And I thank you for sharing the gift of you with us. You are an amazing woman.

Happy Birthday.

I agree with olclever one you are definately a gift to us!!!!!!!! I hope you have a wonderful day!

And many more

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can still read it in English, You’re Welcome
Deskpilot, AM(H)1 (AW), USN (Ret)

Join the RedState Strike Force

I certainly have enjoyed your steadfast resolve to THROW yourself into Conservative Politics and the realization that WE are 40% of this population and being SILENT gets us SILENCE

I so loved walking the 9-12 March on Washington with you and your Guy and look forward to an out and out bitter street to street BRAWL for the taking of the House in 2010 and when I personally think of whom I would want standing with me in battle it would definitely include a little penquin whose ice is NOT melting

I think you and I have a lot more in common with regards to our childhood then I realized and we will have to chat about that sometime. It is no doubt the experiences of our backgrounds that make us the people WE are today. I don’t whine about my past because I did plenty of that as a LIBERAL and upon reflection of my Conservatism it does NOT make one a victim it makes one a survivor and a soldier in the battlefield of life

As usual. This, in particular, is made of awesome:

Over the years, while we were raising the children, we noticed an erosion of our traditional American culture. The War on Christmas, political correctness, schools tolerating behaviors that were not part of the America we grew up in. One day, we looked at one another and said, “When did our way of life become the exception, rather than the rule?” Everywhere one looks is the intrusion of the State, from how to raise your children, to what they learn in public schools. Our children attended parochial school through middle school, then public high school. It has been in this decade that we’ve finally realized just how marginalized our traditional American way of life has become.

Oh, and recommended.

Happy birthday !

Have a very special day. Thank you for sharing your story. You are one of the kindest and most thoughtful people here ar Redsate, and that is reflected in every one of your posts.

The emotions spilled forth in your diary. Happy Birthday!

And Happy Birthday!!

and inspirational. Many, many happy returns!

You have written such a beautiful diary, so full of who you really are, which is a woman in full. A mother, a wife, a political activist for conservatism, a good and true citizen of an America that is rapidly disappearing before our outraged eyes. If is people such as you who will stand fast in the face of tyranny–and we will all be right there with you.

It was a very good day when your friend TallChe sent you to us at RedState. I thank him in my prayers for bringing you into my life as such a dear friend. As redneck hippie said the other day, “I think of you as the conscience of RedState….” To which I would also add, “… and the member who always strives with all her might to be fair, kind and generous with her praise.”

Have a most happy birthday, penguin2, and know that you are held dear in many hearts here.

By your presence, you have made RedState a better and more decent place.

I am sorry for the loss of your mentor. The challenge is to take up the torch, as you have already done, and forge ahead.

First of all, Happy Birthday! May you have many more and God bless you!

Your political story of late is similar to my own. I too have watched this country succumb bit by bit, at times very much under the radar, to political correctness, a minority slowly getting their way which bucks nearly all of our traditional values, almost always putting a pretty mask on their agenda that tries to make us think “Well, what is wrong with that?” We are now seeing very much what’s wrong with that. As religion gets forced out of the schools, even to the point of trying to say students can’t even initiate prayer circles on their own, we have seen rises in delinquency, pregnancies, teen violence. We have seen indoctrination into a political belief, not education. We have even seen attempts to marginalize parents’ influence on their kids, if that influence flies in the face of the agenda the liberal establishment is pushing.

But we can turn that tide. Sites like this one, TMR, and others give us the tools we need to fight back. Tools that include Cold_Warrior’s precinct project, Neil’s warnings of net neutrality being engineered behind the scenes before legislation that will make it the rule even takes place, and of course Erick’s and others’ constant vigilance on the political scene that alerts us to calls to action. Most of us here have a gift of some sort to offer to that effort, even if it is encouragement to those who at times get discouraged. Redneck hippie defined and my neighbor janis clarified what yours is.

As we go into 2010 I look forward to your unique insights into the issues and will enjoy the determination of a mild-mannered penquin who has had e-freakin’-nough, like all of us.

Finally, my condolences to you and the family of TallCHe. May God comfort you and them as we carry his, and David’s, fight forward.

A marvelous diary and highly recommended.

Happy Birthday. May God always bless you and your family.

Maybe I’ll be inspired later to have something to add to the remarkable comments already made by many of my favorite fellow-RedStaters (and some I don’t know as well).

But I do valued highly these portraits by you and others here at RedState recently and pray that they help me to repudiate the lies I find so familiar – and destructive to my being.

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

You are a tremendous writer and this diary is quite simply beautiful. Thank you for all of your contributions to RedState. Please write more diaries!

Your friend will be in my prayers.

Again, a Very Merry Christmas (and Happy B-Day), mailloux

from a fellow Sagittarian. (That doesn’t mean a big fan of Bob Sagat.)

I forwarded this essay on to Mrs. Flagstaff.

Global Warming must be real. We had an official 24″ BLIZZARD!!!! yesterday, and the sun has shone all day today.

of the gratitude I feel for my own children — not my “own” in the biological sense, but my own nonetheless.

You are, indeed, a child of God, penguin.

I’m reminded of a beautiful poem, written anonymously by an adoptive mom (like me) whose prayers were answered when children became part of her family:

I
Did not plant you.
True.
But when
The season is done -
When the alternate
Prayers for sun
And for rain
Are counted -
When the pain
of weeding
And the pride
of watching
Are through -
Then
I will hold you
High,
A shining sheaf
Above the thousand
Seed grown wild.

Not my planting.
But by heaven
My harvest -
My own child.

May you always know that you are a beloved child of God.

The way you tell your story is meaningful and I so appreciate getting to “know” you through your writings here. I had a bumpy childhood, too, and you are right on target that having had kids to raise really personalizes the cultural degradation we have been experiencing. My 2 daughters were in high school in the 1980s and the rot was already going full steam. Thankfully, it did not have any too damaging of an effect other than make them liberal. One is in the NEA and the other is of the same mindset. They both have great families, careers, and spiritual lives, so for that I give thanks.

I have some leftover birthday cake from my work, and I’m going to eat it now, wishing you all the best on your own day!

---

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Guess I’m late to the game. Just looking through the voluminous comments above should show you what an impact you have had on RedState in just a short time.

So sorry to hear about TallChE and the loss of David Hinz was a blow as well. But we honor them by continuing to fight for our nation and the principles on which it was founded.

It was truly an honor to meet you and your husband in Atlanta. Hope to see you again at the next gathering!

What to say that hasn’t already been said – you are always so unfailingly kind (a trait that sometimes escapes those of us who are, well…how should I say this…”sarcastically pithy” , your Christian love and faith always shining like a beacon in the darkness of the humanism that engulfs us; your gentle but resolute spirit.

Ya know, I find it so very ironic that my feminist acquaintances, so full of their desire to be ‘equal’, to be ‘like a man’ (why they would want devolve into such a state puzzles me), to be ‘strong’, to ‘have it all’ as they carry around a Gibralter-sized chip on their shoulder. While championing ‘choice’ for women, they arrogantly sneer at and look down their noses toward those women who have chosen a less ‘glamorous’ path.

And here’s the irony, it’s women like you, janis, Jaded, mom2oneson who, in my mind, are the truly ‘strong’ women, fighting for their children like a mother bear, sacrificing so many of the baubles that the world dangles in front of you as the ‘true’ signs of ‘success’, so that they can endeavor to make the world and our country a place where freedom and liberty reign so that all people can reach their God-given potential. It is women like you, penguin, who are the truly liberated ones, the ones on whom the lifeblood and backbone of our country rest. You are the living embodiment of the adage: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”

God bless you on your birthday, Penguin. Thanks for all that you do for your family, your country and for RS. You have been such a wonderful addition to the family. Thank you for your beautiful diary, for sharing your heart, and, well, just for being….you.

… loved by many, penguin.

I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

TY for this very wonderful, very sweet read. Such a beautiful, meaningfull example of the people who make America great.

Happy Belated & God bless!

Of course, I went and hit the Rec button twice , inadvertently unreommending it. Trust me, it was cruelty to me, unable to finally recommend this great anthem of love, growth, struggle, and patriotism.

Penguiin, happy birthday and may you brighten the hallways of Redstate and that *other* place for many years to come.

You did a marvelous job describing your journey, and it was nice to meet you along the way at RS Atlanta.

LIke you, I’ve had a bit of an awakening this year (haven’t we all!)–from a solid conservative to an active one–thanks to RS and folks like you.