Fourteen years ago on May 3, 1999, also a Monday, an F5 tornado with winds over 300 mph made its way along a path nearly identical to this one today. While the 1999 tornado destroyed many homes and businesses and also caused loss of life, it struck when most folks were home, around 6:30 p.m. Today’s storm hit around 3 p.m. I personally live on the complete opposite side of Oklahoma City from where all of this took place. It is a surreal feeling to know that only 15 miles or thereabouts to the south so much has been wiped from the face of the earth.

Thank you for keeping my fellow Oklahomans in your thoughts and prayers. We need one of God’s miracles today.

“In 2004, a blog called RedState.org was conceived by conservatives for conservatives to promote the conservative message and educate those in the grassroots movement. Erick Erickson volunteered his services not long afterward and now is the Editor in Chief of RedState.com. Nine short years later, RedState is a well respected, much needed refuge for conservatives everywhere. Under Mr. Erickson’s guidance, along with that of the many volunteers and front page contributors, it has blossomed into what I dare say is the most widely read right of center blog by those on both sides of the aisle and everyone in between. While the content and caliber of writing by Erickson and the front pagers is excellent, I most appreciate the opportunity given to members to express their own ideas and concerns through member diaries, as well as make the rest of us aware of what is going on locally in their respective regions. I have come to know and respect folks I’ll likely never meet face to face through the member diaries and the commenting section of each article written. There have occasionally been congressmen/women and senators (current and retired), as well as presidential candidates stop by to post a diary and even sometimes stick around long enough to engage in conversation. Just by reading what is written at RedState, I have learned more about the inner workings of the House and Senate than I ever did as a student!

Because the Conservative rules from logic, reason and tradition, there will never be total agreement on what constitutes a Conservative. Unlike the Liberal, we tend to think independently of the whole and decide for ourselves what makes up our conservatism. We tend to police our own, sometimes wrongly, sometimes rightly, but we never excuse bad behavior. There are a great many of us who have the same beliefs and mores, but we rarely agree who in the political arena best represents us. Hence, we have a primary like we had last year, full of division and disagreement. However, it seems that because Conservatives are not united in the same way Liberals are it puts us at a disadvantage. We have two strong halves of a whole, fiscal and social conservatism. Not all of us embrace both halves. We pick and choose what works best for us as individuals. We argue among ourselves about who is the most conservative. Some insist those who do embrace the social side of conservatism must relinquish those values in order to “win”. No one seems to ever suggest those who embrace fiscal conservatism relinquish any part of their vision.

So where does this leave us? How do we go about finding the candidate who represents both sides as equally as possible? Which of us must sacrifice our personal values for the “good of the Party”? Who among us is best capable of carrying and conveying the entire message of conservatism? I don’t have the answers, but my personal opinion is this. If we continue to nominate candidates who are not truly conservative, we cannot expect them to take our message to the people in a believable manner. Rarely is there a candidate who is able to present themselves as something they are not and have the voting public believe them. That is, unless you are a Liberal.

I must admit that I totally agree with what EE said in his most recent editorial. I myself was never a fan of Gov. Romney as a candidate, although I have to say I would have rejoiced in his presidency had he won, but probably not policy-wise because I still did not trust him. However, it would have been nice to have a truly decent man with his truly decent wife and family in the White House. A President Romney would at least have returned dignity and personal morality to the office. Ah…what might have been.

As for the lesson learned, can we now admit that it is and has been a huge mistake to run a moderate candidate? Republicans/Conservatives NEVER win running a right of center moderate. It will now be up to all Conservatives everywhere to insist on and vote for a true and strong conservative in the primary. Personally (and at the risk of getting piled on) I am hoping for Perry in 2016 with the hopes that he has put in many hours of practice in the art of “debate”. If not Perry, then someone with his conservative credentials. We can no longer afford to nominate a candidate because they are supposedly the “most electable”. I swear if Chris Christie is our nominee in 2016, I’ll have to drop my RS membership because I won’t be able to support him. It has nothing to do with the whole hugging Obama thing, it’s because he’s just another right of center moderate and not a conservative.

The media, the media, the MSM. I’ve mentioned this before and I still believe we must find a way to counter the MSM, which is completely dedicated to furthering progressive liberal politics and way of life. While Fox and RS, Breitbart, Drudge, Human Events, et al are great at getting out the conservative message and pointing out the evil, wicked, mean and nasty liberal meme of the day, we will never be able to compete until we have a truly balanced network (or not) that is not on cable or satellite. Surely there is a group of people who can finance and create such a network. I don’t have cable or satellite, but there are at least 3 spanish-speaking only free stations in my area. If they can find financing, advertisers/clients and the wherewithal to survive, why can’t a conservative station survive? Why hasn’t anyone tried? Like it or not, and as much as we’d like to believe they will die, the Big 3 aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. It is a problem begging for a solution.

Lastly, if you are residing in a mostly blue state and looking for a change and are able, I invite you to move to Oklahoma, or Texas if you must and experience what its like to live among your own kind. Oklahoma is even more red than Texas. All of our congresscritters (House and Senate) are conservatives now, our state House and Senate are solidly red as well. Our cost of living is low and our Governor is working hard to attract new businesses and make it easier for the existing ones to operate. We’d love to have y’all and as all the many transplants I’ve met from Up North and Back East who have moved here have said, we’re the most friendly folk they’ve ever met!

As well, this morning, I received my Kindle subscription to the October edition of the Newsmax emagazine, which contains an article titled 2016: A Fractured America by Stephen Moore. This is truly nightmare stuff. There are several articles that follow, including one describing what a 2nd Obama term could mean by another author and a couple more following that – all of which kept me up very late last night thinking about what might happen in my own life should any of this actually happen. Basically, I could lose everything I have and I don’t have that much, a mortgage that I’ve had for 16 years and is certainly manageable now, a truck for which the payment is much less than most because it’s used and I had plenty of money to put down thanks to yet another hailstorm. Who knows what could happen to my job with Obamacare. I suppose you could say I am solidly middle class, but am rapidly becoming lower middle class as so many like me are what with the increases in the price of gasoline, food, utilities, et cetera. My point is, these articles spell out exactly what Romney and Ryan need to focus on with all the pertinent facts and figures. They need to come up with a way to demonstrate what will happen to all of us should Obama be reelected in real-life terms.

It is beyond me why relatively competent, normal people would vote for Obama. I truly believe they have no idea what life would be like should his agenda be fulfilled. Those who are old enough to remember need to be reminded of the bread lines in Russia and those even older, the bread lines in the United States during the depression. Those who are too young to remember any of this need to be shown what their textbooks obviously have had erased. We live in a visual world. Pie Charts and graphs are not going to cut it – those are just pretty colored lines and geometric shapes on white boards. We need explicit, in your face video of how the government would ‘take care of us’. These people need to see what it would be like to live in an America that is nothing but one giant ghetto. No longer would there be pretty neighborhoods in every city for miles and miles. Those would be torn down and thousands of square blocks of one-room cell like “apartments” would be erected. Only those who are in favor with Obama and his cronies would be allowed to have decent homes. Things that are taken for granted, even by our ‘poor’ would become black market luxuries. Forget having a cell phone, a TV, a computer or any device that would allow the freedom of communication.  They need to understand that NEVER AGAIN would the TEA party or even the Occupy movement be allowed to protest their government.

Think my nightmares have run away with my imagination? Maybe.

Maybe not. Vote for Obama and see.

This is my thought. I’ll start the ball rolling  with The Newt. Sometimes you need a clone, but since we don’t allow that (and for good reason) I finally decided where he would be at his best. Now, there are many places Newt would  be an asset to a President Romney, but to me the absolute best position would be as Press Secretary. Can you imagine the press having to meet with The Newt at least once a day, sometimes more? What fun that would be! Would they beg their bosses to give them a demotion so attendance wouldn’t be in their job description any more? Wouldn’t you like to be the fly on the wall as he puts them in their place? It nearly makes me giddy just thinking about it.

Give us your nominations and why you think that person would be an asset – seriously or a little tongue-in-cheek. As our world loses its collective mind before our eyes, take a minute or two’s vacation from the madness.

That is not to say he doesn’t believe in the radical transformation taking place before our very eyes, he just believes in his own ‘awesomeness’ more. This is why he must have the teleprompter every time he speaks and why he rarely takes questions after press briefings and announcements. This is also why I was not surprised to learn he does not attend most of his security briefings. What if he was asked a question and he gave some off the wall bizarre answer that later was leaked? The puppet masters behind the curtain know that when Obama goes off script they have their work cut out for them explaining that what he said was not what he really meant – as we have seen time and again. I cannot recall any previous president who needed others to explain the “true” meaning of his words. Therefore, the debates are going to prove problematic. I don’t think there is any way to have a debate in which he can use his teleprompter. I did not watch the debate between McCain and Obama because I had no faith in McCain and already couldn’t stand to hear Obama’s voice. In that case, maybe there is a way for him to use his teleprompter and I’ve just forgotten hearing about it. Anyway, I will be surprised if any of the debates actually take place – they cannot afford for Obama to show his true, not so smart self right now. Hence, the attacks on our embassies around the world could prove to be a convenient way to cancel the debates, if they can manage to find a way to keep the agitation going between now and the time for the debates without being exposed as doing so. The way things are going, they may not have to.

The smartest guy in the room? Not only is the answer a resounding no, there is not one shred of evidence to the contrary, other than the voices of those who surround him telling us he is. That’s the reason Clint Eastwood’s empty chair truly is the symbol of Obama the Magnificent.

I was searching for a book by James Patterson yesterday on my Kindle. I no longer remember what the title was, only that it spit back a list at me of things that not only had the title of what I was looking for, but also some titles involving incest. Not the psychological issue kind of incest, the hardcore pornography kind of incest. Thinking it surely was not what it appeared to be, I clicked on one of the titles and sure enough there it was, in living black and white, XXX rated pornographic literature, stories if you will, about every kind of depraved situation you can think up. I went on to discover not only can you purchase it, you can borrow it through their ebook library lending program. That’s right, all a kid needs is a Kindle, a little imagination and swear to be 18 or older when borrowing an ebook.

I did a quick google search on the subject and found a blog whose owner was participating in the Amazon affiliation program that allows links to Amazon from her blog and she made money each time someone went there to make a purchase. In 2010, she wrote Jeff Bezos to tell him she would be ending her affiliation (and losing significant income in the process) because Amazon was selling a how-to book for pedophiles. Naturally, he cited the author’s protection under the First Amendment and his being unwilling to censor materials sold on Amazon. She apparently has a large amount of readers and fellow bloggers who also wrote to inform Mr. Bezos they would not be making any more purchases from his business or participating in the affiliates program until that book and others like it were removed. Thankfully, that particular book was eventually removed. Interestingly, that book was self-published and Amazon allows uploads of self-published material to go unchecked.

I must either be the last person to find out about this or I’m naive enough to believe that places like Amazon are ‘safe’. I could not have been more surprised than if I had found the same material right here at RedState.

I give Amazon a lot of business…I regularly stream movies and tv, purchase books for my Kindle, download music, make other general purchases from time to time. My family and friends routinely make purchases through Amazon. Now I have to write a letter to Jeff Bezos and tell him what a disappointment he is and that he will no longer benefit from my patronage, as though I think he’ll care. I plan to urge him to stop allowing self-published material to go unscreened, even if he has to hire several people to monitor it or do it himself. I plan to tell him he has the morals of Larry Flint, in the nicest possible way of course.

I hope some of you will join me in writing to Mr. Bezos and letting him know you too are disappointed and disgusted.

When I was in high school in the 1970s, only rarely did you hear of a girl who had gotten pregnant. Sometimes someone would just disappear and you’d later find out she was pregnant, was shipped off to live with an aunt or even a home for unwed mothers, like a friend of mine did. The child would most often be put up for adoption and that would be that. If the girl returned to school the next year, she was virtually shunned by the other girls and the guys usually treated her as if they thought she’d be ‘easy’. Even when I was in college, it was pretty much the same, except the couple would end up getting married. Now, as we know, hardly anyone blinks at the thought of a young girl becoming pregnant, it’s so common place, and she most certainly will not end up marrying the guy or even giving the child up for adoption. Instead, she will drop out of school to try to raise the child, with or without help from her family. So much for the sexual revolution…that’s how we ended up with “Julia”. It happened gradually, these things always do. It becomes more and more common and finally, society just throws up its collective hands and gives up under the pressure of those who insist we accept this change in values.

I am, or was, a cradle Episcopalian. I literally grew up in the church. My mom taught preschool and kindergarten at our church’s school, I attended school there through 6th grade. I loved it. When I got older, I attended church with many friends who belonged to other denominations, from Catholic to Southern Baptist. In the summertime, my mom would enroll me in every vacation bible school she could find at various churches on our side of town. I attended church with friends in college too, but I always returned to the Episcopal church. As a denomination, we’d been through quite a few kerfuffles, such as the ordination of women priests, but like most of the pew sitters, I paid little attention to the bigger picture. As long as it wasn’t happening in my parish, things were cool. It wasn’t until 2003 that I realized what was really going on in regards to the gay agenda. That was the year Vickie Gene Robinson was elected bishop in New Hampshire, an openly gay, partnered man who had left his wife and children to live his alternate lifestyle. Little did I know at the time that this was just the tip of the iceberg that had been forming for approximately the last 40 years or so. I was quite shocked – they don’t call us God’s Frozen Chosen for nothing. Then we elected Katherine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop and things really started going downhill. She is very pro-gay marriage and has quite the social justice agenda as well. We’ve had clown Eucharist at Trinity Episcopal Wall Street, Vickie Gene Robinson “married” his partner, there are now several gay/lesbian partnered/not partnered priests and bishops, there was talk of forcing parishes to accept and perform gay “marriages”,  I could go on and on and on.  It has torn our church apart.  At first, I stayed to fight the good fight, but after several years I realized things were getting worse, so I resigned from the episcopal church. It broke my heart. I’m still without a church home – so many other denominations are going through the same thing.

This is what I resent the most about the GLBT movement. I resent anyone trying to force me to accept what I view as unChristian and unnatural behavior. Society as a whole has survived because of tradition and reason regarding what is accepted as normal and natural, even in the secular world. This is yet another slippery slope we are navigating and one slippery slope leads to another. Because of my involvement in the fight for my church, I’ve become aware there are many groups out there biding their time, waiting their turn – not just incestuous relationships between siblings, but between parent and child, unrelated adults and children (NAMBLA), lowering the age of consent (not just for marriage), polygamy and so on. If you think none of this could ever happen, think again. Who would have ever thought abortion would be legal, young girls would get pregnant out of wedlock and force society to take care of them both, same-sex marriage would be accepted anywhere? Where would it stop?

I can understand the desire to have the state get out of the “marriage” business altogether, but I think we are too far down the road for that to happen. I do, however, believe this should be decided by the voters of each state. As was mentioned elsewhere, more than half of the 50 states have decided marriage is between a man and a woman, even California. If you live somewhere that has voted to not recognize the relationship you wish to have, you do have the RIGHT to move to a state that does. You DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to bully the rest of us into going against our values.

When you give it some thought, it really is no different than the left trying to force conservatives to accept their socialist agenda is it?

]]> http://www.redstate.com/vangoghssister/2012/05/08/marriage-is-not-a-right/feed/ 308 http://www.redstate.com/vangoghssister/2012/05/01/why-ive-decided-to-not-only-vote-for-romney-but-help-in-every-way-i-can-to-get-him-elected/ http://www.redstate.com/vangoghssister/2012/05/01/why-ive-decided-to-not-only-vote-for-romney-but-help-in-every-way-i-can-to-get-him-elected/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 03:36:28 +0000 vangoghssister (Diary) http://www.redstate.com/vangoghssister/?p=71 Read More »]]> When Obama was elected and after we had witnessed the inauguration freak show (reminded me of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’), I told a friend I had never before been afraid for my country until that moment. I could not, and still can’t, understand how people could be so gullible as to fall for his empty Hope and Change spiel. How could this nobody be elected President of this United States? It’s like he was created in a laboratory specifically for this purpose. Where are all the people who said “I knew him when…”? Where’s his high school sweetheart, the girl he took to prom? Where are the guys he hung out with? Where are all his college buddies? Did I miss something? Nearly four years later and we still know virtually nothing about this man except perhaps the most important thing of all…his and his cronies “vision” for America.

I’ve never believed Obama was/is the mastermind behind everything that’s happened during his term. He screws up too much when he’s on his own without either a minder or a teleprompter. That said, he’s had plenty of help, both visible and behind the scenes. Now, here we are on the precipice of doom. A deficit I doubt we’ll ever be rid of, a house and senate full of Republicans who’ve sold us out time and time again. Obamacare has already left its mark with higher premiums for nearly everyone. The not-for-profit hospital system I work for has trimmed and trimmed and trimmed by the millions and yet we still must trim +/- $178,000,000 more over the next couple of years. Gas prices are insane, food has gone up along with everything else. Come January, we are set to be hit with massive tax hikes and no jobs for those who truly wish to work. I could go on and on, but y’all already know this song and all the verses.

Back to Romney. I don’t like him, I don’t trust him. I still think he’s the wrong person and I don’t think he’ll stand up to the likes of McConnell and Boehner. BUT, I’ve gone from being afraid for my country to being terrified Obama will win again and what that will mean. So, I will donate dollars and time when I can, I will try to adjust my attitude and, as I have been for a while now, I will pray each and every night that Romney wins and that I am very, very wrong about him.