Pondering the gift of Christ's Ascension

As the religiously unaffiliated expand into the second-largest group in the US, according to a recent poll, perhaps now more than ever in this not-so-brave, not-so-new world is a time to ponder Christ's teachings, from birth to death to life reborn. And as it just so happens, today marked His glorious return to the Father in heaven...what a gift to ponder!

ChristChurch: Since the fourth century, when the Church in Jerusalem began to mark the Ascension of our Lord as a special occasion, this Feast has been celebrated in the Christian Church. Just as Ash Wednesday comes forty days before Easter, so Ascension Day is dated forty days after Easter. This reckoning stems, of course, from the assertion in the Epistle that our Lord, after His Passion, was “seen of them (the apostles) forty days” (Acts 1:3).

It has been said that Ascension Day is one of the most neglected occasions in the Christian calendar. Yet surely, it is at last on par in importance with Christmas Day. Just as Christmas marks the coming into the world of God the Son, so Ascension Day marks His leaving the world to return to the Father. Part of the reason for neglect of this day is, of course, the fact that it never comes on a Sunday, but always on a weekday, Thursday.

What happened that day? The Gospels according to Sts. Mark and Luke record the event briefly. Sts. Paul and Peter refer to it still more briefly in several of their Epistles. The fullest account is found in the Acts of the Apostles. After promising to send the Holy Ghost to empower and inspire them, Jesus is described as having been “taken up” and received into a cloud “out of their sight.” Two angels – two men who “stood by in white apparel” – assured the apostles that Jesus would eventually return in like manner.

Our Lord’s return to the Father was, of course, entirely outside the range of ordinary human life and occurrences. Yet the resurrected body which had returned to the disciples from the Tomb did depart from them in a manner which they saw and understood to be an “ascent” in a return to God the Father and which put the final seal upon their acknowledgement and understanding of Christ as the Son of God. They returned to Jerusalem rejoicing and none of them ever again wavered in his faith.

The Ascension is the period at the end of the earthly story. The story began with the Incarnation of God as Jesus, as a baby born to a Virgin by the Holy Ghost. It began with miracle and as a mystery, a manifestation of God’s power and love. The Incarnation was announced by an archangel and accompanied by a “multitude of the heavenly host” singing hosannas.

In a like manner, God withdrew His Son again to Himself in “heaven.” The corporal / spiritual resurrected body simply disappeared “upward” from the sight of the apostles. This end to the earthly story was, again, a miracle and a mystery. And again, like the beginning, it was attested to by angels present at the scene. Just as the birth to a Virgin was a promise from God and a sign of the Babe’s divinity, so the departure from Mount Olivet was a promise from God and confirmation of the Lord’s Divine Nature.

Annunciation, Incarnation, Birth, Ministry, Passion, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension – these are the chief milestones along the Way of our faith. Each one is an essential element in the Testament of our Lord’s life and purpose and union with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost in the Trinity. Ascension Day should be an annual occasion for celebration both solemn and joyful, for all...

Related links: Lift Up Your Hearts: Worship for Ascension
Ascension of Jesus: A Story Still With Us
Pondering the gift of Ascension Day
Putting the Pieces Together: The Biblical Significance of Our Lord’s Ascension
POLL: America is becoming less of a Christian nation as the end draws near
Image: Top 10 reasons Washington was a man of prayer

Texas House passes Convention of States application!

One more state, an important one, to add to the tally...when the state Senate gets on board (pressure them to do so!)

ConventionOfStates: We have great news from Austin!

The Texas House passed the Convention of States resolution (HJR 77) today by a vote of 80-62!

We couldn't be prouder of our team in Texas -- they responded to our call to action, overwhelming the Texas legislature with calls and emails of support. This victory would have been impossible without their dedication, patriotism, and tenacity.

Next our resolution will move to the Texas Senate. Be looking for a specific call to action within the next few days explaining exactly who to contact and what to say!

It's past time for the states to take their power back from the ever-growing federal Leviathan...and here's a legitimate way to pull back the reins.

Hand jive, Marxist style, from University to UN

“If I were a magician, I’d hand out broken compasses. It’s all about misdirection.
”

Classic case of the need to watch both hands, stay abreast of the issues, because fast ones are afoot. While Obama goads Washington into allowing him to have unilateral say in foreign treaties and trade (with GOP leaderlessship all too willing to oblige), here's what the other hand is pulling.

Obama's not only gone full Marxist hypocrite with more redistributive yapping in the ears of impressionable youth...

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show: There is a liberal manifesto going on in America that is similar to the communist manifesto, where the answer to inequality is more centralized government. President Obama is in full Marxist mode on his indoctrination and repetition tour despite living the exact lifestyle he condemns. We've tried spending our way out of poverty and it's only gotten us trillions of dollars in debt, yet Obama's solution is to spend more. When an economy crumbles, iron-fisted centralized government gets stronger. Obama is usurping and demanding at the same time because Marxism is an unnatural ideology which seeks to change the nature of man; in order to be successful there needs to be complete elimination and destruction of our way of life.

...he's also reached out to the wretched foreign entity of despots at the UN to complain about what he sees as America's 'human rights violations'!

Breitbart: The Obama administration has, once again, complained to the United Nations about alleged American human rights violations–and boasted about liberal policies like Obamacare as the solution.

The State Department report, released Monday as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council, reads less like an accounting of human rights issues and more like the platform of the Democratic Party–and invites the world to judge America harshly.

The so-called “human rights” problems cited in the report include:

• Police brutality, including the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri 
• Discrimination against Muslims who want to build or expand mosques
• Voter identification laws in Texas and elsewhere
• Predatory lending in home mortgages
• Suspension of black children in schools
• Women earning “78 cents on the dollar” (a false statistic)

In addition, the report boasts of progress in the following areas:

• Promoting same-sex marriage
• Fighting discrimination against transgender children in school
• Executive action on illegal immigration
• Helping illegal alien children who cross the border
• Protecting privacy rights against government surveillance
• Trying to close the Guantánamo Bay prison for terror detainees
• Revoking “torture” memos for interrogating terrorists
• Passing Obamacare
• Expanding food stamps
• Regulating “carbon pollution” to fight climate change

The apologetic, left-liberal report echoes one filed by the Obama administration five years ago, during which the State Department proudly told the Human Rights Council that the administration opposed Arizona’s new immigration law, among other alleged American misdeeds.

Reads like a communist manifesto, doesn't it?! And an even more immoral one at that, but what else do you expect from a guy who feels confident in rebuking the words of Christ? (but not the false Prophet)

Peculiar (not really) how his list omits an actual human rights violation known as abortion, terminating over a MILLION human lives a year (over 400,000 this year alone so far) and swiftly approaching 60 MILLION since 1973. But nothing to see there.

At every step and wave of the hand, this guy sells out and undermines American exceptionalism and everything this country use to stand for.

Related links: Obama Has Just Thrown His Own Country Under The Bus At The UN, Inviting International Ridicule
Mark Levin comments on Michelle Obama's commencement speech at Tuskegee University

Jeb Bush wants to 'punish' illegals...not exactly (ADDENDUM)

FYI, Republican Establishment: The fanatics never were within the grassroots, the tea party, or conservatism, but ARE and have always been within YOUR ESTABLISHMENT!

NEWSFLASH: The Bushies are a central, generational part of the problem (and look who and what they've led to!)...

"However you look at this Jeb Bush, the only way he's doing well is raising money, raising money with the crony capitalists. ... This man is not popular with the Republicans; he's not popular with conservatives in any way. And one of the reasons is it's not just that he's wrong on so many issues, he lectures us, he talks down to us. 'Oh, they'll come around; oh, I'll persuade them.' The man is supposed to represent us. 'Well, he's a real leader, you see, he doesn't change his positions.' That's not a real leader necessarily. If his positions are sound, that's one thing. If his positions aren't sound, that's actually a problem, that's a failure.

How can you look at the data respecting wave after wave immigration, illegal immigration, since the 1960's, the impact on the American job market, the impact on the American welfare system, the impact on the Americanization and assimilation, which apparently doesn't occur much anymore thanks by the way to liberal American citizens who hate the country -- how can you look at these things and continue to support more of it? And then denounce the American people who built this society? ...

We're not a nation of immigrants, we're a nation of citizens. We're a nation of citizens, some of whom are recent immigrants, some of whom are second, third, fifth, tenth generation, whatever, but you're a nation of citizens, not foreigners, citizens! I believe in taking the language back; I believe in challenging the irrationality and myth-making that goes on, ladies and gentlemen. But Jeb Bush, he's a fanatic! Jeb Bush is obsessed with open borders; he's obsessed with amnesty, and he's arrogant about it, because he's ideological about it..."

Related links: Jeb Bush: Illegal immigrants should be punished……BY EARNING LEGAL STATUS
Mark Levin: Jeb Bush The 'Dumbest Of The Bushes'

ADDENDUM: Mark Levin opens up on the GOP establishment's potential nominee, Jeb Bush, along with his stance on immigration, among other issues...

"Now who's the extremist? Who is it that's outside of the mainstream?"

LEVIN: Why the HELL would Republicans provide Obama with a blank check on trade?

This free trade deal is just another big bill negotiated and agreed to in secrecy. We need to protect our borders and economic system from Obama, so why would we give him even more power? We're caught up in phony terms; there is no fast track for free trade, only a fast track to give Obama the power to negotiate whatever deals he wants. ~ TheMarkLevinShow 5/12/15

Upside-down and ass-backwards...with another twist at the end. Too many masterminds and cowards in Washington, D.C. these days.

While Senate Democrats supposedly deal a stinging defeat to fast-track legislation for Obama's trade agenda, Senate Republicans, led by their chief quisling, Mitch McConnell, yet again push to hand a blank check to this imperial president...for cronyism's sake over the country's of course...

TRS: Mark Levin blasted Republicans today for voting, procedurally, to approve Obama’s fast track on ‘free’ trade. Levin says we know exactly who this man is and what his ideology is and asks why in hell Republicans would provide him with a blank check on trade. He said there is nothing ‘free’ about this and explains what he really thinks is going on.

"Here's what I see playing out here: In order to get the number of votes necessary to deliver Obama what he wants on this fast-track negotiation process, Mitch McConnell will cave to the demands of the radical left Democrats, who are opposing this for completely different reasons. And he will capitulate to them and do as they demand, whether it involves subsidies or whether it involves labor, whatever it involves. And he'll put it all together in one big push. And all they need is a handful of Republicans, which always come through, and the Democrats. And they'll not only give Obama what he wants, they'll give Big Labor what it wants, they'll give Big Immigration what they want. That's what he'll do, Mitch McConnell. You heard it here first, and I know I'm right."

Republicans, when's enough enough? Is there a threshold at all? 'Cause I'm pretty sure these enabling Benedicts have long crossed it.

Related links: Mark Levin CASTIGATES Obama and his dime-store Marxism about the rich
Mitch McConnell: Barack And I Are The New 'Odd Couple' – He Sends Me Notes
Levin TORCHES McConnell, GOP Senate for throwing in with Iran in the name of 'bipartisanship'
THEY'RE LYING! Both Political Parties!

ADDENDUM: From Wednesday's program...

Obama's proposed trade bill is being worked on in complete secrecy. Senators have to read the bill in a private room and must treat the document as if it's a piece of national security, and can't discuss it with anyone outside of the room. Mitch McConnell, and John Boehner are going along with Obama every step of the way; more capitulation and idiocy from the GOP leadership.

Related link: Mark Levin explains SUPER SECRET process Senators forced to comply with just to read OBAMA TRADE BILL
Democrats yield in Senate trade deal
EXCLUSIVE — SEN. RAND PAUL VISITS SECRET ROOM TO READ OBAMATRADE, CALLS FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF DEAL TEXT
SEN. CRUZ OFFERS AMENDMENT TO BLOCK TRADE BILL FROM CHANGING IMMIGRATION LAW

Levin TORCHES McConnell, GOP Senate for throwing in with Iran in the name of 'bipartisanship'

Levin said it all on Thursday's program about the sad state of this dysfunctional party...led by a couple of Benedicts.

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show: If a party sways off in the wrong direction, we have a responsibility to defeat those doing it and take our party back. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are running Congress like mobsters; cutting campaign funding of fellow Republicans and removing them from committees if they don’t bend to their will. Now the Senate has passed, 98-1, to surrender treaty powers to President Obama; instead of no sanction relief until Senate approval of a deal, sanction relief will begin after 30 days unless 2/3 Senate vote against it. Whatever deal Obama has will be the deal put in place while nobody in Congress will be able to change it, and McConnell knows it. Every day this Congress meets and Obama exercises power not belonging to him, we lose more and more liberty.



Mark Levin opened his show today blasting Mitch McConnell for siding with Obama and the Islamo-Nazis in Iran with this so-called Iran Nuclear Review Act and lying about it. He calls McConnell a ‘deserter,’ a ‘disgrace’ and ‘Benedict Arnold,’ and says McConnell put the Republican Party and bipartisanship above the national security of this country.

Related link: Mark Levin TORCHES Mitch McConnell for throwing in with Iran in the name of bipartisanship

ADDENDUM: And yeah, guys, we noticed...very disappointing.

AmericanThinker: As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Ted Cruz, but when he does something wrong, it's important to call him on it. In this case he, along with Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, voted for a bill that will effectively allow the President to lift sanctions on Iran.

Normally, here's how treaties work: the President negotiates a treaty with another country, like the deal he is negotiating with Iran over its nuclear weapons development. Once the treaty is negotiated, it's submitted to the Senate. Two thirds of the Senate has to vote to approve, or ratify, the treaty. If two thirds do not support it, it is not binding.

But the bill the Congress sent to the President turns things on its head. It will allow the President to lift sanctions on Iran, and unless Congress objects with a 2/3 vote within 30 days, the President's actions are allowed to stand. See the reversal? Formerly, the President needed a 2/3 vote to act, and now the Congress needs a 2/3 vote to stop him from acting. And be assured the Democrats will never let the Republicans get that many votes.

Cruz, Rubio and Paul fought this measure procedurely, at first... but then voted for it on final passage. Totally inexplicable. And totally wrong, from a policy and constitutional perspective.

Paradoxically, this bill is being sold as one that will give Congress more oversight and control over the negotiations. In practice it will do the opposite, and starts to raise questions about the national security judgment of Rubio, Paul, and Cruz. Only Tom Cotton of Arkansas ended up voting against the final bill. That's right--only one vote against. Always beware of near-unanimous votes in the Congress, because they are nearly unanimously bad results.

What in hell did McConnell hold over these guys?

Related links: GOP Failure Theater: the Iran nuclear vote, Cruz-Rubio edition
Mark Levin: Rand Paul has some explaining to do
Fraudulent Flake

The 'tolerance' of Islam? ADDENDUM: I'll take FREE SPEECH!

How moderate...

(FULL INTERVIEW)

TruthRevolt: On Fox News last night, Sean Hannity hosted what basically amounted to a verbal holy war between Islamic Imam Anjem Choudary and Pamela Geller. Choudary repeatedly stated that Geller knew the "consequences" for her actions, and that the consequences for her actions are death. He says that she isn't even good enough to be called a pig. He said America was the real murderer, that all will come under sharia law, that any who insult the prophet should receive "capital punishment."

This is a good time to remind our readers that people who talk about sharia in America are called conspiracy theorists, that Pamela Geller, who has been marked for death by Islam over cartoons, is the one being called "hateful" by our media, and that the official position of Smart People is that only a tiny few Muslims are terrorists and murderers.

As far as we know, Anjem Choudary isn't a terrorist. Using the standard the media and the President use, he would not be counted in the "less than one percent" of Muslims who commit acts of terror or join ISIS or kidnap girls in Africa. Yet here he is on a major news outlet telling the world, as he often does, that he believes the exact same thing as the terrorists.

Nobody is a terrorist until they are. But it is clear that support for the murder of cartoonists extends beyond just the murderers themselves. Believing that those who insult Mohammed should be put to death does not mean you are in some exclusive terrorist-only club, or that you are a member of ISIS. It is not uncommon. It is a widely shared conviction. And what's more, it's put into practice by people who aren't counted in that "one percent" we're supposed to find insignificant.

How sinister this guy's smirks are during an interview when his Ayatollah has said, "There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam." No kidding!

Also, an excellent monologue from Megyn Kelly last night encapsulates where all Americans should be standing in solidarity (but for the party partisanship and lack of principle & common sense)...

TRS: Megyn Kelly opened her show tonight hitting back at the critics who have been blaming Pamela Geller for being too provocative with her drawing Muhammad event. Kelly says if drawing Muhammad at a private function is too provocative, then the terrorists are winning.

Related links: Here are a bunch of tolerant people calling Pamela Geller a ‘Zionist whore’ and Jew
Pamela Geller vs Imam on CNN Sunday Morning June 6, 2010
Drawing out the terrorists in our midst

ADDENDUM: Bill Whittle adds even broader (and most EXCELLENT) perspective...

TRS: In today’s version of Afterburner, Bill Whittle talks about the Garland terrorist attack and how the Islamo-Nazis didn’t just attack Pamela Geller and her drawing event, but they attacked all of us. And he takes on the folks who says ‘I believe in free speech, but…’.



Speech is either free or it isn't! The attack in Texas wasn't against Conservatives--it was against every American. Check out this important Afterburner to find out why Bill says you're DEAD wrong if you think the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo or attendees at the free speech event in Texas had it coming to them for being too "provocative" by drawing Mohammed.

Perpetuating a false narrative for riot's sake

It doesn't help when the media screws up, reporting something that never happened. It's quite another brand of craptastic LIES to advance a false narrative and continue stirring the pot of misperception, or most likely worse...

TopRightNews: An “eyewitness” in Baltimore delivered a chilling account on Monday of how a police officer chased down an unarmed black man and shot him in the back.

She told her stunning account to millions of viewers on live TV.

There’s only one problem: it never happened.

Baltimore Police were forced to correct the record after Fox News reported a police-involved shooting of a fleeing suspect. Police said no one was shot before they arrested the suspect, though a gun was recovered at the scene.

Listen to her...she's convinced the so-called 'boy' is dead, when no man was shot...



The only weapon she saw was the officer's drawn. Never mind the assailant's? My goodness, the hatred police have to deal with in these bastions of the country.

Part of the problem, perhaps?

Related links: Fox's Shep Smith Apologizes for Fox Reporter’s Erroneous ‘Shooting’ Account: ‘We Screwed Up’
Black Man 'Shot Multiple Times' by Baltimore Police? (update: not true?) VIDEO #BaltimoreRiots

Drawing out the terrorists in our midst

What have we learned in this latest incident of attempted terrorism? Well, a couple of things:

1. How do you draw out the jihadi Islamists who are already here? Hold a cartoon contest to draw Mohammed!
2. How do you take them out before they harm people? Hold a heavily armed Texas event!

Don't Mess With Texas, jihadis...our finest will oblige to erase you.

So, BRAVO to the unnamed HERO!

FoxNews: A Texas traffic cop saved untold lives Sunday night when he took down two heavily armed men bent on storming a building where a 'Draw the Prophet' Muhammad contest was taking place, killing both before they could make their way inside.

The police officer, who has not been identified by Garland Police Department officials, "probably saved lives," said police spokesman Joe Harn, who added that "his reaction, and his shooting with a pistol, he did a good job."

Probably? DEFINITELY! FYI, one of the shooters was on the FBI's terror radar and had linked himself to ISIS. Another example of state & local doing the job the Feds won't? I won't even go into the border implications here.

Related link: Traffic cop killed both attackers at Mohammed exhibit in Texas

 And BRAVO to Pam Geller and her organization, the American Freedom Denfense Initiative, for being prepared, and continuing to point out the obvious in the face of media adversaries of both political party persuasions...

Related links: ‘This is a WAR, and the WAR IS HERE’ – Pamela Geller on Fox News about Garland shooting [FULL INTERVIEW]
Pamela Geller DESTROYS onslaught of ridiculous attacks from CNN’s Alisyn Camerota
UGH: So it’s apparently ATTACK PAMELA GELLER DAY at CNN – [VIDEO]

Obviously, they didn't listen at all to Geller's excellent speech at the event...

Related link: ‘We are here for FREEDOM’ Pam Geller noted Muslim THREAT in speech before Shooting [FULL SPEECH]

And KUDOS to the brave Drawing Muhammad contest winner Bosch Faustin, a force in his own right to be reckoned with...

"I understand the threat that we face and that's why I do what I do. I do it because we're being threatened. This has to be fought head-on...

As artists, as writers, as thinkers, as Americans, as people who love freedom, and the entire West, we need to hit back. Not with violence, with the truth, with our art, with our writing. Once free speech goes, it's over."

Related links: Never Never Submit: A Recovering Muslim Speaks
The Flipside Interviews Ex-Muslim on his superhero Pigman & his War on Islam

Now, I'm positive what occurred was not Geller's intent. In fact, she makes it abundantly clear through the multiple interviews that the intent was a simple display of free speech and tolerance (something that far too many still don't understand is a two-way street) after having those who'd excuse the violence of the Charlie Hebdo slaughter held a so-called Islamophobia event at this same location in Garland months earlier. A tit-for-tat, if you will. Nonetheless, this gave us an excellent model for drawing these savages out.

There's no avoiding the troubled state that our free speech & religious liberties are currently in, as demonstrated through Geller's First Amendment event. It speaks volumes about the state of religious intolerance in a free society or more broadly the world over, when you can submerge the Crucifixion into a vat of urine ('Piss Christ' was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, no less!) or splatter an image of the Holy Virgin Mary with elephant dung, calling both art, without the escalation of violent aggression against either, yet you can't dare draw a cartoon of Mohammed for fear of being viciously murdered!

Enough of the double standards and excuses. If savages want to kill, then maybe it's about damn time to draw them out and take them down. But whatever we do, as the contest winner illustrates through his superhero Pigman, NEVER SUBMIT.

Obama fighting to keep states from identifying illegals who vote

Always by hook or by crook with the statists and the enablers. The Citizen, National Sovereignty and the Rule of Law be damned...

PJTatler: Non-citizens are voting in American elections, and the federal government refuses to do anything to stop it.

Worse, the current administration seems to be doing everything they can to prevent the states from trying to stop it. First, they sued states that asked people to present ID before voting. Now, the administration will not let states even ask people to establish they are citizens when they register to vote.

That’s the underlying plot in the latest major case in election law that has just been presented to the Supreme Court. Federal law says that states must accept and use a federal form for registering voters. But the federal form doesn’t require any proof that the person submitting the form is a citizen.

The form just asks the registrant to check a box.

Meanwhile, federal law mandates that voter registration forms be made available and pushed everywhere from licensing branches to welfare offices.

Levin addressed this last night, stating that the fix is in with the Obama administration fighting both Kansas and Arizona to keep them from identifying noncitizens on voter registration forms...

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show: We live in a world of myths and images created by the media and academia about our immigration system. The focus is never on the criminality of endless waves of illegal immigration or President Obama's DACA program blocking the deportation of violent criminals. Even worse, the Obama administration is doing everything they can to prevent states from requiring voter identification. A person coming to America in violation of the law and hiding doesn't mean they love America and deserve citizenship like Jeb Bush says. Jeb wants anarchy, not immigration.

Related link: Mark Levin: Obama fighting to keep states from identifying NONCITIZENS on VOTER REG FORMS

Oh yeah, some of this does sound like the crony capitalists'/Establishment Republicans' preferred presidential nominee...

• Jeb Bush Sings Obama Tune: Supports Regularising 11 Million Illegal Immigrants, Republicans Embarrassed
• Jeb Bush Sticks to Guns on Immigration, Common Core

Is he every concerned for AMERICANS?!

Miscreant minds think alike, I suppose.

Mark reminded us last Friday that Obama's amnesty has always been about adding new Democrats to voter rolls...

On Friday's Mark Levin Show: The left is attempting to stuff the ballot box by manipulating our immigration system and changing the nature of American citizenship. The American identity is constantly being destroyed by leftist institutions and ethnic front groups that oppose assimilation. We must defend the American identity if we want our culture to survive.

...apparently, so are the Bushies! Is it so much more important to secure favor with their bundlers than to assure the survival of America's cultural identity? For the global corporatists, it would appear so.

Related link: Homeland Security Working Overtime to Add ‘New Americans’ by 2016 Election