The Locked Escape Room of Life!

One of the items on my bucket list has been to experience the popular puzzle adventure of an escape room. Last Saturday we were able to check it off the list. My husband and I had the pleasure of puzzling ourselves out with a group of expert helpers. 

We had an hour to figure out and unlock a multitude of letter and number combination locks in a Harry Potter inspired locked room - well, three rooms in fact. We started off in the smallest room and had to unlock the others by solving the puzzles that opened doors and drawers and cupboards. The reward was the Christmas gift from Hogwarts to the diligent students -- candy canes.

Actually, we were never really locked in and could leave at any time, but we entered the game and no one took an early exit before we solved the challenge. A fun time was had by all!

From the Les Femmes Newsletter: Liberty vs. License Part I

Even secular voices recognize that license is accompanied by evil!

Editor's note: This is from the winter issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. Check out past issues at www.lesfemmes-thetruth.org.

LIBERTY VS. LICENSE: THE CRISIS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The crisis in the Church looms ever larger. With the Synod on Synodality on the horizon, informed Catholics are right to be concerned. Under assault for decades from both inside and outside the Church, the faith has been so undermined that some people have no idea what the faith even is. What a threat to souls! The crux of the matter is the divide between true liberty that frees man to know, love, and serve God versus license that enslaves man to his lower passions transforming him into a creature more like a beast than a human. The challenge for Catholics is to help save souls by waking up as many beasts as possible enabling them to cast off their slavery to sin and embrace truth and virtue and thereby become “free” in the true sense.

We are in Big Trouble and the Constitution and Bill of Rights Will Not Save Us!

Centralization of government kills freedom. When one party controls all three branches of government, freedom dies. We are there with only a few strict constructionist judges holding the line. All the institutions of government are in the hands of the tyrants and will be controlling our lives from cradle to grave! 

Gridlock is a blessing! We need more of it!

Listen to Antonin Scalia and take his words to heart. We will not see his like again. Listen to him describe the Bill of Rights of the Soviet Union before the fall. It was greater than ours with even more "freedoms." As Scalia says it was a "parchment guarantee," meaningless in real life. Learn to love the gridlock, he says, which protects minorities. "It doesn't take much to throw a monkey wrench into this complex system [of ours]." The Framers knew what they were doing.

"More Freedom, Not More Thugs Running Our Lives"

When I watched this video I thought of all the thugs of the Passion: the Pharisees plotting and clamoring for crucifixion, the false witnesses lying about Jesus, the name callers screaming "Blasphemer! Son of Beelzebub!," the temple guards with their clubs and torches, the betrayer with his poisonous kiss, the cowardly authority too afraid of the mob to defend the Truth. They were all there and they are with us today on this Good Friday. 

Take aways from the video:

Is There A Doctor In The House?

Have you ever been in a crowd when someone called out, “Is there a doctor in the house?”  I don’t know of any occasion where this plea has been made that no one showed up.  You always hear people say things like, “Thank goodness there was a doctor there, otherwise the guy never would have made it.” 

Each of us has a skill or talent we have been given by God that allows us to earn a living or somehow improve our lives or the lives of others.  In the book of Exodus, chapter 35:10, Moses said,

“Let every artisan among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded……”

The chapter continues with a description of all that is to be made and what skill will be required to do the work as God wished.  Moses might have argued with God saying where will I get so much talent and so many things as you require of me, but he trusted God and he knew that as with the natural resources of the earth, which never run out, neither will talent if man is allowed to freely associate with a community of his choice. 

Pray for our Country on this Fourth of July!

God Bless the USA! May we return to loving and honoring Him in the weakest and most vulnerable among us -- the infants in the womb, the sick and handicapped, and the elderly. Have mercy on our nation, O Lord.

"It's My Job." Government and its Immoral Orders!

Anybody wonder how things happened the way they did in Nazi Germany? People just following orders. Read this article and the statement of the ranger dragged into Nevada from out of state to persecute Clive Bundy and his family for daring to graze their cattle on public land, a practice in their family since the 1880s. The family pays land use fees to the county, but the Bureau of Land Management says they owe over a million dollars to the feds. Hey, if they want the land it's their land!

Can anyone explain to me how the feds have the right to just scoop of state lands all over the country and declare it federalized? If the EPA sees a puddle on your property they can declare it a wetland. If a snail darter is found in your pond or a kangaroo rat in your field, you can lose any right to use your property as you wish. If the government decides

Romney Shenanigans in the Rules Committee

Usually behind-the-scenes activities are the most interesting (and controversial) at a political convention. This year is no different with a monumental power grab by Republican insiders. Romney wants no criticism or dissent from the irksome grassroots and the elites are doing everything they can to crush those bothersome tea party activists and Ron Paul supporters. The scenario in the Rules Committee is to take over the convention and "disappear" the duly elected delegates who don't support Romney.  They want a big love fest for the TV viewers. But the reality is that there are plenty of disagreements within any party and a little knock down drag out isn't necessarily bad to keep folks honest. Why does anyone think the pro-life plank has stayed in the platform so long? Not because of the Rockefeller country-club Republicans that's for sure! So here's the deal according to Nevada delegate Cynthia Kennedy:

Two [rules] changes stand out far beyond the rest and must be defeated on the floor of the convention if we do not want to see the grassroots shut out of the party for decades to come.

First, the committee voted to allow the RNC to make rule changes between conventions, with little to no checks or balances. The original threshold proposed was 2/3 of the entire RNC. Melinda Fredericks of Texas got this changed to 3/4, but as Morton Blackwell of Virginia noted, in his many years on the RNC he has never seen a situation where the chairman did not get what he wanted on a vote, regardless of threshold. 

Second, the committee voted to dramatically restrict who can be elected a delegate to the national convention. All states now are required to pledge all delegates, and all national delegates must be approved by the candidate they are pledged to. As originally proposed, the candidate had to pre-approve people before they could run, but this was changed to instead give candidates veto power over elections. Attempts to carve out exceptions for caucus states that have party rule requiring they not pledge some delegates failed.

The convention will be voting on these changes. In the meantime, ask your state delegates on the Rules Committee to sign onto the minority report. If these rules pass at the convention it signals the end to grassroots voters having an impact and gives the inside-the-beltway gang complete control.

Ben Stein has "Figured Him Out"

And the picture isn't pretty.

Sunday Inspiration: Compassion is an art!

God Bless America on this 4th of July

Pray today for all those who offered their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for our country. May we continue to dedicate ourselves to making this "one country UNDER GOD with liberty and justice for all" especially the most vulnerable.

The Brown Shirts Are Here!

The video below contains an audio clip from a young man who was detained at the airport in St. Louis by FIVE armed police officers -- get this -- because he had $4700 in his carry-on luggage. What was his "crime?" When the officers asked why he had the money he asked them whether he was required by law to answer their questions. They immediately went into brown-shirt mode. It reached the point where they were going to take him down to the police station when a plainclothes cop (FBI) came in and whispered something in their ears and they let him go. He made his plane. He was smart enough when the interrogation started to click the recording button on his fancy cell phone and got the entire encounter on tape.

So now carrying cash makes you a suspected terrorist. (So does being a Ron Paul supporter!) Think of that. What's the limit? Is $2000 okay? How about $500? Watch the video; it's unbelievable! God bless this young lover of liberty.

I had a similar situation happen outside an abortion mill several years ago. I was sidewalk counseling when a car stopped in the driveway and I stepped over to the window to talk to the couple who took my literature. The officer (They always had a police car in the parking lot on Saturdays.) asked me to get out of driveway I did.

Then he came over and insisted I give my name or he would arrest me. I started to comply but he got my Irish up so I asked what law required me to answer. Was I being charged with breaking a law? We had been told being in the driveway was okay by his supervisor if we weren't blocking people trying to go in and out which I told him. Nevertheless, he told me if I didn't answer he'd give me a summons. Which he did when I continued to refuse.

The next business day I went down and had a talk with the Commonwealth's Attorney who told me that if I were being charged with a crime I had to comply, but the exact opposite was what happened. To make a long story short they dropped the charges and (on my insistence) sent me a letter telling me that I did not have to appear in court. We never had a problem with that officer again.

Stand up for your rights like this man did. If you don't, the next bullying may not be just words but the nightstick and the cattle prod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMB6L487LHM