J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

“The Democratic Congress will go on record, every day if necessary, to register a judgment in opposition to the course of action that the president is taking in Iraq,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

“Your actions here in the Congress appear to be in direct conflict with the realities on the ground where the trends are up and progress is being made,” General John M. Keane, USA (retired)

Did you hear the President’s speech given at Charleston, South Carolina? If you didn’t, take a minute and read it. He provided some detailed declassified information that every US news source should be broadcasting worldwide. And they would be too, if they didn’t view George Bush’s destruction as more important to them than the destruction of al Qaeda. Next, find a world map and locate Iraq. Although this is not a commercial for it, I suggest Google Earth. It is useful for things other than looking for a picture of your house.

Now that we’ve worn out the Bush lied us into war drivel, the new debate is about what will happen in Iraq if we leave there abruptly as many in Congress and some leading Presidential contenders propose that we do. Some of them convinced that since our last bug out went so well it will be just fine this time too.

“We heard that argument over and over again about the bloodbath that would engulf the entire Southeast Asia, and it didn’t happen.” Senator John Kerry

How many deaths do you reckon it takes to qualify as a bloodbath? Apparently two million doesn’t meet the criteria. Pathological liars are dangerous. Especially once they become members of Congress and are convinced of the truthfulness of their own lies. Unfortunately, but frankly, a Middle East bloodbath is the least of our concerns. What likely follows the bloodbath is.

While our deep thinking Congress and their media cheerleaders are trying their level best to destroy a sitting President and ensure the defeat of our country, we never hear discussions about what might have been had we not gone to Iraq in the first place. Considering that might add perspective to the possibilities following our retreat.

As you peruse your world map, recall some history. In 1936, Winston Churchill was already sounding alarms about Adolph Hitler and his Nazis, which curiously enough had the same goals as does today’s Islamic Nazis. Sir Winston was mostly ignored, at least up and until the time that Hitler consolidated his hold on central Europe and set about his business of killing Jews and expanding towards Russia and England. Still, we sat on our hands until the war came to us at Pearl Harbor. Because of our hand sitting, more than 450,000 Americans became casualties of war. Had the world listened and responded to Sir Winston’s alarms in the 1930’s the outcome likely would have been much different.

As you review your map, consider where we would be if we only focused our efforts on Afghanistan. Arrayed to the East would be Iran, Iraq and Syria, allies by necessity and with hostile intent toward the great Satan. Instead, we have forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have Iran in a bracket and are on the border of Syria. If we hastily leave Iraq (remember, we still have forces in Germany, Korea and Japan seeing to long periods of peace and prosperity) there will undoubtedly be a Shiite and Sunni conflagration that will engulf the region because religious fanaticism doesn’t know anything about borders. There will also be a Middle East version of the Vietnam boat people fleeing for their lives, many of them won’t make it out. When the dust settles, there will be the sought after Islamic Caliphate reaching from Afghanistan in the West to Syria in the East, rolling up the Lebanons, Kuwaits and Quatars along the way. Once consolidated, like Hitler did, it’ll set out to kill the Jews then come for Europe and the United States. The casualties we’ve endured till now won’t amount to a blip on the meter compared to what it’ll take to bring back security and peace. Our survival will require a full mobilization of our country for war complete with military conscription. There won’t be any running off to Canada, because they’ll be in the boat with us.

Our generation’s Pearl Harbor was not enough to bring us out of our stupor because we’ve been so media indoctrinated to believe that our problem is attributable to a small criminal element who’ve hijacked the religion of peace. Unfortunately, we are unable to get past our internal political wars long enough to make the average American understand our precarious situation.

What each of us must do is take a critical look at the world situation. Don’t let talk radio conservative or otherwise, the news media, the blogs and most certainly not the politicians issue you an opinion. Discard the politics and try a little study and some critical thinking of your own. Then you decide. Then let your political leaders know what you’ve decided is best for our country.

© 2007 J.D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

Something humorous turned up in my mail. Like all good humor it held an element of truth. It was about post turtles. I expect many of you city folks have never heard of or seen a post turtle. Or so you think. A post turtle looks like any other turtle you might encounter in the countryside except that it’s found sitting atop a fence post. Post turtles as it turns out, have much in common with many politicians. They don’t’ belong where they are, they didn’t get there by themselves, and now that they are there they don’t know what to do.

Mrs. Clinton has her drawers in a bunch. Sorry, I didn’t mean to blind your mind’s eye by implanting that image in it. She is miffed because the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Eric Edelman, responded to her in a way that everyone in the Pentagon, at one time or another, has wanted to respond to an asinine Congressional request. She asked for Iraq redeployment plans and was told by Mr. Edelman that premature discussion of such plans contributes to the enemy’s propaganda effort.

How Mr. Edelman responded doesn’t matter because this wasn’t about a plan or lack thereof. There was no acceptable answer he could give to Mrs. Clinton. She knew there was no answer the Pentagon could or would give her that she couldn’t spin to her advantage. That is what makes her inquiry a calculated political tactic and not a sincere request for information. A complicit media will use the exchange to convince mushy headed Americans that the President and Department of Defense have no plan, are therefore incompetent and our only hope (and the only hope for the troops) rests in making Mrs. Clinton the Commander in Chief.

Mrs. Clinton is a Senator and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. If her request was an honest one, then she’s too stupid to be Chelsea’s Mommy much less be the Commander in Chief. Accept that, or accept that she is being dishonest. Frankly, I don’t accept that she is stupid. Well not politically anyway. The Armed Forces at all operational and strategic levels have skilled military officers who do nothing but plan. That’s why we call them planners. If you can conjure up in your mind a potential mission for the United States Military for any region of the world, there exists a plan to make it happen. There are key elements to any plan involving movements of military units. Although some elements might vary by contingency, be assured that all of them contain deployment, sustainment and redeployment elements. Wartime troop movement plans are also classified, which means they’ll probably turn up in the news next week anyway. Mrs. Clinton knows the plans are classified and cannot be divulged for public consumption, which is why in coming days she’ll repeatedly insist that no such plans exist. This only demonstrates that in her post turtle world the elite sport of politics is much more important to her than are the lives of the men and women she voted to send to war.

“When President Bush says, ‘I just want to give the commanders what they want, listen to the generals,’ he doesn’t understand how we work here in America. Civilians control the military and we are supposed to set the mission for the generals and then the generals should carry out the mission,” – Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama

If Oprah wants you to be the President, who am I to question? Was there a concern about civilian control of the military in the United States? If you have any concept of the military or of history, Senator Obama’s statement should scare the living daylights out of you. Civilians micromanaged a defeat in Vietnam the same as they hope to do for us in Iraq. From the Korean War forward, civilian micromanagement of military operations after they “set the mission” put us where we were on 9/11 facing an enemy believing us historically incapable of sustaining a fight until they are defeated. It is a smart Commander in Chief that relies on the expertise of professional military officers in deciding military matters once the mission is set. I’m thankful he chooses their advice rather than a post turtle’s when lives of Americans are at stake.

There is one other I need to mention.

“It’s almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.” – America’s first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, Democrat, Minnesota

Congressman Ellison was speaking of President Bush and The United States’ response to the 9/11 attacks. This topic could easily take up my already exceeded word allotment, but I couldn’t let this post turtle go an extra week without comment. As a Muslim and a member of Congress, Mr. Ellison could do a lot to address the people of his religion about their “radical” element that will eventually lead to their destruction. He chooses not, I suppose, so I’ll help him out. What Mr. Ellison could have said, and I’m sure it just slipped his mind, is that the Nazis with whom he has compared us had as their goal the annihilation of the Jews and world domination under the their thousand year Reich. The Islamists that he is either to cowardly to address or complicit with in thought have the same stated goals. A top seller in Middle Eastern book stores is Mein Kamph (My Struggle, in Arabic - My Jihad) Hitler’s field manual for achieving his goals. So, for Mr. Ellison, a little bit of honesty might go a long way toward achieving a fence postectomy.

You need a stick when approaching a post turtle because they are angry and frustrated critters, otherwise you could be bitten. Tap them on the back with it. When they withdraw their heads and legs into the shell for protection you can safely pick them up and put them back on the ground. With luck, they’ll wander back into the roadway and have to face the harsh reality of possibly being squashed by a dump truck.

© J. D. Pendry 2007

J. D. Pendry

Victory Surrender at all costs, victory surrender in spite of all terror, victory surrender however long and hard the road may be; for without victory surrender and defeat of the United States, there is no survival chance for a liberal political victory no matter how short-lived the following celebration might be. - Winston Churchill The United States Congress

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. –Mark Twain

I keep having the same nightmare. I see Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, with that no one is home look in their eyes, wearing love beads and peace symbols with daisies in their hair standing in front of the Whitehouse fence. Behind them stands Harry Reid wearing little green rectangular sunglasses with a dirty bandanna tied around his pointy head and strumming on a guitar. Along with a chorus of Congressional backup singers, he drones out the melody all we are saying is give peace a chance. John Kerry raises a defiant fist into the air and tosses someone else’s military medals over the fence. Murtha is hoping to cut another deal with an Arab. The audience is a collection of black turban wearing mullahs holding large serrated knives. They don’t appear at all amused

That Boxer woman is piece of work isn’t she? I believe she is in competition with Nan Pelosi for the title of most whacked out Congressthing to ever escape from California. I recall her belittling attack on Secretary Condoleezza Rice during a Senate charade, also called a hearing.

“Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young. [To Secretary Rice] “You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family.”

How’s that for a demonstration of Motherly concern -concern that she apparently cannot transfer to the children being murdered every day in Iraq. Actually, Ms. Boxer wasn’t concerned about anyone’s children. She wanted to be as liberally disrespectful as possible to Secretary Rice. At the same time she’d have us believe she was concerned about the Men and Women volunteers who fill the ranks of our Armed Forces and the parents and other family who watch them choose to become Men and Women of honor committed to something greater than self. The other day, before I could find the remote and switch the channel, I was treated to an excerpt from one of her incomprehensible Senate diatribes. In the sound bite, she complained about how much money we’d spent and how many lives we have lost fighting George Bush’s misguided war. Then she asked, “When are we going to have the guts to do the right thing?”

If you listen to any news at all, some talking head or politician will repeatedly remind you that according to one pollster or another, a huge percentage of Americans want to quit Iraq. Pollsters are actually running the United States nowadays because the politicians we elected are unable to make informed and principled decisions on our behalves. I don’t need a pollster to tell me that 100 percent of Americans want to leave Iraq. I just don’t think they want to leave on Ms. Boxer’s, or for that matter, the entire Democrat Congress’ terms. My question for Ms. Boxer and the others who have sold their souls for political power is what exactly the right thing to do is – that also requires guts?

Ms. Boxer and many of her political colleagues, not all of them Democrats, hold the same disdain for our country and our military as does this idiot. Mr. Rall is a manifestation of the rhetoric coming from the mouths of polidiots. Durbin’s Nazis, Kerry’s illiterates, Kennedy’s torture chamber operators, Rangle’s downtrodden, and Murtha’s cold blooded murderers. They speak it, he draws it. It shouldn’t surprise anyone. According to the pollsters most of us must be OK with it.

Stupid people do and say these things when they have no concept of the real enemy faced or the ramifications of just quitting. Disparaging someone that you know will not harm you does not require guts. In fact it is the most obvious demonstration of cowardice one might come across. I looked, but was unable to find the courageous Mr. Rall’s Mohammed cartoons.

In the first part of my nightmare we did Ms. Boxer’s version of the right thing and immediately withdrew from Iraq. Shia Iran and the Shia Iraq began their religious genocide of the Iraqi Sunnis. The Turks invaded Northern Iraq to take out the Kurds and grab the Northern oil fields. Sunni Saudi Arabia, Sunni Syria and Sunni Jordan refused to stand by and watch the Persian led Sunni genocide in Iraq. The entire region imploded. Western economies dependent on Middle Eastern oil collapsed. President Hillary agreed to terms with the Mullahs, backed by Russian and Chinese nukes, who were now running the new caliphate.

My nightmare always end the same way. In a cold sweat, I run out to the bunker and check my food, water, medical and ammunition supplies. If you need me, that’s where I’ll be.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007

J. D. Pendry

Americans who cared revolted when Washington prepared to give amnesty to illegal immigrants. We were labeled racist bigots by weak willed politicians of the left, middle and right varieties because we believe in the rule of law wherein illegal behavior is not rewarded. Especially not at the expense of those who follow the rules. Many Americans refused to stand by and watch politicians give our country away to people who have no desire to become part of it and who only want to reap the harvest of the greatest country God ever blessed. A harvest the seeds of which, unlike generations of legal immigrants, they never sowed. Instead of a desire to become Americans, learn our language, and pledge allegiance, they want to bring with them the failed societies from which they escaped and back to those societies transfer our wealth. This is not how immigrants built the United States, but it is how other nations have fallen.

This is not a rehash of immigration policy or enforcement or the lack of coherence of either. This is about the power of a voting constituency when it finally decides that enough is enough. Politicians were so hammered by the People’s collective voice over illegal immigration and amnesty that it scared them. When career politicians fear being ridden out of town on a rail, they respond. This time the response was inaction. They didn’t follow through with stupid legislation, but they did nothing positive either. Our problem grows and Washington, collectively, lacks the will and competence to solve it. The problem is not a lack of ideas. The problem is that one political party fears the other may appear to come out on top. Political power trumps what benefits the nation, what benefits you and me and our families or what it takes to defend and preserve our sovereignty.

What I cannot explain is why we seem impotent to dredge up the same amount of energy to demand victory in our terrorist war as we did to demand that illegal immigrants not be granted amnesty. Why do we not demand total support for the Men and Women who are engaged in combat with our enemies and who confront death on our behalf every single day with the same vigor? Why is that?

I read a comment that was attributed to an unnamed member of our Armed Forces. It’s one of those comments that stay with you because the truth of it hits you in the head like a piece of dimension lumber. I don’t remember the exact words, so allow me to paraphrase. “America is not at war. Our military is at war. America is at the mall.” We’re at the mall with little yellow magnet stickers on the backs of our vehicles proclaiming we support the troops. But do we really? I know there are plenty of people and organizations out there providing many things for our heroes and their families, but is it enough? Are we doing the right things?

Why did we get so fired up about amnesty that we shorted out the Capitol switchboard? Because we saw thousands of people marching in our streets under flags of other countries and making demands. We saw the Stars and Stripes flown upside down beneath a Mexican flag. Those sorts of things tend to bring a problem home and even offend the most liberal of us. Unsecure borders and our threatened national security were never more prevalent than when highlighted by those demonstrations. Americans seen it then loudly demanded that Congress do something about it, but amnesty was not the fix most sought. It was security.

Americans haven’t seen the war up close unless they’re members of the Armed Forces or their families. Now, the pollsters tell politicians that a majority of Americans want the Iraq war to end and politicians act accordingly. I’ll do them one better. I’d wager that 100 percent of Americans and every member of the United States Armed Forces wish the war to be over. Like amnesty, however, I believe most of us want the war ended on our terms and not just ended for the sake of ending it. Like immigration, without positive resolution.

Last year I fired an essay out to my private mailing list taking some politicians including the Commander in Chief and news media to task over their conduct and treatment of our Troops. David Horowitz of FrontPageMag.com posted a version of the article recently (a few edits as it has made the rounds on the net) on David’s blog. Today, I received an email, and a Freeper ping or two advising me that Mr. Horowitz’s blog entry was also reposted at Free Republic. The Freeper discussions are generally lively, but since this article has been around for a year this is not the first discussion of it I’ve seen. I’ve been thanked and cursed for what I had to say. Too often, I read comments and my email that thank me for “saying what needed to be said.”

If, you believe I am indeed saying what needs to be said, then it is time for you to join in and help sing the chorus. I have one Republican Congresswoman that actually responds to letters and two Democrat Senators that stopped responding. If you truly do support the troops, it is time to shut down the Whitehouse and Capitol switch boards and to keep them shut down. It’s time to demand that the people who voted to send our Men and Women into combat provide them the total and unequivocal support they need to win and come home to their families and a grateful nation with their heads held high. If our politicians support, our Troops will deliver. It is time to demand victory.

Copyright © 2007 J. D. Pendry.

J. D. Pendry

“Nothing important happened today.” - from the diary of England’s King George III, July 4, 1776

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family..” - Leviticus 25:10 (KJV)

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” – Liberty Bell Inscription

The Declaration of Independence would not mean very much if men of resolve did not stand ready to seal it with sacrifice.

Every Soldier, a term I use here as representative of all branches of the Armed Forces of the United States, knows his purpose and his potential sacrifice. Yet, he Soldiers on each day. Often under difficult conditions and always holding on to the memories of loved ones, home, peace, freedom and better times. Those memories are why he serves. He never asks for much. He doesn’t ask for thanks. He has the gift of selfless service. He savors the smallest comforts that most of us take for granted – a hot meal, a phone call home, mail, a hot shower and even clean socks. A post card from a schoolchild, a simple thank you or the smiling face of someone helped is about all it takes to recharge his enthusiasm to meet a day that might be his last. He’ll say a prayer and shed a tear for a fallen comrade then remember him forever with a bond only soldiers know.

In peaceful surroundings, he’ll show a broad grin when a fifty gun salute is fired on Independence Day. Regardless of age, he still gets a little tingle when he hears the Star Spangled Banner, when the flag goes up at Reveille or when it’s lowered at Retreat. When someone defaces or burns the symbol under which he serves and sacrifices, the emotion he feels is anger. But, the anger turns to sadness. Sadness that some might not know how great and free our country is and the sacrifices made to keep it great and free. Then he’ll look you in the eye and say that is why I do what I do - so others can openly express how they feel in a free country. His wish is that they all understand this and him.

If you study the history of the United States of America, you’ll have trouble finding a significant period or event that did not involve Soldiers. In 1776, patriot politicians declared America’s independence. Patriot Soldiers delivered it. That’s what Soldiers do.

While you’re out in the back yard this weekend or at the lake, watching fireworks, eating hot dogs and watermelon. Take some time to make sure your children understand the significance of our Nation’s birthday. Make sure you tell them why we celebrate Independence Day. Above all, make sure you tell them about the men and women of the Armed Forces who enable us to celebrate and who have sacrificed to “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Happy Birthday America! Have a great holiday everyone!

Copyright 2005 J. D. Pendry

WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s GOD entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyranny only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our Fellow-Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.

IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.

John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
ORDERED,
THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.

By Order of CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
BALTIMORE, in MARYLAND: Printed by MARY KATHARINE GODDARD.

J. D. Pendry

“Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they’ve told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer, and intelligent design. I don’t know what Bible they’re reading, but it doesn’t jibe with my version.” – Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barrack H. Obama, in a Political Sermon delivered to the General Synod, United Church of Christ, June 23, 2007

There is something inherently wrong about a politician delivering a political speech to a gathered Church membership. There is something inherently wrong about a Church that allows the deliverance of a political speech to their gathered membership. A politician can be a religious person and as we all do, he or she will make decisions based on what they deeply believe and value personally regardless of what they publicly profess to believe. When politics and religion meet on the pulpit bad things come of it. Some observations of current world events should make that obvious even to a politician. I do find it interesting here in America that when a liberal speaks of his or her religion, they are considered enlightened. When one with conservative views speaks of his or her religion, they are derisively characterized as the ‘Christian Right.”

If you search the word in a dictionary, you’ll likely find faith defined as the belief in or trust in something unseen. In Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) it says:

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

For examples of faith and the power of it in the context of Christianity, I recommend that Senator Obama, or anyone for that matter, read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11. However, he does insist that my Bible, and possibly yours, doesn’t jibe with his version. From his comments, I can only surmise that his version of the Bible is OK with killing unborn children, homosexuality, suppressing prayer and is lacking the Genesis account of the creation. Or, if the creation account exists in his Bible, he doesn’t feel it a worthy alternative to the unproven theory taught to our children in public schools.

When something is hijacked, it’s stolen. Control of it is taken over by another or a group of others. I’m no theologian by any stretch, but I am a Christian. If there is one thing I can state emphatically to Senator Obama or any of the other politicians who feel the need to pontificate their thoughts on spirituality is that my faith is mine. Its foundation is the promise. In whatever one has faith, it is personal and cannot be hijacked. A person might abandon or surrender his faith, but it cannot be taken from him. I’m no political strategist either, but my advice for Obama and the other politicians who are professing faith to make themselves more attractive candidates is stick to politics and don’t trifle with faith. In my version of the Bible, God was never appreciative of that approach.

Politicians in general and most commentators like to tell us that Islam, the religion of peace, was also “hijacked” by the radical Islamists that are trying now to kill all of us. You’d think, that if their Bibles “jibed” with mine, these new found spiritualists and Biblical scholars would be telling us the Genesis account of the sons of Abraham. Let me briefly summarize for you. Abraham had two sons. His first, Ishmael, was born to his Egyptian maidservant, Hagar. God promised Abraham a son, but his wife Sarah was barren and aging. Abraham decided, through his lack of faith and with the coercion of Sarah, to work God’s promise of a son on their terms – thus Ishmael.

“The angel of the LORD also said to her [Hagar]: You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” Genesis 16:11-12

Some years later, the promised son, Isaac, was born to Sarah and Abraham. God fulfilled his covenant and made the promised son, Isaac, the patriarch of the Hebrews. Ishmael became the father of the Arab race. Biblical teaching is that the promised son, Isaac (the Jews), inherited the Promised Land. Islam teaches that Ishmael (the Arabs) is the promised son of Abraham and rightful inheritor of the Promised Land.

If our politicians were as Biblically inclined as they would have us believe, at least until elected, wouldn’t they be telling us that Ishmael whether through the guise of Islam or something else is merely fulfilling his Biblical destiny. But, for them to do that then they’d also have to tell us that our Biblical choices are alignment with Isaac or support for Ishmael.

Maybe the next time one of our politicians tries to convince us of his or her Biblical foundations, a concerned journalist will ask them some deeper questions than what’s your favorite Bible verse. Maybe they’ll ask them to put today’s global conflict into a historical and Biblical context.

2 Timothy 4:7

Copyright 2007 J. D. Pendry