Speaking about the White House being lit up with gay-rainbow lights to celebrate the recent ruling on homosexual marriage, Reverend Franklin Graham said it was “outrageous” and a “slap in the face” to Americans who support traditional marriage.

“God is the one who gave the rainbow, and it was associated with His judgment,” Graham explained. “God sent a flood to wipe out the entire world because mankind had become so wicked and violent. One man, Noah, was found righteous and escaped God’s judgment with his family. The rainbow was a sign to Noah that God would not use the flood again to judge the world.”

The White House said in a statement, “Tonight, the White House was lit to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to progress and equality, here in America and around the world. The pride colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and tonight, these colors celebrate a new chapter in the history of American civil rights.”

Such arrogance comes with harsh consequences. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells His Apostles what the world will be like when He returns.

“First He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation,” Jesus said. “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

“Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all,” Jesus continued. “Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Graham also said the Supreme Court’s ruling poses a serious threat to traditional marriage, because “the gay and lesbian community…will want to keep coming and taking away the freedoms that we have.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked enforcement of a law that would have closed most Texas abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in 2013, claiming the passage of several safety regulations would have an adverse affect on facilities.

Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas all said they would’ve allowed the law to move forward. The regulations were to officially take effect July 1.

More and more man is becoming his own god as pointed out in Genesis: “…your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Congratulations to the homosexual community for its same-sex marriage victory. But instead of equality and justice, the U.S Supreme Court has now mandated the polar opposite.

If anyone speak their views in public, they risk losing their jobs, persecution and marginalization as Justice Samuel Alito writes: “I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools.”

By using the 14th amendment to bulldoze the 10th, Progressives have shredded the 1st amendment. So, while protections for clergy and worship appear intact, the Obama administration cannot be trusted to not sidestep the ruling or to ignore it entirely.

After all, religious liberty protections are less certain for faith-based charities, schools and hospitals that want to hire and fire based on religious beliefs.

For example, the New York Times’ Mark Oppenheimer is calling for tax exempt laws to be stripped from religious organizations: “Rather than try to rescue tax-exempt status for organizations that dissent from settled public policy on matters of race or sexuality, we need to take a more radical step. It’s time to abolish, or greatly diminish, their tax-exempt statuses.”

Unfortunately, much of the fight over same-sex marriage is about an underlying agenda – which is to ingrain central planning into every part of American society and especially the family, which has moved from multigenerational, to nuclear to broken in the past 100 years. This, along with Obamacare, net neutrality, Common Core, and ‘Agenda 21,’ same-sex marriage is another attempt to destroy the family unit.

Furthermore, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion sets up the argument for ‘plural marriage,’ writing “the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept of individual autonomy,” as he compares the choice of one’s spouse to “choices concerning contraception” or procreation. Politico followed this by running an op-ed calling for the full legalization of polygamy.

“Now that we’ve defined that love and devotion and family isn’t driven by gender alone, why should it be limited to just two individuals?” writes Frederick DeBoer writes. “The most natural advance next for marriage lies in legalized polygamy…”

Forget about God-given liberties, welcome instead to the newest civil rights movement. And with all the calls for banning flags, statues, movies and even buildings, because of a ‘perceived hatred,’ is it any wonder that there’s fear the Bible will soon join that long list of items needing eradication because someone claims it’s filled with ‘hate speech?”

God’s wrath, it’s said, smells like sulfur.

“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville.

And he’s correct as the era of constitutional government is over. The U.S. has developed a post-constitutional culture where independent citizens are dependents, relying on the government for their needs.

In this, Congress has made itself the weakest of the three branches. Today’s post-constitutional congressman’s job is to hold hearings on school lunch menus, to add new benefits under Medicare, and to issue press releases about a newly funded bridge for some district.

The goal of the Constitution’s authors was to ensure liberty; separating the powers of the three governmental branches, so no one branch became dominant. They believed at the time, that the Legislative branch was the most dangerous branch because of its closeness to the people.

For this reason, precautions were established to make it less potent. Yet, over the last 100 years, Congress has surrendered powers given in Article I of the Constitution to the Executive branch; the Federal Reserve prints money and manages the economy; trade agreements are on a “fast track;” and military base closures are made by unelected commissions.

In his ruling on ObamaCare, it took Chief Justice Roberts 21 pages to explain that the language of the law is “ambiguous” when it is actually quite plain. For the Court’s majority protecting entitlements is what really matters, not the law.

And, now there’s no area of American life in which the federal government doesn’t play the ‘nanny.’ It makes college education “affordable to all”, provides housing and mortgages, offers food and cell phones, secures access to “free” birth control; “protects” children against obesity; and now subsidizes healthcare.

We were warned that our liberty would be overthrown by a “soft” tyranny, not in violence and with this latest Supreme Court decision, that prophecy has come true. The American citizen, once seen as independent, self-sufficient, and resourceful, is a footnote replaced by one more likely to be a bailed-out investment banker or the recipient of an “Obama phone.”

Tocqueville also wrote: “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

Sadly, this Constitutional Republic, the United States of America, has past.

A new poll from WalletHub.com shows Nevada is in 39 when it comes to being the most patriotic state in the Union. The state of Virginia came in at number one, while New York state place last.

Further breakdown showed that for “military engagement,” Alaska ranked first, while Minnesota is 50. For civic engagement, Wisconsin is number one, while Arkansas came in last.

Nevada placed 18 and 48 respectively.

The same survey adds that patriotism is waning. While 38 percent of Americans said the U.S. was the best country in the world in 2011, that number fell to 28 percent in 2014. With a ranking of one being the best, so-called ‘red states’ scored an average of 24.1 compared to 26.7 for ‘blue states.’

Despite the simple wording, “established by the state” would only be allowed to offer ObamaCare, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who signed up through the federal marketplace can continue to receive subsidies. Thirty-seven states didn’t set up such exchanges.

Progressives claimed voiding the law would’ve caused individual plan insurance prices to skyrocket in two-thirds of the U.S. and a loss of health coverage for people in states served by the federal insurance marketplace. They also claimed that it would have created a segregated country in terms of individual health insurance.

Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, the so-called “employer mandate,” requiring larger employers to offer affordable health insurance to their workers or pay a fine also remains in place. The ruling also keeps the individual mandate requiring most Americans to have some form of health coverage or pay a tax penalty.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who was widely criticized by for his previous determination that ObamaCare was constitutional, authored the decision.

“The upshot of all this is that the phrase ‘an Exchange established by the State under [42 U. S. C. §18031]’ is properly viewed as ambiguous. The phrase may be limited in its reach to State Exchanges. But it is also possible that the phrase refers to all Exchanges — both State and Federal — at least for purposes of the tax credits,” he wrote.

Roberts’ opinion was countered by Justice Antonin Scalia.

“Today’s interpretation is not merely unnatural; it is unheard of. Who would ever have dreamt that ‘Exchange established by the State’ means ‘Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government’?” he wrote.

“We should start calling this law SCOTUScare,” he added.

Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano also had little nice to say about Roberts.

“Last time around when the government said it was not a tax and the challengers said it was not a tax, the chief justice ruled it was a tax and that saved it,” Napolitano said. “This time around he took the plain meaning of ordinary words, ‘established by the states,’ and somehow held that they were ambiguous, and that he could, and that the majority could, correct the ambiguity according to what they thought the drafters meant.”

It’s like watching a condemned man dig his own grave.

Klamath isn’t a place where many people came to live. Instead they came as tourists or with the military, but they mostly left. We came to Klamath with the Air Force and stayed.

Like most Baby-boomers I had what I believed to be a very uneventful life, yet I thought of adventure and excitement all the time. I grew up going to church and revering God, learning not to complain or be disrespectful, going to school and to love my country.

Even at 8-years-old I was wise enough to question, “There must be something more than this?”

We children walked through secondhand smoke, adults dropping their voices to near inaudible tones so we wouldn’t hear — we children walking through the room unheard so we could hear. It was a time when no one wore seat belts, when automobiles were big and trucks were for the lumberjack or farmer and we kids could play in the street until vapor lights overhead popped to life, buzzing and humming a breath announcing the end of day.

We swam naked in the creek, each taking turns to see who could hold their breath the longest, shivering wildly as we got out and until we found a spot in the wooded canopy that let sunlight drop on our goose-pimpled bodies. Later we’d play astronauts, lying on the redwood benches of the picnic table in our backyard, until one day the moon became visceral as Neil Armstrong proclaimed “one giant leap for mankind.”

With that every thing seemed possible.

Never having very much money, my parents struggled to make ends meet and sometimes the power or the telephone was shut-off. From time to time, we’d receive a couple of boxes of hand-me-down clothes. It was like Christmas as we’d explore what was hidden inside those boxes, hoping what we found would fit.

We didn’t complain – it was jus’ life.

By nine I knew how to separate the laundry – whites, colors and darks – and at what temperature to wash them in. I also knew how to iron – having learned on my Cub Scout uniform.

We had a television that my parents bought in Europe when they were stationed there, which eventually broke and we ended up borrowing an old set from Grandpa. My parents had a remote for both sets – me — as I often heard, “Tommy, get up and change the channel.”

And we only had three TV channels to choose from. Much of the time it was radio or the record player that entertained the family at night.

With Dad working hard and Mom ending-up returning to work, the material wealth came in the form of new carpeting, wood paneling, and new furniture. Also in magazines – ‘Readers Digest,’ ‘Life,’ ‘Look’ ‘National Geographic,’ ‘True Detective,’ True West,’ ‘Old West,’ and ‘Rosicrucian Digest,’ where I poured through each issue and which taught me the love of reading.

Then I discovered newspapers, the rough draft of history and I was hooked. The Cold War, Viet Nam, Summer of Love, Tet, Martin Luther King, university sit-ins, Civil Rights act of 1968, Bobby Kennedy, the Democratic National Convention, rioting, gun control, Richard Nixon, Chappaquiddick, Apollo 11, Woodstock, Helter-Skelter, Attica, My Lai, Kent State, 26th Amendment, China, SALT I, Watergate, Roe verse Wade, the War on Drugs, Skylab, the oil crisis, and the Bicentennial.

“See” I would tell myself, “I knew something was going on beyond this place.”

This is how I learned that the same people who wandered up and down the Haight-Asbury district in San Francisco and spit on returning G.I’s and those who had battled police in the streets of Chicago in political protest would one day be national leaders. They were also the instruments a new segregationism.

Group after group declaring society had wronged them through the excessive power of white privilege: Black power, Chicano activism, the American Indian Movement, Feminists, Gay rights, Atheism and Americanophobia. And then there was me – with my white male, Catholic, U.S. loving life – completely unrepresented.

It was a different world, a different time, a different place and yet it wasn’t all that long ago, because it was my life and my revolution.

It was a kick to the gut when I opened my email and read, “Sorry to have to tell you but one of our own from Klamath has passed away. Ronnie Pasch died yesterday.”

Ronnie was born May 8, 1960 in Crescent City to Dorothy May and Bob Pasch. He passed away at Rogue Valley Hospital in Medford on June 25, 2015 at the age of 55 after striking his head during a fall from his bike.

Ronnie and I grew up together. We were in Cub Scouts and we loved to run and play in the woods behind my house when he came over.

He was a lifelong resident of Del Norte County, with most of his years in Klamath, attending Del Norte schools, where Ronnie excelled in social involvement. He’ll be remembered for his joy of life, which was contagious to everyone he met throughout his life; nobody was a stranger to Ronnie.

To everyone that knew him, Ronnie’s love for life was clearly evident. He loved bicycle riding and motorcycles and was known for his enthusiastic saying “There goes some Hogs!”

Ronnie’s survived by his wife Alice, mother Dorothy Pasch, sister Renee Marrero, of Arcata, and his children Jessica Kendrick, of Crescent City, Ronald, of Portland, and step daughter, Christina Shelton of Crescent City. He’s preceded in death by his father, Bob and brother Robert Pasch.

As I wrote his sister Renee, “I’m so sorry. When we were kids we had so much fun together. I’m so happy he had a good life.”

From the banning of all things Confederate, to the survival of ObamaCare, to the equal marriage ruling — this past week has been difficult for me. All three affect me as an observer of politics and a commentator on the social morays of this nation.

Starting from the top, banning anything in America, that neither break people’s bones, draws blood or steals their hard-earned money is wrong. Simply put, it’s is an affront to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But it seems folks either don’t know it or don’t want to know it. I mean what can we expect when a group of freshly graduated high school students are unable to answer the basic question, “When did the 13 colonies declare independence from Great Britain?”

Like it or not, the Confederacy is a major part of our history. This nation, our forefathers, fought a Civil War over states rights on one hand and slavery on the other and came out unified afterwards.

I find this amazing.

As for the U.S. Constitution, it, I am afraid no longer exists. When a justice on the Supreme Court can read, “established by the state,” and create an entirely different meaning from those four words, our system, based on that all-encompassing document of liberty’s finished.

There is no logical reasoning behind this profound misinterpretation. Not even a dictionary can help as each year publishers add slang phrases like ‘Fo’Shizzle’ and ‘Twerk’ to our common lexicon.

These would at one time been considered passing fades and never given a second thought. But because of ‘political correctness’ and the desire for inclusion, we now make exceptions to what was once guided by ‘common sense.’

But the most difficult by far has been the expected ruling on ‘marriage equality.’ This is a subject that splits me into two camps of thought and belief.

The first would be my faith, guided by the Bible which states homosexuality is a sin. My faith also says that I’m supposed to forgive sinners, yet my homosexual brothers and sisters haven’t sinned against me, so I’ve nothing to forgive them for.

My faith also states that it isn’t my job to judge anyone, no matter how I feel about their actions. Furthermore, I’m commanded by my Lord to act in love and treat others as I want to be treated.

I think I’ve lived up to this — but I could be wrong, and I’m sure I’ll hear about it come judgment day.

Viewing this ‘equal marriage’ ruling from a political and societal stand-point: I again ascribe to Thomas Jefferson’s words, which I paraphrase — if it neither breaks my bone nor picks my pocket, what difference does it make to me. Government along with religious orders of all stripes, need to stay out of the lives of the private citizen, this includes to whom each of us chooses to love and to marry.

Finally, life in the U.S. is going to become more difficult. Expect a financial down turn worse than what we saw in 2007 and look for more changes that strike against the ‘societal norm,’ we’ve been accustomed to, and pray that we can once again survive the internal strife we are about to witness.

Symbols of the Confederacy are finding new criticism in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of nine churchgoers June 17 in Charleston, South Carolina. Advocates for removal say the public placement of Confederate flags, and now statues of Confederate figures, could imply an official endorsement of the separatist movement based at least in part on the embrace of slavery.

Now, Nevada’s Senator Harry Reid is adding his voice to the list.

He said that University of Nevada, Las Vegas should change the “Runnin’ Rebels” nickname. He claims its based on a Confederate Civil War soldier.

Founded in 1957, UNLV positioned itself as the Southern counterpart of the more established University of Nevada, Reno and its Wolf Pack mascot. And while the first version of the mascot was a cartoon wolf dressed in a Confederate-styled uniform and named Beauregard, it was abolished in 1976 following complaints from Black athletes.

The current ‘Hey Reb’ mascot first appeared in 1983 and is designed to look like a mountain man who wears a gray hat with a scarlet band around it. The Mascots appearance was changed in 1997 to the square-jawed, mustachioed mascot seen today.

Reid also said the Senate would be examining dozens of statues that line the halls of the U.S. Capitol, because eight are historical Confederate figures including Jefferson Davis, who was elected president of the Confederate States of America. Reid said he would add the bronze figure of Pat McCarran, who served as Nevada senator from 1932 to 1954, to that list of questionable statues.

“Pat McCarran was one of the most anti-Semitic — some of you might know my wife’s Jewish — one of the most anti-black, one of the most prejudiced people who has ever served in the Senate,” Reid said of McCarran in 2012.

Federal law allows each state to place two statues in the Capitol. Nevada’s second statue is of Sarah Winnemucca, a 19th century Paiute educator and lecturer.

In December 2013, Reid attacked Washington Redskins football team stating it’s “a racist name.”

And while we debate this, Reid is pushing expanded background checks for gun sales, saying: “The United States is the only advanced country where this type of mass violence occurs. Let’s do something. We can expand, for example, background checks…We should support not giving guns to people who are mentally ill and felons.”

Proving once again to be a Progressive member of the Republican Party, Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, cast the deciding vote giving President Barack Obama authorization to ‘fast-track’ trade agreements.

As HuffPo reports: “Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) stood by the table in the well of the Senate for most of the vote, waiting for the measure to get across the threshold of 60. As soon as it did, with a vote by Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Cardin voted no, suggesting he had been willing to vote yes if needed.”

The approval gives any Obama’s trade legislation a simple up-or-down vote without any amendments or the threat of a filibuster. Obama has also said that If Congress passes the TPA, it will help him negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which he’s called it the most “progressive trade deal in history.”

Typically, a TPA’s passed at the beginning of negotiation cycles so that Congress directs the president to negotiate along specific parameters. In this case, the three primary treaties that would receive fast track status under this TPA had already been negotiated in secret for years.

So, there is no reason to pass fast track authority without releasing more details about these trade agreements to the public. Given Obama’s fondness for implementing major policies without Congress, there is a widespread fear he’ll use these trade agreements to pursue Progressive policies, like changes to our immigration system, labor laws, and the creation of more and stricter global warming regulations.

For example, TPP has a “living agreement” provision, which will allow foreign entities to create new laws that’ll effect U.S. trade, add new member countries, like China or Russia and as Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama wrote in an open letter to Obama, will give TPP countries “a sweeping new form of global governance authority.”

No wonder Heller has an ‘F-rating,’ with a 52 percent score from the ‘Conservative Review.’ Besides voting to approve Fast Track Authority for TPP, Heller has also voted to fully fund Obama’s executive amnesty and to spend $500 Billion on the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act.