Frank Look at Republican Platform Changes

This Saturday, August 1st, the Platform Committee of the California Republican Party will be meeting near LAX. The Committee will have an opportunity to change the wording of the Platform and perhaps reshape the Party. Chairman Jim Brulte will preside at the meeting. Will the same folks that embraced the Log Cabin Club show-up in force to build on their recent victory? Some pundits say, “Yes”.

Recently, Steve Frank published an article on the Republican Party Platform and changes that he expects will be made.

Here are a few of his predictions

Marriage and Family: “At the same time the California Republican Party recognizes the right of same-sex couples in California to enter into a State sanctioned marriage that affords them all the civil legal protections the State offers to heterosexual couples”

Right to Life/Abortion: “Most Republicans pro-life and pro-choice believe the difficult decision to have an abortion in the first months of pregnancy is best left as a private personal and family matter.”
Last Remnant In California of Republicanism is GOP Platform Will It Change

The question I asked was, “Does Steve have inside information that ‘the fix’ is in on these changes?”

The Sith Lord says “No”. He says that what happens Saturday will depend on who actually shows up to the meeting.
• He feels that Brulte would like to see the status quo maintained within the Party.
• Many possible changes have been floated by both Liberals and Conservatives but he knows of no consensus on either side for any particular changes.
• With dwindling registration, it’s not a good time to have a platform fight that will likely result in the Conservatives withdrawing from an active role in the Party.

If Frank is right, the Party will likely split over social issues. Brulte may want the Platform unchanged but the myriad of socially agnostic young folks that were the force behind adopting the Log Cabin gang may not be under his control when they sense victory over the old order (Conservative social issues) is within their grasp.

If the Platform proposal on Saturday is a marked departure to the Left, it will likely pass in September. The Liberals have already proved that they have the votes.

What happens Saturday has the potential to shred the Republican Party to the point of extinction in California. Finally, Charlie Munger has victory within reach but to what end?

Told Ya—Judge Blocks Baby Parts Videos from Release

Two days ago I said this:

It’s a safe bet that the full power of the State will be brought to bear on the Center for Medical Progress. I hope they have some powerful friends or these guys will be doing the “perp walk” real soon. Perhaps they should release the rest of the videos before some judge issues an order to “cease and desist” or some such nonsense.

Today I get home from work and see this on Fox News website

Court bars anti-abortion group from releasing new videos
LOS ANGELES –  A temporary restraining order has been issued preventing an anti-abortion group from releasing any video of leaders of a California company that provides fetal tissue to researchers. The group is the same one that previously shot viral covert video of a Planned Parenthood leader discussing the sale of aborted fetuses for research.

The Los Angeles Superior Court order issued Tuesday prohibits the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video of three high-ranking StemExpress officials taken at a restaurant in May. It appears to be the first legal action prohibiting the release of a video from the organization.

The Center for Medical Progress has released three surreptitiously recorded videos to date that have riled anti-abortion activists. The Senate is expected to vote before its August recess on a Republican effort to bar federal aid to Planned Parenthood in the aftermath of the videos’ release.

In a statement Wednesday, center leader David Daleiden said StemExpress was using “meritless litigation” to cover up an “illegal baby parts trade.”

“The Center for Medical Progress follows all applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work,” he said.

StemExpress is a Placerville-based company started in 2010 that provides human tissue, blood and other specimens to researchers. Planned Parenthood is one of the company’s providers of fetal tissue.
Fox News

Please note that StemExpress is in Placerville, CA. Placerville has a history looking the other way on issues of infanticide. Some of us still remember Julice Luke.

Anyway, more proof that I’m Really Right.

American Eugenics in 21st Century

Eugenics, the social movement claiming to improve the genetic features of human populations through selective breeding and sterilization, based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish between superior and inferior elements of society, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States prior to its involvement in World War II.

Eugenics was practised in the United States many years before eugenics programs in Nazi Germany and U.S. programs provided much of the inspiration for the latter. Stefan Kühl has documented the consensus between Nazi race policies and those of eugenicists in other countries, including the United States, and points out that eugenicists understood Nazi policies and measures as the realization of their goals and demands.

One of the most prominent feminists to champion the eugenic agenda was Margaret Sanger, the leader of the American birth control movement. Margaret Sanger saw birth control as a means to prevent unwanted children from being born into a disadvantaged life, and incorporated the language of eugenics to advance the movement.

Eugenics in the United States

Yeah, American social policy and the Nazis were going down the same ideological tracks together during the 1910’s thru early 1930’s. Social Darwinism was a big hit with the Aristocracy ever since Darwin provided the scientific basis that some races were superior (more fit) than others.

In this mix was Margaret Sanger, who frequently did the European cocktail party circuit with the leadership of the Nazi Party. She was right at home with these guys and so was her belief that the way to eliminate poverty was by eliminating the poor.

Is it any wonder then that Sanger’s ideological baby—Planned Parenthood—has people selling body parts from aborted babies? Why should that surprise folks?

Aborted baby parts have been used in women’s make-up for years. Why do you think labels about the source of collagen are on the bottles?

In this era of belief that stem cells can cure everything, why not sell the most ready supply? Taxpayers pay for abortions; California taxpayers pay for stem cell research. Why not sell the largest ready supply to the industry based on developing genetic cures? This is a logical result of a culture based on eugenic principles.

Many folks play verbal gymnastics with the tenants of eugenics but only so they can find acceptable ways of supporting them.

As barbaric as Eugenics is, it has government protection and funding throughout our country. Somehow many are comfortable that it is used at the beginning and end of life; however, it will not stop there. Soon we will be deciding who is fit or unfit as parents not on the basis of social class or income but on the basis of belief.

Home schooled children and those that are taught that homosexuality and abortion are wrong will soon be taken from their parents. Oh wait, in some places they are…not only in Germany or Indonesia or some far off land but here in the good ‘ole US of A.

Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.
Deuteronomy 28: 32

Hey folks, welcome to judgment day.

Kamala Harris Defender of Evil

If you want a great example of what is wrong with our country, the article below will serve as a prime example.

Last week, a California based group releases multiple videos of employees of Planned Parenthood, negotiating the sales price of body parts from aborted babies.

This is no different than a guard at Auschwitz offering to sell gold and silver confiscated from Jews to the local pawn shop. Or better yet, harvesting organs for transplant or other medical experiments; Nazi Germany or current day China, either is a true illustration.

Question: Why do Liberals tend to view the latter as barbaric and the former as a Constitutional Right?
All the above are equally evil.  The rational is the same; namely, why let these resources go to waste?

So, in the face of such evil what does the chief law enforcement official in California do?
Why she wants to investigate the whistleblowers to see if they violated any laws or violated the Constitutional protections that the State is giving to people making their money killing babies with taxpayer money.

Here is part of the article from the Sacramento Bee. I’m quoting it extensively both to make my point and also because the Bee tends to delete content from their website rather quickly.

Kamala Harris to review group behind Planned Parenthood abortion videos
July 24, 2015
By Christopher Cadelago

California Attorney General Kamala Harris will review whether the nonprofit organization behind controversial Planned Parenthood videos violated state law, her office said in a letter Friday.

Four Democratic congresswomen on Wednesday asked Harris and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to determine if officials from the Irvine-based Center for Medical Progress broke any laws when they posed as workers for a biotech company while recording Planned Parenthood physicians without their consent.

Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Zoe Lofgren, Jerry Nadler and Yvette Clarke cited reports that founder David Daleiden filed paperwork to create a phony entity. They also asked the state’s top law enforcement official to look into possible violations of the Invasion of Privacy Act, which bars recording people without their permission…

The videos, in which officials from Planned Parenthood discuss the price and delivery of fetal body parts, have renewed debate about abortion and rocketed the issue into the 2016 presidential race…

Planned Parenthood contends the footage was “heavily edited” and falsely depicts the organization’s tissue-donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Democrats, including Harris, have come to its defense over efforts to strip its funding.

Read more here: Kamala Harris to review group behind Planned Parenthood abortion videos

Will Harris investigate the practices of Planned Parenthood? NO.

Will Governor Brown—who supposedly learned so much from his time with Mother Teresa—do anything? NO

It’s a safe bet that the full power of the State will be brought to bear on the Center for Medical Progress. I hope they have some powerful friends or these guys will be doing the “perp walk” real soon. Perhaps they should release the rest of the videos before some judge issues an order to “cease and desist” or some such nonsense.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20

Tea Party Promotes Democrats

I’m minding my own business and reading my email.

I get stuff from all sorts of Tea Party groups but this advertisement is out of bounds or should be. I’m reading an article about a Florida gun store being a Muslim free zone and then scroll down to see this.

I guess our transformation into the Soviet Union has a ways to go, even under this President. In the meantime, perhaps the Tea Party needs a new webmaster.

Carl Baugh and His Book

Last night I finished reading “Why Do Men Believe Evolution Against All Odds?” By Carl Baugh. We were given a copy by Mr. Baugh when we visited the Creation Evidence Museum in Glenrose Texas. I think when he heard that we were from California; he had mercy on us and figured that we needed the help.

The book was a quick read. It was well documented and logically organized. I have seen similar works in the past but this one seemed more “modern” since it incorporated a section on biochemistry and the function of cells; something that literally didn’t exist too many years ago. See Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe if you want the full explanation of why cellular function disproves evolutionary theory.

My one complaint is that there are several blatant typographical errors in the book. Baugh could use a proofreader before going to press again.

As I prepared to write this blog I took a look at the book on Amazon.com. While Baugh has much praise on the customer reviews of the book, he also has his detractors. The attacks by one reviewer were not on the contents of the book but on the academic credentials claimed by Baugh. On Amazon the author biography reads

Dr. Carl Edward Baugh is founder and director of Creation Evidence Museum, Glen Rose, Texas; scientific research director for world’s first hyperbaric biosphere; scientific research director for water reclamation and energized plant systems; and the discoverer and excavation director of two major dinosaurs: Acrocanthosaurus in Texas and Stegosaurus stenops in Colorado. He holds a degree in theology from Baptist Bible College, a Masters in archaeology, and a Ph.D. in education, both from Pacific College of Graduate Studies.

I tried “Pacific College of Graduate Studies” on both Bing and Google. Surprisingly, this school does not seem to exist. However, I did get a hit on Carl Baugh.

A Matter of Degree: An Examination of Carl Baugh’s Alleged Credentials http://paleo.cc/paluxy/degrees.htm

This article by Glen Kuban eviscerates Baugh’s claims of holding a doctorate from an accredited institution of higher learning. Interestingly, Baugh’s biography on the Creation Evidence Museum makes no claims that he is a doctor. Accreditation is not the be all and end all of higher learning but it does limit where and how the claim of a degree can be used.

I know from personal experience that Texas has an extremely high bar for any college to be accredited. The library requirement alone is ridiculous. (At least 70,000 volumes and fulltime librarian) A decade or so ago, my church moved their Seminary from Louisiana to Texas. To get accredited in Texas would have bankrupted the denomination. Instead they made an arrangement with a college in England to grant some type of degree for theological studies.

I can see that Baugh or any other creationist might have trouble getting a scientific degree from a typical college. Even Baylor—to their shame—will run you off if you believe in a literal six-day creation…at least from their faculty.

Kuban, however, accuses Baugh of granting himself his degree. It’s an interesting read. What caught my attention was the footnote #40. According to the footnote, Answers in Genesis has tried to put some distance between themselves and Baugh. The URL in Kuban’s article was no good but I went to Ken Ham’s website and found this:
AIG discounts the claims that human footprints were found with dinosaurs at Glenrose. They say that it might be true but …

Given the ambiguity of the evidence and the fact that much of what may have once been present is no longer available for study, we do not believe those claims of coexisting human and dinosaur prints are wholly supportable. Dr. John Morris in 1986 reported similar conclusions, deciding “it would now be improper for creationists to continue to use the Paluxy data as evidence against evolution” unless further research brings new facts to light.
paluxy-river-tracks-in-texas-spotlight

I know that these claims pre-date Carl Baugh by several decades. Morris and Whitcomb cite them in Genesis Flood (1961).

While not on AIG website, I did a search on the article mentioned in footnote #40 and found this:

CSF does not defend Carl Baugh or his claims in regard to his qualifications. We do not regard Baugh as representative in any way of the mainstream creation movement.
plimer-book-our-point-by-point-rebuttal p. 145

My conclusion is that Carl Baugh does seem to have overstated his resume. I don’t rely on him for validating my beliefs in creation.

The artifacts that he has at his museum are persuasive. However, I think the Torah display and model of Noah’s Ark are unnecessary. The movie on how The Flood occurred and what brought it about is speculative and I would like more information before I’m ready to support Baugh’s whole framework.

As for his book on “Why Do Men Believe Evolution Against All Odds?” I think he nailed it. All Baugh does is introduce quotes from evolutionists that point out flaws in their theory.

The only thing Baugh lacks is Ben Stein’s interview of Richard Dawkins in Expelled, where Dawkins says life on earth came from extraterrestrials that seeded the planet.

Evolution is not a science issue, it’s a spiritual one.

Musing of a Proud Dad

Yesterday was a surreal experience as my wife and I dropped our 10 year old son off at a local college to attend classes. Walking around the school we had both graduated from some twenty years ago was rather odd.

We parked in a parking garage that wasn’t there when I had graduated, and walked him across campus to a building that wasn’t there when either of us had completed school. On the way we passed many mature trees that were planted about the time we had left.

We are both proud to have a son that has good enough academics to be part of the special classes that he was attending. So sporting a new cell phone and a sack lunch we left him to his first day at college.

He reported in as we had asked. Later he said he really enjoyed eating lunch at the benches near his second class. He was on time when we waited to pick him up. We invited him to go to the pool with us afterwards but he said, “No” because he had homework.

Our son has had a busy summer and hopefully will carry some good memories with him for a long time.

Glenrose Texas

During our road trip last month, we took the Texas back roads from Abilene to Waco. We went to Glenrose. Glenrose is a tiny town with a creek flowing through it and it has one of the most unique geological features in the world. In the bed of the creek, you can find dinosaur foot prints which is cool but what puts it over the top is that human footprints are also found in the same rock strata.

Yep, humans and dinos left their footprints together.

Photo from Creation Evidence MuseumIf you needed to see in order to believe that Darwinism and Evolution is BS then this out of the way place should be first on your list. Right down the road from the Dinosaur Valley State Park Dinosaur Valley State Park is the Creation Evidence Museum.
Creation Evidence Museum
Ken Ham is not the only guy with a Creation Museum. This one is smaller but has some neat stuff in it.

Some artifacts in the museum were reproductions of things I’ve seen in books before but some are the genuine article. Reproductions are clearly labeled as such. Typically they are castings.

Besides the human footprints intertwined with dino prints, I got to see the London Artifact. This is a fossilized steel hammer with wooden handle.

 

London Artifact photo from Creation Evidence Museum

The museum is the work of Carl E. Baugh. Baugh is credited with the first hyperbaric biosphere. He was there when
we visited but I had no idea who he was at the time. His paper Crystalline Canopy Theory (linked on the museum
website) is an improvement on the vapor canopy idea popularized by Whitcomb and Morris in their book Genesis
Flood (1961). Whitcomb and Morris posited the vapor canopy using the research from the International Geophysical
Year (July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958).
The Baugh paper is an interesting read and attempts to answer the question of what the pre-Flood world looked like.
Genesis makes it clear that prior to Noah it never rained so any explanation of this era must explain how plants were
watered. This circles back to the hyperbaric biosphere.
Some things at the museum I did not photograph due to their shape or lighting. Phone cameras are not great for low
light conditions. Here are the photos that I took.

 

Image of Stegosaurus

 

Inca Burial Stone

 

Inca Burial Stone 

 

Holes

This year has been a weird tapestry of non-sense perpetrated by the Just Us Brothers.
We are halfway thru 2015; two fronts still haunt their departure from CRA. First is the membership records and the other is the money.

Membership Records
After several email threads and lawyer letters, former Membership Secretary, George Park, finally sent a paper copy of a list to his replacement, Carl Brickey. The file was printed on security paper so it could not be scanned. Later three zipped files with the same information were sent to Brickey. The records that Park sent were heavily edited and frankly worthless.

Here are some examples of their dubious nature:

• Park claimed that his beloved Placer County Republican Assembly had four members. This list is a far cry from the 105 members he and his brother had been claiming earlier this year. He lost 101 members from his own club?

• Sacramento RA was showing 54 members on Park’s list even though they had reported something closer to 20 prior to the convention. All the bogus Igor Birman members were still on Park’s list for SRA. He should know which ones were inactive since he was the one that added them in the first place.

• Several active chapters were missing in their entirety. Most of these seemed to be in one of two categories. Either they were groups like Yuba-Sutter that were assumed would follow the Parks into CIR or groups that George didn’t like so he just unilaterally purged them from the CRA rolls.

No chapter bylaws, territorial maps, or historic data were given to Brickey. Park claimed this data loss was due to computer troubles in March. I guess this is why Park then deleted all the records stored online in April and then closed the Hightail account. Park also had originals of these documents—mostly in paper form. Termites maybe?

Don’t forget that a month after this supposed loss of records that George was able to provide his brother with membership lists, membership applications, and of course cancelled checks just so Aaron could publish the information on the Internet.

Misappropriated Money
Then there is the money that they have misappropriated. Just in the first six months of 2015, the Park Brothers have (by my count) taken over $34,000 from CRA and its chapters. The bulk of this is from the Placer Republican Assembly. In addition there is the CRA Business Round Table, CRA Convention and Placer RA PAC. They also had access to the funds of the Statewide CRA under John Briscoe for about two years. The seed money for their new organization—CIR—could very well have come from CRA funds. Fruit of the poisoned tree anyone?

As more information has come to light, we are slowly learning of some unreported Park campaign activities that may be of interest the FPPC.

Many want to light-up the Just Us Brothers like Roman Candles but Tom Hudson has been reluctant to do so. In the end, I think to protect the CRA that Hudson will have to bless some sort of legal action.

Other outside parties may jump into the litigation arena in their own good time. The Just Us Brothers present such a target rich environment that somebody will go after them eventually. They have calculated that the cost/benefit ratio of their malfeasance is not enough to pursue. They have risked much; including their insurance broker license.

There are times when men should “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” but to make such a pledge when you have no honor is pathologically stupid.

These guys are way over the cliff and those of us with signs reading, “GRAVITY” are just being laughed at…for now.

Just Us Brothers Unveil CIR

The Just Us Brothers have quietly rolled-out their long delayed Impact Republicans website. The website is weak on content and substance. In four months one would think they could have put something better together.

The home page proclaims, “Your Vote Counts! Join Us!” which is ironic because a member organization—such as their group claims to be—has no membership application or way to join on the website. You can only sign up for email updates. Also no Bylaws are available for viewing.

Several statements on the website are ironic when given the previous conduct of the founding members of this group.

Now
“The CIR is committed to recruiting Conservative Republican candidates for local office, training and equipping leaders, fundraising, and endorsing candidates for public office based on a different metric than other Republican groups have used in the past.”

Then
“Maybe what we are doing … will be ground-breaking. If you advertise here – it means an endorsement.” Previous statement by Aaron Park.

Current website
“Our senior officers are elected through a unique process, ensuring that the CIR remains in the hands of the activists.”

In their Bylaws, CIR has the following restrictions:
• In order to serve as President of the CIR, the candidate for this office must have been a member of the CIR for a minimum of 3 years.
• The Administrative Vice President must have been a member of the CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.
• County Commissioners and Senate Directors must have been a member of CIR for 1 year before becoming a candidate for this office.

OK, so how does this square with this claim from the website? “Every CIR member will have a voice by being eligible to be a delegate to the CIR yearly convention.”

“you may not realize it – but once we get expelled, it is going to set off a mass exodus.” Aaron Park May 20, 2015

The reality is that CRA has added about ten chapters since the departure of the Just Us Brothers. No chapters have voted to leave CRA and follow the Boys to the Promised Land “free of the drama and the debating society”.

Also on their website, “The CIR will be presenting its credentials for consideration of a charter at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim in September.”

Chartering by CRP will require that CIR has chapters in ten counties with ten members each and an overall membership of at least 200. With no mass exodus from CRA and the limits imposed on being an officer, how do they get thru the review process of the California Republican Party. Per their Bylaws, CIR will need a year before new folks can lead at the bottom rungs for their Board. Lastly, why seek chartering by CRP at the same convention that they will vote to gut the social issues from the Party Platform? CIR is a little late to the dance.

Clearly CIR’s idea of leadership involves a chasm between the sheep and the shepherds that cannot be easily bridged.