Suspended for Doing His Job

            My VIP for this week is an unidentified police officer who was suspended for doing his job. On September 21 this officer responded to a traffic accident that happened in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County. While investigating the accident, the officer discovered that one of the people involved in the accident did not have a driver’s license. The officer did what law enforcement officers do all over the country – he ran the person’s information through the Division of Motor Vehicles. Upon doing so, he discovered that the person was in the United States illegally and had not appeared at a deportation hearing.


            The officer wrote a ticket for not having a driver’s license, and then he detained the driver until an ICE agent arrived. When his superiors learned that he had held an illegal alien for ICE, they suspended him. It seems that the officer violated the protocol of the Fairfax County Police Department when he cooperated with federal immigration authorities. The officer violated Fairfax County sanctuary policy, so his police chief issued a public apology for the officer’s behavior and suspended him.


            The suspension drew such widespread criticism that the police department reinstated the officer. One of the people reacting to the suspension was none other than former ICE chief Tom Homan, my VIP from last week. Homan let the police department have it with both barrels.

It’s totally disgusting. Here’s a police officer responding to a traffic accident caused by an illegal alien that has no driver’s license, has no insurance…. He ran him through the system, there was an outstanding warrant from ICE because he’s in the country illegally, he’s a fugitive from justice.

             The president of the National Fraternal Order of Police -- largest police union in the United States -- also criticized the officer’s suspension for simply doing his job as a law enforcement officer.

Unfortunately, Chief Roessler has decided to penalize an officer for being faithful to his oath of office rather than to the political likes and dislikes of his superiors. The chief was an officer once – he needs to remember where he came from.

            I am grateful to hear that the officer has returned to full duty. We want good men and women who honor their oath of office to be patrolling our streets and highways.

Who Are the Rogue Republicans?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns rogue Republicans and the tit-for-tat relationship that President Donald Trump has with Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT). It looks to me like Romney is just a sore loser who may be getting more than he wants by picking a fight with streetfighter Trump. The following information was printed in the Deseret News and serves as just one example of the back-and-forth provocations.

Romney and Trump have had a strained relationship since Romney lost the 2012 presidential election to President Barack Obama. When it appeared Trump was going to win the GOP nomination in 2016, Romney gave a speech at the University of Utah, calling Trump a fraud and phony.

Trump endorsed Romney’s Senate campaign, but the day before the senator was sworn in he wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post saying Trump “has not risen to the mantle of the office.”

            Like Hillary Clinton, it seems that Romney cannot give up the idea that Trump won the presidential office after he (Romney) failed to do so. Trump was nice enough to endorse Romney for the Senate, but Romney turned around and stabbed Trump in the back – and he continues to do so. It seems that Romney took over where former Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain left off.  McCain was considered a maverick because he roamed far and wide in his votes and could never be trusted, but Flake was just a loser who seems to be enjoying his 15 minutes of fame in denigrating Trump. 

I believe that both Romney and Flake will soon be forgotten in history, or they will be remembered for their disloyalty to Republicans. The people of Arizona were wise enough to get rid of Flake, but only time will tell what Utah does. I hope the Deseret News was correct when it says, “A July survey by Utah Policy showed Romney with a 38% job approval rating.” Hopefully, his rating will continue to go down, and Utah will send a better representative to Washington next time. In my opinion, Romney ranks with Senator Liza Murkowski (R-AK) as being Republican-in-name-only (RINOs). Utah should get him out of office before he becomes entrenched there. Murkowski has been there long enough that she is likely to stay in office.

It is bad that Senators and Representatives cannot be impeached because there are several of them that deserve to be fired. According to the Constitution, impeachment applies only to the executive branch and the judicial branch. However, there are rules in the Constitution for punishing members of Congress. Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 says, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.”

Even though the Senate and the House of Representatives have slightly different rules, both Houses of Congress can expel a member of their House by a two-thirds vote. David F. Forte wrote the following about this clause: “The Rules and Expulsion Clause stands as the analog to the impeachment clauses. It is the only constitutional mechanism by which a sitting Member of Congress can be removed from office.”

With all the corruption in both the Senate and the House, I do not expect to see any members of Congress expelled for bad behavior unless Trump is successful in “draining the swamp.” None of the Democrats who are in the forefront and calling for Trump’s impeachment deserve to be in Congress, but they are supported by people just like them.

What Is General Conference?

            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its semi-annual general conference. There are four general sessions of conference twice each year and plus a priesthood session in the spring and a women’s session in the fall. I had the privilege of watching three sessions of conference today and marveled at the miracle.


            My family lived about three hours out of Salt Lake City, and we never attended general conference. We knew that it was happening because our bishop and a few other people from the ward attended. However, we continued our regular schedule of Sunday school in the morning and sacrament meeting in the evening. We usually listened to a few sessions over the radio.


            I was a young adult before I attended general conference. At least, I sort of attended it. My friends and I drove to Salt Lake City, but we did not have tickets to enter the Tabernacle. Therefore, we sat on the grass and listened to the speakers from outside the building. The next time that I went to general conference was less than ten years ago. I happened to be in Utah, so I drove up to the conference center and waited to see if I could get one of the no-show tickets. I watched one session and found the experience to be fascinating.


            For many years I took my children and drove over to the meetinghouse to watch general conference. I think that we received it a week late (just as we got our news and television programs) and watched it on video. Some years later we watched as it came over the telephone wires and then as it came by satellite. I continued to go to the meetinghouse after many people were watching it on the BYU channel. Now I watch it over the Internet.


            I am torn between watching it at home or driving over to the meetinghouse. I do not have the same feelings at home as I did at the meetinghouse, but I find it much more comfortable and convenient to watch at home. I get distracted at home by things that I need to do, so my mind is sometimes divided between what I am doing and what I am watching. I am grateful that I can go back and listen to talks again or read them in the Ensign or by using technology.


            Some big changes happened today. There is no longer a Young Men’s presidency on the ward level, and the Bishopric will work more closely with the young men. The Young Women have a new theme, but there are no longer Beehives, Mia Maids, and Laurels. The words of the new Young Women Theme are powers and are as follow.

I am a beloved daughter of heavenly parents,

with a divine nature and eternal destiny.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I strive to become

like Him. I seek and act upon personal revelation

and minister to others in His holy name.

I will stand as a witness of God at all times

and in all things and in all places.

As I strive for exaltation, I cherish the gift of

repentance and seek to improve each day. With

faith, I will strengthen my home and family,

make and keep sacred covenants, and receive the

ordinances and blessings of the holy temple. 

            President Russell M. Nelson announced the building of eight new temples in the women’s session. This is the first time that announcements of new temples have been made to the women. They are planned for following places: Freetown, Sierra Leone; Orem, Utah; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Bentonville, Arkansas; Bacolod, Philippines; McAllen, Texas; Coban, Guatemala, and Taylorsville, Utah. This announcement brings the total number of operating temples (166) and temples announced or under construction (51) to 217 worldwide. 


            President Nelson spoke twice today, once in the afternoon session and once in the women’s session. To the general membership, the Prophet said the following:

Great power lies in learning who you really are. Please take time to think prayerfully about these facts:

·         You are an elect son or daughter of God.

·         You are created in His image.

·         You were taught in the spirit world to prepare you for anything and everything you would encounter during this latter part of these latter days. That teaching endures within you!

Learn for yourselves who you really are. Ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, how He feels about you and your mission here on earth. If you ask with real intent, over time the Spirit will whisper the life-changing truth to you. Record those impressions and review them often, and follow through with exactness.

I promise you that when you begin to catch even a glimpse of how your Heavenly Father sees you and what He is counting on you to do for Him, your life will never be the same!

            To the sisters – adult women, young women, and girls 8 years old and over – the Prophet gave this counsel:

My dear sisters, I hope you understand that the heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing form their priesthood covenants as they are to men who bear the priesthood. I pray that truth will register upon each of your hearts because I believe it will change your life. Sisters, you have the right to draw liberally upon the Savior’s power to help your family and others you love.

            I am grateful that President Nelson is uses Facebook and shares his thoughts there. Tomorrow I will watch two more sessions of conference – for a total of ten hours this weekend. Then I will wait anxiously – like millions of other members of the Church – for the next general conference for another spiritual feast. I am grateful for the prophets, apostles, and other leaders who help us to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that they are called of God for this very purpose.

How Do You Watch General Conference?

            Wise parents will teach their children the importance of General Conference by making it a part of their lives. Parents can make conference weekend exciting and fun by their own words and actions.


            On Monday I saw a family home evening lesson based on the April 2019 General Conference. The lesson itself was based on some closing remarks made by President Russell M. Nelson. “As you study [the conference talks], seek to learn what the Lord is trying to teach you through His servants.” The activity was a scavenger hunt with questions from some or all the talks. Each family member needed a copy of the Ensign conference issue or access to an electronic device where the talks could be found. The game could be completed by teams or as individuals. Each question asked about something in the talk. The game is too late to prepare for this general conference, but it is a good idea to use for next general conference.


            Some parents prepare BINGO games with pictures of the General Authorities, so the children must listen close enough to catch the names of the speakers or watch long enough to see their faces. One of my daughters has a tray of some kind where her children have papers, crayons, etc. – even room for snacks – and participate in conference. A friend of mine said that her family looks forward to conference because they have sort of a picnic on a blanket in the living room between sessions. They always served chili because the children considered it to be traditional.


            When my children were young and living at home, we dressed in our Sunday best and drove over to the meetinghouse where we could watch the conference sessions brought over the telephone lines. They continued to go with me to watch general conference when we watched it over satellite connections. Now we can watch it in our homes over the Internet or on television networks. However, we are grateful for the opportunity to watch it however it comes.


            Whatever you do, make sure to include your children. I am grateful that I took my children with me because they learned to love the spirit of conference. Now they are all married and have children of their own. They have their own ways of making conference special in their homes. We are all excited to hear the words of the prophets, apostles, and other leaders. I know that we can strengthen our families, communities, and nations by making general conference a part of our lives.

What Is the Ultimate Freedom?

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the ultimate freedom. There is one freedom that far outreaches any other freedom. This freedom is found in gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder F. Enzio Busche (“Freedom ‘from’ or Freedom ‘to’,” Ensign, January 2001) emeritus member of the Seventy, discussed what it means to be free.

My dear brothers and sisters, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, many new members, specifically when they come from countries other than the United States, learn for the first time the true dimension of the word freedom. Freedom for most people of the world means “freedom from” the absence of malice or pain or suppression. But the freedom that God means when He deals with us goes one step further. He means “freedom to” – the freedom to act in the dignity of our own choice.

What then does it mean to be free? Freedom means to have matured to the full knowledge of our dangerously many responsibilities as a human being. We have learned that everything we do, and even say or think, has consequences. We realize that [for] too long we have believed that we were victims of circumstances. In the Gospel of John, 8:32, we read the following: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

As we open our hearts to the message of God’s truth, as it was restored in our time, we begin to understand why there was, and still is, so much misery, pain, suffering, and even starvation. In the same dimension as we are learning to accept the revealed truth in our own life, our faith in the living Son of God will grow, and therefore we will receive spiritual gifts of heretofore unknown capacity. We will learn that nothing is impossible for those who believe in Jesus Christ. False bondages will be loosened. Narrow thinking born in tragedies of false traditions will disappear.

The more our understanding of the vastness and the completeness of the plan of salvation is developing, the more we see ourselves in our smallness, in our incompleteness. And seeing ourselves in that humility, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, will let us understand and finally accept this most sacred covenant with our Heavenly Father in the form of baptism.

We gladly will submit ourselves into this covenant, knowing that there is a big difference between mere desire and covenant. When we just desire something, we will work towards achieving it only when convenient. But when we are bound by a sacred covenant, like baptism, we are learning to overcome all obstacles through obedience, and in so doing we will be blessed with the presence of the Spirit and therefore eventually with achievement. We are beginning to become alive as we take, knowingly, full responsibility for our own life and as we stop blaming circumstances….

Jesus Christ wants to empower our lives, according to our own righteous choices, to that dimension that, through our faith and our doings, the circumstances whose prisoners we were in the past will eventually change….

In this freedom that we have received in our time, through our understanding of His divine plan for us, we stand in our full responsibility….

            Do you want to know more about this ultimate freedom? Then you must learn the truth that will make you free – free from past mistakes, sins, and troubles. You can learn this truth by listening to the counsel of modern-day prophets and apostles as they teach about Heavenly Father’s plan for the happiness of all His children. You can learn this truth at this site on Saturday and Sunday, October 5-6, 2019, at 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. MDT on both days. I plan to watch these sessions of this General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hope that you will turn to this site and learn how you can gain this ultimate freedom that is available to all of us.

Saving Lives of Tiny Humans

            The daughter of a long-time friend delivered identical twin boys early today. As I understand it, the babies shared one placenta. They were in danger at one point, seemed to get better for a while, and birthed early to avoid further danger. Knowing of my friend’s concern for her grandbabies, an article by Tara Sander Lee immediately caught my eye. 


            It seems that identical twins who share one placenta sometimes develop a disease known as twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. This is a life-threatening condition for one or both babies. It causes the small twin – known as the donor – to pump blood to the larger twin – known as the recipient. If the condition is not treated early enough and the disease becomes advanced, 80 percent to 100 percent of the babies die.


            The miracles of medicine make it possible for doctors to perform surgery on babies while they are in the womb. Dr. Ben Carson performed brain surgeries on pre-born babies, and other doctors perform other types of surgery on them. For identical twins with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, laser surgery is performed on the placenta to correct the defect. The laser surgery to correct the problem is somewhat new.

The first procedure used to treat twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome was pioneered and performed in 1988 by Dr. Julian E. De Lia in the United States. Opportunities for intervention have markedly improved since then, but the underlying goal has remained the same; namely stop progression of the disease and optimize outcomes for both babies.

Fast-forward 30 years, and this minimally invasive surgery – formally called fetoscopic laser ablation – is now the preferred treatment, particularly when the disease is identified in its early stages, for patients between 16- and 26-weeks’ gestation….

The advanced technology uses endoscopes (small fiber-optic guided instruments) and one small incision to seal off the blood connection between the twins. Mom and both babies are under anesthesia, and the entire operation lasts less than two hours and requires only a one- to three-day hospital stay.

            Increased surveillance is routine for women with twin pregnancies whose babies are at risk of developing twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, but there are still women who do not receive this offer. Even though this “laser surgery has a proven record of saving both babies at all stages of the disease,” selective fetal reduction (or selective feticide) – termination of one baby – is still an option. Selective reduction is usually offered when there are serious problems with one of the babies. This procedure cuts the flow of cord blood to one baby, causing its death while trying to save the life of the other.

Studies have shown that selective fetal reduction offers no better outcome, with maximum survival of 50% for one twin, a rate much lower than laser surgery with a higher than 80% survival of one or both babies. And this termination procedure will guarantee 0% survival for at least one twin.

Furthermore, it can be hard to define which fetus has the worse prognosis….

A 2019 U.S. study reported that the majority of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome patients referred to a single surgery center in California for fetal therapy underwent fetoscopic laser ablation (96.4%), but a small percentage still opted for selective feticide (0.8%). Of those patients that did not undergo any form of fetal therapy, 42.6% terminated both twins. Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome is a particularly challenging and dynamic disease with progression that is often unpredictable. Some cases remain stable throughout pregnancy, or even regress, while others develop quickly with rapid deterioration of twins within days.

            It seems that time is the real enemies of such twins. Any delay between diagnosis and treatment can cause the women to become ineligible for fetal surgery and can be deadly for their babies. 


            When surgery can be done successfully on babies that are only 16-26 weeks gestation to save their lives and/or improve their health, it boggles my mind to think of the millions of babies that are aborted at that age. What kind of evil can convince a woman that it is better to kill her baby than to give them life?

Will There Be an Impeachment, Or Not?

            Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi authorized an impeachment inquiry last week before she saw any evidence. She says that there is an impeachment going on because she authorized several committees to work together. However, she did not take the proposition to the floor of the House where all the members of the House would have an opportunity to vote on it. It is my understanding that there is no official impeachment inquiry until there is a floor vote to have one.

This situation begs some questions. Why did Pelosi say there is an impeachment inquiry if there is not one happening? Is Pelosi trying to “have her cake and eat it too”? In other words, is she trying to have the effects of an impeachment inquiry without making a commitment?

It seems that some Democrats in Congress are not supporting the impeachment idea. The Democrats who represent deep-blue states are all for impeachment, but those in purple or red states are not so anxious. The ones who are especially worried are those who were elected by a slim margin in conservative areas. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT) are two senators who won re-election by razor-thin margins. They think that impeachment proceedings are important, but they are warning the House to “stay focused.”

            These senators and others in similar positions know that the Democrats are walking a very thin line when calling for impeachment for a popular President. They recognize that the whistleblower’s complaint is on shaky ground because it is built on secondhand information and fake news. They are not blind to the stupidity of Representative Adam Schiff and his pranks of one kind or another. They know that the President has more evidence that the Democrats do, but they do not know what that evidence is. They know that the likelihood of the Senate convicting Trump and removing him from office are slim to none. They also know that American citizens are not dumb or blind and will judge their behavior by the evidence that comes out. Without any better evidence than the whistleblower’s complaint, there are no grounds for impeachment.

Pelosi is in a difficult position. She knows that numerous Democrats are in difficult positions with the voters in their districts and states. She also has the radicals breathing down her neck and making threats. Whatever she does, she is in trouble!