You could also send checks with notation “Friess LeftRight Match” to NCF, 11625 Rainwater Drive, Suite 500, Alpharetta, GA 30009.

The first three channels selected are:

• Convoy of Hope (had people on the ground 12 hours after the tornado hit);

• Salvation Army (top guy and his wife received combined salary of $50,000) perhaps the largest relief organization in the world operating in 125 countries; and thirdly,

• Southern Baptists Disaster Relief (I was very impressed with their behind the scenes efforts I witnessed in the Katrina aftermath).

You may designate your entire donation go to only one effort. We will identify smaller trusted local entities after our arrival in Moore today. I am typing this in flight.

The newly launched LeftRightLeftRightForwardMarch! initiative endorses this effort. The LRLRFM tag line is “Together We’ll Get There!”  It pairs Americans of disparate political perspectives to serve others and reduces the culture of divisiveness introduced by recent elections.

                                           

The LeftRightLeftRightForwardMarch! initiative just endorsed the Washington, DC, “Step Forward for Orphans March” to promote international adoptions which declined 60% in the last five years. Conservative talk show host, Laura Ingraham, and Democratic US Senator Mary Landrieu, founding co-chair of the 141 member Congressional Coalition on Adoption linked arms to help kids “STUCK” in orphanages to join loving families who are eager to adopt. (The documentary STUCK, at http://buy.stuckdocumentary.com/, won two out of three recent film festivals.

Your generosity demonstrates that we as private citizens can solve many of our nations problems as we dedicate ourselves to the ideals and dreams of America that our Founding Fathers  risked so much to give us. We now stand on their and the intervening eight generations’ shoulders to maintain the freedoms for which they sacrificed so much.

Lynn and Foster Friess are donating $1 million to victims of the Moore, Oklahoma, tornado that killed dozens and flattened a community–and they are encouraging others to match this amount. Everyone is encouraged to give, but in particular, in spirit with the LeftRightLeftRightForwardMarch! initiative’s goal of unifying Americans wherever possible, it could be a healing act if a prominent Democrat also agreed to give $1 million. In the tradition of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton joining forces to support Katrina relief, this could be an excellent opportunity to heal not only the physical wounds in Moore but also the political and emotional wounds that so often divide us.

Have an idea for a coalition to help out the victims of the Oklahoma tornado? You can submit them here.

Here’s the story from CNN (1 page).

I learned a lot from my prior travels to sites of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, to Katrina, and to the Haiti earthquake about how a lot of money that doesn’t get where the donor would like it to get and huge salaries are taken out by the folks delivering the donations. Our research should be done within a day or so.

Just to alert you in case you are thinking of sending money, this might be an opportunity to have it doubled and be more effective in its delivery.

God bless as we all share in the prayers for our fellow Americans in Moore.

Hundreds of volunteers and sponsors, including the LeftRightLeftRightForwardMarch! initiative, came together to bring both material necessities and the spiritual virtue of hope to help carry the burdens of their neighbors in need. The joyful atmosphere, with rousing live music for all and a bounce house and face painting for kids, made the gathering a festival of giving, sharing, and feasting in the spirit of mutual charity.

Here are some photos from the great day:

As this video by Janet Porter shows, the fundamental issue is not whether the government should recognize same-sex unions, but whether people have the right to express their beliefs, religious or otherwise, without being labeled as hateful and without becoming vulnerable to hate crime legislation. Janet’s video raises the question: Is religious freedom at risk in our nation as a result of the government permitting only one perspective on marriage—namely, changing that institution into something it has never been in human history?

Watch Janet’s video here (6:19 min).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

August 1, 2013 is the deadline for certain organizations in the Diocese such as Catholic Charities and Catholic Health Services of Long Island to comply with the HHS mandate that they provide free artificial contraception and abortifacient medications as part of their compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Without being specific, indications from the Obama Administration are that they will no longer listen to our claims or those who share our religious and conscience convictions.

The latest Administration pronouncements were a disappointment. After a week of analyzing this latest proposal from the Administration, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed our willingness to continue to try to convince the government that the objectively inadequate “accommodation” from the HHS continues to fall far short of the mark.

To me, the major problem is in the very word the Administration uses: accommodation. The state is not the giver of rights, especially religious freedom. We as citizens possess the right to religious freedom without government pronouncement and, in truth, the Administration cannot “accommodate” what is already ours. We should not be treated as if we are second class citizens because we disagree with the government’s new and arbitrary insistence that all of us have to follow their prescriptions despite our religious beliefs and our right to freedom of conscience. Those rights are God-given, not state-granted. Every person and every religious institution already has from God what is guaranteed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights: freedom of religion and of conscience.

Now in the middle of Lent I write to you to ask you first of all to pray that God will protect us and our God- given rights as persons and as a Church. Second, I invite you to stay informed and be ready to respond to our calls for help as needed.

Keep your eye on the website of the US Bishops www.usccb.org as well as our news website www.licatholic.org to keep up-to-date and find concrete ways for concerted action. To get involved, please consider joining grass roots advocacy groups forming in parishes across the Diocese, such as Catholics for Freedom of Religion www.catholicsforfreedomofreligion.com. I encourage you to consider participation in such a group. Let our Senators and your Congressperson know that you and I have not lost interest. Tell them we are resolute in insisting on this most basic freedom, the freedom of religious belief and the protection of conscience. To contact your US Senators and Representatives, go to the website of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment www.nchla.org. Send an email to your Representatives to demand the overturning of the HHS mandate. Plans are also being made for the Second Fortnight for Freedom that will take place this summer. More details about the Fortnight will be forthcoming.

Continue to pray that what is ours by right will be recognized and honored for the good of all. And continue to stand together. Your witness is needed now more than ever.

Devotedly yours in Christ,

Bishop William Murphy

When Obama signed the stimulus bill in 2009, he promised it would provide “help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis.” Clearly, it did not. The states hurt the most, the ones with more foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcy, got less money than richer states closer to power. Washington, D.C. got the most stimulus money: $7,602 per capita. –Orange County Register

We use this quote a lot on this site. I don’t know if Alexis De Tocqueville ever actually said it. Some say he did some say he didn’t. I don’t care because it’s brilliant and I’m going to beat it into the ground:

“The American republic will endure until the day the Congress realizes it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

Lewis thinks it is possible for the GOP to not only win the White House in 2016, but to keep the House and take over the Senate next year:

Meanwhile, the Senate seems poised for Republican pickups next year. Democratic incumbents are defending seats in states like Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, and the news keeps getting worse. As the AP’s Thomas Beaumont and David Espo write,

“Republicans must gain six seats to win a majority in the Senate, and South Dakota now leaps to the top of the party’s list of most favorable states. Republican Mike Rounds, a popular former two-term governor, has been campaigning for the seat since last year, though he declined to comment Monday on [U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson's] retirement.”

Full story from Lewis (1 page)

That student, Nick D’Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to the company on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with Mr. D’Aloisio’s help. –New York Times

There are two ways to date the captain of the cheerleading team in high school: 1) Play quarterback 2) Develop a $30 million smartphone app. Good for Nick D’Aloisio. Revenge of the Nerds, indeed.