You Object to Being Groped? What? Are You Not Patriotic?

"It's all about security," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It's all about everybody recognizing their role."

Despite officials' insistence that they had taken care to prepare the American flying public, the flurry of criticism from private citizens to airline pilots' groups suggested that Napolitano and other federal officials had been caught off guard.

In other words, you, the citizen, are supposed to endure whatever the Nanny State orders you to do. In Janet Napolitano's mind, that's your role.

Forget about the 4th Amendment. Forget about the injustice of innocent people being treated like criminals. Forget about standards of personal privacy and decency. And, while you're at it, forget about all of the huge holes in our nation's security that the Obama administration's Homeland Security is doing nothing about: the borders, the ports, waves of illegal immigrants, the pro-terror groups inside the U.S.

And "caught off guard?" For crying out loud, how could the government assume that such intrusive procedures as dangerously radioactive naked body scans and groping hand searches would not create a firestorm of protest?

Once again, the government under Barack Obama, has shown itself mindlessly out of touch with the American people, arrogant, completely indifferent to the U.S. Constitution which expressly prohibits unwarranted searches, and oh-so-willing to get tough and aggressive not with criminals but with innocent American citizens!

Republican Congress, are you listening? TSA reform cannot come fast enough.

Big Brother or Big Bully? Investigation & Fines Looming for Groping Resister.

You know you've got a serious cultural problem when a fellow that the populace considers a hero is considered by the government as a criminal.

The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.

Tyner recorded the half-hour long encounter on his cell phone and later posted it to his personal blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. The blog went viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of comments.

Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe. He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.

TSA agents had told Tyner on Saturday that he could be fined up to $10,000.

“That’s the old fine,” Aguilar said. “It has been increased.”...

Aguilar said that once a passenger enters the security area, there is a legal obligation to follow through with the process.

Today's Posts

Special Needs, Special Caring

"Going Postal" Means Going Broke!

Did Toy Story 3 Contain a Warning for the Democrats?

Gripe About the Groping -- But Don't Lie About It

School Official Feels the Heat: He Won't Ban the U.S. Flag Anymore

TSA Agent: Airline Passengers "Give Up a Lot of Rights."

Airport Madness

Special Needs, Special Caring

In Romans 12:10, the Apostle Paul urges Christians to "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor." Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 12:23-24, he explains the need to give all the more honor to those who are denied it by the world.

These are important exhortations to Vital Signs Ministries, seeking as we do to build a culture of life in which all people are treated with respect, dignity and compassion. But in an irreligious culture, one dominated by pragmatics, profits and the pursuit of self-indulgent pleasure, there are certain types of people who are continually being marginalized.

And worse.

I've been reflecting anew on this challenge these last few days -- days which have included dealing with my Mom in her declining health, presenting "When Swing Was King" over the weekend in two nursing homes; leading my church yesterday in observing the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, being asked to give prayers yesterday afternoon at a public vigil outside the northwest Planned Parenthood, sidewalk counseling this morning at the Bellevue abortion clinic, preparing to talk to little kids at a church AWANA program on Wednesday night and, after it was called to my attention by high school classmate Ron Rizzo, thinking about how I might observe Special Education Week.

I know that part of the challenge is to keep on doing such things as I mention above. But to do them with renewed vigor, humility, gratitude and joy. I also need to link them together; that is, to seek the connection between the preborn child, the disabled teenager, the prisoner of conscience, and the aged grandparent. That connection is one of common humanity, yes. But it is a stronger, more vital connection too -- the bond of grace.

There are other challenges too. For instance, I must pray more fervently, more frequently for people who are specially targeted or who are considered "throwaways." I must be willing to break out of established patterns and comfort zones in order to plead their cause. And, when I can (and I can an awful lot more than I'm usually given to), be ready to volunteer my hands in their service.

I must encourage others to honor those whom the world despises. And I must give thanks and encouragement to the caregivers who effectively, faithfully serve people with special needs all the time.

So, thank you to special education teachers. You are doing a noble and wonderful ministry. Thank you to nurses and aides and therapists and activity directors and all others who work in the homes for the aged, orphanages and hospitals. Your work is of exceptional value. Thank you to adoptive parents, to CPC volunteers, to intercessors, to missionaries, and to all others who are putting Paul's exhortations into loving reality. God sees your heartfelt service and His rewards will prove well worth your every sacrifice. But we need to thank you too.

"Going Postal" Means Going Broke!

The U.S. Postal Service boasts that it has cut billions in expenses and dropped over 100,000 full-time workers. Nevertheless, because of the economy and the changing technology (e-mails are free, you know), it is losing more money than ever.

Like a net loss of $8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That's more than double the $3.8 billion from the year before.

Class, can you say "Privatization?"

Did Toy Story 3 Contain a Warning for the Democrats?

Just a couple of days before the mid-term elections, author Andrew Klavan explored for the L.A. Times some of the striking parallels between the philosophic forces shaping the elections and...Toy Story 3.

Sound wild? Well, I guess it is. But Klavan makes some very solid points. And, as usual, he makes them in a memorable, entertaining way.

Thanks to Kathryn Judson for pointing out this nifty article. (And, for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, be careful of a few spoilers.)

...Which brings us back to the midterm election, which may also be the beginning of a narrow escape indeed -- a narrow escape from a leftist culture that has sought for 40 years to people and shape our imaginations with Lots-o'-Huggin' Bears, Big Babies and sissified men; an escape from race-baiters and gender warriors who have sought to take away our pride in our heroic cowboy past and replace it with a droning litany of our all-too-human sins; an escape from an intellectual and political elite who have attempted to destroy our Space Age optimism by selling us environmental hysteria, guilt and fear.

Most of all, let's hope this "Toy Story 3" election is the beginning of an escape from the smothering notion that we are helpless victims who need to live in a daycare state that supplies our every need. Perhaps then we can return to the great American conception of ourselves as loyal, courageous and resourceful individuals fashioned by our creator to be free, and well able to find our own way to infinity and beyond.

Gripe About the Groping -- But Don't Lie About It

Having repeated the story of the TSA's mishandling of Meg McLain along with providing a link to the radio program, I am pretty miffed to learn that she may have invented at least a few of the details. Thus I agree completely with what Megan over at Intolerant Fox had to say:

This annoys me. But if I ever report something that turns out to be false I will correct it. The report by Meg McLain that I posted on this site where she claimed to be handcuffed to a chair while her ticket was torn in front of her face appears to be false.

The TSA released a video of her detainment, which, while intimidating and clearly upsetting to her, did not contain any of the accusations she claimed. She said she was handcuffed and couldn’t wipe the tears from her face. In the video below, a TSA agent very clearly hands her a paper towel to wipe her face and at no time is she in handcuffs.

McLain is still insisting what she said happened, happened. She is claiming that TSA only released partial videos but from what I see, there are serious inconsistencies in her story. You make up your mind, but I have made up mine. It’s fishy. I know that shock jocks love to create a stir, but with all the real stories of abuse by the TSA, this just hurts the cause of people who have actually been accosted. Shame on Meg McLain.

School Official Feels the Heat: He Won't Ban the U.S. Flag Anymore

I'm pleased to announce that Edward Parraz, the California school superintendent who last week defended the prohibition of a 13-year old boy having an American flag on his bike, has changed his mind.

I'm not so pleased to see how he's now blaming the whole thing on an underling.

Last week (as you can read yourself in this Vital Signs post), Mr. Parraz was all for the prohibition. He openly (though ignorantly) defended it as an avoidance of racial tension, as an act of understanding different cultures, even as a sign of respect for the First Amendment.

But that was before the issue became a lightning rod across the blogosphere and into local TV news reports...before thousands of calls, e-mails and faxes came in protesting the heavy-handed move...before the population of this small town responded by flying American flags in solidarity with the young boy...before other students decided to risk expulsion from school for supporting the flag... and before parents and other locals organized a parade down Main Street to the school building featuring U.S. flags and red, white and blue attire.

Mr. Parraz began to feel a bit differently then.

But instead of just apologizing and moving on, he decided to throw one of his employees under the bus and act like he was against the ban all the time.

"It's one of those things that the campus supervisor was thinking in the best interest of Cody and it backfired on her," Parraz said Friday. "I think it was the right decision with the wrong result. She feels miserable."

Cody has had the flag on his bike since beginning of the school year and it was coincidental that it became a problem during the week of Veterans Day, which Parraz said is "the issue that made this look like Denair is the worst thing in the world."

Ah, so that's all it is -- a bad move by a "campus supervisor" complicated by bad timing. Parraz had nothing to do with it. So please forget those convoluted defenses of the flag banning he had previously given.

And be sure and save him a spot in the parade.

Update: You're gonna' love these two video clips!



And this terrific one from a local Fox TV station.

TSA Agent: Airline Passengers "Give Up a Lot of Rights."

Have you heard the latest in the airport screening wars? Here's one man's shocking story, all caught on his cell phone.

...A supervisor is heard re-explaining the groin check process to Tyner then adding "If you're not comfortable with that, we can escort you back out and you don't have to fly today."

Tyner responded "OK, I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying."

"This is not considered a sexual assault," replied the supervisor, calmly.

"It would be if you were not the government," said Tyner.

"By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights," countered the TSA supervisor.

Airport Madness

This photo, showing a Muslim TSA agent in religious garb conducting one of the new, humiliatingly intrusive airport searches on a Catholic nun, is from the Drudge Report.

His caption? "The Terrorists Have Won."

One can understand Matt Drudge's feelings. After all, Barack Obama's Homeland Security has blundered badly in its coverage of our borders, our ports, and our non-passenger flights as well as refusing to effectively police the groups with known terrorist ties that thrive here in the United States. They obviously are not serious about defending America's safety.

But what they ARE serious about is making it LOOK like they're providing security. Thus the big splash over new airport screening. The fact that the new procedures are demeaning, offensive, and indecent...that such searches without probable cause are clearly unconstitutional...and that such procedures defiantly resist targeting those air passengers that most closely fit the terrorist profile...mean nothing to Nanny State bureaucrats.

So, please let your Congressman know that the revision of these new TSA procedures should take a high priority in the new Congress. A failure to do so is a severe slap in the face to the American economy (more and more people will refuse to fly) and to the principles of American freedom.

Today's Posts

It Will Be a Whirling Weekend (In More Ways Than One)

Public Prayer Vigil Outside Planned Parenthood This Sunday

Planned Parenthood: Corrupting the Culture At Your Expense

School Demands Boy Remove the U.S. Flag from His Bike

Americans (Including Kids) Are Treated Like Prisoners

It Will Be a Whirling Weekend (In More Ways Than One)

We have a special "joint session" presentation of "When Swing Was King" this afternoon at Immanuel Courtyard. Both the independent living and assisted living sections of that great facility are getting together for the performance.

We're giving them Volume Four today. That's Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade"; the Andrews Sisters' "Oh, Johnny:" Artie Shaw's "Frenesi;" Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald doing "Goodnight, My Love;" Jan Garber's "I'll See You in My Dreams;" Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra doing "Dolores;" Guy Lombardo's "Embraceable You;" Paul Whiteman and Billie Holiday doing "Travelin' Light;" Freddie Martin's "Dancing in the Dark;" Bing Crosby's "You Belong to My Heart;" Ted Weems' "Heartaches;" Jimmy Dorsey's "So Rare;" and Count Basie's "April in Paris."

And all accompanied, of course, by "When Swing Was King's" compelling photos of life during the 30s, 40s and 50s. We're looking forward to having a great time. Keith and Carol Moran are coming along for the fun -- and so is my Mom! She once lived at Immanuel Courtyard before she took up residence at the LCC nursing home so this will be a reunion for us. Sweet.

We also take "When Swing Was King" on the road this weekend as we present it for the first time at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Community nursing home up in Blair, Nebraska. That will be on Saturday morning at 10.

Then it's back for sermon preparation before Sunday's worship service and the Sunday afternoon prayer vigil at Planned Parenthood. (See next post.) And somewhere I've got to fit in leaf raking and applying my lawn's winterizer -- I hope before the predicted snow begins to fly!

Hope you have a busy and happy weekend too.

Public Prayer Vigil Outside Planned Parenthood This Sunday

All pro-life advocates are invited to participate in a peaceful, hour-long prayer service to be held this Sunday outside the new Planned Parenthood facility.

We do this to appeal to our Lord to keep this terrible place of death and decadence from ever opening and to demonstrate our solidarity in protesting the ongoing "slaughter of the innocents" by Planned Parenthood abortionists.

The site is 3105 N. 93rd Street in northwest Omaha. The date and time is Sunday, November 14 from 1 till 2 in the afternoon. Parking is available in the Hope Church lot on the west side of 93rd Street, just off Maple.

The new facility plans to kill preborn kids with both chemical and surgical abortions. Planned Parenthood also engages in other culturally-destructive actions such as the one described in the next Vital Signs Blog post.

I'll hope to see you there.

Planned Parenthood: Corrupting the Culture At Your Expense

Stuart Cunliffe alerted me this morning to an update about the Planned Parenthood brochure, “Healthy, Happy and Hot,” that has become the abortion organization's most popular publication.

This even though the brochure is a graphically illustrated advertisement for premarital sex. In fact, the brochure openly promotes sex with multiple partners, acts of sodomy, "aggressive sex," homosexual acts -- all in a lifestyle that defies parental involvement but is heavily dependent upon abortion clinics.

And, like I've pointed out many times, your tax dollars are helping to pay for this decadent, destructive "sex education" material, including its translation, printing and distribution to many foreign countries.

Here's more.

School Demands Boy Remove the U.S. Flag from His Bike

Public school officials in Sacramento, California have forced a 13-year old kid to remove the American flag from his bike. But those officials are defending their action as a move to avoid racial tension.

Denair Unified School District Superintendent Edward Parraz argues, "Our Hispanic, you know, kids will, you know, bring their Mexican flags and they'll display it, and then of course the kids would do the American flag situation, and it does cause kind of a racial tension which we don't really want. We want them to appreciate the cultures."

Appreciate the cultures? Mr. Parraz, despite American citizens coming from several ethnic, religious and racial "cultures," Sacramento is in the United States. The flag that flies outside your school building is the American flag, not the Mexican one. The Mexican flag is displayed outside the schools and public buildings of that nation, not ours.

Wait a second. For all I know, Mr. Parraz may have ordered the American flag removed from outside the schools in his district as well. After all, we don't want any racial tension.

It is scandalous that such irrationality is exhibited by a school superintendent. But it gets worse.

"(The) First Amendment is important," Parraz said. "We want the kids to respect it, understand it, and with that comes a responsibility."

Parraz, of course, is using words without meaning here. He's trying to sound high-minded about the First Amendment while completely denying its application -- at least on school property. So, incredibly, he acts as if it is his regard for the First Amendment that justifies his outright denial of it.

The facts are clear here. Mr. Parraz is afraid of the American flag. He is afraid of a kid's natural patriotism. He is afraid of the U.S. Constitution. And he is afraid to admit that his school system (steeped as it is in goofy and counter-productive political correctness) is unable to teach genuine respect, civility or tolerance.

And so, just as Mr. Parraz will wave on kids who can't read or write or do mathematics at the levels they should, he will also wave on into young adulthood those who have never been taught an understanding of America's history, values and unique greatness.

His students -- and our country -- will be all the worse for the craven ineptitude of he and so many others like him in government education.

Here is a UPI report and here is a local TV video clip.

Americans (Including Kids) Are Treated Like Prisoners

In a Reuters report about the controversy over new airport screening procedures -- procedures which include naked body scans and intimately intrusive searches -- came this heartbreaking reaction from a father.

"We spend my child's whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that's just wrong," said the father whose 8-year old boy had just been subjected to a physical search at the airport.

"At some point the terrorists have won."

The Obama administration is digging in its heels on this matter but the uproar is just beginning.

As I've pointed out in posts throughout the week, Americans are embarrassed, frustrated and angry about the new (and unconstitutional) naked body scans and groping hand searches being conducted by Transportation Security Administration employees. Pilots and flight attendants are planning organized protests. Civil liberties groups are preparing lawsuits. Local TV stations all over the country are giving personal examples of mistreatment at the airport.

It's no wonder then that many, many Americans are just deciding not to fly.

"We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travelers vowing to stop flying," said Geoff Freeman, an executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, which set up the meeting with the Obama administration officials.

"You can't talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce," he said.

Today's Posts

Back from Branson (With an Item About Larry Gatlin)

"I Began to Feel Like a Paid Assassin…and That's Exactly What I Was."

Michelle Obama Starring in "Insensitive in India"

An Edgar Guest Poem for Veterans Day

Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church Coming Up Sunday

What Barack Obama Carefully Kept OUT of His Two Autobiographies

The Outrage Over Intrusive Airport Screening Heats Up

Back from Branson (With an Item About Larry Gatlin)

We're back from our week's stay in Branson and quickly immersed in trying to catch up on things here. It was, as it always is with us, a bit of a working vacation but we managed to have a delightful, relaxing, even inspiring time. We enjoyed great times with my sister Sherry and her husband John, including spirited conversations, meals, driving around the area, a long day at Silver Dollar City, and the joys of the Andy Williams Christmas show which I blogged about last week.

On our own, Claire and I discovered Vasken's, a terrific deli which offered the best potato salad I've ever eaten -- though in too small a portion! We ate there twice and almost did again the morning we left. We also watched some football on Sunday afternoon and got quite a bit of reading, mostly done late at night (Claire was finishing Dicken's David Copperfield, I was re-reading, after probably 25 years, Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich). We also planned Christmas projects while gazing across Table Rock Lake, did some driving in the woods north of town and, on our last night, attended a fabulous show starring the Gatlin Brothers and Debbie Boone.

Interesting note -- before we left the Mansion Theater that night, we spent a few minutes with Larry Gatlin talking about pro-life ministries. He had performed a very moving pro-life song in the concert which motivated us to stick around and talk to him a bit. The photo at right shows Claire with Larry Gatlin before we left.

Traveling home yesterday was fun too. We enjoyed our last hours of satellite radio, discussed Christmas plans, stopped for lunch in Kansas City at our favorite haunt there (the original Arthur Bryant's BBQ at 18th and Vine), and Claire took about a 90-minute nap.

When we arrived back in town, we stopped at a store to get Mom some goodies and then went over for a long visit. It was after 8 when we finally got home and the car emptied. We played a bit with the neighbor dog and then relaxed for a couple of hours before discovering our new furnace wasn't working. No problem -- we tossed on an extra cover and went to bed.

So, things are kinda' back to normal now except for Claire's visit to the doctor in a bit. Then, since the rental car has been returned, blogging is completed for the day and even the furnace is fixed, we're going to take this evening as a post-vacation vacation! See you tomorrow. And have a great Veterans Day.

"I Began to Feel Like a Paid Assassin…and That's Exactly What I Was."

As a physician in Troy, NY, I performed abortions in my office for eight years. I believed it was "pro-woman" to provide this option. While abortion was never a major part of my practice, as time went on it caused me more and more conflict.

My wife and I were seeking to adopt a child, and all the while I was throwing other people's children in the garbage at the rate of 9 or 10 a week. I began to think, "If only one of these women could give us her child."

Eventually, my wife and I were successful in adopting a healthy girl, Heather. On June 23, 1984, Heather was hit by a car and died. When you lose your child, life is very different. Everything changes. That's when things really changed for me regarding abortion. I realized as never before that the child I was killing in each abortion was somebody's precious child. My own loss enabled me to value life even more.

I began to feel like a paid assassin…and that's exactly what I was. My self-esteem plummeted, and so did my interest in doing abortions. In 1985 I stopped.

I now speak publicly about my pro-life convictions. I want the general public to know, for YOU to know what the doctors know: that this is a person.

(Dr. Anthony Levatino)

Michelle Obama Starring in "Insensitive in India"

First Lady Michelle Obama, ever the self-indulgent star of her own soap opera, explains to street children in Mumbai -- kids who have to scavenge garbage for food -- how tough it was growing up in Chicago when you didn't have a "lot of money."

I'm sure these kids were moved to tears by the tales of poor Michelle's bleak childhood.

But Michelle's got money now, by golly! And so the next stop in her itenerary was a shopping binge where she scarfed up "almost everything she came across.”

Remember how the mean-spirited American press used to chide Nancy Reagan for being extravagant? Goodness gracious, where are they in decrying the in-your-face intemperance of America's own Marie Antoinette?

Here's Jeannie DeAngelis from over at American Thinker describing our White House diva in one of her most boorish performances.

Besides hopscotch and freestyle Koli dancing, youthful firewood collectors, animal tenders, beggars, prostitutes, and street vendors listened intently as Michelle recounted personal hardships and sad stories about a beleaguered Chicago childhood. When not totally absorbed in Indian exhibition dancing, the First Lady related to those who subsist “amidst trash, animals and open sewers” a heritage replete with poverty.

Michelle said, “I didn’t grow up with a lot of money.” Reminding exploited youngsters that rough childhoods are not exclusive to India, Mrs. Obama exhorted those that sleep curled up on railroad platforms to follow her lead and make sure to get an education.

After presenting waifs with bags of stationery and “White House M&M sweets,” the First Lady put her very expensive Cynthia Vincent ballet flats back on and headed toward New Delhi on a one-woman mission to stimulate India’s economy.

Behaving like royalty in a dearth-plagued country filled with street urchins who oftentimes go without food, Mrs. Obama descended on the National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum in the Pragati Maidan complex. While there, the well-heeled First Lady disregarded the abject poverty beyond the walls of the museum and, for two hours, furthered diplomacy by procuring frivolous curios and trinkets.

According to museum director Ruchira Ghosh, “Michelle was so impressed with the Indian handicrafts on display that she did not want to leave the museum. She went on a shopping binge, buying almost everything she came across.”...

Those at the museum who watched in slack-jawed amazement related, “Michelle said she would have bought more had she been left with more money.” The “bought more if more money” sentiment is precisely the one held by Mumbai’s street children, as well as the millions of people that America's ambassadors to India, Michelle and Barry, left back home standing on an unending unemployment line.