The Founding Father's Real Reason for the Second Amendment
And remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below (u-tube HERE).
The Leaders Are Here... Palin, Cruz, Lee, Paul, Chaffetz....
T'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Can You Really Still Believe That None of These People Would Have Done a Better Job???
In a chilling assault Israel National News reports took place in Samaria on Wednesday, Arabs allegedly threw rocks at an Israeli car, injuring the face of a 20-month-old girl who was in the back seat.
The child was reportedly treated on the scene by medics with the Samaria Regional Authority (SRA) and later brought to a hospital.
SRA official Gershon Mesika said, “The ‘men of peace’ of the Palestinian murder authority provide yet more proof, to those who still need it, as to just whom we are facing. We face low life terrorists who try to murder babies.”
INN adds:
An Israeli citizen was lightly wounded from rocks hurled by Arabs as he drove near Halhoul. Three Arabs were arrested Wednesday afternoon in confrontations with security forces near the Kalandiya checkpoint. Earlier, they threw rocks at IDF forces and burned tires.
Several dozen Arabs threw rocks at Border Policemen near Har Adar, not far from Jerusalem. No one was hurt. The policemen used riot dispersal gear to scatter the rioters.
INN does not divulge whether the culprits have been tracked down.
Below is footage provided by INN of the mother and child in the aftermath of the attack speaking to Israeli authorities. From the looks of the pictures and video, the child, while clearly having sustained face trauma, remained calm in her mother’s arms:
Remember… these are people who still stone people to death. They stone women (victims) who have been raped to death for dishonoring their families. What do you think they will do to you? Wake-up America, Christians, Jews…
If you were about to host a three-hour radio show on hundreds of stations in the middle of an exhausting week, what would be the last thing you would want to do?
Well, if you are Glenn Beck you tell everyone to deploy to the Old City of Jerusalem for a full rehearsal of the opening to Wednesday’s Restoring Courage program.
And, if you are Glenn Beck, you decide to do this less than 60 minutes before your radio show begins!
But, of course, it turns out to go flawlessly and the powerful moments in the rehearsal trigger more than a few goose bump moments.
‘COURAGE TO REMEMBER’: BECK HOSTS JERUSALEM PROGRAM FOCUSING ON THE HOLOCAUST
Photo by Lange Studio
The second night of the “Restoring Courage” events in Israel took place the Old Train Station in Jerusalem.
“An amazing land, an amazing people,“ Glenn Beck said as he began the program he entitled ”Courage to Remember.” The program focused on the Holocaust and the lessons that need to be newly learned today.
Photo by Lange Studio
Rabbi Moshe Rothchild opened with a prayer tying the evening‘s location to the evening’s theme:
“Tonight as we gather beside these old train tracks in Jerusalem, we remember another set of tracks.
The tracks that led our brothers and sisters to the infamous places of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Treblinka and Sobibor…and all the places of death and darkness.
We pray that our gathering her tonight should bring forth healing and light.”
This clip includes the initial remarks by Beck and Rabbi Rothchild:
Beck then introduced actor Jon Voight, who’s talk veered from comical accounts of his attempts at dancing to Jewish tunes, to deeply serious stories of his work in Israel with victims wounded by suicide bombers. “What I witnessed would tear my heart out,” he said. “I feel completely outraged for anyone who would make any excuse for this kind of barbarism. And I feel complete contempt for anyone who is not intelligent enough to see that this propaganda in the media, painting the Palestinians as poor victims, is capable of destroying the Jewish nation in Israel.”
Photo by Lange Studio
The main part of the program featured a screening of a very personal documentary, “Kleiner Rudy,” which tells the family story of filmmaker Michelle Stein Teer. She chronicles her grandfather’s return, at age 85, to the German town of Norden where he lost his own father and thirty members of his family the Holocaust.
Photo by Liz Stephans
Photo by Lange Studio
Beck gave an impassioned introduction to the documentary:
After the screening Beck led a panel discussion including Michelle Stein Teer, Rabbi David Greenblatt of United With Israel, David Brog of Christians United for Israel, and auther Mike Evans who‘s emotional life story was a highlight of the first evening’s program in Caesarea.
Photo by Liz Stephans
Here’s a section of the panel discussion:
The evening concluded with poignant musical moments and a tribute by the Blaze
As the sun eased it’s way into the Mediterranean horizon Sunday evening, Glenn Beck greeted an enthusiastic crowd of over 3,000 at the Caesarea Amphitheater: “Welcome to the land of milk and honey!”
Beck’s week of “Restoring Courage” events is beginning with a religiously themed evening entitled “The Courage to Love.”
Early in the program Beck was joined on the stage by historian David Barton. Grammy-nominated vocalist Vernessa Mitchell was accompanied by an ensemble of Israeli singers and musicians. In the first half of the program the audience heard passionate remarks by author Mike Evans and Florida pastor Tom Mullins.
Mullins challenged the capacity crowd:
“It’s time for the people of faith to stand with a courage that flows from God’s deep love and defend Israel!
We are gathered in the very spot, where, centuries ago, the faith of the Apostle Paul was put on trial. Paul resolutely refused to compromise the truth of his faith. He stood with great courage and embraced his destiny; and his life had profound, eternal impact on the world.”
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin defined “courage” in contrast with its “fraternal twin” strength:
“Strength is physical prowess: Courage is spiritual sensitivity.
Strength is rooted in selfish self aggrandizement, hell-bent on taking over and dominating “other” on destroying one’s enemy.
Courage is rooted in self sacrifice, Heaven-sent to give to and share with “other” to turn one‘s hated enemy into one’s beloved friend.
Strength revels in power.
Courage reaches out in love.”
Indeed, Courage begets and demands love; the very Hebrew word for love Ahava, derives from the root verb HAV which means to give.
Pastor John Hagee spoke just before Beck’s concluding remarks:
“We have come tonight to say to the people of Israel, you are still the apple of God’s eye, you are still the chosen people, you are still the covenant people, you are still cherished the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Beck began his final talk by asking the audience to “Honor these people who have honored God for so long.”
While noting that many in the crowd had come at “great expense,“ he praised those who had come at ”great risk” to their personal safety.
Here are some pictures from the early moments of the program.
The main Restoring Courage Event will be on 8.24.11 but there will be events all week like this one. It will be covered in full on GBTV.com
One year ago Glenn Beck and his team put on Restoring Honor in Washington D.C. It was a major success, but he told his staff that they would not do that again. But this year he was called to do Restoring Courage in Israel.
Last summer we set out to Restore Honor in Washington, DC. This summer it is time to Restore Courage. Taking a stand is not always easy, but now more than ever it is imperative that we live with conviction and do the right thing. It is time for us to courageously stand with Israel.
“I invite you to join me in Israel this summer to stand together and show the world what living a life of faith and honor really means. I invite you to join me in my quest to Restore Courage,” Glenn said.
On radio, Glenn said, “We have gone to the capitals of our states and to the capitals of our government. We have talked to all the power brokers. The only power broker, the only seat of government that can and will solve this problem with or without us is God. It is time to return inside the walls that surround Jerusalem and stand with people of all faiths, all around the world,”
“In August, whether I’m there with seven people or 10 people or there alone, I will be counted and I will stand. I ask you to join me. I also ask you to take this message globally, to take this to every corner of the earth. If you have family living overseas, this is not an America solution. This is a people of faith solution. This is a people all over the world solution. I ask you to help get this word out.”
More information on this event will be made available in the next few days.Sign up for the FREE e-mail newsletter to make sure you’re the first to know!Click here to join.
Stay tuned for more on this major announcement!
Think Beck is wrong or that it can’t and won’t happen here in the U.S.? Think again, the seeds have already been sown!
Video:
Recently ultra-right Glenn Beck had a guest on his show who was about as ultra-Left as one gets. She was a liberal Democrat who believes in ‘social justice’ and supports Barack Obama. Yet the two opposites found common ground on one issue: they both believe the curriculum in Arizona is nothing short of treason.
According to a report on Beck’s site, “The district isn’t trying to ban the program outright. Instead, it wants to make a controversial history class — that calls for “death to the invaders” and was found to advocate overthrowing the U.S. government — an elective instead of allowing it to substitute for required history credits. That’s it. And the disturbing class would still be available to students.”
Our people in California resisted the U.S. invaders and Serbulos Varela led a revolt at Los Angeles. In Nuevo Mexico, six months after Gov. Armijo sold out to the U.S., the people also rose in revolt. It is said that Father Antonio Jose’ Martinez, a radical priest of Taos who helped the poor against the rich, encouraged them.
With the exception of genocide, one of the worst crimes committed by the European invaders against indigenous peoples was the destruction of nearly all their culture, thought beliefs, traditions, and language. This atrocity has left the majority of the hemisphere’s indigenous population in disarray and confusion to their true identity.
The crazy thing—besides the obvious—is the fact that this curriculum is being taught in an American school at all! As seen in the following video, when the Tucson school board tried to make it an ‘electives only’ class, the result was a wild protest in which students chained themselves to tables and chairs, yelling violently “Fight Back!”
Glenn to keynote “Christians United for Israel” event
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 9:10 AM EDT
What: Sixth Annual Washington Summit for Christians United for Israel
When: July 18 – 20 (Mon, Tue, Wed) - Glenn Beck will be the keynote speaker at the “Night to Honor Israel Banquet” (Tuesday, July 19)
Glenn Beck will be the keynote speaker at Christians United for Israel’s sixth annual Washington Summit on July 18-20, 2011. Glenn will give the keynote speech at “A Night to Honor Israel” ,a banquet held on Tuesday evening, July 19.
While Christians United for Israel (CUFI) has regularly held hundreds of “Nights for Israel” across America, this annual event gives participants the opportunity to unite their voices in speaking with elected officials to maintain our nation’s support for Israel and the Jewish state.
Roughly 4,500 people gathered at last year’s Washington Summit to demonstrate solidarity with Israel and listen to speakers and religious leaders such as world-renowned pastor and founder of CUFI, John Hagee.
“Israel’s enemies are our enemies; Israel’s fight is our fight,” Hagee said at the Summit last year. “If a line has to be drawn, then let it be drawn around both of us: Christians and Jews, Americans and Israelis.”
Attendees commented on last year’s event:
As a child of Holocaust survivors, I grew up with the feeling that everyone hated Jews. . . . But when I came to the CUFI Summit, I witnessed a tremendous outpouring of love for Israel and the Jewish people. – Rachal from Chicago, IL.
After attending CUFI Washington Summit I now feel more equipped to be not only a Christian voice, but a political voice both on my college campus on American soil. – Clayton, a student from Mobile, AL.
I always prayed for Israel but I never really knew why I had too. So coming to the summit made me understand why Christians should stand up for Israel. – Imani from San Antonio, TX.
This year, some of the most influential leaders and thinkers will come together to discuss the recent developments in Israel and the Middle East and their connection to Washington D.C. Besides Pastor John Hagee, other speakers will include nationally syndicated radio host, Dennis Prager, Ambassador John Bolton and Ambassador Michael Oren.
The Summit will feature classes and seminars as well as a prayer session, a movie and, of course, the Night to Honor Israel Banquet with Glenn Beck. Messages are focused around Israel: the importance of its history, key events surrounding its current situation and predicted future events. Two breakout sessions will allow participants to attend classes entitled “Israel 101,” “Christian Zionism” and “The Looming Threats” to name a few. For a full schedule of events click here
"Howard Roark laughed." So begins Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, the improbable bestseller that established Rand's fame and reputation as a novelist-philosopher.
Rejected by twelve publishers, The Fountainhead was finally accepted by Bobbs-Merrill when a young editor taken with the book threatened to quit if it were not. "If this is not the book for you," he wired the publisher's head office, "then I am not the editor for you." His confidence was justified: to date, The Fountainhead has sold some six million copies all told, and continues to sell over 100,000 copies each year. At the time of its publication, Lorine Pruette wrote in the New York Times that "it was the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall," with characters who are "amazingly literate, romanticized as larger-than-life representatives of good and evil." However, it was not critical adulation, but the incredible word of mouth that spread about the book that made it a bestseller.
From its memorable opening line, Rand's prose camera pans out to reveal Howard Roark, a young student of architecture, poised nude on a cliff's edge and preparing to dive into the lake below. The scene sets the tone for the book, and hints at the "sense of life" that animated Rand's fiction: Roark has just been expelled from architecture school for refusing to ape the styles of past masters in his designs. His response is not despair, but an indifference grounded in a supreme confidence in his own artistic vision. Explaining that vision to the school's dean several scenes later, Roark says:
Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the materials determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets ever detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose. A man doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every wall, window and stairway to express it.
Like Pruette, Rand saw her characters as ideal types, embodied principles. She always denied that her protagonists were modeled on any actual people, and in particular was adamant that Roark was not a fictionalized Frank Lloyd Wright. Still, it is hard not to hear in Roark's own theories of architecture echoes of Wright, especially his 1930–31 lectures at Princeton, which Rand had read. Wright had said of his own buildings: "Consistency from first to last will give you the result you seek and consistency alone." Even their biographies overlap: Roark's mentor Henry Cameron, a brilliant innovator whose star had faded, evokes Wright's own, Louis Sullivan.
Rand sought unsuccessfully to interview Wright as a source for The Fountainhead. (Instead, she gathered source material for the book by working without pay as a typist for New York architect Ely Jacques Kahn.) In her letter to Wright, Rand described her project as a "story of human integrity. That is what I am writing. That is what you have lived. And to my knowledge you are the only one among the men of this century who has lived it." She wanted to interview Wright, not for information, but for "the inspiration of seeing before me a living miracle." The two later became acquainted, and Wright even began designing a house for Rand, though it was never built.
The reference to "integrity" must be taken to refer not only to the internal coherence of Wright's architectural philosophy, but also his famous stubbornness with clients when it came to seeing his plans realized as he had intended. Roark's fidelity to his own vision makes it difficult for him to find work, despite his genius, and the conflicts this creates drive the book's plot.
Roark's own approach is thrown into relief by a parallel portrayal of the career of his classmate Peter Keating. A thorough mediocrity, Keating's sense of self is as derivative as his building designs. While Roark toils in obscurity, Keating rises through the ranks of the prestigious New York firm Francon & Heyer. But on major commissions, Keating's lack of inspiration forces him to seek help from Roark, who is the unacknowledged designer of Keating's most renowned buildings.
The contrast between the two is meant to illustrate what Rand would later call "the virtue of selfishness." A conventional story would have set up Roark's "selfless devotion to his art" against Keating's "grasping, selfish careerism." Rand reverses this expectation. Keating's pathology, Rand shows, is precisely the result of selflessness. Lacking a strong identity of his own, he seeks to construct one second-hand by absorbing the opinions of others. Lacking self-respect, he struggles to do whatever will please others and win him their adulation. Roark's apparent "sacrifice," on the other hand, is nothing of the sort. If he insists on his own methods and designs, it is because they arehis own. The true sacrifice, Rand makes clear, would be to compromise his artistic integrity for mere popular approval, or even material comfort.
That integrity makes it impossible for Roark to fit in with conventional architecture firms, and equally difficult to secure commissions when he opens his own office. Eventually, he leaves the city to work as a manual laborer at a granite quarry owned by Guy Francon of Francon & Heyer—which by now has become Francon & Keating. There, he meets Francon's fiercely independent daughter Dominique. Recognizing Roark as a kindred spirit, she begins to pursue him, and in what has become the book's most famous scene, they make violent, passionate love that, while consensual, seems on the surface like an act of rape. But Francon, unsure she is prepared for a serious romantic affair with Roark, pulls back. Soon, a businessman who admires the buildings Roark managed to have built finds him at the quarry and brings him back to New York to work on an apartment building. There, he finds growing success—and a new enemy.
While Keating is Roark's professional rival, he is not quite Roark's adversary: by turns contemptible and pathetic, Peter Keating is not up to the role of archenemy. That is left to journalist and architecture critic Ellsworth Toohey. Toohey is something of an aberration in Rand's fiction, in that he is perhaps her only really memorable villain.
In Rand's Objectivist philosophy, intelligence, rationality, and achievement are all associated with her own ethics, and therefore with her protagonists. Typically, these are opposed by bland, bromide-mouthing mobs who evoke nothing so much as Hannah Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil." Toohey is the exception: he is the one character in Rand's work who fully comprehends the difference between good and evil, between individualism and collectivism, and consciously chooses evil. Incapable of Roark's form of creative achievement, which he despises, Toohey has made his own goal power over the opinions of others. A clue to his motive is provided by his childhood reaction to the famous Biblical query: "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Toohey asks in response: "Then in order to be truly wealthy, a man should collect souls?" His adult life has been devoted to precisely that end, through the formation of a series of organizations across many different fields, including a collective of fashionable second-rate writers who promote each other's work ceaselessly.
Determined to crush Roark, Toohey manipulates a spiritually inclined pawn, Hopton Stoddard, to commission an ecumenical temple from the atheistic architect. Stoddard, on Toohey's advice, convinces Roark to take the job by telling him: "But you're a profoundly religious man, Mr. Roark—in your own way. I can see that in your buildings." Toohey has detected, not religious reverence in the ordinary sense, but the reverence for the best in the human spirit that permeates Roark's designs. Once the temple—a masterpiece, of course—is complete, Toohey denounces it as blasphemous, and pushes Stoddard to sue Roark for breach of contract. Roark's defense is merely to offer the jury photographs of the temple—but swayed by the testimony of an architectural expert (Toohey, of course) they vote against him, destroying his reputation.
The verdict comes as a blow to Dominique Francon, who more than ever despairs that individual achievement and integrity have little chance of surviving in the world as it is. She resolves to purge herself of the capacity to appreciate heroic achievement—and to destroy Roark, who is a constant reminder of the individualism society cannot tolerate. Attempting to drown herself in inanity, she marries Peter Keating, only to leave him for newspaper tycoon Gail Wynand, publisher of the Banner, where Toohey's column appears. Like Roark in many ways, Wynand differs from the architect in having decided that the only way to survive and flourish is to pander to the public, which he does on a daily basis in his widely read newspaper. Wynand, though, cannot help but respond with admiration to Roark's work... and to Roark himself when they meet. Through Wynand's influence, Roark once again begins to work.
Keating's fortunes, in the meantime, have soured. Lacking his own creative voice, he is at a loss when the architectural trends he has spent his career emulating cease to be fashionable. Desperate to salvage his career, he begs Roark to design one last building for him: a low-income housing project to be called Cortland Homes. Roark, knowing that the project is under Toohey's control, and that a plan under his own name would never be accepted, agrees, on the condition that his plan be built precisely as designed.
When Toohey has some frivolous ornamentation added at the last moment, spoiling the integrity of the building, Roark dynamites it, with help from Dominique. Wynand believes he can use his media empire to sway public opinion in Roark's favor as the trial approaches, but he discovers that power over others is ephemeral. Once he is no longer telling the people what they want to hear, his papers stop selling. In a bid to take over the Banner, Toohey engineers a strike. Finally, Wynand caves and reverses his editorial position on Roark. At the trial, however, Roark offers an eloquent defense of his right to destroy his creation, whose integrity had already been destroyed in violation of his agreement with Keating. He tells the jury:
Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons—a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man—the function of his reasoning mind. But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared or transferred.
Roark is acquitted. Wynand, realizing at last the necessity of integrity, shuts down the Banner rather than allow Toohey to control it in the wake of the strike. Roark is commissioned to rebuild the Cortland Homes by a private businessman, and Wynand decides the time has come to build his Wynand Building, which will be the city's tallest skyscraper. The book closes with Roark standing triumphant atop his work in progress, alongside an admiring Dominique.
The book's surprising success led to the production of a 1949 movie version of The Fountainhead starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, and directed by King Vidor. Warner Brothers had sought to have Wright himself design the film's sets, but that plan was scrapped when Wright demanded 10 percent of the film's gross profits on top of his $250,000 fee. The screenplay was, of course, penned by Ayn Rand. It is safe to assume that Warner Brothers didn't dare change the dialogue.
Are you ready to stand up and be counted? It's not who's going to let us open on the 15th... it's who's going to stop us.
Tonight, our friend, JOHN STOSSEL, is on Hannity at 9pm ET on Fox . . . and the topic . . . “New Movie Hated by Hollywood?!”
Are the liberal elite trying to stop you from seeing an American classic brought to life on the silver screen? John Stossel has “reel” insight on the new movie “Atlas Shrugged.”
thecommunists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists, I did not protest; I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, I did not protest; I was a Protestant.
Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Election 2014 - What Is Really At Stake
Help Stop Voter Fraud!! Stand for the Constitution and God
Time to remember that: "We Surround Them", not the other way!
Stand Up Against Voter Fraud... Demand Re-Counts and Verification Until It is Right!! A Little Ink Goes a Long Way Toward Honesty... 1 Person 1 Vote... No More Mickey Mouse or Dead People Voting
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about IT! --Albert Einstein
Call Congress Today and Tell Them To Vote Against Cap and Trade
The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality -- Dante Alighieri / Often Quoted by Mark Twain
Thanks for calling the Congressional switchboard. Keep up the pressure: "NO on Cap and Trade"!!! "NO Vote on Obamacare", NO on another Stimulus Bill, NO to the never ending parade of "Power Grab Bills", and ABSOLUTELY NO on the Climate Change Treaty in Copenhagen!!
"No" on Cap and Trade and "No" on Government Controlled Healthcare!!! And Keep up the good fight! Keep up the Pressure on both the House and Senate! These are 2-fights the American People cannot afford to lose!!!
If you choose not to go this route… call and fax your Senator and as many of them on the list yourself, but don’t sit idly by!!
United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121
We apologize in advance for any Videos or links that are not functioning in these or other older posts. Internet information... like 'true' history in our student's textbooks are under constant attack by the Progressive Movement and even more so under the present administration. Try to save what you can to your own computer.
"...there comes a time, ladies and gentlemen, when ideology can cause death. I am so tired, so tired, of zealots, primarily on the left, putting their insane personal agendas above the safety of fellow Americans. Do you think the brave soldiers and Marines operating in dangerous areas right now want [unreleased photos of alleged abuse of prisoners] all over al-Jazeera and the terror websites? So let's look out for the military, OK? Nancy Pelosi has an obligation to get the loons in her party under control. If the Speaker can't do that, she doesn't deserve her position." ... Bill O'Reilly
Updated:If you'd like to contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, here's the contact information that you'll need.
