A Presidents' Day reminder of why we must fight

◼ What if they had given up? - Herman Cain/CainTV Image Credit: Catherine Martell

The actual inspiration for this commentary comes from a recent caller to my radio show. I was about to do a third-segment monologue when I noticed on the caller screen that a caller wanted to let me know he was not going to vote in the November 2014 elections. Since I had not received an "I'm giving up" call in quite a while I decided to skip the monologue and go right to his call.

I put him on and started by asking him to please tell me it isn't so that he is not going to vote in November. He said it’s true, because he had given up on changing what's happening in our country at the hands of an irresponsive federal government.

He proceeded to delineate a list of reasons, which were all accurate, when I interrupted him and said, "I could give an equally long list of reasons as to why you should not give up, but I want you to focus on just one. Your grandchildren!"

If you give up then you are no longer fighting for your grandchildren whether you have any or not. They can't fight for themselves right now, so you are going to just give them the crappy situation we are in right now. There was silence and I moved on to a monologue. It wasn't the one I originally intended. It was one I had given before about a Holocaust survivor whose first name was Berta.

She and others were rescued by allied soldiers just before being put to death in a Nazi gas chamber. When asked by a reporter if she had ever given up, she said no. When the reporter asked why, she said, "Giving up is a permanent solution to a temporary condition."

The caller made me realize that a lot of new listeners may not have heard that story. It has become one of the most compelling reasons I have ever heard about not giving up. It represents a victory for the human spirit, and a victory for real hope instead of hopelessness.

We are not facing death. We are facing destruction. If we do not continue to fight politics as usual, then we will surrender to history's prediction of what happens to great nations when their own government gets too big and too arrogant. It's not easy, but it's not over.

The grandchildren can't fight our fight. We must fight.

Examiner Editorial: No, Mr. President, drought and climate change aren't linked

◼ There is much to be said about the Obama administration's linkage of California's extreme drought and global warming. - Washington Examiner Editorial

For starters, President Obama and John Holdren, his chief science advisor, should spend a little time in the United States Global Change Research Program's library. There they will find the U.S. government's recently updated 2008 study on the issue, “Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate.”

The study notes that the 1930s and 1950s were drier than the current decade and concludes that “droughts have, for the most part, become shorter, less frequent, and cover a smaller portion of the U. S. over the last century … The trends averaged over all of North America since 1950 are similar to U.S. trends for the same period, indicating no overall trend.”...

Hundreds of members of autodefensas — vigilante "self-defense" militias composed largely of fed-up farmworkers — patrol the streets of semi-rural suburbs with ancient rifles and shotguns, hoping to rid them of the drug cartel thugs who have terrorized them for years.

◼ Mexico's Guerrero state teeters on the edge of chaos - LA Times

Guerrero, like Michoacan, has seen vigilante autodefensas take up arms against a drug cartel, and some worry that local leaders are complicit.

DR. BEN CARSON: The separation clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is being abused. "Progressives" have twisted the original intent. Will “we the people” accept this defeat?

◼ Secular progressives can’t keep God out of public life - ben Carson/Washington Times

We used to characterize the Soviet Union as a godless, evil empire. Like many societies before them that were based on communism or socialism, the Soviets had seen fit to minimize the importance of God and, in many cases, wreaked unimaginable persecution on religious people.

Why is faith in God anathema to such states? It’s because they need to remove any authority beside themselves as the arbiter of right and wrong.

Interestingly, last year Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Euro-Atlantic countries, including the United States, of becoming godless and moving away from Christian values.

Some may bristle at such an accusation, but when you now consider that many Americans are hesitant to even mention God or Jesus in public, there may be some validity to his claim....

"I didn’t used to play any music in the car for the first years of my older son’s life."

◼ The reason I was reading Mayim Bialik's blog is that I enjoyed her performance on "The Bill Maher Show" this week. - Althouse

"I was that hippy who believed that my son’s interactions should be with voices and conversation only," ◼ writes Mayim Bialik on her blog. With additional children, she became less austere about protecting the precious little ears and minds, and she says pop music is great candy, but:

The issue is that pop music is/has become, in some cases, kind of racy. I am generally admittedly a socially conservative fuddy-duddy even though I am a complete bleeding heart liberal politically....

I don’t want my sons singing about magic in pants and smoking weed and booties up. Period. Right? The notion that those lyrics “go right over their heads” is actually not accurate and I don’t buy that. Words have meaning. I don’t know why Juicy J (the rapper in the Katy Perry song) wants to “put her in a coma” and I don’t want my 5- or 8-year-old asking me why either. Adult themes, especially sexual ones, don’t belong in my sons’ mouths. I’m pretty sure about that....

GOP: Obama's Medicare cuts 'a breach of faith with seniors'

◼ Rep. Tom Rooney gives the Republican Party's Weekly Remarks - Andrew Malcolm/IBD

Good morning. My name is Tom Rooney, and here in the House, I represent Florida's 17th District.
Few promises are more sacred than the ones we make to older Americans.

Protecting the dignity and the security our seniors have earned is a commitment that spans generations and party lines. For example, during President Obama's health care speech to Congress in the fall of 2009, he took a moment to speak directly to older Americans.