55 Conservative Leaders Release Vision For New Congressional Leadership Letter

Republican leaders have a responsibility to better align their party’s policy stances with founding American principles, the U.S. Constitution, and the will and consent of the American people against the threats facing this nation right now. Congressional leaders represent more than merely the internal majority of their respective chambers. They become national leaders of the entire Republican Party and, when in the majority, the citizens of every state. This is the essence of self-government.

Read more at Citizens United
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

An American Virgil

Among the more adventurous sallies in church décor in recent memory is the dancing saints sequence at San Francisco’s Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, where Hypatia, Charles Darwin and William Blake among others have been drafted into the communio sanctorum. Perhaps the program is less a declaration than a prayer, illustrating Hans Urs von Balthasar’s dictum that universalism is a hope though not a doctrine.  But if so, wouldn’t a message of God’s universal love necessitate the inclusion of a figure or two who would rankle San Francisco Episcopalians? Still, there are many in the sequence who should long ago have been visualized in the context of Christian worship, and one especially justified inclusion is the Native American visionary Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950).

Read more at First Things
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Re: Corvallis "Vlsion/Climate Action Plan"

UPDATE: John Detweiler's letter was published by the Corvallis Gazette-Times on 4/23/15: Letter: 'Climate action plan' misfires; Earth's woes are due to overpopulation

April 16, 2015 - Today, John H. Detweiler shared the following letter, which he submitted to the Gazette-Times Opinion page:

The proposed FY15-16 budget contains a project entitled "Vision/Climate Action Plan". The project proposes to spend $285,000 this year and $735,000 in cumulative costs. That money would be better spent on fixing potholes, capital investments with a high internal rate of return, or simply saved. The last Vision Statement contained fine sounding words that have been used to beat up developers. I expect a new Vision and Action Plan will not be any better. Moreover, unless city government is going to fund the "action", the envisioned projects need to be profitable for developers or they will not happen.

Any action that Corvallis takes to change the climate will just be noise in the earth's thermodynamic system. The real problem is the growing world population -- all of whom want to live the way the developed world lives -- which I estimate will be close to 12Billion early in the next century. Corvallis cannot take any action that will restrain or reduce population growth. For more on this issue, the reader is referred to "Cutting through Climate Change BS" on http://www.peak.org/~detweij.

John H. Detweiler

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Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society

Op-Ed by Charles G. Koch - Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.
I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself. Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal Read More......