May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan

Monday, August 31, 2009

Quotable Quote

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. ... We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" --George Orwell, "1984"

"It ain't [America] no more, okay?" (vid)

An officer of the law forces a man to take down his anti-Obama protest sign.



Link to vid here.

Wimpy Dingy Harry (Reid) Playing the Bully

The Director of Advertising for the Las Vegas Review Journal, not even a reporter, meets the insipid wimp Reid, and Reid says, "I hope you go out of business." Reid lies and demonizes people, and can't even take criticism about his policies and views. Instead of townhalls he has teleconferencing-halls by invitation. Coward. Let's pray that the people of Nevada finally realize they've sent an insecure, dishonest weak intolerant man that is not representing them, but representing himself and the Democrat Party, and send him packing. The full 'Review' article here.

Oh yeah, and don't forget his comments about 'smelly tourists' and that people that oppose him are 'evil-mongers'.

He's just shows so much respect for people. A "gentleman" of the Senate indeed.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Rick Warren's Inauguration Prayer is Something Obama Should Listen to Again

Pastor Rick Warren structured his inauguration prayer around six principles to overcome our current national crisis. This crises is not only economic, but moral and spiritual. I'm fairly certain Pastor wouldn't want his prayer applied this way, but I've been wondering about this for days, and couldn't contain myself any longer. Just how much is this administration applying these principles?

Pastor Warren said step one is to reconnect with God: "Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory. History is your story! The Scripture tells us, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God and the Lord is one'. Scripture also says "You are the compassionate and the merciful one, loving toward everyone you have made". God has a purpose for us, individually and as a nation. We turn our back on him and make decisions without Him, and trouble will follow. For the most part, the people Obama has surrounded himself with, especially the 'czars' are atheists. Obama has not selected a church. If there isn't one in DC as radical and racist as the one he apparently enjoyed in Chicago, he should be transparent and honest and say so.

Second step addressed by Warren in his prayer: "Today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to our highest level of leadership. We know today that Dr. King, and a great cloud of witnesses, are shouting in heaven." This is indeed something momentous. The celebration has ended. I have to wonder if Dr. King would be happy, when now that anyone opposes the ideas of Obama, they are called racist and other vile things?

Third: "Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leader...We commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care." Obama said he will pass his legislation even if a majority of citizens don't want it. He knows what best for us. Humility? Is it compassionate to run up a debt that in four years will exceed three quarters of the value of this nation; that will have our children, and children's children being born into debt because of our excesses?

Forth: "When we focus on ourselves, when we fight with each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity are ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings, and all the earth, with the respect that they deserve, forgive us."

Fifth: This has to do with respect. "Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all...As we face the difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ. Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans-united not by race or religion or blood, but by our commitment to freedom and justice for all. May all people of goodwill today join together, to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation, and a peaceful planet." Is passing thousands of unintelligible pages of unread legislation providing clarity? Is running up trillions of dollars of debt and adding new programs that will cost even more being responsible? Is telling more than half the population opposing him, that he will pass his legislation no matter what, showing humility? Is calling, and allowing his supporters to call the people that oppose him, nazis, fascists, mob, unruly, uninformed, liars and racists, showing civility?

Sixth: "May we never forget that one day all nations, and all people, will stand accountable before you. I humbly ask this in the name of the of the one who changed my life: Yeshua [Hebrew for Jesus], Isa [Arabic for Jesus], Jesus [Spanish], Jesus.
Atheists, Secularists, Statists, will of course reject this last. They are allowed to because the principles they are using when they do so are Judaic-Christian principles. Not truly related to this, they also enjoy weekends off. They enjoy the paid holiday of Christmas off because of this. All the freedoms they enjoy are because of Judaic-Christian principals.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

"Stress Test/Exercise" Comedy By Carl Hurley (vid)



This just gets funnier and funnier!!!!

Gaithers - In the Great Gettin up Morning



A great audio, harmonic, spiritual delight. Enjoy...

An Observaton by Billy Graham

Our modern philosophy of self-reliance and self-sufficiency has caused many to believe that we can make the grade without God. 'Religion,' they argue,'may be all right for certain emotional people, but you can't beat a man who believes in himself.' But this self-confident generation has produced more alcoholics, more dope addicts, more criminals, more wars, more broken homes, more assaults, more embezzlement, more murders, and more suicides than any other generation that ever lived. It is time for all of us to take stock of our failures, blunders, and costly mistakes. It is about time that we are putting less confidence in ourselves and more trust and faith in God.

Green Jobs Czar - Van Jones

Another person answerable only to Obama. This is what Environmental Protection Agency should be addressing, not a friend of Obama. He's a professional communist protester and activist that has been arrested and served time. In 1993 he was arrested at the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of cops in the Rodney King beating, and was arrested in the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. You have to be pretty out there, extreme behavior, to get noticed by the cops in those situations.

Jones: In jail, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th." "By August, I was a communist." He's also a Black Nationalist, along the lines of Jeremiah Wright.

A founding member of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a Marxist/Leninist group. He was arrested again during a protest by this group.

Jones: "What I do, to kinda make it simple, I'm basically a community organizer inside the federal government."

Looking at this guy's resume, he has no background in environmental science, or any science. He's a science adviser? I've read excerpts of some of his speeches. No specifics, just leftist rhetoric about green jobs and how it's going to make poor people well off, and how the rich are going to have their wealth confiscated to make it happen.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgmwyfKuL8

Do You Value Free Speech? FCC 'Diversity Chief' Doesn't

Mark Lloyd thinks government should control the airwaves. He's a non-apologetic communist, and as a 'czar' is not answerable to anyone but Obama. He wants to break the country into eight regions to control broadcast content. “Clear federal regulations over commercial broadcast and cable programs regarding political advertising and commentary, educational programming for children, the number of commercials, ratings information about programs before they are broadcast, and the accessibility of services to the disabled should be established and widely promoted.” He wants up to 100% of commercial broadcast operating costs to go the FCC, and they will monitor and decide who and what gets said. His full plan, quoting from communist revolutionary Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals', he set forth in his 2006 book, “Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America” (University of Illinois Press). His full program to control media you can read here. [Note"before they are broadcast".]

Lloyd: “It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press.” “This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.”

“[T]he purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance,” said Lloyd. “[T]he problem is not only the warp to our public philosophy of free speech, but that the government has abandoned its role of advancing the communications capabilities of real people.”

"In Venezuela, with Chavez, really an incredible revolution — a democratic revolution — to begin to put in place saying that we're going to have impact on the people of Venezuela the property owners and the folks who were then controlling the media in Venezuela rebelled — work frankly with folks here in the U.S. government worked to oust him and came back and had another revolution. And Chavez then started to take the media very seriously in this country."

Friday, August 28, 2009

Signs to Make You Smile (pics)











Lutherans Toss Out Scripture

from The Patriot Post:

The intrusion of politics into religion has theologians on both sides of the aisle debating the future of religion in America and around the world. Last Friday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow homosexuals in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy, causing widespread speculation about whether the denomination will survive. Although congregations will not be forced to hire homosexual clergy, ELCA conservatives are afraid, not only that many members will leave, but of a larger split in the church internationally. European and Scandinavian Lutherans are more liberal than Americans when it comes to homosexuality, while Africans and Asians are more conservative.

The ELCA is not the first church to deviate from Scripture on this subject. The Episcopalian Church recently approved a similar resolution, which has caused tension and strife with the larger Anglican Communion of which it is a part. The United Methodist Church, on the other hand, has become somewhat more conservative on the subject, possibly to reflect its growing membership in the more conservative South and Sunbelt.

Liberals are overjoyed by the Evangelical Lutherans' decision, much as they are when they twist the Constitution to conform to their "progressive" ideals. "The society is in the process of changing its collective mind about the moral status of same-sex relationships," stated Barbara Wheeler, former president of the Autumn Theological Seminary in New York City, "and there's a parallel theological movement."

Religious scholars are claiming that this is part of a larger religious upheaval, one in which politics will play a role. "I think we're coming up on an epic reorganization of religion in the United States," said Mark Jordan, a professor at Harvard Divinity School. "What we're going to see going forward is more and smaller churches, loosely organized and federated around a progressive pole or a conservative pole." What about churches organized around the authority of the Bible? Anyone ever heard of that?

Stubbornness: Religious and Atheist World Views

I watched a debate on my Facebook page about Atheism, Creationism (Intelligent Design), Evolution and Christian belief. I was grieved by the unthinking application of the belief templates from both sides. Same age old arguments, degenerating into the same insults. Christians objecting to science, Atheists objecting to the spiritual world view. They are not mutually exclusive, and the arguers painted each other into a corner so that the corners became defended. The corners being defended was not the beliefs of each, but how the other thought the opposition believed. A lot of other things were expressed, including insults, which didn't advance the discussion. A lot of ignorance was displayed, by the Atheists about Christianity, and Christians about Science and objectivitism. Sadly, much misunderstanding by Christians about their own beliefs. Incorrect templates all around.

Some advice to Christians, from no less than Augustine, about arguing science vs religion:
"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world. About the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.

Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.

The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but the people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books and matters concerning the resurrections of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learned from experience in the light of reason?"

To the Atheists and others that reject the spiritual world view:

Einstein: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

John Polkinghorne: "The poverty of an objectivistic account is made only too clear when we consider the mystery of music. From a scientific point of view, it is nothing but vibrations in the air, impinging on the eardrums and stimulating neural currents in the brain.

How does it come about that this banal sequence of temporal activity has the power to speak to our hearts of an eternal beauty? The whole range of subjective experience, from perceiving a patch of pink, to being enthralled by a performance of the Mass in B Minor, and on to the mystic's encounter with the ineffable reality of the One, all these truly human experiences are at the center of our encounter with reality, and they are not to be dismissed as epiphenomenal froth on the surface of a universe whose true nature is impersonal and lifeless."

Astronomer Arthur Eddington relates a parable of a scientist studying deep sea life, and drops a net with three inch squares. He catches a lot, and notices that there is no life less than three inches long. He concludes there is no sea life less than three inches.

There are objective and spiritual elements to the truths of life. One view, excluding or not giving credence to another, is not going to reveal any truth. Both are necessary to understand ourselves, each other, our relationships, and our physical universe.

Phil Wickham-" Divine Romance" Music Video



"He makes me to lie down in green pastures"... Having been very ill the whole past week, I've been lying down, praying and taking comfort in the Lord.

MSM- We Worship, You Don't Get to Decide III

That the main stream media refuses to report the news and present only pro-Statist, pro-Dem, pro-Obama propaganda has reached into its advertising. There's a 33 second ad, 33 seconds!!!... by the League of American Voters that ABC and NBC is refusing to run that is critical of ObamaCare, or KennedyCare or whatever the Statists are wishing to call it these days.

ABC Spokeswoman Susan Sewell: "The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue." "Just to be clear, this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News." An amazing thing to say when recently ABC had all day programming supporting ObamaCare, including a two hour special supportive of it where they didn't have critical interviews or allow any opposition views.

NBC Spokeswoman Liz Fischer: "We have not rejected the ad." "We have communicated with the media agency about some factual claims that require additional substantiation. As always, we are happy to reconsider the ad once these issues are addressed." This from a network that sells Obama paraphernalia in its stores, including a pro-Obama vid about what a great guy he is. If you want an Obama action figure, this is the place to go. Another place to go is MSNBC where you can get the latest hate speech and vile accusations against people that don't want ObamaCare/KennedyCare.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Obama & Dems Want No Part of 9/11 Remembrance, Renaming It

Obama is having 9/11 Remembrance replaced by the "National Day of Service". The site here. Obama signed it into law this past April. I've been on a couple supportive sites, saying it's cynical (one of the lesser charges) to think that Obama and the Dems are trying to take the focus off 9/11 as a remembrance of the lost. Dems see it as a Republican propaganda day to focus on security and other kinds of fearmongering.

Really? Keith Oberman, MSNBC: "But 9/11 has become a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form. 9/11 has become 9/11 with a trademark logo. "9/11 TM" has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed, or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial and constitutional crooks in office without -- literally -- any visible means of support. "9/11 TM" has made possible the greatest sleight-of-hand in our nation's history."

From the people that have brought you "Overseas Contingency Operations" instead of the "War on Terror"; that refuse to call Islamofacists...terrorists. That want to free terrorists from Gitmo, but lock up Bush Administration officials. That refuse to call murdering jihadists...terrorists; but call people that attend 'tea parties' racists and terrorists. If you oppose ObamaCare, you're terrorists, or if you're a combat vet, you're a 'potential domestic terrorist'.

This is just a piece of the Statists move to force programs on the American people. This piece is call "Green the Block", and is White House sponsored. It is applied community organizing, from the White House. The White House Blog here. This is one of the programs that will be pushed by the Administration on the "National Day of Service". Instead of honoring the dead, killed by enemies of liberty and the United States. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus: "From policy creation to community implementation, the Green the Block campaign wants to see access and opportunity created for all Americans, to build prosperity and a healthier planet for future generations." This guy is a thug, a professional demonstrator and activist. Just one example, he was arrested in September 2007 when Gen. David Petraeus was to testify before Congress. That was when the popular leftist poster 'general betray us' popped up. He said, "I knew that when officers lie, soldiers die."

Here's some of the radical groups that Obama has conferenced with setting up this rejection of 9/11 as a remembrance.
ACORN, AFL-CIO, Apollo Alliance, Community Action Partnership, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs, Friends of the Earth, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Mobilize.org, National Black Police Association, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Wildlife Federation, RainbowPUSH Coalition, Urban League, and Young Democrats of America. All leftists, all advocate for a communist/fascist Amerika. Nice. The leader of the free world. I think not.

Brought to You By the People That Advocate Privacy Rights

Yet more violations of privacy found in ObamaCare or KennedyCare. Again, these are the same people that previously were all in a tizzy about privacy violations, mostly abortion and the Patriot Act. I've not heard one leftist display similar outrage at any the privacy violations in KennedyCare. Items are from CBS News.

"Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a "low-income prescription drug subsidy" but has not applied for it.

I had reported earlier that you will have a government health care card that you must present when you go to see if a government bureaucrat will allow you medical procedures, surgery or service. The government will, also with this information deduct payment from your credit or debit card.

Tom Giovanetti, Institute for Policy Innovation, "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee.... So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years."

OPM: The Opium of Government

What do socialists do when they run out of other people's money? Borrow and print more of course, until everyone is equally poor and miserable except the government elite. Right now the projected deficits are at least $9 trillion. This is probably low balling. I read or heard that if you spent $100 a second for 2900 years, you reach that amount. Yet this government wants to add more government programs and spend more money, borrow more money, print more money and confiscate more money from the citizens.

Obama and his Statist administration say no prob...we'll get $640 Billion from 'cap 'n tax' which will, like every government program end up costing, not generating income. He want to raise taxes on international companies. That' supposed to raise $200 Billion. They're going to stay here why?

Your contribution to all this? It's about $33,000 for every man, woman, child in the US. Since we don't all pay taxes, those of us that do are in for $105,000 each, based on $10 Trillion deficit. Pony up.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Our 'Forward Looking' President Looks Back to Criminalize the Previous Administration

Hope and Change. Looks like one of the changes, from someone that campaigned on looking forward, is to look back and investigate the previous administration for civil and criminal charges. Never been done before, for obvious reasons. Hey Bambster, way to unite the country; try and jail the opposition.

I've got to ask. Does anyone think for a minute that any Dems on the intelligence committees, Dem officers in the FBI and CIA, that participated or approved of actions, will be investigated and brought to trial too?

When the next Republican president is voted into power, just think of all the fun we can have returning the favor. How fun is it going to be rounding up and investigating all the embezzlement, payoffs, leaked security info to enemy states...all that stuff? How many ACORN people will we be able to lock up? How many SEIU thugs. Apollo Alliance operatives (I'll be writing about these guys in a later post.) Barney Frank. Chris Dodd. These last two guys were investigated, by Dem committees of course, and guess what? They're pure as ... of course. Payoffs to Zero Population Growth. Natural Resources Defense Council. Institute For America's Future. Laborers' International Union of North America. The reason all these leftist groups and contributers, and lots more, is because after the (un)stimulus package, all the sudden they're in the money. hmmmmmm I'd go after Raines too. He made something like $90 mill in six years at Fannie May, which is the primary source of all the economic mess we're in now.

Of course the primary the reason the Bamster and his backup group, The Dems, need to change the tune is that 'cap 'n tax' and ObamaCare hit a bunch of sour notes, the crowd is booing, and will start leaving the building. They need to distract so they can rearrange ObamaCare and try and sneak it though in the second act.

So if the Bamster wants to go down the road of criminalizing the policies (and in this case, GW had congressional approval and oversight, so they'll go down too), I'm ready for turnabout being fair play.

Leave our WeeWee's Alone!

Social security is in trouble (but we already know that). It looks like there won't be COLA increases for at least the next two years. If a Republican were in office, this would be reported as a cut.

Well now, the CDC wants the government to cut little babies penises too. Government required circumcision. Of course they have reasons for this, but the reasons are irrelevant. The government wants to mandate that you parents, even if you don't want to, slice and dice junior's member. Full story here.

Once again, our Dear Leader takes a fairly small problem, venereal disease, and takes draconian measures, government mandated weewee slicing. Hey Bamster! Leave our penises alone!

Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Congressman Brian Baird



I was Army and Navy, not Marine, but Semper Fi.

Quotable Quote

"There is a pattern here and it will not change as long as we don't recognize that our little girls are being used. The mass marketers of Hollywood hype know that today's youth spend some 200 billion dollars a year of their own money on trinkets, music and all the accessories that go with it. They also know that pre-teen girls are easily manipulated and that more than anything else, want to be popular as they grow into young adults. So, they discover cute, talented young girls, make them superstars by playing on your daughter's dreams of glitz, and morph the 'wholesome' starlets into trampy sex stars as they grow older, hoping to take the dollars of your girls with them. ... History repeats itself. You know what happened to teen idol Britney Spears. America's little girls and their moms swooned and spent millions on Britney fashions. However, just as the Britney wannabes reached critical mass, the star's light started to short circuit. Her sexy ways quickly turned into bizarre behavior, drug problems and a raunchy attitude. Not to worry, High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens was there to take her place. But just as Vanessa hit her zenith in the eyes of our little girls, nude photos and other sexual revelations about her captured the headlines. Down came Vanessa and up went the posters of the twinkling, sparkly Miley Cyrus. Now Miley has made the transition to tramp too. And millions of preteen girls have, once again, been manipulated into believing that being trampy is not only normal, but is the only way to succeed. It's time for moms to wake up and protect our little girls from being used. Find other moms who are sick of the abuse -- it only takes a few friends to create your own sub-culture within the madness of the crazy pop culture. Finding allies is one of the most effective ways to fight back and win." --columnist Rebecca Hagelin Full article here

"Your Life, Your Choices" Death Panel for Vets

If you're a Vet returning hurt from combat, one of the many forms presented (having been in the military, we know forms, though [fortunately] I was never wounded) is the "Your Life, Your Choices." It's an end of life questionnaire. First presented in 1997, it's part of their living will. Bush put it out of its misery before it caused anyone else misery. It's back under this administration.

The creator of this depressing bit of work (I can't even imagine being a wounded warrior and having to fill this out) is Dr. Robert Pearlman, an advocate of assisted suicide. The questions are end of life, asking when your life would no longer be worth living. Examples: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" or that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

No religious groups or disability rights advocates listed as support sources for these men and women. Who is listed? The Hemlock Society.

Full story and details here.

This is the same mentality this administration has toward seasoned citizens and babies. Something Statists do not have is a concept of the sanctity of life. With the leader this administration saying he's in partnership with God to determine who lives and who dies...well,

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Thought for Those That Say ONLY Mind and Reason Exist

Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow: "At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Stephen Hawking, writing about the possibility of discovering a unified theory, in "A Brief History of Time": "Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God."

More poetically, from Annie Dillard (if you haven't read her, you're in for a treat. Highly recommend "Pilgrimage at Tinker Creek", a very influential book in my life.)
This is from "Teaching a Stone to Talk":

"Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy...We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism...It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it. We are lighting matches in vain under every green tree. Did the wind used to cry and the hills shout forth praise? Now speech has perished from among the lifeless things of the earth, and living things say very little to very few...And yet it could be that wherever there is motion there is noise, as when a whale breaches and smacks the water, and wherever there is stillness there is the small, still voice, God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song and dance, the show we drove from town...What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: Hello?"

If there is no more to existence than existing, do my atheist and rationalist friends contend that there is no meaning in life? If that's true, why do any act of love or compassion? Why isn't murder and destruction just as acceptable as an act of mercy? I ask them, why are humans the only life that is self aware? The rational mind being omnipotent, they should be able to explain this, and our existence.

A Lovely Response to Criticisms of the Churched

This goes back to the statement of Gandhi that he likes Christian ideas, and that Christians are so unlike Christ. Or Voltaire, "Is it any wonder that there are atheists in the world, when the church behaves so abominably?" We all fall short of our beliefs, no matter what we are. If you're a Christian, by definition you're a hypocrite according to this view. I would like to see a rationalist/Atheist read and live "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas Kempis for ninety days, and tell us Christians how easy it is. Atheists make up their own rules and rationalizations, so it's much easier to live by those.

This following is from a book I've started reading, by an atheist turned believer, Francis Collins, "The Language of God". He is the head of the Human Genome Project.
Addressing one of the criticisms of the history of church, namely the people that attend with their shortcomings, or in church language, their sins and battles with sinning, he writes:

"The church is made up of fallen people. The pure, clean water of spiritual truth is placed in rusty containers, and the subsequent failing of the church down throughout the centuries should not be projected onto the faith itself, as if the water had been the problem. It is no wonder that those who assess the truth and appeal of spiritual faith by the behavior of any particular church find it impossible to imagine themselves joining up."

"...the earnest seeker must look beyond the behavior of flawed humans in order to find the truth. Would you condemn an oak tree because its timbers had been used to build battering rams? Would you blame the air for allowing lies to be transmitted through it? Would you judge Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' on the basis of a poorly rehearsed performance by fifth-graders? If you had never seen a real sunset over the Pacific, would you allow a tourist brochure as a substitute? Would you evaluate the power of romantic love solely in the light of an abusive marriage next door?

No. A real evaluation of the truth of faith depends upon looking at the clean, pure water, not at the rusty containers."

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Slow Fade - Casting Crowns (vid)



It's the little things that take us away from what's most important.

By the Numbers-Christians Being Persecuted

About 45 million Christians were murdered in the 20th Century, and the 21st is keeping pace.

In Eritrea (Africa) all religious groups must register except those recognized by the State (as is in China). This became law in 2002 and no religious groups have been recognized since. About 3,000 religious prisoners are being held for practicing Christianity without registration with the State.

In the past two years over 30 Christian churches have been burned down in Nigeria, and about 50 Christians murdered. Hundreds have been driven from their homes.

In North Korea, if you're caught with a Bible, or are caught preaching, you're thrown in prison, indefinitely.

In Algeria and Egypt, there are laws that make conversion from Islam punishable by fine or imprisonment. In Sudan or Saudi Arabia, you can be executed.

It's dire in India too. Six Indian states have anti-conversion laws. In Orissa about 60 Christians have been murdered by Hindu extremists, over 108 Christian churches burned down, and over 50,000 have been run out of their homes. Before I hear the idiot statement about religion being responsible for more deaths yada yada yada, these are State sanctioned, not religion sanctioned. My blog disproving that idiot statement here.

In Iran, the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad have a pogrom against Christians. State sanctioned. Muslim sanctioned. All Christian print, even church bulletins are forbidden. Bibles not allowed. Preaching not allowed. Talking about anything Christian not allowed. A bill has just been approved for State murder of those that leave Islam.

Last, but certainly not least. There's been about a 400% increase in the imprisonment and murder of Christians in China since 2007. Even in the face of this, the Christian population is skyrocketing there.

Christophobes in this country cheer at the notion of Christianity being suppressed here. All the States mentioned above oppress, brutalize, and imprison their people, and not just Christians. Christians are just a good place to start. The reason being, the foundation of Liberty is Judeo-Christian. The State must destroy that; it creates a vacuum, a void, that the State can fill. Then the State, not God, becomes the provider of all things. Then we have the Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, etc. In Europe, Islam is filling the void, since Christianity for the most part is dead. Good luck with that.

Seeing all that, whew! sure glad we escaped the brutal Theocracy of Reagan and GW. (Yes, I have actually read Christophobe/Statist articles that said they were oppressed and suffered by that Christian Theocracy imposed on them.) I guess I missed the stonings, murders, imprisonment, forced conversions, and the murder of those that decided to leave the Christianity.

These numbers are from various government and private organizations. I'm not listing them, I'm just mentioning since Secularists, Atheists and other such Christophobes will say these are made up or whatever. Any challenges, I'll list.

Demons

For Statists to get and maintain power, they need an enemy, need to demonize something. Islamofascists have the Great Satan and Jews, Nazis had the Jews, Chavez and Castro have the US, Secularists and Atheists have the Church. Notice that all these demons are the most helpful to humanity. The US is the economic and creative engine of the world, as well as being the most charitable. The Church (primarily Christian, Islam is mostly destructive, Buddhists and Hindus aren't so helpful but have nice ideas) gives hugely to charity, and when there's a disaster, who shows up to help? Atheist organizations? Don't think so.

The newest demon for this Statist administration are the health insurance companies. Rep. Henry Waxman (D,CA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is strong arming these private sector companies, fifty-two of them to be exact, to give private corporate information to the government. He wants salaries, bonuses, pensions and other compensation. He wants where retreats are held and the costs. He want the names of all board members and how much they make (while they, the citizens' employees, hide that same information from us).

I pray the insurance companies stand up to these guys. If these Statists had good, workable ideas, they wouldn't have to demonize segments of the private sector like this. Their only purpose is oppressing choice and liberty, getting more power, and lining their own pockets. The option of the government being the only option isn't an option.

Not to mention the demon of the majority of American citizens who want liberty and choice, that are now Nazi's, fascists, racists, stupid, liars, etc.

Going Postal

Obama and his Statist followers use the words of capitalism while trying to force government controlled everything down our throats. He wants to have the government go into competition with health care providers. If he thinks that's a good idea, how about having transportation companies go into competition with the post office? Get rid of the postal monopoly.

Right now the post office is running about $7 Billion in the hole, and it'll be about the same next year. Can anyone name a business that can stay in business with that much debt? They don't even have to show a profit; they only have to break even! Good grief. To keep this loser running costs other business and homes (that's you and me) paying for this. Why is it acceptable for everyone else to prop these guys up? It's billions of dollars of money lost out of the economy that could be used productively.

That money doesn't go to efficiency and better business practices. It goes to unions. It goes to employees health care, which are 20%-30% higher than in the private sector. The Government Accountability Office says $500 million a year could be saved by bringing health benefits into line with those of other federal workers. I'm thinking, bring them into line with the private sector and save even more money. Lastly, it goes to inflated salaries. I don't have the breakdown of how much to each, but about 80 cents of every dollar goes to salaries and benefits.

There are divers ways to deliver mail. The post office is supposed to be able to stand on its own, and if it can't, tough. Other companies can.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Stupid Nation By Rich Lowry

Stupid Nation
Just how stupid do they think we are?

By Rich Lowry

Some great questions for Statists, ObamaCare supporters should answer. They won't because they will deny they think this way. Fun and informative piece.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare By John Mackey

This is the most cogent, well thought out, wise approach to thinking about health care ever.

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.

Yet Another Small Nut Found Hidden in the ObamaCare Tree

The Statists protested mightily against listening to Islamofacist terrorists overseas talking to like minded people in the US, but this privacy transgression seems to be okay. Section 163 of the ObamaCare bill, “Administrative Simplification,” sets up electronic transactions for health care. It will “enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service . . . ”... “enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with related health care payment and remittance advice.”

Your health care card, required by government, will have “machine-readable health plan" that will contain all your health information, accessible by the government, all your banking and financial information, accessible by the government, which will have all your credit and debit cards info, which your health care provider, i.e., the government, can deduct payment from.

Of course, to allay our fears of this government intrusion into our personal lives, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the use of information collected under this section in a manner that would adversely affect any individual.” Not that there's been any fraud in government programs, understand.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Montana Bear Tragedy

This is such a tragedy to see what they have done to our country's wildlife! It brings a tear to one's eye

Montana Bear Photo . . .

The photo below captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect US wildlife



Animals that were formerly self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democrat Party... as they have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance.


This photo is of a Democrat black bear in Montana nicknamed . . .


Bearack Obearma

Sin Bins?

Britain is putting about 20,000 families under 24 hour surveillance, because they behave badly. The idea is to make sure parents send their kids to school, as well as keep to a proper eating and sleeping schedule. Not only that, but there are guards on patrol to make sure everybody behaves.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls: “This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem. There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling: “This is all much too little, much too late.
“This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behaviour, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse.”
Nice little Statist work going on there. Implement policies that destroy the nuclear family, then send in Statist bureaucrats to control the situation they created.

Shadow Home Secretary? It turns out that the Brits have a shadow cabinet. (Sounds a bit like what Obama is doing with all his 'czars'.) The Shadow Home Secretary actually follows the real "Home Secretary" around and analyzes all domestic decisions like prisons, immigration, police, etc.

Then there are "Youth Offending Teams" which I think implements the "Youth Crime Action Plan".

Back to the guy talking about the 'root of the problem'. The root of the problem is the State running God and morality out of town, and implementing secular and Statist models that never work.

Boy, sometimes...

Separation of Church and State, Obama Style

This report come from the Statist ABC News room, so that combined with standard bad journalism, we only get a few actual facts. They are disturbing. Our Dear Leader had a conference call with leftist religious leaders. Who they are, specifically, is not mentioned, because of the aformentioned bad journalism.

Some quotes from the call, from Obama: “I know there's been a lot of misinformation in this debate, and there are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness, but I want everyone to know what health insurance reform is all about.” Obama talking about bearing false witness. Huh.

Some phrases he used: “distortion(s)” “fabrications” and “ludicrous ideas” “divisive and deceptive attacks” by people speaking out against healthcare. He didn't, or couldn't name names of these violators of ObamaTruth.

Obama: ... “fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation, and that is that we look out for one another, that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, and in the wealthiest nation on Earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call.”

If he's his brother's keeper, ummmm, what's the story with his brother in Africa again? He's got a bunch of relatives in Africa. How are they doing? I suspect, still no hope and very little change.

Dear Leader, "I" am my brother's keeper is a personal pronoun. Not a government pronoun. This is the guy that reduced the tax breaks for charitable giving. Way to look out for your brother. He's all for using OPM to help others, just not his own.

Of course he'll get a pass talking to religious leaders and appealing them to advocate, from the pulpit, his cause.

Can you imagine a conservative president talking to conservative religious leaders asking them to advocate, from the pulpit, his/her cause? Headline news for weeks on end about the coming oppressive theocracy.

In This Case the Grass Was Greener...but...

Jose Escobedo was having a hard time making grass grow at his East Dallas, Texas, home. He decided to astro turf it. Which to my mind is pretty cool, saves water, which is important in Texas. He has the best looking yard in the neighborhood. Have you seen the new turf? Unless you look closely, it looks like the real thing. There's a problem, even though everything he's done is visually and environmentally sound. After he moved in, his neighborhood was turned into an historic neighborhood. He has been told by city officials he has to tear it up and put in real grass. Escobedo is on a fixed income. He's already spent thousands upgrading to 'historic' standards.

Katherine Seale, director of Preservation Dallas: "It's easy to see the Landmark Commission as the evil taste-makers who came down on this lonely homeowner..." And of course, on can't make exceptions.

Neighbor Steve Winget: "It looks nicer than anything around it." "I saw how it was before. Grass wouldn't grow there. They should leave him alone."

Ah yes, elected officials, once again doing the people's bidding.

Rose Friedman-A Tribute

Overshawdowed only because she wasn't a media star like Novak, we shouldn't forget Rose Friedman, who passed the same day. She was the wife of Milton Friedman, and his intellectual partner. They wrote "Free to Choose", one of the most influential books in my life. She was the recipient or the Clare Booth Luce Award from the Heritage Foundation for advancing the cause of conservatism.

Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner: "You, Rose and Milton Friedman, have been second to none in your vigilant, tireless and effective defense of liberty. At a time when it was intellectually fashionable to assert that collectivism was the wave of the future, you steadfastly championed the moral and practical superiority of free markets. At a time when ‘economic’ freedom was widely held to be less important than ‘political’ freedom, you demonstrated that they are, in fact, inseparable. And when others looked to the power of the state to accomplish their social objectives, you reshaped American politics through your advocacy of monetary restraint, deregulation, the volunteer army, school choice and the flat tax.”

Rose Friedman RIP

Robert Novak-A Tribute

Robert Novak was a journalist's journalist. He passed yesterday, and if it at all possible, journalism is the worse for it. He actually talked to news makers, and confirmed information with other sources. A lot of what passes as news in the MSM now is attractive news readers repeating what the NY Times prints, or what some leftist blog prints. Single source reporting that confirms their Statist world view. Journalism is dead, at least from the traditional outlets. In the movie "Comes a Horseman", Richard Farnsworth's character was the metaphor for the last of the breed, a true rugged independent cowboy. I think it may be a correct thing to say the same of Robert Novak. The last of his kind.

I began reading him in as the team 'Evans and Novak', which even in my Marxist days I appreciated because I knew that this was solid reporting. Like many of us, over the years he became more conservative, because he saw the failures of liberal programs (the Great Society for example) and the success of conservative principles applied in the eighties. He found the Lord in his late sixties. We are glad he did. RIP

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Can I Have Higher Energy Costs Please? With a Side of Extra Debt?

We can't develop nuclear energy, can't build more refineries, can't develop or explore for shale oil, but we can have cap 'n tax to extort more money out of the citizens. Oh yeah, we can't drill off shore either. The law says we can, but we can't because the Dems and their Statist environmentalist fellow travelers will stop every effort, as usual.

But what we will do, are you sitting down and strapped in? What we will do is loan Brazil about $2 Billion to help them drill offshore for oil. With the promise of more if they need it.

Higher energy costs and more debt for US citizens. That's what I want. Yep, sure do. Really. Makes perfectly good sense.

A Silence "Inhabited" by God

Letters from Europe. Wind Rose Hotel is a valued contributor to this blog.

Thomas Merton once wrote: “We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have—for their usefulness.” We tend to apply the same scheme of reasoning to God Himself: If God exists, people often argue, then He must busy Himself, otherwise He is a false god. We cannot accept the silence of God, as much as we cannot accept the silence tout court. People perceive it as an uncomfortable and awkward break in conversation, so they instinctively insist on filling the silence, and this because nowadays we perceive silence as an absence, as an emptiness. We cannot conceive a meaningful silence, and even less one “inhabited” by Someone: a silence “inhabited” by God. This is part, in my opinion, of the problem with our culture and way of life.

Mother Teresa once said: “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” The contemplative experience teaches the discipline of silence as exclusion of any noises and unnecessary chats, which would profane those spaces of silence. The true wise man—as a Camaldolese monk, Father Franco, once told me—speaks few words and his words are often “silence” at the same time. His words spring from a deep meditation. True silence keeps us away from narrow mindness. The word is a great thing, but it is not what is greatest: if word is silver, as the old proverb goes, silence is gold. Hi who aims at the higher levels of spiritual life needs silence as much as he needs his daily bread and rest for his body.

“In the attitude of silence—said Mahatma Gandhi—the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.” May the rest of the Summer be a time of renewal and, as far as possible, of silence, for me and for you, my good readers.

Obama/Joker Poster Update


The joke's on the Statists! What a hoot! The Joker poster was not created by some Docker/polo shirt wearing right wing racist extremist, but by a liberal 20 year old Chicago student, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois. He was practicing a tutorial of photoshop using a Time Magazine cover, and that was later modified. The full story here.

My Friends, Cancer, and Socialized Medicine

Twenty percent of British cancer patients who might be cured become incurable while waiting for the treatment they need. All my friends that have had cancer, and there are several, have survived. I thank God foremost, and the American medical system second.

The Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania studied survival rates for lung, breast, prostate, colon, and rectum cancers in 18 countries and found that Americans were the most successfully treated.

About 85-90 percent of us are satisfied with our health care. Even the uninsured are pretty satisfied since it's illegal for any medical institution to turn anyone away. Personal story...had a friend that was unemployed and had a hernia. Got the operation and didn't pay.

More people having heart attacks survive here. Would you rather have a heart attack or stroke here or China, Russia, Cuba, Canada, Venezuela, England?

ObamaCare isn't about health. If Statists did care, they would be coming up with programs that help those that need it, not delete what we have now, that does in fact take care of everyone, even people here illegally. Statists don't care about the well being of the citizens. They care about power and their own well being.

Kudos to Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA)

It's well known that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a political thug, and has been strong arming congress critters to vote for ObamaCare. Love these quotes from Issa to Dead Fish Rahmbo:

“While this type of scare tactic may work in Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.”

“I and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people." “You’ve unfortunately reacted by once again resorting to the playbook of the Chicago political machine.”

Sent to Represent

By the way elected representatives are acting, it's clear they think they are sent to rule. Really, charging for entry to townhall meetings, meetings by invitation only, teleconference meetings by invitation only, shouting down the people that dare question them, calling their constituents Nazis, fascists, mobs, racists and whatever else.

This following exchange at a meeting of some radical leftists and Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) is indicative of the mindset of politicians.

"MASSA: Listen, I tell every audience I’m in favor of single payer.

PARTICIPANT: If there was eighty twenty in the room?

MASSA: If there was a single payer bill?

PARTICIPANT: And there was a single payer….

MASSA: I will vote for the single payer bill.

PARTICIPANT: Even if it meant you were being voted out of office?

MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.

Massa: I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them."

The American people, see, are too stupid to know what's good for them.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Un-Quotable Quotes

"At the moment, what she wants to do is tap into her visceral talent for aerial-shooting her favorite human prey: cerebral Ivy League Democrats." Maureen Dowd on Sarah Palin

"It seems safe to say that of the hundreds of thousands of style guides currently for sale on Amazon, not one of the didactic, shop-your-closet authors was prescient enough to outline the appropriate attire for those public occasions when good citizens decide to behave like raving lunatics and turn lawmakers into punching bags. What does one wear to a town hall meeting on health care when the sole reason for attending is to shout down one's congressman like a peevish teenager in the midst of a hormonal rage?" Robin Givhan Washington Post Like leftists in rotting blue jeans and message T's are a great fashion statement. Great way for this pretend journalist to address the issues.

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what's best for your family." Obama He's saying now he's dropping it as a requirement. Don't count on it. It'll be re-languaged, hidden, reformatted, and presented again. Keep fighting this guy and pay attention. He's a shrewed, devious manipulator.

Does the Obama Administration Have a Moral Compass?

John P. Holdren is Obama's science adviser and served as co-chairman when the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology met a little while ago. He's the co-author of "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," along with Paul and Anne Erlich. Erlich, some of you may remember, was the chicken little that predicted world wide famines in "The Population Bomb". He was wrong about everything...several times over, on several issues. Yet Statists, environmentalists, and continually wrong Malthusians keep sourcing him.

Some quotes from Holdren: "Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society."

"A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men." "The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control."

"Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods." "To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements" "It must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets or livestock."

Then we have Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Obama's health care adviser: "When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago ... I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care." "I think that over the last five to seven years ... I've come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care. If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases." What few cases would that be and who would decide? Seems to me rationing health care is an all or nothing proposition.

"Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years."

... "services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed."

These two guys are a piece of work. Obama supports this or he wouldn't have them as advisers. Obama makes a joke about pulling the plug on grandma. This is no joke. This is immoral. This is sick and disgusting. The government making life and death decisions. I'll leave that to God thank you very much.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Church, What's Going on Inside-Observations from Kathleen Norris

"From the outside, church congregations can look like remarkably contentious places, full of hypocrites who talk about love while fighting each other tooth and nail. This is the reason many people give for avoiding them. On the inside, however, it is a different matter, a matter of struggling to maintain unity as 'the body of Christ' given the fact that we have precious little uniformity. I have only to look at the congregation I know best, the one I belong to. We are not individuals who have come together because we are like-minded. That is not a church, but a political party. We are like most healthy churches, I think, in that we can do pretty well when it comes to loving and serving God, each other, and the world, but God help us if we have to agree about things. I could test our 'uniformity' by suggesting a major remodeling of the sanctuary, or worse, that Holy of Holies-the church kitchen. But I value my life too much."

"At the risk of exposing myself as a terminal optimist, I'd say that things are as they should be. As contentious as we seem to be as a church, we are no less so than the fractious congregations of Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians, and Galatians addressed by St. Paul. Can I consider it a good sign-a sign of life- that Christians have continued to fuss and fume and struggle, right down to the present day? It may look awful from the outside, and can feel awful on the inside, but it is simply the cost of Christian discipleship."

[The Church] "...is a human institution, full of ordinary people, sinners like me, who say and do cruel, stupid things. But it is also a divinely inspired institution, full of good purpose, which partakes of the unity far greater than the sum of its parts. That is why it is called the body of Christ."

Paul wrote: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever."

Worship, Going to Church

I had thought, when I finally quit fighting His call (about 15 years of resistance), that like CS Lewis had thought when he converted, I would just attend and sit, sing, pray and listen to the message.
There's so more to worship than that.

"Into the community you were called-the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When I was anti-church and anti-Christian, I presented the argument that church is just a man-made institution, and as such of no import; followed by the usual criticisms of Christians and the Church. Actually, us getting together is God's idea. From Exodus: "From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering...And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them...And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat."

Jesus set the example. From Luke: "So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up to read."

Being a member of the Body of Christ, and worshiping corporately, I find God's grace released to me, and to all of us that are there. I am humbled. I am loved. And I love. I hear His Word, and am matured as a man, a human, and a Christian. I know I am submitted to Him, and am better for it.

This is a place where we enter the presence of God, and we welcome Him into our presence and hearts.

Sunday Morning Thoughts

"The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other Voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in, all day." C S Lewis

Take a minute or two each morning, and listen to God. First thing when I sit up in the morning, I say the Lord's prayer. It opens the heart and ears to God's plan, and love, for us that day.

That way you're in tuned all day. I like being aware of His presence throughout the day.
From the hymns:

"I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells m I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known." -Charles Miles



"He lives, He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way.
He lives! He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart." -Alfred Ackley

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Protest Pics/ Acceptable Liberal Protests vs Right Wing Extremists' Protests

Right Wing Extremists on the March!







Liberal Peaceful Normal Demonstrations






Small Miracles II

"Julia Dixon had just accidentally locked herself out of her house when the mailman came up the drive. "Mrs. Dixon!' he exclaimed in concern. 'You look upset. What's the matter?'

'Oh, I don't know what I'm going to do,' she wailed, wringing her hands nervously. 'The door locked behind me, and my neighbor, who keeps a duplicate for me, is out of town. My husband has the key, but he's at an all day conference at a hotel downtown, and I doubt I can reach him. How am I going to get back in?'

The mailman tried to calm the woman, and advised her to call a locksmith. 'I guess that's my only recourse,' she agreed, 'but to tell you the truth, they charge an arm and a leg and I really can't afford an extra expense right now. Things have been tight.'

The mailman commiserated with her, but pointed out that she had no choice. 'Look, I better be on my way,' her said, 'but here's you mail. Who knows? Maybe there'll be some good news inside one of the letters to cheer you up!'

Julia looked through the envelopes. There was one from her brother Jonathan. He had visited the family the previous week and had stayed for a few days. 'I wonder why he's writing so soon?' she thought. As she tore open the letter, a key fell into her palm.

'Dear Julia,' the letter read. 'Last week, when I was staying at your house and you were out shopping, I accidentally locked myself out. I asked you neighbor for your duplicate, but forgot to return it. So I'm enclosing it now.'"

From "Small Miracles" by Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal

Pelosi Tells Anti War Protesters I'm a Fan of Disruptors (vid)



So how come protest was okay then and not now? Just sit down and shut up you stupid citizens, we're in power now and we know what's best for you...

You Just Can't Fix Stupid!! (I Hope Some of These Are Made Up)

ONE
Recently when I went to McDonald's, I saw on the menu that you could
have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen
nuggets. 'We don't have half dozen nuggets,' said the teenager at the
counter.' 'You don't?' I replied. 'We only have six, nine, or twelve,'
was the reply. 'So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order
six?' 'That's right.' So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

TWO
I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the
lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up
one of those 'dividers' that they keep by the cash register and placed
it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had
scanned all of my items, she picked up the 'divider,' looking it all
over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code,
she said to me, 'Do you know how much this is?' I said to her, 'I've
changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today.' She said 'OK,' and
I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just
happened.

THREE
A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and
pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing,
she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a
credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.'

FOUR
I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. ' Do
you need some help?' I asked. She replied, 'I knew I should have
replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into
my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store)
would have a battery to fit this?' 'Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an
alarm, too?' I asked. 'No, just this remote thingy,' she answered,
handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually
unlocked the door, I replied, 'Why don't you drive over there and check
about the batteries. It's a long walk.'

FIVE
Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day
she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, 'I'm almost out of
typing paper. What do I do?' 'Just use copier machine paper,' the
secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank
piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five
'blank' copies.

SIX
I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was
towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of
repair and the whole thing generally looked like an extra in 'Twister.'
I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had
set the 'cruise control' and then went in the back to make a sandwich.

SEVEN
My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of
a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems
with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of
the branch banks who had this question: 'I've got smoke coming from the
back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?'

EIGHT
Police in Radnor , PA interrogated a suspect by placing a metal
colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy
machine. The message 'He's lying' was placed in the copier, and police
pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't
telling the truth. Believing the 'lie detector' was working, the
suspect confessed.

NINE
A mother calls 911, very worried, asking the dispatcher if she needs to
take her kid to the emergency room--the kid was eating ants. The
dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and it should be
fine. The mother says, 'I just gave him some ant killer..... '
Dispatcher: 'Rush him to the emergency room!'

A Letter to the Editor About Media Coverage of Protests

from William White:

The point you make about the media not covering liberal loonies at left-wing protests because such stories would be of dog-bites-man importance has some validity. However, I think you miss two much larger concerns.

First, I do not believe that the existence of left-wing fringe elements at liberal protests is at all common knowledge. Certainly political junkies like us know full well about what really goes on at these rallies. However, I think there is a huge swath of middle America that would be quite startled to get the full picture of liberal protests. I also think that were the media to provide such coverage it would notably alter public opinion on many political topics. (By way of contrast, note how the media cover religion. They almost never cover mainstream religious organizations and activity, but consistently report on religious extremists, and always in a negative light.)

Second, yes, at any political protest you will have elements there shouting, arguing, whatever, that politician so-and-so is a jerk and in bed with special interests and untrustworthy and all that. However, what infuriated me about the antiwar protests when Bush was in office is that the left's level of rhetoric was not just different in degree from what one might commonly see at political rallies but was different in kind. To me, the left became completely unhinged. To regularly brand Bush as Hitler, to regularly refer to the Bush administration as a "regime," to tolerate the not-uncommon calls for Bush's death or assassination reflected a serious change in the nature of political debate in this country. That change was very much a valid news story. In many respects, that change superseded the significance of the war itself. Yet, the media totally and completely ignored and whitewashed the level of lunacy among the left.

Now, maybe I, myself, am an extremist for seeing such an acute liberal bias in the MSM, but, I feel very strongly that the MSM is "at it again." They are working hard to report on fringe conservative protesters as a way to undercut conservative positions when they have regularly ignored the lunacy which exists on the left--and have ignored the size and sway that such extremists hold within the Democratic Party.

(hat tip to WSJ)