The lady who posted on a local homeschool forum asking how to teach kids to read then asked what to do about her little ones who make it hard for her to have uninterrupted one on one teaching time with her oldest. I am by no means an expert, but I did attempt to give her a few ideas.
Little kids makes for an extra challenge indeed! One thing I've read about others doing is to keep some toys, or whatever the little kids like, just for when you need to work with the older ones. The special toys only come out when you teach the older. That way the little ones are excited to get to play with toys they usually don't see, and you have a better chance of them leaving you alone. :)
Our boys are almost 8, 4, and 18 months. As long as I give them all something to do, they are usually content. That means giving them all paper to write on, or everyone has books to read, or everyone gets blocks to play with, etc.
For your situation, maybe you could make up a little set of flashcards, etc., for each child, and keep them in a ziploc bag with their name on it.
Some people put in a video for the little ones, but in my case, then my older one wants to watch, so I don't do that.
When trying to teach a young child to read, it's usually best to keep lessons short, maybe 30 minutes a day, and maybe broken up into two 15 minute lessons. I get better results out of setting a timer for 15 minutes and having my almost 8 year old work on math, and then take a break, and then set the timer again.
Boys seem to do better working in short spurts, and then get up and run around, and so on. It's so hard for them to sit still for hours on end, so it's no wonder so many are on medication in school.
Anyway, if you plan to sit with your oldest for 15-30 minutes at a time, you could try to sit the timer for your little ones, give them their special toys and activities, and tell them they can play quietly until the timer goes off while you sit with big brother and teach him. One thing they may really like is if you take a turn with each of them using the timer, even if it's just 5 minutes reading a book. I heard one lady say she spends individual time with the younger ones first and that seems to keep them from clamoring for her attention while she teaches the older ones.
It can be extra challenging, but certainly not impossible to teach several ages of kids successfully. There are lots of great internet sources of teaching tips and encouragement from other moms. If you don't know any, maybe we could all share some favorites. Local co-ops are so nice, too. We just had these people in town to speak and they have lots of great advice: http://www.raisingrealmen.com/
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Wait! Don't cut that cord!
Here is a great video comparing the common hospital practice of immediately cutting the umbilical cord verses waiting until the cord stops pulsating.
My oldest was born in a birth center with a midwife. I had planned to wait to cut the cord, but had not specified that prior to labor. Surprisingly, they immediately cut the cord, and I was too exhausted to say anything. I had been given an episiotomy to hurry up and get him out since they said his heart rate was too low. This, by the way, I blame on the fact that they didn't leave me alone on the toilet where I had been laboring and my water had just broke. They wanted me to move to the bed and had me on my back, which I hated. I believe this greatly hindered my birthing efforts. It led to prolonged pushing and consequently the low heart rate. All this to say that he would have tremendously benefited from his cord blood.
What happens in delayed cord clamping is that the baby takes exactly how much blood he needs from the cord. When it is immediately cut, he is deprived from all that blood and oxygen.
My last two births were homebirths, and we did not cut the cord until the cord had stopped pulsating and turned whitish and cold. The babies got all the blood and oxygen they needed. For the last, I even waited until I birthed the placenta before cutting the cord. The placenta will usually come out about a half hour or so after birth. This works out well since the mom usually wants to rest and hold her baby for a while before getting up to get cleaned up. Of course, waterbirths take care of the cleaning up part!
Waiting to cut the cord is one more way to enjoy a gentle birth free from interferences, and it is much better for the baby.
My oldest was born in a birth center with a midwife. I had planned to wait to cut the cord, but had not specified that prior to labor. Surprisingly, they immediately cut the cord, and I was too exhausted to say anything. I had been given an episiotomy to hurry up and get him out since they said his heart rate was too low. This, by the way, I blame on the fact that they didn't leave me alone on the toilet where I had been laboring and my water had just broke. They wanted me to move to the bed and had me on my back, which I hated. I believe this greatly hindered my birthing efforts. It led to prolonged pushing and consequently the low heart rate. All this to say that he would have tremendously benefited from his cord blood.
What happens in delayed cord clamping is that the baby takes exactly how much blood he needs from the cord. When it is immediately cut, he is deprived from all that blood and oxygen.
My last two births were homebirths, and we did not cut the cord until the cord had stopped pulsating and turned whitish and cold. The babies got all the blood and oxygen they needed. For the last, I even waited until I birthed the placenta before cutting the cord. The placenta will usually come out about a half hour or so after birth. This works out well since the mom usually wants to rest and hold her baby for a while before getting up to get cleaned up. Of course, waterbirths take care of the cleaning up part!
Waiting to cut the cord is one more way to enjoy a gentle birth free from interferences, and it is much better for the baby.
Friday, April 23, 2010
How to teach your child to read
I recently answered a question on one of the local homeschool co-op's online forums I belong to regarding how to teach a child to read. Since this is such an incredibly important skill to teach our children, I thought I'd share it here.
In my opinion, reading is by far the most crucial academic thing for me to teach our kids, since once they can read well, they have the rest of their lives to teach themselves whatever they want to learn.
Here's my response:
I have so far successfully taught my oldest to read, so I thought I should chime
in. We started in kindergarten when he was almost 5 1/2. I used all sorts of
reading programs, including Hooked on Phonics, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, AlphaPhonics, flash cards, and numerous different early readers. By spring, he was beyond frustrated and I gave up. He just wasn't ready, and I was pushing him too hard.
Next fall and first grade, I again worked with him on reading, this time using
Adventures in Phonics. We skipped the first half of the first book since he was
already familiar with simple three letter words from our kindergarten efforts.
After we went through that book, we worked through the second book, and never needed the third and final book in the series. The difference was that he was ready to sit down and learn to read. By spring, he had really taken off and was reading great!
It's now a year later and he loves to read and reads daily for pleasure and
learning. Just the other day, my father in law was showing me a book he got
from the library thinking I might like to read it. My son picked it up and
started reading it and became engrossed. We even took the book so he can finish reading it. This is a thick book written for adults!
This past fall, I did have him read through the AlphaPhonics book just to make
sure he knew all the different word families, including the irregular words. He
breezed through it. It is amazing what a difference a year can make!
My next son is four and is very interested in spelling his name and letters and
numbers. So, I just very recently started showing him how to spell and write
his name and just a few words like at, cat, and bat using some magnetic letters.
We have a magnetic chalkboard, and I have been writing letters and words and
having him match the magnetic letters like a puzzle. We only do it for as long
as he wants. It's so important not to burn them out and make them hate reading like I was doing to my oldest.
By the way, my oldest just came up and asked me what I'm doing. When I told him someone was asking for how to teach kids to read, he said, "That's easy, just read to them and it will encourage them to read." :) Out of the mouths of
babes! That was actually what I was going to mention next, the importance of
reading to your kids. We have read many books to our kids, and it definitely
helps to instill a love of reading.
It can be intimidating trying to teach a child to read, but you can do it! I
personally like teaching word families. Teach the sounds that letters make and
then how they blend together. Mat, cat, sat, rat, etc., and bed, red, Ted, etc.,
are examples. There are many irregular words, but they are in the minority.
Start out with the simple words and build upon those. There are lots of great
books and reading programs, but you can teach reading with just a pencil and
paper, or just chalk and chalkboard, or just flashcards, and so on.
Show your kids that reading is fun and a desirable skill by reading to them
daily, be patient, and teach them as they are ready.
In my opinion, reading is by far the most crucial academic thing for me to teach our kids, since once they can read well, they have the rest of their lives to teach themselves whatever they want to learn.
Here's my response:
I have so far successfully taught my oldest to read, so I thought I should chime
in. We started in kindergarten when he was almost 5 1/2. I used all sorts of
reading programs, including Hooked on Phonics, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, AlphaPhonics, flash cards, and numerous different early readers. By spring, he was beyond frustrated and I gave up. He just wasn't ready, and I was pushing him too hard.
Next fall and first grade, I again worked with him on reading, this time using
Adventures in Phonics. We skipped the first half of the first book since he was
already familiar with simple three letter words from our kindergarten efforts.
After we went through that book, we worked through the second book, and never needed the third and final book in the series. The difference was that he was ready to sit down and learn to read. By spring, he had really taken off and was reading great!
It's now a year later and he loves to read and reads daily for pleasure and
learning. Just the other day, my father in law was showing me a book he got
from the library thinking I might like to read it. My son picked it up and
started reading it and became engrossed. We even took the book so he can finish reading it. This is a thick book written for adults!
This past fall, I did have him read through the AlphaPhonics book just to make
sure he knew all the different word families, including the irregular words. He
breezed through it. It is amazing what a difference a year can make!
My next son is four and is very interested in spelling his name and letters and
numbers. So, I just very recently started showing him how to spell and write
his name and just a few words like at, cat, and bat using some magnetic letters.
We have a magnetic chalkboard, and I have been writing letters and words and
having him match the magnetic letters like a puzzle. We only do it for as long
as he wants. It's so important not to burn them out and make them hate reading like I was doing to my oldest.
By the way, my oldest just came up and asked me what I'm doing. When I told him someone was asking for how to teach kids to read, he said, "That's easy, just read to them and it will encourage them to read." :) Out of the mouths of
babes! That was actually what I was going to mention next, the importance of
reading to your kids. We have read many books to our kids, and it definitely
helps to instill a love of reading.
It can be intimidating trying to teach a child to read, but you can do it! I
personally like teaching word families. Teach the sounds that letters make and
then how they blend together. Mat, cat, sat, rat, etc., and bed, red, Ted, etc.,
are examples. There are many irregular words, but they are in the minority.
Start out with the simple words and build upon those. There are lots of great
books and reading programs, but you can teach reading with just a pencil and
paper, or just chalk and chalkboard, or just flashcards, and so on.
Show your kids that reading is fun and a desirable skill by reading to them
daily, be patient, and teach them as they are ready.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Disgusting examples of government wasting our tax dollars!
Here is an outrageous list of government waste, best read sitting down, and not at at all if you have high blood pressure. Keep in mind that these are only examples. There are many more disgusting thefts of our money. Taxing hard working Americans, then essentially throwing our money away, is criminal.
I remember as a kid reading about the government paying several hundred dollars each for toilets seats and hammers. Obviously, a criminal element is at work for this to happen. It sounds to me like some government official is awarding a contract to someone he knows, who then is allowed and encouraged to charge outrageous sums of money that no one in the private sector would ever pay.
I read another story in Reader's Digest a year or so ago about something a couple of guys had invented that the government wanted to buy. However, the government insisted paying far more than what the men charged for this item. Being honest and wanting to do the right thing, the men refused to overcharge the government. They very nearly lost the contract as a result, but in the end, Uncle Sam agreed to pay the same price that everyone else paid.
Our federal government has ballooned into a gigantic, bloated entity that serves very little practical purpose. Like living at the base of a great mountain, it now overshadows every aspect of our lives. Is this what our Founding Fathers intended when they intentionally created a very limited federal government, so as to allow the citizens to govern themselves, as long as they did not infringe upon the rights of others? I believe George Washington and his contemporaries would have had many of our modern day politicians in prison.
A corrupt cesspool of greedy thieves has taken over the nation. They tax us under the guise of necessity in order maintain infrastructure, yet they live lavishly on our dime, and blatantly waste our money on innumerable pork projects, very often spent attempting to get votes from various special interest groups.
Long gone are the days when a politician was truly a public servant, who went into office for a time to represent his neighbors. Now, we see mostly career politicians, far more concerned with doing whatever necessary to remain in office, than actually representing constituents.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/10/50-Examples-of-Government-Waste
50 Examples of Government Waste
Published on October 6, 2009 by Brian Riedl
Soaring government spending and trillion-dollar budget deficits have brought fiscal responsibility -- and reducing government waste -- back onto the national agenda. President Obama recently identified 0.004 of 1 percent of the federal budget as wasteful and proposed eliminating this $140 million from his $3.6 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget request. Aiming higher, the President recently proposed partially offsetting a costly new government health entitlement by reducing $622 billion in Medicare and Medicaid "waste and inefficiencies" over the next decade. Taxpayers may wonder why reducing such waste is now merely a bargaining chip for new spending rather than an end in itself.
It is possible to reduce spending and balance the budget. In the 1980s and 1990s, Washington consistently spent $21,000 per household (adjusted for inflation). Simply returning to that level would balance the budget by 2012 without any tax hikes. Alternatively, merely returning to the 2008 (pre-recession) spending level of $25,000 per household (adjusted for inflation) would likely balance the budget by 2019 without any tax hikes.
Not Easy, but Necessary
Reducing wasteful spending is not easy. Even the most useless programs are passionately supported by the armies of recipients, administrators, and lobbyists that benefit from their existence. Identifying inefficiencies and abuses is much easier than devising a system to fix them. Many lawmakers focus more on bringing home earmarks than on performing the less exciting task of government oversight. Exasperated taxpayers see the cost of government rise with no end in sight.
Of course, eliminating waste cannot balance the budget. Lawmakers must also rein in spending by reforming Social Security and Medicare and by eliminating government activities that are no longer affordable. Yet government waste is the low-hanging fruit that lawmakers must clean up in order to build credibility with the public for larger reforms.
Congress has allowed government employees to spend tax dollars on iPods, jewelry, gambling, exotic dance clubs, and $13,500 steak dinners. If lawmakers cannot even reduce this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse, taxpayers will be less likely to trust them to reform Social Security and Medicare.
Six Categories of Waste
The six categories of wasteful and unnecessary spending are:
1. Programs that should be devolved to state and local governments;
2. Programs that could be better performed by the private sector;
3. Mistargeted programs whose recipients should not be entitled to government benefits;
4. Outdated and unnecessary programs;
5. Duplicative programs; and
6. Inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud.
The first four categories are generally subjective, and reasonable people can disagree on whether a given federal program falls under their purview. Yet the final two categories -- duplication and inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud -- are comparatively easy to identify and oppose. Thus, they are heavily represented in the examples of government waste below:
1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.[26]
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want. [36]
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."[40]
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data.[50]
Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit
Because many of these examples of waste overlap, it is not possible to determine their exact total cost. Yet it is evident that Washington loses hundreds of billions of dollars annually on spending that most Americans would certainly consider wasteful. Lawmakers seeking to rein in spending and budget deficits should begin by eliminating this least justifiable spending while also addressing long-term entitlement costs.
Brian M. Riedl is Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Show references in this report: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/10/50-Examples-of-Government-Waste
I remember as a kid reading about the government paying several hundred dollars each for toilets seats and hammers. Obviously, a criminal element is at work for this to happen. It sounds to me like some government official is awarding a contract to someone he knows, who then is allowed and encouraged to charge outrageous sums of money that no one in the private sector would ever pay.
I read another story in Reader's Digest a year or so ago about something a couple of guys had invented that the government wanted to buy. However, the government insisted paying far more than what the men charged for this item. Being honest and wanting to do the right thing, the men refused to overcharge the government. They very nearly lost the contract as a result, but in the end, Uncle Sam agreed to pay the same price that everyone else paid.
Our federal government has ballooned into a gigantic, bloated entity that serves very little practical purpose. Like living at the base of a great mountain, it now overshadows every aspect of our lives. Is this what our Founding Fathers intended when they intentionally created a very limited federal government, so as to allow the citizens to govern themselves, as long as they did not infringe upon the rights of others? I believe George Washington and his contemporaries would have had many of our modern day politicians in prison.
A corrupt cesspool of greedy thieves has taken over the nation. They tax us under the guise of necessity in order maintain infrastructure, yet they live lavishly on our dime, and blatantly waste our money on innumerable pork projects, very often spent attempting to get votes from various special interest groups.
Long gone are the days when a politician was truly a public servant, who went into office for a time to represent his neighbors. Now, we see mostly career politicians, far more concerned with doing whatever necessary to remain in office, than actually representing constituents.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/10/50-Examples-of-Government-Waste
50 Examples of Government Waste
Published on October 6, 2009 by Brian Riedl
Soaring government spending and trillion-dollar budget deficits have brought fiscal responsibility -- and reducing government waste -- back onto the national agenda. President Obama recently identified 0.004 of 1 percent of the federal budget as wasteful and proposed eliminating this $140 million from his $3.6 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget request. Aiming higher, the President recently proposed partially offsetting a costly new government health entitlement by reducing $622 billion in Medicare and Medicaid "waste and inefficiencies" over the next decade. Taxpayers may wonder why reducing such waste is now merely a bargaining chip for new spending rather than an end in itself.
It is possible to reduce spending and balance the budget. In the 1980s and 1990s, Washington consistently spent $21,000 per household (adjusted for inflation). Simply returning to that level would balance the budget by 2012 without any tax hikes. Alternatively, merely returning to the 2008 (pre-recession) spending level of $25,000 per household (adjusted for inflation) would likely balance the budget by 2019 without any tax hikes.
Not Easy, but Necessary
Reducing wasteful spending is not easy. Even the most useless programs are passionately supported by the armies of recipients, administrators, and lobbyists that benefit from their existence. Identifying inefficiencies and abuses is much easier than devising a system to fix them. Many lawmakers focus more on bringing home earmarks than on performing the less exciting task of government oversight. Exasperated taxpayers see the cost of government rise with no end in sight.
Of course, eliminating waste cannot balance the budget. Lawmakers must also rein in spending by reforming Social Security and Medicare and by eliminating government activities that are no longer affordable. Yet government waste is the low-hanging fruit that lawmakers must clean up in order to build credibility with the public for larger reforms.
Congress has allowed government employees to spend tax dollars on iPods, jewelry, gambling, exotic dance clubs, and $13,500 steak dinners. If lawmakers cannot even reduce this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse, taxpayers will be less likely to trust them to reform Social Security and Medicare.
Six Categories of Waste
The six categories of wasteful and unnecessary spending are:
1. Programs that should be devolved to state and local governments;
2. Programs that could be better performed by the private sector;
3. Mistargeted programs whose recipients should not be entitled to government benefits;
4. Outdated and unnecessary programs;
5. Duplicative programs; and
6. Inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud.
The first four categories are generally subjective, and reasonable people can disagree on whether a given federal program falls under their purview. Yet the final two categories -- duplication and inefficiency, mismanagement, and fraud -- are comparatively easy to identify and oppose. Thus, they are heavily represented in the examples of government waste below:
1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.[26]
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want. [36]
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."[40]
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data.[50]
Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit
Because many of these examples of waste overlap, it is not possible to determine their exact total cost. Yet it is evident that Washington loses hundreds of billions of dollars annually on spending that most Americans would certainly consider wasteful. Lawmakers seeking to rein in spending and budget deficits should begin by eliminating this least justifiable spending while also addressing long-term entitlement costs.
Brian M. Riedl is Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Show references in this report: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/10/50-Examples-of-Government-Waste
[1]Government Accountability Office, Improper Payments: Progress Made but Challenges Remain in Estimating and Reducing Improper Payments, GAO-09-628T, April 22, 2009, at /static/reportimages/848E2EF8FE88B7FD87B3621E2B5FC0EA.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[2]The Cato Institute estimates that corporate welfare costs $92 billion annually (not even counting the $700 billion TARP legislation). See Stephen Slivinski, "The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses," Cato Institute, May 14, 2007, at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8230 (October 5, 2009). The White House has requested $71 billion for fiscal year 2010 homeland security spending. See Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the U.S. Government, FY 2010: Analytic Perspectives (Supplemental Materials), May 2009, at /static/reportimages/1FA58FAE61C1A1EBAB37BE76B88C824D.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[3]Office of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), "Subcommittee Oversight Efforts Identify $1.1 Trillion in Waste or Questionable Spending," October 19, 2006, at http://coburn.senate.gov/oversight/?FuseAction=OversightAction
.Home&ContentRecord_id=611f1f4c-802a-23ad-475d-223d6490f308 (October 5, 2009).
[4]Figures include all federal programs rated "effective" or "results not demonstrated" by the George W. Bush Administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) assessment of all federal programs. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/ and http://www.whitehouse
.gov/omb/expectmore/part.xls.
[5]Congressional Budget Office, "Budget Options, Volume 1: Health Care," December 2008, athttp://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-Health
Options (October 5, 2009); "Budget Options, Volume 2," August 2009, at /static/reportimages/B6358B2C50828DC2865F4C220C0720C5.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[6]Examples are drawn from Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, "Government at the Brink," Vols. I and II, June 2001; U.S. General Accounting Office, "Managing for Results: Using the Results Act to Address Mission Fragmentation and Program Overlap," August 1997, at /static/reportimages/80B40B0A5C314F2221EE8FF7B22D39CB.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[7]Edwin Mora, "U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job," CNS News, May 12, 2009, at http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47976 (October 5, 2009).
[8]Government Accountability Office, Government-wide Purchase Cards: Actions Needed to Strengthen Internal Controls to Reduce Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Purchases, GAO-08-333, March 2008, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08333.pdf
new.items/d08333.pdf (October 5, 2009); Marc Stewart, "Federal Gov't Questions TVA Spending," WBIR.com, February 27, 2009, at http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=79461 (October 5, 2009); Dan Eggen, "Federal Credit Cards Misused," TheWashington Post, April 9, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04
/08/AR2008040802718.html (October 5, 2009).
[9]Robert Brodsky, "Report Paints Agencies as Deadbeat Travel Card Holders," Government Executive, May 28, 2009, at http://www.govexec.com
/story_page.cfm?articleid=42837&dcn=todaysnews (October 5, 2009).
[10]Laura Strickler, "SEC Spends Millions to Reorganize Desks," CBS News, April 8, 2009, at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/07/cbsnews
_investigates/main4927475.shtml (October 5, 2009).
[11]Tony Capaccio, "Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers," Bloomberg, August 16, 2009, at http://www.bloomberg.com/
apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aY5OQ5xv9HR8 (October 5, 2009).
[12]Ted Covey et al., "Agriculture Income and Finance Outlook," U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, November 2006, pp. 40 and 48.
[13]Carrie Johnson, "Medical Fraud a Growing Problem," TheWashington Post, June 13, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article
/2008/06/12/AR2008061203915.html (October 5, 2009).
[14]Dana Hedgpeth, "GAO Blasts Weapons Budget," TheWashington Post, April 1, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article
/2008/03/31/AR2008033102789.html (October 5, 2009).
[15]Christopher Conkey, "Federal Workers Accused of Abusing Business Class," The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2007, at http://online.wsj.com/
article/SB119136054325946827.html (October 5, 2009).
[16]Steve LeBlanc, "Feds Spending Millions on Kennedy Legacy," Associated Press, May 11, 2009, at http://wbztv.com/politics/tedkennedy/ted.kennedy
.legacy.2.956809.html (October 5, 2009); Bryan Bender, "Kerry Asks $20m for Kennedy Institute," The Boston Globe, September 25, 2009, at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/09/25/
watchdog_groups_rap_20m_earmark_for_kennedy_institute/ (October 5, 2009).
[17]Ralph Vartabedian and Tom Hamburger, "Crimes Suspected in 20 Bailout Cases--for Starters," The Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2009, at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tarp-fraud21-2009
apr21,0,2443377.story (October 5, 2009).
[18]These and more examples of recent earmarks are at Brian Riedl, "Omnibus Spending Bill: Huge Spending and 9,000 Earmarks Represent Business as Usual," Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2318, March 2, 2009, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm2318.cfm.
[19] Brad Heath, "Gov't Losses Big in Home Market," USA Today, May 15, 2009, at http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-05-14
-govtown_N.htm (October 5, 2009).
[20] Ira Teinowitz, "FCC Goes NASCAR Racing to Publicize DTV," TV Week, October 2008, at http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/10/fcc_goes_nascar
_racing_to_publ.php (October 5, 2009).
[21] Louise Radnofsky and T. W. Farnam, "Lawmakers Bill Taxpayers for TVs, Cameras, Lexus," The Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124364352135868189.html (October 5, 2009); Jonathan E. Kaplan and Mandy Kozar, "Lawmakers Spend on Big Screens, Popcorn," The Hill, November 8, 2005.
[22]Dana Hedgpeth, "$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says," TheWashington Post, September 23, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/
AR2008092202053.html (October 5, 2009);Dan Friedman, "Report: Defense Department Cannot Fully Account for $7.8B Spent in Iraq," CongressDaily,May 22, 2008, at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0508/052208cdpm2.htm (October 5, 2009).
[23]Associated Press, "Katrina Fraud Could Top $2 Billion," December 25, 2006, at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15587326/ (October 5, 2009); "FEMA Funds Spent on Divorce, Sex Change," June 14, 2006, at http://cbs4denver.com/national/FEMA.Divorce.Sex.2.268906.html (October 5, 2009).
[24]Government Accountability Office, Expedited Assistance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: FEMA's Control Weaknesses Exposed the Government to Significant Fraud and Abuse, GAO-06-403T, February 13, 2006, p. 11, at /static/reportimages/AD70E579E2C93DD00C8963C3EB7761C3.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[25]Wesley Loy, "Alaska Airlines Takes Flying Fish to a Whole New Level: $500,000 Grant from Federal Funding Pays for Custom Paint Job on Company's Passenger Jet," Anchorage Daily News, October 2, 2005.
[26]Halimah Abdullah, "Who Might Fly Somerset to D.C. and Back?," McClatchey, May 24, 2009, at http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news
/story/806331.html (October 5, 2009).
[27]CBS News, "Beach Restoration: Sending $$$ Out to Sea?," May 26, 2009, at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/26/eveningnews/
main5041144.shtml (October 5, 2009).
[28] Michael Grabell, "Rural Broadband Stimulus Program Slammed in Gov't Report," ProPublica, April 14, 2009, at http://www.propublica.org/ion/
stimulus/item/rural-broadband-stimulus-program-slammed-in-govt-report
-414/ (October 5, 2009).
[29]Government Accountability Office, DOD Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Led to Millions of Dollars in Unused Airline Tickets, GAO-03-398, March 2004, at /static/reportimages/4ACE73C0DAE4F7DF5A63A1682F144966.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[30]CBS News, "FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic," April 29, 2009, at http://wcbstv.com/topstories/air.force.one.2.996457.html (October 5, 2009); Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, "The Cost of Presidential and Vice Presidential Political Travel," March 2006, p. 3, at http://oversight.house.gov/documents/
20060316113550-47530.pdf (October 5, 2009).
[31]Government Accountability Office, Travel Cards: Air Force Management Focus Has Reduced Delinquencies, but Improvements in Controls Are Needed, GAO-03-298, December 20, 2002, p. 4, at http://www.gao.gov/new.
items/d03298.pdf (October 6, 2009); Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave Navy Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse, GAO-03-148T, October 8, 2002, p. 8, at /static/reportimages/40C1D6AB36A6C16873C3BF78605117B8.pdf (October 6, 2009).
[32] Emily Yehle, "House May Get Big Boost for Election-Year Mailings," Roll Call, May 4, 2009.
[33]Department of Heath and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, "Compendium of Unimplemented Office of Inspector General Recommendations," May 2009, at http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/
compendium/compendium2009.pdf (October 6, 2009).
[34]Christopher Lee, "Official Portraits Draw Skeptical Gaze," TheWashington Post, October 21, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/10/20/AR2008102003627.html (October 6, 2009).
[35]Associated Press, "Washington Sends $1 Food Stamp Checks to 250,000," February 23, 2009, at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html
/localnews/2008775541_apwafoodstampchecks.html (October 6, 2009).
[36]Dan Morgan, Gilbert Gaul, and Sarah Cohen, "Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm," TheWashingtonPost, July 2, 2006, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/
AR2006070100962.html (October 6, 2009).
[37]Anne Plummer Flaherty, "Congress Ready for Its End of War Party," Associated Press, October 4, 2006, at http://www.presstelegram.com/
news/ci_4443037 (October 6, 2009).
[38]Government Accountability Office, Purchase Cards: Control Weaknesses Leave DHS Highly Vulnerable to Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Activity, GAO-06-1117, September 2006, at /static/reportimages/59308EC86105AAE6C7692F05D53ECA46.pdf (October 6, 2009).
[39]Jonathan Nicholson, "Congress Seems Unlikely to Correct Gaffes in Budget Bill Costing $2 Billion," BNA Daily Report for Executives, September 25, 2006.
[40]Steve Fogarty, " Stimulus Grant Funds a Quieter North Ridgeville," Chronicle-Telegram, May 22, 2009, at http://www.chroniclet.com/2009/05/
stimulus-grant-funds-a-quieter-north-ridgeville/ (October 6, 2009).
[41]Jonathan Rockoff, "NIH Paying $1.3 Million Monthly for Unused Lab," Baltimore Sun, December 2, 2007.
[42]Bennett Roth and Eric Rosenberg, "The Pentagon Says It Doesn't Need Any More C-17 Jets, but It Is Getting Them--at a Cost of $2.4 Billion--Thanks to the Texas Congressional Delegation," Houston Chronicle, September 30, 2007, at http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?
id=2007_4433833 (October 6, 2009).
[43]CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, December 6, 2005, at http://transcripts
.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/06/acd.01.html (October 6, 2009).
[44]David Stout, "Medicare Error Sends $50 Million in Refunds to Recipients," The New York Times, August 24, 2006, at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/
08/24/washington/24medicare.html (October 6, 2009).
[45]Griff Witte and Spencer S. Hsu, "Homeland Security Contracts Abused," TheWashington Post, July 27, 2006, at http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601683.html (October 6, 2009).
[46]Kevin Duffy, "Why Did the Federal Government Help This Golf Course?," Atlanta-Journal-Constitution, November 13, 2006.
[47]See Brian Riedl, "Congress Should Follow the President and Eliminate the Advanced Technology Program," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1828, March 1, 2005, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg1828.cfm.
[48]Government Accountability Office, Department of Education: Guaranteed Student Loan Program Vulnerabilities, GAO-03-268R, November 21, 2002, at /static/reportimages/9329EBC1096FB830E7A1C6AA436AD6E1.pdf (October 6, 2009).
[49]The Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers not to farm more than 40 million acres of farmland. See Brian Riedl, "How Farm Subsidies Harm Taxpayers, Consumers, and Farmers, Too," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2043, June 20, 2007, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Agriculture/bg2043.cfm.
[50]Associated Press, "Commerce Reports Losing 1,137 Laptops," September 21, 2006, athttp://washingtontimes.com/news/2006/sep/21/
20060921-115116-5387r/print (October 6, 2009).
This must see video details the intended destruction of America
Please watch this short video for a superb explanation of what is happening to America!
http://apathetic-usa.com/
If we don't do all we can to fight to preserve and restore our freedom and return our nation to our Constitution, how will we ever be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye knowing we sat complacent while we allowed them to be enslaved?!
Please get involved! We need you!
http://apathetic-usa.com/
If we don't do all we can to fight to preserve and restore our freedom and return our nation to our Constitution, how will we ever be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye knowing we sat complacent while we allowed them to be enslaved?!
Please get involved! We need you!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Our Christian Heritage: Quotes from Our Founding Fathers
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6
As many writers of history textbooks have rewritten history, I'd like to share some true history.
It is vital that we know our history, and God's hand upon our nation. We have been told repeatedly by our leaders and teachers that ours is a secular nation, and the founders were not Christians. This is why it is so important that we go to the original sources and learn for ourselves what our country's founders thought and said.
Compare the following quotes and writings of our founding fathers to our current politicians.
Also, a great site to visit with many more quotes is http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/founding.html.
The three branches of the U.S. Government: Judicial, Legislative, Executive
• At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to divide the central government into three branches. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22; “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us.”
[Baron Charles Montesquieu, wrote in 1748; “Nor is there liberty if the power of judging is not separated from legislative power and from executive power. If it [the power of judging] were joined to legislative power, the power over life and liberty of the citizens would be arbitrary, for the judge would be the legislature if it were joined to the executive power, the judge could have the force of an oppressor. All would be lost if the same … body of principal men … exercised these three powers." Madison claimed Isaiah 33:22 as the source of division of power in government
See also: pp.241-242 in Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History: The Principle approach by Rosalie Slater]
Liberty Bell Inscription:
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof” [Leviticus 25:10]
Proposals for the seal of the United States of America
• “Moses lifting his wand and dividing the Red Sea.” –Ben Franklin
• “The children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.” --Thomas Jefferson
On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams "to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." Franklin's proposal adapted the biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea. Jefferson first recommended the "Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by night. . . ." He then embraced Franklin's proposal and rewrote it.
Jefferson's revision of Franklin's proposal was presented by the committee to Congress on August 20, 1776.
"Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God"; with Pharaoh's army drowning in the Red Sea.
John Adams and John Hancock:
"We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!" [April 18, 1775]
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.”
“What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.” [speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs May 12, 1779]
"To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." [May 2, 1778, at Valley Forge]
During his inauguration, Washington took the oath as prescribed by the Constitution, but added several religious components to that official ceremony. Before taking his oath of office, he summoned a Bible on which to take the oath, added the words, “So help me God!” to the end of the oath, then leaned over and kissed the Bible."Although guided by our excellent Constitution in the discharge of official duties, and actuated, through the whole course of my public life, solely by a wish to promote the best interests of our country; yet, without the beneficial interposition of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, we could not have reached the distinguished situation which we have attained with such unprecedented rapidity. To HIM, therefore, should we bow with gratitude and reverence, and endeavor to merit a continuance of HIS special favors". [1797 letter to John Adams]
October 3, 1789, National Day of Thanksgiving
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd of October, A.D. 1789"
Farewell Address: "The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion." ...and later: "...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..."John Adams:
“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --October 11, 1798
"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." December 25, 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson
"Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell." [John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1817] |
.......click here to see this quote in its context and to see John Adams' quotes taken OUT of context!
Samuel Adams: Powerpoint presentation on John, John Quincy, and Sam Adams
“He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all… Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.” [ "American Independence," August 1, 1776. Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia]
“Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity… and leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.” [October 4, 1790]
John Quincy Adams:
• “Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?
--1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts.
“The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.”
John Quincy Adams. Letters to his son. p. 61
Elias Boudinot:
“Be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers . . . and judge of the tree by its fruits.”
Charles Carroll: - signer of the Declaration of Independence
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." [Source: To James McHenry on November 4, 1800.]
Benjamin Franklin:
“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.” –Constitutional Convention of 1787 | original manuscript of this speech
“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered… do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?” [Constitutional Convention, Thursday June 28, 1787]
In Benjamin Franklin's 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach "the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern."
In 1787 when Franklin helped found Benjamin Franklin University, it was dedicated as "a nursery of religion and learning, built on Christ, the Cornerstone."
Alexander Hamilton:
• Hamilton began work with the Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help spread over the world the two things which Hamilton said made America great:
(1) Christianity
(2) a Constitution formed under Christianity
“The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”
On July 12, 1804 at his death, Hamilton said, “I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.”
"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." [1787 after the Constitutional Convention]
"I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man."
John Hancock:
• “In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, …at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness… Resolved; …Thursday the 11th of May…to humble themselves before God under the heavy judgments felt and feared, to confess the sins that have deserved them, to implore the Forgiveness of all our transgressions, and a spirit of repentance and reformation …and a Blessing on the … Union of the American Colonies in Defense of their Rights [for which hitherto we desire to thank Almighty God]…That the people of Great Britain and their rulers may have their eyes opened to discern the things that shall make for the peace of the nation…for the redress of America’s many grievances, the restoration of all her invaded liberties, and their security to the latest generations.
"A Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, with a total abstinence from labor and recreation. Proclamation on April 15, 1775"
Patrick Henry:
"Orator of the Revolution."
• "This is all the inheritance I can give my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”
—The Last Will and Testament of Patrick Henry
“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” [May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses]
“The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.”
John Jay:
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Source: October 12, 1816. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed., (New York: Burt Franklin, 1970), Vol. IV, p. 393.
“Whether our religion permits Christians to vote for infidel rulers is a question which merits more consideration than it seems yet to have generally received either from the clergy or the laity. It appears to me that what the prophet said to Jehoshaphat about his attachment to Ahab ["Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?" 2 Chronicles 19:2] affords a salutary lesson.” [The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 1794-1826, Henry P. Johnston, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893), Vol. IV, p.365]
Thomas Jefferson:
“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”
“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”
"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]
Samuel Johnston:
• “It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves."
[Elliot’s Debates, Vol. IV, pp 198-199, Governor Samuel Johnston, July 30, 1788 at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention]
James Madison:
“We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]
• "I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare the unsatisfactoriness [of temportal enjoyments] by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way."
Letter by Madison to William Bradford (September 25, 1773)
• In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided the Bible Society of Philadelphia in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.
“An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia” Approved February 2, 1813 by Congress
“It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”
• "A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven." [Letter by Madison to William Bradford [urging him to make sure of his own salvation] November 9, 1772]
James McHenry: – Signer of the Constitution
"Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience."
Jedediah Morse:
"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg:
In a sermon delivered to his Virginia congregation on Jan. 21, 1776, he preached from Ecclesiastes 3.
Arriving at verse 8, which declares that there is a time of war and a time of peace, Muhlenberg noted that this surely was not the time of peace; this was the time of war. Concluding with a prayer, and while standing in full view of the congregation, he removed his clerical robes to reveal that beneath them he was wearing the uniform of an officer in the Continental army! He marched to the back of the church; ordered the drum to beat for recruits and over three hundred men joined him, becoming the Eighth Virginia Brigade. John Peter Muhlenberg finished the Revolution as a Major-General, having been at Valley Forge and having participated in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stonypoint, and Yorktown.
Thomas Paine:
“It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”
“The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal.” “The Existence of God--1810”
Benjamin Rush:
• “I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism.”
“By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.” [Letter written (1790’s) in Defense of the Bible in all schools in America]
• “Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.”
• “If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into our world would have been unnecessary.”
"Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write and above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education.”
Letters of Benjamin Rush, "To the citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools", March 28, 1787
Justice Joseph Story:
“I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
“Infidels and pagans were banished from the halls of justice as unworthy of credit.” [Life and letters of Joseph Story, Vol. II 1851, pp. 8-9.]
“At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], the general, if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.”
[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
Noah Webster:
“The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.”
“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
[Source: 1828, in the preface to his American Dictionary of the English Language]
"Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21]. . . . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." [Noah Webster, The History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, 49]
“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” [Noah Webster. History. p. 339]
“The Bible was America’s basic textbook
in all fields.” [Noah Webster. Our Christian Heritage p.5]
“Education is useless without the Bible.” [Noah Webster. Our Christian Heritage p.5
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Vaccine info
Parenting is loaded with daily decisions, some inconsequential, and others forever life changing. It's so hard to make those major decisions for our children. We worry if we're doing the right thing.
One choice very troubling to many parents is whether to vaccinate our kids or not. We hear stories of vaccine damaged children, yet our pediatrician assures us they are safe.
Ever since I was pregnant with my firstborn, I have read all I can about this subject. I strongly believe that we must educate ourselves, pray, and then proceed. Doctors do not know everything. They are only human like us and tell us what they've been taught. Please do your own research. Based upon my research, I chose not to vaccinate at all.
In an attempt to help other parents seeking information, I have compiled several websites, which will give you enormous amounts of information.
Here is an article about a large pediatrician practice in Chicago that does not vaccinate its patients, and can't recall one case of autism in over 30,000 patients!
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=3995
This link takes you to a site set up by baby Ian's parents in an effort to warn other parents. Their precious son was born perfectly healthy and died an agonizing death 47 days later due to a reaction to a newborn hepatitis B vaccine.
http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx
Visit this link to learn about Alexander, who died at age two from a brain tumor. Read how vaccines contain known carcinogens.
http://www.ouralexander.org/burton.htm
This page tells the tragic story of a little girl progressively damaged over her short four years of life by vaccines. Here's the first paragraph:
VACCINE CRIME: Family charts the gradual decline of daughter (b. 6-3-95) attributed to vaccine trauma: Hepatitis B/6-19-95 (rash), HBPV, OPV, DPT & Hepatitis B/7-27-95 (floppy limbs noted), DPT, HBPV & OPV/9-27-95 (floppiness persisted, outbreak of Eczema, dissociative autistic behavior), DPT & HBPV/11-30-95 (Eczema & autism worsen, arching of back, withdrawal) Hepatitis B/3-12 96 (joint stiffness, mental regression), MMR & HBPV/9-26-96 (autism severe, diarrhea), DTaP & OPV/12-19-96 (Hypotonia), 5-99 (developed Epstein Bar Syndrome, then Meningitis) 6-13-99 (child died)
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=3156
This website contains an incredible list of links for further research and lots of great articles.
Even more links and information can be found here.
http://vactruth.com/links/
For a list of over 100 books about vaccines, visit this page.
http://vactruth.com/vaccine-books/
This link takes you to over 1000 vaccine videos!
http://www.itube.im//list.php?q=+vaccination&filter=on&sa.x=14&sa.y=14
This site gives detailed ingredients of all vaccines.
http://www.novaccine.com/vaccine-ingredients/index.asp?v=b
Another site with vaccine ingredients:
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
This page is loaded with great information on safe, natural ways to enhance our natural immunity and destroy the various pathogens, which can endanger our health.
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=662
One choice very troubling to many parents is whether to vaccinate our kids or not. We hear stories of vaccine damaged children, yet our pediatrician assures us they are safe.
Ever since I was pregnant with my firstborn, I have read all I can about this subject. I strongly believe that we must educate ourselves, pray, and then proceed. Doctors do not know everything. They are only human like us and tell us what they've been taught. Please do your own research. Based upon my research, I chose not to vaccinate at all.
In an attempt to help other parents seeking information, I have compiled several websites, which will give you enormous amounts of information.
Here is an article about a large pediatrician practice in Chicago that does not vaccinate its patients, and can't recall one case of autism in over 30,000 patients!
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=3995
This link takes you to a site set up by baby Ian's parents in an effort to warn other parents. Their precious son was born perfectly healthy and died an agonizing death 47 days later due to a reaction to a newborn hepatitis B vaccine.
http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx
Visit this link to learn about Alexander, who died at age two from a brain tumor. Read how vaccines contain known carcinogens.
http://www.ouralexander.org/burton.htm
This page tells the tragic story of a little girl progressively damaged over her short four years of life by vaccines. Here's the first paragraph:
VACCINE CRIME: Family charts the gradual decline of daughter (b. 6-3-95) attributed to vaccine trauma: Hepatitis B/6-19-95 (rash), HBPV, OPV, DPT & Hepatitis B/7-27-95 (floppy limbs noted), DPT, HBPV & OPV/9-27-95 (floppiness persisted, outbreak of Eczema, dissociative autistic behavior), DPT & HBPV/11-30-95 (Eczema & autism worsen, arching of back, withdrawal) Hepatitis B/3-12 96 (joint stiffness, mental regression), MMR & HBPV/9-26-96 (autism severe, diarrhea), DTaP & OPV/12-19-96 (Hypotonia), 5-99 (developed Epstein Bar Syndrome, then Meningitis) 6-13-99 (child died)
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=3156
This website contains an incredible list of links for further research and lots of great articles.
http://www.lowellsfacts.com/home.html
Here is another superb site with lots of information.
http://vaccineriskawareness.com/
Even more links and information can be found here.
http://vactruth.com/links/
For a list of over 100 books about vaccines, visit this page.
http://vactruth.com/vaccine-books/
This link takes you to over 1000 vaccine videos!
http://www.itube.im//list.php?q=+vaccination&filter=on&sa.x=14&sa.y=14
This site gives detailed ingredients of all vaccines.
http://www.novaccine.com/vaccine-ingredients/index.asp?v=b
Another site with vaccine ingredients:
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
This page is loaded with great information on safe, natural ways to enhance our natural immunity and destroy the various pathogens, which can endanger our health.
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=662
Links to two podcasts I was on discussing parental rights issue
Hi everyone!
Here are the links to both podcasts I was on discussing the threats to our freedom to raise our children as we choose free from government intrusion, and the solution, the Parental Rights Amendment. Both interviews went great and I'm very thankful for the opportunity. These shows can be listened to at any time, as well as shared, downloaded, or recorded.
I so appreciate everyone's support and involvement in doing what we can to protect our precious children. I hope you all have a most blessed day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/show.aspx?userurl=dudewheresmyjustice&year=2010&month=04&day=01&url=parental-rights-and-the-uns-crc
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weeklyrc/2010/04/03/wv-parental-rights-advocate-christy-lindsey
For more information and to sign the online petition supporting the amendment, please visit http://www.parentalrights.org/ and ask others to do the same. Thank you!!!
Here are the links to both podcasts I was on discussing the threats to our freedom to raise our children as we choose free from government intrusion, and the solution, the Parental Rights Amendment. Both interviews went great and I'm very thankful for the opportunity. These shows can be listened to at any time, as well as shared, downloaded, or recorded.
I so appreciate everyone's support and involvement in doing what we can to protect our precious children. I hope you all have a most blessed day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/show.aspx?userurl=dudewheresmyjustice&year=2010&month=04&day=01&url=parental-rights-and-the-uns-crc
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weeklyrc/2010/04/03/wv-parental-rights-advocate-christy-lindsey
For more information and to sign the online petition supporting the amendment, please visit http://www.parentalrights.org/ and ask others to do the same. Thank you!!!
Communist Goals (1963)
Here is an actual list of communist goals from 1963. They sure have accomplished quite a bit and we are paying the price today.
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow.. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36.. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. (Iraq/Afghanistan)
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
............ ......... .......... ......... ...
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow.. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36.. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. (Iraq/Afghanistan)
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
............ ......... .......... ......... ...
Monday, April 12, 2010
Depopulation quotes from famous leaders!!!
It's not just a conspiracy, we have some in power who really do want to kill us!
Depopulation? Several Globalists in Their Own Words
August 13, 2009
Is there motive and intent that can be gleaned from the words of several global leaders? Perhaps, the best way to answer this question is to look for consistent patterns in the quotes of several global leaders, themselves.
"Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Malthus has been vindicated; reality is finally catching up with Malthus. The Third World is overpopulated, it's an economic mess, and there's no way they could get out of it with this fast-growing population. Our philosophy is: back to the village."
Dr. Arne Schiotz, World Wildlife Fund Director of Conservation, stated such, ironically, in 1984.
"A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."
Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine
"There is a single theme behind all our work, we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it. Our program in El Salvador didn't work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people. To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females. The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death."
Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."
Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider - Founder and Secretary, respectively, The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991
"A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people.... We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions."
Stanford Professor " Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb
"In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it."
J. Cousteau, 1991 explorer and UNESCO courier
"I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today" and, "We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox."
Dave Foreman, Sierra Club and co founder of Earth First!
"We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage."
Mikhail Gorbachev
"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."
Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
Dr. Henry Kissinger New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973
"Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." and "The elderly are useless eaters."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"World population needs to be decreased by 50%."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order."
David Rockefeller
"War and famine would not do. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. AIDS is not an efficient killer because it is too slow. My favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. We've got airborne diseases with 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that. You know, the bird flu's good, too. For everyone who survives, he will have to bury nine."
Dr. Eric Pianka University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert, showed solutions for reducing the world's population to an audience on population control
"No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation."
David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations
"The present vast overpopulation, now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answered by future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, but must be met in the present by the reduction of numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever means necessary."
Initiative for the United Nations ECO-92 EARTH CHARTER
"In South America, the government of Peru goes door to door pressuring women to be sterilized and they are funded by American tax dollars to do this."
Mark Earley in The Wrong Kind of Party Christian Post 10/27 2008
"Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years."
Marjo Van Dijken (author of the bill in the Netherlands) in the Guardian
"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature."
Anonymously commissioned Georgia Guidestones
"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels."
Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund
"Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing."
David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club
"The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes."
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits." Obama's science czar John P. Holdren: From a book he helped write 'Ecoscience'
"The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control.... Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent."
Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviet Union
Depopulation? Several Globalists in Their Own Words
August 13, 2009
Is there motive and intent that can be gleaned from the words of several global leaders? Perhaps, the best way to answer this question is to look for consistent patterns in the quotes of several global leaders, themselves.
"Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Malthus has been vindicated; reality is finally catching up with Malthus. The Third World is overpopulated, it's an economic mess, and there's no way they could get out of it with this fast-growing population. Our philosophy is: back to the village."
Dr. Arne Schiotz, World Wildlife Fund Director of Conservation, stated such, ironically, in 1984.
"A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."
Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine
"There is a single theme behind all our work, we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it. Our program in El Salvador didn't work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people. To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females. The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death."
Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."
Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider - Founder and Secretary, respectively, The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991
"A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people.... We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions."
Stanford Professor " Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb
"In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it."
J. Cousteau, 1991 explorer and UNESCO courier
"I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today" and, "We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox."
Dave Foreman, Sierra Club and co founder of Earth First!
"We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage."
Mikhail Gorbachev
"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."
Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
Dr. Henry Kissinger New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973
"Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." and "The elderly are useless eaters."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"World population needs to be decreased by 50%."
Dr. Henry Kissinger
"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order."
David Rockefeller
"War and famine would not do. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. AIDS is not an efficient killer because it is too slow. My favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. We've got airborne diseases with 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that. You know, the bird flu's good, too. For everyone who survives, he will have to bury nine."
Dr. Eric Pianka University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert, showed solutions for reducing the world's population to an audience on population control
"No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation."
David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations
"The present vast overpopulation, now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answered by future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilization and abortion, but must be met in the present by the reduction of numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever means necessary."
Initiative for the United Nations ECO-92 EARTH CHARTER
"In South America, the government of Peru goes door to door pressuring women to be sterilized and they are funded by American tax dollars to do this."
Mark Earley in The Wrong Kind of Party Christian Post 10/27 2008
"Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years."
Marjo Van Dijken (author of the bill in the Netherlands) in the Guardian
"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature."
Anonymously commissioned Georgia Guidestones
"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels."
Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund
"Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing."
David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club
"The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes."
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits." Obama's science czar John P. Holdren: From a book he helped write 'Ecoscience'
"The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control.... Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent."
Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviet Union
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)