Dear America,

He's not really a risk taker, is he?

Case in point, he picked the favorites to get to Final Four:  Duke, Kansas, Ohio State, and Pittsburgh.

And just who got there?

Risk takers, underdogs, countrymen of different colleges but same spirit, teams with heart and soul leading the way, if not tattooed in their brains; the teams arriving at the coveted Final Four spot exhibit the kind of innovation and magic that is only made in the USA.  I, myself, kinda like VCU -- any college with the word Commonwealth within must be cool -- aside from the fact that my Aries side loves that little ram connection -- either way, we'll see where that leads soon enough.

He, the chosen one, seems to be only comfortable taking the lead when in comfortable, predictable, situations -- associating with the like-minded, other radicals, people who believe and think in community with each other, justifying any means to an end; or if not in alignment with "predictable", he takes an aggressive stance, putting the boot to the neck, ridiculing dissension by the opposition party as labeling them simply "teabaggers," jumping to conclusions against presumed authority and calling it "stupidity" -- but painfully hesitating to make a sound when America's honor and glory are being attacked, terrorized even, from the inside...as in Fort Hood.

No, he runs with the party line all the way to the hoop -- even if he misses.

Apparently, following the pack is just something that we (america) do now -- feeling very much punched in the stomach, like the favorite, totally upended in the final bell, all of a sudden, we are reduced to nothing right before our very eyes.

Robert Gates admitted Sunday that there was no immediate threat to the United States; while Hillary Clinton (the same Hill that wants out in less than two years from now)  added that it was the perceived humanitarian threat we acted upon.   So with that logic, anyone who appears likely to do any possible harm against humanity, we should attack anyway, even if there is no eminent danger for America specifically?

How did we get here?  How in the world did the party of make love, not war, come out of nowhere launching missile attacks based solely on the perception of things to come?  huh?

We are part of the coalition forces now enforcing a "no-fly zone" for a country that doesn't even have an official Air Force. huh?

We are part of coalition forces now thinking about supplying guns and ammo to 'the rebel forces' -- who may very well be playing on the same side as Al Queda.  huh?

We are part of coalition forces now turning our military over to the strategy and agenda of NATO, allowing even the United Nations to have the ball, allowing our sovereignty to sit on the bench for a long, long, drawn out campaign for all we know -- because, after all, who really knows, right (not even Clinton or Gates)?

...we have no idea who we are dealing with here, these are rebel forces meeting up with more cocky-and-nothing-to-lose rebel forces, and some with guns even!...sit tight, this seems to be anybody's game...

huh?


Our president hesitated on taking sides on this one for the longest time -- only being pushed into it by the new world order mandate, star player simply called, The UN; what was our president doing when the Libya situation was just beginning to heat up?  Oh, he was making his picks for the Final Four.

Let's review:  all of his picks (aka the favorites)... Duke, Kansas, Ohio State and Pittsburgh failed miserably.  Following the line of the favorites didn't really work for him, did it?


The thing is, this is HIS GAME we are talking about; this president, of all presidents probably to date, KNOWS, really KNOWS, basketball (and you thought I was gonna say foreign relations, silly...); this is what for the love of the game is all about (oops that is mixing baseball with b-ball, my bad); hoops -- this president plays it, breathes it, lives it and studies it in his spare time, for all I know -- probably talks about it while playing golf with the boys while half the world is going up in smoke...AND HE, oh chosen one, didn't get anywhere close to calling it right.  His final four crashed and burned.

How in the world does a guy with no military history, no respect for authority (really, let's be honest shall we, review the cold, hard stats all the way back... go to his own words, his books, his community organizer tapes of the game before he was president...), no experience with international relations, no reverence to America's sovereignty and exceptional-ism respective of how this franchise was built -- how could we ever have such highball hypocrisy in this position, being paid too much, for too little, and with such attitude?  Do I dare wonder, how does he maneuver a win for the home team, America, out of this?

Where is our true heart and soul?  Where is our will to win against all odds?  When will we get our game back -- and focus on the things that have made this country pretty great...

...saving umpteen questions as to why are we drilling in Brazil and not our Gulf and Anwar, why are we punishing Arizona for protecting our own security, why are we bankrupting our children with Obamacare, and why our president isn't leading congress on tackling the 1.1 Trillion dollar deficit, please pardon another play of words using the wrong sport....

...so many questions... and we're running out of time... good thing it only takes a nano-second in basketball to have the game turned upside down. I call for a miracle...a three pointer from the center...

It is a show of real character, and will, and self-reliance, that rises to the top in situations like the Final Four -- just as those same principles touch us all, equally and fairly, out in the real world.  America was built on the idea that it could be anybody's game, anybody's day, at any time -- as all things boil down to a wicked (and by wicked, I mean wicked good) combination of skill, knowledge, experience, heart, with a whole lot of good timing and the law of Any Given Sunday thrown in from the sidelines (and it wouldn't hurt to also carry the approach of consciously aligning with, not so much hoping God is on our side...but that we are playing on God's side).

oh, and at the risk of sounding like I'm dithering here, I wouldn't mind the Bulldogs to come out on top either, THEY COULD GO ALL THE WAY!

(darn it, you can take the girl away from the football, but you can't take the football out of the girl).

Now for Libya, now that things are totally stirred up -- democracy must prevail; but if the Wisconsin rebel forces/coalition/unions tell us anything at all...definition of democracy and what it looks like, acts like, is very much in question; as clear and present danger of the unknown wears us down, it is anybody's game, at any given time.

yea cloud.

Make it a Good Day, G

for another take on the same two points, read this.

Dear America,

As the world turns...a shade of gray.

So apparently, the expectation of one's human nature to be held to a higher, wiser, truer, never falter standard, is far greater for the average Newt, and a republican, than the average Billy Boy Jefferson Clinton, and a democrat.  Is that it?  Can we not be done with this hypocritical repartee?

You know, in life, sometimes the best teachers are the ones who have been there, done that.

They allow for the general public, and anyone else within ear shot for that matter, to feel their pain and embarrassment when in the middle of it -- while when it's all over -- we get to witness how these people find their way out of it.

But this sense of somehow, some way, just because more often than not, the GOP also stands for people who actually attend church or temple, believe in a loving God, and actually try to live a life as best they can according to some kind of lethal combination landing between religious commandments and moral truths -- that somehow these people are not also human...

...that they make mistakes

...that they lose their way, scruples, principles

...and let's just throw in a whole lot of common sense for good measure

-- that these people are held to a higher standard against the other party seems downright preposterous, hypocritical, unrealistic, and simply unfair.


With everything else going wrong in the world, with all kinds of other questions to a possible presidential candidate there might be, what has G's head spinning this morning...this.

“You’ve also been married three times and admitted to having an affair with your current wife while you were still married to your second,” a student said to Gingrich, “As a successful politician who’s considering running for president, who would set the bar for moral conduct and be the voice of the American people, how do you reconcile this hypocritical interpretation of the religious values that you so vigorously defend?”

seriously?

And his immediate reply: “I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that’s their primary concern...If the primary concern of the American people is my past, my candidacy would be irrelevant,” but that, “the primary concern of the American people is the future.”

To the lowly student taunting the giant political force, let's go ahead and talk about questionable presidential behavior:

What, were you five when Clinton was getting BJ's in the oval office and playing hide the cigar with an intern?  (oh that's right, you kids today don't call it sex either)


Have your teachers not taught you all about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and a few good Kennedy men, battling with infidelity and womanizing  in the early sixties?  Rumors abound on the real history...between the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe and a young Chappaquiddick woman... (oh that's right, that doesn't count, that was during  your grandparents era)

Let me guess, you would have still voted for John Edwards had it not been for that misguided wrong turn he took with a campaign photographer, thwarting his presidential intentions with his good ole' American boy smile?

Double standards are everywhere and often between the two parties -- while in this day of age, I gotta say -- even if I risk sounding counter to my own ideals of a certain candidate/representative -- if this is all you got, let's moveon.org.

Now, please indulge me as I switch gears a wee bit...

One of my favorite people to listen to is Star Parker; her story (her real life!) features an African-American woman, coming out of poverty and the welfare system, experiencing hard times that I can only imagine; fast forward to today, where this woman -- this bright, vivacious, conservative, black woman -- blossoms into a living example of what this country is all about.

She has grown into a shining beacon of hope for not only other African-Americans, but for ALL Americans; she teaches what she knows to be true, as she has lived it!  Transcended it even...and all of it centers around tried and true American principles and values.

The thing is, she walks her talk and empowers scores of Americans to follow her because in their heart of hearts, they believe her...

aw, let's get real... I believe her...and that's enough for me.

and right now, she is staring right at me -- for she is the face of February on my Clare Boothe Luce Calendar (I have talked about this organization before...but check them out if you haven't already).  Anyway, a short bio on Star is featured this month, while in real life, she is founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal.  (and right now, you too, can help her "stop Planned Parenthood lies" by going to her website and finding out how you can get more involved).

My point, she can teach us because she has been there -- truly been there; she has been at her bottom bottom, her lowest of the lows -- and has risen above it.  And more important, she didn't stop there (and can we get a thank you Jesus! Amen); she didn't stop at the spot where you only help yourself; she continued to move forward and to share her life's lessons, to extend her wealth of experiences, to champion the cause of being a better American, to teach the rest of us coming from a place who knows. I love, love, love her and you should love her too, just sayin'.

Those who have real life experiences, no matter whatever field, no matter whatever reality, have always grown to be our best teachers, our wisest mentors, our shining example of how to follow ever after; as we in turn replicate the process and principles, our world changes, even if only at the local level.  What begins to happen, over and over and over again, is the exponential expansion of our cornerstones -- a nation's character and values -- as these things begin to shape us and take us a long way...

...and through it all, through thick and through thin, we build a nation, AMERICA, merrily merrily up the path of duplicating the good.

But the school of hard knocks and wrong moves has the ability of teaching us everything we need to know right quick when we give it a chance -- take anything that pops in your head and the process works --

• a history of too much debt, too much spending, what does it teach us?
• a past of staying up late, drinking too much, what does it teach us?
• a habit of yelling and screaming at your kids, having those kids grow up to yell and scream at their kids, and so on and so on, what does it teach us?
• a penchant for driving too fast, talking on the phone, eating a burger -- and then fixing our lipstick-- what does it teach us?
• a night of Facebook and texting friends -- when we should be doing our homework -- what does it teach us?
• a president who takes advantage of his power and prestige, what does it teach us?
• an opportunity to ask a real question to a man who has a wealth of political insider knowledge and experiences, and we blow it, what does it teach us?

The thing is, as human beings, we blow it a lot!  Speaking of which, if I could ask three questions to the big guy in charge:

DO I think it should take nine days to respond to Libya -- and to the crazy man in charge, Moammar Gadhafi --  when in fact, you were sending in an entourage for a sit down in Egypt maybe seconds into it -- proposing Mubarak, by name, to do the right thing, for his country and all, to listen to the youth protesting in the streets, calling for him to step down?  Morally, I think you would be on the right side of history, if you came down on Moammar a wee bit harder..."the entire world is watching...violence is outrageous... unacceptable..."  oooooh...you basically said the same same thing responding to the tragedy in Arizona. what gives?

DO I think after campaigning as a champion of marriage (that being, defined in matrimony as between a man and a woman) to just yesterday, out of the blue, you justify fudging a little... as your feelings about marriage further evolve... floating around the idea that the office of our Department of Justice no longer has to defend DOMA -- which, by the way, IS A LAW, enacted by the last democrat in office -- do I think that's cool?  You say, it is because there is no "reasonable defense" of such a law -- having decided for yourself outside the rule of law -- when in fact, you of all people should realize, law is fixated by what is called PRECEDENCE.  The reasonable defense of DOMA is the mounds of precedence that has preceding it -- that, by definition, is simply known as traditional marriage in this country, and actually since the days of Caesar. typical politician flip-flop.  really?

DO I wonder wonder wonder how it is possible for you NOT to interfere with the coaxing of the price of oil -- not to be confused with making an immediate about face on where you stand with the issue of drilling here in America --  and while we're at it, getting to the good stuff of clean coal, natural gas, and going a little nuclear -- and for sure, for kicks and giggles, not that we could sustain ourselves, adding to that, the solar, wind, bio-fuels and what not...how can you not see into the future at a time like this is beyond me?  A nation's security is at stake and you distract us with a combination of making a hard core union assault against a state and changing your mind about DOMA?  wow....where are your priorities? not to mention your juevos rancheros?

Getting back to Newt and the question -- Newt might be just the right kind of guy for the job (you know, to take over where Barack leaves off) -- given his experience AND ALL.

The last two years has taught us much...and we have Barack Hussein Obama to thank.

Make it a Good Day, G

and then again, some people never really learn a thing...rumor has it Charlie Sheen was on his way to a vacation spot today, taking with him his soon-to-be ex- wife, Brooke, his live in porn-star/girl friend, and another woman.  Our morning local radio show, DSC, on Jack FM, put it like this, "Charlie Sheen and a couple of prostitutes."  To frame it another way, perhaps he is just looking to fill in his resume before a congressional run, considering his current gig is on the way out...

oh my dear America, we have such a long road ahead of us...time for a little Carpenters...now playing on dear america...

Dear America,

This congress of ours is stupid; and brazenly, as THE deciding vote -- at just a hair out of place past midnight -- as the campaign trail was more pressing -- Nancy, in stellar, partisan, pasty-face and botox buffooned-eyed fashion, adjourned the house.  The vote 210-209.

The decision to adhere to the Bush Tax Cuts for all, postponed.

So, this is what we can look forward to:  once the house it taken over by conservatives, come November 2, we fix it (say it like a Russian spy).

In the meantime, we have a community organizer - in - chief, rolling up his shirt sleeves, meeting with friendly fire in backyard pow wows, never knowing what bows and arrows will come at him.  Case in point, the fair maiden who dared to ask, "why are you a christian?"

Again, isn't it alarming enough that we are in a position to ask such a question?  Does this give anybody else the willy's, or is it just me?

To be in a place when everyday families are struggling with the economic downturn (s), showing even more angst over health care and its costs than ever before, lacking all confidence in where we are headed as a nation, questioning the knee jerk reactions of a president from everything from a police officer acting stupidly in Massachusetts, to dimwit underwear bombers in Michigan, to Allah-loving, nut case, army doctors in Texas, to religious fanatics raising victory mosques in New York, to making mindless, blanketed oil drilling  moratoriums in the Gulf and beyond...we get someone questioning the president's christian roots, scalping the very integrity of his beliefs????

and no dance around the fire whatsoever; whoosh, as if you didn't see it coming, having only felt the breeze behind the ear; what just happened?

um ahh um ahh

"my Christianity [you know] is by choice."  (so it's the really smart man's Christianity, not just some aimless, d***less, spineless, pointless, ridiculous follower of Jesus Christ, like so many of you ignoramus Americans are born and raised.)

um ahh um ahh

"[you know, it's kindof a funny story] my family didn't... ahh ... frankly...they weren't folks that went to church every week."  (maybe cuz, your mom was raised with parents who took her to 'the little red church' on the hill, was naturally drawn to questioning faiths of all kinds, blown over with romantic feelings for Marx in school... that is until she found herself totally love struck and smitten with Obama Sr. and made you --  stark reality meeting with the mystery of his Muslim heritage...soon overshadowing whatever belief she may have been born with, paving the way for the entire village to takeover the raising of her son)

um ahh um ahh

"my mother, is one of the most spiritual people I know [but how could you...you hardly knew her]..."  ( not to take away from my father's faith, for I believe that too -- and not to diminish that which I felt, for my friend, and father figure, really my mentor in Rev. Jeremiah Wright...twenty years there, you know, he presided over my marriage, my girl's baptisms...he taught me everything I know about Jesus Christ...in being my brother's and sister's keeper, to treat others as I would want to be treated...you know... that my salvation is reliant on the collective salvation...) let's stop there, as it is giving me a headache.


You know what's funny, is when Bill Maher talks about faith.

Now he is one smart guy, by golly; he's got it going on upstairs, that Bill Maher, you know what I mean?

Okay, so blah blah blah, we all know that Bill Maher holds his disdain for the "religious right" so tight to his chest, he's should have had a heart attack four years ago; but let's go ahead and dig into this some more anyway.

He said last night, with Bill O'Reilly, "I like it when a president uses his brain...and not his faith, his heart, or his gut."  Translation: Bush is stupider than Obama, Obama is smarter than Bush -- hands down.

This is where things get sticky now for the president -- that is when confronted with acting in faith, bearing testimony of his Christianity, so to speak -- the bows get crossed.

Ooopsy daisy, gotta curb some of my Christianity, in front of my staunch liberal left base (the elitists who are way too smart for a belief in God) and yet, on the other hand, I have to sound like I'm like one of the 80% of normal everyday Americans.  hmmmm  what a quandary. 

Now, according to Mr. Bill, an avid follower of the Chosen One, Obama-san, you are dumber than dumb if you are a believer in God (so he must really be squirming with the latest confessions of a president of faith, or is this a faith of a different color, kind, category, heritage unknown ) -- oh, and fyi, there are no fanatics on the left (he says) no extremism whatsoever, no movement, nothing remotely close to the Tea Party lunatics, consisting entirely of right wing racist rabble rousers.  Oh my Maher, thank God you do not rule my world; how empty it must be, to be inside your head.  Talk about giving somebody the willy's...

hold up a minute while I attempt to shake this off...

this president of ours is so freaking confused -- is has come full circle, gone round in circles, hopped over the circle, dismissed there ever was a circle -- he is so out there now, so far, that even the resident witch doctor doesn't know what to do.

What somebody should be telling him is to shut up; stop, just stop. Go out into the woods for forty days and forty nights, and find yourself; pretty soon this will all be over, the elections will have come and gone, and all this will be behind you; just stop. Go out and get yourself together, buddy -- as, quite frankly, with you, like this, you're just in no shape to be showing up even one more day. Dare I say, somebody needs a burning bush and a re-birthing.

What we expect of you, at top of the totem poll and not to be confused with the latest AP polling, is that a real Chief sits and leads -- oh thee of so little faith, a faith so unrecognizable, we have to stop and ask you about it to be sure; and then again, maybe it's just a case of things being cloudy because you have lost your head to too many special interests, keeping too few convictions, having not a lick of understanding of either your role or the true essence of what Americans really want, having completely and regularly disappointed us; oh how you continue to find a way to agitate and annoy, is beyond me. Oh, where oh where is our Loretta Castorini now...for I'm telling you, just snap out of it already. (that would only make sense if you have read G in the last few days; not that I always make sense; but it's my blog, I can say what I mean and mean what I say any way I please... but lets move on.org)

Perhaps it is the very lack of existence -- of the attributes and inherent truths of both being an American President and a Christian Truth-er, that has the audacity of showing, dear one. Did your mother teach you this -- or is this all dear old dad? or would that be the step dad? or the grandmother you held in contempt for being white? or the mentor of twenty years through Black Liberation Theology? or simply those you CHOSE to associate with while community organizing around Chicago?

Who made you into this man we see today? Who do you credit the most?

For this is the crux of the matter -- and we never thought it would ever come to this, as we surely had no way of seeing this coming -- but the fact remains: we question who you really, really are.  And the irony, really, it should  have been enough to say "(you) CHOSE (it)" -- as if you deserve a prize, or something.

We thought you were one thing, and we got something else; but somewhere between the latest version of voodoo economics, and the divisive, derisive, contemptuous attacks against our very unity, as a people, we the people have come to realize we've been dooped.  You are not the bi-partisan, uniter-in-chief we thought we welcomed into the middle of our circle; you do not deserve to lead at all.  We all turned into bumbling fools, fawning and fantasizing over you like there was no tomorrow -- and this is what we get?

It is hard to pretend, isn't it; nothing could have prepared you for what you were expected to be, to each and every one of us.  You didn't see it coming; and yet, to this day, you still have no idea what it is about you that sends our head spinning in all different directions. 

Or do you?  And you go ahead and do it anyway.

You see, the gig is up, Little man Tall President who is running out of enough arrogance to keep your psyche afloat; your reputation precedes you and your pathological progressive agenda leads you, like no other president has ever come before.  We know this to be true, as people like F***-the-stupid Willy Maher to  Little Bridge Willy Ayers, along with a couple of Two Trillion Ton Ninny's like Pelosi and Reid, continue to circle up the wagons around you, sitting all cross legged and bug-eyed amongst your loyal collective peers (or is that follower).  We know this to be true; which is why we sit -- transformed (thank you for that) -- and question you.

but let me be clear,

it's really not about the money, or the Christianity, or even if you still smoke...while I'm quite sure, as I wasn't born yesterday, that you are well enough aware and smart enough to know better.

The problem we have now is that its any one's guess as to who you really are -- and that goes especially for you; not that we've got time for this -- for we thought we knew you knew -- but God's speed in getting right on that and figuring it out.

I think I speak for all Americans, when I say, we will take you any old way it turns out -- we're kinda cool like that; what we have difficulty with, much like the battered economy, is the uncertainty (and you possibly being a bonafide fraud) -- but it is the question in the back of our minds after the never ending full frontal lobotomy that keeps chipping away at the core belief, out of the simple everyday, run of the mill, mishaps and indiscretions against the grain.  

Knockin' on the noggin', that perhaps on the last couple of days with Emanuel, he might suggest... nudging ever so slight... a nice long walk in the woods.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

Happy Wednesday.

You know why 70% of our economy relies on consumer spending?  It's because, up until about high noon yesterday, we were a nation built upon wealth building in every facet, rain or shine, from sunrise to sunset; and then, only to awaken and get up and do it all over again the next morning.

But just what, pray tell, is messing with us these days?

Just what seems to be robbing us of our livelihoods right under our very noses, leaving a legacy of debt to our children, while extinguishing all hope of keeping to our common sense and sensibilities once more?  What in Sam Hill will bring this runaway train to a complete stop, safely and without further injury, I dare ask? 

Seems that with the age of Obama, enlightenment comes by way of redistribution, no skills necessary, neither labor nor aptitude required; as we give way to the lowest common denominator rule of outlaws, honed by progressives and socialists alike -- as we can't tell them apart anymore.  Yet it is this very nature, precisely, that runs counterproductive to the inherent philosophy of building America from the ground up, from bouncing baby to chief engineer and maker of one's life, and goes against everything our founders set forth to accomplish and protect.

How they must be rolling over in their graves, as they are set to witness a rally come 10-2-10 centered solely upon the collectivization of our dear country, capitalizing on the disparity between the haves and the have nots, and turning us into a nation that punishes wealth, promotes an entitlement society built not to contribute to but recklessly take, and squanders the abundance of our most precious resource, once made in America daily, our self-reliance. (for more on the ONE NATION rally...start by going to the Communist Party USA...and travel thru time and the links...crossing paths with Obama's Organizing for America...and you will get there, eventually -- for "we are all socialists now" according to Newsweek, under Obama rule)

As we brought up yesterday, The McGuffey Readers are an elevated collection of tools for proper use and deliverance of the English language, that turn the task of communication into a thing of beauty and elegance, really -- and if I may be so bold, almost romanticizing the common duty for one and all, in the most uplifting and thoughtful way.  Never mind that they are older than dirt.

How the world, and how we read about it, through it, and in it, has changed, no?

You see, the magnanimous side to Glenn Beck offers us a snippet of how we have changed as a nation, when it comes to our learning, and the processes thereof, almost daily, when he asks of us one thing.  What is that one thing?  To QUESTION with BOLDNESS.

From this perspective, one cannot help but wonder how our children could continue to benefit from such "old fashioned engineering" like questioning -- with boldness; and how at the turn of every page, placed at the very fingertips of every child, from back in the day of horse and buggy, how such workings via such tools as the McGuffey Readers could permeate into the minds of young Americans, totally transforming the common day right before their very eyes, while fundamentally teaching the basics and enriching the spirit, from the inside out; suffice it to say, the all encompassing collection outweigh the standards of any English language study of the twentieth (or even the twenty-first!) century -- but go ahead and question it.  I dare you.

A system, like McGuffey's, swaddles the pre-reader and cradles him all the way through high school, in a series of books that gradually steps up the learning process, weaving together the very basics, like phonics -- decoding the relationship of letters and sounds -- moving seamlessly into understanding the fluidity of our voice, our inflections, and reading aloud -- to discovering how in fact we take it all in and comprehend what we read -- to the advancement of recognizing the timelessness of grasping the fullness of any language -- to the creative genius of writing, speaking, and thinking about what it is we have just read, to the level that continues to test us -- and leaving us well within the confines of a long pause -- as it's never really enough; only finding ourselves hungering for more, as we reach out for the next nugget of information as if it were our last meal.

This is the way English was taught.  It was an art, it was a pleasure, it was an extension of the Divine, working and meandering through the young and porous mind with an unimaginable thirst for the purity of knowledge, the ability to think for themselves, and most of all, to question -- anything and everything -- with boldness. 

Debate was merely a tool from which it played; the sharp exchange of attitudes and ideologies were the colorful bounty from which we came; and the freedom to actually think, amongst our peers, deep, thoughtful wonderings of how we came into being, what makes our world go round, to mindful contemplation as to where we might possibly, individually and collectively, not only find our happiness -- but labor in it, make it, promote it, sell it, and build honest to goodness wealth from it.

The finer point under which McGuffey preached his higher learning was simply this: "AFTER A CHILD LEARNS TO READ HE CAN READ TO LEARN." 

Common themes under the "advanced comprehension" stage included subjects venturing into areas now considered very much taboo -- truth, religion, patriotism, life values, spirituality, eternity, free enterprise; all these things, according to progressive teachings and the current steamrolling over our fundamental principles, would call for a class action law suit, spearheaded, of course, by the ACLU, today.

But I ask you, what good does this do for any of us? 

Where is the harm in having a simple discussion of what makes us tick, and why, and how does this information lead us, protect us, serve us, and unite us, as a people -- as individuals and as a whole? 

Since when did the discussion of that which makes us strong, vibrant, good and meaningful become so threatening to those who fear to question with boldness at all, unable to comprehend the beauty of all sides, the full monty, the differences between and the commonalities that bind? 

Why can't it be safe to bare all and show our vulnerabilities, to fall on our knees in thanksgiving and praise, or connect to the Universal Source of all that is good -- and talk about it?!

I don't understand why it is acceptable for the Nancy Pelosi's of this world to be able to articulate "the word" as a matter of civic duty, pointing to the word of God as the Way, the Truth, and the Light only when needing support for her monstrosity of a health care bill, masterminding the social justice angle meeting up with our moral compass, as if they simply bumped into each other at the corner store; and yet our children cannot utter a word of it, if only as a matter of discussion and debate, in school??? I don't get that.

The McGuffey Readers use moral lessons often -- going so far as to ask questions like, "What  feeling is most necessary to social worship?" (after a reading entitled, Thoughts in a Place of Public Worship -- by HANNAH MORE)  or

"How was the political prosperity of our country obtained?" and "Why would the destruction of our present form of government be an irretrievable  loss of liberty?" and "In what is our chief hope for the premanency of our government to be placed?" (after reading, Evils of Dismemberment -- by WEBSTER)  sidenote...where, oh where, is a webster now?

And then there is this, following a piece simply called, No Excellence without Labor -- by WIRT: begging us to answer, "How does it appear from facts, that it is labor rather than genius which gives eminence?"

Oh to be a fly on the wall and observe a classroom of America's finest discussing that!  Now that would be wonderlust.

The thing is, when a society loses its ability to delve deep into it's soul, we start showing that we have none; when we begin to worship secular musings over the transcendent, we begin to live lives disconnected at the heart; when we cease questioning and connecting to the Divine, we begin to act like we don't need It, and ultimately, stop teaching it, we stop illuminating the stories that fill us with grace and peace, charity and hope, stories that fill us with the knowledge and guidance to overcome all obstacles in our path.

Falling back on one of my favorite books, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, by Thomas Moore,

"Enchantment needs its own specialist, and mystery its own lobbyist.  A theology of daily life, practiced by us all, would open our eyes to a dimension solidly sealed off by the modern secularistic imagination, and it would restore soul, because soul is fed by the eternal and the spiritual as much as it finds nourishment in the temporal and the physical."  

Mystery its own lobbyist!  I could eat that all day long.

Our life, as we know it or imagine it could be, needs a soul to survive; while 70% of consumer spending depends on it...

oh really, bite me, so you say?  well, you can jump aboard the progressive gravy train all you want, but if you don't watch the signs, you could be in for a major drop just up ahead.

Without our connection to Life, to the Divine, to the Creator of all things seen and unseen, we not only cease in our ability to make it in this world in which we live with a humble and gracious heart, we cease making everything.

But don't take my word for it, or Glenn's, go to the Source -- question it, with boldness, indifference or with enough vitriol to fill a church if you must.

When we cease teaching our children to live with soul, our world, and the bounty that comes with, will in turn drop into a vast, empty, weeping chasm of antiquity, sealing the coffin of an age gone by; at that point, it really won't matter what we make, let alone if someone buys, for the stark reality of our dirty deeds will be thrust upon us. 

We will have buried the one thing that made us truly good -- made us prosperous -- and virtually made us into who we are today, or yesterday -- the shining beacon on the hill for all the world to see and read all about it -- as we haphazardly keep throwing dirt and plenty of collective hot air upon the one thing our children should know more about, or at the very least, have a chance to discuss.. and maybe even dwell on, sit a spell on, and dither the whole darn day away on.  And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

make it a good day, G