They Don’t Believe In God, Yet Fear Christ?

They Don’t Believe In God, Yet Fear Christ?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

It makes no sense to me.  Atheists declare they do not believe in the existence of God, yet they demonstrate an attitude of something akin to fear towards God’s Son, Christ, especially during the annual celebration of Christ’s birth.

Every year, Christians around the world celebrate “Christ Mass” or Christmas.  And, every year at that time, those who declare there is no God demonstrate the depth of their “insecurity in their disbelief” by attacking those who celebrate the love and grace of a God who, Christians believe, sent his son into the world to provide a path to eternal life in what they believe is paradise or heaven.

Somehow, this poses a threat to the “God deniers.”  I have yet to figure out how. 

In my view, the annual attack on Christmas is nothing more than tyranny by a minority.  The US is one of the only countries on earth where such a minority could affect the faith and traditions of the majority.

Look.  If you choose not to believe in God, that’s fine by me.  It’s your soul and you can do with it what you wish. But attempting to destroy the hope and joy your fellowman finds in Christmas -- out of your own bitterness -- is just wrong!

Oh, don’t throw the old “separation of church and state” argument at me.  If it were in the constitution, then I could, and would, support it.  But nothing is said in the US Constitution about separation of church and state.  The constitution simply forbids the government from establishing a “state church” as some of the old European governments STILL have today. (Even some early American states had their own state religion.)

And NO, I do not support a theocratic form of government.  If you really want to see what a theocracy will do to a country, take a look at the Middle East today.

Frankly, I am not sure I even believe in freedom of religion in America, anymore.  That is a stark statement, I know.  But I fear that it will come back to bite us in the rear -- and soon.

The American Muslim community is growing by leaps and bounds. Their belief in Sharia Law is, in my opinion, a direct threat to the national security of the United States of America.  I further believe that political correctness is masking this threat, as I perceive it, and in the near future, America will pay a heavy price for choosing not to see what is before our very eyes.

Over the centuries many, many, wars have been fought over religion.  Even today, in some parts of the world, “religion wars” continue to rage. I do not want to see that happen in America, but, honestly, I believe that it will. In fact, I believe that it has become inevitable.    

If the Christian church in America had not lost its passion for the faith, the annual attacks on the celebration of Christmas would not exist.  If the Judeo-Christian community had not retreated in the face of adversity, then the attacks on the Menorah at Hanukah and/or a manger scene at Christmas -- on public property -- would have been a non-starter.  It would have been nipped in the bud. 

As a Christian I have read the Bible through several times and I must tell you, the actions of Jews and Christians, as depicted in the scriptures, do not mirror those of modern day Christians and Jews.  Today’s Judeo-Christian community faces many, if not most, of the same types of adversity as did their forefathers in the faith.  Yet, where our founders of the faith stood their ground and refused to be intimidated by the forces arrayed against them, we, today, too often fold our tents and steal away unwilling to stand and fight for what we SAY we believe in.

In his letter to the early Christian church at Ephesus, Saint Paul, the Roman Jew and Apostle of Christ (The early Christian Church was a Jewish Church.  Paul found himself in a world of hurt with the early church fathers in Jerusalem for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.), credited with taking the Christian faith to the Gentiles of the world, instructed the devotees of the Christian faith thusly:  “Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13 (This quote is from the American Standard version of the New Testament)

The 2010 version of the Aramaic Bible in Plain English interprets the same scripture this way:  “Because of this, put on all the armor of God that you shall be able to confront The Evil One, and when you are ready in all things, you shall stand.”

The Great Reformer, Martin Luther, lived out his life under a death sentence from the Church in Rome because he would not recant his belief. The Protestant Church was born because Martin Luther literally put Saint Paul’s instruction to the church at Ephesus into action.  When commanded to recant, he replied – I’m paraphrasing here) “I cannot.  Here I STAND.  May God help me.”

I disagree with Bro. Martin on a number of things, especially his hatred of the Jews, but I have to give him credit for his courage to stand up for what he believed.  In doing so, he changed the world.

If today’s practitioners of the Judeo-Christian faith continue to retreat in the face of adversity, such as the annual attack on Christmas, the continuing attack on the truth of the scriptures as they pertain to sexual abominations, prayer in public places, and so much more, we can be assured our adversary will have no mercy and will give no quarter.

It is time to “stand.”

J. D. Longstreet

Iran Threatens The Straits Of Hormuz Again

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

I sometimes wonder if Iran actually enjoys being a boil on the world’s backside.  They have been a pain in the posterior, most especially of the US, since the decade of the 1970’s. 

America spends millions upon millions of taxpayer’s dollars to patrol the shoreline of Iran in an on-going attempt to keep the oil flowing through the Persian Gulf.  Only a portion of that oil is bound for the US, which means the US is acting, again, as the global police. 

What is it with nations like Iran and North Korea?  They seem to feel they must continuously stir up trouble so the rest of the world won’t forget they are there.  Like a spoiled child “acting out” to get the attention of his parents, these rogue nations will scream and stamp their feet and wail like banshees until somebody notices them.

Recently, Iran has outpaced North Korea with their spoiled brat theatrics.

Once again, Iran is threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz.  Although the Straits are approximately 20 miles wide at the narrowest point, the sea-lanes are only 4-miles wide with a two-mile wide partition between the incoming sea-lane and the outgoing sea-lane. 

Yes, Iran has the capability of closing the Straits.  She can attack oil tankers while they are in the straits, sink them, and create a blockage of the waterway.  But there is little doubt, if any, that the US would strike Iran, with all barrels blazing, if Iran was dumb enough to execute a military strike on unarmed merchant vessels within the straits in a bid to close the Gulf and stop the flow of oil out of those waters through the Straits of Hormuz. 

Some 40 percent of the world’s oil, transported by sea, passes through the Straits of Hormuz.  Thus, effectively closing the Straits would create a worldwide shortage of petrol and petroleum based products… and that is nearly everything.  I don’t think it is really possible, at this point in world history, to estimate the damage to the global economy such an act would cause.

To say there would be an increase in gas prices would be an understatement of enormous proportions.  It would, no doubt, push many of the world’s nations over the brink, upon which they are tottering today, and into the abyss of economic collapse.  There would be chaos on a global scale. 

And there would be war.

There seems little doubt that most of Iran’s naval assets would be destroyed before they ever cast off their lines or hauled in their anchors.  Her submarines, (old Kilo class subs) are of special interest to the US Navy (as are all submarines) and, we suspect, they would be destroyed almost immediately.  Besides, operating a submarine in the shallow waters of the Gulf presents special problems for even the best submariners and, frankly, we have doubts about the proficiency of Iranian sub crews. 

So, what about Iran’s ship killer missiles?  Well, they have them -- and they reportedly are mounted on those so-called “fast attack” boats we became so familiar with during the Iran-Iraq war. The missile is reportedly a hybrid.  They are said to be a cross between the old US Harpoon missile and the old French Exocet missile.  They are made -- you guessed it – in China.

Iran should understand that any unprovoked attack on shipping in the Straits will bring an instantaneous counter attack by the US Navy and, certainly, the navies of other countries whose oil supplies would be severely curtailed or cut-off completely. The advantage to Iran of any such attack is difficult, if not impossible, to discern.

But if, as the theology experts warn us, Iran is determined to pave the way for the return of the 12th Imam, the Madi, which is said to depend upon worldwide chaos, then such an unprovoked attack is certainly within the realm of possibility and, frankly, probability.  In any event, the US -- and the world -- should be prepared.

The other troubling aspect of our current state of relations between the US and Iran is what many Americans define as weak leadership coming from the Office of the President of the United States.  This concern was underlined when our Commander-in-Chief did not order US troops to recover the lost reconnaissance UAV aircraft that, apparently, landed itself in Iran recently.  Even a missile attack on the drone to insure it’s destruction and prevent our top secret intelligence gathering electronics from falling into the hands of Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea, would have been preferable to Obama’s reaction, which was, shamefully, NO action.

The point of all this is simple.  Even though we are celebrating the return from Iraq of US forces this month, and family reunions at Christmastime, we must keep our forces well trained, well equipped, and leaning forward … because we WILL be forced to return to war in the Gulf region soon … very soon.

J. D. Longstreet

America's Communist President ... Alan Caruba

America's Communist President

By Alan Caruba


In his extraordinary book, “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century”, the historian, Dr. Paul Kengor, stated in his introduction that “We now know that American Communists and their masters in Moscow were acutely aware that they could never gain the popular support they needed to enlist the support of a much wider coalition that could help them push their private agenda.”


Most threatening, however, was Dr. Kengor’s discovery that “it was nothing short of stunning to research this book during the presidential bid of Barack Obama and hear so many of the names in my research surface repeatedly in the background of the man who became president of the United States of America. The way in which so many names and themes from the Cold War past aligned and made their way into Obama’s orbit was chilling.”


Obama’s December 8th speech in Osawatomie, Kansas revealed to anyone paying any attention that the President is a Communist. Speaking of the nation’s economic system that has created the greatest wealth for the most people anywhere, Capitalism, Obama said, “It doesn’t work. It has never worked.”


No one would argue that capitalism is “fair”, nor would they argue that life is “fair.” These are things that never were and never will be, but Obama’s reelection campaign theme will be that Americans are suffering because of Capitalism, because of a lack of fairness.


In a December 8 Washington Times commentary, Jeffrey T. Kuhner wrote, “There is only one problem with the White House’s narrative: It’s completely false. Mr. Obama is not a defender of the middle class but has been its mortal enemy. His policies have impoverished working-and-middle-class Americans.”


Other than the utterly brain-dead liberals for whom facts are meaningless, most Americans understand, as Kuhner pointed out, “His massive stimulus failed to restore economic recovery…his trillion-dollar deficits and skyrocketing debt have mortgaged the future of our children…Obamacare suffocates businesses, stifles job creation, and adds another unsustainable entitlement. It is creeping socialized medicine, which is wrecking the world’s finest health care system.”


Rush Limbaugh denounced the speech as “alien to American ideals and principles…your vision for this country is not rooted in any—not one—American tradition.”


Obama’s history, what is known of it given his extensive efforts to hide the facts that are usually available about a candidate or president, is testimony to the fact that he is a Communist and the only reason this remains clouded to many Americans has been the shameful failure of the Fourth Estate, the liberal mainstream media, to expose it.


He remains in office due to the failure of both the media and the Republican Party to cite the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against anyone holding the office who is not a “native-born” American. Obama’s father was a Kenyan, a subject of Great Britain. He should not have been on the Democratic Party ballot and he should not be in the Oval Office as this is written.


Many of the known facts about Obama were published in Dr. Jerome Corsi’s 2008 book, “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.” Thirty-five pages of footnotes citing the documentation of the facts cited were there for anyone to read. Obama was born into a family of Leftists. As a youngster he was mentored by Frank Marshal Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA.


Of his early college years, Obama said in his memoir that at Occidental, “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.”


Obama’s political career began with a fund-raiser in the living room of two dedicated, self-identified Communists, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. As Dr. Corsi pointed out, “The problem is that Obama sought out his relationships with the Alinski organization, the Ayers-Dohrn radicals, the scandal-ridden (Antoin ‘Tony’) Rezko, Reverand (Jeremiah) Wright and black-liberation theology, and Farrakhan and the Black Muslims. At the time he wanted these ties.” In the course of his 2008 campaign he rejected all efforts to tie him to these individuals.


The appointment of the many “czars” to oversee and guide the actions of government departments and agencies became the subject, first of ridicule, followed by the realization he was infiltrating the government with known radicals of different stripes. The one that quickly gained attention was Van Jones, an avowed Communist. When that became known, Jones resigned.


The Osawatomie speech was classic Obama. In the past he has sought to align himself with former presidents and this time around it was Theodore Roosevelt, a progressive. As Americans have sought to peel away the many layers of deceit surrounding Obama, the single abiding factor in his life is Communism. The views he expressed were a combination of class warfare and an attack on Capitalism.


In 2008 Americans, reeling from the financial crisis that all too conveniently began in the final months of the Bush43 presidency, were duped into believing that a man with nothing more than a message of “hope and change” was a messiah that would lead the nation out of its problems.

Obama was and is the first Communist President of the United States of America. We have a President who rails against “millionaires and billionaires”, corporations, Wall Street, and all other aspects of our Capitalist economy.


We have a President and a Democratic Party that have tipped their hat to the Occupy Wall Street radicals.


We have a President and a Democratic Party totally aligned with the unions in America, some of which put the auto industry in jeopardy, others in the public sector that have plundered state treasuries with sweetheart deals for pensions and health plans, and who we have seen thuggishly oppose the restructuring of collective bargaining. It is why a close ally of Obama, Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SIEU), praised the Chinese Communist economic model in a December 1 Wall Street Journal article.


And we now have a President who says Capitalism “doesn’t work” and “It has never worked.” That is utterly absurd, but it reveals his ideology and his goal of fomenting a Communist revolution in America by bankrupting the nation to achieve it.


Obama is a horrid aberration, the result of a combination of the Democratic Party, the liberal media, and the education community to dumb down Americans and make them ready for the Communist America that Obama advocates.


Communism did not die with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is alive and well in Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam and in Venezuela. The soft form, Socialism, has brought a number of European nations to ruin and threatens the U.S.


In 2010 Americans returned power in the House of Representatives to the Republican Party. We must finish the job in the Senate and in the White House in 2012. If we do not, the America we love will perish.


© Alan Caruba, 2011

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

Southern Democrats Worried That Obama Will Be Reelected

Southern Democrats Worried That Obama Will Be Reelected

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

In the Southern States of the US, there are still a vast number of conservative democrats.  I know.  I was raised with them, went to school and church with them, dated with them (as a teenager) – in other words—I lived with them.  And I still do.

My US Congressman is a conservative democrat … a “blue dog” democrat.

I make this point because -- knowing I am a conservative republican – they know I am greatly interested in seeing that Obama does get a second term, and they are so embarrassed by the man, and so angry with him, that they, too, want him out of the Oval Office --  and they want me to know they are going to do all they can to see that he does not get his coveted second term as President of the United States.

See, in the South many voters inherited their membership in the Democratic Party.  No.  I am NOT kidding.  They are democrats because their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were democrats.  Until the Nixon Administration, it was southern tradition to be a democrat.

As far back as pre-Civil War, the democrats controlled everything in the southern states.  Yeah, these were the folks in charge when slavery was in full force in the south.  Of course, they’d rather you did not know that, just as they would rather you not know that the Ku Klux Klan was a sort of enforcement arm of the southern   Democratic Party.

The South was a fiefdom of the Democratic Party until Nixon changed all that with his southern strategy.  It was only then that southerners realized that being a Republican did not mean you were consigned to Hell upon your death. 

See, Republicans were placed into southern governments by the occupying forces of the United States of America during Reconstruction immediately following the Civil War.  Many republican officials were former slaves who, in many instances could not read and write.  It happened in my home state of South Carolina.  In Wilmington, NC it finally boiled over and riots (known as the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington Massacre ... or the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898) ensued in which a number of republicans were killed and others run out of town. This event is the only instance of a municipal government being overthrown in US history.  In the Wilmington Insurrection, Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from an elected government, running officials out of the city, and killing many blacks in widespread attacks.  (SOURCE) 

The whole Reconstruction mess left an enduring bad taste in the mouths of southerners for well over a hundred years.  We have very long memories.

As a result, even though many southern voters actually believed in the platform of the Republican Party, they felt they must honor their families by registering and voting as democrats.  A rather large portion of the southern population still believes that.  But they are no longer in the majority.

However, a huge portion of southerners, beginning in the 1960’s, began to realize they had much more in common with conservative republicans than with the democrats.  LBJ was a huge boost to the Republican Party in the South.  Jimmy Carter came along and embarrassed all of us -- both southern democrats and republicans alike. Mr. Carter made the GOP much more appealing to southern democrats than before.

Then, of course, came Bill Clinton and southerners were aghast at his sexual hijinks. Once again Southern conservative democrats were embarrassed and infuriated at the same time.  Again, the Republican Party in the south was the recipient of a host of democrats who changed their party affiliation saying enough was enough.

Now, southern conservative democrats have been hit with a socialist President sailing under the colors of the Democratic Party. 

Southern conservative democrats are, many for the first time, noticing that the party of their parents and grandparents has, itself, been slowly adopting much of the socialist philosophy and even a bit from the communists, as well.  Obama has been a rude awakening for them.

Now, southern conservative democrats are just as worried as southern conservative republicans that Obama will be reelected.  The very thought is abhorrent to them.

Many of them have expressed to me their disappointment at the stable of Republican candidates for President.   When they do, which is often, I commiserate with them and tell them I am just as disappointed as they are. In truth, I am far more disappointed in my own party than they. 

At a time in US history, when the table is set for a Republican take-over of the US government, we have to choose between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich?

I get the feeling that the GOP believes Americans are so fed-up with Obama that they are willing to vote for anybody but Obama.  I, on the other hand, am not so sure.  In fact, I think the GOP is making a terrible mistake and, as a result, will make possible a second term for Mr. Obama.

I think Americans will look at Romney and say why vote for an imitation when they can vote for the real thing … Obama.  I think the same American voters will look at Newt, and Newt’s baggage, and decide Newt represents too large a risk to chance placing him in the White House.   Either scenario will hand the Democrats and Obama a second term and, I am afraid, hand over control of the US House of Representatives to the democrats – and -- solidify the democrat’s control of the US Senate.

Many southern conservative democrats would vote for a conservative republican candidate they respected.  Problem is, there’s not one running!  And to be truthful, many southern conservative republicans feel the very same way.

I am very concerned that, come November of 2012, once again, the GOP will have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

J. D. Longstreet

What About Gingrich?

What About Gingrich?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The upper echelons of the Republican Party are in a state of high angst.  Their phone lines and e-mails are flashing back and forth with amazing speed and in astounding volumes.  Many are showing signs of what we southern folks used to call “the vapors” as they place the back of their open hand to their foreheads and slouch softly to the floor in a state of quiet apoplexy. 

So, what’s causing all this?  The former Congressman from Georgia, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, one Newton Gingrich… or just plain … Newt.

Cries of “woe is me” echo from the walls of the GOP’s ivory towers.  Why, this is unbelievable.  Worse, this is unacceptable. It simply cannot be happening … and yet … it IS happening.

The anointed one, Mitt Romney, has, at least for the moment, fallen to the outcast Gingrich.  It is as if Sir Lancelot had been bested in a joust with a kitchen knave.  It is unheard of.  It cannot be.  But … it is.

Newt has more baggage than the carousel at the airport.  Romney is, well, perfect. And that, dear reader, is a part of the problem conservatives have with Romney.  He is a little TOO perfect.

If you never DO anything, you never make mistakes.  The more you do, the more mistakes you make.  Newt has made a heck of a lot of mistakes.

I have survived 14 US Presidential administrations.  I have seen the best of them and I have seen the worst US Presidents in modern history.  The best was Ronald Reagan and the worst was Jimmy carter … until Obama.  Now Obama holds the title as the worst President in US history.

I am, shall we say, an “older” American.  I learned long ago the old saw: “all that glitters is not gold” is absolutely true.  I have seen politicians come and go.  I have seen some rise to heights never expected of them and I have watched just as many promising young lawmakers crash and burn.

With the country in the mess that it is in, there is something comforting in a candidate with all the warts, hairs, scars, and yes, battle wounds, as well, making himself available to help guide the country out of this mess.

We “old timers” already know Newt’s foibles.  We know he is mercurial, egotistical, haughty, and brilliant.  We already know of his matrimonial problems.  We know he is brainy, zany, and at times -- just plain dumb.  He can be courageous or reckless depending upon your viewpoint.  Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, once said of Newt:  “ … he has tons of guts.”

Newt is a contradiction.  He can at once be a genius and a dunce.  Every kid who has ever been to college knows a person like Newt.  Heck, he was our classmate.  He’s in our civic club. He goes to our church. He’s the guy in the front office where we work.  His name is: Tom, Dick, Harry, John, Jack, Don, and … Newt.

How many Mitt Romneys go to your church, your civic club, or work in your office?   See what I mean?  Am I making my point here? 

My generation knows Newt Gingrich about as well as it is possible to actually know a national politician.  We know what he is capable of… the good and the bad. And we are nothing if not practical.

We need a man who can do the dirty work that is needed to get America back on track.  And believe me, it will be dirty work. 

To get our nation set aright, a lot of Americans are going to have to be “P.O.ed.”  It is going to take a President willing to put his head down and plow ahead, against the current, until the job is done.  He will,  most likely,  be a one term President.  So many Americans will be so angered that it will probably be at least a generation before his greatness will be officially recognized.

Allow me this analogy:  A General needs a soldier for a nearly impossible mission.  His troops are standing before him in full brace -- at attention.  He can’t help but notice the soldier with the perfectly pressed uniform, the perfectly polished buttons, the regulation haircut, and those sparkling spit shined boots.

Then his attention is drawn to the middle-aged soldier with the broken nose, the scars on his face, the calloused hands, the boots that are polished just enough and a uniform that is slightly rumpled but with a string of hash marks denoting years of devotion and experience in the service of his country.

Care to guess which soldier the General will choose? 

There’s no big secret as to why Americans, especially older Americans, are taking a hard look at Newt. They don’t know, I mean REALLY know, Romney.  They feel they know Newt, well, enough, anyway, to give him a shot at the Oval Office and one of the most difficult problems every given to a human being.

Nah.  There’s no secret here.

J. D. Longstreet