The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
Featuring:
We're The Needy Ones Now
Tom McLaughlin
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
GOP Sets Agenda, but Infighting Threatens Delay
Today, the newly elected 114th Congress convenes, and with it, lots of hype, ambitions, agendas and political drama. Congress will be tasked with passing legislation the president will no doubt oppose, and Republicans will have to keep the infighting to a minimum if they ever hope to stop this administration's assault on Liberty. The GOP appears to be ready to go to work, having put forth an agenda that seeks to accomplish what the 113th Congress -- derailed by then-Senate Majority Leader dinky Harry Reid -- could not. The first order of business for the House is to pass legislation expediting the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Senate is expected to follow suit, with the GOP leadership making it clear that creating jobs and increasing energy production in the United States is a must. Next on the agenda is nObamaCare. In the GOP weekly address, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) said that the House plans to rework nObamaCare's definition of a full-time employee. The law sets the bar at 30 hours per week, but Republicans seek a return to the traditional understanding of a 40-hour workweek. Obviously, we would prefer Congress repeal the entire law, but it would be foolish to expect the president to sign legislation undoing his crowning "achievement." And some reform is going to be necessary given the possibility of the Supreme Court striking down federal subsidies. -The Patriot Post
Tax Filers to Experience 'Joys' of nObamaCare
This year, the IRS will be fully involved in policing health insurance coverage under nObamaCare, with federal tax forms requiring for the first time that taxpayers report their health insurance status to the IRS. Filers will have to state whether they had employer-paid health insurance coverage in 2014 or received subsidies to help pay for their coverage. Those who did not have coverage face fines of $325 or 2% of taxable income. Citizens will basically be on the honor system, however, as the IRS says reduced staffing and budgets won't allow it to check up on every tax return. The IRS operating budget has shrunk by $1 billion since 2010, and it has 13,000 fewer employees -- a direct result of Republican attempts to stymie nObamaCare's implementation. The IRS says it won't reject tax returns that don't address the health insurance question, but the agency plans to exercise its audit power. Some filers may be required to file additional forms to prove their health insurance coverage or request one of the 30 different exemptions that currently exist. Open enrollment ends on Feb. 15, though, so the window for filing hardship exemptions is rapidly closing. -The Patriot Post CAN MCCONNELL THAW THE SENATE WITHOUT GETTING SOAKED?
The 114th Congress gets underway today in a snowy Washington with all the media attention on the noisy effort by a small group of Republican foes of House Speaker backstabber John Boehner to embarrass the GOP leader by denying him a first-ballot victory in his election to a third term. But the real action is over in the other chamber, where we will see the first test of incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s effort to reopen the Senate for actual legislation following years of his predecessor’s Heat Miser-style deep freeze. Note: backstabber Boehner was re-elected. -Fox News 
The 114th Congress gets underway today in a snowy Washington with all the media attention on the noisy effort by a small group of Republican foes of House Speaker backstabber John Boehner to embarrass the GOP leader by denying him a first-ballot victory in his election to a third term. But the real action is over in the other chamber, where we will see the first test of incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s effort to reopen the Senate for actual legislation following years of his predecessor’s Heat Miser-style deep freeze. Note: backstabber Boehner was re-elected. -Fox News
Piped in - The first order of business in the Senate is a bipartisan bill to force the nObama administration to allow an oil pipeline from Canada to be completed. The eventual Keystone XL vote will be the first test of McConnell’s plan to revive the Senate, which seized up during the dinky Harry Reid-era,. For much of dinky Reid’s reign, even Democrats were usually forbidden to introduce or alter legislation on their own. Today marks the return to “regular order” and the first test of McConnell’s effort to thaw things out. And it comes with considerable risk. Democrats have a plan to punish McConnell for the move by not just killing the bill but bedeviling the process. There seem to be the six Democratic votes needed to advance the legislation, however dinky Reid and his presumed eventual successor, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have hopes of hopes of breaking up the bipartisan fun and protecting President nObama from having to veto the popular plan.
“I think we’ve got all 54 Republicans, looks like they’ll be original co-sponsors and more than half a dozen Democrats. The votes are there.” – Sen-elect Ben Sasse, R-Neb., on the Senate Keystone XL pipeline bill, on “FOX & Friends” this morning. -Fox News
“I think we’ve got all 54 Republicans, looks like they’ll be original co-sponsors and more than half a dozen Democrats. The votes are there.” – Sen-elect Ben Sasse, R-Neb., on the Senate Keystone XL pipeline bill, on “FOX & Friends” this morning. -Fox News
Tougher path - McConnell is expected to preserve the biggest dinky Reid-era change: lowering the threshold for confirming presidential nominees other than Supreme Court justices from 60 votes to 51 votes. But by reassuming the old, open Senate rules that give broad latitude to all members of both parties to introduce bills and amendments, McConnell is making his job much harder. Not only will he face hijinks from Democrats, but he will give up dinky Reid’s policy of handcuffing problematic members of his own party. -Fox News
1.
Iran’s Occupation of Syria
(Joseph Puder) - Most people immersed in Middle Eastern affairs have heard the charge, ad-nauseam, “Israeli occupation” of the West Bank...The United Nations (UN) agencies, the European Union (EU), large segments of the American and European media, and many of the so called human rights watchdogs have been critical of Israel’s “occupation,” albeit the Jewish state has attempted to make peace with the Arab states and the Palestinians all along. Moreover, UN Security Council Resolution 242 considered the West Bank “disputed territory.” What one does not hear from the shrill chorus of the aforementioned voices is criticism of the Iranian occupation of Syria. There are no UN resolutions demanding Iranian withdrawal from Syria, or a firm U.S. government statement to that effect. This amounts to sheer hypocrisy and a double standard. http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/joseph-puder/irans-occupation-of-syria/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9a4d2ea604-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-9a4d2ea604-156509103
2.
Expect a 242% Hike in nObamacare Fines for 2015
(Floyd Brown) - nObamacare was craftily written…Benefits come first, and then the bite comes later. You see, if you remained uninsured in 2014, you would have paid a penalty of $95 (or 1% above the filing threshold)...But the fines were structured to increase over time. And 2015 is the year that average citizens will really start to feel the sting. For 2015, you’re facing a $325 fine, or a penalty that’s 2% of income above the filing threshold. http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/01/05/obamacare-fines-2015/
3.
Holder: Congress Passed No Law Making Sex Change a Civil Right
(Linda Harvey) - They did it again. The nObama Administration, specifically current Attorney General Eric Holder, has invented a new law through “memorandum,” attempting to advance sexual deviance when Congress has made no such law...Sex change is now a federal civil right, Holder declares, and Title VII can apply to fake women just like real women in situations involving alleged sex discrimination. Holder and the Department of Justice will now argue that men who dress as women are girls, too, because their confused minds say it’s so. http://barbwire.com/2015/01/05/0655-tell-eric-holder-congress-passed-no-law-making-sex-change-civil-right/
4.
Did the CIA Fiddle With Population Statistics about Iran?
(Daniel Pipes) - The World Factbook, described as "information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities,"...is perhaps the most prominent unclassified publication of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a major source of information. Yet, a numerical discrepancy concerning the ethnic makeup of Iran prompted me three months ago, on October 5, 2014, to send the agency a letter (via its website): http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2015/01/did-the-cia-fiddle-with-population-statistics
5.
Must See & Share as We are Rapidly Losing Our Culture
(Brooke McGowan) - I hesitated to share this on Viral.Buzz, as it will be considered controversial...The below video is a remarkable depiction of the demographic cultural battle we all face in the West. If anything needs to go viral, it’s this message. We are rapidly losing our western culture, it’s clearly under attack and many just don’t seem to care enough to do anything about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HoBz68-Q_8
6.
Saudi religious leader OKs rape of children
(F. Michael Maloof) - Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s top religious authority in the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, has ruled it’s acceptable for men to marry girls...so young the West would deem it nothing short of pedophilia and rape. Despite the Saudi justice ministry’s failed efforts to date to set 15 as a minimum age to marry a girl in the kingdom, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz declared there is nothing prohibiting Muslim men from marrying girls even younger. http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/saudi-religious-leader-oks-rape-of-children/
(F. Michael Maloof) - Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s top religious authority in the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, has ruled it’s acceptable for men to marry girls...so young the West would deem it nothing short of pedophilia and rape. Despite the Saudi justice ministry’s failed efforts to date to set 15 as a minimum age to marry a girl in the kingdom, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz declared there is nothing prohibiting Muslim men from marrying girls even younger. http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/saudi-religious-leader-oks-rape-of-children/
7.
A Conversation With Newt Gingrich
(DANIEL HALPER) - "Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich sat down with Bill Kristol to discuss the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in forty years...Gingrich also recalls his first political campaigns and how he began to influence Washington in the 1980s. Finally, the former speaker offers a personal take on mentors, allies, and rivals, including Gerald Ford, Jack Kemp, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton—as well as his reflections on presidents from Eisenhower to nObama. This is a must-see Conversation for anyone interested in contemporary American history and the origins of our current political landscape," writes the Foundation for Constitutional Government, the sponsor of the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNA4GgvVD04
8.
2014: The Year of Peak Stupidity
(Clarice Feldman) - The year just ended saw one leftist narrative after another collapse under the weight of reality, and the Republicans still sucking their thumbs, turning the other cheek, and failing to effectively respond...For decades, greenies have said we must impoverish ourselves and switch to costly, inefficient sources of energy because we are approaching “peak oil” and the world will soon run out of this valuable resource. With new sources of petroleum energy turning up almost everywhere on earth, the claim has proven hollow. In his usual colorful language, Rick Ballard characterized the left wing’s dilemma, playing off that phrase: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/2014_the_year_of_peak_stupidity.html
9.
The Case of Barack nObama and his Muslim Brother Malik
(Ben Barrack) - There has been a major breakthrough in the case of Malik nObama. It may also help to explain why members of Congress, mainstream media, and shockingly, even the attorneys for Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS have chosen to ignore the earth-shattering scandal involving the President’s eldest brother...This new discovery reveals a mosaic of intrigue that has never before been presented. It’s a scandal with everything… and more. What you are about to read consists of previously reported data points but now also includes a key figure that eliminates much speculation when viewed in the context of these data points – the Executive Director in whose home was formed the Foundation headed by Barack nObama’s Muslim brother, Malik. http://shoebat.com/2015/01/05/major-breakthrough-case-barack-obama-muslim-brother-malik/
10.
Christians are persecuted by radical Muslims in Nigeria. Most of the world first became aware of Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram when they kidnapped 200 girls from their school in northern Nigeria last April. The name “Boko Haram" means “western education is forbidden” in Hausa language. The girls have since been sold into slavery or forced to “marry” terrorists. It’s actions are very similar to those of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, with whom the United States had recently gone to war. According the Gatestone Institute, “in the last four years alone, approximately 1,000 Christian churches have been destroyed by Boko Haram and its Muslim sympathizers in a nation that is approximately half Christian half Muslim.” According to Human Rights Watch, Boko Haram killed 2053 Nigerian Christians just in 2014.
FCC Net Neutrality Vote Expected in February
(Raven Clabough) - The Federal Communications Commission announced on Friday it will be introducing and voting on new net neutrality rules in February...The proposals are sure to set off another storm of controversy as net neutrality has long been a contentious issue for those who believe in the free market and free speech. Currently, it is unclear what rules are being circulated amongst FCC officials, but the timing was expected, as the push for stronger regulations grew fiercer. The Washington Post writes, “Advocates of strong net neutrality, including President Obama, have urged the FCC to begin regulating Internet service providers using the same law it uses to oversee telephone companies — Title II of the Communications Act.” http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/computers/item/19838-fcc-net-neutrality-vote-expected-in-february-but-will-congress-beat-them-to-it?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=48fbd0bc44-The_Editors_Top_Picks_3_12_143_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8ca494f2d2-48fbd0bc44-289778381
We're The Needy Ones Now
Tom McLaughlin
(tommclaughlin.blogspot.com) - Missionaries from Africa are working here in Maine. What does that say about us? Well, we need missionaries to bolster our faith because it’s waning. Yes, we used to send missionaries to Africa because they were more in need than we were, but that situation has reversed. There’s a critical shortage of priests here in Maine, but not in Africa — or not in western and central Africa where Father Innocent Okozi had been working. Now he lives in Bridgton, Maine where he is pastor of St. Joseph Parish, which includes St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in nearby Fryeburg where I attend, as well as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish, which includes St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Norway, Maine, Our Lady of Ransom Church in Mechanic Falls, and St Mary Church, Oxford, ME, which is open only during the summer.
When I grew up in suburban Boston in the fifties and sixties, our parish alone had half a dozen priests. Now one has to cover multiple parishes here in Maine, even while church buildings are being closed down and sold off all over the state. Young men in New England and in other, more liberal parts of our country are reluctant to devote their lives to the priesthood compared to former times. Seminaries have few applicants. That’s not as much of a problem in conservative Catholic dioceses in the midwest and south, but here the shortage has reached critical levels.
Last month I had an opportunity to talk to Father Innocent about this and other topics. “There was a time when Europe and America used to send a lot of priests to Africa. That was a time when there was a vocation boom on this side,” he said. “And now, Africa is enjoying a similar thing.” Some bishops in Africa are reluctant to send their priests out, but if the Church in Rome looks at its worldwide situation, there’s more of a shortage in the United States than elsewhere, except Europe, which faces a more acute shortage than the United States.
Father Innocent cites two reasons for the shortage: families have fewer children and “their priorities have changed, a lot.” There is less openness to the spiritual life among baby boomers, but the generation following them is seeking that out more, he said. “Because they grew up in a spiritual vacuum?” I asked. “Exactly,” he said. Let’s hope he’s right about that.
He came to Maine originally for pre-doctoral work in psychology at UMO, the University of Maine Orono, and checked in with the Bishop in Portland as a courtesy. Soon he was filling in at masses in different parishes and, when he finished his studies, then-Bishop Malone asked him to stay on. He and another Nigerian priest, Father Samuel Madza, SMA were both assigned to Bridgton and Norway, with Father Innocent as Pastor. Father Innocent baptized my twin grandsons last year and Father Sam presided over my nephew’s funeral shortly after.
Father Innocent was born the oldest of eight children. As he was studying for the priesthood during the late 1980s and early 1990s in southern Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire respectively, his family moved to the Borno State in Northern Nigeria, which has since become a major hotbed for Boko Haram depredations. His father was transferred there by the automobile dealer he worked for and his mother worked in the restaurant industry. Father Innocent visited them during his Christmas vacation and witnessed firsthand what was then just developing.
A local Muslim boy was interested in one of his younger sisters, who invited him to a Christmas service. His father was a local leader. As Father Innocent described it: “If he attended not only would his family disown him, some family members may poison him.” Then Father Okozi’s mother was warned by the meat sellers from whom she purchased beef for her restaurant that radical Muslims were planning to poison the meat, knowing that Christians purchased a lot of it during Christmas. Then there were plots to attack Catholics as they left midnight masses on Christmas Eve. Shortly thereafter, his family moved away from Borno State to a safer part of the country. “When I read about what’s going on now, I thank God they moved before things got worse,” he said.
It’s ironic that priestly vocations are booming where Christians are persecuted, and waning where they’ve gotten complacent.
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