Author Archives: Editor

New book series written by teens for teens

Posted on November 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

In January 2007, the founders of The Benchmark Group, who had been in the publishing business for a combination of more than 50 years, decided to form a company to launch a line of books written by teens for teens: The Young Writers Series.

The rationale behind the Youth Writers Series is simple: Give creative youth an outlet, a market, to speak to their world. Yes, Benchmark Group makes some money, writers make some money, and readers get affordable books that appeal to them.

Moreover, fresh young voices speak clearly to their generation. Their topics range from fantasy to free verse to the fight for freedom. Their writings are clever, historically accurate and, often, just plain fun.

Some recent titles by teens include “White Star” by Rebecca Wilson. This book of accurate historical fiction explores life in both 1912 and today. Creating two young characters who share their lives across time and space of both worlds. Another book by 14 year old Hannah Reeves is titled “By the Grace of God.” Grace is life during the Civil War. Reeves explores how families do and ought to respond to war.
Not all book are historical fiction. “Centaur’s Door” and “The Line” are fantasy fiction. One explores overcoming persecution and abuse in the fantasy world of centaurs and the other explores battling the darkness of evil through the power of good.

If you are a young writer looking for a way to share your ideas, check out Benchmark Group website at http://www.benchmarkgrouppublishers.com.

According to their website, the company name was chosen because a benchmark is a standard of excellence. The Benchmark Group desires to give excellent service and to be obedient to God in all our service, publications, and dealings with authors, clients and customers. Because the Biblical standard is the ultimate benchmark, it is the standard to which they hold themselves to. Therefore, Benchmark Group books are meticulously edited for clarity and accuracy and never contain offensive material or language.

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Celebrating Liberty

Posted on November 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Andy Myers

The worst decision you can make is to think that you can do so little that you do nothing at all.

That is why the Ohio Freedom Alliance will present The Southwest Ohio Liberty Conference, a unique speaker’s forum celebrating the true spirit and timeless traditions of Liberty, Honest Money and State Sovereignty. These 3 ideals are critical to the success of placing America back on the path to greatness. We need to reevaluate our philosophy of what freedom truly is. While many profess to be freedom loving Americans, they only advocate those freedoms they favor and fail to defend those freedoms they are at odds with. The concept of freedom today is wholly at odds with natural law, a concept of freedom found in the Declaration of Independence. The founders knew very well the implications of respecting natural law and used its intent vigorously in proposing our republican form of government We also neeed honest money to prosper. That is to say money produced without violating fraud laws, e.g., gold and silver. This has been a principle widely misunderstood by those who profess to be pro-liberty. The evidence is irrefutable and the theory is sound that fiat, or paper money has been the root cause of all the financial crisis in history. Honest interpretation of world history is a great teacher and proves without a doubt that private central bankers and governments are poor stewards of a nations wealth. Today the dollar is worth about $0.04 in comparison to its value in 1913 before the Federal Reserve Act was illegally passed by Congress. We also would be wise to remember the maxim that a government which governs least governs best. The bloated government headquartered in Washington, D.C. should make any freedom loving citizen cringe with disbelief and fear. There is practically nothing you can do, from getting married, to selling lemonade without first getting some kind of permit and then paying the applicable fees before enjoying your pursuit of happiness. With our rulers favorite control mechanism the general welfare clause (intolerable act) , and just plain disregard of article 1 section 8 of the Constitution, our 3 branches of government (and a slew of unconstitutional bureaucracies), is now our servant become master. It is time for citizens to challenge their state representatives and push for Ohio’ State Soveriengty Resolution. It is time for our state government to nullify unconstitutional laws and regulations to protect its citizens. It is time to reestablish the proper role of states taking care of it’s own affairs. A Revolution is here whether you know it or not. Albeit a peaceful one for now, it is this generation who has whether they claim it or not, been given the responsibility of reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. Someday, this generation may too garner the title “the greatest generation”, if we are able to restore the blessings of liberty to a nation still worthy of it.

The Southwest Ohio Liberty Conference, sponsored by the Ohio Freedom Alliance, will feature lectures on sound money, state’s rights and individual liberty. The event is open to the public, with a suggested donation of $10 per person to defray costs. The doors open at 1:00 p.m. on November 21st for networking and light refreshments, and speakers will address the audience from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Beavercreek Golf Club is just minutes from the Mall at Fairfield Commons, at 2800 New Germany-Trebein Road in Beavercreek, Ohio.

Visit www.ohiolibertyconference.com to be apart of it.

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Posted in Beavercreek, economy, events, Ohio, politics, taxes

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Church’s Critics Want Gag Rule

Posted on November 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

Getting Nancy Pelosi to accept a health care bill that bans federal funds for abortion was the greatest victory scored by U.S. bishops in a generation. It also unleashed an unprecedented attempt to censor them. Their latest enemy is Geoffrey Stone writing in the Huffington Post.

Stone finds it troubling that the bishops are so vocal. He yearns for a time when JFK was president, a time when separation of church and state met his approval. Perhaps the Chicago law professor forgot about Rev. Martin Luther King, the minister who took to the pulpit and lobbied for civil rights in the name of free speech and religious liberty. Should King have been muzzled as well? Or just today’s bishops?

As the following list discloses, Stone is hardly alone in trying to censor the bishops: Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Rep. Diana DeGette, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Frances Kissling, Planned Parenthood, Feminist Majority, Catholics for Choice, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the National Organization for Women, and many others favor a gag rule. On Nov. 12, Nancy Snyderman of MSNBC spoke for many when she said that “This is going to be a Pollyannaish statement. The Catholic bishops appearing and having a political voice seems to be a most fundamental violation of church and state.” Brilliant.

The following is a partial list of religious groups that want abortion coverage in the health care bill: Rabbinical Assembly, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, Episcopal Church, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis, North American Federation of Temple Youth, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Presbyterian Church (USA), Women of Reform Judaism, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Church of the Brethren Women’s Caucus, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Lutheran Women’s Caucus, Christian Lesbians Out, YWCA.

So why don’t Stone and company want to gag these groups as well? Let’s face it: they don’t have a principled bone in their collective bodies.

Source: Email newsletter of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, November 13, 2009, comments by President Bill Donahue.

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Posted in Church, health, news, politics, religion

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High School Valedictorean Denied Student-Initiated Free Speech Right

Posted on November 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case of a Nevada girl whose religious freedom was harshly denied right in the middle of delivering her 2006 public-school valedictorian speech. This is an alarming push backwards for religious freedom. We have a Supreme Court ruling from 1992 (Lee v. Weisman) that protected religious messages and prayers of students, including at graduation ceremonies, as long as they are student-initiated.

A press release by the Rutherford Institute states school officials stopped her speech “after she began speaking about the part her Christian beliefs played in her success in life. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute had asked the Court to hear the case of Brittany McComb, charging that school officials violated McComb’s free speech rights and engaged in viewpoint discrimination when they censored her speech because of its Christian content.”

The harsh rejection of Christianity and basic religious freedom is the 11th reason to remove your children and grandchildren from the government school system, according to family advocates at SaveCalifornia.com. (See Reasons 1-10 at their special website RescueYourChild.com.)

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Watch Continental Congress 2009 On Live Stream

Posted on November 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

Watch history being made as delegates to the Constitutional Congress 2009 develop a plan of civic resistance to fight back and save the Constitution!

Constitutional deliberations today begin at 8AM and will cover “Violations of the “Sovereignty” clause (i.e., Sovereignty of the Republic, North American Union). Beginning at 1:30PM, Constitutional scholars and elected delegates will address the “Violations of the Constitution’s Property” clauses (i.e., seizure of private property for private benefit.)

Beginning at 8AM on Wednesday, November 19, the schedule of constitutional issues that scholars and delegates will address include Jury Nullification, Grand Juries, and Health Care.

To watch the sessions, click on LiveStream. To see previous sessions, go here.

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Continental Congress 2009 Update

Posted on November 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

Today is the sixth day of the Continental Congress being held in St. Charles, Illinois.

Elected delegates from all 50 states convened to address the repeated abuses of power by the federal government. Those ongoing abuses include violations of the Constitution’s tax, money, war, general welfare, privacy and other clauses that are at the heart of the conditions that now plague our nation. Repeated attempts to address and correct those violations of the U.S. Constitution have been rebuffed or ignored by Congress and federal courts. As our national existence began, repeated attempts to redress our grievances has failed.

Ohio is represented in the effort to lawfully and peacefully resolve the ending crimes against the only safe-guard of our freedom, rights, and government limited to the rule of law.

According to Friday’s news,

Delegates, realizing they have little time and trying to accomplish as much as possible are forming committees. They are working hard, and resting little. They are dedicated and determined. They are going into “overtime,” and working hours outside of the schedule.

Ohio Delegate, Ron Dickerhoof, is part of the People’s Action Caucus. They are working hard on recommendations for the public to declare their rights and inform their neighbors. Jim Davis, First Delegate, Ohio, along with other states, is progressing toward presenting information on the 14th amendment and independent grand juries. Both are part of organized groups who are working hard to fulfill the tasks they came to achieve. Although they are making progress, it may take some time before they have the opportunity to thoroughly lay out their ideas to the public.

I think Ohio has reason to be proud of all of our delegates. Unlike our paid representatives, they are all determined to fulfill their promises and to serve the People. They want to do what they believe they were elected for.

Thank God for people who still love God’s gift of liberty as bequeathed to us by the Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, and Jews of 1776….

Visit We the People Foundation website to learn more.

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Historic Continental Congress 2009 Convenes

Posted on November 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 may one day be known as the day the American People convened, for the first time in over two centuries, an Assembly of representatives of the People in order to fully exercise of the “Capstone Right” — i.e., the Petition clause of the First Amendment.

At approximately 3:00 pm Wednesday, WTP Chairman Bob Schulz convened the Assembly to begin the selection of Congress officers from the ranks of elected Delegates who will preside over the 11-day long Assembly. Constitutional scholar and former Presidential candidate Michael Badnarik was selected as the presiding officer of the Congress while Delegate.

Ohio delegates include Trisha Connell (Twin City), Jim Davis (centerville), and Ron Dickerhoof (Cuyahoga Falls). First alternate is Steve McMasters (Findlay) and second alternate is David Macko (Solon).

For over a decade, WTP Foundation has championed an intensive, well-researched and coherent effort to hold the Government accountable for its escalating violations of fundamental Rights and the Constitution through use of the Right of the People to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Those ongoing abuses include violations of the Constitution’s tax, money, war, general welfare, privacy and other clauses that are at the heart of the conditions that now plague our nation.

Although the public has known little about the history or nature of the Right to Petition, scholarly and historical research has established without argument, that the Right, first articulated as the cornerstone of Western Law in Magna Carta (1215), provides the People an individual Right to hold Government peacefully accountable for its abuses.

Far beyond the right to merely send “complaints” to the government (which are virtually ignored by all officials), the Right of Petition embodies the profound Right to enforce the Right to Petition by withdrawing support from the Government until Redress is secured.

Summaries of this important research can be reviewed as part of the legal pleadings of the 2004 landmark WTP lawsuit, We The People vs. United States, which sought to have the Judiciary declare – for the first time in history – the legal and constitutional meaning of the last ten words of the First Amendment. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear this controversial case involving the essence of Popular Sovereignty.

Continental Congress 2009 will take the process of holding Government accountable and restoring the Constitution to the next level by first creating a formal record of the vast violations of the Constitution and Individual Rights now suffered by the People. Next, the Congress will debate and decide upon a series of practical but strong “Civic Actions” the People may take in order to restore their Liberty.

The agenda for the CC2009 Assembly also provides for the development and adoption of formal “Remedial Instructions” to be served upon federal and state officials, in essence ordering them to cease and desist their official abuses and giving them formal Notice as to the “Civic Actions” of (peaceful) resistance the People may take, en masse, if those officials, yet again, choose to ignore the People’s Petitions for Redress.

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Minister Threatened for Promoting Religious Liberty

Posted on November 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

After announcing the “Rally for Religious Free Speech” an event to challenge the recent Hate Crime Bill signed by President Obama, Rev. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, a sponsor of the event, received a threatening e-mail saying, “I’ll be in Washington on the 16th and I know what you look like.”

“Because of the recent domestic terrorism at Ft Hood and the documented escalation of threats of violence by homosexual activists against Christians, we are taking all threats very seriously and reporting all such threats to the FBI,” said Dr. Gary Cass.

In the fallout after Maine’s voters recently rejected homosexual marriage, Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality has documented the increasing violent threats against Christians.

“We will not let the homosexual activists intimidate us,” said Dr. Cass. “It just makes us that much more determined to stand for biblical truth and to pray for God to grant them repentance and find forgiveness in Jesus Christ.”

The Rally for Religious Free Speech will occur on Monday, November 16th at 1:30 in front of the Department of Justice in Washington DC. Ministers from various denominations will be preaching the biblical truth about homosexual sin.

The rally is intended to assert the right to preach in the public square the truth about homosexuality because the hate crime bill has had a very chilling effect on religious free speech. Under the bill ministers can be investigated and convicted by the Federal Government for incitement to hate crimes simply by preaching the Bible.

The event will start with a press conference and a letter will be presented to AG Holder to express the multiple constitutional concerns the hate bill raises. Matt Staver of Liberty Council will be representing the group. After the event in front of the DOJ a prayer vigil will be held outside of the Human Rights Commission.

Source: Christian Newswire, November 11, 2009

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Women Win Under Spupak Amendment to HR 3962

Posted on November 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

Late Saturday night, Representatives Bart Stupak (D-MI), Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Joe Pitts, (R-PA), Marcy Kaptur, (D-OH), Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), Dan Lipinski (D-IL), and Chris Smith (R-NJ) successfully led an effort to protect women and children from abortion in health care reform.

During debate preceding the vote on the Stupak Amendment, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) declared, “Women deserve better than abortion.”

The Stupak Amendment will maintain the current policy of preventing federal funding of abortion in health care reform, and any benefits packages that would otherwise include abortion.

FFL President Serrin M. Foster said, “Thanks to Members of Congress who led effort and the activism of thousands of FFL members, women will not have to face additional pressure to have abortion. We can refocus our efforts on meaningful, holistic solutions that everyone can support.”

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Congressman Steve Austria on Recently Passed Health Care Reform Bill

Posted on November 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

By Congressman Steve Austria

Last Saturday evening, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s health care reform bill by a vote of 220 to 215. I voted “no” on this legislation because it includes a “government option” insurance plan, which sets the stage for a government takeover of healthcare, effectively limiting health care choices for millions of Americans. The bill is estimated to cost around $1 trillion and will raise taxes on small businesses and families at a time when current economic conditions are already straining budgets. In addition, the bill includes cuts to the Medicare Advantage program and the likelihood that many people who are satisfied with their current health insurance will face significantly higher premiums as a result of the federal mandates.

I have consistently advocated for sensible reforms, including medical malpractice reform, allowing businesses and communities to pool together to purchase health care coverage across state lines, and expanding the use of health savings accounts (HSA). Unfortunately, this 2,032 page bill falls significantly short.

The legislation now awaits consideration in the United States Senate. As the health care overhaul debate continues, I encourage the American public to continue to contact their elected officials to express their views regarding this important issue.

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Posted in business, economy, health, news, politics, taxes