Category: Politics

Rush Limbaugh mentioned this book on his show yesterday. I think the idea is great!

Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed

This full-color illustrated book is a fun way for parents to teach young children the valuable lessons of conservatism. Written in simple text, readers can follow along with Tommy and Lou as they open a lemonade stand to earn money for a swing set. But when liberals start demanding that Tommy and Lou pay half their money in taxes, take down their picture of Jesus, and serve broccoli with every glass of lemonade, the young brothers experience the downside to living in Liberaland.

"Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!" offers a witty alternative to the usual liberal fare, demonstrating the virtues of capitalism and true diversity of expression in words and pictures that both kids and adults can laugh along with.

With the nation’s libraries and classrooms filled with overtly liberal children’s books advocating everything from gay marriage to marijuana use, kids everywhere are being deluged with left-wing propaganda. "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" is the book conservative parents have been seeking. This illustrated book — the first in the "Help! Mom!" series from Kids Ahead — is perfect for parents who seek to share their traditional values with their children, as well as adults who wish to give a humorous gift to a friend.

Hailed as "the answer to a baseball mom's prayers" by talk radio host Melanie Morgan, "Liberals Under My Bed" has already been the subject of coverage in The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s magazine. Written by a self-proclaimed "Security Mom for Bush" and featuring hilarious full-color illustrations by a Reuben Award winning artist, it is certain to be one of the most talked about children's books of the year.

Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover, 54 pages. Full-color illustrations.

Read this Agape Press article and make up your own mind.

According to this artcle on the AIG website, the University of California is being sued for discriminating against students from certain Christian schools.

For high school seniors, applying for college should be an exciting time—even more so for those with outstanding academic and extracurricular records. For these students, the sky should be the limit when it comes to choice. Sadly, that won’t be the case for six high school students whose acceptance to the University of California (UC) system1 has already been decided, even though they haven’t even applied.

Unless they choose to take other college-prep classes that use textbooks deemed “acceptable” by UC, these students’ applications will most likely be denied. The reason: the Christian textbooks used in several new college-prep courses at their high school were considered “too religious” to be accepted for college-entrance credit at UC.

On August 25, these six students, along with their school, Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, California and the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI),2 filed a federal lawsuit against the University of California where, according to the LA Times (August 27), admissions officials have been accused of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.

According to the LA Times article, UC’s board of admissions advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books. Some of the school’s Christian-oriented courses were “too narrow” to be acceptable, university officials wrote in letters to Calvary Chapel.

This blogger is asking why Pres. Bush hasn't done more with the military to curb violence and looting in New Orleans.

Why hasn't the President, who is back from his vacation, send troops down to assist with the looters/prisoners? Wouldn't this call for them to restore some type of order? Again, this maybe a naive question but I don't live in a major metropolis so I honestly don't know the procedure.

The answer is simple and doesn't have anything to do with politics. According to the Posse Comitatus Act, the US military is prohibited from exercising law enforcement within the United States. I for one agree with this. The US military isn't trained to keep law and order. They are trained for war. War where the point is to KILL PEOPLE and BREAK THINGS. Good law enforcement keeps these two things to a minimum.

I was reading blogs this morning and came across this on Starbucks. I have heard of the issues with their cups but decided that it wasn't a big deal (they had many different people talking about "the way I see it")

Now, I'm confronted with this:

a letter to boycot starbucks. in it, it had stated that they supported a gay pride parade in San Diego and some other interesting items, thus the call was for people to boycott their venti double soy lattes with a singe mint twists ala mode w/ light foam, chocolate powder on and top extra hot. well, its not that i don't trust people, i do but i also like to make sure that facts are straight in order to protect the accuser as well as the accused. So after email #10 0r 11 i decided to email Starbucks corporate HQ for verification and accuracy of the widely circulated email

Well, it turns out that Starbucks did indeed respond:

Thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company.

As a Company, we are deeply committed to our Mission Statement and Guiding Principles. One of our six principles is "embracing diversity as an essential component to the way we do business." This includes the gay and lesbian community.

Starbucks has a long history of giving back to communities where we operate. Supporting local events like the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Festival gives us the opportunity to give back to the community of San Diego. We also strive to support organizations that are important to our partners (employees) and customers. Starbucks was among many local and national companies listed as a sponsor and participant, including the San Diego County Police Chiefs and Sheriff's Association.

Starbucks is aware that three sex offenders volunteered for the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Festival this year. The three volunteers have resigned as Pride Festival volunteers. The Pride Festival organizers are also taking steps to institute new screening procedures for volunteers and staff who work at next year's event.

So, it turns out that it is true. And the company is proud of it. I wonder if they "supported any local events such as a Promise Keepers convention, a Christian movie night in the park, or any other such thing? Probably not, but I don't know for sure.

I usually didn't go to Starbucks all that much to start with–I thought their coffee was way way too expensive–but I probably won't be going at all now.

Agape Press is reporting that a federal judge in Ohio has reversed a lower court ruling on the wearing of christian tshirts to school.

(AgapePress) – A federal judge has told an Ohio school district it can no longer bar a middle school student from wearing a t-shirt with a Christian message.

Judge George Smith has ruled that Sheridan Middle School in Thornville violated the constitutional rights of student James Nixon by prohibiting him from wearing a t-shirt bearing a quote from the Bible verse John 14:6. The front of the shirt reads: "Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'" The back of the shirt contains the statements: "Homosexuality is sin. Islam is a lie. Abortion is murder."

I'm glad that James and his parents were willing to take a stand. Remember, Christians are citizens too.

While I'm on this subject, isn't it interesting that those who claim to be tolerant, all-inclusive, and all-accepting are unwilling to practice what they "preach"? For example, they claim we must tolerate all religions; however, Christianity is not tolerated by them. I think that conservatives are much more tolerant. For example, I believe that Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Light. He is the only way to heaven. Since that is what I believe, that is what needs to be shared. People who believe differently will have to suffer the consequences if they choose not to belive. That is their own personal choice…a choice they should be allowed to make.

Agape Press is reporting that a black conservative pastor is planning on running for US senate.

(AgapePress) – A black conservative pastor from Michigan feels the U.S. senator from his state is on the wrong side of several important social issues. Because of this, he believes God has called him to challenge the single-term legislator for her Senate seat next year.

Keith Butler pastors the 21,000-member Word of Faith International Christian Center in Southfield, Michigan. The former Detroit City Council member says he believes God is urging him to take on Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow as she seeks re-election for the first time.

Butler, a Republican, believes he can win as a black conservative, despite the traditional tendency of many in black America to align themselves with the Democratic Party or to think of that party as representing its interests. "The Republican Party actually has a good record on issues dealing with African Americans and urban people that they don't tell the story of, and I'm going to tell that story," he says.

Also, the Detroit-area pastor says he intends to run on a pro-family platform that stands in stark contrast to the liberal values of his opponent. "I'm strongly pro-life, and she's strongly pro-abortion," he points out, "and life is the biggest issue of all." And second to that issue, he says, is the protection of the traditional American family.

"I strongly believe that marriage should only be between one man and one woman," Butler notes. Meanwhile, he says the incumbent Stabenow, is "endorsed by and supports the gay rights movement."

With his emphasis on Judeo-Christian values and doing what is best for families in American society, Butler believes he has a good chance at taking Stabenow's Senate seat next year. In fact, he says his camp is convinced that he can be the Republican with the highest vote total among minorities in Michigan's history.

If this is what God wants, it will happen. Let's pray for the strength of Pastor Butler and his family as they go through this riggorous process.

Dr, Mohler has a post on his blog about a comment Dr. Dobson made about stem cell research. I wondered if anyone else would draw this connection.

I guess it may have been 6 months or so ago when I made a comment similar to Dr. Dobson's to my dad. I don't remember exactly how I said it, but the idea was the same.

Oh, for the record, I don't think there is anything wrong with Dr. Dobson's comments on the issue of stem cell research.

I was surfing the Internet this morning when I came across this post about amazon.com. The author wrote the following letter to Amazon.com

I’m a pretty open-minded sort, but there are limits beyond which decent merchants should not go–such as offering a book like Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers. I appreciate that the Amazon.com review was pretty hostile, but do you really need the tiny profit that you make selling this book?

If a publisher asked you to sell a book about how rape is actually a good thing for rapist and victim, would you sell it? What about a book encouraging the torture of children? How about a book promoting genocide as a net positive for the human race? Are there depths that Amazon.com won’t dive down to in the pursuit of a profit? If so, why do you consider it necessary to promote this sort of destruction of the innocence of children?

I wrote you a few months back, when I first saw that you were selling this apology for child molestation. I assumed that you had this book on our your list because you hadn’t thought this through. I see that you are still selling it. Why? You don’t sell every book that’s offered. Paladin Press published a book some years ago about how to be a contract killer, and you don’t seem to carry that. So why carry a book that tries to justify molesting children?

I have an Amazon.com Honor System Account with you that has made a bit of money for both of us; over the last few years, my wife and I have bought many hundreds of dollars worth of books, perhaps thousands of dollars worth of books from you. If you are still offering Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers at the end of this month, you will never see another penny from me.

I would prefer to keep doing business with Amazon.com. I at least would like some explanation for why you consider it so important to offer a book like this that you are prepared to drive away a long-time customer. Please ask Jeff Bezos to explain why the paltry profit you make on a book like this justifies putting Amazon.com into the sewer of human depravity.

To sumarize, we have a guy who has dealt with Amazon.com quite a bit. He had one of those refer systems set up where both parties make a bit of money. He found something he disagreed with that the company does and sent them an e-mail asking about it.

He received the following response back from Amazon.com: 

Thank you for writing to Amazon.com with your concern.

Let me assure you, Amazon.com does not endorse “Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers.” Simply because we sell a book does not mean we agree with the ideas it contains. If you will look at our site, you will see that we have posted a review of the book by one of our editors which is highly critical of the ideas expressed in Mr. Riegel’s book.

Please know that, contrary to rumors that have been circulating around the Internet, this book is not a “how-to” manual for molesting children. The author simply expresses his point of view about what he feels are “misunderstood” relationships between men and boys.

We believe that people have the right to choose their own reading material. Our goal is to support freedom of expression and provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any title they might be seeking.

That selection includes some titles which most people, including employees of Amazon.com, may find distasteful or otherwise objectionable. However, Amazon.com believes it is censorship to make a book unavailable to our customers because we believe its message to be repugnant.

While we do not censor items from our web site, I wanted to reassure you that Amazon.com does not promote these kinds of titles.

We value all feedback from our customers, and I thank you again for taking the time to send us your comments about this issue.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question

The author goes on to state that 

It resolved the question for me. No more purchases from Amazon.com. My wife just ordered a book for a class she is gong to be teaching in the summer. She’ll make sure that the textbooks ordered for her class come from someone else.

In short, Amazon.com says that they sell lots of stuff and don’t want to limit anyone’s “choice”. Here is a company serving the almighty dollar pure and simple.

For those who noticed, the blog posts I linked to were written in 2003. Has Amazon.com changed anything? Let’s find out. If you go to Amazon.com and search for Understanding Loved Boys abd Boy Lovers, it’s still there.

So what do I do now? I never thought about it before, but I’m sure I visit losts of stores that sell stuff I don’t agree with. Why should I “endorse” their stand? We all need to determine what we believe in and take a stand. I didn’t really order a ton of stuff from Amazon.com, but I won’t be ordering anything else from them anymore. I will also try to do my due diligence with companies I do business with.

I would encourage everyone to do the same. Research, as much as possible, the companies you do business with. If you find something you disagree with, ask them about it. Let them know your plans. Take a stand.

Since this has been brought to my attention, I won’t be ordering any more items from Amazon.com.

[Update 12-22-2010 11:11:01] I was looking through my stats today and noticed I had someone do a google search and find this article.  I had, frankly, forgot I wrote it.  Given I just got a kindle and signed up for their affiliate program, I went out and did a search.  I could not find the book mentioned on their site.  Holy Cow, I can’t believe I forgot and let this slip like this…..

In response to this blog post about Amazon.com, I took my own advice and wrote them an e-mail. The text of the e-mail is below:

Director of Customer Service:

I was surfing the Internet this morning and came across a report of a book that Amazon.com is selling. The title of this book is "Understanding Loved Boys and Boy Lovers." In the past, I have purchased several items from Amazon.com and turned to your site first to purchase books online. After reading these posts and coming under God's conviction, I have made up my mind never to purchase items from Amazon.com again.

Please be aware that this book is not the only book or item you sell that I disagree with. There are a plethora of others. Reading the articles online about "Understanding Loved Boys and Boy Lovers" simply made me aware of the problem. From this point forward, I will research companies I do business with. I will not do business with companies that sell things or engage in practices I disagree with.

I have posted an entry on my blog about this issue. The URL is http://www.techs4jesus.com/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi?/2005/08/13#20050813_AmazonCom. In addition, I will encourage others to research where they do business and not do business with companies they have problems with.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Matthew Maxson