What is a right? I recently heard Bernie Sanders state that “health care is a right.” I have always found it so hard to wrap my head around the left’s perception of the definition of the word “right.” Health care is care, the word health describes the type of care but at the core, the idea seems to be that care, the performance of an act to be provided by others is something that everyone has a right to. So that makes compulsory, the providing of service from those who have the ability to provide it, regardless of free will or compensation. That is the definition of slavery. So, slavery is now a right.
Put simply, a right can not be defined as something someone else has to provide for you. A right is something you possess, not something that is provided by man. Our founding fathers were clear about our inalienable rights and credited them as being granted by our Creator. Clearly, they are not granted by man and cannot be taken away. The Bill of Rights was created to guarantee protection of those rights from being violated by other men, and man made institutions, particularly the government.
If health care were literally a right, then I could go in to a clinic and demand services and refuse to pay, and this would be legal.
Needs are not rights. I believe we are obligated as a society, particularly as a Christian, to do everything we can to address the needs of all people, particularly the poorest in our society. But how are we going to foster a society that is driven to be charitable if at the same time the message is we are entitled to what others have with no responsibility or obligation?
Food being a right might sound pretty good too but taken literally-if anyone bothers to consider the definitions of words anymore-that would mean that I can walk in to the grocery store and grab a pile of ribeye steaks and just walk out of the store. You simply can not prosecute someone for stealing something they own. A right is something you own, not something given or granted artificially. You have a right to free speech, it does not require a purchase nor someone else’s labor.
Further complicating things, those who claim these things as rights believe they should be able to restrict your right to free speech, and your right to practice your faith openly, claiming false interpretations of the constitution to support another peculiar right, the right to not be offended. Ironically, my practicing these rights requires nothing from man, government, or any institution.
Rights only exist as an acknowledgement of God, as do all morals and moral absolutes. In the purest form of true atheism, there are no rights. An atheist would have to give some sort of a basis for the existence of rights, and unfortunately “just because” is not adequate. With no moral absolutes, in an atheist world, you can just invent rights as you go, perhaps like the socialists perceived right to other people’s earnings, labor, and the product of other people’s labor, forgetting that the spicket will soon dry up when those “other people” become less than enthusiastic about producing other people’s “rights.”

I find it so exasperating that I feel compelled to share my thoughts on this so often, but if conservatives and Trump supporters do not want to play in to the “ignorant right winger” narrative or wish to excoriate media sources like CNN and MSNBC, for putting out “fake news” then perhaps we should not be ignorant and spread fake news ourselves. I simply can not believe the stuff I see shared and re-shared as fact that by appearance alone should set off red flags-let alone at least a cursory attempt to authenticate sources. Not only that-as anyone who has ever put in any serious internet research knows, “fact check” sites are agenda driven, and use deceptive tactics-and we play right in to their hands by giving them opportunities to weigh their sites heavily debunking these fake stories. If you are sharing chopped up edit job videos, stories that are outrageous therefore “must be true” about your favorite political targets, you are playing against yourself, and all conservatives. You are being played like puppets. I could give endless examples-like a recent story about LL Bean stating they will not hire any registered gun owners because Michelle Obama is the majority shareholder…. which is not even a publicly held company and Michelle Obama being the major shareholder of an outdoor rec company should have at least raised an eyebrow…. but I would get carpel tunnel syndrome trying to list even a small percentage of the ridiculous things I’ve seen posted on social media from conservatives.
The worst part is when you take on the role of the bad guy and try to point out that Barack Obama eating live puppy dogs is from a satirical site-you get lambasted as one of the “sheep” or hear jaw dropping remarks like “Well, it’s like something he WOULD do!!!” Really? So, your answer to mass disinformation is to spread mass disinformation in response? I guess more than anything I am wondering what the end goal is. You have zero credibility when you use fake sources-your credibility goes south of zero when you refuse to remove it, dig in your heels and defend it. And worse, you publicly confirm the narrative the left wants the world to see. Uninformed. The left is way smarter than the right when it comes to tactics. They have created massive hoax machines designed for the sole purpose of making you -and us-look like a fool. One site, “America’s Last Line of Defense” actually states in the “About” field “Nothing on this page is real. It is a collection of the satirical whimsies of liberal trolls masquerading as conservatives. You have been warned.”
It takes so little effort to verify. Unfortunately, by promulgating this stuff you end up making agenda driven sites like Snopes legitimate. Go to their site and look at their “fake news” political category and look at all the supposed right-wing stories they have debunked. They are 100% accurate on these. Every single time you share phony stories you are going to bat for Snopes, Factcheck.org, CNN, MSNBC, Nancy Pelosi-pretty much the whole team-you are their new best friend.
Some stories have blatant misspellings right in the headline. If the same story can only be found in word for word format from other dubious sites, if it cannot be found on known credible conservative or unbiased neutral sources, and if it seems more outrageous than even Obama or (fill in the blank) is capable of; stop, take a deep breath, and get a little self-control. If I were a liberal and came across this kind of stuff I would rip, shred, chew you up and spit you out very skillfully and potentially sway anyone who is on the fence that you, and or all Trump supporters and or conservatives are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
People have often incorrectly pontificated to me that “No one’s mind is ever changed arguing politics on Facebook” This is as false as saying no one was ever swayed by arguments at the dinner table, work place or local watering hole. I can say from experience that MANY people carefully watch the discourse from the sidelines while never even registering their presence by so much as hitting the “like” button, and many have talked to me privately and in candor, intimated to me that I literally influenced their votes in important elections.
Can anyone get suckered? Absolutely-I certainly have. That’s when you admit you have your facts wrong-delete the post and become a lot more discerning when it comes to where you get your information.
My intention is not to come off as condescending. But we can not complain about CNN and follow up by holding standards that are beneath theirs.

If there is a story that has no evidence against someone like Trump-they will try their best to go no further than “unproven.” If it is against someone on the left-although even with supportive evidence, they will boldly claim FALSE in big red letters. If it is an outright falsehood and an embarrassment to an out of control mouthpiece of the left like CNN, etc. like the recent debacle, you can type all the keywords and any media coverage word for word right in to their own search bar, or Google it followed by the word “Snopes” you will get nothing-or on their site “Your search……..has yielded no results.” The brilliance of the Left tactically is taking advantage of correct perceptions, like the unreliability of the internet and media in general, and offering a remedy, cloaked as “fact checking sites.” They offer a good deal of accurate information-just enough to build trust to the point that the ever so gullible American people blindly trust them-and go numb and get lazy-then ignore stories that do not fit their narrative, claim unknowns as falsehoods when it suits them, and falsehoods as unknowns conversely. It is subtle and effective. Google tweaks their algorithms in a similar fashion and Facebook selectively applies it’s “community standards” in kind. Youtube crusades against their most effective conservative video makers such as Prager U. They are all in bed with each other. Anyone who has any kind of acumen for research knows this through experience. Who is at fault? WE ARE. Americans love to put all of their eggs in one basket-we are lazy that way. One Facebook, One Google, One Youtube, and they all keep just enough material to make you think you are not being denied access to important information that might come from anywhere right of left. I could cite endless irrefutable examples but I would be a fool to entertain the possibility anyone read this far down. As foolish as the people on the right who ignorantly hit the share button from all of the faux right wing sites that are created by the left to make us look like fools by posting fake stories, playing in to the stereotype of the ignorant right winger. That’s it. I’m done-back to positive Christmas stuff.

I hate to be so cynical but I really have to question the sincerity of people expressing their sorrow and outrage over a death when they express it the most strongly over the wording of someone’s reaction to it (President Trump correctly assessing the violence from all involved-not being dismissive of the violence of groups based on their point of view), Frankly-I don’t think anyone feigning outrage absent in the past really cares in any measurable way about the victim or even racism itself. It quite simply has not mattered in the past. Women have their genitals mutilated, Christians are murdered, neighborhoods in cities across America are gunning themselves down, babies are being murdered in their mother’s wombs by the millions, police officers regularly get gunned down because of the color of their skin, from August the 5th to August the 11th alone, there have been 33 jihadi terrorist attacks, killing 272 people, 194 injured, and we have child porn rings that get busted involving hundreds of arrests including teachers, clergy, police officers and judges that the media does not find newsworthy, so America doesn’t either, and we have have a firestorm now that will be endless because the president did not single out white racists before the victim’s body had time to cool. So you will have to forgive me if I do not froth at the mouth and block traffic over this extremely rare but tragic occurrence, and forgive me even more if I seem unimpressed by the sudden outpouring of phony outrage that only surfaces when it involves the set of possible circumstances that plays in to someone’s political dream scenario.

 

From a CNN Money story in January; “With that in mind, it may be tough for stocks to enjoy nearly as explosive a rally under Trump in the next four (or eight) years as it has during Obama’s tenure. The Dow has gone up more than 140% since Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.” and credits Obama with a share of the credit-etc. Now the stock market hits an all time high-hitting 2200…..CNN Headline “Note to President Trump: The stock market has hit an all-time high in 30 of the last 54 months” (never mind that none of those are any longer all time highs-lol) and from the New York Times “The Stock Market Has Gone So High, It’s a Problem.” And I could list so many more.

I don’t know how many times the stock market performance when doing well was directly quoted as evidence of Obama’s superior economic acumen. I’m not an expert on the stock market but in my opinion the catalyst that is the biggest wild card is psychological. Anticipation of tax reform particularly with corporate tax structures is a favorable business climate. All changes in the stock exchange are dependant on just one thing: people’s decisions-and they are basing them on how they perceive something-I’m no Dr. Phil. So one is left to ponder yet another quandary from the left; if the stock market is too high….and Trump can’t take any credit for it-if the stock market hits the canvas, will Trump be absolved of all guilt? Of course not-it would all be his fault…..but then wouldn’t that be a positive for the president if the stock market was too high? The key to winning in the media is making sure you are the only player, that way all parameters and variables are in your favor. Good can be bad, bad can be good, temperature goes up-global warming, temperature goes down, global war…..climate change! And the beat goes on….

                                                                                                                           Los Angeles Times Headline: Trump delivers speech to Muslim leaders. (Not Saudi leaders) First five words of the article-“As questions about Russia persist,… 
Headline CNN: “Trump’s speech to the “Muslim” world hard sell…
Headline VOX (Which somehow made the first Google page): Trump’s big Islam. Speech in Saudi Arabia was uncharacteristically …First three words; “Embattled at home…”
What else makes the first page with no relevance to the search? A gift to Hillary that starts out with ” Here’s everything Hillary Clinton said about Donald Trump in her speech on national security on Thursday…” When have you heard any quotes from Trump in the entirety of it’s context? The answer is you haven’t let alone “Everything he said” on any issue. Christmas comes early for Hillary. Case closed.
Resting my case, gavel makes contact, court adjourned.

“So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16. America has become a Lukewarm church. I always wondered why warm wasn’t at least better than cold. It’s because cold does no harm-it is what you would expect it to be. Warm does not represent the faith. It’s not the face of Jesus. The world does not see  overwhelming love and service to all, sharing the gifts, good news, and God’s love and acceptance of all of God’s children. What the world sees is full parking lots and well dressed people at Chuckarama every Sunday. That does harm. That reinforces the all too familiar chorus about Christians. These are the urgent times when our lives should be one big urgent alter call, not exclusive social gatherings or exchanging pleasantries to one another. If a church is not actively pursuing the lost, that church has no use and does harm. If people accepting the Lord is an uncommon event, what is the purpose? A basement room for Alcoholics Anonymous? A Pot Luck venue? This is a dying world. Be bold. Wear out your shoes and voices, not your hymnals.

I don’t think people really understand what media bias truly is. CNN and most of the rest of the others have exposed their bias so blatantly that the extremity is what it took for people to even entertain the idea of liberal activism in journalism. What is far more dangerous than the circus we see now is what many of us have known for decades. It is the subtle wording that flies right over everyone head. Here is a classic example. People with journalism degrees probably don’t recognize this or are complicit. I read a CNN story this morning concerning a bill a legislator in Texas who is a Democrat introduced. Here is a key sentence that exemplifies the point perfectly; “.And the bill, by pointing out a sexist double standard, is meant to shine a light on the obstacles women deal with when it comes to their health care.” First of all, “by pointing out a sexist double standard” is glaring. The correct way would be “And the bill by pointing out what she calls a ‘sexist double standard'”. Instead, CNN presupposes as fact her opinion. Further, ” the obstacles women deal with when it comes to their health care.” is presupposing that fewer abortion clinics in Texas is an obstacle to women’s health care. Again, it should have stated it as her opinion, since there are other opinions opinions on the subject, such as the opinion that getting an abortion is not health care anymore than any other elective procedure such as plastic surgery to enhance one’s appearance. Whether or not that opinion is correct or another argument from that side of the debate is more prominent, opposing opinions should always accompany the opposite opinion. That’s just basic journalism rules we learn in high school classes about writing (even grade schools-who what when where etc.) Then they go on to use the words “Lashed out” when referring to the Republican response. You do not see the words “Lashed out’ associated with Democrats in journalism. Google the words “Democrats lashed” out and see how many links you will get stating “Trump lashed out” or “Republicans lashed etc” you will not find links about Democrats lashing out. Then they go on to say that part of a pamphlet pro life advocates hand out links abortion to breast cancer, stating that there are studies showing no link to breast cancer. That is fine but they do not provide the opposing opinion pointing to what the pro life offers as their their evidence They offer one position with no challenge or opportunity for the reader to explore the pro life side without bias. I did not want this to be a debate about the validity of said bill, but in the interests of full disclosure, the bill introduced by Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Democrat was to fine men $100 each time they masturbate and impose a 24 hour waiting period on men for colonoscopies, vasectomies, and purchasing Viagra.

It’s not about your views on lifestyles, it’s about civil rights. As a Christian company would not be made to cater a bachelor party in a strip club, or a gay entertainer would certainly not be expected to entertain people at an anti gay rally, or Muslims who are documented refusing to bake cakes for gay weddings. Muslims who signed on for jobs that involve shipping alcohol then refusing to do it because of their religious faith win a lawsuit against the employer netting $240,000 because the employer fired them for not doing their job. Take that to the next step. Can the employer refuse to hire based on the Islamic faith that dictates they will not do their jobs?-Nope (Equal opportunity employer). Two Lesbians filed a lawsuit and netted over $200,000 for “emotional distress” because of a refusal from a Christian baker to make a cake. It might not be the e majority but I’m starting to believe it is approved of and promoted by the gay community because they don’t speak out against this. They must be sharing a room with the Muslim community because you don’t even hear them speak out in any meaningful way against far worse. It seems to me that neither really wants what they already have or had or are purporting to seek. They must want intolerance equal to their’s. They must want us to believe they are an abomination. To what other end are they pursuing? They keep calling us haters and continue to do so, and being disappointed repetition does not create reality, they now are deliberately trying to make us hate them. They want to be hated. They live to be victims. That’s why they keep adding letters. L then G then B then T (.03% of the population) then add Q? Now they are adding the letter “I” to mean “intersex” what is that?? Sex across state lines? But it does not end there, yet another letter “A”. To usher in a whole new inclusive list of victims, two of the last three have 2 meanings each. Q=Queer (apparently a sub-genre of gay) and also “questioning”. And A stands for both “ally” (Ally of the cause) and “asexual.” Intersex I read means anatomically they are not specifically male or female which I guess dictates you have to drop your pants in a job interview or for a prospective landlord to ensure a good chance to be victimized and line your pockets with some cash. Asexual? So someones not going to hire you because you’re just not too hot on either men or women? I guess that means I’m a protected group. I don’t see why we don’t all just throw the entire alphabet in to the mix then we can all pick our favorite status to fret over. It’s time to unite as Christians, as conservatives, Libertarians and tolerant people. I have an atheist friend who has nothing but love for Christian people who love and respect Christians. We have the power and authority of Him. To the gay “community ” I say this-when you say you are a community, you are in the collective. When you identify as a collective commonality, then it throws you all into complicity by not speaking out against condemning and destroying people’s lives simply because they refuse to let you coerce them in to abandoning their religious beliefs . Sadder yet-there are some decent, kind loving gay people who hate the fact that they are being represented this way-they get the same tolerance we do. I’ve heard it said repeatedly that “coming out of the closet” as a conservative or a person not sharing the same views as most gay people was incalculably far worse than when they came out as gay. I sincerely hope this link will be shared by everyone. This action by the Washington Sate Attorney General is unconstitutional. And now the NAACP which is a useless organization has piled on. Please share and re-share, people are coming together and the steam is building. ” What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 NKJ

We are all being played. I have my own opinion on Clinton, Trump, the election, the electoral college and more. But there is a destructive force that knows no political boundaries, and desires destruction, violence and intolerance. There are clearly interests that love and thrive on hate-and do not care from which piece of real estate on the political spectrum it comes from or goes to. I have my own strong opinions on the protests. However, if you take the entire number of all of those involved, and divide it in to our population, the percentage would be a dot followed by so many zeros it would take all of your lunch hour to read them. People are being paid and bussed in to foment this provocative apparent meltdown. Trigger words like racism are firestarters. Are many protesting out of what they see as a legitimate concern? Yes-the protesters in Boise certainly were. Totally peaceful, lawful and an exercise of their first amendment rights.

I recently saw a post that showed a video of a girl getting hit by a car on the freeway because a bunch of idiotic kids tried to shut down a freeway, at night, with only phones or flashlights. Was it stupid, irresponsible, and show a selfish absolute lack of consideration for others who are trying to get to a hospital, get to there kids, or get to work as all of these childish acts do? Absolutely! Do I revel in the fact that I saw a young kid just get hit by a car??? Apparently some people do. All of the comments were “serves her right” “If she’s that stupid” and so on. All I could feel was wanting to I now if she was OK. I have a daughter who I love more than can be described. We disagree on some things about the election. While she is not a protester, these kids all have parents. They have grandparents or great grandparents who were Americans during WWII. Even if they were communists-can anyone feel good about someone’s kid getting caught up in all of this purposeful manipulation and getting wounded or killed? What if it was your granddaughter or child? What if it was her brother who voted for Trump?

Conversely, how can people on the other side possibly take solace in seeing protesters in Portland destroying a community and businesses that largely supported Hillary??? How can anyone feel good about a person being dragged from their car and being mercilessly beaten because they voted for Trump?

The truth is we don’t feel good about this on either side. We are being played. Our emotions are being manipulated. Exaggerated caricatures of those that we disagree with are being shoved in our faces by those who only want your destruction, the destruction of this country and most importantly the destruction of the American family. Is it a leap? No it is not. The dissolution of the family unit in this country is the cause of the breakdown of our society. Since the 50’s and 60’s, as the family has dissolved and marginalized, every single variable that gauges the state of our humanity has skyrocketed in the negative. Child abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce, porn, child porn, murder, sexual assault, pedophilia, violence, crime, intolerance, hatred, depression and the list goes on. This may seem a bit extreme speaking to this election fallout, but it is not. So you have to ask yourself, who stands to benefit from all of this? Usually statements like these are almost apologetically preceded by things like “I don’t mean to get all religious on you, but” or “I don’t mean to preach.” Well I fully intend to get get all religious on you. The person that is gaining so much from all of this is not registered as a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Green Party, Democratic socialist and the like-he is registered as all of them. Good and evil did not “evolve”. We are being played.

Those of us that voted for either Hillary or Trump are being goaded in to believing that those we disagree with are the extremes that are shoved in our faces. This is how the family has been under attack for so long and we are blind to it. When people are high fiving it over a kid getting hit by a car, or endangering the public’s safety and well-being by shutting down freeways with utter disregard for the danger they are putting people in, the rest of us had better learn to draw a damn line, take a deep breathe and refuse to believe at face value what the media is dishing out to us. Educate yourselves, learn, thoroughly seek out the opposite of what you accept to make sure your position is an informed one. Take a break from the sensationalism. Try to take a look at all of the social trends over the last several decades and try to see if you can spot a pattern. Take a second look at a time that is derided as a sterile, conformist, unenlightened time where being a homemaker is somehow minimized, poked fun at, and equated to some kind of unjust servitude, then compare that time to today. Reject the notion that has been brainwashed in to us that those were times when evil Republican fathers beat their wives who were afraid to get a divorce stifled their kids’ freedom and creativity and forced an angry god on them. Maybe ask people who grew up in those times how repressed they felt. Maybe ask me how it felt growing up in a stable loving Christian home-It was a lot better than my self destructive “liberation” that followed. Better smartphones don’t make stronger families.

I personally believe our days are numbered and we had better learn to obey the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. It doesn’t mean you have to love their opinions or how they voted, I know I certainly don’t love or embrace all of them, -there is a lot that makes me angry and I have strong opinions on but I recognize myself being played as much as anyone.

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