It's Time To Invade North Korea

North Korea seems bent on causing trouble despite people starving.

It's time we sent over these crack commandos and take charge of the country to the benefit of both world peace and their own population.

Blustering Conservatives

The Democrats have not socialized America overnight.
Quite the contrary, they've been tenacious and steady.
They rarely toss one of their own under the bus over a single issue or two

The Democrats and their socialist ideology have prevailed not due to what they've done right, but because they don't tend to take their bat and ball and go home when one of their own fails to fully live up to their leftist goals.

Meanwhile, we can easily see how we lose.
How often we hear of those with high sounding principles and how if the Republicans do this or that then they're voting 3rd party or staying home.

Yet..somehow, those with track records of victoriously recruiting and fielding conservative Republican candidates; that maintain a voice of reason and pragmatism are the "problem" within the GOP.

I don't think so.

Waving signs, ranting on facebook, showing up at demonstrations and rallies is a poor substitute for having a hot dog roast in your backyard for a local assembly or state senate candidate.

A Monumental Disappointment

Supposedly a retracing of the journey of the Independents and Separatists that wound up making up the majority of the passengers on the Mayflower.


 Monumental was instead a monumental disappointment.

I suffered through it and discovered Cameron's point was merely the obvious - the Mayflower Pilgrims (our name for them, not theirs) were a group of folks seeking escape from what amounted to a totalitarian society.

Most important to the majority was religious liberty.

Cameron's correct on those counts.

However the omissions were more than glaring.

While he does get the groups 12 years in Holland correctly; he omits that
there were several individual congregations of former Puritans, contrary minded Christians, Separatists, etc. who had joined together in a loose knit confederacy of sorts.

Cameron mentions only Rev. John Robinson, a good man, but no rock star.

No mention at all of Thomas Hooker who had been part of Lothrop's congregation that fled to Holland for 12 years and who came to America later, got a load of the Mass Bay Colony (Puritans) running roughshod over Plymouth; rounded up a few fellows and settled Connecticut solely to escape the dreaded Puritans.
Quite the contrary - according to Cameron the Mayflower *was* a boatload of Puritans.

There were no Puritans on the Mayflower

(PA Mayflower Society has a nice piece on "Pilgrims not Puritans")

No mention of Rev. Lothrop, who was captured and jailed at the time of the sailing; spent longer in prison than anyone else who came out alive, came to America, settled Barnstable Mass and has (so far) 6 US Presidents as direct descendants.

No mention of Stephen Hopkins the only passenger (a "stranger" as he was not a member of any of the congregations) who had been to America on a previous trip to Jamestown (was ship wrecked en-route; his story alone makes most 007 stories pale by comparison)

Despite Cameron's over-the-top judgmental (and I consider unchristian)  remarks regarding Gays and his apparent fear of Freemasons; I had looked forward to the film - in fact it was the 1st time I had been inside a movie theater in over 10 years.

Maybe someday someone will make a truthful film about the early settlers that became the Mayflower passengers. 

If so, they should start their research at the 

Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Mass.

RINO

Republican In Name Only is a pejorative term that refers to a member of the 
Republican Party of the United States whose political views or 
actions are considered insufficiently conservative or 
otherwise not conforming to party positions. 

The acronym RINO, emerging in the 1990s, is a charge used in campaigns by Republican conservatives against party moderates.

Those that use the term have degenerated. 

Too rarely are they actual Republicans

Having failed to show up for battles we've lost, they appear out of nowhere and wish to dictate what the Republican Party should be in their own warped, naive and simplistic fashion.

They offer little if any help to our candidates, rarely join their local town committees, and generally donate little or nothing to our campaign war-chests. 

Some will attempt to smear party stalwarts, citing any, (including imaginary) flaws, sins against whatever their view of "Republican" is and so forth.

While the Republican Party needs to grow, especially here in the northeast; those using the term "RINO" will offer no help. Quite the contrary as they seem more interested in inciting arguments and general disagreement at every opportunity.