I Believe....

Merry Christmas, all you fowl people, you!  I hope this post finds you surrounded by family and friends and in good health.  I haven't posted in a while and I get these ideas for posts sometimes and then I get all excited and have to write!  I guess you can say I get inspired and then, well, look out!

I have been thinking a lot about myself and where I came from this past week.  I guess you could blame it on the fact that my dad would have had his seventy-sixth birthday on Thursday, December 20.  He passed away in 1995 and I still miss him quite a bit.  He was sweet and kind and gentle.  He thought about others first and he was a hard worker.  He was also simple, and laid back.  Simple in that he didn't need a lot of fancy stuff to be happy.  He didn't talk much, kind of quiet, but in a good way.

He always had steady employment; he died employed by the same company he had worked at for forty years. He and my mom were married for thirty three years when he passed and they were happy together.

Something that we always did as a family was that we listened to country music at the house, in the car and on road trips.  I didn't really know any other genre of music existed until I heard Metallica on the bus ride to school one morning in seventh grade.  I love Metallica, by the way.  That said, I love all kinds of music now, but country music has kind of stuck with me over the years.  One singer that I really love and have loved for a while is Don Williams and he sings some great country songs.  One in particular is called "I Believe in You".

This song to me embodies a simpler, more slower paced lifestyle.  I guess you could say it embodies my dad and the way he was.  I hate to throw politics in the mix, but this IS the Political Chicken talking here.  It may represent even a more conservative lifestyle.  Thankfully you all can't hear me sing the lyrics, but a few of them are worth repeating:

I believe in love

I believe in babies

I believe in mom and dad

I believe in you

Does anybody talk that way anymore?  I think if we did, our country would be a whole lot better off.  He also goes into a few things he doesn't believe and they are:

I don't believe:

that virginity is as common as it used to be

That gasoline is in short supply

The rising cost of getting by

He also says that he doesn't believe that heaven waits for only those who congregate.  I would tend to agree with that statement.  Like the song lyrics, I also believe that God is love and that he's down below and up above.  He knows who does and doesn't care.  I think that my dad believed all of those things, too.  That's what made my dad so great.  If there are any dads of daughters reading this, take note and realize that your relationship with her is going to help her succeed or fail in relationships with men.  No pressure, or anything.

This is a small tribute to my dad and the example he was and the relationship we had.  I was only eighteen when he passed, but I am so thankful for those eighteen years.  Thank you to my dad and my mom.  I am so thankful to have had parents like you growing up.  I only hope that I can have the same affect on my children as you both had on me.  I love you.

Sex, Lies and Politics

Okay, Harris County peeps.  It has been quite a year, hasn't it?  I'm referring to the political events and elections we all had the pleasure or um yeah, something like that of participating in.  We here in Texas started out behind the eight ball as a state with little or no say in choosing the primary presidential candidate.  Houston Tea Party Society along with other tea party groups thought there was something wrong with that, and we held our very first Saddle Up Texas Straw Poll in January, with great success, I might add.

Then came the redistricting fiasco.  Thus, a delayed primary held in May.  As if that wasn't long and drawn out enough, we had a July runoff.  Exhausting for all of those involved; candidates, volunteers and consultants.  Only a few short months after that came the general election.  Whew!  I'm tired just typing it all up again.

Now, why on earth would I be bringing this up again?  Well, lots of times the truth about a candidate or a campaign doesn't come out until AFTER the election is over.  Shocking, I know.  That is the case in the story I'm about to share with you.

Just so happens in the campaign finance reports filed just before the general election it was discovered that some candidates from the 'Grand Old Party' or G.O.P received some contributions from the local strip club, Treasures.  I ask you who in the general voting populous is going to go and research those finance reports?  Right; no one.  There is one individual or entity that should be looking at such contribution records; the Harris County Republican Party.

Now, I'm no prude, but I am seriously concerned about the direction of the Republican party locally.  We have a leader at the helm of the county party who seems to be letting this kind of behavior slide.  As a devoted volunteer of the party, and as a woman, it makes me sick to my stomach to think that I'm working alongside folks who claim to be Christian and conservative all the while they are accepting donations from the adult entertainment industry.  An industry that objectifies women, who often times break up marriages and homes and perpetuate a sinful lifestyle.  Seems kind of hypocritical, don't ya think?

This from the same party who claim to stand for pro-life, pro-family values.  We as Republicans/ conservatives just lost the Presidential election.  As if that weren't bad enough, the Republicans are slowly losing their grip on Harris county and dare I say, Texas.  We wondered why.  I'm starting to understand why; why so many of the general voting populous is so disenchanted with the GOP 'brand'.  Deep down, Republicans may not be any different from Democrats.  You know what they say, if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.  Time to stand for something, Jared.

Fair Share, Fiscal Cliff, Debt Ceiling

Fair share.  Fiscal cliff.  Debt ceiling.  What do these words mean to you?  Have you ever heard them before?  I hadn't until about three years ago.  Let's tackle these one at a time in no particular order.

Fair share.  These words are often very ambiguous, as blog author Nathan Wilkinson points out here in his blog What Does Obama Mean by "Fair Share?"  I would tend to agree with his blog.  Mind you, this was written back in July, 2011, but I think it definitely still applies.  Here is a quote from his blog that I found interesting:

"This phrase, "fair share" is being used and accepted as a fact, but no one has looked into what does those words mean to him and to everyone else. In fact, the phase itself implies that there should be an even-handedness between the rich and the taxes they pay. The phrase is also ambiguous because no one knows if the rich are taking more then their "fair share" or taking less."  

"No one has looked into what those words mean to him" (Obama).  I am a small business owner, or the spouse of one.  So I guess that makes me a partial small business owner.  Rest assured, we are paying our 'fair share'.  In fact, if we didn't have to pay such a large share, we might have a little more to throw into the economy and buy a few extra things that we would normally have to pay in taxes; thus stimulating the economy.  Wow, what a concept!  The American worker, gets to keep more of what they earn and they can buy more things and create more jobs for the industry that they are purchasing from.  Kind of reminds me of that PSA in the 1980's, when there was a 'war on drugs'.  The guy was pacing in a circle, repeating the same thing, "So I can work more, so I can earn more, so I can do more coke."  So....I'm not trying to do more 'coke', but you get the idea. 

Fiscal cliff.  We've been hearing a lot about that since before Obama's unfortunate reelection and since then as well.  Call me crazy, but I don't think that going off any kind of a cliff is a good thing.   What lawmakers are referring to is the upcoming tax hike slated for January 2013 to affect the top earners; you know all of those evil rich people who make over $250K per year?  Yeah, them.  Again, I look at this through the eyes of a small business owner.  What happens when you make less money as a business owner, large or small?  You tend to cut back a bit on hiring and wage increases.  Makes sense, right?  You have to, at some point, start looking out for your family because no one else will.  What's the affect of less hiring?  Not as many employed people.  Less people paying taxes and I'm sorry folks, a country cannot tax or spend itself into prosperity.  It's a vicious cycle.  "So I can work more, so I can earn more, so I can do more coke." 

Last but not least, is the infamous debt ceiling.  Remember fighting this during the summer of 2011?  I do.  The debt ceiling is referring to the country's credit limit or its spending limit.  Yes, it's like the credit card for the USA.  What happens when you as a consumer 'max' out your credit card? You can't spend any more money!  What happens when the United States 'maxes' out OUR credit card?  They just print more money!  Yahoo!  *note the sarcasm.  Anyway, it happened again in 2011, Congress agreed to raise the debt ceiling to $16.394 trillion.  Guess what?  We are fast approaching that limit, too.  I can just hear the arguments from 2011 haunting these upcoming 'talks' as well.  The Dems will accuse the Republicans of wanting America to default, and the Republicans will likely give in and raise it again with some wimpy 'demand' that the spending increase not exceed the spending cuts.  Cuts to be made over the next thirty years or something ridiculous.  Then we start all over again.  "So I can work more, so I can earn more, so I can do more coke."

Are we ever going to learn our lesson? 

Are We Gonna Die in Debt?

Hello, out there in cyber world!  It's me, the Political Chicken back for more post election analysis.  You know me, very in depth and hard hitting.  Bwahahahaha!  At any rate, I have (obviously) been thinking or better yet, stewing over the results of the election on Tuesday.  There are lots of things still swimming through my head right now.  Like, for example, where did the election go wrong?   Could I have done more?  How do we recoup the damage that Obama has done and still yet to do?  Last but not least, what would make anybody in their right mind vote for him twice? 

Besides all the talk of free shit and not being able to beat Santa Claus, which I am sure that there is truth to that, I think it goes deeper than that.  At this point, I'm willing to put aside partisan politics for just a moment and say it goes even deeper than Democrat or Republican.  Wow, Political Chicken, what could be deeper than that?  Finances, money if you will.  No, not the spreading of it or the redistribution of it, which does play a role, obviously, but something else that ties into money.  Lines of credit.  Oh, yes, stick with me for a minute and I'll explain.

We live in a society of instant gratification; 3G, 4G and gotta-have-the-latest-and greatest-app or Ipad or Iphone.   Not to mention HDTV, high speed internet and 3D televisions.  How do we acquire these things?  Bingo!  Credit cards, lines of credit.  Gone are the days of saving cash up to pay for things.  Nah, just ring it up and I'll pay it off later...

Later becomes next month, then next month becomes three months, then three months becomes, well you get the idea.  I found some information on Infowars.com that I thought would fit into this blog, so here are a few of the statistics that will 'blow your mind'.

- Incredibly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year.  Even while median household income continues to decline (now less than $50,000 a year), median household debt continues to go up.  According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600.

Large numbers of them never even escape at all and die in debt.

Consumer borrowing rose by another $19.3 billion in December 2011.  Right now it is sitting at a grand total of $2.5 trillion according to the Federal Reserve.

We always criticize the federal government for going into so much debt, but we rarely criticize ourselves for our own addiction to debt. 

So how can we expect our gimme society who doesn't even live to see the day when they pay off their own debt to actually believe that the United States of America, the most prosperous nation in the world, could ever run out of money, or credit?  Now, I might be giving some folks more 'credit' then they deserve because I'm assuming that people CARE if we run out of money.  Or if THEY run out of money, for that matter.  I believe that people don't think twice about where the government money comes from.  I think that they believe that we just print it...out of...thin...air...oh, wait.  Nevermind.  If we could just show people what we are in for, maybe they would take notice.  I know, I'm being supremely optimistic.

We live in a welfare state, and if we didn't before Tuesday, I'd say it's almost inevitable now.  So, as unpleasant as it may be, now it is time for, as Dave Ramsey would say, beans and rice, rice and beans until all of your household debt is paid off.   As the Bible says, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." Proverbs 22:7  I, for one, don't want to be anyone's slave.

 

The Morning After x2

Deep breath in...slowly exhale.  Repeat.  Feel better?  Nah, me neither.  Onward!

All of you know me pretty well by now.  I am a stay at home mom; home school mom on top of that and a new (?) political activist of sorts.  I have just recently ventured into my own blog, The Political Chicken.  I was involved heavily over the course of this last presidential election/campaign.  I am extremely disappointed in the loss by Romney/Ryan and that's putting it mildly.  I truly didn't think that Obama would win again.  He did and now we stand at the base of a mile high mountain and we have to decide as conservatives, do we stay at the base of the mountain and set up camp or do we forge ahead with grappling hooks and ropes and climb that bad boy?  I say, climb!

There was A LOT of legislation that we as tea party members and patriot groups postponed and delayed in 2010 and 2011.  The biggest and baddest in my mind is Obamacare.  We did good work but it was shoved through even though it was clearly against the will of the American people by and large.  There will be more of that, unfortunately now that Obama has won his bid for reelection.  Cap and Trade aka Cap and Tax can be one of those, rest assured.  Not to mention a whole host of others that we don't even know about yet, or I for one, can't even fathom.

Most of us, dare I say ALL of us are pretty discouraged today.  I am going to keep fighting.  I am going to keep fighting to keep our freedoms, though as down and sad and frustrated as I feel today.  Why, you may ask.  Why bother?  I have three little reasons to keep going and those are my children.  Not trying to be extreme here, but let's stop a minute and think of some of the freedoms we have now and might take for granted.  One is the right to worship.  Another is the freedom to buy the car of your choice.  How about the reproductive rights we enjoy; to have as many children as you want?  How about capitalism, the best system in the world?  How about the right to choose your own career?  How about the freedom to home school?  I can't say without a doubt, that those freedoms are going to be there for them to enjoy.

I am not expecting all of these rights to be taken away over night or even tomorrow.  The problem is that there is something called tyranny creep.  It has already taken hold and continues to 'creep' its way into our society and personal lives.  This is another reason we must stay vigilant and fight the good fight.  It happens little by little.  In our courts, where religious objects are harshly removed or when war memorials are ordered to be taken down simply because they are symbols of religion or Christianity.  Where the TSA has the 'right' to strip search innocent people just trying to go on vacation with their families.  These freedoms have been eroding for some time now.  So where does it stop?  That's the big question for me, and right now I don't have the answer.  

We are ALL made in God's likeness; in the image of God.  We were made with the desire to perform a task, learn a trade, earn a living and to be self sufficient.  In Ecclesiastes 2:24 it says, "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment"?  I wept last night thinking that my children would possibly grow up not knowing those simple freedoms.  To not be able to provide for their families as Godly men are called to do.  To not be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor as many generations that have come before them have been able to do.  To take away the most innate rights from any human being is just beyond wrong.   

All I know to do is to pray and trust God and to pray that His will be done, not ours.

More Than a Woman...

*Disclaimer: The following blog may offend some readers.  This is not a judgement call on anyone's lifestyle choice.  This is simply my opinion.

More than a woman.....I thought this might be an appropriate topic what with the war on women the left seems to be waging; and all the while, claiming it's the GOP waging said war.  Tsk, tsk.  I remember hearing Obama say in the last presidential debate that Romney wanted to take us back to the 1950's or some such nonsense.  So?  What was so wrong with the 1950's?  In the 1950's, moms stayed home and cooked meals and made beds and cleaned house all while wearing heels and pearls.  Heh.  Oh, and everything was black and white; not gray scale like they show it on Leave it to Beaver.

I digress.  I have been in the habit lately of digging up some history or some scripture and comparing it with the things that are happening today in the political realm.  If you like that style, then you are in for a treat. 

Just for kicks, let's look at what the Bible says about women and their role.  I know we are probably all too familiar with Proverbs 31: the wife of noble character. We are also reminded of the Titus 2 woman, who is to to be self-controlled and pure among other things.  The Bible also identifies the woman as the weaker sex.  It's factual simply because woman came from man.  The Bible also says that the man is the head of the household.  Whaaaaat?!?  Political Chicken, are you waging a war on women, too?  Now, don't let that ruffle your feathers (see what I just did there?)  With all of these words flying around, you have to wonder if we didn't start waging a war on ourselves when the feminist movement came around. 

Think about all of the things that we as women demand from ourselves as well as from the world around us.  The song 'Anything you can do, I can do better' comes to my mind often times.  We all feel that we have to be as strong as a man physically and/or emotionally, and we have to be as smart as a man.  The Bible did put some limits on what women can or should do outside the home; for a REASON.  God and the Bible also  puts limits on what we as Christians can or should do here on earth for a REASON.  What reason is that?  To guard our hearts. The Bible also defines the role of a man and a woman very clearly.  It's society that has come along and mucked it all up.  The woman is to be the helpmeet of the man or the helper.  The husband also has a definite role in which he is to "...love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word..." Ephesians 5:25.  So while we all have free will given to us by God to do and say all of the things we want, we are reminded in 1Corinthians 10:23 that,  Everything is permissible...but not everything is beneficial.

It makes me insane when I hear some women say that they can have it all.  By having it all, they mean a college degree, a prestigious career, marriage and children.  Okay, I'll play along.  You may be able to 'have it all', but there is always a price to pay.  Your children make a sacrifice when you go to work when they are babies, because let's face it, our mothers are one of the most important people in our lives.  There seems to not be enough of us to go around to meet all of the needs of a family, like cooking meals, cleaning, laundry, homework help, etc.  I can almost hear you rolling your eyes when I mention all of the domestic duties as if they only belong to the wife.  That to me is where our role of helper comes into play. 


I say all of that to say this; maybe if we went back to a more biblical approach to the way we live our lives, we wouldn't be so concerned if there was a war being waged on the female gender.  If, for example, you are single, the Bible says you should not have premarital sex.  Not in those exact words, but you get the point.  If we lived by that standard, then guess what?  We wouldn't be worried about where our birth control would be coming from!  We also wouldn't be worried about access to abortions either.  Extreme, I know.  Everything is permissible...but not everything is beneficial.

The New Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel:
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly."  They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.  The Lord said,"If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.  That is why it was called Babel_because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.  From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Genesis 11:1-9


Okay, Political Chicken, what does that have to do with me?  Well, I'll tell you.  The Lord realized that the people all spoke the same language and they could accomplish anything they set out to do.  Thus, leaving the Lord out of the equation.  So, he confused their language so they couldn't execute building their tower.  I think we can relate to this story present day.  I realize this didn't start under the Obama administration, but it has become more prevalent.  Obama knows that if we as Americans communicate with each other, there isn't anything we can't do.  Just like God, Obama would be left out of the equation.  Nah, see.  He doesn't want that.  

Our problems of today sound similar and I can probably sum it up into two words: Class Warfare.  The president (who thinks he is God) is acting like God.  He is showing us over and over that he doesn't want us to communicate with one another.  He wants us to believe that we all have problems so specific to the different socioeconomic groups he has divided us into that we couldn't possibly have anything in common.

I'll give you an example of this in real time.  One of my fellow patriots met with a group called Log Cabin Republicans which is a group of homosexual people who are also Republicans.  They reached out to the tea party to discuss some issues and believe it or not, their group and the tea party had a lot in common. Now just think, if we had continued to go along mutually ignorant about each other what would happen?  We would have remained divided.

Another example is how often this administration and congress and others in the lame stream media pull out the race card.  The media pundits and some representatives in Congress spew hatred and vitriol onto the airwaves just to keep us as Americans thinking that we hate each other.   From where I'm standing, that couldn't be farther from the truth. 

Let's not forget about another 'divider'; the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Remember those little people who made bowel 'movements' all over cop cars?  Yeah, them.  They represent the 99% who want a level playing field.  I have a theory about these people.  They were the unfortunate kids who grew up playing Fun Fair Positive Soccer (FFPS).  The place where you always get a trophy. No. Matter. How. Bad. You. Sucked.  The place where you aren't allowed to keep score.  SERIOUSLY?  I'm sorry, folks, but there ARE winners and losers in real life.  Your buddy might make more money than you, just sayin'.

How about the executive order that Obama signed about how we deal with natural disasters and security emergencies?  I think there was something in there about being able to shut down the internet or take control of it for the safety of Americans?  There ya go.  Cut off the lines of communication.  Just. Like. That.

I think it has also more to do than just the communication lines they want to cut off between Americans.  Obama has made it clear, because, well, he says 'let me be clear' before every lie he tells, that he does not want us as Americans to be self sufficient people.  (Enter life of Julia, stage right).  If we get together and solve our own problems without relying on the government, he loses control.  If he loses control, he loses power.  BOOM.

On a side note, I have never visited Obama's website before, and I did just recently.  After seeing it, I have to tell you I'm pretty disgusted.  On his home page, he's got the male and female gender symbols integrated into the word 'forward'.  How. Lame. Can. He. Be. And what's with all this 'vote with your vagina' crap, anyway?  Possibly another post for another day.