The Cost of Your Vote

In just seven short days indiviuals from all across the country will be doing their part in the great democratic process of America by voting and in so doing will be executing, what I belive to be, their duty to the representitive republic in which we all live.

This idea brings a question to my mind: How much is your vote costing you?

Me? Well it cost 15.00 to overnight the ballot request to the Township of Canton, MI and it will probably cost me 15.00 - 20.00 to overnight the absentee ballot back so it will get there in time to be counted and rendered effective.

Some might say, "Hey, isn't that a little hefty a price tag to put on something that isn't supposed to cost us anything anyway?" I say no, not at all, because remember that we vote because we are a free people, a free nation, a free country, and freedom, well it's NEVER free. That freedom has a price because it cost blood, sweat, tears, heartache, and sacrafice - in a nutshell that freedom has cost lives. It's cost the lives of people who believed that freedom is God's gift to the world, people who fought to rid the world of evil when it reared it's ugly head generation after generation. These indiviuals, in a large part, have been part of the Armed Forces of the United States; from the Geroge Washington's, John Trumble's, and Peter Muhlenberg's of the Revolution to the Seth Welty's, Rob Hebron's Joe Knable's, Joe Schneider's and Andy Klien's of today's War on Terror. The vigilance of these and countless others over two and a half centuries are why we enjoy the freedom we do, why we can even partake in the choosing of those that represent us, for they are Public Servants, not Public Masters.

When you go to the ballot box next Tuesday, remember those that have fought so that you can execute this sacred right that we have as Americans; vote your concience, certianly, the hope being that a vote cast is a vote cast in favor of canidates who support the troops AND their mission in the War on Terror.

Alex P. Keaton and Politics?

Within the last few days there has been a lot of focus on a few new political ads that feature Michael J. Fox, known to many in America as the iconic Marty McFly from Back to the Future, and Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. These ads have been used in the Senate races in both Missouri and Maryland, supporting both of the Democratic canidates for Senate in those states. The ads that have aired focus on the controversial issue of stem-cell research.

The reason that these ads have been so controversial is due to the fact that for the last fifteen years Mr. Fox has struggled with Parkinson's disease, a disease that many believe could be cured with advances in stem cell research. Mr. Fox puts forth the idea that Republican canidates for Senate in Missouri and Maryland, Jim Talent and Michael Steele respectively, oppose stem-cell research. Within these ads, no distinction is made between the types of stem cell research that exist, mainly Adult and Embryonic stem cell research.

Here is the ad itself...

Now someone like Michael J. Fox supports SCR in all of it's forms, along with the canidates that he is doing ads for. On the other hand, Talent and Steele do not oppose SCR in it's entirety, they just oppose Embryonic SCR, as it is a procedure that kills the embryo, thus extinguishing a life.

Steele had something to say in respone to this ad, and Talent's stand on this issue is no needle in a haystack, but it is something that is out in the open.

What needs to be realized here is that there is a difference between Embryonic and Adult SCR, and that difference needs to be laid out plainly, instead of being hidden or blurred in the name of political advantage and victory; there are vital and important human lives at stake here, young lives that have no say on their own, so someone must speak up for them.

Election 2006: Analizing Evangelical Christians?

In a post that I wrote one month ago today, I talked about a conference I went to involving values voters and the issues that matter to them. In that post I defined a values voter as follows:

"As I see it these voters are indiviuals who vote based upon canidates that aspouse the same values that these voters hold dear, mainly the Right to Life of an unborn child, the defining of marriage in the traditional sense of one man, one woman, and Religious Liberty."

I still stand by what I wrote then, be there no doubt of that, as I frimly believe that the Almighty does have something to say about issues that have become "hot button issues" in recent years.

What brings me to today however is the fact that there have been some articles lately that have been published that seek to take these voters (Evangelical Christians specifically) and figure out what makes them tick, to try and predict what the turn out is doing to be two weeks from today. The particular article I am referring to is within the pages of one of the latest editions of Time magizine. The article talks about what the GOP is doing to "court" us as it were and get us to the polls, not to mention discussing the implications of the Mark Foley scandal and other Republican woes that have surfaced.

I'm not baffled as to why in the last six years Christians have all of the sudden come to the forefront politically as if we're some new breed of constituency; those that call themselves followers of Jesus Christ have always been here. The reason we've come out of the wood work within the last few years is simple - decisions are being made by the government of the United States on key issues, decisions that followers of Christ know are wrong because they go against what is written in the Scriptures. Not only is this the case, but the knowledge that the Founding Fathers set the country up to operate in a certian manner, a manner that is now being violated by the leviathan of big government, a manner that is supposedc to respect all religions, not attack Christianity as it tends to do through court decisions.

Canidates and the Media want an answer, and I have one for them: stand up for what is Right and not what is politically expiedent or popular.

Dr. Ben Rush (one of the prominent Founding Fathers we no longer hear of) said it best in a letter he wrote. In this letter there response by John Adam's reply of "Yes if we fear God and repent of our sins" to Rush's question of how they would fare in conflict against Britian. In light of that question and response Rush wrote the following:

"This anecdote, I hope, will teach my boys that it is not necessary to disbelieve the tennats of Christianity or to renounce morality in order to rise to the highest ranks of political usefulness or fame"

If only such an idea were wider spread and understood, there would be no such need by the media to figure Christians out, they'd already know.

Russian Dissent: Does it exist? I thought not...

Over the weekend I've come across an interesting story, a "murder mystery" that well, sure is a murder, but I see the mystery as absent.

We are lead to believe that the country of Russia is moving forward, that it has become democratic. In a democratic society, dissent is something that is allowed; as much as the American Left gets on my nerves, it's their right to protest, to dissent against things they don't agree with. In Russia, apparently if you're a loud enough critic of the indiviuals in power, you get a bullet in your skull. Somehow I don't see that as "democratic", "Stalinistic" sure, but democratic, not so much.

If that wasn't enough, the situation with the former USSR satalite country of Georgia is worsening (scroll down on the above link for this). Crackdown, deportation, and blockade seem to be the MO here, with a possible military takeover on the way; the old Bear wants to come out of hybernation, to awake once more, and Vlad is more than willing to accomidate...

HT: Joel Rosenberg

Foleygate: The question no one seems to have asked...

I'm hesitant to write something on such an issue as the Foley scandal, but there seems to be something that has been plauging me about it lately. As terrible as it is, and as dispicable as it is, I wonder about his family. What about them? What has it done to them, how has it hurt them? Doesn't someone consider such factors as they engage in such loose and lurid behavior or are they too selfish to think of others?

I must admit though that I find it amazing that someone can vanish as fast as he did, it's like he dissapeared...