I spent the majority of my time at the tea party alternating between playing information giver, bouncer, and official donation taker. I was happy to do my small part on behalf of PajamasMedia as a citizen reporter, but it meant that I did miss most of the music and some of the speeches. I did get to meet some incredible people and hopefully made some new friends. It was the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis who remarked that "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one." This quote seems to be proven true with the 2,000 or so attendees at the protest. It was a good feeling seeing that I am not the only one who is concerned with the direction of our country and the threats to our liberties. My partner and I both able to raise quite a bit in the way of donations without begging or strong arming the attendees . The donations were to  help pay for the cost of using the World's Fair Park and the clean up afterward. Many were already asking when the next party would be scheduled and seemed excited to be a part of something special. I'm reminded of a scene from one of my favorite films, Field Of Dreams. The character played by James Earl Jones is explaining why people will fork over money to come see a ballpark in the middle of Iowa." People will come Ray They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack." I think here you could replace peace with having a lack of voice lately. After all we have been known for the silent majority for some time. Many of us read blogs, listen to talk radio, and watch the cable news shows but beyond are spouses or closest friends we have outlets for our gripes. In the respect the tea party seemed a great success. Many got to show off some great signs and had their voices heard, As far as the speeches went, I thought Dr. Harold Black did an amazing job. He seemed passionate about his beliefs and really got the crowd fired up. I was also impressed by Knox County Commissioner and Citidel general manager Mike Hammond. I had only heard his monotone voice on the radio at WNOX, and was amazed at how excited he became during his speech.
 We had heard of the possibility of a counter protest, but other than a couple of young guys having some fun with the crowd, it all went rather smoothly. My only concern was that there were so few students there. We were steps from the UT campus but there seemed to be a hefty tilt toward the over thirty side. My hope is that these protests will awaken our leaders to the fact that we are watching them and expect  them to be good stewards of our hard earned money. If not the the second tea party may be a call to join the 2nd American Revolution.

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If the new US schools chief has his way, you will be seeing less of your children. Arne Duncan thinks that children should have longer school days and that we should lengthen the scheldule to six days a week and eleven months a year. You know at least  they could do was to offer to buy them from us.

The Maryland has just voted to use government's ace in the whole, namely eminent domain to keep out of state buyers from purchasing the track and moving the 2nd leg of The Triple Crown elsewhere, This seems very scary that states could virtually take over businesses to keep them from relocating. Shame also I was looking forward to the Preakness possibly moving to Tennessee.

If you can join me in Knoxville on April 15th for a peaceful protest against government spending. I will be interviewing speakers and atendees for PJTV. Hope to see you there.

The misuse of eminent domain is probably what drove me to the Libertarian party. It seemed that no matter which party was in control, the abuse kept coming. There is a new book that highlights some of the worst offenders..like the government Pfizer, Costco, and Walmart. Check it out here and read an excerpt.

For the better part of this Presidential race I've heard Barack Obama referred to as "The Messiah". I didn't give it much thought at first, thinking it was more or less a slap by his enemies at his seemingly arrogant nature. That was until today when I saw him giving a speech before 200,000 people in a foreign country. This trip to Germany, along with a book by Richard Bach entitled Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah that I have been re-reading, finally made me realize how prophetic his messiah nickname is and how our society created it.

The first requirement for any messiah is to be sin free. Therefore for a person to truly be made into a God they must be relatively unknown. . Clinton, Edwards, and McCain may be decent persons, but they have all made well documented mistakes and have been in politics long enough to be demonized. Barack, however is a "clean and articulate" newcomer who speaks very well through a teleprompter. The messiah in Illusions not only had lived a sin free life, but had also mastered the second requirement of deification, speaking in parables. Barack's message of change and unity, while short on specifics works very well in this manner, especially in today's attention deficit society.


Another requirement that must be met for an individual to become a God are to have believers and narrative writers. These roles are played today by the media and a dejected populace seeking a new direction for their political leaders. Many in the media are unwittingly,or possibly on purpose, creating the myths that could build Obama into a legendary and historic figure. As for the ignorance of some of the followers, I first sensed this from a caller to a local radio show in my hometown. The host was taking an informal straw poll and a lady called in who was excited to voice her support for Obama. She had admitted that she didn't know much specifically about him but "knew after five minutes in a room with him that he cared about her and this country."

Performing miracles is also a must for achieving the rank of messiah. Barack's miracles aren't the wine from water and the healing of the blind that we have read about in the Gospels; but come in the form of wealth redistribution from the advantaged to the needy. This is the heart and soul of his crusade, government as parent. This is also the great liberal belief, that everyone in society should be equal. The "religion of liberalism" rejects the concept of individualism in favor of socialism.

This idea is flawed as evidenced in Illusions and our own history. In the book Don gives up his job as a messiah because the society wanted more than he could deliver. Instead of crowds that only wanted to have their children healed or their sins forgiven, they had increasingly asked for material things and had become unruly when they had to be turned away. This was shown in our recent history with hurricane Katrina. Many residents, who had become dependent on the government, were unable to leave or survive on their own when government help took three days to reach them.

This is the problem with Obama's and other liberals proposals. They end up hurting the very people whom they meant to help. The government can't give you freedom; that comes from inside us our own personal messiah. Liberalism destroys ambition and creates dependency on the government. This is the cruelest thing that you can do to a person. The old Chinese proverb still holds true today, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The Bible warns us against following false Gods, this is as true in religion as it is in political ideologies.

I follow this stuff more than the average person and still don't understand it. Even though Obama lost by a few votes he actually won the delegate total. He received 12 delegates to Hillary's 11.

NASA scientists have confirmed that the sun is going through a series of changes that will bring about dramatic cooling on the Earth for years to come. It is really important that we keep out carbon footprint as high as possible to keep us from freezing to death. So burn those fossil fuels..the Earth needs all the help it can get.

Mitt Romney collected 8 of the 12 delegates..Fred Thompson finished second and got 3 delegates...nothing really surprising as Romney was the only one spending much money there.

I don't think Clinton Inc. can get away with demonizing Obama. He has achieved rock star status especially by younger Democrats...heck I even like him I just don't agree with him on the issues. She was booed tonight..I guess she is just misunderstood..after all she is the smartest woman in the world and is so well spoken.

The government "keeping your kids safe from you"

This is sort of a tough one for me because I think we need a border fence...but I still think I am on the side of the individuals and their property rights.

I heard today that oil companies average 13 cents a gallon in profit versus the government taking up to 62 cents a gallon in taxes. So if 13 cents makes you a price gouger what does taking six times that make the government?