Oliver North speaks to Liberty University students

Lt. Col. Oliver North, USMC (Ret), addressed Wednesday’s Convocation gathering.... (photo, continue reading here)

Adorable ...

Hans has wedding photos ... the kids are adorable. In home schooling I marveled at the Amish-Mennonite culture and how home schooling overcame our differences in background. We are not as different as we may think....

James Atticus Bowden: "Why the Virginia Republican Convention matters"

Jim's post "Why the Virginia Republican Convention matters" begins:

A new Republican Revolution began. Right here in Virginia and right now. It’s the transformation of the Republican Party to focus on the best solutions, for the right issues, based on the right ideas. It’s the change that counts. The change that is needed for our Commonwealth and Nation. It’s called a Revolution because it comes up from the grassroots Conservatives and Libertarians against the Special Interests. It’s The People against a lot of vested wealth and power.

Read it all. Absorb it. Read it again. The grassroots are fighting back....

Republican for a reason....

As much as people try to make the SWAC-GOP area struggles into something they are not, the fact is plain and simple: we stood up for what we believed in.

We are Republican for a reason.

We are the grassroots that the Republican Party of Virginia wants to grow. Guess what? We've grown the Party tremendously the past five-six years in the Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County Units. We continue to be the reddest part of this Republican red state.

From little activity and little infrastructure ... to three active Units ... we have put blood, sweat, and tears into cultivating the grassroots in the central part of the Shenandoah Valley, building on what had been put there by those before us.

We believe in God and the original intent of the Founding Fathers as they struggled to build a foundation for this country with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

We believe in the conservative principles of Ronald Reagan and stand by the tenets of the Virginia Republican Creed.

We believe in limited government which means our electeds need to spend judiciously, eliminate waste, and avoid burdening citizens with unnecessary taxes. We are not anti-tax ... we are responsible tax.

When we supported a candidate against Emmett Hanger, it was not because we did not like Emmett Hanger as a person. It was because he had strayed from the fiscal conservative values he had promised to abide by even as his constituents asked that he not vote for more taxes ... even as he made that promise ... and then as he broke that promise. He stood with the "Gang of Five" as they joined Democrat Governor Mark Warner in passing the largest tax increase in Virginia history.

We believe in country, in patriotic pride, in teaching our children the heritage and proud history of America. We believe in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, reading from the Bible, and hands-on American government.

We believe in supporting our military, shaking their hands, and thanking them for their service to our country to keep us free from terrorism. We believe we should honor and grieve with the families of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms ... and never forgetting that sacrifice.

We believe in publicly showing our support for those who are halfway around the world serving in the War on Terrorism.

We believe in flying our American flags on a daily basis, not just on holidays. We believe in wearing flag and yellow ribbon lapel pins.

We believe in personal responsibility.

We believe in supporting the businessman who provides the jobs that allow us to live in a comfortable lifestyle. Abraham Lincoln once said, "I never got a job from a poor man." Government should not discourage citizens from owning and operating their own companies by over-taxing and over-regulating.

We believe in hard work, free enterprise, closed borders, legal immigrantion, and drilling for oil in ANWR. We should be independent when it comes to oil, and stop turning to Saudi Arabia, South America, and other countries for our petroleum needs.

We believe the Republican Party has lost its way the past several years by losing its identity, by running candidates who did not stand strong for conservative values, by trying to move to the center to avoid offending anyone. The only problem was ... they offended us, the conservatives, the ones who still believe we are Republican for a reason.

I love my country, my state, and the Shenandoah Valley. I want to see us be the best we can be.

May God bless America.

What's the difference between a Republican and a Democrat?

[No, not a joke, but an analogy that helps explain the difference between liberals and conservatives in a way students understand. Working its way around the internet again, this time it comes from my parents....]

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had t o be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

Her father responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"

She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Ronald Reagan on the Republican Party

"We have a rendezvous with destiny. Either we will preside over the great nightfall for all mankind, or we will accept the leadership that has been thrust upon us. I believe that is the obligation and responsibility of the Republican party today."

-- Ronald Reagan (Southern GOP Convention, Atlanta, GA, 12/7/73 - "Why the Conservative Movement is Growing")

The Republican Party and the conservative movement....

William Rusher has a good article out at Townhall.com and printed in today's Waynesboro News Virginian titled, "Republican Party, conservative movement," in which he discusses the background of the conservative movement and where it is today. He writes:

The two political parties have, at one time or another, encouraged many of these movements to seek fulfillment in supporting them. (Before the Civil War, for example, the Democratic Party was, in addition to much else, the political instrument of the slaveholding interests.) From their start -- but, above all, from the launching of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal onward -- the leftist movements (to the extent that they have not founded parties of their own) have tended to support the Democratic Party. And from its inception the conservative movement has found its home with the Republicans.

He concludes by saying the conservatives and Republicans are not separating.

At the moment, however, the Republican Party and the conservative movement still seem comfortably wedded. The marriage began in 1964, with the party's nomination of Barry Goldwater for president, and has lasted ever since. Many analysts assumed that the relatively liberal wing of the GOP would revive after Goldwater's crushing defeat and resume control of the party. But this never happened: Nixon's nomination in 1968 resulted from a decision by the conservative movement (albeit a bad one), and Reagan's election and reelection simply nailed down the alliance. Today, practically all Republican candidates proclaim their conservatism, and almost all conservative leaders vow their allegiance to the Republican Party. It has been a remarkably fruitful union.