Dick Armey’s editorial in Sunday’s Washington Post is dead-on. He makes some astute observations, specifically that if Republicans lose the majority, it will NOT be because they are TOO conservative. My sentiments exactly. He states:

If Democrats take control of Congress on Nov. 7, they will form an accidental majority. They are not succeeding because of their principles or policy proposals, but simply because they have kept their heads down. Republicans, fearful of taking on big tasks and challenges, may be defeated next month by a party that offers nothing on the key issues of our day.

***

The likely Republican losses in next week’s elections will not constitute a repudiation of the conservative legacy that drove the Reagan presidency and created the Contract With America. To the contrary, it would represent a rejection of big government conservatism. When we get back to being the party of limited government, putting a national agenda ahead of parochial short-term politics, we will again be a party that the American voters will trust to deal with the serious challenges facing our nation.

Read it all.

Via: Human Events’ Right Angle

PS I am not so sure Republican losses will be as bad as the left and MSM (one in the same) would have us believe. For the last few election cycles, we have been told how dire it was for Republicans. I’ll put it this way: I am not thrilled with everything the Republicans are doing, but I am certainly not running to Democrats for relief.

We baptists are usually not very ceremonial. Most, including myself, recognize two ordinances of the church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Regarding baptism, we’re immersers, believing that is the biblical model. Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are beautiful outward expressions of an inward event. They are symbolic acts full of deep meaning, if they are genuine. They have no magical powers for salvation, and if not practiced as a symbolic result of salvation, you have done nothing more than get wet, with baptism, or had a cracker and juice, with communion.

Jesus and His disciples were gathered together in the upper room to celebrate Passover when Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper. He broke and blessed the unleavened bread of Passover and said it was his body that was broken for us and that they should eat. He blessed the cup and told them all to drink of it as it was his blood which was shed for remission of sins. And so the symbols used in passover are given an even deeper meaning in the Lord’s Supper. Also on the table would have been bitter herbs and a fruit mixture, reminiscent of the bitter struggle of the Hebrew children and the mortar they used in conjunction with their bricks under slavery, respectively. Everything had a meaning and a purpose.

It is a beautiful event when a church celebrates the Lord’s Supper. At our church, I try to schedule the remembrance often enough that we are not neglectful of it, yet not so often that it looses its specialness. I shoot for once a quarter, and usually it is on a 5th Sunday, since there is one per quarter, though we do celebrate it in conjunction with certain Christian events during the year, Easter especially. It’s a time of solemnity, introspection, and deep fellowship, and it’s nice to share that as we remember the work of Christ.

The important message fo Passoever was, “Is there blood?” That remains the message today. “Is there blood?” John the Baptist looked at Christ and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Christ is the one, true Passover lamb given for many. Can we say His blood covers us today? Is there blood? It’s the only question that really matters.

Just got in from Dallas today. Got home with barely time to take a quick breath and change clothes before church.

Dallas has to have the most confusing streets, roads, and interstates I have ever seen. I made it, but it took a while to get it figured out. I rarely have trouble being able to “feel” which way is north, but I get turned around all the time in Dallas. Maybe the illegal aliens do, too. That’s it, they’re not trying to sneak in, they are just confused about which way they are headed. They are trying to go south to go home, but inadvertantly come north to our home. Yeah, that’s the ticket…

I was there to do some a media escort for Barbara Cameron. We’re promoting her book, and we had a few media appearances and bookstore visits. You may not recognize Barbara’s name immediately, but you are likely familiar with two of her kids, Kirk and Candace Cameron of Growing Pains and Full House, respectively. Kirk also starred in the Left Behind movies and now works full time on his ministry with Ray Comfort, The Way of the Master. Kirk married Chelsea Noble, who played his girlfriend at the end of Growing Pains, and they have six kids! Candace married Val Bure, the NHL hockey player, and they have 3(?) kids. She is a stay-at-home-mom, though she does do some speaking where she can share her faith. Kirk and Candace flew in to do one of the media appearances with their mom, and they all did a great job. You can catch them on Life Today with James and Betty Robison, Thursday, February 1, 2007, on the Discovery Channel.

Barbara’s book, A Full House of Growing Pains, is the very well-told story of her raising “good kids” in the culture of Hollywood (Kirk and Candace have two other sisters). Although she was raising kids with moral instruction and values, it was not a Christian home. Because of that there were many struggles. Eventually, Kirk–an admitted atheist or agnostic–came to Christ. As he shared Ray Comfort’s message, “Hell’s Best Kept Secret,” changes began to occur. Candace accepted Christ. Barbara renewed her relationship with God. Barbar’s husband, a long-time non-believer, has now also accepted Christ and was baptized by Kirk a couple months back. God carried the family through the rough patches, and now He is working through the platform He gave Kirk and Candace when they were younger.

I have escorted Barbara a few times now, and she is a thrill to work with. Kirk and Candace are great, also. They are the most down-to-earth folks, and there’s not a bit of Hollywood pretension in the bunch. It is a pleasure to be working with them.

It’s a little dark, but here’s a picture of us from the green room at Life Today:

I conducted the first of what I hope are many Wynn-terviews on the WynnCast. I talked to Bill “Wild Bill” Kerr of the Passionate America blog. He is an Oklahoma blogger, and he broke the story about the identity of the the page in the Mark Foley scandal. Check it out.

One of the stories to come out recently is tangential to the eminent domain case at OSU. As you may know, OSU (my alma mater) has decided to create an “Athletic Village” by using the power of the state forcibly to require citizens to sell their property to the State. There have been a few problems with this deal, and I have to say that as an alum I have been embarrassed by some of OSU’s behavior in this matter.

The latest story in the Tulsa Whirled reports that OSU Board of Regents has sued McCloskey Brothers, real estate investors, to get the last piece of property it needs to move on with the whole Athletic Village idea. McCloskey Bros. counters by saying that the Board of Regents is unconstitutional. How so? Well, it seems that our pesky Oklahoma Constitution requires that a majority of the Board of Regents for Agricultural & Mechanical Schools and Colleges be farmers. Yep, you read right. A majority must be farmers.

Oklahoma Constitution, Article 6, Section 31a, states in full (bold emphasis mine):

§ 31a. Board of Regents for agricultural and mechanical schools and colleges – Members – Vacancies – Removal – Terms.

There is hereby created a Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and all Agricultural and Mechanical Schools and Colleges maintained in whole or in part by the State. The Board shall consist of nine (9) members, eight (8) members to be appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a majority of whom shall be farmers, and the ninth member shall be the President of the State Board of Agriculture. Any vacancy occurring among the appointed members shall be filled by appointment of the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The members of the Board shall be removable only for cause as provided by law for the removal of officers not subject to impeachment. The members shall be appointed for terms of eight (8) years each, with one term expiring each year, provided that the members of the first Board shall be appointed for terms of from one (1) to eight (8) years respectively. Provided that no State, National or County officer shall ever be appointed as a member of said Board of Regents until two years after his tenure as such officer has ceased.

You should also know that the President of the State Board of Agriculture must also be a farmer, as all members of the State Board of Ag must be. Eight others, a majority of whom shall be farmers, are to be selected by the Governor with standard advice and consent of the State Senate. A majority of 8 is 5. That means, if the article is correct and none of the Regents are farmers (other than the President of the State Board of Ag), only three of the current OSU Regents appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate are qualified to hold that position of trust; they are illegitimate.

You would think this fact would invalidate their actions. Not so, says the State Attorney General. Or at least that is what OSU is alleging. OSU has said that the makeup of the Regent Board is irrelevent to the eminent domain case due to a 1987 state attorney general’s opinion saying actions by an unconstitutionally composed board remain valid. That would seem contrary to logic. If that were so, what motivation is there to compose board and commissions constitutionally. I have not yet found that AG’s opinion to read for myself, but remember, it’s only an opinion. The current AG filed an amicus brief on behalf of all us Oklahomans against the boy scouts in the big Supreme Court case. Yes, I said against the boy scouts. Not the best use of his opinion powers, eh?

The bottom line for me is that the Constitution is sacred. It is the contract we make with the government, which we empower by its ratification. I don’t care how weird or unreasonable a provision of the Constitution may seem, it is to be obeyed by the government because it was put there directly by the people. If the people determine that OSU Regents all must be left handed, that requirement must be followed to the letter because the people said so. Everyone loves the idea of democracy until a ruling elite thinks it knows better. Some of the current (illegitimate) Regents say things like OSU needs a broader range of experience on the Board of Regents. Ok then, campaign to amend the constitution. You don’t just get to decide that this idea seems better. Plus, the Constitution currently allows a minority of the Regents to be as broad as the Governor wants.

In fact, the OSCN site contains the note that that part about the Regents was: 

Added by State Question No. 310, Ref. Petition No. 87, adopted at election held July 11, 1994

A direct vote of the people put it there, in the section about Board fo Agriculture (think maybe we were serious about the farming thing?), in 1994. If I am not mistaken that is more recent than the 1987 AG’s opinion OSU is clinging to as a way out of this embarrassment.

Long story short: Five OSU Regents are not qualified for the positions they hold. The last five appointed should be allowed to resign, though no resignation is necessary. Since only three seats are properly filled, Governor Henry should immediately appoint five farmers to the Board of Regents, to be confirmed by the Senate. End of story.

We just posted a WynnCast at the WynnCast Blog.

Ok, Jeane, her parents, and I ate lunch Friday at one of our favorite Claremore haunts, El Azteca. It was great as usual.

As we stood at the counter to pay, however, we witnessed something I still cannot believe. There were a group of high school students wearing red t-shirts (Claremore Zebras are red and white instead of black and white). The t-shirts are emblazoned with “Red Army” across the front, which to me is bad enough. Beyond that, these shirts had a white star on the chest with the Soviet hammer and sickle logo inside it. Something similar to this: http://kpp.aksios.de/bilder/stern2.gif. I was shocked.

I realize that today’s high school students were born after the Soviet threat was annihilated by Ronald Reagan. But their teachers weren’t. Their parents weren’t. The screen printer wasn’t. I mean, first of all, kids of the age I saw there should by now have some basic understanding of the history of the evils if the Soviet Union, enough so that they would choose not to call themselves the “Red Army” and wear Communist symbols on their chest. Second of all, the parents, teachers, and even the t-shirt maker should have warned these kids that this is not just a little joke. If was supposed to be a joke, it was in really poor taste. I mean, I am willing to give these kids the benefit of the doubt and assume they made the choice to wear Soviet propaganda out of ignorance. What I cannot excuse is people who know better not educating thses kids. I am not in favor of them being censored. I am sure that if the kids knew what they were doing, they would voluntarily choose to wear something else. If they knew what they were wearing, and chose to do it anyway, I find it inexcusable.

And so, do we have little commies running around Claremore? Or is it ignorance run amok?

Compare this with the recent story of the high school coach who put signs on his players’ lockers saying, “Work will set you free.” Harmless enough, wouldn’t you say? Of course, the coach was suspended for a game. Why? Well, the German translation of that phrase is, “Arbeit macht frei,” which was used by the Nazis and posted at the entrance to concentration camps. So, the coach, in his ignorance, posts a pretty motivational phrase for football players, in English, and he is suspended because the Nazis used the same phrase, in German, to do some awful things.

I guess where I am going here, is that the Claremore “Red Army” needs to know the consequences of emblems, slogans, and symbols of evil. They need to realize that there is a history that automatically attaches to them when they are seen publicly weaing the symbols of the evil empire. In short, they need a solid history education. This does not speak well for the education they are receiving at Claremore High School. Just ask yourself, would we see a group of homeschool students out about town in the same garb? I think not.

Sorry for the posting pause, but we’ve just been swamped!

Been working on taxes, preparing for the women’s retreat, preparing for the mothin-in-law’s birthday, painting the in-laws’ kitchen, any number of things. We’re not done with everything we have to do, but I will try to post a real post soon. Don’t give up on me. However, there should be plenty of reading to keep you occupied. Did you know that it was Okie Blogger Wild Bill at Passionate America (who was also nominated with the WynnCast in the Best Audio Blog sategory of the 2006 Okie Blog Awards (no, neither of us won)) that broke the news of the identity of the page involved in Page-gate and that he was not a minor and is on Istook’s campaign staff? A crack job of investigation; check it out. By the way, Wild Bill’s been getting lots of horrible threats because of his work. He simply posted the truth, and he should not be maligned–or threatened–for it.