Heard a radio advertisement for Newt Gingrich today.   Dunno why it is running in Virginia, since Newt is not on the primary ballot.  Still, the ad was good.  It spoke of the accomplishments of the first Republican Revolution in 1994.  It mentioned a Second Republican Revolution.  Whether Newt gets the nomination or not, that is a catchy phrase.

Second Republican Revolution.   Republican Revolution II.

It can appeal to the Tea Party if the particulars of the revolution are Tea Party tickets.   Like repeal Obamacare, cut spending, limit the Federal Government to its Constitutional powers.

It can appeal to the Establishment Republicans who support any person, cause or thing labeled R.    It can appeal to the the voters who have NOT yet been turned off by the Establishment Republicans – and think the R’s are still the Party and ideas of Ronald Reagan.

It can promise big results from big ideas without using words stained by their history, like Contract for America II.

Words have meaning.  Of course, elections do too.  Words have power.   Let’s hope whoever the Republican candidate is, he will make his election have the power of a Second Republican Revolution on steroids.

Maggie Thatcher was marvelous. We need her again.

Saw the movie after church today.  Meryl Streep deserves every award they can forge.  She captured aging and dementia powerfully.  I wonder how she could act the emptiness in a person’s eyes when the mind doesn’t hear or comprehend.  Great acting.

I’d read there were political and personal stabs meant to wound.  I saw where one could come to any conclusions one was seeking.  But, it didn’t detract from what I wanted to see.   A great woman.  A powerful leader with vision and voice.  The Iron Lady who helped defeat the Soviet Empire.  The Prime Minister made from the mold of Queen Elizabeth I.

Margaret Thatcher spoke to the key issues of work, profits – free enterprise – and national pride.  Like her contemporary Ronald Reagan.  Except, she had to work against decades more of descent into socialism, human secularism, and welfare nannyism.  She made great progress, but her cause hasn’t won yet.  The decades have taken their toll on the British people.

I got a sense of the conditioning to low expectations, government centralization, and political correctness in the month plus I was in the UK in Spring 2010.  It was the narrative I got from what I heard, read and saw.  Some ideas we hold in America – like the Tea Party devolution of power to the states and our gun rights – are truly foreign to most Britons.

Yet, unlike the U.S., there is a stronger unifying singular culture.  America is more heterogeneous.  The UK is more homogeneous within the borders of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.  (The movement of Scots for greater independence is a separate subject).  Assimilated persons of every race from every corner of the world, except the believing Muslims, are like their neighbors.  Only the Muslims and other minority individuals who fight assimilation stay segregated.

That unity may be the hope for the future.   If and when, the country is aroused, enlightened, and open to the truth of Lord Jesus Christ, Christianity can sweep the land again.  The culture could flip faster than the U.S.  Their demographics could present a new destiny.  What a blessed hope.  Otherwise, the UK will fall  under Muslim rule – after I die, but not too many decades away.

If only there were a Maggie Thatcher laying out the choices for the UK today.

Maggie Thatcher is a role model for the U.S.  I heard her speech at the College of William & Mary years ago when she was made a trustee.  She made it clear where our countries and Western Civilization stood.  Our Conservative lady leaders may not have the education of Maggie – the Oxford graduate, but they share her courage.

Frankly, Conservative – Constitutional – Republican women have more male anatomy than most of the men career politicians.  They are ready to make the tough decisions.

This movie fits this election.   The watchwords for the Iron Lady – like courage, boldness, right – are the powerful words needed for the Republican standard bearer in this Presidential election.  The guidon for the Republicans – whether it is Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum – is the Constitution not the GOP elephant.

The ideas contested in this election are big ideas.  The economy – at its very basis, culture and civilization for the future of an ascending America or declining former SuperPower are in question.

If Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the grocer’s daughter and great Prime Minister, were an American candidate, she would know what is right and fight to win.

God Bless Maggie Thatcher.

I understand the historical, heritage, personal and family, emotional attachment to a hero.  So, it’s disrespectful to say anything about The Dream – other than cheering.   So, maybe I should save those comments for Black History Quarter.    However, it’s appropriate to talk about ideas about equality.

Equality for Christians from the Bible and the Greek idea of Logos evolved over centuries through the tree of Western Civilization to the English and American branches.  Equal rights for citizens crossed religious barriers in the 18th Century in America.   Citizenship and equal rights crossed racial barriers in the 19th Century in America.  Bravo.

De Jure segregation prevented equal opportunity.  Also, it can be argued that segregation limited rights and freedom which denied equality as citizens. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights of 1965  eliminated de jure racial segregation.  More bravo.

Busing, affirmative action, gerrymandering majority minority districts, etc. were supposed to create equal outcomes.  Race-based attempts at equal outcomes create race-based distinctions and discriminations.  De jure and de facto racial segregation and discrimination is wrong.   It is immoral.  It should be unlawful – again.

Lee and Jackson were men of sterling silver character

My father gave me a copy of this Lee-Jackson painting when I was in my 20′s.   I got him separate portraits of Lee and Jackson.  Since his death I have them all on the walls of my house.  My Dad was a career U.S. Army officer.  I was too.  We value these heroes enough to have them in our home.  They were both Virginians, West Pointers, US Army officers and Confederate Army officers.  They became Confederate Army officers because they were Virginians.  If the Virginia General Assembly hadn’t voted for seccession after the state-wide plebescite, they would not have become icons of Southern valor, honor, courage and military genius.  They understood their loyalty and duty under the U.S. Constitution – as it was written.   Most of all, they were sterling silver men.

If your sons grow up to be like Lee and Jackson, they will be sterling men, too.

Your sons will be Christian men.  They will read the Bible and share it with others.  They will pray often, devoutly and deeply for guidance in life.

Your sons will be honor their marriage vows.  Such a son will treat his wife with respect and his daughters with doting affection.

Your sons will be brave.  Whether they serve on a battlefield or not, they will do the harder right instead of the easier wrong.

Your sons will live their quality of their character.  They will set the standard for honest thought, speech and action.  They won’t lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.

Your sons will inspire men who want to live as men for generations.

Lee and Jackson will influence Southerners, help define Southern identity, help save the Christian West, and teach Army officers who want to learn their trade for another 150 years – at least.

Happy Lee-Jackson Day 2012.

Like Bush II, Mitt Romney is in the family business - Establishment Politics

The picture of daddy George Romney is to remind us that if Mitt wins or loses, nothing happens to his family.  There is no loss of opportunity.  Or, personal freedom.  Or, danger getting killed as an American soldiers serving in a foreign policy goof.  Generations of wealth in the elite class creates a different perspective on life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and religious faith.  His politician son, Mitt, is wrong for America.

I wrote how Mitt was wrong in 2008.   Holds true, only more so now.

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(2008)  Why Romney Is Wrong

Mitt Romney can’t be trusted. The Conservatives signing up to support Romney for President don’t understand how very wrong Romney is. Romney is wrong for more than being a political chameleon. A man who doesn’t know right from wrong by age 50 is pitiful. A man who changes what he says is right and wrong after the age of 50 for political office is pandering. A man who faced serious public scrutiny about what he said he really believed was right and wrong after the age of 50 – and changes without a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience is a pathetic politician. A man, a public person over 50, who actually believes that he really changed his beliefs with integrity and intellectual honesty is a sociopath obsessed with power.

Truly changed persons have transformed hearts not transferred political positions. The transformation of the human heart is often achieved by a relationship with the living Jesus Christ. The public changes abound in how the person lives. It’s evident across the South where White Christians’ hearts harken to the morally superior arguments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The transformed Christian majority testify to his truths of morally ascendant racial integration – and lovingkindness across the races.

Mitt Romney is a master politician to fool good people and experienced Conservatives. Consider his resume for being wrong.

Abortion and Homosexuality. Romney was wrong on two hot button issues that speak to the sanctity of life and wisdom gained through 5,000 years of civilization. Furthermore, a politician who runs on a political platform directly opposite of his religious sect’s teachings made a choice. He rejected what his faith taught him or he never believed.

The inability to see life in the womb goes beyond any political spin. Did Romney’s wife go to “fetus showers” during all those years – or “baby showers”?

When Romney faced tough questions from reporters and supporters, did he not ask himself in private reflection what was the moral right and wrong? Was he just clueless? On the most fundamental social issues that go to the core of American Judeo-Christian moral-ethical culture, Romney was with the Liberals.

Basic Economics. A politician who supports the graduated income tax from Karl Marx can still be a good businessman. He’s just disingenuous with other people’s money. Romney created a fantastic personal fortune and did well to save the Winter Olympics. Yet, he is willing to play with class warfare rhetoric on soaking the “rich”. In Virginia the growth in the rate of taxes (all kinds – federal, state and local together) over 35 years from 1970 to 2005 of “only” 3 per cent means the average family in Virginia (approx. $51k) loses $157 a month. Romney has no idea what $157 @ month means to a family of four living on $51k.

Massachusetts Political Culture. A politician who succeeds where Ted Kennedy is King and Barney Frank is Queen isn’t a public servant in the Virginia tradition. The tendencies for moral absolutism from the Puritans permeate Massachusetts political culture. Today, the moral absolutes are the pagan tenets of Liberal Human Secularism. Their politically correct socialization is as demanding as the Scarlet Letter standards. The climate is the same, just the gods leading towards totalitarian tendencies changed from the angry ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ deity to the self-righteous god of “Self”. The full time job of being a Massachusetts Pol isn’t for a man of principle or citizen-public servant – but like the Mafia – it’s just business.

Political Dynastic Elites. Politics is the Romney family business. Dynastic politics diminishes the purpose of elected office. The second and third generation political elites take risk that they might lose an election – only. The elites never really take all-or-nothing risks. They know there will always be a home and money – and their name to cash in for connections. It’s not like the many Americans who spend their entire lives one pay check from financial trouble. Romney doesn’t know in his guts why jobs mean so much

Gifted persons, like Mitt Romney, may come from political elites, but his talents were never honed through the struggle of coming up from nothing. Romney hasn’t faced failures forced by circumstances beyond personal control – to bounce back and never give up. Yet, Romney panders in the rhetoric of class envy and resentment. Governance isn’t a game or a business.

Romney offers only the packaged politics of the issue de jour. Romney is wrong.

Using the slogan I would use if I ran for office

If I ran for office again, I would use my personal slogan -  Dignity, Justice, Hope.  But the whole of any campaign I ran or would like to support captures the need for America succinctly with Family, Faith, Freedom.   Hooah for Santorum.

Here is a piece I wrote about 6 years ago. (   http://americancivilization.net/articles/2003/Crucify_Senator_Santorum.pdf  )

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Crucify Senator Santorum

How appropriate that this Easter season the Liberal Pharisees lead the crowds screaming, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” How fitting that Senator Rick Santorum is sinless in speaking the truth of the Holy Bible and his Christian Church. How remarkable that the moral teachings of 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian civilization (Thank you God’s Chosen People of the Old Testament for the moral-ethical root to graft on Greco-Roman-British branches) are forbidden in public speech.

How unbelievable that the suppression of free speech has progressed so far so fast. How shameful for every public person who does NOT speak in Santorum’s defense.  Count how many Republicans have defended Sen. Santorum. None,  far?  Cowardice must be contagious. But, then, who wants to go up there to Golgotha and climb up on a cross with Santorum? It’s much safer, however sad, to stand in the crowd and watch. The old spiritual says, “Where you there when they crucified my Savior? It makes me tremble, tremble, tremble.” Tremble, indeed. Tremble for our country. Or, we can take up our own cross – cheerfully, courageously, conscientiously with an unswerving commitment.

Yes, you and I who are so far from the camera’s eye, not in positions of power, but engaged simply in our circle of life, can carry the fight as well as any. We, ourselves, must put on the gird, breastplate, boots, shield, helmet, sword and buckler – and fight.  But, here’s the ticket. Know the truth. It will set you free. You will get joy without boundaries, peace – even during the conflict – beyond understanding and …persecution. But, you can handle the persecution.

You are the believing Jews and evangelical Christians with the same world view as the Founding Fathers. Their English-Protestant-Enlightenment thinking – rational empiricism based on the moral-ethical teachings of the King James Bible – became Americanism. It evolved to expand the voting franchise, equal rights and opportunities for individuals regardless of race, color, creed, gender or national origin.

Now, it devolves to limit political correctness as preached by the Liberal Pharisees – that odd lot of passionate pagans and sissy Christians – who are the new faces of fascism in America.  It’s so ironic that Liberals fear Attorney General John Ashcroft and President George W. Bush as the harbingers for a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. If they knew a darn thing about evangelical Christians or American history, they’d understand that there is no Christian monolith to fear. The constant infighting (formerly it was actual war) among Christian sects is the reason why we have the separation of Christian Sect (Church) and National State.

We have to speak the truth at home, work and in our involvement in schools, politics, sports – everywhere when the subject comes up. Just speak the truth boldly. That is our fight. It will take courage to speak up in lovingkindness.
Homosexual behavior is morally wrong. In the Bible it’s between incest and bestiality.

If you want to honor homosexuality and reject the Judeo-Christian moral-ethical basis of our laws, then name your new standard. Where is it written? Make a distinction among homosexuality, incest, bestiality, pedophilia, bigamy, polygamy, adultery and public indecency if you dare. What are the rules you are making up?

Every society from the smallest tribe to the greatest civilization has had rules for sex. They vary widely. Yet, some sex is honored, some is forbidden and some is not honored but tolerated. Our lines were drawn with the Judeo-Christian standard. What is the standard the new Liberal Pharisees want to impose on us? And why do Liberals want
Santorum crucified?

If Liberals crucify Santorum, these pesky Christian hayseeds – the modern Galileans – should shut up forever. Already, no person can say Homosexual behavior is morally wrong without groveling apologies. Sen. Santorum took pains to explain how he has no problem with homosexuality. The Pharisees have to make honest speech into hate speech. Historical truth is hateful divisiveness. Religious speech, if it’s Christian, is called exclusionary and imposing intolerance. Otherwise, truth and lies will stand side by side in the public square. Truth will win and the Liberals will lose.

Intimidation is lot easier than winning in the market place of ideas. Fear and loathing of public criticism makes us such weaklings. If we are silent, then the crucifixion off Sen. Santorum served its purpose. If we speak out boldly everywhere, then, like the crucifixion of Jesus, our Liberal Pharisees will fail. The self-righteous hypocrites can only kill careers, not ideas – as long as we are brave enough.

Fight the good fight.

James Atticus Bowden

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Interesting how it fits today.

Our time as it is - like sandcastles between tides

Sometimes it takes me two months to settle into the new year and write.  Some of the stewing is the same annually. Much of it is unique to that single season of a particularly discontented winter.   This year I’m m0tivated to write now.

2011 was a bland year for me.  Much was the same from 2010.  Not so for others in family, friends, community, Commonwealth, Nation and Kingdom.  The deaths in combat of too many friends and comrades for my son-in-law hit him and my daughter hard.  Deaths of aunts, uncles and cousins almost cleaned out the generation above me.

The 2011 tsunami in Japan was captured on film – presenting many amazing pictures.  If you were there in Japan, regardless of where you stood, who you are, what you did – other than flee, what you believe – there is nothing you could do to change the tsunami.

2012 may look the same as the election for the President of the United States of America – our POTUS in the U.S. code – consumes the year.

I’ve been in party politics for 20 years.  I know one person matters locally – and even state-wide for the 10th largest state in the Union – the 7.7 million Virginians.  But, one person can’t shape this tsunami disgorging itself from the sea.

This isn’t a politics as usual election, even though many millions of people think so.   Even though the political elites want it to be so.

This is the second of several elections it will take to have a non-violent revolution across American politics.   Return the Nation to the US Constitution – as written.  Restore fiscal responsibility.  Reform entitlements - and, also, return them to the states for new participants.

Even if Romney, the chameleon, is nominated for the GOP and loses, there will be election after election to fix the damage done.

Meanwhile, many other important events will shape the history of the future bit by bit.  We may see them more clearly in retrospect in the years to come.

Surfing a tsunami is suicide.  Better to get to high ground fast and watch it wash around your mountain.  May just do that myself.  Will work when I can, where I can, where I think it matters in my Commonwealth of Virginia – for the Good People of Virginia.

Wise men seek Jesus. Wisdom comes from the Bible.

CHRISTmas lasts until Jan 5th for Eastern Orthodox Christians – right?  Our CHRISTmas is over.  Decorations up.  House cleaned up.  Grandbabies go back to pre-school tomorrow.  We go to work.   We all face 2012.

In God’s Will, 2012 brings first baby for youngest daughter and son-in-law.  Son-in-law and all his buddies come home from another combat tour.  He and oldest daughter make a big transition and move.  We wait a year or not.  And other good things happen.

I might send a CHRISTmas card in 2012.  I used to write family letters.  From 1985 to 2008 I wrote my annual and only correspondence to many kin and family.  They had themes and told stories.  They weren’t sugar-coated.  Hopeful, optimistic, full of life.

Then, for 3 years I have not had the emotional energy to write them.  Nothing really special happened.  Usual time tale of ups and downs.  Of babies growing and old folks aging and dying.  And, always, devout faith in Lord Jesus Christ.  Yet, maybe the fact that so little changed in important ways it became too challenging to find new words to play on a broken record.

I don’t love folks less.  Miss them less.  I just don’t feel like writing the CHRISTmas letter.   I’m not depressed.  I’m not down.  I haven’t lost faith - keep growing more, deeper, better, truer faith in a personal relationship with Jesus.

My ending this Bowden Clan CHRISTmas letter didn’t end CHRISTmas.  Hold the hope of the world in my heart every day.  Feel the joy of the holy day always in a moment.  And live life as it is.

We never quit.

CHRISTmas music is the most beautiful music in the world.  I believe the Lord inspired songwriters for generations to go beyond their best to carry His message.

I love the notes of triumph in CHRISTmas music.

In the whole history of the universe, part of the spirit of the one great living, creator Spirit was sent to live in the mortal body of a human being.  The person who was wholly man and wholly God was Jesus.  When He died, his body died.  Then, it was transformed and rose from the grave to live again – and He still lives now.  Because He did it, so we will too.  We, Christians who are saved by a confession faith.

Jesus triumphed over death.  Christians triumph over death.  Jesus lived a sinless life.  Christians can triumph in living a better life – closer to Jesus.  Jesus was in constant, full communication – in the spirit – with the Father who does not have a body.  Christians are in constant contact with the Father and Son, because part of the spirit – the Holy Ghost – physically lives in our body to communicate and comfort us.

We have so much to be thankful for – and humbled.   Yet, through it all there is the resounding notes of triumphant victory.

Listen to it sing.

Our Messiah Lives

CHRISTmas is the universal inclusiveness of bringing all humans to Christ, not equal time for all religions

Actually, the War on CHRISTmas is just one campaign in the Great U.S. Culture War.  The real war is to transform American culture to fit the human secularist worldview.  It is the conflict between the ideas evolved from the French Revolution and the ideas of the American Revolution.  The Human Secularists, whether they call themselves liberals, progressives, socialists, communists, national socialists, democrats or front as sissy Christians, cling to the failed doctrines of the French Revolution.  They worship the small god of “self” – even those who claim to be liberal Jews and Christians.  The must suppress the traditional observations of Christmas and banish Biblical Christianity from the public square.

Otherwise, they lose in the marketplace of ideas.  So, they make stuff up.  Even though the legal federal, state, and local holiday is named “Christimas” in the law, they make the word “Christmas” verboten.  Cleanse it as thoroughly as any oldspeak words being flushed down the memory hole.  Eradicated from sight like the latest air-brushed Stalinist photo of Soviet leadership.   Then, the black-robed priest-kings of American human secularism, the judges, bully the public adminstrators, school educrats, mayors and governors.  The legislators at every level of government – and The People they represent –  let judges keep making up laws as they like.   Except, recently, the town of Athens, Texas.

The lies that pass as laws shouldn’t be taken seriously.   The First Amendment says the Congress shall not establish a religion as a state church.   A state, city, school, office, business, or neighborhood is NOT Congress.  A song, sign, symbol, display, play, card, greeting, electric light on or about the legal holiday of Christmas doesn’t establish a state church and worship of any Christian denomination.   Any person who doesn’t understand the differences between Congress and all things not Congress and establishing a single church denomination as a state-supported official church and all other things,  should be removed from any position of public trust and role in the Rule of Law.

Yet, the Soveriegn of the State, the individual American, doesn’t hold these judges and other public fools accountable.  We get what we deserve.  Until the day comes when there will be more and more civil disobedience against stupid suppression of free speech and the free exercise of religion.

Behind this struggle to suppress Christianity across America is the hatred of Lord Jesus Christ.  A Biblical understanding of Jesus is the soundest foundation, the rock, as well as the armor and two-edged weapon, truth, that can defeat the Human Secularists.

The Bible is Truth revealed to man

More to follow – lost a couple of paragraphs posting.   Gotta go to CHRISTmas Eve service…  …and back.  Grandbabies are nestled in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. 

The Bible stands up to the scrutiny of any wannabe wizard of smart.   And, contrary to the billboard, above, where the atheists wasted their money, Christianity is all about reason.  Especially since the Reformation and Enlightenment.  Evangelical Christianity was the engine of intellectual energy for the British and American Enlightenments.  Today, Christianity is the greatest threat to the Human Secularists.

Indeed, the Christian church should become more so – hopefully soon.   Jesus is the head of the living church of many denominations.   And, He promised that not even the gates of Hell shall prevail against His church.  Which means the church has to be on the offensive to attack to the very gates of Hell – and win.  The time for good Christian men to go the assembly area, draw extra water, rations, ammo and new kit, rehearse the mission, get final orders and move out to cross the LD* on time.  Merry CHRISTmas and Hooah.

*Line of Departure (LD)