Ignoring the United States Constitution, the voice of the American people, and the authority of Congress, Barack Obama is transforming America through regulations and executive orders.  

Assuming the powers of a dictator, he has crippled the economy, opened our national borders, exported U.S. energy capacity - the list goes on and on.   

In this 5 minute video Charles Krauthammer discusses two important examples.

This Is My Country 
 
Lyrics by: Don Raye
Music by : Al Jacobs

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

With hand upon heart I thank the Lord For this my native land,
For all I love is here within her gates.
My sould is rooted deeply in the soil on which I stand,
For these are mine own United States.

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

David Boaz of the Cato Institute explains why some people believe Hurricane Irene will boost the economy, and why they are mistaken.  

This is a helpful lesson in economic principles -- in less than five minutes.

Constitution Day is September 17th!  Let's prepare to celebrate by studying the powerful principles of liberty our Founding Fathers brought together in the United States Constitution.  

By applying these principles, Americans have experienced more freedom, peace, and prosperity than any other nation in the history of the world.

The principles may be more important now than ever before!

 The National Center for Constitutional Studies has created outstanding lessons about the Constitution.  NCCS makes these materials available without charge because they believe in America and want to preserve the great legacy of liberty we have been given.

You might want to invite friends and family to study the lessons with you.  Here is the link to download the seminar study guide:  The Making of America 

Here is the link to the video of Lesson 1:  Settling the New World
Lesson 1 starts on page 5 of the study guide.  The first video lasts 55 minutes.

To view the remaining 11 lessons, click the LESSONS tab on the menu, or click here, and then look under "Making of America Seminar."

With the United States drowning in debt, many are questioning the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  We need an honest conversation about what the role of the federal government should be when disaster strikes.

LONDON: Here is good news for chocoholics - a bar of the sweet treat is actually good for your health, a new study has found. 

The study by researchers at the University of Cambridge found that regular consumption of chocolate may slash the risk of developing heart disease by a third. The finding backs up the results of earlier studies that generally agree on a potential positive link between eating chocolate and heart health, the Daily Mail reported. 

For their study, Dr Oscar Franco and Cambridge colleagues carried out a large scale review of the existing evidence to see the effects of eating chocolate on heart attacks and strokes. They analysed the results of seven studies, which had involved more than 100,000 people with and without existing heart disease. 

For each study, they compared the group with the highest chocolate consumption against the group with the lowest. Differences in study design and quality were also taken into account to minimise bias. Five studies reported a beneficial link between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiovascular events. 

They found that the "highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with lowest levels." However, no significant reduction was found in relation to heart failure, the researchers reported in British Medical Journal. The studies, they said, did not differentiate between dark or milk chocolate and included consumption of chocolate bars, drinks, biscuits and desserts. 

But despite the findings, the researchers said chocolates should be taken "with caution" and people should be careful which chocolate they chose to eat. 

Click here to read more...

President Barack Obama recently called the 16 months leading up to the 2012 election a critical period to “debate [our respective] vision[s] for America.” 

He noted that much of the debate will focus on government’s role “in creating the kind of growth that we need.”

The president seems to think he will win that debate. I say — and I hope every Republican candidate for president says: Bring it on.

It’s well past time to have a spirited debate over the proper role of government, and the proper reach of government into our lives. Clearly, there are two very different visions for what this role should be.

One vision assumes that government is the problem-solver of first, and last, resort. Every issue we face as individuals and as a nation should be addressed, controlled, regulated, overseen and “fixed” by the government.

Under this paradigm, we can restore economic prosperity only by maintaining or expanding the federal government’s current spending levels — even if it means we engage in perpetual, large-scale deficit spending.

The other vision rests on the opposite assumption: the firm conviction that individuals have sovereign rights and responsibilities to control their actions and their fate.

This vision holds that the private sector, not government, is the source of innovation, competition, growth and jobs. It holds that economic conditions will not improve until we take affirmative, deliberate steps to restrict Congress’s borrowing and spending practices.

Federal spending and government interference has so run amok that such steps must include a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance its budget and spend no more than a fixed percentage of gross domestic product.

Proponents of each vision can be found in both political parties.

The first approach has become familiar to us over many decades; many prefer it for that very reason. For incumbent federal office holders, this also has the added allure of protecting Washington’s existing power structure. Members of Congress are more powerful when they can borrow and spend unlimited sums of money — and therefore have a built-in reason to prefer the status quo.

The second approach, in contrast, would significantly limit the power wielded by each member of Congress and otherwise upset the status quo. Americans either love it or hate it for that very reason.

Most love it. According to a recent CNN poll....  Read More:  Politico.com

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are in the path of Hurricane Irene.  Our daughter arrived in New York City just three days ago, excited to begin an internship with Bon Appetit Magazine.  She loves adventures and we hope this is one of many adventures she will be able to tell her grandchildren about.

If you have friends and loved ones on the East Coast, Ready.gov has some excellent information on how to prepare for a hurricane.  And here is a helpful resource from FEMA:

Today, perhaps more than ever before, it's important for our children to have worthy heroes they can look up to.  In his recent speech, Senator Marco Rubio told about one of his favorite heroes -- his grandpa!  

Senator Rubio’s grandpa lived with him most of the time when he was growing up. 

This is what Senator Rubio says about him.    

"My grandfather was born in 1899. He was born to an agricultural family in Cuba. 

He was stricken with polio when he was a very young man, he couldn’t work the fields, so they sent him to school. He was the only member of his family that could read. And because he could read. He got a job at the local cigar rolling factory. They didn’t have radio or television, so they would hire someone to sit at the front of the cigar factory and read to the workers while they worked. 

So, the first thing he would read every day, of course, was the daily newspaper. Then he would read some novel to entertain them. And then, when he was done reading things he actually went out and rolled the cigars because he needed the extra money. But through all of those years of reading, he became extremely knowledgeable about history, not to mention all the classics.

He loved to talk about history. My grandfather loved being Cuban. He loved being from Cuba. He never would have left Cuba if he didn’t have to. But he knew America was special. He knew that without America Cuba would still be a Spanish colony. He knew that without America the Nazis and Imperial Japan would have won World War II. When he was born in 1899 there weren’t even airplanes. By the time I was born, an American had walked on the surface of the moon.

And he knew something else. He knew that he had lost his country. And that the only thing from preventing other people in the world from losing theirs to communism was this country – this nation.

It is easy for us who are born here – like me – and so many of you, to take for granted how special and unique this place is. But when you come from somewhere else, when what you always knew and loved, you lost, you don’t have that luxury.

My Grandfather didn’t know America was exceptional because he read about it in a book. He knew about it because he lived it and saw it with his eyes....

Being an American is not just a blessing, it’s a responsibility.  As we were commanded to do long ago, 'Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven'....

Being a light to the world, that’s not just our common history, it remains our common destiny."

In less than ten years, China will reach its goal of becoming a modern military power.  The Chinese already have the largest standing military force in the world and they are increasing their ongoing military investments.  

With a record number of space launches this year, a new stealth fighter, and a modern aircraft carrier, China is pursuing unprecedented military power and position.

And as threatening as China's military development might appear, recent cyber attacks are no less troublesome.  They are the source of increased concern for the Pentagon and mounting tension between China and the U.S.