Why are Biden's and Sebelius' Excommunications Meaningful for Non Catholics?

I thought I'd discuss the significance of Kathleen Sebelius and Joe Biden getting excommunicated. If you're not a Catholic or a Christian it might not seem like a big deal, but it really is - it's a HUGE deal. To be excommunicated means that you've demonstrated by your actions that you do not believe in the teachings of the Catholic Church, and are therefore told not to receive communion, or in extreme cases, are denied communion. Communion is the apex of the Catholic faith.

Russians for Romney

 So I wandered back to my beach chair and noticed two of my business cards under the seat. "What are these doing here?" I thought to myself. "I didn't bring any business cards with me and even if I had I haven't taken anything out of my bag yet." I picked them up and put them into my bag.

Within about five minutes a gal walks by. She's got a bright red ball cap on, saying CCCP. "Holy crap!" I thought to myself. "I have to talk to her! Is she advertising that she's communist or a socialist? Is she protesting communism or socialism? Why in the world is she wearing that hat?"

"Excuse me, ma'am?" She doesn't hear me. I speak a little louder and wave my hand to get her attention, "Excuse me! Can I talk to you?"

She stops, a little surprised.

"Hi. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you but I just had to ask you about your cap. It really grabbed my attention. Why are you wearing it?"

She smiles. "Do you know what it means?"

Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

h/t The Onion via American Thinker

Gays Against Gay Marriage: Do They Exist? Do They Matter?

Recently I had an exchange on Facebook about redefining marriage to include gay couples. I mentioned something about conservative gays against gay marriage, and a friend replied to me, saying:

“I for one have never heard of a conservative gay … so that’s a new one on me.”

I wasn’t surprised when he said it, because I didn’t know that conservative gays existed either until the past couple years. Like him, I thought all gays were liberals.

But conservative gays do exist. There are gays who do not agree with the gay marriage issue.

I keep wondering why liberal gays get all the media attention. Why are liberal gays the only gays you see on TV with signs and banners? Why are they the ones who get interviews and publicity, and not the others? Isn’t the marriage issue a gay issue?

Romney Cheated! Oops, No He Didn't but He's Still a Liar

This piece by Bill Buck over at CBS is really upsetting. He starts with this headline:

Upon Further Review: Mitt Romney May Have Cheated to Win the Debate

..then takes 15 paragraphs to rant about how Romney cheated and lied to win the debate. He accuses Romney of looking at a note before the debate, which is against the rules.

After he's finished, he publishes an "update" at the bottom, in which he says basically Oops, it wasn't a note, it was a handkerchief.

And he just can't resist the ad hominem pot shot at Romney by saying,

GOP Women More Feminine than Dems, UCLA Study Claims

A study published by UCLA claims that conservative women have more feminine features than liberal women... in other words, they look more like women than their lib counterparts. Two quotes from the press release:

"Female politicians with stereotypically feminine facial features are more likely to be Republican than Democrat, and the correlation increases the more conservative the lawmaker's voting record."  

"The Democratic Party is associated with social liberal policies that aim to diminish gender disparities, whereas the Republican Party is associated with socially conservative policy issues that tend to bolster traditional sex roles.... These policy platforms are manifest in each party's image — apparently also in the physical characteristics exhibited by politicians."

Here's a Dem response:



h/t The People's Cube.

Gas Prices are Not Too High - Not Yet Anyway

Speed Racer

Gas prices are going up and up, especially here in my area. And people are of course upset. I saw a couple newscasts about it yesterday, and there is talk among some of my Facebook friends about it. But I am going to take the counter position and argue that gas prices are still very low. 

I will know that gas prices are too high when people start slowing down. Around here, people drive like maniacs. I was out on the freeway yesterday afternoon (after seeing those newscasts) and shook my head and how fast people were driving. "So much for gas prices being too high," I thought to myself... again. When people start driving 65 on the freeway, when they quit gunning it from light to light, etc., in general, when they stop acting like they're in a race, at that point, I will say, "Yes, prices are a problem." But as long as people are willing to spend gas money to pretend they're racing everywhere they go,

Just because you CAN vote, should you?

Old school ballot box

Elections are a multi layered event. What I mean is, they have different meanings depending on which way you view them.

For example, I live in California. Me voting for Romney means nothing as far as him getting elected. My state has been a "blue state" for a long time now, which means that the electoral college votes will go for the Democrat, in this case Obama. I believe that last time California went Republican was in 1988 for Bush Sr. These days it would be easy for me to think, "Why should I vote? It does no good."

There are two reasons this is not a good way to think about it:

Do You Feel Loyal to the Founding Fathers?

Do you feel loyal to the founding fathers of the United States of America? If you haven't really thought about it, here's something they said that touched me very deeply many years ago when I first heard it. 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

These are the remarks made at the very end of the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776. Can you imagine? Here they were, knowing full well that they were getting ready for war

References to God in the Declaration of Independence

 There are four references to God in the Declaration of Independence:

"... Laws of Nature and of Nature's God..."

"... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."

 "... appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions..."

"... with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence... "

If you've ever read this document, you must come to the conclusion that as a nation, we are not the same sort of people who wrote it. We are very different in character, intentions, fortitude and probably many other ways as well.

Reference: Declaration of Independence

Oath of Allegiance: Would You Immigrate Here If You Had to Swear This Oath?

Historic Oath of Allegiance of the United States

I just looked up the Oath of Allegiance for the United States. It's something immigrants have to swear before becoming citizens... you know, the whole "hold up your right hand and repeat after me" thing.

For those of us born here, we never had to say such a thing or swear any such allegiance to get our citizenship. I decided to look it up because I realized I had no idea what was in it. Now that I've read it,

Tribe of Liberty - Inspired by Jonah Goldberg

I'd like to take a moment to thank publicly Jonah Goldberg for allowing me to use the name he coined - Tribe of Liberty. I was so inspired after reading his article of the same title at NRO, located here:  http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/328731/tribe-liberty-jonah-goldberg

I just fell in love with this name!  I was at NRO super late Friday night and came across his article. By the time I got to the end, I thought, "Dang, that would make a cool domain name and blog or website but I bet it's taken." 

"The Press is the Enemy of the American People" - Democrat Patrick Caddell

Patrick Caddell worked for Democratic presidential candidates George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Hary Hart, Joe Biden, and Jerry Brown. He has some harsh words about liberal media bias, in particular bias that has occurred very recently. This talk is something all voting Americans need to see.

He talks for about 20 min, then take some time to answer questions. If you could watch at least the first 20 min, it is SO worth your time, regardless of your party affiliation. Thank you. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Gov. Jerry Brown Wisely Vetoes SB 1476, the 3 Parent Bill

Today Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 1476, the bill allowing judges to assign a child three legal parents. The question of three or more legal parents is directly linked to the question of redefining marriage (aka gay 'marriage'.) In other words, this three parent bill was a result of that brief window (May 2008-Nov. 2008) when marriage was redefined in California to accommodate gay couples. The story of what inspired this bill is horrific.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse wrote about this bill in a couple different places. Here is a link to her post at BreakPoint.org:

http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/articles/entry/12/20383

Inspired by her, I wrote about it as well but more from the angle of marriage redefinition. You can read my post at ClashDaily.com:

http://clashdaily.com/2012/09/gays-against-gay-marriage-do-they-exist-do-they-matter/

Three or more legal parents will not lead to more liberty or freedom, for the parents or the children. Why? First, there is nothing wrong with the two parent model. A single horrific case is not enough evidence to redefine such a basic institution as the number of parents a child has.

Second. the two parent model is nature's model. Adding a legal parent would pollute this model. It would add something not meant to be there, and it would (eventually) do it for all families, not just the one that inspired the bill.

I am so grateful Gov. Brown vetoed this poorly thought-out bill. Thank you Gov. Brown!

Patriotic Patches

I've been ordering some patriotic patches on ebay. I can't wait to get them! I'm going to sew them onto the back of a denim jacket.

Statue of Liberty patch - this one is my fave!

Waving American Flag patch

NRA Life Member patch. I already had this one because I recently joined the NRA as a Life Member for $300. If you want to be a Life Member, contact me and I can sponsor you at the same price.

"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither." Famous Ben Franklin quote. Makes sense, doesn't it?

I love my new patches! Do you have any patriotic patches or other patriotic gear? I want to hear about it! Tell me below in the comments.

Can You Believe Anything You Want and Still be a Real American?

This is an honest question. Can you believe anything you want and still be a real American? I say no. There are certain tenants one must hold, tenants based on the founding of this nation. If we stray from those tenants, we cannot have the sort of nation our founders envisioned. As Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Continental Congress, a woman approached him and asked, "What have you given us?" He replied:

"A republic, if you can keep it."

What does this mean? It means that there are certain ideas which support our republic, and certain ideas with undermine/destroy it.

For example, you must believe in the right to own and defend private property in order to be a real American. It's one of the basic ideas that our founders embraced because they knew it was essential to liberty. There are many other examples that I will address as time goes on, but I want to leave you with this thought:

To be an American is to hold a very specific set of ideas. When we hold and defend those ideas, we can keep our liberties. When we stray from them, our liberty erodes which means government power over our lives gets stronger.

So tell me your view. As Americans, can we believe anything we want and be of service to our fellow countrymen? What does it mean to be an American? Is there an objective (unchanging principles) way of being an American or is it subjective (the principles can change)? Tell me what you think. I really want to know.

Tribe of Liberty on Facebook and Twitter

I just registered a Facebook page for Tribe of Liberty. It's brand new you'll be among the first to join. I'd appreciate it if you'd go here to "LIKE" it:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribe-of-Liberty/290871034351966

I also registered a Twitter account for Tribe of Liberty. Again, I'd appreciate you following Tribe of Liberty here:

https://twitter.com/TribeofLiberty

Thank you and God Bless!

We are the Tribe of Liberty

Welcome to the launch of the Tribe of Liberty. The name was inspired by a post at National Review Online by Jonah Goldberg. Being the entrepreneur that I am, I decided to see if the domain www.tribeofliberty.com was available. Imagine my surprise when it was!

We all long to be part of something, and it seems to be a basic human need. Perhaps we could even describe it as an urge or an instinct, it is so ingrained in us.

This blog will be an experiment to see how people respond to being in the tribe of liberty. I hope they respond well.

There will be posts here, mostly by me, all based on my understanding of what it means to be an American. My view is a conservative one, based on natural law as I believe the Founding Fathers' were. The views expressed here are my own.

Welcome, and enjoy.