Monday, November 24, 2008

How Soon We Forget

"Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people." --John F. Kennedy

Looking at what is happening today, I don’t believe I need to write additional commentary.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Standing In Victory


“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come ... give glory, honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever ...” (from Revelation 4:8-9).

The surgery is complete as some may have heard by now, and it was successful, praise be to God. All of the cancer was removed, and there had been no spreading as was thought possible very early on given the aggressiveness of this type cancer. I will not have to undergo chemo or radiation. By His stripes I was healed. Let there be no doubt, God is still in the healing business, and He does not promise us one thing today and change with the wind tomorrow. I am still somewhat weak and have bouts of nausea from the antibiotics that I am taking over the course of the next two weeks. I will not be back at the keyboard on a daily basis or even a very regular basis except perhaps to check mail and to read some of your blogs as I can. Hopefully, within the next two weeks I will be able to begin commenting on your blogs and return to my own blog, but as it stands right now, I am a bit weak and unable to sit for more than just short periods of time. I do look forward to the time that I can return in full strength.

I thank all of you who have lifted me up in your prayers and your thoughts. It was almost overwhelming to read the comments and e-mails from all of you and even from many whom I had no previous contact. Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My family also sends along their thanks for your prayers and thoughts of them during this time. God has sustained them and strengthened them daily, just as He promised in His Word.

Once again, thank you, and may God bless you with His peace, joy, and love and may you prosper in all that you do.

Ticker

Friday, November 7, 2008

VICTORY

I want to take time to thank each of you who have read my blog, contributed by way of comments or perhaps just passed it along. I have enjoyed this year of blogging and have met a lot of great folks through these blogs. I have met only a handful of you but I feel as if I have known all of you for many years and I hope that we have become friends, friends who have never met but so be it. Perhaps one day we shall meet, if not here perhaps around His throne where we will be rejoice and be filled with praises for ever and ever.

I will be absent from this blog for sometime. How long I am not sure yet but it may be several weeks, I certainly hope not.

I will be entering the hospital and having surgery on Monday. I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer about three weeks or so ago but have chosen not to speak of it until now. I was standing in faith( and still am) that the cancer would be gone just as the lymphoma that I was diagnosed with in 2003 was healed by the Great Physician. This time no miracle has manifested yet and I perhaps must undergo the surgery with out divine intervention between now and Monday morning.

I trust that it this will be used as a witness for the Almighty and that His hand will be seen in and after the surgery. We, my family and I, are trusting in the Lord that the cancer will be removed and there will be no need for the radiation and chemo that usually follows this type of surgery and cancer. I ask that you stand in a prayer of agreement with us in this matter.

I have a very low immune system due to medication that I take for various complications, some from injuries received while in the military and for exposure to Agent Orange. This has increased the chance of complications, infection, pneumonia, and such to a very high risk level. The surgery will take about 5 hours or so they are telling me unless they run into something unexpected. I will covet your prayer during this time and prayers for my family that they may have the strength to stand regardless of the outcome. I will just continue to trust in the Lord and I know that I am in His hands and that He is in control of all things, great and small.

I will ask that someone from the family post the results on my blog and I will trust in Him that I will be re-joining you all in a matter of a short period of time.

I speak Blessings, Peace, Comfort and Joy over each of you and pray that God will keep all of you safe in His hands. For those who do not have a personal relationship with Him, I would hope that you will find it in your heart to turn to Him and put you trust and life in His hands.

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The first thing necessary is to admit that you are a sinner, Second: believe that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and rose again and now sits on the right hand of the Father and Third: confess that He is Lord and King of your life. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

That is as easy as I can explain it. I call it as easy as ABC , Admit, Believe, Confess. By doing this if we should never meet here we will certainly meet in the here after.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

CHANGE WE NEED

I wrote this article back before the 06 elections. I feel that it bears a repeat with some minor adjustments here and there to bring it up to date. In fact what I am proposing is something that I have been proposing for a number of years. In the past I used newspaper blogs and letters to the editor to get this message out. It was ignored or paid very little attention until 06 when I began to receive inquiries about this subject from people located in eleven different states. I feel it is even more important today ,given the results of the recent elections, than at any other time in our history.

When I originally wrote on this subject I called it REVOLUTION. Today I call it CHANGE WE NEED but I have not changed the meaning of the message. I ask that you read and take time to think about what is written and if you feel so inclined leave your comments.

There is more than one way to have a revolution, an uprising against the government. One that includes violence as the manner in which to overthrow would certainly be put down in a heartbeat if not before it started.

The best manner in which to form an uprising against the government is through the ballot box. Unfortunately too many can only manage to pull the lever marked R or D depending on how uniformed they are . Others are so lazy they can only talk about the government but are too lazy to get off the couch and go to the polls and vote. Ah, but that still does not solve the problem. To insure success of such an uprising the individuals going to the polls must be educated and aware of the issues needing changed and unfortunately the majority in this country are neither aware nor educated enough to even recognize the issue. We certainly saw this in this election and have the proof standing in the form of an empty suit, unqualified and unfit ready to be sworn into office in January.

I have stated often that one way of changing or overthrowing, if you wish to use such a term, the government was through term limits for Congress. By limiting the time elected officials can spend in government we also limit their power. We limit the ability those who seek to control the elected by limiting the time these manipulators have to bring enough pressure or money to bear in order to control the elected. When We The People control the elected instead of the other way around as it has gotten to be then and only then can true change in government occur.

True uprising is "We The People" control the elected instead of the elected controlling us.

Now if you wish to be part of that uprising, I suggest you educate yourself not only on term limits but on the other issues at hand in this country and not the "so-called" issues that all the parties wish We The People to be focuses on. The elect wish to keep power and in order to do so they must invent "issues" such as gay marriage, stem cell research, abortion, capital punishment, Katrina failures, etc etc etc. When they get We The People" focused on those non- issues then they can continue to do their mischief totally unimpeded. Of course now they have the economy which they will certainly use and invent problems that are not the real problems so they can spend and waste on what they wish and call it for the good of the people and disguise it behind a non-issue. They can continue to ignore the fact that this country needs alternative energy as they have done for the past 40 plus years which will in turn create more jobs. They can continue to ignore the fact that SS is broken and needs fixing, same as they have done for the past 30 years. They can continue to ignore that this country is becoming more and more Balkanized by the day as they have done for the past 20 plus years. They can continue to ignore the fact that this country is slowly being de-sovereignized ( not sure this is a word but it sure fits) with every so called agreement and treaty made through the UN but then they have done this for the past 60 years.

When "We The People" stop being hypnotized by the “so called issues " which the politicians wish us to concentrate on and demand action on real issues then we will have true uprising.

I am and have been for some time a strong advocate of Term Limits, for both the Senate and the House. It is a travesty to allow those who do nothing to be re-elected over and over so they can continue to do nothing. The time has come to clean house in Washington, and if they will not pass a bill to begin Term Limits, then “We the People” can insure their limited terms at the ballot box until we can elect those who will do the will of the people.

I have been told that this is near impossible and given the make-up of the House and Senate it would be impossible but there appears to be a way of circumventing the Constitutional Amendment that would be needed to change the term limits, and that is for the States to place limits on how long they will allow their representatives to serve. If it can be applied to the Electoral College, it can be applied to the Congress.

It’s time for a change, I agree, but I contend that the change must begin with Congress. Term Limits would certainly play a major role in reducing the do-nothingness of the Congress we have now.

Obama said the during one of his TV moments in the campaign, that to change the country, we have to change Washington. It was a good sound bite but one of the few things he has said that makes sense. In order to change Washington we need to start with Congress. As long as the power-hungry, money-hungry, do-nothing career politicians are allowed to continue to sit on their back sides and continue their overpaid, under worked careers, Washington will never change.

The choice and opportunity for uprising has been right in our face for years now but we have gotten lazier, more complacent, and less educated on the issues and believed the drivel of "let us fix it for you". If you want a real uprising, read over and over again what has been presented and see if there is not a true formula for real uprising contained here. If you wish to sit back and go along with the flow then ignore this post.


ADDENDUM: BB had a great post which certainly points out another good reason for term limits. You can read about it here:

Congressmen Who Rule

BB

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The War Is Not Over

Once again I step aside and allow Mark Alexander of Patriot Post to speak. Read well what he has written and then follow his advise.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Fellow Patriots,

Tuesday, 4 November 2008, is a date which will live in infamy. While most presidential elections are followed with calls for unity by both candidates, Barack Obama issued no such call in his speech last night, with the possible exception of his observation, "I may not have won your vote tonight, but ... I will be your president, too."

Of course, none was expected -- liberals have elected a Socialist with deep ties to cultural and ethnocentric radicalism, and his executive and legislative agenda poses a greater threat to American liberty than that of any president in the history of our great republic.

Obama has twice taken an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same." He has never honored that oath, and, based on his policy proposals and objectives, he has no intention to honor it after again reciting that oath on 20 January 2009. Obama seeks to, in his own words, "break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution."

For that reason, this morning, the symbol of our national heritage of liberty, the American flag atop the 35-foot mast at our editorial offices, was respectfully lowered, inverted, and raised to full mast as a sign of national distress. It will remain inverted until next Tuesday, when we right it in honor of Veterans Day.

Today, at least 55,805,197 Americans are concerned for the future of our nation's great tradition of liberty. Some 63,007,791 Americans have been lulled, under the aegis of "hope and change," into a state of what is best described as "cult worship" and all its attendant deception.

One of our editors, a Marine now working in the private sector, summed up our circumstances with this situation report. It aptly captured the sentiments around our office: "It's been tough, fellow Patriots; tough to stomach the idea that more than half of my fellow citizens who vote, have booted a genuine American hero to the curb for a rudderless charlatan. What a sad indictment on our citizenry that some are so eager to overlook his myriad flaws -- his radical roots, his extreme liberalism, his utter lack of experience or achievement. Barack Obama is the antithesis of King's dream: He's a man judged by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character. If it's God's will that Barack Obama is our next president, then so be it. We Patriots will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and wade back to the war front, intent on liberty or death."

This battle is lost, but the war is not. Let's roll.

Mark Alexander,
Publisher

Last Week Was Campaigning, Yesterday You Voted

A real man gave a speech tonight at shortly after 10:20 CST. The speech given by this man was one spoken in sincerity and not arrogance or anger or in defeat but spoken like a true leader. A leader who should have had the opportunity to lead this country for the next four years. In defeat he was a man of honor who did not condone the boo’s put forth by his supporters but called for quiet and to listen to what he had to say. He spoke words of greater wisdom than have been heard by during this entire campaign by his opponent for what he said was not “just words”, they were heartfelt words of congratulation, and even sympathy for the struggle that he knows lies ahead and especially for one so unprepared . He showed the heart of a true patriot, one who puts country first as he has for his entire lifetime by reaching his hand across the aisle , something I am sure we will not see nor hear from the one who was proclaimed the victor tonight.

I will reserve my full comments on Obama until he speaks but I expect nothing more than what has been shown throughout this entire campaign by this candidate and that is arrogance and contempt for even those who elected him.

It is now after midnight and as I watched the elected candidate take the stage tonight I saw an empty suit with a swagger and a look of arrogance, a smile that was closer to a smirk. I listened to the words but again they were only words. As he made congratulatory remarks he turned his head, a sign of not being sincere, a sign of untruthfulness. The entire speech was filled with the same catch phrases that lulled the masses to sleep and caused them to cast a vote for something , someone they really don’t understand or know anything about. His promises are as empty as they were on a cold winter night 21 months ago as he so loved to talk about. His thanks to “the people” was as insincere as his promises for again he turned his head as he spoke and did not make the eye contact with the cameras and the crowd. He concluded his campaign as he began, with empty words and empty promises. But yet they chanted with him, Yes we can, over and over.

The promises have been made, the masses have fallen for them but today they learn that once elected the promises become, “just words” as their messiah so often said of others words.

The old story of the man who died and when he went to the eternal destination he first arrived at the gates of Heaven and there he saw people sitting around , singing and playing harps and he told St. Peter that this was a bit on the boring side for him and could he please check out the other destination. He was placed on an elevator and sent downward to Hades. When he opened the door there he saw a lush green golf course, beautiful women and many of his friends talking and enjoying their favorite beverage and he decided this was the place for him, a place more his style so he returns to St Peter and informs him of his choice. Once again he is placed on the elevator and he descends into Hades. When the doors are opened the golf course, the beautiful women and his friends with chilled glasses of libation are no longer there and it has been replaced with a scene of destruction, torment and unhappiness and the smell of sulphur fills his nostrils . He turns to Satan, who has met him there and asks, “what happened to all the beauty and fun?” It is then that he is told the truth. Satan says yesterday we were campaigning, and now you have voted “. Welcome to my world.

The elected one once made a statement of how he was a blank slate and the people would see what they wanted to see and thus vote but unfortunately for many there would be disappointments. The campaign is over and now you have voted your choice. I now await to see how you live with the consequences of your choice.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Selfisness and Foolishness

I am once again posting from Mark Alexander and the Patriot Post. Some of you may subscribe but many do not and I feel that the message presented here by Mark is of great importance especially today when the survival of this Nation hangs in the balance. The first section concerns the "Selfishness" remarks made by Obama toward John McCain and Sarah Palin.
The section titled Braying Jackass is very important in that this is what we can expect to see from the left when Obama is defeated. Can anyone see a recipe for violence and danger here? You can be assured that this is the plan of the far left. They will attempt to disrupt the functioning of the government for as long as possible.
You will also find some comments made by readers of the Patriot Post and comments made by various sources concerning the state of this nation. The last comment , which concerns voting and who should and should not, is one I found to be very informative and I could not agree more with the writer even if he is a member of the LSM.

Read and enjoy and then please vote. The Nation's future hangs in a balance.


A virtue out of selfishness?

THE FOUNDATION: CITIZENSHIP

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams

ELECTION NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Fellow Patriots,

Shortly after publishing my essay, "The audacity of deception," last Friday, I watched Barack Obama at a Florida rally, where he asserted, "[W]e want to do this, change our tax code [a.k.a. 'redistribute the wealth']. ... John McCain and, and Sarah Palin, uh, they, they call this socialistic. You know I, I, I don't know when, when, uh, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness." See the video.

I have never been so moved to anger by any presidential campaign comment.

John McCain has made "a virtue out of selfishness"?

You know, Obama insists, "I was just eight years old when [his benefactor Bill Ayers] was bombing the Capitol and Pentagon." (However, Obama was 34 when Ayers used his radical celebrity to launch Obama's political career.)

For the record, Obama was also eight years old when John McCain was a POW in Hanoi. McCain was subjected to more than five years of horrific torture by the Communist NVA, including two years of solitary confinement. As a Naval Academy graduate and aviator, McCain had requested combat duty and was assigned to the USS Forrestal. He was flying his 23rd mission as part of Operation Rolling Thunder over Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk* was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.

John McCain has made "a virtue out of selfishness"?

I don't need to read John McCain's biography to know his record of service, to know he puts his country first. A close friend and mentor, Col. Roger Ingvalson, had also been shot down, and was with McCain in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." (As you recall, Obama supporter Jane Fonda posed for photos a few hundred yards away from where these two Patriots were near death.)

John McCain has made "a virtue out of selfishness"?

Which of these candidates has really made a virtue out of selfishness?

Wednesday night, Obama said in his infomercial: "Just because I want to spread the wealth around, they call me a socialist. The next thing you know, they will call me a communist because I shared my peanut butter sandwich in kindergarten!"

Of course, Barack Obama isn't proposing to "share" his sandwich. Instead, he's proposing to confiscate your sandwich, by force if necessary, and give it to someone he deems more worthy, assuming that you aren't charitable enough to share it yourself.

Truth is, it's unlikely Obama ever shared a sandwich with anyone. According to tax records released Wednesday, Barack and Michelle Obama had an average annual income of more than $500,000 between 2000 and 2006, but only gave two percent -- 2% -- of their income for charitable purposes.**

Further, it turns out that while Obama has been living well in his Georgian mansion on Chicago's south side, his illegal immigrant aunt has been holed up in public housing on welfare in Boston for the last four years, while other family members live in squalor in the shanties around Nairobi, Kenya.

So much for "spreading the wealth around."

Ah, and he insisted Sarah Palin has made "a virtue out of selfishness."

This would be the same Sarah Palin who brought into this world a special needs child, to love and cherish. Sarah and Todd Palin chose a life of dignity for their child. Ponder what "choice" the Obamas would have made had they faced similar circumstances.

Once again, Obama asserts, "You know I, I, I don't know when, when, uh, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."***

Egomaniacal self-interest is the centerpiece of Obama's campaign. As I have written previously, John F. Kennedy, who Obama and his political don John Kerry hold up as their patriarch, closed his 1961 inaugural speech with these famous words: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." However, today, Obama has turned JFK's national challenge on end, essentially proclaiming, "ask what your country can do for you, not what you can do for your country."

So, hypocrisy is also a centerpiece of Obama's campaign.

John McCain and Sarah Palin have a long history of third-person living, serving God and country before themselves.

Mr. Obama -- on behalf of all American Patriots, especially those who have served their nation sacrificially, an apology is due, NOW.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Mark Alexander
Publisher

*John McCain could land his A-4E on a surging carrier deck at night, but Obama had the audacity to run campaign ads last month saying McCain was "out of touch because he could not use a computer."

**Obama's running mate is even more miserly. The Bidens' income averaged $260,000 over the last 10 years, but they averaged just $650 a year in charitable giving.

***I have consulted forensic linguists who have analyzed Obama's off-script campaign remarks, and they conclude that the surfeit of verbal non-fluency (stammering) in Obama's comments are consistent indicators of his intent to deceive.

BRAYING JACKASS

"If your television declares John McCain the president elect on the evening of November 4th, your television will be lying. You should immediately pick up your pre-packed bags and head straight to the White House in Washington, DC, which we will surround and shut down until this attempt at a third illegitimate presidency is reversed. We may be there for days or weeks or months. But we must be there. We must be there by the millions. We must show each other, and the nation, and the world that we have had enough, that we will not stand for one more stolen election, that we will not give in to fear, lies, theft, and intimidation." --David Swanson, Washington director of Democrats.com and a board member of Progressive Democrats of America

CULTURE

"There's an old saying that you can't be half-socialist any more than you can be half-pregnant; get knocked up with a socialist fetus and you'll have to deliver a full-born Marxist. There's nothing in between. Try it, you'll like it, and if you don't, as the lads in the Gestapo used to tell people, they had ways to make them like it. ... Call Barack Obama's program socialism, however and he'll swear on a stack of Qurans it isn't. He calls it change. He says it's fairness, not Marxism. Oh? How does he explain the proven fact that he has been wallowing in a sty surrounded by fervent socialists and sharing in their swill for most of his life? According to Fox's Bill Sammon, his Messiahship recalled that when he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles: 'To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully,' he wrote in 'Dreams From My Father,' his memoir. 'The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.' And that was his milieu for all his years in Chicago. To anyone familiar with socialism, Obama's programs fit comfortably within the pages of Karl Marx's playbook, the root of which is the redistribution of the wealth, the key to the entire Obamian vault. What's mine is yours, and he's the middle man. It's socialism lite, and it can only evolve into socialism heavy. Remember, you can't be half-socialist, and Barack Obama knows it." --radio talk show host Michael Reagan

RE: THE LEFT

"I happen to know the person who found [the 2001 Obama redistribute the wealth audio]. It is an individual person, with no more resources than a desire to know everything that he or she can about who might be the next president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world. I know that this person does not have teams of highly paid professionals, does not work out of a corner office in a skyscraper in New York, does not have access to all of the subtle and hidden conduits of information ... who possesses no network television stations, owns no satellite time, does not receive billions in advertising dollars, and has a staff of exactly one. I do not blame Barack Obama for believing in wealth distribution. That's his right as an American. I do blame him for lying about what he believes. But his entire life has been applying for the next job at the expense of the current one. He's at the end of the line now. I do, however, blame the press for allowing an individual citizen to do the work that they employ standing armies of so-called professionals for. I know they are capable of this kind of investigative journalism: It only took them a day or two to damage Sarah Palin with wild accusations about her baby's paternity and less time than that to destroy a man who happened to be playing ball when the Messiah decided to roll up looking for a few more votes on the way to the inevitable coronation. We no longer have an independent, fair, investigative press. That is abundantly clear to everyone -- even the press. It is just another of the facts that they refuse to report, because it does not suit them." --columnist Bill Whittle

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

"In Friday's edition, there was an editor's note: 'Should Barack Obama succeed in deceiving a majority of voters next Tuesday, our readers have suggested two methods of protest: Either displaying your flag upside down [a sign of distress] or flying it at half mast -- or both, for seven days, and doing the same on inauguration day, 20 January 2009.' Undoubtedly some of your readers will suggest that, when the election is over, as members of a constitutional republic, we are obliged to support the president. I would suggest you refer them the Samuel Adams quote oft published in The Patriot: 'If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!'" --Ft. Bragg, North Carolina

Editor's Reply: Indeed, Obama has never honored his Senate oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" or to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same." He subscribes to the errant notion of a "Living Constitution," which, in his own words, "breaks free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution." If elected president, Obama has already, by way of his proposed policies, indicated he has no intention of honoring his presidential oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Military officers in the service of the United States are bound by their oath to disobey any order that violates the Constitution of the United States. We operate under the same constraint.

"If Obama wins next Tuesday, our flag will be upside down for the ENTIRE length of his presidency!" --Cathedral City, California

"As frightening as the prospect is, I found your comment, 'Let's not go there -- yet,' extremely encouraging. It lifted my spirit. Thanks for having to courage to put it in print." --Bakersfield, California

"You know, The Patriot will be outlawed under the Obama politburo if he is elected. We'll have to go underground!" --Columbus, Ohio

Editor's Reply: Yeah, but we will still be "bitterly clinging to guns and religion," with a smile!

"In Mark Alexander's essay, 'The Audacity of Deception,' he notes, ' "Hope" and "change" may be pleasant catch-all bromides, but as Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard's Almanac, "He that lives upon Hope will die fasting." On change, John Adams wrote, "A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." ' I would add that Franklin also famously wrote, 'A penny saved is a penny earned.' I guess under Obama's plan to 'spread the wealth around,' that would read, 'A penny earned is a penny to be confiscated and given to someone who did not earn it'." --Boston, Massachusetts

"In a recent issue of The Patriot, typically devoted to self-sufficiency and clear thinking, you ask for help after having given away over $6,000 in Shield of Strength tags, and for $7,500 for outstanding requests. While no one wants to deny the value of these, don't you think you ought to live within your means? Since when is the Army a charity?" --Col. (USA Ret.), Buffalo, New York

Editor's Reply: In the matter of Operation Shield of Strength, a side ministry undertaken voluntarily by our staff on behalf of our Armed Services, we rely less on "our means" than on faith that God wants His promise offered to men and women serving our nation. Our Patriot readers understand that calling, just as they do the calling to support their Christian brothers and sisters on our staff at the end of each year.

THE LAST WORD

"I keep hearing how important it is for everyone to vote. Let me be politically incorrect and say that maybe some people shouldn't vote. I know I'm swimming against the tide. Get-out the-vote groups now register young people at rock concerts. HeadCount cofounder Andy Bernstein told me: 'We registered over a 100,000 people. It is so imperative that this generation's voice is heard.' But wait. Is that really a good idea? Many kids don't know much. At a HeadCount concert, [ABC's] '20/20' asked some future voters, 'How many senators are there?' One said 12, another 16, and another 64. One girl guessed, '50 per state.' Most kids didn't know what Roe v. Wade was about. 'Roe vs. Wayne?' asked one. 'Segregation, maybe?' 'Where we declared bankruptcy?' Headcount's Marc Brownstein concedes, 'there's a lot of uninformed voters out there.' But he argued: 'Democracy is not about taking the most educated portion of the society and having them decide who's going to run the entire society. Democracy is about every individual having a voice.' I suggested that when people don't know anything, maybe it's their civic duty not to vote. 'It's an argument that really, really smacks against everything we hold dear as Americans,' Bernstein replied. ... Economist Bryan Caplan, author of 'The Myth of the Rational Voter,' points out, 'the public's knowledge of politics is shockingly low.' He scoffs at the idea that 'it's everyone's civic duty to vote.' 'This is very much like saying, it's our civic duty to give surgery advice,' Caplan said. 'We like to think that political issues are much less complicated than brain surgery, but many of them are pretty hard. If someone doesn't know what he's talking about, it really is better if they say, look, I'm going to leave this in wiser hands.' Isn't it elitist to say only some people should vote? 'Is it elitist to say only some people should do brain surgery? If you don't know what you're doing, you are not doing the country a favor by voting.' ... Voting is serious business. It works best when people educate themselves. If uninformed people stay home on Election Day, good." --ABC "20/20" co-anchor John Stossel