Warning to America, We need to repent, now!! message by Jonathan Cahn -...

America cannot survive without a genuine turning back to God. This is one of the most rousing talks that I have ever heard. Time is short. The harvest is great. Pray that God will show each of us what He wants us to do. God bless.

Government: America’s new god

Please read the following article. It's written by Lloyd Marcus, a wonderful man who is as brilliant as he is kind and talented.

Government: America’s new god

God bless andkeep you.

Frances

McNaughton Fine Art: Amazing Critique of McNaughton's Art

Wake up America

(click on the image to enlarge)

If you aren't familiar with the art of Jon McNaughton, let me introduce you. His specialty is art which makes people think. I found the following critique on his blog. In my opinion, it's excellent. As an art teacher, I always taught my students that the highest purpose of a work of art was communication. The student is to examine and evaluate the message which the artist wishes to communicate. We must all be thinking viewers, not passive, allowing ourselves to be deceived.

McNaughton Fine Art: Amazing Critique of McNaughton's Art: "I found this article that talks about my paintings. I'm not used to someone with art history understanding making a critical analysis of my... " ~ Jon McNaughton

Here is to Fine Art, Better Thinking, and God bless America.

Frances

Harry Potter and the Power of the Poisoned Keyboard…

Ok, I’ll ’fess up. I’m a Harry Potter freak. I positively love the fantasy series. I’ve read each of the books, at least once, and listened to them countless times in audio format. (I like to imagine that I’m multi-tasking, and audio helps with that illusion.)

For me, J.K. Rowling has caught the essence of much that I treasure in her lively tales of a boy’s coming of age: the nature of the evil that we all face in this world, and the absolute necessity of resisting it; courage and humor in the face of adversity; honor, in doing that which is right, not that which is expedient; and that freedom is worth fighting for.

Similarly to C. S. Lewis, in his Chronicles of Narnia series, Ms. Rowling has covered the great themes of life: friendship and loyalty; life and death; but, most importantly, that love transcends all. And she has done so with an exuberance and honesty which children of all ages recognize and respond to. Ah, the joy…I’d be willing to step through the Wardrobe, or onto the Hogwart’s Express in a heartbeat… But I digress!

Not the so with the films! (Best Minerva McGonagall beady-eyed glare).

Last night, my roommate (a shout out and a thank you!) brought home the DVD of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 from the local Library. It had just arrived, and she knew that I had recently watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It’s nice to watch sequels concurrently. I found both movies to be perfect examples of, “Just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do it.”

I enjoyed everything about the first three movies immensely. They retained the sense of wonder, humor and joy of the books, and I thought their casting, scripting, and pacing to be splendid. As with the books, I fell in love with the movie characters. It’s been some time since I viewed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so I won’t comment here. I don’t think that I’ve seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so again I won’t comment. Since I have watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, I am allowed to pontificate. Both movies are hampered by lack of love, lack of chemistry, lack of humor, and most fatally, they lacked pacing. They dragged!

I acknowledge that the latter books of the series become increasingly darker as Harry matures and confronts ever more dangerous situations. That’s life. It’s to be expected. It happens for all of us. However, where each book contained multiple ‘laugh out loud’ passages…regrettably most had been edited from the movie scripts. Both movies were overloaded with wiz-bang special effects that completely overshadowed the characters and their stories. For me, both the acting and the writing were stiff and wooden. The spark was gone, gone, gone….Harry Potter, you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling… I sincerely hope your producers find it again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. It will be a cryin’ shame if such a wonderful series concludes on a movie downer.

Note to future writers and producers: People watch movies and read books because they’ve fallen in love with the characters, and because the plot lines are good…not because of special effects! Ms. Rowling not only didn’t forget this in her books, she succeeded brilliantly. So, writers and producers, get your priorities in order. Focus on the primary elements of character and plot line. Keep special effects in its proper role as a supporting tool. When special effects upstage the story line and the characters, we all lose. Character is everything…both in fiction and in real life.

Happy Viewing, and God bless,

Frances

Who is actually back writing again.

P.S. For those of you who might be looking for good audio editions of the Harry Potter stories, may I suggest those narrated by Steven Fry as being superb. I find Mr. Fry’s command of character accents to be amazing, and his ability to convey the ‘ridiculous’ to be…slyly entertaining! In short, everything that the latter movies are not!

The New Orleans School Voucher Program

I love the city of New Orleans. It's been a second home to me since my first trip there 62 years ago... which I really "do" remember! I have watched New Orleans go from a vibrant, world-class, commercial center, the largest port in the World, to a bureaucratically moribund excuse for a third-world banana republic. I lived there for 10 years during the 1980s, and loved every minute of that time. I also cried as I watched it's deterioration. Deterioration of a city ALWAYS, AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION, begins with the abdication of control of the local educational system by parents to the federal government.



Then came the collateral, flooding damage of the failed levees after Hurrican Katrina... and please remeber that Hurrican Katrina DID NOT hit New Orleans... it hit THE MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST! The infrastructure of Eastern New Orleans, including the existing bureaucratic, educational system, was esentially destroyed by corruption... and the parents, who have remained or returned to the city, have had to step forward and take their God ordained responsibility for their children's education. I am so happy for and proud of them.




This video will explain why I have more hope (that is, hope with real basis) for the future of my beloved second home. God bless the parents and teachers who are fighting for excellence in education for their children, the hope of the city and nation.

Frances

NewsBusted 8/20/10

Good morning everyone. I couldn't resist passing on a little snark when there are so many opportunities out there. Clear your mind. Start your Monday with a laugh.




Never take anybody's word for the truth. Do your own homework. Verify!

Frances ;-D

My Secret Garden: How Doeth It Grow?

Like a jungle, of course!

But, I don't EVER remember my Secret Garden being as beautiful as it's been this Summer. No exceptions.

I intended to write about my July/August garden last year, but time and direction prevented me. I've been writing elsewhere, and, even this time, it's taken me several weeks to put this post together. Anyway, I am NOT going to let the days slip away again. It'll be yet another year before my garden reminds me to write about it if I don't do so now. Even now these beautiful blooms are fading. However, it will only be a few weeks before the next wave of color begins. Enjoy.

To understand my "justifiable" (cough, cough) pride, you must be aware that an immutable Law of the Universe is that Summer in the South is hot as Blazes, humid as a steam bath, and rain is never dependable. There are very few plants which can survive, let alone bloom, under these stresses, with zero pampering. After the day lilies, during the first two weeks of June, there simply isn't much happening in the Southern Garden. By July, the crepe myrtles are almost the only thing still blooming... but not in my garden. The rains came when needed this year, and we have been the beneficiaries of God's bounty. Beautiful flowers during the day and heavenly fragrances to enjoy during late night constitutionals with Pasha Zack and Harem Kitty Maxie.

Long, long ago, I started collecting heirloom plants for each month. I wanted color throughout the year... the gaudier, the better. My idea was that if a plant had survived and thrived for a hundred or more years, and had been passed down through my family or friends' families, I'd give them an opportunity... they could root hog or die! They rooted. They thrived. And recently I received the gardener's greatest accolade. A friend came down my drive and exclaimed, "It's a wonderland!" What more could I ask?
　
Generally in order of appearance, these are the bloomers in my July/August garden: Crepe Myrtle; Garden Phlox; Lycoris Squamigira (aka Naked Lady Lily); Philippine Lily; Cashmere Bouquet; Confederate Jasmine; Pink and Blue Buddlieas, New Gold Lantana and Homestead Verbena. July/August is all pink, white, yellow and purple, and the butterflys and birds have been going crazy.

Happy writing, and gardening.

God bless,

Frances

Who will eventually return to writing Science Fiction Romance...

I promise!
　
　
　

Happy Independence Day!!!

I wish you all a wonderful Independence Day Celebration. On this day, do something radical. Re-read the Declaration of Independence. Then, thank God for the wisdom, courage, and devotion to Almighty God of our Founding Fathers. They were truly a "light unto the World".

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

A Declaration

By the Representatives of theUnited states of America,

In general Congress assembled.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

Let us never forget that this document is the most complete embodiment of what it means to be an American. Our fore fathers made this contract with God that they and their descendents would be responsible to the God of the Universe as individual citizens, and would hold their government responsible to God and the citizens. If we have not done so, we can only ask God for forgiveness, do our best to return to His ways, and ask Him to honor His promise,

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." - II Chronicles 7:14

God bless

Frances

The Greatest Scam in the History of the World...or "The Sky is Falling"

Science and politics seem to be inextricably entwined... because science is rarely fully understood by most people, and consequently, is often feared, even if subconsciously. Politicians find this lack of understanding and supposed fear to be ready made tools to gain power… for power is the one thing above all others that any politician desires. "The Climate is CHANGING! Oh my! Oh my! Panic! Panic! PANIC! But, never fear, WE, the smiling politicians can save you. Trust us. We’re the experts. Just do as we say. Give us your freedom. "We" know what’s best for you."

Pollution arouses passions, yes; but, being lied to arouses even more passions. Case in point: the recent exposure of the falsified data from the IPCC on supposed anthropogenic global warming. As it turns out, there hasn’t been any warming of the Earth in over ten years. We are actually in a cooling cycle. They LIED! The data was deliberately FALSIFIED!

Oh, but what about that horrible CO2 that humans create, and Carbon Trading we need to save the World? CO2 hasn’t changed in a long time, and is less now than it was in the past. Claiming that there is more was just a political lie to gain power. Actually the more CO2 you have in the atmosphere, the better the plants grow. It’s called photosynthesis. We need it. And as to the Carbon Trading, let me tell you a secret. I was a commodity trader for many years. Carbon Trading is simply a grand scale commodity trading scam to transfer money from your pocket into the pockets of dishonest politicians… arguably the greatest scam yet in the history of the world. As with every good mystery...follow the money!

Writers, if you want something serious to write about, write about corruption, and the hero who exposes it, and defends truth. Our government has excellent examples of the corruption. If you want accurate scientific information, go to: CFACT. The scientists and researchers at CFACT are under the aegis of Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchly. He is one of the World’s great mathematicians, a real genius, and he nailed the Global Warming Creeps because he also has a cast iron pair, and is willing to go to the wall for the truth! He's the real hero!

If anyone would like for me to supply specific scientific sources, let me know. I can’t promise to be timely, but I will get back to you.

Freedom is Colorblind (open up your eyes)

America has had a complicated racial history... nothing's perfect, after all. It would be impossibe to be otherwise with people from all over the globe coming here to pursue their unique "American Dream". That's what has made America different.

As in everything, there have always been those who would seek to divide and profit from the differences, both real and imagined, of others. However, thankfully, there have also always been those who saw character rather than color. That is what this video is about. Americans are reawakening to their common rights and duties as citizens.

The only color that Freedom knows is RED, WHITE, AND BLUE! I am so proud of all my patrot friends. Some of you, I happen to know your color...but most I have no idea, and I don't care...YOU ARE MY FRIEND...AND YOU ARE A PATRIOT!!!

God bless,

Frances

Writing to Awaken Her Country