Merry but wary

By Steve Woodward

The most wonderful time of the year also is a time to be wary. Very wary. In these waning days of 2022 forces on the Left are racing the clock to impose their will on a distracted citizenry.

It’s happening in Washington and closer to home in North Carolina. Nefarious actors are bad enough to begin with, but we should resent them even more when they hijack the Christmas season. And they do, boldly.

The lame duck, Democrat-heavy state Supreme Court has been working feverishly on three fronts: To empower activist courts and judges in the arena of gerrymandering; to directly stomp on the will of citizens who favor a requirement that voters present ID at polling stations; and to declare, once again, that a districting map (for state Senate races) is unconstitutional and racially biased.

The court is sledgehammering away knowing that Republicans assume a 5-2 advantage in January. The current Democrat foursome, including race-baiter Anita Earls, delight in forcing the next court to toil at undoing what they’ve done in 2022.

In Washington, the Swamp is celebrating the Christmas season the only way it knows how — by defying America’s Judeo-Christian values at every turn. The Biden Administration is backing legislation named after Civil Rights era champion John Lewis that would once and for all eliminate proof of identity as a requirement for voting in elections, even though numerous states require voter ID by law. North Carolina voters approved enshrinement of voter ID in the state constitution, which is viewed by the left as a worthless piece of paper. They further exposed their disdain by allowing activist courts to neuter it. Trying to bury voter ID once and for all, the state Supremes on December 15 voted 4-3 to overturn the law. The will of state voters expressed in 2018 is now formally denounced.

Rep. Dan Bishop (NC-09)

Back in D.C., our very own Congressman Dan Bishop, who represents Moore County until January, introduced a counter to the John Lewis bill, entitled, The Combat Voter Fraud Act. Bishop’s radio ads correctly point out the absurdity of conflating voter ID with racism and hatred (as Biden’s public remarks infer), while dismissing the fundamental right that our elections be fair and untainted by fraud.

Meanwhile, the state Supremes also bickered about state Senate maps currently in place but the bigger story on re-districting and so-called gerrymandering (map drawing) is unfolding inside the U.S. Supreme Court, where a 6-3 conservative majority reigns (thank you, President Trump). The SCOTUS is expected to vote in June 2023 on the merits of Moore v. Harper. The Harper supporters in the case make a truly absurd argument: that it’s dangerous to abide by the U.S. Constitution, which holds that state legislatures control the time, place and manner of Congressional elections (for U.S. House and Senate). Their side says courts — such as the N.C. Supreme Court — should intervene as necessary (as in, when Democrats are powerless to draw the maps).

Opines The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, “A Judicial Coup in North Carolina”, “Who better represents democracy in North Carolina — an elected Legislature, our four state judges who flip their judicial logic when it suits their partisan ends?”

Perhaps the only more egregious case of year-end subversion is the one tied to a pair of Republicans rather than Democrats. Namely, North Carolina Senators Richard Burr (retiring this month) and Thom Tillis (elected in 2020 with four years to go). These brash Swamp creatures decided to stuff our Christmas stockings with enormous middle fingers. They joined 10 other Republicans whose votes ensured passage of an act codifying gay and interracial marriage into law. 

See our breaking news in the latest Moore Liberty Digest (December 20) to better understand at least one reason why Burr and Tillis were undeterred and unafraid to betray fellow Republicans.

So have yourselves a merry little Christmas, and be sure the egg nog is heavily spiked.   

Editor’s note: To subscribe to Moore Liberty Digest, forward an email request to woodward.stephen@gmail.com.

Walk in light

By Steve Woodward

Which is more frustrating? The sense we are getting that Duke Energy thinks power grid security should be turned over to government solutions? Or, that the Raleigh drag queens who infiltrated Southern Pines on December 3 are doubling down, promising to perform here in Moore County frequently next year?

Take your pick. As a practical matter, I guess I’d rather have lights shining on the continued decline of American culture. In which case, confidence that proactive measures will be identified and implemented to secure electric stations, close to home and nationwide, deserves priority over delusional dragsters and their rainbow protest mobs.

What is whistling down the alleys is word that law enforcement at all levels, while undeterred from trying to find the source of attacks on two Moore County sub-stations, are left holding a bag full of firearm shell casings and little else. (Some have surmised that the perps must have been less than sophisticated terror merchants for having failed to collect their shell casing. But does anyone really believe that Antifa- trained ninjas walk around with registered firearms? The casings are about as useful as discarded granola bar wrappers). 

Meanwhile, local and state elected officials are said to be underwhelmed by Duke Energy’s upper management and support staff. Apparently, the Dukies feel comfortable restoring power but are less than inclined to restore confidence. Duke certainly dares not complain that security is unaffordable. In November, Duke announced it would be selling its commercial renewable energy assets for $4 billion — only five percent of its operations. 

Duke Energy on December 1 bragged about giving away $1 million in social justice and racial equity grants to 40 organizations across North Carolina. Yet another investment that does everything but keep the lights on.

Rep. Richard Hudson, who soon will be sworn in as the NC-9 U.S. congressman (and will once again represent Moore County after a two-year break), is right to suggest that the federal government is long overdue in launching a nationwide initiative to protect America’s antiquated power infrastructure. But it’s hard to believe it’s going to happen in a nation that can’t/won’t secure it’s Southern border, and has willfully farmed out all of it’s manufacturing, textiles, prescriptions drugs and energy producing equipment to China.

Yet we are learning that the attack on Moore’s grid was not as random or isolated as first believed As reported by Wired.com, ”Duke Energy, reported gunfire at another facility, a hydroelectric power plant in South Carolina. And combined with two more incidents of hands-on sabotage of U.S. power facilities that occurred in Oregon and Washington in October and November, the vulnerability of the U.S. grid to old-fashioned physical harm has begun to seem like a serious threat.”

Meanwhile, Triangle-area drag “celebrity” Naomi Dix says she, too, is worried about attacks on power: on the power of LGBTQ deviants to attack the moral fabric of small-town communities. During a December 8 forum in Durham, Dix said that suspicions that the Moore power outage targeted her cast’s performance at The Sunrise Theater inspires her to bring additional shows here in 2023. 

While Dix claims that drag shows are under attack — in Southern Pines the “attackers” read scriptures and prayed for the community at large — these so-called threats do not seem to be much of a deterrent to the hijacking of more and more community events. A December 10 “Christmas parade” in Shallotte, N.C., reports independent journalist A.P. Dillon, was interrupted by a leotard clad dance team led by a transgender coach who donned gay apparel that was merely a thong

In Taylor, Texas, 35 miles northeast of Austin, Taylor Pride hoodwinked Christmas parade organizers when registering for a spot in the 2021 event. “The Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance … naively thought a group calling itself Taylor Pride was simply proud to be from Taylor,” wrote Taylor resident and political science professor Kevin Stuart in a December 9, 2022, op-ed for The Wall Street Journal

So what happened this year? A new parade was created by a woke city management staff, acting without Taylor’s city council’s input. The 2022 parade ”ran right behind the traditional parade on December 3. It featured even more drag performers than last year, including one called Sedonya Face.“

Stuart concludes, “civic and cultural battles are sure to become more frequent and more intense” as social norms dissolve. “For those who simply want to work, worship God and raise their families in peace, this news is unwelcome.”

When darkness visits our towns we have no choice but to walk in the light.

God v. evil

By Steve Woodward

Organized domestic terror visited Moore County early on the evening of December 3. A tactical assault on two Duke Energy sub-stations will not soon be forgotten and quickly overshadowed another seminal moment. 

December 3 also will — must — be remembered as the day battle lines were drawn in the clash between God and evil. On the cultural spectrum the line delineates right from wrong.

Evil falls under a category made famous by a judge asked to define pornography: He said, you know it when you see it.

But evil is increasingly more difficult to recognize because it smiles back at us; it wears rainbows and espouses love and promotes unity. Until it doesn’t. Until its smiles revert to scowls, its calls for love revert to shrieking and cursing. To their default modes, in other words.

This range of emotions was on display on December 3 in the heart of Southern Pines, where law enforcement arrived in large numbers to quell gathering storms of potential conflict (according to the narrative) between the Rainbow Ranters and a counter group comprised of Calvary Christian’s church congregation and its private school community, along with fellow Christians and ideological conservatives.

During the next roughly 60 minutes, law enforcement officers watched Sandhills Pride’s assembled group taunt and mock fellow citizens who prayed silently, read passages from the Bible and sang hymns. One of them arrived with a megaphone, which was used to project the Word of God toward the Pride group, many of whom became unhinged and exhibited signs of mental illness. 

Why were they assembled? To detract from Christian, law abiding citizens who make protection of their children a priority. They scorn fellow Americans revolted by live drag performances created to normalize transgenderism and graphic, lewd gestures without regard for the ages of those who might see it. The December drag show organized by Pride and hosted by Sunrise Theater initially planned to sell tickets to children as young as 16 until public outrage forced the age limit to be raised to 18. Reading between the lines, Sunrise Theater inferred it had no choice if it desired to keep its venue free of threats and violence. Normal citizens appreciated the decision as demonstrating that Sunrise stumbled onto knowing that the right thing to do was restricting under-18 teens from watching the show.

But December 3 came, nonetheless. Twenty days before we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ the deeply psychologically damaged among us filled Broad Street in Southern Pines to advance a strange narrative in which gay “rights” are intertwined with a ritual of men dressing up as women, from cosmetics to heels. Should you dare to oppose their deviant worldview, they shout you down as “haters” and try convincing you that Jesus would be standing on their side of the street. 

Broad Street soon cleared. Drag show devotees lined up to enter the theater, each ticket holder wanded by a private security guard. Law enforcement personnel called it a night — an uneventful night. Any words police exchanged with those attending the prayer vigil were words of gratitude for their service. 

There were no clashes. No property was damaged. Nothing happened. Actually, there was one thing. The chasm between God and evil widened a bit more.

Matt Hintz

By Steve Woodward

Matthew Hintz appeared within the ranks of the Moore County Republican Party almost out of thin air, and during the past roughly two years he inspired many of us through his passion and deeply rooted convictions. Often, his passion was mistaken for rage but his friends knew better. Many most likely found their passions wanting by contrast. 

Matt rejoiced in his children and his marriage. When he came to realize that local public education was fraught with peril for young minds, he and Melissa chose to home-school their two boys of school age. He was deeply engaged in their homeschooling activities before earlier this year sending them off to a Christian school.

We worked together on a team that organized the Moore County School Choice Expo last May. By all accounts it was a resounding success, attracting both private and charter schooling advocates, and a steady stream of visitors from the community.

I will certainly miss Matt’s warmth and thoughtfulness. He was indeed a kind soul with a sharp wit and an unassuming presence though his intellect was substantial. In the face of hypocrisy and deceit, Matt was the first to stand up and speak up.

When Matt recognized that thousands of retired military veterans in our midst are unregistered voters, he wrote a powerful radio ad calling on them to fulfill a solemn duty and honor their oaths by voting.

Matt entered God’s eternal kingdom on November 23. We no longer can hear his voice, but let us vow to be his voice.

This broken world too often turns its back on the very individuals best equipped to heal it. Thus, how can we mourn too long when they leave us in search of peace? I pray that Matt is now immersed in peace.  

Domestic jihad

By Steve Woodward

It was striking that Election Day and Veterans’ Day fell 72 hours apart last week. Both events, one a duty, the other a sacred observance, have reliably and boldly reflected American priorities and values across the years.

There was indeed much to celebrate among values-based conservatives after November 8, Election Day 2022. There was much for which to be thankful and sobered on November 11, Veterans’ Day.

In Moore County, the conservative values wave sent the left crashing into the jagged rocks of irrelevance. Voters overwhelmingly chose morality and stewardship when offered the alternative – cultural secularism and reckless spending. More on these triumphs later. Let’s simply say that where public schools and the Moore County Board of Education are concerned the status quo rubber stamp has been placed permanently in a drawer, and citizens who attend future meetings can rest assured they will not be subjected to metal detectors, masks, and intimidation by security personnel.

But the bigger picture is disheartening, and not for reasons about which the corrupt mainstream media would dare pontificate.

Two examples. Republicans did not seize iron clad majorities in the U.S. House and Senate because they ran too many tainted, Trump-backed “election denier” candidates who are not, and never will be, electable. BS. 

Are we to accept this absurd notion even as The Big Steal 2.0 plays out before our eyes in Arizona, California, Nevada and Oregon? Election integrity is taking another hit out West, where “officials” are complacent and, likely, complicit.

The Left is not a wing of the Democrat party in 2022. The Left IS the Democrat party. Its candidates and its voters are not fixated on the so-called insurrection of January 6, 2021. Their fixation is abortion on demand, climate change, LBGTQ rights and gender fluidity. They do not care about our “institutions”, and they are not Never Trumpers. They barely noticed Trump because they never cared about low unemployment, peace through strength abroad, energy independence and restoring the greatness of America. Trump’s foe was and is corporate-owned media.

We can no more understand the radical Left than can we understand that which drives Islamic jihadists to commit acts of unthinkable terror. But we must acknowledge what drives them to vote, what inclines them to go all-in for John Fetterman (PA), Gretchen Witmer (MI), Mark Kelly (AZ), et al, allies of the Left who have no obvious popular appeal. 

Senator-elect John Fetterman (D-PA)

It’s not about ideology. They have no ideology. They have a religion that is untethered from Christianity, or even common sense. Common sense tells us that citizens of all political stripes would reject unbridled inflation, rising urban crime spreading into formerly “safe” neighborhoods, energy dependence on our enemies and crippling prices for gasoline and heating oil, a military significantly weakened by vaccine mandates, and endless January 6 commissions that crucify Trump but seek no remedies for election fraud.

Second example. It is the default mode among Americans of a certain generation to honor and salute military veterans. But the aforementioned Left views the military industrial complex, alive and well, as a channel through which wokeness and transgenderism will be further engrained. Thus, we honor our veterans one day a year but, should we lose focus, we will witness the demise of the brotherhoods that sustained them in times of war and peace. The Left is in charge in the upper ranks. The faces of valor they see in the black-and-white photos from past World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, leave them cold. They are not moved by these men and women who fought unconditionally. The woke military brass of the 21st Century prefers conditions for those who serve. They must be vaccinated, indoctrinated, and emancipated from the past. Duty is not inherent; it is irrelevant. Duty gets in the way.

Savor we must the victories gained this first week in November that will subdue the march of the Left. Treasure we must military valor of ages past. But the stark reality of this moment is that we no longer can take for granted the absolute certainty of Election Day “results”, or the sanctity of future missions of those sworn to defend our homeland from enemies foreign and domestic.

In fact, domestic enemies are thriving in a perpetual open season, and they know it.