name – a tax doesn’t add VALUE. It adds EXPENSE – but why start calling things what they are now, huh?) . The obvious problem with this, is they intend this IN ADDITION to all the other climbing tax we already have: income, payroll, corporate, estate, sneezing, burping, passing in traffic and everything else.

I say, there is NO BETTER time to educate ourselves on The Fair Tax, and then doing everything we can to inform those around us and our representatives.

Washington is right that we need to do something about the debt. They are just wrong, not surprisingly, as to how to solve the problem. I knew next to nothing before 15 April 2009 about The Fair Tax. Thanks to the coverage on the Atlanta Tea Party by Fox News, curiosity caused me to check it out for myself. I think it’s a winning proposition. And Washington has led us to a time ripe for the implementation. We need something healthy and good for our economy, for our businesses and most importantly for our families.

Here a link to The Fair Tax site.

Be good, be strong & be ready!