GIVE FREE GIFTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS...AND BEYOND

Use this holiday to give gifts that you don't have to pay for. Yes, be a free gift-giver. The Snuggies, gift baskets, bicycles, Wii games, Barbie Dolls, GI Joes, gift cards and fruit cakes all cost money. And what to buy, what to buy, what to buy? How often do we fret about which gift to buy? "Is this something she needs? Is this something he'll like -- or even use?" I think my brother still hasn't used that $20 Wal-Mart gift card I gave him three years ago. But it's the free gifts that provide the most lasting and life-changing fuzzies.

Consider giving truly lasting gifts, gifts that are guaranteed to be used because they feed the human spirit; they satisfy the thirst of the soul. They are timeless. These are the gifts that truly make a difference in people's lives -- and especially in the lives of people you care about. You can give these gifts all year long, and they don't cost a thing. Here are a few:

Give the gift of patience. There are times when we need to slow down, pause, and allow for the other person to be themselves. Give the teen who's learning to drive some slack. Wait for wifey to put on that last piece of jewelry before leaving for the party. Give that newby employee a little time to learn the ropes. Patience de-stresses everybody, gives people room to grow, creates a climate of acceptance. A Chinese proverb says, "If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." There's power in being patient with other people, and even with yourself. In the words of G-rated entertainment ads: It's a gift the whole family will enjoy.

Give the gift of encouragement. There's an old saying: "A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success." The world is littered with the demoralized and wanting souls hungering for encouragement. As much as I enjoy a good athletic competition, I get a little bothered when I hear fans boo players. Modeling such behavior with impressionable kids in tow creates the grievous impression that the ultimate goal in life is to please the maddening crowd. Encouragement is a gift that releases other gifts in the recipient: self-acceptance, confidence, peace of mind, and self-assurance. And it doesn't cost a thing.

Give the gift of listening. One of my favorite pithy T-shirt sayings reads, "My wife says that I don't listen to her...or something like that." We all have a need to be heard. When you give the gift of listening -- I mean, really listening -- you are telling the other person that they matter, that their ideas, concerns, frustrations, complaints and priorities really do matter to you.

Ever notice that angry feeling of disgust that you get when the fast-food clerk at the drive-through gives you pickles, onions and mustard on your sandwich, when you specifically told her, "No pickles, no onions and no mustard!" And you told her twice! Translation: Did my request really matter? Was anybody listening?

Who could you be a better listener to: your spouse, your son or daughter, your students, your friends, the people you work with? Listening is often simply the gift of silence, and sometimes silence speaks louder than words. Giving our undivided, uninterrupted, non-judgmental attention validates the other person. You're saying, "You matter to me." No pickles, onion or mustard? No problem. The gift of listening -- a beautiful gift, and it's free.

Finally, give the gift of kindness. Exactly how can you show kindness to someone? It takes a little thought. A nice note. A compliment. A pat on the back. A hug. I know that I feel good when someone shows kindness to me. Don't you? Aren't those unexpected acts of kindness toward you the ones that simply make your day?

My hero of kindness was Mother Theresa, a diminutive Catholic nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor. I consider her the "Queen of Kindness." She said, "At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.' Hungry not only for bread -- but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing -- but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks -- but homeless because of rejection." She lived to be kind.

She reminded a world of admirers and visitors to her mission sites that helping Calcutta's poor wasn't necessarily everyone's calling. Instead, she encouraged everyone to show kindness right where they lived. In a memoir about her visit with Mother Teresa, singer-songwriter Maria T. Elias wrote, "This saintly woman's message was to tell people that it is not necessary to go to Calcutta or Beirut or any other foreign land. She told us to begin with our own family. Keep a special love kindled, so that the times together will be good. Many need to hear a kind word, feel the touch of a caring hand or hear the sound of a friendly voice.

"In families or neighborhoods, maybe right next door, there are people who are lonely. Visit them, perform an act of kindness. Mother Teresa said, 'Just a simple 'hello' can make a person's day brighter.' This feeds more than food. Thank God for your country, for your blessings, for all that he does for you. Use your gifts to help others." Then she said, "Bread lasts but a day; love is for always."

The physical gifts last but for a season, but patience, listening, encouragement, and kindness are gifts that last a lifetime. Any of us can give them. These are the gifts we all treasure. They're not cheap, but they're free.

-30-

MUSIC TO MY CONSERVATIVE EARS

I have long described our president as the "Celebrity in Chief," because so much of the vote that turned out for him were people riding a Personality Cult Wave, flocking to this cool new guy who promised everybody ...what was that, "Change". And black people were voting for him because, first, he is black, and, let's see, he's smart, and articulate, has new ideas, and did I mention because he is black? They voted for him in droves, many for the first time because he was a fresh face...and also because, because, uh, because he is black.

And now that the aura has worn off, and it's business as usual...or maybe it's business as UNusual with so many people out of work -- Obama Fans see that their Messiah is simply a man; they have become complacent about going out and voting: "I can't vote tonight. I'd miss Dancing with the Stars!"

It seems that the party's over, and these folks -- the young, the blacks, and the starry eyed liberal whites -- just didn't show up for these recent statewide races. And that, my friend, is music to my ears.

"Said Tim Kaine, the Democratic National Committee chairman and the term-limited Virginia governor: 'We are disappointed.'

"In both states, the surveys also suggested the Democrats had difficulty turning out their base, including the large numbers of first-time minority and youth voters whom Obama attracted. The Virginia electorate was whiter in 2009 than it was in 2008, when blacks and Hispanics voted in droves to elect the country's first black president." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_election_rdp

Here were Democrat candidates that our esteemed Savior in Chief campaigned for, yet, even with the force of his personal magnetism, articulateness, and powerful personal persona, he could not bring out the vote to elect his Democratic com padres. The luster has faded. People are a wee bit disappointed with Obama Stimulus, Obama Backhand to Allies, Obama Hesitancy Executing the Afghan War, Obama Bank Takeover, Obama Broken Promise of 8 million jobs because of Obama Stimulus, Obama Auto Takeover (remember the billions lent to GM and Chrysler? What's that?! -- a report today says that we taxpayers will probably never see that money repaid*). *Meanwhile, in a report from yesterday, Ford Motor Co., which didn't take the government loans, is posting huge profits! Music to my conservative (small government) ears.

They see that these Obama Plans are doing nothing but piling on increased indebtedness to our children and children's children with little to show. And now Our Messiah in Chief wants to revamp and take over Health Care to the tune of $900 billion (oops, that was two days ago, now it's $1.2 trillion)! Stop the Madness.

Maybe tonight's election results portend a reigning in or a cutting off of the widening tentacles of government as it greedily spreads its control over ever larger portions of our economy. Hey, what say we grab the government by the tentacles till it cries, "Uncle!" -- as in Sam, and we find more taxpayer-friendly, liberty-loving, business-savvy, and, yes, compassionate ways of governance. As for now, the election news is music to my ears. I feel like dancing the jig with Sarah Palin.

DOESN'T EVERYBODY THINK LIKE US?

Many of my cohorts on the right who have studied President Obama's past, including the cast of socialist-communist-hate America associates who made this "Community Organizer" who he is, have our antennae up for the slightest public overture from our Celebrity-in-Chief. It is no surprise the loud outcry this week emanating from concerned parents across the country when the president announced his September 8, 2009 speech (pep talk) to America's public school children.

Whoa now!

Educational "pep talk" sounds OK, Mr. President, but what's this about asking students to write a paper about how they can "help the president"? And following the speech, you want the kids to have a discussion about what "the president wants us to do." Wait a minute -- I thought the subject was education ?

Reaction: Outcry! Protest! Massive E-mails! Talk Radio Abuzz! Keep your kids at home on Obama Speech Day!

Response from the White House: The president and his staff have decided to take out the offensive parts of the program -- reword things, if you will. "In response, the White House last night confirmed they were revising the lesson plan that was distributed last week by the U.S. Department of Education. 'We're clarifying that language,' White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "By Wednesday evening, the sentence asking children to think about how they can 'help the president' had been replaced. The rewritten line said students should 'write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.'"
-The Washington Times

My question is, don't these Obama policy and event planners think about the repercussions of their creepy, Big-Brother, Quasi-Fascist ideas? Remember the one about reporting anything "fishy" to the government web site? They dropped that idea following an embarrassing public outcry. Intentionally or not, there was the obvious appearance that we were all being encouraged to rat on our anti-Obamacare neighbors.

"Hey, White House, ya think people might be a little worried about some of this Change Kool-Aid that you're rushing us to swallow?" This is an administration that makes embarrassing missteps because they seem to presume that everybody thinks like they do. They march forward with their Change Brigade assuming, "Problem? Problem? What problem?" ...until the restless natives start banging on the door in protest.

Isn't it obvious that concerned parents would get upset about a national speech to school children from a leader who opposes choice in education, and operates in the shadow of Planned Parenthood and the teacher's union? Add to that the waning public support for his health care reform plan, and the Obama-centric follow-up exercises following the speech, and you have another big "OOPS" from Obama and Co. (And just who is this Kevin Jennings, Obama's assistant deputy secretary of education for the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools)?

Perhaps this administration should start running these proposals through an advisory council from "Middle America" before assuming that everybody thinks like they do. Some of us want to keep leftists and socialists in check. Some of us are simply wary of where the Obama team wants to take this nation with their high-spending, liberal touting, leftist ways. Some of us just don't trust them. Mr. Obama, you might consider this speech to the kids an innocent pep talk, but don't presume that you'll hear a big chorus of Rah-rahs or see a wave of Pom Poms from everybody in the audience. Not everybody is a part of your "Hope and Change" Pep Squad.

DOESN'T EVERYBODY THINK LIKE US?

Many of my cohorts on the right who have studied President Obama's past, including the cast of socialist-communist-hate America associates who made this "Community Organizer" who he is, have our antennae up for the slightest public overture from our Celebrity-in-Chief. It is no surprise the loud outcry this week emanating from concerned parents across the country when the president announced his September 8, 2009 speech (pep talk) to America's public school children.

Whoa now!

Educational "pep talk" sounds OK, Mr. President, but what's this about asking students to write a paper about how they can "help the president"? And following the speech, you want the kids to have a discussion about what "the president wants us to do." Wait a minute -- I thought the subject was education ?

Reaction: Outcry! Protest! Massive E-mails! Talk Radio Abuzz! Keep your kids at home on Obama Speech Day!

Response from the White House: The president and his staff have decided to take out the offensive parts of the program -- reword things, if you will. "In response, the White House last night confirmed they were revising the lesson plan that was distributed last week by the U.S. Department of Education. 'We're clarifying that language,' White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "By Wednesday evening, the sentence asking children to think about how they can 'help the president' had been replaced. The rewritten line said students should 'write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.'"
-The Washington Times

My question is, don't these Obama policy and event planners think about the repercussions of their creepy, Big-Brother, Quasi-Fascist ideas? Remember the one about reporting anything "fishy" to the government web site? They dropped that idea following an embarrassing public outcry. Intentionally or not, there was the obvious appearance that we were all being encouraged to rat on our anti-Obamacare neighbors.

"Hey, White House, ya think people might be a little worried about some of this Change Kool-Aid that you're rushing us to swallow?" This is an administration that makes embarrassing missteps because they seem to presume that everybody thinks like they do. They march forward with their Change Brigade assuming, "Problem? Problem? What problem?" ...until the restless natives start banging on the door in protest.

Isn't it obvious that concerned parents would get upset about a national speech to school children from a leader who opposes choice in education, and operates in the shadow of Planned Parenthood and the teacher's union? Add to that the waning public support for his health care reform plan, and the Obama-centric follow-up exercises following the speech, and you have another big "OOPS" from Obama and Co. (And just who is this Kevin Jennings, Obama's assistant deputy secretary of education for the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools)?

Perhaps this administration should start running these proposals through an advisory council from "Middle America" before assuming that everybody thinks like they do. Some of us want to keep leftists and socialists in check. Some of us are simply wary of where the Obama team wants to take this nation with their high-spending, liberal touting, leftist ways. Some of us just don't trust them. Mr. Obama, you might consider this speech to the kids an innocent pep talk, but don't presume that you'll hear a big chorus of Rah-rahs or see a wave of Pom Poms from everybody in the audience. Not everybody is a part of your "Hope and Change" Pep Squad.

White House Health Care Reform - It's a Matter of Trust

To follow is a reply to an unsolicited letter/e-mail I received from David Alexrod, President Obama’s senior advisor. It asked me to help promote the President’s health care agenda:

Thank you, Mr. Axelrod, for your letter to encourage me to support President Obama's plan to fundamentally restructure the way Americans obtain their health care. Because you and President Obama seem to have no qualms whatsoever about building yet another big government bureaucracy and increasing our taxes, I’m afraid I cannot support it or your efforts to get it passed into law.

From news reports, and from actually reading portions of the House version of the proposal myself, it is untenable for me to even trust the Obama Administration. Why? Please let me cite a few examples with regard to health care in particular. The President says he is not pushing for a single-payer plan, yet a 2003 video of him addressing the AFL-CIO clearly says differently: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan." And this is not the only video you can find on-line that indicates feelings contrary to what he has said since his polls began to fall. These are not cut and paste jobs. You know what he said. It appears that the President is now simply telling people what he thinks they want to hear. It seems terribly disingenuous.

Additionally, one of the architects of the universal health care plan, Representative John Dingell (D-MI), says that taxpayer-funded abortion is not a part of the bill. Yet, according to Associated Press, taxpayer funded abortion is part of the bill. AP reports: "Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue." Which is it?

President Obama also pledged several times during the campaign and after his election that there would be no middle-class tax increases, yet your spokespeople say it is a very real possibility that taxes will increase on the middle class to help pay for this gargantuan proposal. In fact, tobacco taxes signed into law earlier this year did effectively already break his promise.

Liberals now describe opponents of Obama’s health care proposal who show up at town hall meetings with their congressional representatives as "mobs," "brown shirts" and "astroturf" hired by insurance companies and partisan operatives. It seems that there is not even one iota of consideration that these people could be regular American citizens — constituents of these very same lawmakers — who have real concerns about this proposal and the speed at which you want to push it through. Mr. Axelrod, when I attend a local town hall meeting to voice my concerns and ask questions, it is offensive that I do so already being branded as some kind of kook or hired mouthpiece.

Most disturbing to me is that our president, without blowback from Blue Dog Democrats, would have signed this bill after only three weeks of consideration in Congress! Here again was a Congress and a President passing a huge government bill, a trillion dollars worth of red tape, questionable policies, confusing language and government encroachment into the private sector that nobody had even read!

Lastly, while there might be some misinformation out there, and if I had the opportunity to actually report something "fishy" — as you have called on Americans to do — I would report the conduct and contradictions of the Obama Administration in trying to pass this monstrous government intrusion into health care as supremely "fishy." Quite frankly, it stinks.

Mr. Axelrod, count me out of supporting yet another trillion-dollar proposal from the Obama Administration. I don't trust you.

IF YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT

IF YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT

If you're a Democrat, tell your reps to start speaking the truth and quit smearing sincere Americans.

You've pooh-poohed and marginalized the Tea Party people. They are just concerned citizens -- concerned like our patriotic founders about high taxation and unresponsive government.

Likewise, health reform Town Hall protests are not coming from organized subsidized "mobs," as you call them, but from moms, dads, veterans, college students, plumbers, painters, senior citizens and other Americans who -- unlike most of Congress -- are reading this rush-to-pass-by-August Health Reform Bill, and finding some disturbing elements in this 1000 plus page document. These Americans simply disagree with your assessment and your urgency to pass a bill that could send us into bankruptcy and inch us closer to socialism.

Quit vilifying opposition to the Obama health reform plan. Speaker Palosi says the protesting Town Hallers are "Astroturfing." If you don't know what that is, check out the bio on Obama's main man, David Axelrod, who some say is an expert at Astroturfing. Senator Boxer says the protestors are dressed too nicely -- that they must be hired by Republicans or insurance companies. And now the White House wants people to report "fishy" information (or misinformation as you call it) to a government web site. Oh yes, don't forget to give the name, address, and other pertinent data about the source of this "fishy" information. And what's this? You're sending union reps (some call them thugs) to the Town Hall meetings, crowding out those who disagree with the bill...even beating up a black guy, using racial slurs against him, and sending him to the hospital. No, this wasn't the black Harvard professor, President Obama -- just a few union thugs "acting stupidly."

So tell me, Dems, is your strategy to muscle the bill through, sneak it through, slip it through, rush it through without allowing the light of examination to check out what's really in it?

I believe it's time for you to face the music: Your words, your trillion-dollar bills, your spend-spend-spend ideas, your tax-us-more dictates are not Gospel. They didn't come down from the mountaintop with Moses! Try this one on: some (maybe MOST) of us don't agree with your economic formulas. And furthermore, these voices of informed dissent will not be silenced, even in the face of Congressional name-calling, media bias, and even bullying from the president ("I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to just get out of the way."). Not everybody likes this bill. If you're a Democrat, I think you need to listen to these people. Some of them have even read the bill.

Murdock Gibbs
Coppell TX

YOUR LIPS WERE MOVING, BUT I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND, MR. PRESIDENT

Mr. Obama wrote me again. I guess I'm on his e-mail list. This time he reminded me of the importance of rushing to pass another ONE TRILLION DOLLAR-PLUS bill through Congress.

So I watched his press conference tonight. Question after question, answer after answer had me scratching my head, wondering, "What did he say? Did he answer that question?" Like the push to pass the Big Government Stimulus Package, he was again urging Congress to act now, do it fast, or doom and catastrophe lay around the corner.

Mr. President, you stated again that Americans want something done now, else we will see skyrocketing premiums and deficits left to our children to pay. Isn't that what we are getting with the bailouts -- bills left to our children (and children's children) to pay?

And, Mr. President, you didn't say anything about all of the illegal aliens who will be covered by your bill. They are, after all, a part of that 45 million "Americans" who you claim are not covered. And, Mr. President, I just read this comment from your first pick for Health and Human Services director, (tax-evading) former Senator Tom Daschle: "[H]ealth-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them." This according to Bloomberg. So health care reform means less care for senior citizens -- "Get used to it, Grandpa. You gonna die soon, so forget that hip operation, or the cataract surgery!"

And Mr. President, why is it that most Americans don't see the urgency of getting this reform bill passed? Could it be that your type of health care reform is not a priority because most of us LIKE our health care plans? A Zogby/University of Texas poll says 84% of Americans are satisfied with their health care. Might it also be that we are more concerned about all those jobs you promised that the Big Government Stimulus Package was supposed to deliver?

And, Mr. President, is there anything in this big 1000-plus page bill that addresses those high priced lawsuits and malpractice expenses that doctors have to contend with, that are a true contributor to higher premiums and stress on medical professionals? And now I hear that this bill also includes taxpayer-funded abortions for "poor women" as a part of their (not the unborn baby's) health-care. Do you really think most Americans want to foot the bill for abortions?

As you answered the Press' questions tonight, I didn't hear these issues addressed, and what you did address, like getting treatment for a "bad sore throat," sounded rambling and incomprehensible. (I suppose it's the usual case of you trying to explain something that you and Congress haven't read.)

So I ask you, sir, What's wrong with slowing down and allowing the light of day to shine on this big bill? Do you fear that the more we learn, the less we'll like? What's wrong with debate? Are we not allowed to question what you people pass onto us to pay for and live with? Your press conference tonight convinced me again that you and your Administration are hastily pursuing change that most Americans neither want nor understand.

President Obama Wrote Me Again, and I Wrote Him Back

President Obama wrote me again, this time asking me to support his Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor. I responded:

Thank you for your update on the progress of your Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. I believe she is a quality candidate, and I really admire you for reaching beyond conventional candidates, choosing to add diversity and expanded opportunity to others. However, I am troubled with your choices primarily because of your intractable support of abortion on demand. I suspect that this ideology is also mirrored in your appointments and nominees.

[Note: Sotomayor served on a board of a civil rights group, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) that supported essentially no restrictions on abortion. See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2293845/posts]

Mr. President, as a self-described African-American man, are you bothered about the number of black babies being snuffed out of the womb (see http://blackgenocide.org/) -- and not just black children, but those of your own nominee's ethnicity (i.e. Hispanic/Latino babies), all in the name of a woman's right to choose death to her unborn child. Fifty million babies have been aborted in our country -- 50 MILLION. This is an ugly blotch on the character of our nation.

Even worse is how you and your Administration espouse abortions being less regulated so that even late-term and partial-birth abortion are acceptable "procedures," parental notification is not important, and all American taxpayers (thanks to you) are being forced to provide this service for overseas agencies, with some clamoring for the same "benefit" to be a part of your health reform initiatives.

My prayers are that you and your wife will have a change of heart about abortion on demand. Perhaps future judicial appointments will reflect real empathy from the Obama Administration -- empathy for the unborn. Maybe Barack and Michelle Obama will be stirred to fulfill their commitment in truth: to help the weak and defend the defenseless (who is more defenseless than a baby in the womb?) and cease your participation in the silent genocide of the most helpless of God's creatures -- those awaiting birth.

BACK ON WHAT TRACK, MR. PRESIDENT?

Did you hear that the President wants us to volunteer more - says we're all off track? He sent me an e-mail today”:

"Our nation faces some of the greatest challenges it has in generations and we know it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get us back on track.

While Michelle and I are calling on every American to participate in United We Serve, the call to service doesn’t end this fall. We need to stay involved in our towns and communities for a long time to come. After all, America’s new foundation will be built one neighborhood at a time – and that starts with you.

Thank you,
President Barack Obama"

With all due respect, Mr. President and First Lady, in regard to volunteering, I do not feel that Americans are off track. And what is this "new foundation" you're talking about? I believe you are failing to acknowledge the "volunteer" work of religious folk and especially of American Christians. I do not believe we have some crisis in volunteerism that through "a lot of hard work" will "get us back on track (“Back on track”—what does that mean anyway?!). American Christians have been volunteering for years -- since our country's inception. Or perhaps you do not consider their work as being on the same "track" that you want us to get back on.

Back on track... would that mean volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center?
Back on track... would that include church sponsored aid to a homeless shelter?
Back on track... would that involve ministering to the needs of wounded warriors -- injured American veterans?
Back on track... does that include the valiant, unselfish work of groups like the Salvation Army, and countless church outreaches to battered wives' shelters, orphanages, VA hospitals, and senior citizen homes?

I have seen no evidence that Americans as a whole are off track in their volunteering. Perhaps the secularist Left is off track (as is shown by the percentage of their incomes donated to charity). Perhaps the godless, materialistic, self-absorbed citizen is off track. But the people I know and associate with -- people in the Christian community -- are very much on track, and have been for years.

I appreciate your call to invite more Americans to volunteer, but I remain skeptical and confused about your plan to get us "back on track." Your rhetorical "track" is an ill-defined, feel good amorphism; and it seems to discount the years of work, unselfish volunteering and stellar example of American Christians. Theirs is a magnificent heritage of volunteering and helping the unfortunate and hurting, which in other presidential administrations was recognized as the lead engine on the "track" of service to others. They -- we -- are certainly not off track.

~ Murdock Gibbs, Coppell TX