Reid and Pelosi Insult Women As Being Helpless and Dependent on Every Whim of the Federal Government

3 COMPELLING REASONS HOBBY LOBBY PREVAILED IN ITS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VERDICT

UPDATE:  THE LEFT CATASTROPHIZES HOBBY LOBBY VERDICT

HARD TO BELIEVE IT'S COME TO THIS:  From a woman's right to choose decades ago to a women's absolute entitlement and demand to have her personal choices  celebrated, underwritten and paid for by taxpayers ad nauseum, ad infinitum. They now demand their rights with unlimited funding without having to exercise any personal responsibility.

Rather than being empowered by the Roe law decades ago,  women are now being  massively hoodwinked and disempowered by  federal politician-jerks like Pelosi and Reid  egging them on, telling them what a shabby deal they're getting  today in the SCOTUS decision  and how they should become  more and more dependent on all things federal government.  The pitiful Sandra Flukes of this country are being told their lives are wrecked  forever because of this decision. The sad thing is they take the bait, drink the coolaid.

Oh Please!

We live in a country where women are the most empowered, affluent and free in the history of the world.  Yet, political creeps like Pelosi and Reid et al just want to tell women to be even more ungrateful for all they don't have.  Pelosi and company insist they in Washington know what's best for them--to make them more dependent on taxpayers. The rest  of us are told we're not supposed to feel resentful for having to foot the bill for the consequences of their choices.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are monumental creeps and liars who are infantilizing American's women in the most disgusting ways.  Whatever happened to personal  responsibility?  You both need to be kicked out of Congress and much, much farther in the days ahead.  No one with any sanity or sense of what America really is and who loves  the Constitution will  miss you one whit when you're gone.

FUTHERMORE:  White House pronounces that the decision risks women's health.

Please, praytell, elaborate as to how this decision risks women's health?  By women having to spend $35-60 on an abortion pill from their own pocket?  What else?  Upon reflection,  I'm very hard pressed to understand this WH talking point.  What does it mean and why don't women demand a fuller explanation which makes sense?  Please help me connect the dots. Why and how will this decision harm women's health?  Most of us know it's just not true.

SCOTUS Ruling----America Remains America For Now: Religious Freedom In Obamacare Mandate Is the Right Decision In A Free Country

IT NEVER SEEMED LIKE ROCKET SCIENCE that a business like Hobby Lobby could act upon its corporate moral and religious convictions. Yet, the close 5-4 verdict tells us, our Constitution rights to freedom of religion and speech still stand.....at least for now.

 It's a great day for a celebration, but the forces of darkness and bondage will stop at nothing to try to enslave and hogtie us all under federal government tyranny and domination any way it can. Praise God for our still in tact freedoms which we can and should never take for granted again. It's an ongoing struggle and we forget it at ours and our country's great peril.  Freedom is not free and requires constant vigilance.

WHEW!  In particular:

Companies are not required to pay for employees' contraceptives for women if they have religious objections, the Supreme Court ruled today. 

The justices' decision came in a 5-4 ruling in the much anticipated case.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the main dissent. 

The court holds: “As applied to closely held corporations the HHS regulations imposing the contraceptive mandate violate RFRA.” 

Alito wrote that “RFRA applies to regulations that govern the activities of closely held for profit corporations like Conestoga and Hobby Lobby” and the “The HHS contraceptive mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion." 

“The Government has failed to show that the contraceptive mandate is the least restrict means of furthering that interest," according to the majority opinion.

SOURCE 

Amazing No Gear Landing On USS Bataan

STATE VERSES FAITH---WHAT'S AT STAKE IN THE HOBBY LOBBY VERDICT MONDAY

THIS MARINE PILOT DID AN AUDACIOUS JOB OF BRINGING A JET IN ON A DIME AND LANDING STOOL.

God bless these brave men.  God bless America. Please pray for our country.
 Full story @ Fox

Sunday

REFLECTION @ ED MORRISSEY ON MATTHEW 16:13-19

PSALM 150

1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals:praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.Praise ye the LORD.

**************************

THE FIRST PSALM (PSALM 1) contains only 6 verses and speaks of the man who is blessed. The last psalm (Psalm 150) also contains 6 verses but speaks of the God who is praised.  No more fitting conclusion to the psalter could have been written. While the other four books of the Psalms end with a brief verse of two of doxology, Psalm 150 in its entirety forms the doxology to consummate the fifth book

As the final song of praise, it appropriately answers four key questions about praise:

1) Where should God be praised?  Everywhere from His sanctuary on earth to His heavenly creation.

2)  Why should God be praised?  For His powerful deeds on behalf of men and for His inherent greatness.

3) How should God be praised? With every suitable instrument man can offer with his God-given creativity and artistry.

4) Who should praise God? Everything that breathes. Through every verse the psalm is cast in the form of a call to praise, the hymn is certainly prophetic of a day when every  creature will in fact bow in praise to the Almighty God.

----Commentary from The King James Bible for Women 

Go See Chef---My Favorite Cinematic Meal of the Year---But Don't Go When You're Hungry!

WSJ REVIEW: CHARM WITHOUT RESERVATIONS              

NOTHING FANCY----JUST EVERYTHING A MOVIE SHOULD BE---FAMILY, FOOD,  WORK, FUN WITH A LITTLE SPICY TRAVEL AND RECONCILIATION THROWN INTO THE RECIPE.

And it comes without the non-stop noise, violence, mayhem, murder and gratuitous sex.  OK, there's a hint of indiscretion and some bad language, but the story is too sweet to miss. Jon Favreau at his best.

 Refreshing to say the least! And the kid is simply adorable.

Rotten Tomatoes--87% rating

Below, Mark Kermode reviews:

                      .

Ever Wondered About Your Balance and Agility? Try Competing In the Jackson Hole Mountain Games

FIRST YOU TAKE A DOZEN OR SO MILK CRATES....AND BEGIN STACKING THEM UP SO YOU CAN THEN CLIMB THEM AS YOU MAKE YOUR TOWER WITH YOU ON IT.

Be sure you're doing this with lots of old mattresses under and around you....It also helps if you're under 19, because you'll heal faster when you eventually fall and break every bone in your body...

But if you don't like heights,  you can always go for paddleboarding on Slide Lake...much more my speed...if you're into softer---albeit colder, wetter---landings.

Let The Undies Games Begin: Is It Indecorous Or Patriotic For A Lady To Take A Selfie Of Her Undies, Then Send Them On To the President In Protest?

SUCH WEIGHTY QUESTIONS OF PATRIOTISM PLAGUE TODAY'S MODERN, MODEST CONSERVATIVE WOMAN!

But what's a girl to do who's against illegal immigration and de facto amnesty for people who should not be here in the first place and who have no intention of abiding by our  Rule of Law? How else can we make a strong statement protesting the utter, inappropriate mayhem and dumping down on the Texas border? Or the unmentionable burden it's putting on taxpayers?  Homeland Security agents are becoming  food and clothing  valets.

Full developing story...

I shudder to think what will come of this call to underwear arms...yet,  have to say it's a very, very clever ploy.   Still,  desperate circumstances call for desperate measures----Yes? No?

Let the summer undies games begin!

Congratulations to Vanderbilt Baseball---College World Series Champions!

SCOTUS LIMITING RECESS APPOINTMENTS DEEPLY DISAPPOINTS OBAMA.... HARRY REID STARTED IT
 CLYMER @ TENNESSEAN: NOBODY DESERVES TITLE MORE THAN THIS CORBIN TEAM!

SIMPLY DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS.  WELL DESERVED AND LONG-OVERDUE. TERRIFIC WIN FOR THIS OUTSTANDING  VANDERBILT TEAM!

This third game broadcast on ESPN was the best of the three played in Omaha---Vanderbilt over Virginia 3-2.  John Norwood's surprise lone homer in the 8th blew the sky open....and the rest is history.

 Below, Coach Tim Corbin. Best of the best coaches and  honorable, humble good guys.

Forget Iraq, the IRS scandal, the mess at the borders today and celebrate this outstanding win with and for this worthy and hardworking Vanderbilt baseball team!

Breaking: Washington Redskins Vote For Name Change

NOT TO MENTION OVER-BEARING ...CONFUSED .....ELITIST ....UNPROFESSIONAL...SPENDTHRIFT... LAWLESS.... PARTISAN AND POLARIZED---JUST  TO NAME A  FEW.

What's not to like?  Let's breakup with Washington as our central focus.  They are supposed to be working for us, the taxpayers, not the other way around. Instead they are raising money for diapers,  underwear and lawyers for Lois Lerner.  What's going on in D.C. is nothing short of disgraceful. When are we going to say and mean, Enough is Enough!

Sunday: Navigating Inevitable Change With An Unchanging Savior

JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND FOREVER

WONDERFUL TO BE BACK TO RIVER CROSSING IN JACKSON HOLE where I can hear these wonderful sermons by Pastor Mike Atkins in person. Here's his talk from last week.

Sunday, The Only Hope That Heals

A BEAUTIFUL SHORT VIDEO ABOUT HOW QUICKLY OUR LIVES CAN CHANGE. Yet, how incredibly the supernatural power of Jesus can heal us to new life and deeper identity in Him than we ever thought possible.

SOURCE

David Phillips @ CNBC: The End of Iraq and Beginning of Iraqi Kurdistan

RELATED:  MANAGING THE DECLINE OF ISLAM @ SPENGLER VIA HAD ENOUGH THERAPY?

SEEING IRAQ AS IT IS, NOT AS WE WISH IT TO BE

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE WITH PHILLIP'S WISE ASSESSMENT.   Life in Iraq will never go on like the feckless and sweet Obama WH wishfully thinks it should. Instead, Phillips gives what I consider a wise take on what can and should realistically happen in the face of recent sectarian violence----not to mention thousands of years of mayhem in the Middle East----between extreme Sunnis and Shiites:

The Obama administration hopes that Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups can reconcile and share power. It wants Iran to convince Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make concessions that placate Iraq's Arab Sunnis and stabilize the crisis. National reconciliation is the best possible outcome, but it is unlikely. Working with Iran is a flawed strategy that would alarm Sunnis and alienate U.S. allies in the Gulf. The United States must be steely-eyed. Iraq is a failed state on the verge of collapse. The Obama administration must be careful not to encourage a break-out by the Kurds. At the same time, it needs a plan if Iraq falls apart and Kurdistan declares independence. The U.S. must anticipate events that would compel its recognition of Iraqi Kurdistan as an independent sovereign state.

I agree. An Iraqi Kurdistan has always appealed to me. And why shouldn't it?

If Iraq disintegrates, the United States can still preserve its core interests by working in conjunction with the Kurds. Iraqi Kurdistan is pro-Western, secular, and democratic. It has a proven track record of security and economic cooperation with the West. 

In addition, Iraqi Kurdistan is rich in minerals and energy supplies. There are 45 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and vast natural gas fields. Exxon and other U.S. energy companies have a stake. Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey, America's ally and NATO member, are working closely together in the energy sector. Energy supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan are transported via new pipelines to Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Eastern Mediterranean. Natural gas from fields northeast of Suleimani will feed into the Nabucco pipeline, supplying Turkish and European markets.

Indeed, Phillip's stand out piece (read the whole thing including the  utter, unrealistic silliness of working with Iran) only gets better:

Additionally, an independent Iraqi Kurdistan would serve as a buffer between Turkey and Iraq. It could help prevent chaos, violence, ad refugees from spilling across the border. Iraq was an artificial construct created by Great Powers at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Shiites and Sunnis have been in conflict for 13 centuries. Reconciliation is an even more remote possibility under current conditions of deadly violence. Read MoreKeystone pipeline debate: Iraq's turmoil sharpens arguments Instead of trying to placate its adversaries, the Obama administration should support the Kurds. It must see Iraq as it is, not how it wants Iraq to be. Wishful thinking is not a policy, nor effective crisis management. A new map of the Middle East is emerging.

Phillips is suggesting a real and sustainable Kurdish spring is emerging. The Obama administration's wishful thinking about an Arab spring will never happen as we are seeing time and time again.

Commentary by David L. Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Human Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He is a former senior adviser and foreign affairs expert to the U.S. Department of State during the administrations of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. He is also author of the forthcoming book, "The Kurdish Spring: A New Map for the Middle East" (Transaction Publishers).

The Webutante File: Taking Issue With Megyn Kelly's 'Wrong, Sir' Cheney Interview

UPDATE:  MCCARTHY AND SCALISE STEP UP TO THE HOUSE PLATE

BY NOW, MOST VIEWERS HAVE SEEN KELLY'S INTERVIEW WITH FORMER VP DICK CHENEY ON IRAQ---EITHER ON FOX WEDNESDAY NIGHT OR THE ENDLESS VIDEO RERUNS ONLINE  THURSDAY.

I have posted the snippet version of the video below and take great issue as to how hard she came down on Cheney.  For his part and to his credit,  Cheney handled her unloading gracefully.

First, I take issue because the Iraq invasion was over-whelmingly supported by Congress.  There are abundance of videos with John Kerry,  Hillary Clinton,  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid just to name a few all saying Saddam was stock-piling weapons of mass destruction.  I'm sure there are countless videos of Kelly saying it too.  This was not some wild idea dreamed up by the Bush 2 administration.  Also,  I believe that one day it may still be proven that this was the case in Iraq.  If Cheney was wrong, then so were we all.

Wouldn't this be the ultimate irony in Iraq  if it's proven true?  It's possible, but too soon to know.

Second, I take issue because if Kelly was going to declare Cheney wrong from her high perch at Fox News, she should have elaborated exactly how and why she thought he was wrong. Instead she took the liberty to assume by fiat there have never been any WOMs. We still don't know that and hind sight is always better. Evidently Megyn Kelly thinks her updated hindsight is the final word. It is a different time in our country and our foreign policy decisions then may not be what they would be now.  Still jumping ship on Cheney---a la Glenn Beck---seems a little much to me.

It's a process, Megyn,  it's all a process.

Before the time of the invasion,  I was on a transatlantic flight to Israel and sat next to an independent U N inspector who was going to Iraq one last time. He told me there was never any question at the U N that Saddam had these weapons. He also stressed how very difficult it was to ferret them out with so many---thousands upon thousands---warehouses, not to mention thousands of square miles of desert to bury them in.

Be that as it may,  I found Kelly's sudden turn on Cheney at the beginning of the interview to be uncalled for, not fair and balanced and over-the-top.   Though I am sure we share many princles in common, I've never been a big fan of her overly snippy, sensationalist style anyway.  Kelly's got ratings, ratings, ratings first and foremost on her mind and she does good at that.  But just because she's a conservative (a tough broad with a  sexy voice, good hair and lip gloss) doesn't mean she's right all the time.


           

Largest Company By Revenues In Each State

LOVE THESE KIND OF PICTURE/GRAPHS THOUGH I CAN'T READ AND DECIPHER EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. 

SOURCE  

Sunni Shiite Divide In Iraq Reviewed

@ ZH: WHY ISIS WILL NOT STOP WITH IRAQ, AND WHAT DOES GREATER SYRIA MEAN?.... PETRAEUS ISSUES WARNING ON IRAQ ....GLENN BECK'S INTERESTING CONFESSION: LIBERALS GOT IRAQ RIGHT, I DIDN'T FROM THE WASHINGTON POST VIA ZERO HEDGE. 

 It's a good review and reminder that this violence and blood shed has been going on since, well, since this so-called 'peaceful' religion got started. And realistically there's no end in sight.

Posting With Fewer Words...

TAMNY BOOK REVIEW: THE CURMUDGEON'S GUIDE TO GETTING AHEAD IN LIFE

SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE WORLD THAT'S SHOCKING TO ME, and so little to say about it right now. Focusing on what I can that's beautiful, encouraging. It's like when I was in China years ago and went into major culture shock....my symptoms were that I got really, really quiet and as I must have been trying to process the complete over-stimulation----sights, sounds, smells and millions of bicycle bells ringing at a time--- I had to take in.

This dull, quiet pensiveness may go on for a while.....if not all summer. Let's face it, I'm going to be dull and like it....Don't mind if you flee. My brain needs a rest.

Meanwhile,   Lon Solomon gives a lovely, brief Father's Day message with far fewer words than usual:  Fathering Without Wedges.

Daaad! Sunday-- Happy Fathers Day

@ CHALLIES: 4 CHANGES JESUS'S SECOND COMING PRODUCES IN BELIEVERS

FROM THE GOSPEL COALITION: 25 FACTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FATHERS AND IN TACT FAMILIES

 PSALM 128---A SONG OF ASCENTS 

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.

2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

5 May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 

6 May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel.

Amen and amen.

Magnificent South Texas Loblolly Pine

STANDING TALL, LIKE TEXAS.  This species of soft wood accounts for about 40% of the tree cover in these parts.    Took this pic at the Houston Arboretum.  I like this place and, after this past winter,  I even enjoy the heat, humidity and soft sea breezes that blow in from the Gulf.

Congratulations To Conservative Candidate Dave Brat For His Stunning Victory Over GOP Entrenched Eric Cantor

BRAT INTERVIEW AFTER VICTORY ON HANNITY @ FOX
WSJ: BRAT DEFEATS CANTOR  ON JUST $231,000
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: WASHINGTON GOES APE
HISTORIC LOSS @ ZERO HEDGE

(ABOVE, ALONG THE TRACKS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS---ENERGY BOOM TOWN USA)


WOW! IF THIS ISN'T A LONG-OVERDUE POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. IT'S ALSO GREAT POLITICAL THEATER. A new era in conservative politics has arrived, and not a minute too soon. Since I am on the road and with grandchildren and don't have much time at the computer right now, I want to link to several good pieces which I wll update as I can.

Bottom line of this stunning. low-budget victory:  conservatives are moving right with or without the GOP.  We're sick of Washington elite politics and being taxpayer minions for a spendthrift political elite that is supposed to serve the people, not vice-versa. We're sick of the political lawlessness and financial  burdens being strapped to our backs and those of our progeny.

Five takeaways from this stunning upset.

First piece is from the very politically astute David Steinberg who saw this coming: Dave Brat Defeats Eric Cantor and Writes the New Conservative Playbook: 

The candidate who did not lie in his campaign material, did not attempt to disenfranchise voters at several county conventions, did not help install a paid advisor as party executive director, did not headline a retreat discussing how to effectively marginalize his party’s base, and did not employ a crooked, Tammany Hall thug as chief adviser just won, and the Republican Party, having chosen the path Cantor exemplified, has the opportunity to be a more representative party and to change course before November. 

Over the past few months, I have done little but cover this race and the Renee Ellmers/Frank Roche race in North Carolina. I intended to expose for PJ Media readers the insiders game that the “GOP Establishment” vs. conservative/Tea Party rift has become........

I figured the Cantor/Brat primary would exemplify the muscling-out of conservatives, and I was right. I received pressure individually, I began to hear skin-crawling accounts of behind-the-scenes thuggery, and I was able to expose some of it for you. I wrote about 50% of what I heard, I wish I could have written all of it to give you a better picture, but trust that there was quite a bit I held back with to protect sources.

I also have confirmation that these pieces did manage to put a stop to some of the chicanery, and wish I could share that as well.

Most importantly — do not undersize the significance of this — Team Brat just put together the playbook for using the grassroots and new media to win as a conservative, because no challenger will face a more experienced, well-funded, by-any-means-necessary incumbent team than Brat just did. 

If you can make it in Cantortown, you can make it anywhere.

And this piece at the new PJMedia Grid for mid-term election coverage by Bryan Preston:

Let’s just lay this out. Brat’s win changes some things, but not everything. The House GOP leadership will be in disarray for a while. Speaker John Boehner is probably re-thinking that whole bit about teasing conservatives on immigration reform. He’ll be looking for a new #2. He may find himself weakened in the collateral damage from the detonation of Cantor HQ. The House GOP rank and file may be looking for a new speaker..... 

The anger is real. Americans increasingly see Washington as a hostile occupying force. There are those in that town who align with the president, and those who pretend that they don’t, but they really do. That’s the perception that’s building out here. Most Americans don’t think the country is strong or going in the right direction. We’re seeing our position in the world erode as we’re seeing our own economic and moral condition deteriorate. It looks like our government is selling us out much of the time....

Lastly, meet Cantor's biggest donors who are also big losers

Saturday-Sunday---Betting On California Chrome, Remembering Secretariat, Greatest Race Horse of All Time

SUNDAY UPDATE: TIM KELLER ON SAINT AUGUSTINE'S 4 PRINCIPLES FOR PRAYER


THIRTY-SIX YEARS SINCE WE HAD A TRIPLE CROWN WINNER.  Today will tell whether we
have a new one. A sure-thing bet?  What a celebration if Cali Chrome wins!

                         

FDR's Heartfelt D-Day Radio Prayer the Evening of June 6, 1944

ALMIGHTY GOD, YOUR SON WILL ULTIMATELY PREVAIL.  

We need that prayer today more than ever.

 H/T Keith Koffler @ WHD

Lady Mary Soames, Winston Churchill's Youngest Daughter, Has Died At 91 in London

FRIDAY: HILLARY'S HANDLERS DEMAND  NYTs  BACK OFF

MY GOOD FRIEND WHO READS THE NEW YORK TIMES ON WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS---BUT NEVER THE SUNDAY PAPER FOR SOME REASON---called my attention to this obituary in today's print edition. I read it with great interest. Lady Mary Soames lived a charmed, fascinating and  productive life  as Winston Churchill's youngest daughter and in her own right---born and raised at a pivotal time in world history.  It's especially poignant that she died at a time when all eyes are on Normandy and the celebration of D-Day's 70th anniversary.

Think I'll just cut and paste the obit in its entirety from the NYT.  Hope you 'll find it of interest also, especially if you're an Anglophile:

Mary Soames, the last surviving child of Winston Churchill, lived a storybook life and chronicled it in her own well-received books. After her family announced her death at 91 on May 31 in London, Prime Minister David Cameron called her “an eyewitness to some of the most important moments in our recent history.”

There was the idyllic childhood at Chartwell, the family estate, where she tamed fox cubs, raised orphan lambs and played in a brick house built for her by her father, whose hobbies included bricklaying. Guests included Charlie Chaplin, who amused her by impersonating Napoleon, and T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, who dressed up in his princely Arab robes. On the eve of World War II, Noël Coward sang “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” to her family and their guests.

During the war, after overhearing a general advising her father, the prime minister, that England should seek women for undermanned antiaircraft batteries, she enlisted as a private without his knowledge. On the banks of the English Channel, she shot down flying bombs hurtling toward England.She accompanied Churchill to summit meetings as his personal aide, including the Potsdam conference in 1945, where her father, President Harry S. Truman and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin planned the postwar world. She found Stalin “small, dapper and rather twinkly.”

After several ill-fated romances, she married Christopher Soames, a dashing member of the Coldstream Guards, one of the most ancient regiments in the British Army, and nurtured his career as a prominent Tory politician, ambassador to France and the last governor of one of Britain’s last major colonies, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). They had five children — Nicholas, Emma, Jeremy, Charlotte and Rupert — who, with a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, survive her.

She acquired the title Lady when Mr. Soames was knighted in 1972. Queen Elizabeth II named him a baron in 1978. After Baron Soames died in 1987, she was chairwoman of the Royal National Theater for six years. But her most lauded personal achievement was a series of books she wrote about her family. The first, “Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage” (1979), was a biography of her mother. It won the Wolfson History Prize, given annually to a British subject for excellence in the writing of history. The book referred to her mother as “an old-fashioned radical” with “latent hostility toward the Tory Party,” which her husband led.

It revealed their affectionate nicknames: She was “Kat,” he “Pug” and their children “kittens.” Once, Lady Soames wrote, an argument climaxed in Churchill’s throwing a plate of spinach at his wife, but they always made up quickly after their spats. Her other books included an annotated family photo album, an examination of Churchill as a painter and a 702-page collection of letters between Churchill and his wife. 

They wrote each other every day, even when they were in the same house. 

“The duration of the Churchills’ intimacy, their private day inside so much history, is even now — no, especially now — a source of amazement,” Thomas Mallon, a novelist and critic, said in reviewing the book for The New York Times Book Review.n 2011, Lady Soames wrote of her life up to her engagement at 25 — and of her father’s penchant for funny clothes, including a 10-gallon hat — in “A Daughter’s Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill’s Youngest Child.” A review in The New Criterion called the book “clear, sharp, occasionally opinionated and understatedly witty.” Lady Soames came to be regarded as something of a national treasure and was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Dame of the British Empire. 

In 2005, Queen Elizabeth appointed her a Ladies Companion of the Garter, Britain’s highest chivalric order. After the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2013, Lady Soames was one of only two living nonroyal women so honored. The other is Eliza Manningham-Buller, who commanded Britain’s counterterrorism efforts as head of MI5, the internal security agency, from 2002 to 2007. 

Mary Spencer-Churchill was born at Chartwell, in the county of Kent in southeast England, on Sept. 15, 1922. A year earlier, her sister Marigold died of tonsillitis at 2 ½. Her arrival, she wrote, helped compensate her parents for their bitter loss; she was, she said, “a child of consolation.” Her living siblings were so much older — Diana by 13 years, Randolph by 11 and Sarah by 8 — that she regarded them as “godlike Olympian figures.” 

As a girl, she lived almost entirely with grown-ups. Her father wrote that at 5, she spoke “in the tone and style of a woman of 30.” He doted on her, but she said she did not become close to her mother until the two went skiing in Switzerland when she was around 13. During her early youth, Mary’s closest companion was her nanny, Maryott Whyte, a first cousin of her mother and a trained nurse. Lady Soames once attributed the divorces, substance abuse and relatively early deaths of her siblings to their lack of a rock of stability like Ms. Whyte. “I don’t know why I turned out like this while the others had such problems,” she said in a 2002 interview, “and comparisons are always odious, aren’t they? But I do think Nana made a great difference.” 

During the war, Lady Soames was briefly engaged to the son of an earl and also had a romance with an American Army officer. In 1946, she and her father made a private trip to Belgium with the apparent goal of her becoming engaged to Prince Charles, who was ruling the country as regent. On Sept. 27, The Associated Press reported that an engagement announcement was likely the next day. That never happened. Churchill decided to go to Paris to meet with the American secretary of state, James F. Byrnes. Lady Soames accompanied him and met Captain Soames, assistant military attaché for the British Embassy. She later said that he fell in love immediately, but that it took her a few weeks. 

In an interview at the time, she was asked if she intended to be a “career wife” or a “housewife.” “A housewife, of course,” she said. Being Baron Soames’s wife involved staging famously entertaining parties in Paris. It also meant speaking off the cuff to 900 guerrillas in Rhodesia. Her husband’s political opponents often complained that they were actually running not against Mr. Soames but against the daughter of a national hero. 

Lady Soames, who was short and stocky like her father and perhaps as stubborn, savored a fine cigar. After she quit smoking, around 2000, she auctioned off the family stash of Havanas for $221,000.

As I look out over the vast wasteland of so-called female 'role models' today, I cringe and cringe again at their depravity, nudity and utter desperation. Seeing someone like Lady Mary Soames, encourages and reminds me there are still very interesting women in the world.  And also that occasionally those people get better, lovelier and more inspirational with age. How refreshing.

How Low Can President Obama Go?

FACTUAL UPDATE: Q & A FROM THE HERITAGE FOUNDRY

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ACCOUNTABILITY AS THIS PRESIDENT GOES IT ALONE DEVOID OF ANY CHECKS AND BALANCES OR THE RULE OF LAW?
      
OVER THESE PAST MONTHS, I've almost given up on writing anything about national politics and especially our president and commander-in-chief---quietly counting the months if not the days until he leaves office, and praying some of the harm he has caused our country and standing in the world is reparable.   I think he's the worst president the United States of Americia has even known.

However, today I cannot keep silent any longer. This shocking POW prisoner exchange---one of American's deserters in Afghanistan for five Taliban jihadists in Gitmo----is the most outrageous and shocking stunt I have ever seen.  I am officially horrified and think our president should be impeached and driven out of office----though realistically it's not going to happen.  And if it did, there are always more of his ilk waiting in the wings. He not only let these vile Muslim prisoners go, he did it unilaterally outside the Rule of Law and American protocol.

It's an outrage and disgrace beyond anything I have seen to date from this feckless man.  If Americans don't rise up and protest this outrage, then I find it difficult to think our country and foreign policy can survive two more years of this neophyte politician.  Let him go to ESPN and wreck havoc there.  God help to survive the next two years.

Just in case you missed it,  you can read more.

Backlash as it should be

Had Enough Therapy?  has more

Sunday, Dispatches From the Front---A Wonderful Video On Spreading the Gospel To the Ends of the Earth

Dispatches from the Front: Prologue from Hansen Production Services on Vimeo.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS LEADS HOME THIS IS A WONDERFUL PIECE OF WORK BY TIM KEESEE, showing and telling how one man gave up his old life for a new one of evangelism for Christ in faraway places. It's the prologue to a larger series.