MinuteMom Magazine - March 2012

MinuteMom March 2012• Volume 1 Issue 7

AAM University special Report

Happy Birthday 9-12 project

Voting In ?

Virtue

George Washington Challenge

Canning Tips

March Madness Double Issue

Are we Greece?

YYPresident’s Letter Welcome Dear Moms and Moms-at-Heart, This is our biggest edition yet, so I will keep this short as there is so much to read! Diana Learn has put together a fantastic As A Mom University [AAMU] section for you. I hope you take time to read the special “pull out” section.

Happy Birthday 9-12 Project! It has been three years since we started following the 9 values and 12 principles. How has it changed your life? Be sure to share your thoughts at AsAMom.org.

The Ladies in Red. No doubt you are wondering who they are. This past February I was able to met with 14 leaders of other groups similar to AAM, including Unite in Action, The 9-12 Project, Tea Party Express, Abigail Adams Project and 9-12 Super Seniors (not all shown). We discussed what we were doing, where the country was going and what we could do to help keep the Founding Fathers’ vision alive. After a day of networking, our hostess treated us to a special Gala event where we meet patriots from all over Florida and the world. The most amazing takeaway was that although each group is focused on a different area, it was easy to see how we could all work together. I see it like a family putting together a puzzle—one person takes the sky color, another the water, and another the blue paint on the building. By working together on their own areas the family can quickly solve the puzzle. What is your piece? No matter how small you think your piece is, the puzzle will not be complete without it.

One last thought—VOTE! If you have not had a primary yet make sure your vote is cast and counts.

Enjoy the special double edition!

Pictured: Pam Peters, KrisAnn Hall, Debbie Gunnoe, Diane Leone, Debi Lane, Lori Parker, Lisa Becker, Patricia Sullivan, and Stephani Scruggs. Not Shown Barbara Samuells, Yvonne Donnelly, Dena Espenscheid, Marsha Frost, Amy Kremer, Kay Rivoli.

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www.AsAMom.org

Photo Provided

Lori Parker Co-Founder and President As a Mom… A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots® Inc.

MinuteMom Magazine March 2012• Volume 1 Issue 7

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Features 6 9•12 Movement – Three Years Later

As 912ers look back on the last three years they can stand tall and proud knowing that the people who stand by their Principles and Values continue to make a difference in their communities..

By Yvonne Donnelly, national Chiar 9-12 Project

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8 Voting In or Voting Out

Although we all want to vote the best person in, sometimes we just need to vote the worst person out.

By Lori Parker, President As a Mom...

10 Obama Obeys the Feminists Again A big New York Times editorial cried out that Obama’s action means “The Freedom to Choose Birth Control.” Poppycock.

By Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum

12 Senator Sylvia Allen - Interview 18

By Stacy Finch

16 Are We Greece?

Let’s get down to finding real solutions that address the crisis head on.

By Alan R. Davis

18 Preserving your Bounty

From seed to harvest - safely preserved until next year’s harvest.

by Karen (Grainlady)

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22 AAM University Presents... special Report

Pull out section on the thoughts behind modern education.

by Diana Learn, As a Mom... Director of Education

36 On the Church, the Military, and the Descent into Tyranny In a republic committed to freedom, the church and the military must be allowed to construct and to follow the ethical guidelines they themselves create without interference from governments.

By Fay Voshell

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012

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In memoriam

Andrew Breitbart February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Thank you for all you have done as a true patriot for our country.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots.

Photo http://biggovernment.com

From Righteous Indignation by Andrew Breitbart

40 Choked With Weeds

A free person must look to himself for solutions and accept the consequences of his choices.

.By Marlene Peterson, HomeMakers for America, Vice President

42 Once Again…

They put out budget statements that any reasonable and knowledgeable person would find laughable if it weren’t so important.

By Alan R. Davis

48 Circling the Trailhead

We can continue to circle the trailhead grabbing at this thing or that hoping things will get better, or we can do what it takes to make them better.

By Kimberly Fletcher, HomeMakers for America, President

Departments 2 President’s Letter Welcome

49 Restoring Humor 50 Country The Price of Freedom

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Founders: in Their Own Words Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom Draft for a Bill to Establish Religious Freedom in Virginia

54 In Your State State News from AAM Groups

64

Freedom Let the Bells Begin to Toll

65 As Seen on AAM Does voter ID suppress the vote? Heritage vs. ACLU Merely being human is not ... Excuse Me? Other Hot Topics

66 As a Family Virtue

MinuteMom Magazine is looking for people to share their talents by producing articles, essays, opinion pieces and original poetry. Artists share your original artwork. Send us photos showing your adventures As a Mom...

Publisher: As a Mom...

A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots.® Inc. www.AsAMom.org Editor Diana Learn Coordinator Kami Watkins Contributing Writers: Dr Samuel Blumenfeld Alan R. Davis Gisela P. Dieter Yvonne Donnelly Stacy Finch Kimberly Fletcher Karen (Grainlady) Linda Kimball Diana Learn Marlene Peterson Peggy Staggs Phyllis Schlafly Fay Voshell Kami Watkins Volunteers Sam Bacharach Colleen Zarzecki Joy Carr Karen House Yvonne Williams MinuteMom Magazine is published 12 times a year

by As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots, Inc. MinuteMom Magazine is available free, on-line.

Copyright © 2011 by As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots, Inc. All rights reserved. MinuteMom Magazine is not responsible for errors, omissions or contest fulfillment from third parties. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising or editorial material. Advertisers, and/ or their agents, assume the responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on the advertisement. Editorial contributors assume responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on published work. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the official organization policy. As a Mom...

A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots® is a registered trademark.

Please send all article submissions to: editor@minutemom.org Advertising inquiries contact: sponsor@asamom.org Note that submissions are welcome but are not guaranteed inclusion in the magazine.

For more information contact editor@minutemom.org.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012

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By Yvonne Donnelly The 9.12 Project National Chair www.the912-project.com

Three years ago the inception of The 912 Project launched into a true grassroots effort with Americans throughout the nation banding together focusing on a mission that continues to ring true today. As 912ers look back on the last three years they can stand tall and proud knowing that the people who stand by their Principles and Values continue to make a difference in their communities.

What makes a movement strong is staying true to the mission and goals. As the Project launched we were charged with gathering with our neighbors around our kitchen tables. Remember who we were on 9/12/2001? Americans stood together in their grief not caring about the color of your skin, your political affiliation, or the religion you practice. Could

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we be those people again? Many groups formed dedicated to working on connecting with their community to focus on what they saw as the issues that needed attention. In overwhelming numbers, individuals and groups identifying themselves as 912er’s, got interested in local political issues. This does not make our organization a political movement; it just means that folks decided this is how they wanted to connect with their community. Many of these individuals had never been active in City Council meetings, Board of Education hearings or town hall events. Our members educated themselves on the processes put in place, the Constitution and what our Founding Fathers laid out for us in the development of our great Country. www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file/Illustration L. Parker

9•12 Movement – Three Years Later

Our mission from day one has been to educate ourselves, give back through service and show others through our Principles and Values that America is still the greatest Nation. Groups such as the Central NY 912ers’ have embraced education; the Florida group lead by Shannon Armstrong from South Florida 912 carries out service projects that will warm your heart. The Southtown 912 group of Chicago, does outreach to our military, the Pittsburgh 912 group focuses on informing their community on the Progressive movement, and Cedar Park Texas 912 works on Preparedness efforts. These are just a small example of what our groups are doing three years later!

Many individuals identify themselves as 912ers without being active in a structured group. Formed groups have merged with other movements to concentrate on politics at a higher level and groups have split to carry out the mission that they see as the important issues. This is what grassroots is all about.

Local involvement at its best!

You have taken on the tasks of deciding what needs to be done in your community not waiting around for someone to tell you what is important in your community. You decided and will continue too many years from now. This is the power of grassroots. “We the people” has never been more meaningful to individuals who up until three years ago hadn’t given that phrase much of a thought.

People have suggested to me that the 912 project is irrelevant. Could you imagine? The groups that have stayed focused, on message and dedicated to the mission are as relevant as any group out there. These are the groups that we will still be talking about when we celebrate our 10 year mark. Changing one community at a time. Thank you for your dedication. This is your movement, your Project.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

You are the people.

Yvonne Donnelly is a professional Coordinator of Volunteers with 25 years of experience working in not-for-profits. She is currently the Chair of The 9.12 Project, a volunteer-based grassroots organization connecting communities thru education, service and dedication to the 9 Principles and 12 Values that members commit to live in their daily lives. www.the912-project.com March 2012

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Electorate Education

Voting In or Voting out?

Almost two years ago I wrote a blog for Asamom.org entitled “Voting In or Voting Out” http://tinyurl.com/7usxuq9. This blog was timely and necessary two years ago because it encouraged education and involvement, a message that is even more important now. However, that same title is applicable for another, timely issue. What happens when you don’t have someone to “vote in?” In blogs, Facebook posts and on AAM I have seen many conservatives voice the sentiment “if my candidate doesn’t get the nomination, I will just write them in….” I would just like to point out that there is point when “voting out’ becomes the best choice.

Presidential Vote: We all want the best candidate possible to be the President of the United States, and we greatly vary on our opinion of who will fit the bill. The 8

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primary process—as imperfect as it is—was created to try to find this person. Many of us will see our favorite candidate eliminated by the primary elections and caucuses. That leaves us with a choice come November 6. Are we going to vote/ write ‘in’ the person we think is best? Or are we going to vote ‘out’ the person who we think is the worst for the country?

A few lucky conservative voters will be able to do both. For the rest of us we have to choose.

During the primary phase for the 1976 election, I was in first grade. I became aware that my parents supported someone who was not our president (Gerald Ford). Some time right before the election, then in second grade, I got into a Ford vs. Carter political argument with children in my Sunday School class. I knew my parents didn’t like Ford and I said so. I was told that my parents were nasty if they were going to vote for Carter. www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file / Microsoft

By Lori PARKER As a Mom... pRESIDENT & cO-fOUNDER

So I went to mom and dad for answers. They explained that they liked this actor person out of California, but that he wasn’t able to be in for the final vote so they were going to vote for President Ford rather than not vote at all. We all know the outcome of that election and thankfully that actor person did not give up.

My parents could have stayed home from the polls. I know they didn’t, as I saw my mom in line at my elementary school when I passed by the library. They could have written the name Ronald Regan on the ballot, but then Carter would have only won by a higher margin. As it was, their vote did go toward the electoral votes for President Ford.

Oddly enough there was one electoral vote that year from Washington State that went for Ronald Regan. What use was that vote? Not that one vote would have changed the outcome of the final electoral college but that vote was completely wasted as it was for someone who in no way could win the election.

In 1980 Mr. John Anderson took just over 6% of the popular vote but won no electoral votes. Ronald Regan took the election in a landslide. Anderson had originally run as a Republican. Although his run did not hurt President Regan, 6% of the vote is more than the margin in most presidential elections. Perhaps the most divisive example of a third party run in recent history was Ross Perot. With no electoral votes, but 18.9% of the popular vote, he no doubt enabled President Clinton’s win with a mere 43% of the popular vote. Not even half of all Americans wanted Bill Clinton.

Debates still go on for whether or not Bush could have won if Perot had not been a third party candidate. Perhaps a better question to that 18.9% would be are you happy now

with what you got? Would you do it again knowing your candidate could not win?

This brings us back to 2012. Like it or not, there will be two viable candidates for office as no third party candidate has sufficient backing to even take 30% of the vote. For many, neither will be the person we want. Yet, there will be one we know we do not want back in office. So the choice becomes ‘make sure the vote counts to get him out of office’ or ‘have a little pout-fest and show-vote for someone who statistically cannot win.’

As for me, I know that the GOP candidate will not be my first or maybe even my second choice. However, I would much rather vote the current president ‘out,’ and vote what I can pray is a new direction ‘in.’

House and Senate: The presidential vote is only one of the votes that will take place on November 6. All of us will have the chance to vote for a member of the House and many of us will have a Senator or two on the ballot. Unless you live in Texas where the districts are still in question, you most likely already know who your candidates are, or could be, if they are still in the primary phase. Most of us still have ample opportunity to vote ‘in’ our candidate of choice. Regardless of the increasing number of executive orders being created, the Legislative Branch is not yet completely irrelevant. A legislator that is diametrically opposed to the office of the President can work to halt the reach of the Executive Branch. A fiscally conservative Legislative Branch can do much to solve US financial issues if they can work together.

Wait there is more: For many of us, we have not had our state primary, and we still have a chance to vote for the person we really want for president. More importantly, we have the opportunity to become a delegate for our precinct, district or even state.

Being involved in the primary elections will allow our voice to be a strong part of the process.

Participate in as many local meetings as you can. Look into the candidates’ eyes. Know what they stand for. Then vote ‘in’ every good candidate you can and vote ‘out’ every incumbent who does not uphold the Constitution or does not do their job as you understand it.

Lori Parker is the President and Co-founder of As a Mon... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots. A mother of four, she has a passion for saving this country for her children. She firmly believes that every one can make something happen for the better if they just begin.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012

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Obama Obeys the Feminists Again

By Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Forum

Proclaiming in a New York Times headline that “Obama Adjusts a Rule Covering Contraceptives,” the pro-Obama media tried to dig the President out of the political hole he had jumped into. But calling Obama’s revised rule an “adjustment” or an “accommodation” or other soft-sell word can’t cover the fact that the revision is essentially the same as the original rule.

Barack Obama and his Administration are the lackeys of the feminists. And furthermore, they must think the American people are too stupid to see through the deception he is trying to put over on us.

A big New York Times editorial cried out that Obama’s action means “The Freedom to Choose Birth Control.” Poppycock. Every American already has the right to choose birth control, but that shouldn’t give them the right to have somebody else pay for it, and that’s what ObamaCare demands.

The bottom line is that the ObamaCare insurance, which employers are mandated to provide and individuals are mandated to buy, will include birth control, the morning-after pill (an abortion drug), and sterilization, at zero cost to the individual without any additional premium, co-pay, or out-of-pocket expense. And yes, this mandate does apply to religious hospitals, schools, colleges, and charities, even though their religion teaches them that these acts are immoral and wrong.

Obama’s original rule called for religiously affiliated institutions to pay for these controversial

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services, which even liberal commentators denounced as a gross interference with religious liberty. It was even denounced by Chris Matthews, E.J. Dionne and Democratic Senators, and the ever-loquacious Joe Biden hid out in uncharacteristic silence.

The debate about this rule went on within the Administration for several months. Obama eventually sided with the feminists (no surprise) against the warning of then Chief of Staff William Daley.

After the firestorm erupted, Obama may have thought he could get the Catholic Bishops to go along with his accommodation (as a couple of liberal nuns did), but the Bishops saw through his duplicity. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pointed out that the “adjustment” still includes a “nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients” and also that the many “self-insuring religious employers, and religious insurance companies, are not exempt from this mandate.”

The accommodation orders insurance companies to pay the costs of these birth control/abortion services, but you can be sure insurance companies will price their products to make a profit. It’s obvious that insurance companies will distribute and conceal the costs so nobody appears to be paying for the controversial procedures.

Since the insurance companies will not be permitted to charge different fees for different employees, all their customers will be paying www.AsAMom.org

something for the controversial services. In plain words, all religiously affiliated institutions and their employees will be paying for birth control/abortion drugs, but not “explicitly,” as the Wall Street Journal delicately explained.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) summed up this issue: “The White House Fact Sheet is riddled with doublespeak and contradiction. It states, for example, that religious employers ‘will not’ have to pay for abortion pills, sterilization and contraception, but their ‘insurance companies’ will. Who pays for the insurance policy? The religious employer.”

The political donnybrook continues as many people are speaking out against Obama’s rule, both the original and the revised version, because it is an outrageous interference with religious liberty. How dare Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tell religiously affiliated institutions that they must do something that violates their moral code?

This issue has aroused people of all religious denominations to speak out. They now realize we have a President who made himself part of the organized attack on religion anywhere in the public square, an attack we see so frequently in the courts and in the schools.

One of the shocking parts of this charade is the fact that the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains sent an email to senior chaplains telling them that Archbishop Timothy Broglio’s letter criticizing the Obama rule was not to be read from the pulpit. Has anti-religious bigotry become so extreme, even in the military, that a chaplain’s sermon is expected to be banned or censored to conform to Obama’s prejudices?

YY Lesson #1: this issue demonstrates that the Obama Administration is participating full-strength in the ongoing campaign against religious liberty.

YY Lesson #2: this issue demonstrates that national health care involves so much more than health, and that all decisions, major and minor, will be controlled by federal bureaucrats, not by patients, not by doctors, not by taxpayers, and not by any elected representatives, state or federal.

As Walter Cronkite used to say, “That’s the way it is.”

Be a

Mollytician moll•y•ti•cian |mäl i´ti sh en| noun

1. a mom* who is involved in politics, 2. a mom holder of or a candidate for an elected office. antonym – politician: a person who acts in a manipulative and devious way, typically to gain advancement within an organization.

Almost twice as many Americans watched the Superbowl than are registered to vote.

75% of potential voters are not registered to vote.

Be a Mollytician and make sure your friends are registered to vote.

Reprinted with permission from: Eagle Forum, Alton, IL 62002 www.eagleforum.org

Phyllis Schlaflyis has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

* Mom: a member of Asamom.org may be a mom or mom-at heart.

by Stacy Finch aS A mOM... Arizona cHAIRmom

Senator Sylvia Allen has been serving the citizens of Arizona for 25 years. Starting at the grassroots level and working her way up, she is currently serving as State Senator from District 5. I had the opportunity to interview Senator Allen and learn what it means to serve in politics as well as a few of her views on current issues.

Q A

: Was there a specific event that caused you to become involved in politics?

: There were a lot of reasons I became involved. Being involved in the 90’s with an organization called ‘People for the West’, a grassroots movement to save jobs that were connected to natural resources in rural Arizona, was one motivating factor. Another was becoming so alarmed at how far away we had gotten from the principles we had been founded on as a nation and that our own government and citizens were actually out destroying the livelihood and foundational wealth of our country. This too helped to get me politically involved at a grassroots level.

Then after the Rodeo-Chediski fire, I went to a 12 MinuteMom Magazine

conference sponsored by Governor Napolitano and saw that all of the workshops were run by environmentalist groups. They are the very reason our forests were locked up and our ability to thin and log had been taken away and here they were running the workshops on forest health! I left that meeting and thought ‘I’m just going to run’. There needs to be another voice; a voice that understands how important developing natural resources is to creating wealth in our country. We were locking our wealth up and moving to more of a service economy instead of being a country that provided everything in the world. Our jobs were going overseas; we were closing down our manufacturing companies and just going in the wrong direction. I decided that my perspective and voice was needed. I could see that our country was headed in a Marxists, socialist direction and I was concerned about my children and grandchildren. I knew that what I did today would ripple into the future and effect what happens as we go on into the years. www.AsAMom.org

http://azleg.gov

Interview with Senator Sylvia Allen

Q A

: How do you juggle between Senator Sylvia Allen and wife, mom, or grandmother?

: My children were married and out of the home when I ran for office. I was politically involved in grassroots when my children were younger where I could participate in things such as an organization called Eagle Forum which focused on educational, pro-life, and traditional family issues.

I could make phone calls, write letters, go to meetings, and talk to elected representatives. To be honest, I could not see myself being able to do this job if I had children in the home as it would be very difficult. As it is, I have a husband and if I didn’t have his support and willingness, I couldn’t do it.

He is so good and generous to allow and support me in this.

His way of being supportive of our country is by supporting me in this effort. When I go home I have to be careful that I put him first and that I try to really focus on my home and him and sometimes that is really hard because this is a 24/7 job. Constant problems and issues come up.

Q A

: Are there any projects you are currently working on in the Senate to improve AZ?

http://allenazsenate.com/bio.html

: I’m very Aconcerned about our open borders and the criminal cross border activity that is happening more and more increasingly. In fact, our border has been moved 100 miles north because Pinal County, the drug cartels and the human smugglers can effectively get through. The drugs are destroying our country while the human smugglers are making millions of dollars. The violent crime and beheadings are increasing and I’m trying to organize a state guard. The statute for one is on the books but no one has ever organized one that can be a supplement and backup for our sheriffs and local law enforcement. Another thing I’m working on is states rights issues. A lot of the problems we have are that the Federal Government has totally overreached its numerated powers listed in our Constitution. The way to fix that is for the states to stand up and push back. I’m working on bills that address the emergency we are in and stating that we do have a sovereign right within the borders of Arizona.

For example, under our police powers, in order to protect the health and safety of the public, we need to be able to go on Federal land to apprehend cross border criminals. Also, at the time our state was founded, the federal government never disposed of the lands and so they kept control of it.

We have a bill trying to push them to dispose of the lands so that we can be on the same footing as the other states where the federal government did not keep a vast majority of their land. Other bills I am working on are to help constituents.

One is cutting through the red tape for family adoptions so there is an easier path for those who wish to adopt.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

Q A

: Do you feel the Border is any safer now than in 2008?

: No, it definitely is not. The Obama administration has said that they put more people down on the border. Well yeah, they put some National Guard down there but then told them they can’t put bullets in their guns or arrest anyone; they are just down there to observe. They have not strengthened the border patrol and have not built a fence or used any of the technology we could use on the border. The way they do reporting now is that unless they send illegals back, they are not reported as crossing the border. Obama has now said that if illegals are stopped, they have to be let go unless they have committed a secondary crime such as theft, vandalism or stolen a car.

They are messing around with the internal policies of ICE which is making it very hard to get a handle on how many people are coming across the border. This makes it easy for them to say the border is more secure. It doesn’t matter what is true; only what people believe is true. That is the leftist motto and they never tell us the truth. If they can make us believe the borders are more secure but in reality they’re really not, then they have succeeded. I get reports weekly from one rancher on the border who sees at least 20 incidents of illegals every day. And he’s just one rancher. If you take into consideration the entire border, it’s not true that the border is more secure. What is true is that the gang task force reports that the violence is increasing and the drug cartels are building infrastructure within our state. They are going to become more powerful if we don’t face this and try to do what we can to start pushing back on them.

March 2012 13

Q A

: Are you hopeful that the Supreme Court will uphold AZ SB1070?

: Yes I am. They already upheld our employer sanction bill which was patterned after a federal law. The Supreme Court said that it is perfectly alright for the state to pattern laws after federal laws. That is exactly what we did with SB 1070; so I am confident. Now is not the time to weaken 1070. All we have to protect us from open borders is the internal enforcement laws that we have put in place. There is an element that wants open borders. They want the flow of people to come in here to settle and let us merge with Mexico. They don’t want immigration laws.

They don’t want to recognize that there is a border because they don’t want our form of government. They want a more Marxist, socialist form of government similar to some of the more radical Hispanic organizations that are all Marxist’s.

If you look at any of the George Soros organizations that help fund all of this, you can trace money back to all of these progressive organizations whose goal is to weaken America and create a one world government. So we’re battling that philosophy as well as the criminals which will resolve in the destruction of our country, I firmly believe.

Q A

: What can we expect from AZ legislators if it is not upheld?

: I think the only thing we can do is place these laws into our state constitution. We need to stand up to the federal government. We need to stand up and say ‘Listen, we have got to protect our state and we have the sovereign right to do that under the 10th amendment of the constitution’. To say immigration is a federal issue is false. If you look at the Constitution, there is very little in it regarding immigration. It mainly focuses on how a person becomes a citizen legally. It would be a terrible blow if the Supreme Court ruled against Arizona.

Q A

: Are you content with the handling of the Wallow fire and the plans made to manage the forests?

: I am not happy with what happened with the Wallow fire. I believe that the fire was allowed to burn just because they were using it as a way to thin, because it was so thick. And since it was in a wilderness area there is no thinning in those areas. The humidity and the environment changed so quickly and created this huge fire; and fire is a huge money making proposition for many people. I think

Fundraising Campaign All We Have Left is Change.

For over 2 years our all-volunteer board and team have been working with members “to empower Moms and Moms-at-Heart in preserving our Constitution, country and children’s future.” We would like to continue to expand the message and support Moms everywhere. But we need more than kind hearts to do so. The change you find this week can help fulfill our budget needs.

Look around… under couch cushions, in the dryer, under the dresser…

Lori’s kids would like to point out that children’s piggy banks are off limits… and donate your extra change! * Our budget has been very carefully thought out, and we have made every effort to economize where we can. These funds will cover needs such as software, bookkeeping services, state group and travel needs. There are also ongoing fees for the web domains, mail box and legal services.

As A Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots, Inc is a 501 (c) (4) entity under the IRS code Your donations are very much appreciated, however they are not tax deductible.

we have to get the health of our forest back. We have got to be aggressively thinning and we have to get rid of the excessive regulations that make it impossible to get these projects out on the ground. We need to quit waiting for Congress to appropriate tax-payers’ money to pay people to go and thin.

If we open this up, people will figure out a way to take that product and make something with it. There will never be enough tax-payer money to cover the costs of thinning. We have to go back to free market principles to do it. One of the bills I’m working on declares a state of emergency and if the state does not respond to the emergency, the county can come in and do what they are doing in Otero county NM. The wood that has been coming out of there is burned wood, but they are not putting up interior timber sales. This is mostly wood coming off 50 feet off the road. We need to be removing all this dead wood but the forest service says there is no industry to take it. I had an international importer tell me that he has countries needing the lumber. China would like it. Japan needs it to help rebuild their country. If there is a will, there is a way but we always let things stop us. No, just get out of the way and we’ll figure it out.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

Q A

: What would you say to encourage a woman/mother considering running for political office?

: The most cherished thing that I have is my children and family. I loved being a mother. I miss my children being at home but my message would be that whatever season you are in; embrace and enjoy it. There is always something you can do. Realize that once your children are raised there are numerous things you can do. Being a public servant is a wonderful thing. We need mothers and women who hold and love traditional values, realize the importance of our constitutional form of government, and understand how important that is to their children and grandchildren.

There are a lot of things you can do at home. The first thing you must do is be educated. You have to understand our principles. You’ve got to understand why America is exceptional; why America’s form of government is different; why the government we were given in 1776 is a miracle; and why that form of government has given us tremendous prosperity and freedom that we have been so blessed with. That is something you have to understand if you are going to be able to go out and defend and preserve it. I would encourage anyone to spend their time getting educated while you’re raising young kids. If you do decide to run for office, you need to be educated in those principles and have a lot of stamina, energy and perseverance to press through.

March 2012 15

Are We Greece?

The February 8th version of the Drudge Report includes a link to a story regarding Greece. The title reflects the dire condition their budget and economy are in by stating “There’s no more left to cut.” But unfortunately for Greece, as the questions rise regarding their ability to cut government spending, so does the concern of default and along with that, so do interest rates they pay on their debt. Higher interest rates require greater cuts, and on and on and on. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ europe/greece-theres-no-more-left-tocut-6660306.html The Congressional Budget Office recently released their baseline projections for 2012 and projections for 2013 – 2022. They are required by law to include all current law in their projections and in doing so they get some very interesting results. They show us going from a deficit of $1.296 trillion in fiscal year 2011 to “Primary Surpluses” in 8 of the next 10 years. And they show Debt Held by the Public as a % of GDP 16 MinuteMom Magazine

going from 67.7% in 2011 to 62.0% in 2022. This is hardly the fiscal crisis any of us would expect. http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12699 The CBO goes on to warn us not to use their very own projections. They outline 4 key policies built into our current laws that Congresses passes “fixes” for to ensure they won’t go into effect in the following year. Those policies are discussed as follows: “CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario shows the budgetary consequences of maintaining certain tax and spending policies that have recently been in effect. That scenario incorporates the following assumptions:  Expiring tax provisions (other than the payroll tax reduction) are extended [under current law, those expirations will boost individual income taxes in a variety of ways by amounts totaling $3.8 trillion from 2013 through 2022];  The AMT is indexed for inflation after 2011 [under current law, its parameters are fixed, and the number of taxpayers affected by the AMT will jump from 4 million in calendar year www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file

By Alan R. Davis Private Citizen & Patriot

2/8/2012 - 7:07 AM

Alan R. Davis Private Citizen Patriot Chillicothe, Ohio

2011 to 30 million in 2012]; Federal Budget In Billions of $s  Medicare’s payment rates 2011 2012 2011 %s for physicians’ services are Recipts Less Social Ins Receipts 1,484 1,628 51.9% held constant at their current 1,985 1,962 69.4% level [under current law, those Total Social Security, Income Security and Healthcare Outlays -895 -28.6% Less Social Ins Receipts -819 rates are scheduled to drop Net SS, IS and HC (1) 1,166 1,067 40.8% by 27 percent this March and 119 193 4.2% more in later years]; and  The Other Mandatory Descretionary (Including National Defense) 1,346 1,308 47.1% automatic spending reduc- Net Interest Outlays 224 7.9% 227 tions required by the Budget Total Spending Less Social Ins Receipts 2,859 2,792 100.0% Control Act do not take effect (Deficit) / Surplus -1,375 -1,163 -48.1% [under current law, they will impose reductions totaling (1) Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Health insurance subsidies,, MERHCF, Children's Health Insurance Program, about $109 billion a year startSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, Unemployment compensation, Earned income and child tax credits, Family supportb, Child nutrition,Foster care, Making Work Pay and other tax credits ing in January 2013]. “ and others.

The alternative projections Source: Tables 1-2 and 3-2 from the Congressional Budget Office 2012m Baseline Release "CBO Peoj 2012 Copy of BudgetProjections Excel WS" that the CBO created includes the assumption that Congress interest expense for borrowing more money gets extremely won’t ever let the laws requiring the above to go into effect. expensive. Defaulting on their debt payments becomes more That alternative set of projections shows huge deficits and likely putting those who bought their debt at risk. large increases in debt.

The decisions that we face as a country are extremely diffiBut the CBO does some things that are a bit dishonest cult. The longer we put those decision off, the more difficult to make the projections look as good as they do. They use things get. However, if we follow some people’s advice and unrealistically low values for the inflation assumption (1.6% just stop borrowing money with no tax increases, we have to average for 2012 – 2015 and 2.1% find IMMEDIATE cuts totaling 50% of our Net Spending. for 2013 – 2022). As we all know, even official inflation You can’t has been much higher than that in recent years. The second do that without huge cuts to defense and “entitlement” thing they do is use “alternative” definitions like “Primary spending. If you do it by going back to 2007 spending levels, Deficit” or that use “Public Debt” rather than Total Debt what happens to the fact we’ve added millions of people as the item being measured. These hide the real issues like to the Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment and Food consistent deficits and increasing debt.

Stamp “roles”.

We hear a lot of advice on how to solve our current budget Growth is certainly part of the answer. But waiting for problems. On the Conservative side they range from “Cut enough growth to bring in revenue to offset our spending spending to 2008 levels!” to “Stop Borrowing! No more increases is foolishness. And as we build higher and higher Debt!” Understanding the 2011 budget results gives us some debt, the task gets harder. insight on those solutions and possibly on why Congress The answer isn’t the one that the Congressional Budget refuses to act in a “prudent” manner”.

Office seems to have chosen. They’ve chosen to “play games” When we look at a slightly modified version of the budget with the inflation and interest rate assumption values so the results, we see we spend nearly twice as much as we bring real extent of the crisis won’t be known. They’ve chosen to in for non Payroll Tax and Unemployment Receipts. We come up with new ratio definitions that hide the extent of see that Net Interest Outlays account for nearly 8% of our the crisis. These kind of solutions is hardly a solution at all. spending and that over 40% of our spending goes for what Let’s get down to finding real solutions that address the crithe Federal Government calls “Social Insurance Programs”. sis head on.

Determining where to cut gets a lot more difficult than the That is, unless we’re already “Greece” saying “There’s no quick slogans and fixes some offer. (And remember, that more left to cut.” “block granting” to the states removes the expenses, but also removes the receipts from the above numbers, doing nothAlan R, Davis is married and the father of three children and ing to reduce current deficits.) soon to have 8 grandchildren/grand nieces or nephews. He conGreece has found that it is extremely difficult to make decitinues to fight for their future. Alan holds a Masters in Accounting sions that will actually bring them a balanced budget. And and has spent more than 30 years in the health care finance field.

He has been analyzing the federal budget since 2009. as they fail to do so and default becomes more likely, their As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012 17

Preserving your Bounty Jars filled with the bounty from the garden all lined up in a row: there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your hard work - from seed to harvest - safely preserved until next year’s harvest.

If you have never canned before or if you could use a refresher course, go to the National Center for Home Food Preservation web site and check out the free self-study course available there. In fact, the entire web site is a great resource – it presents tested recipes for canning and allows you to download a copy of the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, among other things. I would also suggest purchasing So Easy to Preserve, a 18 MinuteMom Magazine

375-page book containing more than 185 tested recipes, step-by-step instructions, and in-depth information for both the new and experienced food preserver. The book is available through the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Another book that is readily available where canning supplies are sold is the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, the only commercial canning book sold that follows the USDA standards. Be sure to read all the information in the front of the Ball Blue Book or the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning so you have a good foundation in home canning principles. www.AsAMom.org

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by Karen (Grainlady )

Little Things That Could Potentially Mean a Lot YY Always use up-to-date information and recipes, preferably recipes that have been tested for food safety. This means that they have been found to be safe after the food is processed and also after longer periods of storage time have passed. This will improve the safety and quality of the finished product. It is a good idea to use USDA sources or the Ball Blue Book. Finding information and on-line videos about canning methods or recipes does not mean that they are safe use. Some unsafe recipes and methods currently available on-line are canned butter, pumpkin spreads and fudge sauces, canning cakes and quick breads, and canning low-acid foods such as meat and green beans in a boiling water bath canner rather than a pressure canner -- none of these recipes or methods should be used. If you are in doubt about the safety of a method or recipe, contact your County Extension Office, and they will be happy to advise you.

YY “It hasn’t killed me yet” is not a good rule to follow when you are preserving food.

YY Canning jars are not designed to be used in an oven and can shatter, so avoid any baking or canning methods that use an oven and canning jars.

YY Use the correctly sized jar and process it accordingly.

YY Never make up your own canning recipes.

YY Avoid adding more ingredients than are indicated in the recipe, such as extra onions, chilies, bell peppers, or other vegetables to salsas. The extra vegetables can dilute the acidity of the preserved food and can result in botulism poisoning.

YY Never add more starch, flour, or other thickener to a recipe. This can slow the rate of heat penetration into the food, potentially undercooking it.

YY Clean first. Clean and sanitize your kitchen before canning. Wipe down all surfaces, cutting boards, sink, faucet, and the like, with a sanitizer (1 quart water + 1 t. liquid bleach in a spray bottle), and do not forget to wipe the handle on the refrigerator. This will help to eliminate transferring bacteria from a contaminated surface to your food.

YY Do not eat or smoke while canning. The hand-tomouth contact can lead to bacterial transfer.

YY Keep pets and kids out of the kitchen while canning.

You are dealing with potentially dangerous processes, large containers of boiling water, and hot jars that need your undivided attention.-Start canning when you are sure you will have enough uninterrupted time to complete the project. Wash produce under running water so impurities go down the drain.

YY For best results, use only canning jars, which are thicker and are made from tempered glass. Although As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

commercial one-trip jars can be used safely for water bath canning, they tend to shatter easily because the glass thinner than regular canning jars. Each jar lost represents an increase in cost. Furthermore, the threads on single-use jars may be imperfect for canning rings and their tops may be unleveled, preventing the lids from sealing properly. Never use a commercial one-trip jar in a pressure canner. Read the information in your user’s manual on the subject.

YY Jars may last for many years of use, but old and brittle jars can easily shatter and may be better used to store dry goods rather than for canning.

YY Use lids within two years of purchase. If you store them for longer than this, the sealing compound can dry out and not seal properly. The older your lids are, the greater their potential for failure. Do not store lids where there are extreme shifts in temperature and humidity.

YY Pour boiling water OVER the lids – do not place them in boiling water. In order to ensure that your lids are covered by the boiling water, use a canning lid rack for processing. Unless you use this kind of rack, lids may get stuck together, leading to improper sterilization and failed seals.

YY Sterilize your funnel and the tool used for expelling bubbles for ten minutes.

YY Do not use iodized salt or salt alternatives for home canning.

YY Do not double recipes.

YY Do not use an aluminum pan to heat high acid foods.

YY Begin counting the processing time when the water in the canner comes back to a boil after you have immersed the jars.

YY Have more boiling hot water available should you need to add water to your canner to maintain the suggested water level above the jars.

YY An electric kettle is good to use since it will not take up room on the stove and it heats water more quickly than a stovetop kettle.

YY Check your pressure canner each year before beginning canning and again if you have dropped it.

YY Make sure you know what your elevation is so that you can process foods for the correct amount of time.

For example, here in Kansas, elevations range from 75 ft. to 4,039 ft. above sea level, demonstrating that altitudes can be dramatically different even within the same state.

YY Make sure your stove has a large burner. The diameter of the canner should be no more than four inches wider than the diameter of the burner.

YY Check your user’s manual or the help hotline of your particular brand of stove before canning on a solid March 2012 19

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surface range. The top can discolor from high heat processing, which might also cause the cooktop to fuse with the pot or pan. The combination of heat and weight can also crack a solid surface cooktop.

YY After opening a jar, always boil low-acid canned vegetables for a full ten minutes or simmer for fifteen minutes to destroy any possible botulism toxins. Creamstyle corn, meat, and poultry should be simmered for twenty minutes and fish for fifteen minutes after bringing to a boil. Do not taste before boiling.

Methods of Packing Jars There are to methods used for packing jars: YY Raw packing means putting raw, unheated food directly into the jar and then adding boiling hot liquids. When using this method, pack the jar as tightly as possible because air will be lost during processing and the food will shrink. The exceptions to this rule are corn, lima beans, potatoes, and peas. These foods should be lightly packed because they absorb liquids and expand during heat processing.

YY Hot packing means cooking the food for a certain length of time and then putting the hot food into the jar along with the boiling hot liquid. Hot packed foods should be loosely packed because shrinkage or air loss have already occurred. Currently, this method is preferred over raw packing.

20 MinuteMom Magazine

Always follow recipe instructions. When in doubt, use the hot pack method, which yields better color and flavor in the food, reduces oxygen in fruit, provides a better pack, and allows more food to fit into the jar. In both methods, the jars should be filled with enough liquid to completely cover the food. Headspace, the amount of empty space between the top of the food or liquid and the underside of the lid, is important in canning. The amount of headspace is specific for each food, and failing to fulfill headspace requirements can lead to jars not sealing properly, overflowing jars during processing, or food discoloration.

Before closing the jar, be sure to remove any trapped air bubbles from the jar by running a plastic, silicon, or rubber knife into the contents a few times. Do not use a dinner knife because the metal can nick the glass. Gently move the knife through the jar’s contents to remove trapped air bubbles. Be aware that, after you have removed bubbles, you may need to add more liquid to the jar.

Wipe the rims of the jars clean and place the pre-heated lids on each rim. Screw on the ring fingertip tight. DO NOT over-tighten the rings, which will prevent the air from escaping the jar properly and could cause the lid to buckle.

Unsafe Canning Methods Several canning methods should not be used because they are no longer considered safe and do not eliminate the risk of pathogenic bacteria. There are new forms of bacteria, www.AsAMom.org

and stronger forms of bacteria than what we had to contend with even twenty to twenty-five years ago. A lot of time and testing of canning methods has improved food safety so choose only safe canning methods. Some unsafe methods include open-kettle canning, conventional and microwave ovens, dishwashers, slow cookers (Crock-Pots), or the sun. Steam canners are also not recommended. These are not the same as pressure canners. Steam canners do not heat foods to the same temperatures as water bath canners, which could result in food spoilage or the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Similarly, the use of paraffin wax to seal jams, jellies, and preserves is no longer suggested. This method is discouraged because small air holes in the paraffin can prevent the seal from being air-tight, allowing mold to grow. If you do use this method and notice mold growth, discard the entire contents of the container, not just the portion with visible mold, since mold spores are growing throughout the entire contents even though you cannot see them.

Years ago open kettle canning was a simple method whereby you filled a hot jar with hot contents, screwed on the lid without further processing and, as the jar cooled, the lid sealed. This method has two faults. First, one cannot assume that the food is safe simply because the lid is sealed.

Bacteria multiply in anaerobic (low-oxygen) conditions, such as sealed canning jar, forming toxins. Second, this method does not allow for the proper processing of foods according to their pH levels, as happens in a water bath canner or a pressure canner. Even high-acid foods such as jams, salsa, and fruit canned using the open kettle method have an increased risk of spoilage. There are additional risks due to today’s varieties of vegetables and fruits. Many varieties have been genetically altered and contain less acid than older varieties. This is especially true of tomatoes. It is essential to add an acid ingredient to tomatoes before processing in a water bath canner to assure they are acid enough.

Processing times have also increased in order to assure food safety than what you will find in old recipes.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

Before investing in canning equipment and canning foods…

You should consider: YY Canned foods are not considered suitable for longterm storage. It is suggested that they be consumed within one year of processing. For each additional year of storage, the nutrients remaining after the initial major nutrient loss due to the heat processing will continue to degrade an additional five to twenty percent per year. Thus, after several years in storage, your canning jars will be filled with empty calories with little nutritional value. Additionally, the longer you have your food in storage, the greater the opportunity for spoilage. A good practice is to consume all your homecanned foods by the end of spring, well before higher daytime temperatures might affect the flavor and texture of stored foods. By the end of spring, you will be enjoying fresh produce out of your garden again and jars of preserved foods just do not have the appeal they did in the winter.

YY Will your family like preserved foods?

YY Canning will not improve poor quality foods, so use the best and freshest food available.

YY Nearly have of vitamins in a food are lost within a few days of harvest if the food is not refrigerated. Within one to two weeks, even refrigerated foods lose half or more of their vitamins. Home canning is not a good fit for people who procrastinate.

YY You waste time, energy, and food by preserving more food than what you can realistically use in one year.

YY Optimal storage temperatures are between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. For each additional ten degrees, storage life is shortened.

YY Think about the cost-effectiveness of canning. You need to figure the cost of production, including water, fertilizer, tools, seeds, and equipment. If you purchase produce to can, add the cost of the produce to the cost of processing. Calculate the start-up cost for canning equipment. Canning is a hot business, so include not only the amount of energy it takes to heat process the food on the stove, but also the cost of a heavier load on the air conditioner.

YY Freeze-dried foods, which have a longer shelf-life and are higher in nutrition than canned foods, may make better long-term foods for storage if that is your food storage goal.

Despite all the apparent difficulties, advances in food safety, science, and technology have actually simplified the process of preserving food at home. With growing interest in gardening and local farmers markets, preserving your food may be a great way to save time and money while planning your menus.

March 2012 21

This month AAM is pleased to announce a new section of the MinuteMom Magazine that will focus on providing the background and foundational knowledge that you need to understand how our society has been transformed from a bastion of individual freedom to a culture of dependency and collectivism. This particular area of study has been a passion of mine for many years and I have spent tens of thousands of hours listening to university lectures, reading books, articles and papers and researching the roots of our societal and cultural decay. The time has come for me to filter, distill and disseminate what I have learned. This series marks the beginning of that project.

I have struggled for some time with the proper starting point for this endeavor. It is such a large and daunting task to try to explain something that has been in the works for hundreds of years, in a clear, concise and relevant manner. Add to that the sense of urgency that so many of us have, and it becomes even more intimidating. It is because of these factors that I have decided to just jump in. I am going to employ the same method I used to learn all this, the “gestalt” method. The basic idea behind this sort of high-level learning is to bombard the student with huge amounts of information, from different sources and with seemingly different purpose, and allow the natural process of the brain—to sort out and categorize—bring it all together into a coherent, and BROAD understanding of the situation.

22 MinuteMom Magazine

In each issue this section will have articles from well-known authors along wiht excerpts from books, lectures and quotes . I will highlight historical figures, philosophies and ideas that have influenced our current culture.

Throughout, I will insert commentary and point out areas of influence. The end goal is for you to have points of truth that will help you identify those manifestations of the destructive ideas that have invaded our culture. www.AsAMom.org

By Samuel L Blumenfeld Professional educators write a great deal these days about multicultural education but few among the lay public actually know what it is. Despite this widespread public ignorance, multicultural education is now an integral part of the American government school curriculum. In fact, our humanist educators now consider multicultural education to be so important that the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has given it a very prominent place in teacher education programs.

variations and diverse learning styles as a basis for the development of appropriate teaching strategies.”

Although NCATE’s requirements for teacher training, which became effective in January 1979, are quite explicit, nowhere in the NCATE’s publication is there a definition or description of what multicultural education really is. We get hints in the requirements.

We are told of “culturally diverse and complex human encounters” and “differential cultural settings.” We are also told that multicultural education has something What Is Multicultural Education?

The NCATE’s publication, Standards for the to do with racism, sexism, parity of power, values Accreditation of Teacher Education (July 1982), states: clarification, the transmission of values both manifest and latent, the dynamics of diverse culture, linguistic variations, etc.

“Multicultural education is preparation for the social, political, and economic realities How Is It Defined? that individuals experience in culturally But what does it all mean in language that you diverse and complex human encounters…. and I can understand? What does it mean to parents This preparation provides a process by whose children will be subjected to multicultural which an individual develops competencies education? What does it mean to the local school for perceiving, believing, evaluation, and board which will be required to implement a statebehaving in differential cultural settings. mandated multicultural education program in the local school?

“Provision should be made for instruction in multicultural education in teacher education programs. Multicultural education should receive attention in courses, seminars, directed reading, laboratory and clinical experiences, practicum, and other types of field exercises.

“Multicultural education should include, but would not be limited to experiences which: (1) promote analytical and evaluative abilities to confront issues such as participatory democracy, racism and sexism and the parity of power; (2) develop skills for values clarification including the study of the manifest and latent transmission of values; (3) examine the dynamics of diverse cultures and the implications for developing teaching strategies; and (4) examine linguistic As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

A rather comprehensive treatment of the subject can be found in the Spring 1984 issue of Theory Into Practice, the journal of the College of Education at Ohio State University. That issue contains 13 articles on multicultural education covering many aspects of the subject.

Multiculturalism is based on the notion that the traditional JudeoChristian model of American values is no longer valid as the

m is often of is l a r u t l u ts Multic the concep h it w d e t s en contra nd has be or a m is n io t l” assimila salad bow a “ a s a d n describe rather tha ” ic a s o m “cultural ot.” “melting p March 2012 23

model to be held up to children in the public schools.

These values are generally associated with white “As a descriptor, multiculturalism points to a Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, usually referred to as condition of numerous lifestyles, values, and WASP culture by its critics. The educators believe that belief systems.”

WASP culture is in decline and is not being replaced by another dominant model. In fact, the American How Is It Taught?

Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) And how is multiculturalism, therefore, to be taught, statement on multicultural education is entitled “No and what will be its desired results?

One Model American.” Ergo, many models will take its place.

“By treating diverse cultural groups and ways of life as equally legitimate, and by teaching A multicultural society is one made up of many about them in positive ways, legitimizing equally valid ideals that can serve as equally valid differences through various education policies models for young Americans. No one is required and practices, self-understanding, and where any longer to conform to the once dominant Judeoself-esteem, inter-group understanding Christian ideal, and the public schools are now and harmony, and equal opportunity are all required to convey this message to the students. promoted.”

For decades the compelling rationale for public education was that it provided the means of Americanizing the millions of different immigrants who came to these shores. It provided a common body of values for all Americans. But apparently that rationale no longer holds. According to Charles A. Tesconi, dean of the College of Education at the University of Vermont: “We all know by now that homogeneity has not and does not characterize American society. We know how great a myth the ‘melting pot’ turned out to be….American society, then is best characterized as a mosaic of an extensive, highly diverse array of cultural elements.

24 MinuteMom Magazine

Thus, multicultural education embraces much more than mere cultural pluralism or ethnic diversity. It legitimizes different lifestyles and values systems, thereby legitimizing moral diversity. The concept of moral diversity directly contradicts the Biblical concept of moral absolutes on which this nation was founded.

Yet, our public schools, in order to be accredited, are now required to teach that there are no moral absolutes, that every individual has the right to freely choose his or her morals, and that ethics are situational. The result has been moral anarchy.

Thus, American public schools are no longer to be used to inculcate a common set of moral and spiritual

www.AsAMom.org

values based on our Judeo-Christian heritage but are to be used to promote a plethora of competing values systems, with Christian fundamentalist values cleverly excluded from competition. In other words, the public school is now a market place of competing pagan and anti-Christian belief systems. The students have a choice, but the market is rigged. That, in a nutshell, is multicultural education.

How is multicultural education taught? It is not a course which is taught separately from the rest of the subject matter. It is, in reality, a world view which, in the words of Theresa E. McCormick, specialist in multicultural education at Emporia State University, “must permeate the total educational environment.”

America’s Way Is For Everyone While that consciousness was given to us by our founding fathers who, for the most part, were indeed white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, one does not have to be white, Anglo-Saxon, or even Protestant to accept it. There are many blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, Slavs, Catholics, Jews, etc., who accept it.

Becoming an American does not mean aping WASPS. It never did, and it never will. It means accepting the essence of what the founding fathers stood for and died for. That essence is founded on Biblical principles which include the concept of moral absolutes. The public schools now presume that blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians and other immigrant children are incapable of understanding or unwilling to accept the philosophy of the founding fathers. Therefore they won’t even teach it to them.

Moral Anarchy Starts Early That means that multicultural education, in the words of Sandra B. DeCosta, associate professor at West Virginia University, “must be carefully planned, organized, and integrated into all the subject areas.

The Results Of Multiculturalism But most emphatically it must begin withen children What kind of Americans will the public schools turn first enter school.” out? Americans ignorant of their nation’s founding principles, incapable of defending their country Thus it is now official policy in the government against foreign ideologies, adrift in a sea of moral schools to inculcate moral anarchy in American and cultural anarchy, at the mercy of fears, slogans, children beginning with grade one. It is now official and nuclear blackmail. policy of the government schools to deny that there exists a common value system know as Americanism Multiculturalism is also an important stepping – unless by Americanism you mean moral anarchy. stone to globalism, that concept of a future world government which the public schools are now Yet we know that Americanism does exist and does promoting more aggressively than ever. In an constitute the basis of American consciousness: the article entitled “Multicultural Education and Global conviction that this nation was created with God’s Education: A Possible Merger,” Donna J. Cole of help and blessings to demonstrate to the world that Wittenberg University writes: with the true God all good things are possible, and that without Him we will be consigned to the same “A multicultural global education would tyranny and misery that now afflicts the millions who address the basic concern of where the live under paganism or atheistic communism. individual fits into the mosaic of humanity and where others fit in the same mosaic….

During the recent celebration of the 100th (It) would aid students in undertanding that anniversary of the Statue of Liberty that concept of our membership in groups affects our values Americanism was expressed over and over again and attitudes….(It) would assist students in song and speech in three simple words: God in recognizing the need to be flexible and Bless America. Those three words acknowledge the adjustable citizens in a rapidly changing existence, efficacy, and sovereignty of the God of the world.”

Bible. They express the essence of Americanism, the peculiar consciousness that makes us different from The NEA of course endorses multicultural-global other peoples. education. Its resolutions of 1986 state: As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012 25

“The NEA believes that multiculturalglobal education is a way of helping every student perceive the cultural diversity of the US citizenry so that children of many races may develop pride in their own cultural legacy, awaken to the ideals embodied in the cultures of their neighbors, and develop and appreciation of the common humanity shared by all peoples of the earth.”

The purpose of globalism is to prepare young Americans to accept as inevitable and desirable a world, socialist government in which American national sovereignty will be surrendered for the greater good of “world peace and brotherhood.” In any case, multicultural-global education is another

good reason why parents must remove their children from the public schools. Social studies professors have rewritten American history to play down patriotism and national pride, and multiculturalism even denies the existence of such a thing as Americanism. Is this what American parents want their children to be taught in public schools? Probably not. But the sad truth is that they don’t even know it’s going on.

Dr Samuel Blumenfeld has spent the last 30 years writing about American education and seeking answers to such baffling questions as: Why is America experiencing a decline in literacy? He is, no doubt, one of the world’s leading authorities on the teaching of reading.

By Samuel L Blumenfeld As everyone knows, if you can’t read, you’ll be greatly disadvantaged in our high-tech economy. Yet, our public schools turn out thousands of students each year who can hardly read their diplomas. The problem is that our educators have been involved in a decades-old reading war in which two opposing methods of teaching are in battle: the traditional alphabetic-phonics method as opposed to the whole-word, or sight method that teaches children to read English as if it were Chinese, an ideographic writing system as opposed to an alphabetic one.

thousands of parents to teach their children to read in the proper phonetic way.

Last year I received a wonderful letter from a high-school teacher in Florida who has used AlphaPhonics to teach some of his potential dropouts to read. His success has been so astonishing that it calls it miraculous. He wrote, “You have to see it to believe it.”

The reason why it has been so successful is because the program uses no pictures and appeals directly It was in 1955 that Rudolf Flesch first exposed the to the left-hemisphere of the brain, the brain’s full extent of the problem in his best-selling book, language center, and thereby Why Johnny Can’t Read. In it he said, “The teaching creates a new sensation of of reading—all over the United States, in all the competence in a student whose schools, in all the textbooks—is totally wrong and left hemisphere had been left fallow by the school system. By flies in the face of all logic and common sense.” enhancing the brain power of Yet, the educators continued to use this faulty a potential dropout, he begins method of teaching in the schools. It is now called to realize that he can indeed “whole language.” Which is why I then devised succeed in his education, an intensive, systematic reading program, Alpha- and this gives him a new Phonics, that any parent could use to teach their sense of optimism when children to read at home. And it has been used by thinking of his future.

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By Diana Learn How often do you find yourself utterly frustrated after listening to a political speech, watching a “debate” on a news channel or even just eavesdropping on a heated conversation between to average people? If you are like me, the answer is WAY TOO OFTEN. The manner in which people communicate in our modern world is diametrically opposed to the thoughtful discourse of an era gone by. The reason is rather simple.

Modern rhetoric has replaced logical dialog often does win, even when it forwards blatant fallacy. in almost all communication.

Lets take a look at an example from the political discussion of In the days before progressive education, the day. The new debate point for the Left is that Republicans children were exposed to a rigorous classical want to take away access to birth control for women. This education that included instruction in logic. is being forwarded as a women’s health and women’s rights The word logic can be traced back to Greek issue and anyone arguing on the side of the Left has a series of roots and means “the art of reason with talking points that keep the dialog focused on those politically words.” Logical discussion is based upon charged words. reason and facts and is constructed in a way that builds truth upon truth. The very The problem with the entire discussion is that they have nature of logic implies an ongoing search created a Straw Man argument - the use of rhetorical patterns for truth and a willingness to change as new to misrepresent the position of the opponent. At no time principles are discovered. has ANYONE of ANY party attempted to deny access to birth control. The issue is and always has been, a matter of who Rhetoric, on the other hand, is what is pays for it. Conservatives, of course, find it outrageous that taught, encouraged and used, almost the Federal Government demand that tax payers subsidize exclusively, in our modern society. Rhetoric birth control. The Left wants to buy women’s votes. The is also a word with Greek roots, and it is battle is being fought retorically using emotional language defined as “the art of speaking.” Though and informal fallacies. The truth is wholly absent from the logic was once a pillar of the art of persuasive conversation. speech, modern rhetorical speaking places the emphasis on winning a debate or Since the prevailing worldview of our postmodern world is forwarding an idea regardless of its veracity. that of relative truth, or the absence of absolute truth, logic This brand of rhetoric, separated from logic has become largely irrelevant - and our ability to communicate and reason, can and very often does create effectively and honestly is one of the many victims. Think of confusion and error because it is not based this little nugget of information next time you cannot figure in discovered truth, but in desired outcome. out why a conversation frustrates you. Remember, logic always Even more harmful, rhetoric can, and very seeks truth. Rhetoric always seeks victory.

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By Diana Learn “I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile.

John Dewey is considered to be the father of modern, progressive education. Over the past 90 years, his influence has permeated and wholly transformed American elementary, secondary and higher education. John Dewey was a Fabian Socialist and was one of only 34 original signers of the Humanist Manifesto I in 1933. John Dewey studied in Germany and was an advocate for introducing the Frankfurt School (originally the Institute for Marxism) intellectuals to American higher education.

“I believe that education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction. …

“Through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move.

“I believe that when society once recognizes the possibilities in this direction, and the obligations which these possibilities impose, it is impossible to conceive of the resources of time, attention, and money which will be put at the disposal of the educator.

John Dewey was very young when he began his work in education theory and reform. He lived to be 93 years old, and was a prolific writer. It is because of his exceedingly large window of influence that he was so utterly successful in the transformation of the American philosophies of education.

“I believe it is the business of everyone interested in education to insist upon the school as the primary and most effective instrument of social progress and reform in order that society may be awakened to realize what the school stands for, and aroused to the necessity of endowing the educator with sufficient equipment properly to perform his task.”

An excerpt from “My Pedagogic Creed” written in January of 1897: “I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.

How much of his pedagogic creed was he able to implement over his career? I think we will find that he was enormously successful. We will discuss much John Dewey as this series continues.

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by Linda Kimball There are two misconceptions held by many equality-Frederich Engels wrote, Americans. The first is that communism ceased to be a threat when the Soviet Union imploded. The “All the...large and small nationalities are second is that the New Left of the Sixties collapsed destined to perish...in the revolutionary world and disappeared as well. “The Sixties are dead,” storm... (A general war will) wipe out all... wrote columnist George Will (“Slamming the Doors,” nations, down to their very names. The next Newsweek, Mar. 25, 1991) world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only reactionary Because the New Left lacked cohesion it fell apart classes...but...reactionary peoples.” (“The as a political movement. However, its revolutionaries Magyar Struggle,” Neue Rheinische Zeitung, reorganized themselves into a multitude of single Jan. 13, 1849) issue groups. Thus we now have for example, radical feminists, black extremists, anti-war ‘peace’ activists, By the end of WWI, socialists realized that something animal rights groups, radical environmentalists, was amiss, for the world’s proletariat had not heeded and ‘gay’ rights groups. All of these groups pursue Marx’s call to rise up in opposition to evil capitalism their piece of the radical agenda through a and to embrace communism instead. They wondered complex network of organizations such as the Gay what had gone wrong.

Straight Lesbian Educators Network (GSLEN), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), People for the Separately, two Marxist theorists-Antonio Gramsci American Way, United for Peace and Justice, Planned of Italy and Georg Lukacs of Hungary-concluded that Parenthood, Sexuality Information and Education the Christianized West was the obstacle standing in Council of the United States (SIECUS), and Code Pink the way of a communist new world order. The West for Peace. would have to be conquered first.

Both communism and the New Left are alive and thriving here in America.

They favor code words: tolerance, social justice, economic justice, peace, reproductive rights, sex education and safe sex, safe schools, inclusion, diversity, and sensitivity.

All together, this is Cultural Marxism disguised as multiculturalism.

Birth of Multiculturalism In anticipation of the revolutionary storm that would baptize the world in an inferno of red terror, leading to its rebirth as the promised land of social justice and proletarian As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

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Gramsci posited that because Christianity had been dominant in the West for over 2000 years, not only was it fused with Western civilization, but it had corrupted the workers class. The West would have to be de-Christianized, said Gramsci, by means of a “long march through the culture.” Additionally, a new proletariat must be created. In his “Prison Notebooks,” he suggested that the new proletariat be comprised of many criminals, women, and racial minorities.

Gramsci’s prescription and Lukacs’ plans were the precursor to what Cultural Marxism in the guise of SIECUS, GSLEN, and the ACLU--acting as judiciallypowered enforcers--later brought into American schools.

Building a base In 1923, the Frankfurt School-a Marxist thinktank-was founded in Weimar Germany. Among its founders were Georg Lukacs, Herbert Marcuse, and The new battleground, reasoned Gramsci, must Theodor Adorno. The school was a multidisciplinary become the culture, starting with the traditional effort which included sociologists, sexologists, and family and completely engulfing churches, schools, psychologists. media, entertainment, civic organizations, literature, science, and history. All of these things must be The primary goal of the Frankfurt School was to radically transformed and the social and cultural translate Marxism from economic terms into order gradually turned upside-down cultural terms. It would provide with the new proletariat placed in the ideas on which to base a new power at the top. political theory of revoltuion The Frankf urt School based on culture, harnessing Remember tha t from the Jo The Prototype new oppressed groups for the hn Dewey piece above? The In 1919, Georg Lukacs became faithless proletariat. Smashing re will be much Deputy Commissar for Culture religion, morals, It would also more on this g ro u o p f p seudo intelle in the short-lived Bolshevik Bela build a constituency among ctuals in the f u tu Kun regime in Hungary. He academics, who could build re! immediately set plans in motion careers studying and writing about to de-Christianize Hungary. the new oppression.

Reasoning that if Christian sexual ethics could be undermined among children, then Toward this end, Marcuse-who favored both the hated patriarchal family and the Church polymorphous perversion-expanded the ranks of would be dealt a crippling blow. Lukacs launched Gramsci’s new proletariat by including homosexuals, a radical sex education program in the schools. lesbians, and transsexuals. Into this was spliced Sex lectures were organized and literature handed Lukacs radical sex education and cultural terrorism out which graphically instructed youth in free tactics. Gramsci’s ‘long march’ was added to the love (promiscuity) and sexual intercourse while mix, and then all of this was wedded to Freudian simultaneously encouraging them to deride and psychoanalysis and psychological conditioning reject Christian moral ethics, monogamy, and parental techniques. The end product was Cultural Marxism, and church authority. All of this was accompanied by now known in the West as multiculturalism. a reign of cultural terror perpetrated against parents, priests, and dissenters.

Additional intellectual firepower was required: a theory to pathologize what was to be destroyed.

Hungary’s youth, having been fed a steady diet of In 1950, the Frankfurt School augmented Cultural values-neutral (atheism) and radical sex education Marxism with Theodor Adorno’s idea of the while simultaneously encouraged to rebel against ‘authoritarian personality.’ This concept is premised all authority, easily turned into delinquents ranging on the notion that Christianity, capitalism, and the from bullies and petty thieves to sex predators, traditional family create a character prone to racism murderers, and sociopaths. and fascism. Thus, anyone who upholds America’s traditional moral values and institutions is both racist 30 MinuteMom Magazine

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and fascist. Children raised by traditional values parents, we are told to believe, will almost certainly become racists and fascists. By extension, if fascism and racism are endemic to America’s traditional culture, then everyone raised in the traditions of God, family, patriotism, gun ownership, or free markets is in need of psychological help.

The pernicious influence of Adorno’s ‘authoritarian personality’ idea can be clearly seen in some of the research that gets public money.

Critical Theory does to societies.” (Intellectual Morons, p 15-16)

Critical Theory is an ongoing and brutal assault via vicious criticism relentlessly leveled against Christians, Christmas, the Boy Scouts, Ten Commandments, our military, and all other y l Theor a ic it r C e aspects of traditional nfus Do not co Thinking. This is American culture and al with Critic ample of society. r ex

yet anothe istortion that will ed e progressiv ure episod t u f a in d be feature anguage.”

L g in r o t s of “Re

“In Aug., 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million tax-payer funded study. It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed. Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives... suffer from ‘mental rigidity,’ ‘dogmatism,’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance,’ together with associated indicators for mental illness.” http:// www.edwatch.org/ ‘Social and Emotional Learning” Jan. 26, 2005)

The Orwellian cast of the pathologies named shows how far Gramsci’s long march has led us.

A corresponding and diabolically crafted idea is political correctness. The strong suggestion here is that in order for one not to be thought of as racist or fascist, then one must not only be nonjudgmental but must also embrace the ‘new’ moral absolutes: diversity, choice, sensitivity, sexual orientation, and tolerance. Political correctness is a Machiavellian psychological ‘command and control’ device. Its purpose is the imposition of uniformity in thought, speech, and behavior.

Both political correctness and Critical Theory are in essence, psychological bullying.

They are the psycho-political battering rams by which Frankfurt School disciples such as the ACLU are forcing Americans to submit to and to obey the will and the way of the Left. These devious devices are but psychological versions of Georg Lukacs and Laventi Beria’s ‘cultural terrorism’ tactics. In the words of Beria, “Obedience is the result of force...Force is the antithesis of humanizing actions. It is so synonymous in the human mind with savageness, lawlessness, brutality, and barbarism, that it is only necessary to display an inhuman attitude toward people to be granted by those people the possessions of force.” (The Russian Manual on Psychopolitics: Obedience, by Laventi Beria, head of Soviet Secret Police and Stalin’s right-hand man)

Double-thinking ‘fence-sitters’, otherwise known as moderates, centrists, and RINOs bear the imprint of these psychological ‘obedience’ techniques. These people-in some cases literally afraid of incurring the wrath of name-calling obedience trainers--- have opted to straddle the fence lest they be found guilty of possessing an opinion, one way or another. At the merest hint of displeasure from the obedienceCritical theory is yet another psychological trainers, up goes the yellow flag of surrender upon ‘command and control’ device. As stated by Daniel which it is boldly written: J. Flynn, “I believe in nothing and am tolerant of “Critical Theory, as its name implies, criticizes. everything!”

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reject these because these principles of liberty “are endowed by our Creator,” who made man in His image.

Cultural determinism, states David Horowitz, is “identity politics-the politics of radical feminism, queer revolution, and Afro-centrism-which is the basis of academic multiculturalism...a form of intellectual fascism and, insofar as it has any politics, of political fascism as well.” (Mussolini and Neo-Fascist Tribalism: Up from Multiculturalism,

by David Horowitz, Jan. 1998) It is said that courage is the first of the virtues because without it fear will paralyze man, thus keeping him from acting upon his moral convictions and speaking truth. Thus bringing about a general state of paralyzing fear, apathy, and submission-the chains of tyranny-is the purpose behind psychopolitical cultural terrorism, for the communist Left’s revolutionary agenda must, at all costs, be clothed in darkness.

Cultural Determinism The linchpin of Cultural Marxism is cultural determinism, the parent of identity politics and group solidarity. In its turn, cultural determinism was birthed by the Darwinian idea that man is but a soulless animal and therefore his identity is determined by for example, his skin color or his sexual and/or erotic preferences. This proposition rejects the concepts of the human spirit, individuality, free will, and morally informed conscience (paired with personal accountability and responsibility) because it emphatically denies the existence of the God of the Bible.

Consequently, and by extension, it also rejects the first principles of our liberty enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. These are our “unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Cultural Marxism must 32 MinuteMom Magazine

The antidote is courage and the light of truth. If we are to win this cultural war and reclaim and rebuild America so our children and their children’s children can live in a ‘Shining City on the Hill’ where liberty, families, opportunity, free markets, and decency flourish, we must muster the courage to fearlessly expose the communist Left’s revolutionary agenda to the Light of Truth. Truth and the courage to speak it will set us free.

Linda Kimball is the author of numerous published articles and essays on culture, politics, and worldview. Her writings are published both nationally and internationally. Linda is a team member of Grassfire, New Media Alliance, and MoveOff.

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By Diana Learn Several of this week’s hot news stories could not have been more timely. This premier AAMU Special Report, and subsequent volumes to follow are designed to provide a broad base of information across all the cultural disciplines. As I was writing for the “development of modern thought” sub-section, current events gave me the ultimate introduction to the essay.

the fact that ethicists were arguing in support of infanticide, was wholly offensive to just about everyone who ran their eyes across the shocking words.

The following day, an article with a similar moral dilemma, made the news. A man in Canada was After Birth Abortions and Bestiality SHOULD Be charged with cruelty to animals Legal… due to the ‘relationship’ that he has I am sure by now, most of you have read or at least with his dog. A long time advocate heard about the article “Ethicists argue in Favor of of bestiality, this man argues that ‘After-Birth Abortions’ As Newborns ‘Are Not Persons’” it simply should not be illegal to (http://tinyurl.com/7polbzo). In this piece, Australian love whomever or whatever one ethicists grapple with the morality of infanticide on loves. the basis of hardship on the family, unexpected birth results or a change in the family dynamic – some What most people will not have typical reasons a woman may chose an abortion. The the intellectual honesty to admit, basis of the discussion revolves around the question; however, is that in both of these when does a human being become a person? To this abhorrent cases, the ‘defendants’ point the authors write: are absolutely correct.

There is a logical and legal argument Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are for after-birth abortions and human beings and potential persons, but bestiality.

The “Journal of neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a Medical Ethics” response to the moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an outrage over the initial article individual who is capable of attributing to her (http://tinyurl.com/84ak7e3) own existence some (at least) basic value such explains it perfectly: that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.

Many people will and [...] have disagreed with these Merely being human is not in itself a reason for arguments. However, the ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many goal of the Journal of Medical humans are not considered subjects of a right to Ethics is not to present the life: spare embryos where research on embryo Truth or promote some one stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is moral view. It is to present permitted, criminals where capital punishment well reasoned argument is legal. based on widely accepted premises. The authors As would be imagined, this article, and in particular provocatively argue that As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

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there is no moral difference between a fetus and a newborn. Their capacities are relevantly similar. If abortion is permissible, infanticide should be permissible. The authors proceed logically from premises which many people accept to a conclusion that many of those people would reject.(emphasis mine)

the incremental course of history and philosophic thought. We MUST consider worldview in ANY discussion of culture/society.

More and more we are being told, and our kids are being taught, that history is not important, and certainly not relevant. Nothing The issue of the morality of after-birth abortions could be further from the and bestiality are both extreme positions that flow truth. History helps answer the naturally from more “modest” positions that have questions “who are we?” “where been accepted by our culture over time. Abortion did we come from?” and “how did used to be illegal. Then there were exceptions. Then we get here?” Without answers to it was ok in the first tri-mester; then the first two. these questions, it is impossible to Late term abortions were followed by partial birth understand our modern world. abortions. Why would the question of after-birth abortion surprise anyone? Why would the “moral line” Modern man lives in a world be drawn at partial birth? How can a few minutes of that is surrounded by a secular time or a breath or two suddenly change an act from monolithic consensus of thought a “right” to a crime? (worldview), but most people do not know what that consensus is, And, what of bestiality? Why should it be illegal to how they are affected by it or in love outside your species? Who determines what is some cases, that they are affected cruel versus loving to an animal? If it is ok to marry by it at all. The way we think is any human, why should a few chromosomes change the sole influence on what we do something from a “right” to a crime? and what we say. In order to be intellectually honest in how we These issues are the manifestation of the “slippery live our lives, we MUST analyze slope” that is all-to-often ignored, scorned or what it is that affects our thoughts completely dismissed when brought to the debate. and actions. Simply allowing the Now, regardless of attention paid or not paid to prevailing worldview to influence the cries of those defending classic values of moral your thoughts, without analysis, absolutes, many of the very perversions that were leaves you vulnerable.

You laughed off the table, are sitting in our headlines. will not be able to defend your positions because your positions So how did we get to this point? How is it that will come from a place of emotion intellectuals are sitting in academic lounges looking and not a place of truth. This goes for the exact point in a human life when it becomes a for EVERYONE of ANY worldview. “person?” Why can’t a man in Canada marry his dog? Through this series of articles, I What makes any of this right or wrong? It all seems hope to inspire each of you to so arbitrary. analyze the process by which you come to a truth or an absolute and And arbitrary defines our modern world to a tee. know exactly how it is that you Can we find out how we got to this point? My goal is know something is true or not to show, logically, that we can. We can trace the path true. Even the Bible does not teach of thought that has brought us to the current, surreal to believe blindly. No one should culture. carry a worldview that is based on blind faith.

How Do You Know What You Know?

It is impossible to make sense of our world Modern consensus of thought is today without a thorough understanding of different than in any time in history 34 MinuteMom Magazine

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People today, as a whole, think differently than they did 100 years ago. Prior to that time the vast majority of individuals - no matter what their “religious” views – lived their lives based on an assumption that truth could be discovered; that man using his reason and through rationalism could arrive at a set of principles that would explain life, its meaning and our place in the universe. Today, that hope has been largely abandoned. The consensus is that absolute truth is not only not knowable, but truth itself is everchanging – in other words, truth as one would think of it, does not exist. The only absolute in life is that there are no absolutes and that everything changes.

With this fluid view of “truth,” we are left with nothing – apart from man and his arbitrary ideas – upon which to build a society.

How did this happen?

The modern worldview was accepted first in Germany and spread geographically. It circulated socially from the Intellectual portion of society and then to the educated, middle class and on through the working class. It was conceived in the discipline of Philosophy and manifest itself through the artists - painters, authors and musicians - then filtered on to the general culture through graphics, drama, general cinema and finally through theology into our churches.

universe grew from a “big bang” of energy that is ever expanding and man evolved from “primordial goo.” While these theories dominate our culture, neither completely answers the questions because there is no scientific precedence for something to come from nothing, and the laws of physics deny order coming from chaos. And though the theory of evolution is accepted as fact, there is still no plausible explanation for the personality and individuality of man. Therefore, man finds meaning in his search for these answers and in his attempt to create a utopian society.

Alternatively, there is the Eastern New Age worldview that answers the questions by forwarding the idea that god is in everything and everything is god. The god energy created the world. We are not separate from the universe, but are in a constant state of flux from one reality to another within the universe. One’s life is a series of relationships within waves of change. Man finds meaning by Choosing Your Worldview searching inwardly for the god that The educated person will CHOOSE his or her resides in himself. worldview, and not simply have the consensus of family, work, school, education or even church Rounding out the 3 most common foisted upon him or her. This worldview, in order to frames is the Christian worldview, be sufficient to base your life actions upon, must which answers the questions with answer two very important questions. First, it must belief in an infinite, personal God. explain the complexity and order of the universe, This God created the universe, and and second, it must provide an explanation for the further created man in His image. personality and individuality of man.

The Christian God is reasonable, knowable, interested and involved The modern secular worldview attempts to answer with His creation, and as such man these questions with science. There is no god. The has the reasonable expectation to be able to discover and learn the truths Diana Learn is a small business owner, of the universe. The Christian God homeschooling mom and the Director of has communicated with man and Education for As A Mom. As an avid observer has given absolute truths in regards of culture and the decline of American to moral and civil conduct. Man finds education, she is dedicated to enlightening meaning in communication with his others to the root causes of our societal decline in the context of worldview and God and through the discoveries of philolosophical thought.

His creation.

To be continued...

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On the Church, the Military,

by Fay Voshell The heart of America resides in its free institutions.

In a republic committed to freedom, the church and the military, two of the country’s most powerful organizations, must be allowed to construct and to follow the ethical guidelines, codes of conduct, internal rules, and hallowed rituals they themselves create without interference from the federal and state governments.

In other words, the military --with self-limiting exceptions its specific duties and focus may require -- and the Church must have the freedom to define themselves, and must have the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights without qualification to all Americans.

If both are not allowed by an increasingly arrogant administration to retain the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they risk losing their authentic and free consciences entirely.

In turn, when the conscience of an institution is corrupted and/or hijacked by another ethical 36 MinuteMom Magazine

paradigm, it loses its unique moral identity and purpose and is at the service of an alien ethos. It becomes the tool of another force, regardless of whether or not it retains emptied symbols and rituals.

The free conscience of the Marine Corps, for example, as in other branches of services, resides in two main places.

First, the corps itself has ethical and spiritual codes of conduct every Marine is supposed to follow: The Corps is abodood of Marines. He has become, and will always remain, part of a mystical fellowship of valor. He must comply with hallowed rituals. He must conform to an uncompromising code of honor, discipline, and personal integrity.

That spiritual ethos and brotherhood enjoined by those in the Corps is summed up in the Marines’ prayer, which in turn is movingly portrayed in this video.

Second, the individual conscience of the soldier must remain free. www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file

and the Descent into Tyranny

The mentors of the spiritual ethos of the individual soldier are its commanding officers and, perhaps more especially, its chaplains. Chaplains in particular are the spiritual guides of the soldier’s individual conscience. They are the ones who share the soldier’s hardships, providing spiritual strength and comfort in times of duress, whether it is on the beaches of Normandy, in the jungles of Vietnam, in the deserts of Iraq, or in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. Chaplains are with America’s warriors in life and in death.

To that end, they must be free to proclaim the ethos undergirding the faith and to instruct individual adherents to the faith without interference by the secular state.

But the conscience of people of faith, including military chaplains and members of our military, is increasingly threatened by the anti-religious sentiment of our current administration, which is seeking effectively to silence chaplains who are speaking out about the overreach of the government’s health care mandates concerning birth control and sterilization.

The mandate objected to by military chaplains, as noted in a previous article for American Thinker, is one which insists that the Catholic Church provide access to health insurance containing provisions for abortifacients and sterilization to all employees of its institutions.

The particular object of the wrath of the executive branch involved the reading by Catholic chaplains of a letter opposing the mandate to soldiers. One particular line in the letter was objected to by the chief of chaplains, who said he was concerned that the statement “We cannot -- we will not -- comply with this unjust law” was a call for civil disobedience.

Not content with admonition of military chaplains who dared speak out against the edict, the administration also sought to censor Archbishop Timothy Broglio, archbishop for military services, who called the health care injunctions “unjust.”

Broglio replied to efforts to censor his protests with a strong statement to Catholic soldiers: It is imperative that I call to your attention to an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be ‘of, by, and for the people,’ has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people -- the Catholic population -- and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faith. It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle.

Is Archbishop Broglio’s defense of freedom of conscience to be seen as a seditious call to insurrection? Are U.S. military chaplains calling for mutiny among the ranks?

This administration seems to think so.

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But since when is it insurrection to follow the principles of one’s faith, refusing to obey a law against one’s conscience, and particularly a mandate having to do with birth control and sterilization? Just how is the might of the military compromised by soldiers who object to abortifacients?

The individual soldier must follow orders of his superiors and commanding officers as regards his duties as a soldier.

He is not required to sacrifice his conscience in matters of faith and practice of his religion.

If a chaplain can be commanded to change his archbishop’s letter calling a government policy unjust; if he can be called seditious for reading the letter; if he can be commanded to change or expurgate the words of his spiritual superior, the archbishop; if the archbishop himself can be commanded to censor statements about Church doctrines and practices, then religious freedom and free speech in this country are dead, and no American is safe from attack by his own government.

The attack on Catholic chaplains, and by implication on every other chaplain who dares resist government directives against conscience, is especially ominous when viewed in combination with the recent National Defense Authorization Act. As Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi points out, the law allows “seditious” Americans to be detained indefinitely if they fit the fungible and vague definition of “terrorist” as outlined by that law.

No American can walk free when “terrorism” and “sedition” are so broadly defined that to call a measure “unjust” is viewed as seditious and as an incitement to insurrection. No citizen dare speak out against the current administration, including matters of faith and religious practice, without fear of repercussions that include condemnation without trial and incarceration without an end.

It is only fair to ask what happens when the military is subject exclusively to the state’s “conscience,” centered in and proclaimed by one branch of government and/or one man.

When only power matters and commands must be followed without regard to ethics, anything is possible, and anything can be done without the restriction of conscience.

War is always a terrible enterprise, but when it is undertaken by soldiers whose consciences are in every aspect completely in thrall to the dictates of a given government, it is Hell indeed.

Certainly we have enough examples from history of conscience-cleansed troops who claimed that “I was only following orders.”

Let’s be clear: the concern on the part of radical secularists attacking the Church and the military is not the danger of insurrection. The true goal is the replacement of the current spiritual ethos of the American military and even the Church with a radically secular ethos. It is the subjection of March 2012 37

A wise woman once had the dream to change the lives of women for the better.

Join me in sharing in the commitment of caring and community.

That is Mary Kay Ash’s legacy.

Let’s all make a difference - one woman at a time. conscience to the boot of the state.

The concern is not that marauding Christian soldiers will march against their own commanders and move to take Washington by force because they don’t believe in sterilization. The true goal is the imposition of an ethos alien to all the longstanding traditions of all branches of the armed services. The goal is to mold the U.S. military into duplicates of other institutions that have been captured by extreme secularists -- institutions like the public schools, academia, and the mainstream media.

Behind the threat of the executive branch is the 800pound gorilla -- that none other than the federal government’s executive branch, which adheres largely to the ideology of radical secularism, is to act as the conscience of the individual, the Church, or the military.

When the attacks on freedom of speech and religious liberty are coupled with the dangerously imprecise National Defense Authorization Law, the nation is faced with a poisonous mix that could well prove fatal to liberty.

If American Christians and others of faith, including those in the military, don’t rise up against the tyrannous conduct of this administration, they shouldn’t be surprised when their local priests, pastors, or chaplains are hauled away to prison for teaching what the Church believes.

People of all faiths must not remain silent.

It is long-lasting institutions with their own code of ethics, 38 MinuteMom Magazine

tribunals, and tools for interior self-examination and reform which are the ballast of our Republic. Institutions like the church and the military provide an overarching framework that resists the political vagaries of a given administration, the nostrums of a particular president and Congress, and the extremes of radical fringe groups seeking to impose their will.

When the state tries to seize control of either, not only does it trample on the freedom of the Church and the military, but it jeopardizes the state itself. For a monopoly of ideological force, ethical or otherwise, may appear invincible at the outset, as did the SS controlled by fascist ideals of the Third Reich.

But in the end, a government without free institutions which act independently to correct, temper, and resist the monopolist impulses of an all-powerful state will find its moral strength quickly dissipating.

Then begins the descent into tyranny.

Reprinted with permission Fay Voshell was selected as one of Delaware’s Republican “Winning Women” in 2008. She holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her the Charles Hodge prize for excellence in systematic theology. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com.. www.AsAMom.org

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Choked With Weeds “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

This was a line from a popular song a few years ago. Unfortunately, it applies to freedom.

Freedom is always bought with a hard-fought struggle and is lost through indifference and apathy. It is a rare and prized possession that no group in the history of the world has managed to hold on to...yet. History teaches us that once it is lost, sometimes it takes many generations before it is won back.

In 1770, just six years before America proclaimed independence, a Scottish professor of history by the name of Alexander Tytler made the following conclusion from his years of researching world history and civilizations: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [a gift] from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes 40 MinuteMom Magazine

for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”

Where do you think America is right now?

The beautiful Garden of Liberty most of us have grown up in is increasingly being overrun with weeds. At first they were small and barely noticeable. Maybe we assumed weed pulling was someone else’s job or maybe we were simply too busy enjoying ourselves to bother with them.

Whatever the reason, more and more Americans www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file

By Marlene Peterson Home Makers for America Vice-President www. homemakersforamerica.org

are waking up to the reality that we’ve allowed the weeds to get out of control and we find ourselves choked with them.

Massive debt, corruption, and disregard of Constitutional principles are sapping the nutrients from our soil and are winding around and binding the healthy plants.

Some think we can free ourselves by chopping away at the leaves. If we regulate this or deregulate that or adjust the interest rates or vote a Republican or a Democrat into office or raise or lower taxes, then we can get back to pursuing our happiness. But every experienced gardener knows the only way to get rid of a weed is to pull it out altogether by the roots while simultaneously carefully nurturing and strengthening the healthy plants.

One of the biggest challenges our nation faces is that we no longer agree on what a weed is that needs pulling and a plant that needs saving. Many of our citizens favor comfort and security over liberty. The great Scottish freedom-fighter, William Wallace, would chide us with the same words he used for his countrymen: “...you choose base slavery with safety rather than honest liberty with danger.”

If a love of liberty is not the overriding desire of our hearts, we will follow the same path of destruction as other great civilizations that made the same fatal choice. The great historian, Sir Edward Gibbons, drew this conclusion about the downfall of Greek civilization: “In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.”

His last line sums up why a people drift away from liberty.

Freedom requires personal responsibility. A free person must look to himself for solutions and accept the consequences of his choices. It’s risky business. It is human nature to shift that responsibility on to someone else; someone who can manage our lives and fight our battles for us.

We focus on healthcare plans rather than living a healthy lifestyle; we prefer Social Security over the discipline of a personal savings account; we would rather have a welfare system than personally involving ourselves with someone who is struggling.

When the Hebrews were brought to the Promised Land, a goodly land flowing with milk and honey, God’s greatest desire was that they live as a free people. They weren’t very good at it and they decided that their problem was they just needed a better manager. They wanted a king “that we also may be like all the nations; and that our King may...fight our battles.”

We can read how that turned out. Eventually, they became so weak as a people that they were overrun and the few who weren’t destroyed outright were carried off into captivity.

How will our story end?

That depends on how many will choose freedom over As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

comfort and security. The battle is over if liberty is no longer valued by our people.

We are facing an energy crisis. But it has nothing to do with oil. It’s a human energy crisis brought about because we, as a people, are no longer thinking like free people. A free people are self-reliant and resourceful. Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz, longed for home, like we all do. She heard there was a great and powerful wizard who could help her get there. She picked up three friends along the way to Oz who also sought deliverance from their problems from this same great wizard. In his presence, they felt fearful but willing to do anything he breathed from his fiery mouth.

Although their lives were in peril, they pressed forward to complete their designated tasks only to discover that, when the curtain was peeled back, there was no magical wizard with superhuman wisdom and power to grant such things.

At the controls of the great illusion stood a little man who possessed nothing they didn’t already have. He was just like them. It turns out they possessed the brains, the heart and the courage to solve their problems all along.

Dorothy didn’t need a wizard to go home and neither do we.

Americans are the only ones who can solve America’s problems. We just need to be reminded that we already have the brains, the heart and the courage to do what we need to do. By remembering that, we will release the kind of human energy that will get us moving forward again.

David Starr Jordan, a former president of Stanford University, left us this wisdom: “If the experiment of government by the people is to be successful, it is you and such as you who must make it so.

The future of the Republic must lie in the hands of the men and women of culture and intelligence, of self-control and of self-resource, capable of taking care of themselves and of helping others. If it falls not into such hands, the republic will have no future... The problem of life is not to make life easier, but to make men stronger, so that no problem shall be beyond their solution....The remedy for oppression is to bring in better men who cannot be oppressed.”

Becoming stronger men and women who cannot be oppressed is our work at hand. Such men and women will be able to start untangling us from the weeds that choke us.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next.

Virtue is doing it.

Marlene Peterson is the mother of nine children and grandmother of five. She serves as VP of Homemakers for America and is Founder of Libraries of Hope.

She and her husband, Brent, reside in Appomattox, VA. March 2012 41

Once Again…

By Alan R. Davis Private Citizen & Patriot

42 MinuteMom Magazine

deficits for the ten years (2013 – 2023) will total $3.1 trillion leaving us with “Debt Held by the Public” of $15.3 trillion in 2022. That sounds bad, but not nearly as bad as the financial crisis we’ve been led to believe we are experiencing. How can that be?

Projection Rules: The CBO office makes its projections based on current law. That gives Congress a baseline to start with and allows them to better understand the consequences of legislation. That’s the intent, but what’s actually happening? Congress passes laws that impact future years regardless of whether then ever intend to allow those laws to take effect. They then come in and make 1 year changes to the laws that impact the coming year’s budget but leave the law in place for the remainder of the year’s, pretending like the changes will actually take place.

There is no better example of this than the www.AsAMom.org

Photo morgue file

(The following was written after a review of the CBO’s January 2012 baseline assumptions and projections.)

Once again the Federal Government, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Congress have proven how out of touch with reality they are. Once again they put out budget statements that any reasonable and knowledgeable person would find laughable if it weren’t so important. And once again the CBO is giving cover to Congress and the White House by putting out baseline projections that have a zero percent chance of coming about. Yet these projections will drive Washington’s discussion regarding the urgency for change and the impact of pending legislation. My problem is “Where do I start in order to make this clear?”

Projection Highlights: The CBO projects that the 2012 deficit will be just under $1.1 trillion in 2012 and quickly decrease to $585 billion in 2013. They project that

changes that were made to the laws governing Medicare related to payments to physicians. In order to reduce Medicare expenditures and make the program more affordable, Congress passed legislation that included an annual “reduction” in the rates paid to physicians. But there’s a concern that reducing payments to doctors will cause many of them to stop taking Medicare patients. As a result, at the end of each year Congress passes a one year “doctor fix”. That legislation says that for the coming year we won’t apply the reduction factor, but it is left in place for all future years. This has gone on long enough that the required reduction is 27%.

Do any of us believe that we will ever see it applied? And if it is applied, how many doctors will stop taking Medicare patients? Yet the CBO projections are based on current law and therefore apply the full reduction to future years, reducing the projections for future years by “saving”(?) hundreds of billions of dollars.

The CBO narrative outlines four (4) such areas of concern: - Expiration of the “Bush partial Repeal of the Clinton temporary tax increases” (The 10 year impact is estimated at $3.8 trillion dollars.)

- The alternative minimum tax (AMT) was put in place to ensure that the wealthy (and not quite so wealthy) don’t get to take advantage of the legal tax credits and deductions to the same extent that less wealthy individuals do. The threshold for determining the income level it’s applied to was never indexed for inflation. Each year Congress passes a one year AMT “fix”. It’s estimated that the AMT will apply to 30 million tax payers in 2012 compared to only 4 million in 2011.

- Medicare physician payments (see comments in above paragraph) - The Budget Control Act that was recently passed requires significant cuts to Defense and other spending. They total approximately $109 billion a year starting in January 2013.

Congress is already scrambling to see how they can modify the impact of that Act. Combined, these four items have a huge impact on the size of the deficits the CBO projects, making the baseline projections meaningless. That makes anyone who talks about those projections as if they were real, quite foolish.

There are other items that are required by law (and reflected in the projections) that the CBO didn’t highlight. One of those relates to COLAs (Cost of Living Adjustments).

A prime example is the Social Security program. It has a threshold for inflation (3.0%) that must be met for any increase in benefits to be given. The CBO is projecting inflation not to exceed 2.3% over the next 10 years. That means their projections include no cost of living adjustments for Social Security recipients during that entire period. In the past few years Congress has decided that wasn’t “fair” and As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

each year has passed one year legislation to deal with it.

Those “fixes” aren’t built into either the CBO’s baseline or alternative scenario.

Context: Next, it’s important to give some context to the projections. There’s no better way to demonstrate that than to look at the projected inflation rate (CPI-U All) for 2011. Actual inflation for 2010 was 1.6%. The WH OMB and CBO both projected inflation would be below that in 2011 (WH OMB = 1.3%). By the summer they finally caught up with the rest of the country and realized their projections for inflation missed the mark. The WH OMB increased their projection to 2.8% and the CBO increased theirs to 2.9%. Inflation for 2011 finished at 3.9% (Sep. to Sep.) or 3.2% (Dec to Dec). The CBO is projecting inflation to be 1.7% in 2012 and average 1.6% for 2012 – 2015. Many private economists with banks and industry are concerned with hyper-inflation, rather than low inflation rates the CBO economists came up with..

Key Assumptions and Basic Economics: The Congressional budget office is projecting the following for the key assumptions: - Growth: Significant; Annual Average = 4.7% Maximum Annual = 6.3% - Unemployment: Improving; Annual Average = 6.7% Minimum Annual = 5.3% - 91 Day Treasury: Low; Annual Average = 2.3% Maximum Annual = 3.8% - 10 Year Treasury: Low; Annual Average = 4.0% Maximum Annual = 5.0% These assumptions are actually quite optimistic, especially considering recent trends. So we have strong growth, improving unemployment (through increased employment) and low interest rates built into the CBO projections. Basic principles of Economics tell us that each one of those adds to inflationary pressures. So what does the CBO project for inflation realizing that inflation was 3.9% for the fiscal year 2011?

- Inflation: Low; Annual Average = 2.0% Maximum Annual = 2.3% The CBO appears to believe that the basic principles of economics will be suspended for the next decade and we will experience inflation levels we haven’t seen in modern history.

But the inflation assumption values are key to their projections due to compounding and interest rates. Low values compound much slower over 11 years than do higher values making “out year” projected deficits appear much smaller than they otherwise would. And interest rates are “tied” to inflation expectations so by using low assumptions for inflation allows them to use low interest rate assumptions.

As a reminder, as recently as 2004 – 2007 the Federal March 2012 43

CPI-U

(Historic - Budget and Baseline) 7% 6% Trendline?

5% 4%

3% 2%

1% 0%

-1%

Source: ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt Historic Numbers represent Sept. to Sept. inflation

-2% 1990

1995

2000

Actual

2005

2012 Bud Max.

Reserve Board increased the Fed Fund rate in order to fight inflation. They were concerned with the return of high inflation as they saw it rising, with it actually averaging over 4.5% in 2005. In July of 2004 the Fed Fund rate was under 1%. They began increasing it in August reaching over 5% in 2005. It was still as high as 5.26% in July 2007. Despite the dramatic increase in interest rates which resulted in an initial drop, inflation once again averaged over 4.5% in 2008. The financial collapse of 2008-09 caused inflation to decrease for a period of time, but it was back approaching 4.0% in fiscal year 2011 (3.9%). (Inflation rates quoted are for CPI-U - Sep to Sep.) To get a better understanding of the scope of the understatement, one can look at what the compounding factor is for the 11th year. In the current CBO projections it’s 1.24%.

(Things will cost 124% more in 2022 than they did in 2011.)

The “11th year compounding factor has exceeded 1.30% each year since 2000. It averaged 144.5% for the eight (8) years President Clinton was in office (1993 – 2000). During those years we had actual control over our spending and ran surpluses for 3 years straight. Since inflation is usually related to spending and debt, shouldn’t we expect to see inflation increasing, not at levels we normally experience during times of recession?

The CBO report includes the following statement: “As the economy’s output approaches its potential later in the decade, inflation and interest rates will rise to more normal 44 MinuteMom Magazine

2010

2015

2020

CBO 2012 BL Projection

levels.” When they refer to “more normal levels” they are referring to the values they projected for years 2016 or 2017 and beyond. Yet when doing any historical or statistical analysis, the values they use for those years are significantly understated from what would otherwise be viewed as normal!

Creative Definitions: Go back twenty (20) or thirty (30) years ago and see if you find the terms “Primary Deficit or Surplus” and “Public Debt” used when talking about our Nation’s budget. Instead you’ll find terms like “Deficit or Surplus” and “National Debt”. Washington has come up with these new terms to fool anyone foolish to actually listen to what they say.

Primary Deficit: If I told you that we were going to run 8 surpluses in the next 11 years what would you say? But that’s exactly what the CBO shows. The President and CBO have started talking about “Primary Deficit/Surplus” (the results before considering Net Interest Outlays). Isn’t that like talking about your personal budget before considering your house or rent payment? I bet we’re all running family budget surpluses under that definition.

But Washington has invented that term so they can brag about their accomplishments (budget surpluses) despite the oncoming tidal wave of Interest Outlays! Even under their unrealistically optimistic “baseline” projections with all its gimmicks, they’re showing continued deficits through 2022. www.AsAMom.org

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 

               

Paperback: List $12.99 - $11.00 Audio Book: List $24.99 - $20.00 Audio only downloads also available: www.longingforeden.com

Debt Held by the Public: The new standard that Washington holds itself to is Public Debt as a % of GDP. Were told we’re approaching the levels that were reached at the end of WWII. And the CBO tells us that we’ll be at 62% of GDP in 2022 if we apply current law or 94% in their alternative scenario. What the CBO doesn’t tell us is that after WWII Public Debt accounted for 90% of our National Debt. That began to change significantly after a Democrat controlled Congress allowed the Treasury Department to borrow funds from the major trust funds like those associated with Social Security and Transportation. Recently Public Debt has been as low as 65% of the total National Debt.

The CBO highlights Public Debt, leaving you to search for the projection for “Total Debt”. That’s why you see a number like $15.3 trillion in debt for 2022 when we have already reached that number in 2012.

The “tipping point” that is often talked about is when debt equals 100% of GDP. We’ve already reached that point. The only things that are keeping us from reaping the consequences of that are the facts that: o the FRB is keeping interest rates artificially low o Europe is in such a financial crisis.

Otherwise the Interest on our National Debt would be dramatically higher and our deficits even bigger than it currently is.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

Summary: Once again Washington is using values for the assumptions that drive our Federal budget that are so unrealistic that there is no chance they’ll come about. Once again they have produced projections based on laws they don’t intend to allow to go into effect. Once again Democrats will tell us that things aren’t really as bad as Republicans are telling us and that more spending, not budget cuts is what is really needed. Once again Washington elites will tell us that the Tea Party is over reacting and we shouldn’t listen to them.

Once again the President will talk about how his policies have turned Deficits into Surpluses (Primary of course) and that taxing the wealthy is the answer.

Once again the think tanks will do their analysis, totally missing the importance of the distortions that Washington calls real. Once again the media will spin things their way without reporting the crisis that’s just getting worse. Once again most citizens and voters will get confused by all the rhetoric and spin. Once again people will look to Washington for more money and more solutions to the problems they face. Once again I’ll send out some packages that will be quickly forgotten, if even read at all.

And once again we’ll speed ever closer to the edge of the cliff. Or do I actually feel the free fall starting already? My real problem is, few seems to understand how truly important this is. Few seems to really care.

March 2012 45

YYValues

Virtue

The George Washington Challenge

“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come (Proverbs 31:10, 25).” These scriptures shed light on the biblical view and importance of virtue in women, but what about the virtue of men? In order to see the parallels and impact of both, I pose the question in a similar biblical tone: Who can find a virtuous man? For he is priceless! He fears God and cleaves to truth.

Duty and honor are his shield and righteousness doth cloak his head and protect his family.

Have we forgotten the importance of this value in the lives of both men and women? It isn’t often that we hear or think of virtue regarding men. We usually hear of it in terms of chastity or morality with respect to women. But it is necessary in the lives of all people and is available to all who seek it. Virtue is an anchor that secures a person to that which is right and prevents them from drifting with the tide of society. It is the means from which pure lives are patterned. A virtuous person is undefiled by the precepts of mainstream society, and as a result, has a purity unparalleled in the world.

Unfortunately, this value is becoming increasingly rare as people pull themselves further away from what is right and good.

Consequently, most of the ills in society can be traced back to the lack of virtuous men and women. Virtue is an adherence to a strict moral code or standard of right. This is something that is missing in the world today. The current situation in the Middle East is the consequence to a nation where virtue is absent. Where a man has no virtue, you will see the line between right and wrong severely blurred or erased altogether.

Those without virtue follow the dictates of lust and are led easily down a path of destruction.

As a result, we are witnessing the unconscionable actions of individuals who use no parameters to conduct their lives.

Similarly, here in America, we are witnessing the very breakdown of society because of the lack of virtuous and honorable citizens. We are surrounded with the resulting ills of faltering virtue. These ills are seen in families, in government and in society. There are same-sex agendas 46 MinuteMom Magazine

in every state of the union. The laws regarding same-sex marriage are changing almost faster than we can oppose them. Child abuse continues to plague our nation and pornography’s pervasiveness continues to destroy lives. There is confusion about gender roles and the importance that both men and women play in the lives of their children. There is alarming concern that simple childlike curiosity regarding sexuality, is labeled gender confusion, and children’s lives are permanently altered. There is a fog approaching, one that will blind even the most well-meaning citizen, if we are not watchful for those things that manipulate right and wrong and target our virtue for defeat.

This manipulation into what God has established is wrong. But, what is wrong to one group is just politically incorrect to another.

As a result, we are seeing a faltering ideology that we should control and change what God has established. The danger in this in a country founded upon the merits of Christianity, is that once we have separated ourselves enough from God, we will be left to our own destruction. It has happened before, and it will happen again, if we do not instill virtue back into the lives of our people.

Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration of Independence), said, “The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.”

Without religion, without virtue, we have an ever-increasing acceptance of deceit and lies in our communities, and our government.

The leaders of our nation have veered so far off course with respect to what is right, and virtuous, that we as citizens have only two choices.

We either align ourselves with the new course our government has taken, or we stay on our established path with fierce determination and they realign themselves with us.

Being conscious of what is right and following the dictates of that consciousness is to practice

virtue. In a society where we have an ‘anythinggoes’ mentality, we must remind ourselves that a strict adherence to a standard of right is what is needed in order to protect our families and our country. We each have the ability to discern between right and wrong. Rationalizing our behaviors based on what is acceptable in terms of worldview, does not promote virtue.

This value is important because it encourages boundaries. Too many people today have no parameters to guide their lives and set no boundaries for conduct.

Virtue helps us set the tone for our lives on the basis of what is morally right. It helps us to make sound judgment and maintain important convictions to that which promotes truth. Virtue, truth and purity are parameters we can use to govern ourselves and live honorably.

There is not enough said about the merits of virtue. The virtuous heart is one that seeks goodness and truth. It protects the precious gifts of chastity, honor and purity. One who practices virtue, does it in thought, word and action. It is not merely a concept, it is a covenant we make with our God, to be honorable in our convictions. It is esteemed as a noble value because the fruits of it are all positive qualities that create a life in harmony with God. Let us place great value on virtue. Let us welcome boundaries and set parameters in our lives that encourage truth and purity to flourish. And in our pursuit of happiness may we remember that the result of a virtuous people is a nation of liberty and freedom, two blessings a nation of God should not be without.

Who can find a virtuous people? Their value is esteemed not in worldly gifts but in heavenly treasures. They are clothed in honor and uprightness, cloaked in a shield of happiness, for they love their God and they show it in how they live their lives and he doth bless them.

—Kami Watkins * -Portions of this article used by permission from http://www.beinggeorgewashington.com Copyright © 2012, Mercury Ink.

www.AsAMom.org

YYRestoring Humor Second Amendment means what?

The Founding Fathers were sitting around a table sometime in 1787, working on the Constitution. It had been a long day.

Father1: Whew! It’s getting rather warm in here, isn’t it?

Father2: Shall I open the window?

Father1: No, that’s alright. I’ll just take off my jacket, and roll up my sleeves.

Father2: Hey, that’s a good idea. Why don’t we include that in the Constitution?

Father1: What? That we’re allowed to take our jackets off and roll up our sleeves while at work?

Father2: Yeah, but that doesn’t sound very smooth. How about “Everyone shall have the right to bare arms?”

Reposted by permission Antonio Branco http://conservativedailynews.com/category/political-cartoons/ As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012 47

By Kimberly Fletcher Home Makers for America President www. homemakersforamerica.org

There is a mountain on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, that has become quite famous among hikers. Mount Olomana, a short drive from Honolulu, is a spectacular three-peaked mountain that stands near Kailua on Oahu’s Windward side. Olomana, the highest of the three peaks and the one for which the trail is named, has been referred to “Oahu’s Matterhorn”. Climbing Olomana has become a kind of right-of-passage to the locals, and avid hikers from all over the world travel to Oahu to climb it.

Mt. Olomana Trail is both a rewarding and challenging climb. The challenging part boasts YDS (Yosemite Decimal System) class 3 and class 4 rock climbing— including a 15 foot vertical peak. The rewards are the trail’s picturesque scenery, aromatic botanical splendor, and, for those who reach the top of the trail—the stunning, majestic 360 degree panoramic views of the windward coast of Oahu.

When you visit the trail, the first thing you notice is the well-worn path. It is clear that many people have been to the trailhead but as you walk further into the trail the broad hiking route narrows and the trail becomes more rugged and primitive—a testament to the amount ofmany hikers who turned back when the trail become too hard.

The trail to the first peak is clearly marked by the passage of previous hikers. The second peak is just a hurdle leading to the third and most dangerous peak.

When meeting the challenge of this treacherous third peak, hikers are warned to take time to evaluate the

48 MinuteMom Magazine

appropriate path as a direct climb to the peak will leave the hiker at the mercy of the fierce winds that encircle the mountain.

Well-meaning hiking groups and individuals have placed ropes along the difficult parts of the trail to help navigate the many obstacles; but these ropes are not maintained so their condition or even the presence of them cannot be counted on. Those ropes that are in place, are there for support only, and for their safety, hikers need to bear as much of their own weight as possible when climbing.

There are four categories of hikers who meet the trail—the Leisurely Climber, the Dedicated Climber, the Careless Climber, and the Polished Climber.

The Leisurely Climber is one who usually hears about the climb thinks it sounds like a good idea and decides to make it. Most hikers fall into this category. Though many of them venture, very few of them make it past the trailhead.

The Dedicated Climber is someone who is not necessarily experienced in climbing but enjoys the reward of the climb. They are individuals who spend a great deal of time researching the trail and seeking the advice and council of others, before making the climb. They are sure to pay particular attention to what things they should bring and what dangers to look for. There are fewer of these climbers but they are usually the ones who make it to the top.

The Careless Climber is one who thinks they know all they need to know about climbing, bring what they www.AsAMom.org

Photo wikipedia.org Travis.Thurston

Circling the Trailhead

think they need, and pay attention to what they think they need to pay attention to. There are a great many hikers in this category as well. Some make it to the top, some turn back in irritation, and some are injured along the way because they don’t turn back when they know they should.

The Polished Climber is a well-experienced climber, who takes the time to research the trail and seek the advice of others who have previously made the climb. They have already decided before they begin the trail that they will climb all three peaks no matter what. For them, it is more for the thrill of the climb and the challenge to their skills than the reward of the view at the top. They climb to climb. There are very few of these types of hikers but barring unforeseeable circumstances, they make it to the top every time, climb all three peaks, and then climb back down, adding another mountain to their list of conquests. The view they witness is a just a side note of little consequence. It is the accomplishment of the climb that takes note in their log book.

Half-way into the Olomana Trail, hikers face one of the greatest challenges of the hike—a 15-foot rock face. This is the point where most amateur hikers must turn around. The Leisurely Hiker will have turned back long before this challenge. The Polished Climber will breeze by it; the Careless Climber—those fortunate enough to make it that far—have a 50/50 chance of making it past that point and a 50/50 chance of making it back again in one piece.

The Dedicated Climber will see the challenge, remember what they read of the trail, refer to their notes if necessary and then, with cautious courage, reach forward with both hands and meet the challenge. And when the Dedicated Climber reaches the top of Olomana, they savor every moment of their accomplishment knowing every step was worth it. As they breathe in the beauty of the majestic scene before them they stand spellbound and grateful for the opportunity to be standing in that place. In quiet triumph they look out to the unknown souls in the valley below whispering softly, “Oh, if you could see the view from up here.”

Over 200 years ago a group of dedicated climbers ventured a similar trail. It was just as difficult, just as dangerous, just as challenging, and required just as much dedication. It took years of studying the trail, learning from others who had ventured on it, and in many places, it required forging their own path because there was none there. And when they reached their summit and they held the evidence of their climb in their worn and tired hands, they looked out to the new nation they had created and whispered, “Oh, if you could only see the view from up here!”

The trail to freedom is a very difficult trail to climb. It requires great preparation, understanding, and perseverance. Many have ventured the trail before but not many make it past the trailhead. Revolutions, Constitutions, and Democracies have come and gone, but very few have reached As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

the summit and attained true freedom.

Even in America, where the summit was once conquered, we seem to find it now outside our reach. America is full of Leisurely Climbers who like the benefits and rewards of freedom but don’t want to stay on the trail because it is too hard. There are a great number of Careless Climbers as well.

They are convinced they know all there is to know about freedom and don’t need to know anymore. They do what they want, say what they want, and pay attention to what they want to pay attention to. They rarely make it to the summit and when they do, they sit down and play with their smart phone because they find it more amusing than the beautiful vista that surrounds them.

We also have an overabundance of Polished Climbers. They are the seemingly experienced climbers. They have read all the respectable books, have taken all the appropriate classes, and many of them have even gone to law school. They are the readers of freedom. They have seen freedom because they live in a nation that is blessed with it, but they have completely disregarded the beautiful view and moved right past it to the next rock. Though they are not impressed with the view, they have taken time to write about it and their accomplishment in their log book. Now they are on a quest to find the next great climb that promises to be much better than this one. They have a complete lack of appreciation for the priceless triumph they already hold in their hands.

The rarest of all is the Dedicated Climber. They are the climbers who have a deep appreciation and respect for the view and are dedicated to holding onto it. They read books and writings by the Founders paying particular attention to what they need to take with them on the trail and what dangers to look for. They research, and try to live by, the principles of liberty and virtue our Founders espoused, and when they come face to face with a 15-foot rock face, they remember what they read of the trail, refer back to their books and notes if necessary and with cautious courage, reach forward with both hands and meet the challenge. The Dedicated Climber knows that only by following the ones who’ve gone on before us can we reach top. They know that only experienced hikers should attempt the climb. Other less experienced hikers have ventured the trail before with disastrous results but there is no reason for us to go that way.

The path has already been forged for us.

Our Founding Fathers considerately thought of us when they hiked the trail. They placed ropes and cables to help us along the way, things like the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers; but these things have not been maintained. So when someone takes hold of a rope for support, what they are holding onto is not always the Constitution that was left to us, but someone else’s interpretation of it.

March 2012 49

Our Founders placed these ropes and cables to help support us but for them to be effective we have to bear as much of our own weight as possible—we have to do our part. The ropes weren’t meant to last forever without being maintained. It is our job to maintain them. At the very least we need to start by knowing what the Founders knew. They left so much for us—the principles of liberty, the freedom documents, their journals and letters, the stories of their lives and the history of our nation. We need to hold on to these things. We need to read them, know them, and keep them in our hearts. Only then will the ropes be strong enough to restore our Garden of Liberty and secure the blessings of freedom for future generations.

We can’t just keep circling the trailhead waiting for someone else to come along and do the hard work for us.

Our Founding Families left us trail signs and we ignore them. They left us council and we dismiss it. We listen to what everyone else is saying and ignore the men and women who went before us. But they are the only ones who successfully mastered the trail, so shouldn’t we be listening to them?

We can continue to circle the trailhead grabbing at this thing or that hoping things will get better, or we can do what it takes to make them better—determine the kind of people our nation’s leaders and voters will be tomorrow by nurturing patriots in our homes today.

We can continue to circle the trailhead or we can venture forward with the faith of our Founders, putting our trust in God, and, with a knowledge of what is right and true, reach forward with both hands and meet the challenge of the trail. And then, when we reach the precipice of that magnificent peak and witness firsthand, the majestic vast expanse of that beautiful Garden of Liberty our Founding Families left us, we will see what they saw, we will know it was work every step, and we will marvel at the breathtaking view.

As I look on in humble adoration at God’s handiwork, reverently blessing all those who forged this trail for us, my heart aches at the thought of losing it all. I want to hold onto freedom forever. That is why I personally dedicated my life to securing the blessings of freedom for myself and my children—and for generations to come. And that is why I became a Gardener of Liberty!

Kimberly Fletcher is the president and founder of Homemakers for America, former Vice President of the Dayton Tea Party, and author. In her private life, Kimberly is the wife of an officer in the United States Air Force and the mother of 8 children. www.AsAMom.org

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YYCountry

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana’s warning is as important today as it was more than half a century ago. A look back at history shows us that every time the U.S. ends a conflict, our military is downsized much to our own detriment.

Defenses were trimmed after WWI because no one thought we’d ever have to fight another world war.

Unfortunately, when WWII came along our military found itself so depleted, the men on the ground in Africa were ill-equipped and illtrained, and their leaders were inexperienced. The cost of this folly was not in dollars, but American lives.

When WWII ended, we hadn’t learned our lesson. In 1946, Truman gutted the Army taking it from 8 million to 500,000. Again, we thought we’d never have to fight another world war. With the Army decimated, North Korea and the Chinese were convinced we wouldn’t fight. And the Korean War became part of history.

This remains a region where we still have nearly 30,000 troops a breath away from conflict.

After the Vietnam War, the Carter administration cut the Army to the point that when the Reagan administration came into office, according to K.T. McFarland, “We were stunned by what we found…We had planes that couldn’t fly because the pilots didn’t have enough hours of training to be qualified as pilots. Ships that couldn’t 52 MinuteMom Magazine

sail because they didn’t have fuel.”

Our enemies are watching. And make no mistake. If we stay on this path of cutting our military, they will view us as weak and not able or willing to protect ourselves or our allies.

In the face of ever increasing hostility, it would befit our leaders to pay attention to George Santayana’s warning.

With the world on the brink of turmoil, we run a variety of risks. Saving money by cutting our fighting forces is done at our own peril.

There are costs for low personnel levels. With proposed cuts of 27,000 men from the Army, (roughly 5%), and 15,000 to 20,000 (10%) from the Marine Corps by the beginning of 2015, this would put them near levels not seen since the “peace dividend” years of the 1990’s. And what of the Air Force and the Navy? Their reduction numbers were not announced.

Are we doomed to repeat the problems we faced in Africa in WWII? It would seem so.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is not only concerned with this 400 billion dollar cut, but whether or not there is going to be a second 400 billion dollar cut. He believes that with these cuts a good deal more will be asked of Guard units. If still more troops are needed, there is the possibility of a draft. If these two options are taken, we will again face the problems of training, inexperienced leadership, and lack of equipment.

Low troop levels will make it difficult to respond with adequate numbers to any threat. It will require our service personnel to spend longer in theater with more frequent deployments. At present, the Army is striving for a twoto-one ratio; that is, two years home for every year spent deployed. With fewer troops, this ratio won’t be possible.

If the slashing continues, the Army could be down from the present 72 active combat brigades to 65. The Air Force tactical air wings would slip from 20 to 18. The Navy would suffer a reduction from its present 282 ships to a low of 254. The Marines would go from 202,100 on active-duty to 186,300. This would allow us to handle only one medium contingency operation and a handful of small peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

If tensions demand greater troop numbers in Korea, it would be very difficult to maintain our current obligations in Afghanistan and leave sufficient forces in the Middle East.

The cuts would be able to support today’s military, but at the expense of tomorrow’s forces. The funds for R&D would shrink with future cuts and will force the military to back away from modernization. The Marine Corps’s new F-35 fighter is now on “probation,” forcing the Marine Corps to question whether they will receive the next-generation of air superiority. The joint air and missile defense program with Germany and Italy (Medium Extended Air Defense System or www.AsAMom.org

Photo wNourge Fiile

The Price of Freedom

Only at www.asamomestore.com MEADS), has also been put on hold.

This weakens the ability to protect the U.S. and her allied forces from shortrange missile threats. As an example it is now costing us 6% more to get supplies to our troops in Afghanistan because Pakistan is refusing to let us use their air space. Without Europe, deployment to the Middle East would be prohibitively expensive and logistically nearly impossible.

Budget cuts also will bring a reduction in new technologies, weapons, and equipment. With reductions in procurement funds, it may become necessary to resupply units with worn out or broken weapons and equipment recycled from Afghanistan and Iraq.

To ask our sons and daughters to protect us with such materials is shameful.

These are the men and women who embody the best, brightest and bravest in our country.

Bluffing is a dangerous approach to security. A “minimal deterrence posture” is less expensive, but completely inadequate for the security needs of the U.S. and her allies. To protect the American people from a strategic attack, the military needs a mix of thoroughly modernized offensive and defensive capabilities to include nuclear and conventional weapons.

With an ever proliferating world, we must be able to combat these threats freely in outer space, in cyberspace, and on the high seas.

With the Administration’s long term reductions to at least 10% below current levels, we may be forced to abandon one of the regions we now support; East Asia, Europe, or the Middle As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

East. Indications are that Europe is on the short list; but Europe is our staging area to the rest of the world.

Projected health care costs for the military in FY 2012 are $52.5 billion, a cost that has doubled since 2001.

The Obama Administration is proposing to raise the costs of enrollment fees and co-payments for prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies. This effort will make the healthcare system less flexible. Members would not be able to tailor the program to meet their needs or those of their families. If service men and women were allowed to convert their healthcare from a defined-benefit system to a definedcontribution system by accessing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program on a gradual basis, the program would provide service members with significant savings. These savings could amount to as much as $21 billion between FY 2012 and FY 2016.

Those saving could be used to maintain existing manpower.

Retirement too, is organized on defined-benefits approach. If the system were also to convert to a defined–contribution plan, it would give service members a greater say in their retirement and save the Defense Department up to $11 billion between FY 2012 and FY 2016 with even greater savings over a longer period of time. Again, these funds could be used to maintain manpower and other structured retirement reforms as well as modernization of forces.

Cutting defense spending is misplaced. The DoD may not spend every dollar wisely, but it is not the source of

our budget problems.

An Army officer told me recently, “If I have to stand on the wall with a rusty bayonet and a broken M1, I will.

Because it’s what I’m here to do, but those behind me at home better know I won’t be able to hold them off for long. Then the fight will fall to them.”

Is this what we are to ask our Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines to do?

Stand between us and our enemy with inadequate weapons? Are we to ask them to spend longer and longer deployments away from their families?

And if wounded, must they return to inadequate medical care?

What the administration doesn’t understand is that just because our enemy lives in undeveloped countries doesn’t mean they’re stupid. They are watching and they pay attention to history, ours and theirs. They know through history that we become warweary and as a result downgrade our military. They lie patiently waiting, counting on us to repeat our pattern of fight and shrink.

We owe our military the very best we can give them. An all-volunteer military is made up of those who love their country enough to put their very lives and bodies on the line to protect something greater than themselves.

They carry with them the honor and pride of this country. We who are left behind have a duty to them to recognize them for their commitment and fight the battle at home to support them.

Congress, pay attention. Those who want peace prepare for war.

— Peggy Staggs

March 2012 53

YYFounders: in T heir Own Words

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him 54 MinuteMom Magazine

of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow-citizens he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government,

for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them: Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act shall be an infringement of natural right.

Source: W.W. Hening, ed., Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. 12 (1823): 84-86.

www.AsAMom.org

Photo Library of Congress

by Thomas Jefferson, Adopted January 16, 1786

Draft for a Bill to Establish Religious Freedom in Virginia

by Thomas Jefferson, Original Draft Version, 1777 (additional preamble plus a few minor differences)

Section I. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness; and is As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots速

withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed theseare criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude hispowers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is adangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make hisopinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere

when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Section II. WE the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Section III. AND though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.

March 2012 55

YYIn Your State State News from AAM Groups The Presidential Primary/Caucus Information With thanks to Stacy Finch, Betty Otten, Rachel KS CM, Samantha Harris, Patsy, Suzanne Shafford And special thanks to Wiki and to The Green Papers http://tinyurl.com/7b2g9fo Background information and previous elections for primaries, caucuses and states’ participation can be found in the Minute Mom Magazine: editions Jan. and Feb. 2012, Dec. and Oct. 2011 http://tinyurl.com/772h28h As A Mom has shown the earliest known political activity in each state.

To make the greatest impact on your state elections, it is suggested that interested individuals be involved as early and as often as there are opportunities to make a difference. Often these are at straw polls, at mass meetings, conventions and early caucuses as listed by state and by party.

Please be aware that there is voting going on the US territories also. For example: America Samoa Caucus,Virgin Islands Caucus and others, are in March and Puerto Rico Republican Primary is March 18th.

For more information on the entire schedule of all states and all territories please go to The Green Papers at http://tinyurl.com/7lypf2d For further information on the following see February 2012 MMM http://tinyurl.com/7e3l88v Virginia Virginia Republican Mass Meetings, Party Canvasses And Conventions Continue. Virginia Republican Primary Will Be March 6, 2012, Virginia Democratic Primary Has Been Cancelled Minnesota Minnesota Republican Bpou Conventions There are many county conventions and precinct reorganizations 56 MinuteMom Magazine

in March http://tinyurl.com/7lypf2d Throughout March Minnesota Straw Polls, Bpou Conventions Feb. 7, 2012March 21, 2012 March 1, 2012 South Dakota South Dakota Republican

• County/Regional/State National Delegate Selection Meetings: March 1 • Primary: Tuesday 5 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Polling hours 7:00a CDT (1200 UTC) / 7:00a MDT (1300 UTC) to 7:00p CDT (0000 UTC) / 7:00p MDT (0100 UTC).

• Voter Eligibility: Closed Primary • 28 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 3 re: 1 congressional district / 3 party / 12 bonus

South Dakota Democrat

• State Legislative District Caucuses: Saturday 10 March 2012 • Congressional District Caucuses: Saturday 24 March 2012 • Primary: Tuesday 5 June 20121 • State Convention / State Party Central Committee: Saturday 30 June • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Polling hours 7:00a CDT (1200 UTC) / 7:00a MDT (1300 UTC) to 7:00p CDT (0000 UTC) / 7:00p MDT (0100 UTC).

• Voter Eligibility: Closed Primary • Voter Participation: Party members • 29 total delegate votes - 15 district / 5 at large; 2 Pledged PLEOs; 7 Unpledged PLEOs

*To make a difference in your state party, get in on the ground floor and go to the caucuses and become a delegate.

While the Primary is what gets the spotlight, the delegates are the force that drives the party.Counties must be officially organized for an individual to be a delegate.First, there will be a

county “caucus” held at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, at the county seat in your county. The meetings will be advertised in the legal newspaper in the county so be sure to watch for the location. At that county caucus meeting, you will break up into groups according to what Presidential candidate you support.

In your “Presidential group,” you will elect three people from amongst yourselves to go on to the next levels in the process – the Regional and Statewide “Caucus” meetings.

Second will be the Regional Caucus at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 10. At that meeting, you will split up by Presidential candidate you support and then by regions: Information Can Be Found On Aam Sd State Page.

Third is the Statewide Caucus at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 10. You will split up according to the Presidential candidate that you support and will select from those people who won at the Regional level 25 delegates and 25 alternates. The names of those people who are elected will go on the June 5 primary ballot under the name of the Presidential candidate they support.

If you are one of the delegates or alternates selected, there is one final hurdle before you get to go to the National Convention – your candidate has to receive at least 20 percent of the vote in the primary. If more than one Presidential candidate receives over 20 percent of the vote, they will split the number of delegates and alternates going to the National Convention on a proportional basis.

According to the SD GOP March 1 is only day for county caucus. This is the only day for counties to caucus for delegate selection. Counties must be officially organized for an individual to be a delegate. www.AsAMom.org

For more information on the SD Dems - go to http://www.sddp.org/ For more information on SD GOP go to http://southdakotagop.com/ South Dakota Statewide Primary Elections June 5, 2012 MARCH 3RD Washington Washington Republican

• Precinct Caucuses / Straw Poll: Saturday 3 March 2012 • County Conventions / Legislative District Caucus: Saturday 17 March Saturday 21 April 2012 • State Convention: Thursday 31 May Saturday 2 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Combined Selection [Winner-Take-All Primary

by CD, Proportional Primary (statewide), Caucus/Convention (statewide)] • Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus • 43 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 30 re: 10 congressional districts / 3 party

On May 13 2011, Governor Christine Gregoire signed SB 5119 suspending the 2012 presidential primary and instead holding a caucus/conventions.

The bill expires in 2013 meaning there may be a Primary in 2016. Washington State has for the last two cycles used a democratic caucus and a mix of caucus and primary for Republicans. The bill was requested due to budget deficits and will save the state $10 million.

A precinct caucus on March 3, 2012 will meet to choose the precincts’ delegates to attend the county or Legislative District caucuses. This is a closed caucus and attendees must sign a form stating they are Republicans. The precinct caucus will hold a non-binding straw poll giving the delegates some idea of the members’ candidate choices.

March 17-April 21 2012, county and legislative conventions will be held to choose state delegates. These delegates report to the state convention on May 31, 2012, where they can be nominated to attend the National convention and vote for their candidate. National As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

convention candidates may declare their Presidential preference at the state convention or choose to remain uncommitted. Each of the ten caucuses choose 3 delegates and the state as a whole chooses 10 delegates, along with the 3 party leaders giving Washington state 43 delegates sent to the National convention.

In 2008, Washington voted at 25% for John McCain with Huckabee a close 23% at the caucus level. The state chose Obama in the general Election.

Washington voted John Kerry 53% and Al Gore 50% in previous cycles.

Ultimately, Washington has 12 electoral votes up for grabs.

For more information on the WA GOP go to http://wagop.org/ Here you will find what happened to the primaries and learn how to participate in the caucus.

Information for the Washington Democrats (primary has been cancelled) can be found at http://www.wa-democrats.org/ The Democrats will caucus on April 15th 2012.

State Wide Primaries will be held August 7, 2012 MARCH 6 Massachusetts Massachusetts Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • Deadline for Congressional District Conventions: Saturday 5 May 2012 (tentative) • Deadline for State Committee Meeting: Friday 15 June 2012 (tentative) • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary • 41 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 27 re: 9 congressional districts / 3 party / 1 bonus

Massachusetts Democrat

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 20121 • Congressional District Caucuses: Saturday 21 April 2012 • State Committee and National Convention Delegate Meeting:

Saturday 5 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary • 136 total delegate votes - 72 district / 24 at large; 14 Pledged PLEOs; 26 Unpledged PLEOs

Thirty-eight of 41 delegates to the Republican National Convention are proportionally allocated to presidential contenders based on the statewide results of Massachusetts Presidential Primary. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates. After the primary, the Allocation Committee meets to determine how to apportion the 38 pledged National Convention Delegates to those Presidential contenders receiving at least 15% of the statewide vote. The number of delegates allocated to each candidate = (vote received by that candidate) ÷ (total votes of all candidates receiving at least 15% of the vote). The Allocation Committee determines how rounding of fractions is to be handled. There are 27 District delegates (3 from each of the state’s 9 Congressional Districts).

There are 11 At-Large delegates.

This is what the Allocation Committee did in 2008: The statewide Romney/McCain vote was split 55.5% to 44.5% and the state had 40 delegates.

Using that ratio, the delegates were split Romney 22 to McCain 18. Using that same ratio, the 10 CDs were split Romney 6 to McCain 4. The 4 Congressional districts that McCain had his highest percentage of the vote in (whether he carried the district or not) elected 2 McCain delegates and 1 Romney delegate while the remaining 6 CDs elected 2 Romney delegates and 1 McCain delegate. The At-Large delegates were then split between the two candidates to achieve the 22 to 18 delegate allocation. In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Massachusetts March 2012 57

does not include party affiliation • 17 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 3 re: 1 congressional district / 3 party / 1 bonus

Vermont Democrat

Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position.

Information for the Massachusetts Republicans can be found at http://www.massgop.com/ Information for the Massachusetts Democrats can be found at http://www.massdems.org/ Primaries For State Wide Offices Are September 6, 2012 Tennessee Tennessee Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • State Executive Committee: Saturday 7 April 2012 (tentative) • Delegate Selection: In each district and statewide - if winner receives a majority Winner-Take-All Primary otherwise Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 58 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 27 re: 9 congressional districts / 3 party / 18 bonus

Tennessee Democrat

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 20121 • County Conventions: Saturday 10 March 2012 • District Conventions: Saturday 24 March 2012 • State Executive Committee: Saturday 31 March 2012Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 91 total delegate votes - 53 district / 18 at large; 11 Pledged PLEOs; 9 Unpledged PLEOs

A new Tennessee state law now requires that voters bring a valid photo identification card with them, which includes a Tennessee driver’s license.

Those without identification can get a free one at the Department of Safety 58 MinuteMom Magazine

office in the office line near Marvin’s Restaurant on Thornton Taylor Parkway.

2012 elections in Lincoln County will also be held Aug. 2 for the state primaries and the Lincoln County offices and on Nov. 6 for the presidential election and the City of Fayetteville elections.

The Democratic ballot for the March 6 election lists Barack Obama, Uncommitted and write-in options.

The Republican preferential ballot lists front-runners Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, along with Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, uncommitted and write-in.

Republicans are also asked to choose delegates who are listed with the candidates to whom they are committed. http://tinyurl.com/85a3vr8 More information for TN Republican Party can be found at: http://www.tngop.org/ More information for the TN Dems can be found at http://www.tndp.org/ Primaries For State Wide Offices Will Be August 2, 2012 Vermont Vermont Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • Town Caucuses: April 2012 (tentative) • State Convention: Saturday 19 May 2012Delegate Selection: District: Winner-Take-All Primary, Statewide: if winner receives a majority Winner-Take-All Primary otherwise Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • Voter Affiliation: Voter registration

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 20121 • Town Caucuses: Saturday 24 March 2012 • State Convention: Saturday 26 May 2012 National Convention Delegate Meeting: Saturday 9 June 2012Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • Voter Affiliation: Voter registration does not include party affiliation • 27 total delegate votes - 12 district / 4 at large; 2 Pledged PLEOs; 9 Unpledged PLEOs

For more information on Vermont Republicans go to http://vtgop.org/ For more information on Vermont Democrats go to http://www.vtdemocrats.org/ Vermont Statewide Primaries August 28, 2012 Oklahoma Oklahoma Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 District Conventions: Saturday 31 March - Saturday 14 April 2012 State Convention: Friday 11 May - Saturday 12 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Winner-TakeAll (by district and statewide), Voter Eligibility: Closed Primary 43 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 15 re: 5 congressional districts / 3 party / 15 bonus

Oklahoma Democrat

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 State Convention: Saturday 14 April 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, Polling hours 7:00a CST to 7:00p CST Voter Eligibility: Closed Primary Voter Participation: Party members and members of other parties 50 total delegate votes - 29 district / 10 at large; 6 Pledged PLEOs; 5 Unpledged PLEOs

40 of Oklahoma’s delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated to presidential contenders in Oklahoma Presidential Primary.15 www.AsAMom.org

district delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of the 5 congressional districts: each congressional district is assigned 3 National Convention delegates and the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in that district will receive all 3 of that district’s National Convention delegates. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote or only one candidate receives 15% or more of the vote, that candidate receives 3 delegates. Otherwise, if more than 1 candidate receives 15% of the vote, the candidate receiving the most votes receives 2 delegates and the candidate receiving the second most votes receives 1 delegate. Otherwise, the top 3 vote-getters each receive 1 delegate.

25 at-large delegates (10 base at-large delegates plus 15 bonus delegates) are to be allocated to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in the primary statewide. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, that candidate receives all the at-large delegates. Otherwise, delegates are proportionally allocated to those candidates receiving more than 15% of the vote. In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Oklahoma’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position.

Information for the Oklahoma Republicans can be found at http:// www.okgop.com/ Information for the Oklahoma Democrats can be found at http://www. okdemocrats.org/ The primaries for state wide elected officials will be held Tuesday 26 June 2012 Runoff: Tuesday 28 August 2012 Idaho County Caucus Tuesday 6 March, 2012 / Non-Binding Primary MAY, 2012 As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

Idaho Republican

• County Caucuses: Tuesday 6 March 2012 Non-binding Primary: Tuesday 15 May 2012 State Convention: Thursday 21 June - Saturday 23 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention, Polling hours 8:00a MDT (1400 UTC) / 8:00a PDT (1500 UTC) to 8:00p MDT (0200 UTC) / 8:00p PDT (0300 UTC).

Local option allows polling places to open at 7 AM. A sizable part of IDAHO is in PDT but, as the MDT section is the much more populated portion of the state, the networks consider that “most of the polls in IDAHO” are closed by 8 PM MDT. Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus Voter Participation: Party members 32 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 6 re: 2 congressional districts / 3 party / 13 bonus

tion results in an unallocated Delegate, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes receives an additional delegate. If the computation results in the allocation of more Delegates than are available, the candidate receiving the least number of Caucus votes is reduced accordingly.

Each county’s share of the National Convention Delegates is calculated by multiplying (the county’s percentage of County Delegates allocated to the State Convention) by 32 (the number of National Convention Delegates) Idaho Republican non-binding Primary is advisory and is not used to bind delegates.

Information for the Idaho Republicans can be found at http://www.idgop.org/ Information for the Idaho Democrats can be found at http://www.idahodems.org/ Democratic caucus will be April 14th.

The primaries for state wide elected officials will be held Tuesday 15 May 2012

All 32 of Idaho’s National Convention delegates are pledged to Presidential contenders based on the vote in County Caucuses. In each county, voting takes place by secret ballot in successive rounds. Voting continues until either a single candidate receives greater than 50% of the vote, or until Ohio only 2 candidates remain on the balOhio Republican lot and a final vote is taken. After each • Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 round, remove any candidate receiving • District Conventions: April 2012 less than 15% then remove the candi(tentative) date receiving the fewest votes.

• State Convention: May 2012 Any candidate winning more than (tentative) 50% or more of a county’s vote will • Delegate Selection: Winner-Take-All be awarded that entire county’s share (by district and statewide), • Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary of National Delegates. When neither • Voter Participation: Party members candidate wins more than 50% of the and members of other parties vote, the candidates split the county’s • Voter Affiliation: Party affiliation is share of National Convention Delchanged egates, in proportion to the candidates’ • 66 total delegates - 10 base at-large county vote totals. Add the candidate’s / 48 re: 16 congressional districts / 3 shares for all counties and round to party / 5 bonus the nearest whole number to obtain Ohio Democrat the number of National Convention • Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 Delegates pledged to that candidate. (tentative)1 If one candidate wins more than 50% • State Executive Committee: Saturday of the National Convention Delegates, 28 April 2012 (tentative) that candidate receives all the National • Delegate Selection: Proportional Convention Delegates If the computaPrimary,

March 2012 59

• Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary • Voter Participation: Party members and members of other parties • 191 total delegate votes - 113 district / 38 at large; 23 Pledged PLEOs; 17 Unpledged PLEOs

The Ohio Primary is winner take all. The redistricting is complete and everything is ready to go. The Ohio General Assembly passed a bill on December 14, 2011 adopting the new congressional district map. Ohio lost two congressional seats, and went from 18 districts to 16. All GOP Presidential candidates will be on the Ohio Primary Ballot on March 6, 2012. Rick Santorum, failed to file in the 6th, 9th and 13th districts and will not be on those district level ballots.That would mean, should he win in Ohio, that he would not get 9 of the 66 delegates.

Ohio has a Republican primary system that requires people to vote twice.

While Santorum’s name won’t appear at the district level, voters could still choose to award him at-large delegates.

The party awards 48 delegates from the March 6 primary based on how well candidates do in each of Ohio’s 16 congressional districts. The other 18 delegates are awarded at large.

House Speaker John Boehner of West Chester, who represents Ohio’s 8th Congressional District, will not have a Democratic challenger for the general election in November, but will have a primary election challenger, David Lewis, an anti-abortion activist from Batavia. Batavia is not in Boehner’s district, but the Constitution does not require a member of the House to live in the district he or she represents.

President Obama has an opponent in the March 6 Ohio primary - anti-abortion activist Randall Terry of Washington, D.C., who has been arrested more than 40 times in anti-abortion protests, including at the president’s commencement address in June at the University of Notre Dame. The Democratic Party now has a Modified Primary.

For more informartion on Republi60 MinuteMom Magazine

cans in Ohio, go to: http://www.ohiogop.org/ For more information on Democrats in Ohio, go to http://ohiodems.org/ Colorado Colorado Democrat

• Precinct Caucus: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • County Assemblies and Conventions: Friday 30 March - Saturday 28 April 2012 (tentative) • District Conventions: Saturday 19 May - Friday 1 June 2012 • State Convention: Saturday 2 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention • Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus • Voter Participation: Party members • 86 total delegate votes - 47 district / 16 at large; 9 Pledged PLEOs; 14 Unpledged PLEOs • Further information on the CO Democratic Party can be found at • http://www.coloradodems.org/ • Further information on the elections in CO can be found on Minute Mom Magazine February edition: http:// tinyurl.com/7e3l88v

Virginia Virginia Republican

• Local Mass Meetings, Party Canvasses, Conventions: Wednesday 15 February - Tuesday 1 May 2012 • Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • District Conventions: Friday 11 May Saturday 26 May 2012 (tentative) • State Convention: Saturday 16 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: District: WinnerTake-All Primary, Statewide: if winner receives a majority Winner-TakeAll Primary otherwise Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 49 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 33 re: 11 congressional districts / 3 party / 3 bonus

will bind those delegates and alternates to their proportional allocations for the first convention ballot.

In December 2011, the Gingrich, Paul, Perry, and Romney campaigns each submitted more than 10,000 signatures (including 400 from each congressional district) to meet Virginia’s stringent requirements for inclusion on the presidential primary ballot. The RPV disqualified Gingrich and Perry from the vote after determining that less than 10,000 of their signatures were legitimate. Virginia’s ballot will therefore list only Paul and Romney. *There will be no Democratic caucuses in Virginia due to there being only one Presidential candidate.

Further and the latest information for elections for delegates can be found on our Virginia pages: http://tinyurl.com/6mxjte2 Other Statewide Elections:

• March 6: Primary for Municipal (City/Town) Elections • May 1: Municipal (City/Town) Elections • June 12: Primary for U.S. House and Senate candidates

Sources: http://tinyurl.com/7lo3fou http://tinyurl.com/73rmore, h t t p : / / t i n y u r l . c o m / 6 p n l 5 c w, h t t p : / / t i n y u r l . c o m / 8 7 l m 6 t v, http://tinyurl.com/73cyltj Georgia Georgia Democrat

• Primary: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • Congressional District Caucuses: Saturday 21 April 2012 • State Committee Meeting: Saturday 26 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 124 total delegate votes - 72 district / 24 at large; 14 Pledged PLEOs; 14 Unpledged PLEOs

The Republican Party of Virginia Participation in Georgia’s delegate (RPV) will use the “Super Tuesday” selection process is open to all voters presidential primary to allocate delegates and alternate delegates to the who wish to participate as DemoRepublican National Convention and crats. Georgia does not register voters by party. Voters publicly declare party www.AsAMom.org

Principle 1: America is good.

Take control of your child’s future.

Teach them our history.

The Exclusive 9/12 Project Youth Program ConstitutionalChampions.org preference when they request a primary ballot or Presidential Preference Primary ballot. Records showing the voters’ choice are public record.

Republican Primary: Information in February Minute Mom Magazine http://tinyurl. com/7e3l88v For more information on GA GOP go to http://www.gagop.org/ For more information on GA Democrats go to http://www.georgiademocrat.org/ Alaska Alaska Republican

• District Conventions: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • State Convention: Thursday 26 April Saturday 28 April 2012 • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention • Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus

• 27 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 3 re: 1 congressional district / 3 party / 11 bonus

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

The Alaska Republican Party Presidential Preference Poll (PPP) will be conducted from 4 – 8 pm March 6 at locations throughout Alaska. These locations are listed below. Find your new district on the June 13, 2011 proclamation map. Additional locations will be added as locations are confirmed.

These candidates and unpledged will appear on the March 6 Alaska Republican Party Presidential Preference Poll Ballot.

All registered Alaska Republicans are invited to cast their vote for their preferred candidate. The Presidential Preference Poll vote binds the 24 Alaskan National Convention Delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL from August 27-30.All Alaska Legislative Districts (using the June 13, 2011 official Proclamation Map) shall conduct District Conventions between March 6 and March 26, 2012. These District Conventions are the first step in determining the platform, rules and resolutions for the 2012

General Election Campaign.

The District Conventions elect State Convention Delegates and District Officers. Locate your district on the proclamation map. Find your authorized District Delegate count on the Alaska Republican Party State Convention Call. Find your District Convention on the ARP events calendar. Fourteen thousand Alaska Republicans voted in the 2008 Presidential Preference Poll.

More information on Alaska GOP can be found at http://alaskarepublicans.com/ Information on locale for PPP can be found at http://tinyurl.com/6vet6oe Alaska Democratic caucuses run from April 9- April 16 State wide office primaries will be held August 28 North Dakota North Dakota Republican

• Caucus: Tuesday 6 March 2012 • State Convention: Friday 30 March Sunday 1 April 2012 March 2012 61

• Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention • Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus • Voter Participation: Party members • 28 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 3 re: 1 congressional district / 3 party / 12 bonus

Presidential caucus voters must be physically present to cast their presidential caucus vote, eligible to vote in the 6 November 2012 General Election, eligible to vote in that legislative district, affiliated with the Republican Party in the last general election or intending to affiliate with the Republican Party in the next general election.

[Presidential Caucus Rules Rule No. 21] North Dakota’s delegates ... shall caucus ... to discuss voluntarily apportioning delegate representation on the first ballot to reflect the results of the Presidential Caucus. However, any such apportionment on the first ballot shall be strictly voluntary. The delegates remain free to vote their conscience on all balloting. [Presidential Caucus Rules Rule No. 21 - 27 September 2011] More information on the North Dakota GOP http://www.ndgop.org/ Information on North Dakota Democratic Non Partisan League Party http://www.demnpl.com/ NDDNPL Party Caucus will be held June 5 Statewide primary elections will be held June 12 Hawaii Hawaii Democrat Caucus March 7/ Hawaii Republican Caucus March 13, 2012 Hawaii Republican • Precinct Caucuses: Tuesday 13 March 2012 6-8PM • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus Voter Participation: Party members Voter Affiliation: Party affiliation is changed 20 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 6 re: 2 congressional districts / 3 party / 1 bonus

62 MinuteMom Magazine

Hawaii Democrat

• Precinct Caucus: Wednesday 7 March 2012 State Convention: Friday 25 May - Sunday 27 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus 35 total delegate votes - 17 district / 6 at large; 3 Pledged PLEOs; 9 Unpledged PLEOs

Seventeen of 20 of Hawaii’s delegates to the Republican National Convention are pledged proportionally to presidential contenders in the Precinct Caucuses. Each Presidential campaign (or uncommitted slate) supplies a list of delegates to the National Convention. 20% of each slate (delegates and alternates) must come from a county with a population below 500,000. The State Chair and National Committee members cannot be part of a slate. Voting is by secret ballot. Ballots are cast for the slate rather than for individual delegates. The names of the National Convention delegates will not appear on the ballot. Voters may join the Republican Party and register to vote at the caucus. Only party members are eligible to participate in the caucuses.

The Hawaii Leadership Committee of each Presidential campaign appoints Party members to fill the delegate positions. In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Hawaii’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position.

Information for the Hawaii Republicans can be found at http://www.gophawaii.com/ Information for the Hawaii Democrats can be found at http://tinyurl. com/6vrfwpk The primaries for state wide elected officials will be held August 11, 2012.

March 10 Kansas Kansas Republican

• Caucuses: Saturday 10 March 2012

• Congressional District Conventions: Friday 30 March - Tuesday 24 April 2012 • State Party Committee Meeting: Tuesday 24 April - Sunday 1 July 2012 (tentative) • Delegate Selection: Caucus/ Convention • Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus • Voter Participation: Party members • 40 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 12 re: 4 congressional districts / 3 party / 15 bonus

In February of 2011, Kansas House Republicans finalized plans to close party caucus meetings. The measure amended House rules for 2011 and 2012. Republicans backed the rule by a 74-34 vote on the floor.

Previously, House rules have said that all meetings would comply with the Kansas Open Meetings Act, but that law allows lawmakers to set their own policies and augment the rules. Though it is uncommon, Senate rules allow for closed party caucuses.

On 25 May 2011, Governor Sam Brownback (R) signed HB 2080, effectively canceling the state’s 2012 Presidential Preference Primaries. Both the Democratic and Republican parties will nominate by convention in 2012.

The last time a Presidential Preference Primary was held in Kansas was in 1992.

The law now reads: “... there shall be held a presidential preference primary election in the year 2016, and every fourth year thereafter. [KS Statutes 25-4501. (a)] On or before November 1, 2015, and ... every fourth year thereafter, the secretary of state shall certify ... a date ... on which at least five other states will hold a presidential [primary... convention... caucus...] at which delegates to a national convention are selected. ... If the secretary of state determines that there is no common date ..., the secretary of state shall certify ... a date, which shall be on or before the first Tuesday in April ... on which the presidential preference primary election shall be www.AsAMom.org

held. [KS Statutes 25-4501. (b)]” The reasoning behind this piece of legislation, which cancelled the 2012 Presidential Preference Primary, was a lack of funding. It was estimated the Primary would cost Kansas taxpayers $2M and given the state’s financial situation at the time Gov. Brownback took over, the legislation was deemed necessary.

House Democrats were outraged over the change, saying the changes would make government less transparent.

During a debate, Democrats proposed a couple of amendments that would have blocked the rule change. The first of the two would have stricken the closed caucus rule altogether, requiring Republicans and Democrats to continue keeping their caucus meetings open.That amendment was defeated therefore Kansas Democrats proposed a second amendment to keep their own caucuses open. That measure also failed.Information on the GOP Presidential Preference Caucus and Delegate Selection Plan. http://ksgop.org/caucus/ Democrats will hold elections in April - for more information go to http://ksdp.org/ Elections For Statewide Officials Will Be August 7.

MARCH 13 AND 15 Alabama Alabama Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 13 March 2012 • Delegate Selection: District: WinnerTake-All or top two; Statewide: Proportional, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 50 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 21 re: 7 congressional districts / 3 party / 16 bonus • Alabama Democrat • Presidential Nominating Process • Primary: Tuesday 13 March 2012 • State Democratic Executive Committee Meeting: Saturday 14 April 2012 (tentative • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary,

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

• Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • Voter Participation: Party members • Voter Affiliation: Party affiliation is changed see below • 69 total delegate votes - 41 district / 14 at large; 8 Pledged PLEOs; 6 Unpledged PLEOs

In Alabama, the primary election is part of the nominating process for a political party. It is used to select who will represent a party in the general election. You are required to choose one political party’s primary over another because you cannot participate in the nomination of both parties’ candidates.

However, in the general election, you may split your ticket and vote for candidates from each political party. If you choose not to declare a political preference at the primary election, you will not be eligible to vote in any political party’s primary election. You are, however, still eligible to vote on any proposed constitutional amendments that are up for a vote. The Democratic Party has a cross-over voting rule which prohibits anyone who voted in the Republican Party primary from voting in the Democratic Party’s primary runoff.

The Republican Party does not have a cross-over voting rule. It is okay for voters who participated in the Democratic primary to vote in the Republican runoff. Therefore, if you voted in the Democratic primary, you may vote in either the Democratic runoff or the Republican runoff If you voted in the Republican primary, you may vote only in the Republican runoff. Parties have the option under state law to require primary voters to sign a statement that they will support the party’s nominees in the general election. Parties also have an option generally to impose other qualifications. No party currently uses either. http://tinyurl.com/8xaopwp More information for the Alabama Republicans can be found at http://www.algop.org/ More information for Alabama Democrats can be found at http://www.aldemocrats.org/

Mississippi Mississippi Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 13 March 2012 (tentative) • Precinct Caucuses and County Conventions: Saturday 28 April 2012 (tentative) • State Convention: Saturday 19 May 2012 (tentative) • Delegate Selection: District: WinnerTake-All Primary, Statewide: if winner receives a majority Winner-TakeAll Primary otherwise Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 40 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 12 re: 4 congressional districts / 3 party / 15 bonus

Mississippi Democrat

• Precinct Meetings: Saturday 18 February 2012 • County Conventions: Saturday 10 March 2012 • Primary: Tuesday 13 March 2012 • Congressional District Conventions: Saturday 31 March - Saturday 28 April 2012 • State Convention: Saturday 26 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • Voter Participation: Party members • Voter Affiliation: Voter registration does not include party affiliation • 45 total delegate votes - 26 district / 9 at large; 5 Pledged PLEOs; 5 Unpledged PLEOs

For MS Republicans: If one candidate receives a majority of the statewide vote (more than 50%), that candidate is allocated all 25 of the at-large delegates.

If no candidate receives a majority of the statewide vote, each presidential candidate receiving 15% or more of the vote statewide shall be allocated delegates accordingly based on their percentage of the vote total of those candidates who met the 15% threshold. Round fractional proportions of a delegate to the nearest whole number.

In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chair-

March 2012 63

man of the Mississippi’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position. [Rule 5] National Convention delegates are bound until released by their candidate. [Rules 8 and 9] For MS Democrats: Saturday 10 March 2012: County Conventions begin at 10:00 AM local time. The delegates elect an executive committee and elect delegates to the Congressional District and State Conventions. No person shall be required to state presidential preference at the county level. Participation in Mississippi’s delegate selection process is open to only qualified electors who support the principles and values established and set forth by the Democratic party platform. Because Party registration is not allowed in Mississippi, qualified electors must acknowledge that they are Democrats through signature, beginning at the precinct level caucuses.Tuesday 13 March 2012: 40 of 45 delegates to the Democratic National Convention are allocated to presidential contenders based on the results of the voting in today’s Mississippi Presidential Primary. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at either the congressional district or statewide level.

For more information on Mississippi Republicans go to http://msgop.org/ For more information on Mississippi Democrats go to http://msdemocrats.net/ Utah Utah Republican

• Precinct Caucuses: Thursday 15 March 2012 • State Convention: Saturday 21 April 2012 • Primary: Tuesday 26 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Winner-Take-All, • Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary • 40 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 12 re: 4 congressional districts / 3 party / 15 bonus

64 MinuteMom Magazine

Utah Democrat

• Caucuses: Tuesday 13 March 20121 • County Conventions: Tuesday 13 March - Thursday 19 April 2012 • State Convention: Friday 20 April Saturday 21 April 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary • Voter Eligibility: Open Caucus • 34 total delegate votes - 19 district / 6 at large; 4 Pledged PLEOs; 5 Unpledged PLEOs

Utah has gained one elector for the 2012 Presidential election. Except for FDR and twice since, Utah has always gone Republican and it is assumed it will this year also.

To find more information for Utah Republicans, go to http://www.utgop. org/ To find more information for Utah Democrats, go to http://utahdemocrats.org/ Primaries For Statewide Offices Will Be June 26 March 20 Illinois Illinois Republican

• Primary: Tuesday 20 March 2012 • Convention: Friday 8 June - Saturday 9 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Loophole Primary, • Voter Eligibility: Open Primary • 69 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 54 re: 18 congressional districts / 3 party / 2 bonus

Illinois Democrat

• Primary: Tuesday 20 March 20121 • National Convention delegation meeting: Monday 7 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary,

Voter Eligibility: Open Primary

• 215 total delegate votes - 123 district / 41 at large; 25 Pledged PLEOs; 26 Unpledged PLEOs

The Illinois Republicans use a loophole primary. The “LOOPHOLE” type of primary, in essence, is an updated version of what is the oldest form of the Presidential Preference (as opposed to Delegate Selection) primary - dating back to when Oregon enacted the

very first statute authorizing just such a primary for the 1912 election. In this, what is really the original form of the ADVISORY primary, there was both a presidential preference “beauty contest” vote and a separate Delegate Selection primary held at the same time. This type of primary first got its name of “Loophole” in 1976 when many political observers and pundits realized that it was theoretically possible for a candidate to win all that state’s delegates despite the McGovern-Fraser reforms which had outlawed the more blatant WINNER-TAKE-ALL preference vote in favor of the PROPORTIONAL type for Democrats: all a presidential contender had to do was to elect his slates of district and atlarge delegates in the bottom delegate selection balloting and it didn’t much matter how he did in the top of the ballot presidential preference “beauty contest” , a convenient “loophole” for getting around the Democratic Party’s ban on Winner-Take-All primaries, hence the name as it differentiated this type of “beauty contest” primary from the ADVISORY type.

Information taken from http://tinyurl.com/6sjvfqv More Information on Illinois GOP can be found at http://www.weareillinois.org/ More information on Illinois Democrats can be found at http://www.ildems.com/ March 24 Louisiana Louisiana Republican

• Primary: Saturday 24 March 2012 District Caucuses: Saturday 28 April 2012 State Convention: Saturday 2 June 2012 • Delegate Selection: Combined Selection [Proportional Primary with Caucus/Convention], Voter Eligibility: Closed Primary 46 total delegates - 10 base at-large / 18 re: 6 congressional districts / 3 party / 15 bonus

Louisiana Democrat

• Primary: Saturday 24 March 2012 www.AsAMom.org

Post Primary Congressional Caucus: Saturday 28 April 2012 (tentative) State Convention: Saturday 5 May 2012 • Delegate Selection: Proportional Primary, Voter Eligibility: Modified Primary 71 total delegate votes 42 district / 14 at large; 8 Pledged PLEOs; 7 Unpledged PLEOs

Twenty of Louisiana’s delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated to presidential contenders in Louisiana Presidential Primary.

Twenty National Convention Delegates are allocated proportionally to those Presidential candidates receiving 25% or more of the statewide primary vote. Fractional delegates are rounded to the nearest whole number (rounding rules for too many or too few unknown). Otherwise, the 20 delegates will attend the Republican National Convention officially unpledged to any candidate. These delegates will be elected at the State Convention where the participants at the State Convention will alone deterAs a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

mine if presidential preference is to be a factor in such choice and, if so, how it is to be applied. Saturday 28 April 2012: District Caucuses convene to choose delegates to the State Convention. The participants will alone determine if presidential preference is to be a factor in such choice and, if so, how it is to be applied. Saturday 2 June 2012: The State Convention convenes at 10 am in Shreveport to elect delegates to the Republican National Convention.18 National Convention district delegates-- 3 from each of the state’s 6 Congressional Districts are elected in the Congressional District meetings.

The participants at the State Convention alone determine if presidential preference is to be a factor in such choice and, if so, how it is to be applied.

These delegates are official designated as uncommitted. 20 National Convention At-Large delegates are elected according to the results of the primary.

5 National Convention delegates are nominated by the Executive Commit-

tee. These delegates are official designated as uncommitted.

The 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Louisiana’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position. More information on LA Republican primary can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7cvubyx Information for the Louisiana Republicans can be found at http:// www.lagop.com/ Information for the Louisiana Democrats can be found at http://lademo.org/

March 2012 65

YYFreedom Let the Bells Begin to Toll The Cathedral bells were ringing incessantly in the middle of the night in this otherwise quiet and uneventful town. People of all ages started gathering in the plaza. The sound of concerned murmuring was everywhere. Someone began to pray. The vigil started, and it would continue for a few days straight. What had happened to make this sleepy town wake up? One of their own had been taken away. A most beloved priest had been taken out of the rectory in the dead of night by a group of official thugs who did the corrupt dictator’s dirty work all around the country.

Several religious figures had disappeared through the years, never to be seen again. The cause of their disappearance was their outspoken opposition to the atrocities of the government. But this time the townspeople said, “Enough!” They stood up on the side of truth and refused to back down.

They refused to bend their knees and accept the mandates of a tyrant. They stood up and clamored for their son to be returned to them unharmed. The bells did not stop tolling and the people stayed in vigil until their brother came back home.

This was the country in which I grew up. This happened in my hometown back in the late 1980s while Panama was being ravaged by a criminal strongman without hope of relief. A few years later, salvation came from the North. In 1989, the United States removed Dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega from power and the country was spared. The only source for good in the world came to our rescue and, thanks to an action that some still deem controversial, Panama today is a thriving country.

I have long since left to become a citizen of this great nation which I love as my own and which has adopted me as its daughter. I came here, to the land of 66 MinuteMom Magazine

the free and the home of the brave, so my children would not have to go through any of the experiences I had had to go through growing up in a country where the individual was not respected and freedom was not honored.

So, imagine my surprise now when I hear the news of what is going on all around us, particularly in regard to the trampling of religious freedom by our rulers.

When I read the headline in the National Review Online on February 3 that said: “Army Silenced Chaplains Last Sunday,” I knew that the war on religious rights had officially begun. Ever since the Obama Administration declared its intention to leave the mandate in its health care law requiring Catholic hospitals and colleges, and other Christian organizations to provide contraceptives and abortifacients, which the organizations deem immoral, in their insurance plans, I realized we are indeed not fighting against flesh and blood, but that our battle is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV).

This incident makes me wonder how the actions of our government fit into the principles upon which this country was founded. I think it is time for the people to stand in vigilance and pray without ceasing for evil not to grab hold of what is dear to us and destroy the only source for good left in the world. It is time for believers to refuse to bow down to the forces that are trying to annihilate our relationship with the Creator and turn us into a nation

that worships rulers rather than our Father in Heaven.

I remember those terrifying days of my youth in Panama living under a cruel dictatorship of socialist tendencies and I shiver thinking of the possibility of re-living similar days here in the U.S. I do not want my sons to grow up fearing the government like I did.

But I also remember the thrill of valor and the pride and honor experienced by those who stood up and were able to welcome their brother and friend back home. I remember the exhilaration of liberation and the days when I finally began to learn how to be free.

Perhaps it is time to remember that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1) Perhaps it is time for the bells to begin to toll in America again.

—Gisela P. Dieter

www.AsAMom.org

YYAs Seen on AAM Does voter ID suppress the vote? Heritage vs. ACLU Voter fraud has a history of plaguing elections, inspiring a growing number of states to enact voter identification laws in recent years. The issue was the focus of a debate Thursday at the National Press Club between Heritage senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky and Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office.

Proponents of voter ID laws believe they reduce fraud and improve the

integrity of elections. Opponents argue these laws decrease voter turnout and disenfranchise minority voters.

“One of the key principles of any fair election is making sure that the person who casts the vote is legally eligible to do so, and the fairest way to do that is by making sure that individuals authenticate their citizenship when they register to vote, authenticate their identity when they appear at

the polling places,” said von Spakovsky.

“Those kinds of requirements also increase public confidence in our election process.”

In many cases, voter ID laws were put in place after incidents of fraudulent ballots signed by the deceased, illegal aliens, and people who had already cast a vote in another state.

More at: http://tinyurl.com/6s6zl6d

Merely being human is not ... Excuse Me? “Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life.”--Excuse Me? Yes. That is an actual quote from two “ethicists” in Australia. These two believe that if abortion in the womb is allowed, so too should “after-birth” abortion.

My goodness. They have written in the Journal of Medical Ethics that it should be considered acceptable when the “newborn would be putting the well-being of the family at risk”.

I really hope that others in America will be as repulsed as I am.

These people sound like Dr. Ezekiel

Emanuel, President Obama’s health care advisor believes in selecting “out” those who do not “benefit” society.

More at: http://tinyurl.com/88lqdpt

Other Hot Topics For the latest in Hot Topics on As a Mom... http://www.asamom.org/leaderboards/topcontent/week

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This week’s top discussions: 1. “Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life.”--Excuse Me? 2. First They Came For The Catholics...Update 3. Does voter ID suppress the vote? Heritage vs. ACLU 4. Rest in Peace Andrew Breitbart.

5. WY preparing for complete meltdown. What do you think?

6. What Obama Has Done To The United States 7. Truly Terrifying!

8. Prepping and Christianity 9. Alinsky group gets $56m fed loan to run WI insurance 10. Louis Farrakhan warns of racial hatred that could lead to attempts to kill President Obama Come add your views and start a discussion of your own.

As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots®

March 2012 67

YYAs a Family

Virtue Virtue means doing the right thing even if it’s not convenient or even if you don’t want to do it. Telling the store clerk he gave you too much change, being loyal to a friend when the cool kids tease him and working hard are all examples of virtues. The word virtue actually means ‘strength’ or ‘power’ and has an ability to ‘produce effects on other bodies’.

George Washington was an extremely virtuous man and because of who he was, even when it looked impossible to win the war of independence against England, people drew strength and courage from him. Another man of virtue during the Revolutionary War was a Frenchman named Lafayette. The following is an example from his life of an act of virtue. This story took place when the marquis was an old, bent man and had returned to America for a visit in 1824: A brilliant reception was under way. A slowly moving line of stately guests passed by the noble old marquis, who greeted each with courtly grace. Presently there approached an old soldier clad in a worn Continental uniform. In his hand was an ancient musket, and across his shoulder was thrown a small blanket, or rather a piece of blanket. On reaching the marquis, the veteran drew himself up in a stiff fashion of the old-time drill and gave the military salute. As Lafayette returned the salute, tears sprang to his eyes. The tattered uniform, the ancient flintlock, the silver-haired veteran, even older than himself, recalled the dear past.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La “Do you know me?” asked the soldier. Lafayette’s manner had Fayette 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834) was a general in the led him to think himself personally remembered.

American Revolutionary War. “Indeed, I cannot say that I do,” was the frank reply.

“Do you remember the frosts and snows of Valley Forge?”

“I shall never forget them,” answered Lafayette.

“One bitter night, General Lafayette, you were going the rounds at Valley Forge. You came upon a sentry in thin clothing and without stockings. He was slowly freezing to death. You took his musket, saying, ‘Go to my hut. There you will find stockings, a blanket, and a fire. After warming yourself, bring the blanket to me. Meanwhile I will keep guard.’

“The soldier obeyed directions. When he returned to his post, you, General Lafayette, cut the blanket in two. One half you kept, the other you presented to the sentry. Here, General, is one half of that blanket, for I am the sentry whose life you saved.”

(Story told by Fanny Coe in The Third Book of Stories , 1918. Other stories like this found in the Freedom Series at gardenofliberty.org.)

68 MinuteMom Magazine

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Photo wikipedia.org

Can you think of acts of virtue you can do?

Where is Molly nOW?

Recently Molly was sighted at the Texas State capital in Austin . On stage with Ron & Kay of the Rivoli Revue in Florida. She vent to vote in the primaries in Arizona, but she was not allowed to vote since she hadn’t registered.

See more photos at www.asamom.org

Where is YOUR Molly?

Directions:

1. Print Molly on cardstock or heavy paper.

2. Color and decorate to your liking.

3. Cut out and mail Molly, along with a Constitution and personal letter or story, to your friends. You can find a copy of the Constitution to print here: http://www.rollingchrome.com/AAM/docs/ USConstitution.pdf

4. Ask the recipient to take Molly to a local landmark, town hall or other place that a Constitution is needed and document the visit with a photo.

Make sure Molly and her “sponsors” are in the photo too!

5. Ask your family/friends to email the photo to you.

6. Post your favorite Molly photos at AsAMom.org.

7. Request that your friends send Molly and her message on to someone else, or help them create their own.

If you have a scanner you can always email your Molly or use the handy pre colored Molly!

Complete instructions and Downloadable PDFs can be found at www. asamom.org

The Save the Constitution - Read It! Campaign is not a group or a program.

It is an Attitude.

The purpose of Save it! Read it! is to encourage patriots everywhere to do two things: 1. Commit to reading The Constitution and review it often.

2. Encourage others to read the Constitution.

We have received challenges to read and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from various sources. All of us must commit to reading the Constitution of the United States of America and review it often. Only by understanding the principles upon which our government was founded can we recognize Constitutional abuses and be able to step up and stop that abuse.

The Save the Constitution - Read It! Campaign started as an extension of the Patriot Pin Program developed by As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots to encourage patriots everywhere to save the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Classroom packs of 25 bookmarks are available from www.AsAMom.org Pins, Pendants and bumper stickers are at www.asamomestore.com

www.SaveItReadIt.org Š2010 As A Mom...A Sisterhood of Mommy PatriotsŽ www.asamom.org