Merry Christmas To All

To all my fellow bloggers I wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year. This is a wonderful and special time of year when we collectively celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world who was a gift from God in Heaven so that we can have the most wonderful gift of all: reconciliation with God! So, I am taking this Christmas season off from blogging and will see you all in 09.

Happy Birthday to ME!

While having coffee in the wee hours of this morning, my wife was discussing the ways we could celebrate my birthday today. My response, why would anyone "celebrate" a birthday after forty? Her response highlighted one of the wonderful differences between her and I.

This difference was also highlighted this Thanksgiving season while we were naming the things for which we could give thanks. My list went like this: I'm thankful that even though I had to take a huge cut in pay, I didn't loose my job; I'm thankful that none of our family was killed or struck down with some horrible disease; I'm thankful that even though our country made a massive leap toward socialism, I can still afford to pay my taxes and to live in non-governmental housing. My wife's list went more like this: I'm thankful for God's provision in our lives, and our health; I'm thankful for my lovely children and wonderful husband.

It was also apparent in our home when our children were younger. At the end of the day as the sun sank behind the horizon I would often say to them: This day is over now, and it will never come again. This comment always drew the ire of my optimistic wife who, after a time, came up with her own follow up saying. So, on many evenings in our home as the sun was setting this scenario would play itself out: Me in a melancholy voice: Well Children, this day is over, and it will never come again. Her in a happy voice: But tomorrow's a brand new day!

You see, on this day, my birthday, I saw things in my normal way; me growing old. I don't know anyone who celebrates or looks forward to growing old and feeble. My wife on the other hand saw plenty of reason for celebration because I had been granted yet another year of life. Her response to me this morning reflected just that sentiment which gave me reason for pause. So, happy happy birthday to me!

Obama Pardons an Unborn Child; What If?

It's likely you've seen or heard about the footage of Gov. Palin's pardon of a turkey today at a turkey slaughter house. It seems her enemies in the press....aaaahh, her enemy, the press, is making hay over the activity going on in the back ground. It's obvious that the camera man is shooting Gov. Palin at one side of the screen so that the activity in the background can be plainly seen; the activity being the very thing one would expect to see at a turkey slaughter house; the slaughter of turkeys.

From a thinking perspective, it's not evident what Palin's great sin is here, other than not being politically savvy enough to avoid being taken in by her sworn enemies. But we live in an image driven society. It doesn't matter that in less than a week a large majority of Americans will be having turkey for dinner, including those aghast over the "controversial" images in the back ground. Never mind that Beef, chicken, fish, mutton, horse meat for the dog, are all food that must be murdered and prepared for the super market, but the image of such slaughter, it would seem, should not be tolerated. This does beg the question of who looks worse here, Palin or the media showing it all day? But this is a question that requires thinking; something that doesn't come easily for an image driven society.

As to the source of the media's hatred for Palin there can be no doubt. We can be assured that it has nothing to do with her not rescuing turkeys, but rather from the fact that she is a Christian who believes in rescuing babies. The irony of this fact, and the images being shown today, is nothing less than horrific when one considers a filmstrip negative of it. This negative would have Obama, or some other Liberal, pardoning an unborn child from the abortionist's knife while in the background can be seen babies being slaughtered and cut into peaces to be sold to researchers. But don't expect to see images like this from the image brokers because although they themselves have no problem with it, they know that most people would have a serious problem with it. That would sorely upset their powerful apple cart but perhaps worse, we would not be able to continue living the image of our lives sterilized of the horror occurring beyond the viewfinder.

Unity At Last

It is proclaimed throughout the land, we now have unified leadership to lead us out of the morass that our past disunity has gotten us into. Why you ask? Those divisive Republicans are now out of power and the majority of Americans now agree with what ever it is that Democrats stand for. What that is will be forthcoming, but for the mean time, unity at last, unity at last, thank God almighty, unity at last!

I'm nor sure where "freedom" fits in.

Electing Priests To The Temple of Our God

No question, these are bazaar times. Regardless of the outcome of the election, we are proving the validity of the Bible. Obama is ahead in the polls despite perhaps the longest list of reasons in the history of this nation that he will be bad news for the country and for every person voting for him (with the possible exception of those who are fabulously well to do). Reasoning is fruitless. There is something deeper going on in the hearts and minds of people when reason is tossed to the wind and a significant number of Americans, including many who call themselves Christians, cast a vote for their own harm. It is apparent that the problem is not of an economic nature but a spiritual one.

Our spiritual manual gives a diagnoses for the ailment of having eyes and not seeing and ears and not hearing. It is the result of idolatry. Coincidentally this is a theme throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. (1) . One of the clearest passages describing this phenomenon is Psalm 115:

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the
glory,because of your love and faithfulness. 2 Why do the nations say,"Where is
their God?" 3 Our God is in heaven;he does whatever pleases him. 4 But their
idols are silver and gold,made by the hands of men. 5 They have mouths, but
cannot speak,eyes, but they cannot see; 6 they have ears, but cannot hear,noses,
but they cannot smell; 7 they have hands, but cannot feel,feet, but they
cannot walk;nor can they utter a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them will be like them,and so will all who trust in them. NIV

As to modern idols, consider some of the things that Liberalism is known for:

....sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. NIV (Col 3:55)

If you have bought in to this notion that greed is the exclusive domain of the conservative, think back to the main theme of almost every single campaign ad you've heard for the past two years. They are almost always about money, which has been America's god for some time now, either how to get more of someone else's through government confiscation and redistribution, or how you can keep more of your own through tax cuts.

Today Americans will choose priests to preside over the temple of their god. I suppose this is how it must be for an idolatrous people.

The question remains however whether or not the people will realize their mistake when things go ill for them. My prognosis is that they will not. The past eight years of Bush bashing will provide another four or more years of excuses and blame for any down-turns or terrorist attacks and will distract most from realizing the root of the problem.

Another question is whether the salt of the land will become salty again? Will we repent of our own idolatry of placing the government, or riches, as the provider of our security instead of the most high God who possesses that sovereign place? This will require soul searching and prayer for revelation, for if we look anywhere else for our security and provision, we too have eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear.

note 1: Isa 6:9-10, Ps 135:15-18, Jer 5:21, Mt13:13-15, Mrk 8:18, Acts 28:26-27,Rev 3:18 plus more.

Happy Holidays?

As for the title, I didn't want to say "happy Halloween", so I borrowed a trick from the scrooges at the mall. Found this on my all time favorite blog of all times- then I stole it, he he he.

Can Obama be Beaten?

This coming election is not the most critical of our time. But perhaps these are the most critical times of our lives. It so happens that elections are only manifestations of changes that have already taken place in the hearts and minds of the people. They are critical only in that they act to seal that change.

The real change that Obama touts is a change from Capitalism to Socialism, at least on the fiscal front. On the social front the change will be to further institutionalize the religion of secular humanism (The Supreme Ct. deemed Sec. Hum. a religion in Torcaso v Watkins, 1961 .) with increased government hostility to his own supposed religion, Christianity. Of course both of these, socialism and secular humanism, become one in meaning under the heading of Marxism. Nothing new here except perhaps to a generation ignorant of life under such an oppressive regime that Marxism by necessity is.

There is a constant drumbeat that appeals to the more base and emotional elements of our humanity, such as fear, rebellion and envy. For at least a half century now the news media, academia and entertainment industry have been conquering and occupying the minds of an ever growing segment of the population. For these Obama is more than a person. He has become more than any mortal man is or ever could be. What he is for most of those who will cast a vote for him is a great equalizer, a righter of all wrongs, a wall fixed between action and consequence, between sowing and reaping. How he will do this is not important; after all, the daze of emotion and hope are too often interrupted by the harsh reality of choice and consequence.

For the elites on the other hand, he is a tool.  He will be used to implement their new ideas for an "even greater" society. As such, he is sandwiched between two segments of the population, the masses and the elites. For the one, blinded by their anger that others have more than they do, he embodies vane hOpe. For the wealthy liberal elites filling his campaign coffers, he embodies power.

Win or lose for Obama, America is at a tipping point. For the conservative, the fact that the likes of Obama-or Kerry, or Gore for that matter-would get more than ten or fifteen percent support in the polls should be terrifying. It wasn't long ago his ilk, by necessity, lived in the back rooms of Hollywood and in the basements of universities. Yet now his kind may be the next president; and even if he isn't, we will be right back here in two years hoping and begging for four more years of America. At this rate it is only a matter of time that we will prove Khrushchev ¹ right, that socialism would win "without firing a shot".

So can Obama be beaten? The Bible gives us a little insight by asking another question: "can a man walk on hot coals and not get burned?". This latest bailout is a time compacted example of the government going broke standing between what we sow, and what we reap. Having grown accustomed to this, it has come to be expected, deceiving us into believing that we can indeed sow without reaping. If that is what the people want, I'm afraid Obama cannot be beaten; that is unless we call beating him doing what he does better. As a conservative however I'd have to call that a win for Obama regardless of what happens this forth.

_________________________
Note 1

More Khrushchev: "We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism. We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within". (old enemies are so passe, don't you think?)

Are Reptiles Smarter than Mammals? Perhaps sometimes they are.

Like Pavlov's Dog, when I hear phrases like : "then he decided to....", or "he got it in his head that..." , I get ready to laugh. These phrases are normally followed by a story that has you shaking your head and chuckling. Then with a look of bewilderment and a scratcing of the head someone asks "What goes through a man's mind?"

This video is about 5 seconds, and it does beg that question.

A Word About Modern Compassion

The compassion of the wicked is cruel. (Prov. 12:10)

Another Reason To Homeschool

One of the most motivating factors in my decision to teach our children at home was my own experience in government schools. That experience began in 1965 in a rural Georgia school along with 17 other unsuspecting Gennie pigs that made up my first grade class. Unbeknownst to me or my blue collar parents, 17 years earlier The New Yorker published a short story by Shirley Jackson (above) called "The Lottery". This resulted in an avalanche of complaints to the magazine along with hundreds of subscription cancellations. I suppose the sixties took its toll on America's conscious because by the time I reached the sixth grade the short story had been made into a twenty minute movie and was being shown by the government to those entrusted to its care. Judging from the You Tube comments it seems it is still being shown and read today.

I can still remember my own disturbed feeling after watching the film. Now, looking back, I realize that as a child I wasn't capable of articulating the violence it had done to my innocence, nor did I realize that I should have said something. The teachers held the trust of my parents, and by extension they also held my parents authority. It was a time when parents were perhaps naive about what the schools were up to. Today parents should realize that their children are easy targets for those who want to recreate them in their own image. Having no regard for the interests of the parents, they are going about the business of changing the world though changing the children.

Below is the movie in two parts; in its entirety I think . It should take about 18 minutes to view them both. If you were not subjected to it as a child, I recommend watching it, if for no other reason, to see what they're capable of in that old school house down the street. While you're at it, I also recommend reading the comments from the other You Tube viewers as well. They say as much as the movie I think, which is nothing less than cleverly packaged propaganda meant to characaturize older generations as wanting to hold onto old superstitions no matter how insane. To understand the target of this propaganda you must realize that the people shown, including their demeanor, were typical of those found in any local church on any given Sunday in the late sixties when it was filmed.

Please, I'd love to hear your story and thoughts if it was shown to you in school.

Thorazine for the Liberal Mind

As a very amateur writer I love to find well written blogs. I appreciate writing as an art form, and as such enjoy finding writers who are talented at expressing themselves; a talent I very much envy. I study their writing to see if I can glean anything from their style and presentation. I recently stumbled across THIS BLOG by Kenny Kemp, and discovered that though the articles were long, they were informative and well enough written to hold my attention. In fact, I ended up reading every one of his post. With his permission I have copied and pasted his latest post below. Enjoy.





Proposal: Thorazine for the Liberal Mind

I DON'T KNOW WHEN IT HAPPENS. I don't know why it happens. I only know that it happens, but only to about half of the people. The other half seem immune from the disease. But those who are afflicted, who have apparently forgotten everything they were taught as children (and have even taught their own children), now see the world in a way that is, simply . . . crazy.

I'm talking about, of course, the shift from conservative to liberal. Make no mistake, we all start out conservative. As children, we hoard memories and marbles with equal zeal. We count the peas left on the plate that we must eat before Mom will let us up from the table. We count the minutes until our favorite TV program comes on. We count the pennies, nickels, and dimes in our piggy banks. We keep track of who cuts in front of us in line. We mow the lawn so we can borrow the car Friday night. We work for good grades so we can get into college. We do our best to romance the object of our affection. And when we have children, we teach them the same.

What I've just described is a conservative, someone who conserves time, money, relationships, grades, careers, homes, families, forests, nations, and the planet. A conservative simply applies time-honored principles to his own life. Most people never stray from these principles. They balance their checkbook, knowing that if they don't, they will not be able to buy the things they want and need.

What's amazing is that about half the population, while scrupulously balancing their own checkbooks, believes that government shouldn't have to balance theirs. They insure their own car, but aren't sure if others should be required to do so. They bring an I.D. with them to vote, but think it's racist to require others to do so. They conserve water by running the sprinklers at night; mow the grass to conserve its health; trim the tree branches to conserve the neighbor's roof. In short, they are conservatives . . . when it comes to their own yard.

Yet half of them vote liberal in elections. How can this be, when their own success results directly from conservative principles? If I balance my checkbook, why would I vote for someone who won't balance the federal budget? If I teach my children that they get their allowance after they've done their chores, why would I give money to a panhandler? If I lock my doors at night, why would I vote for anyone who would oppose a border fence? If I'm faithful to my spouse, why would I think anyone who is not faithful to theirs is honest?

In short, everything that works in the private sphere works in the public one. If we go to the gym, eat a good diet, and get enough sleep, we will generally be healthy. Sometimes bad things happen, but a conservative knows that the smoker dying of lung cancer is less worthy of his compassion (and limited resources) than someone born with cerebral palsy. A conservative (and a successful liberal) knows that you pay the mortgage first, put food in the fridge, and if there's money left over, maybe we'll have cable TV.

But liberals are nutty. They disconnect their own experience from the world they live in. While they balance their own checkbook, it's OK to let government spending spin out of control if it's for a "good" cause. Yet they don't give their mortgage money to panhandlers. Instead, they give a dollar and pretend they are both helping the beggar and being generous. They are Scrooges when it comes to their own kids' allowance because they know that teaching a child the value of money is one of the most important things they can do to insure that child's success later in life.

Conservative principles work on the macro level as well. We step in when bullies are beating up a defenseless child, but we also teach that child to defend himself in the future. The U.S. protected the defenseless a generation ago and we rebuilt the economies of our former enemies so that today they are our allies. This decade, we freed 40 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq, freeing them from bullies and are now teaching them how to live as free people. They will learn to balance budgets, govern themselves without corruption, and have peaceful relations with their neighbors. If we are successful, they will, like many of the former Soviet Union satellites, have conservative governments.

So why would anyone believe that the bedrock principles that made their own life successful (thrift, hard work, honesty, and fidelity) be any less indispensable to the success of any other person or country?

There is only one answer: Such a demented person thinks you are stupid and need their help. This is the unspoken, core truth of the looney left. And yet it was conservative principles that placed them in a position to "help" you. Why are they, notwithstanding their "superior" intellect, unable to recall their own conservative roots? Because they are no longer balancing their own checkbook. The checks they are writing, the ones with all the zeros, come from your checkbook.

It's human nature, I guess. Studies have shown that people use much more TP in public restrooms than they do at home. Someone else is paying for the TP, right? At home, we turn off the lights because we're paying for the electricity. But when people get into government, conservative principles often go out the window. Conservatives are not immune. They hear the siren song of "helping" the "helpless" and start throwing good money after bad, but their own moniker eventually reminds them of their folly. Liberals, on the other hand, not only think they are smarter than you, they also believe their compassion trumps your right to manage your own checkbook.

The result is a nation with a bloated, unbalanced budget, out-of-control spending, broken fences with our neighbors, and a populus, nearly half of which apparently doesn't know the difference between giving a child an allowance for helping around the house and tossing a quarter to a bum.

The drafters of the Constitution envisioned "citizen legislators" and a system of checks and balances (an apt economic metaphor) to constrain each branch of government to stay within reasonable bounds. Each branch naturally wants to extend its power. Adherents to the philosophy of a "living" Constitution currently hold sway in the judicial arena, often overriding legislation they deem to be insufficiently progressive. The legislature is too timid to make hard decisions (Roe v. Wade is one classic example of the judiciary stepping in when the legislative branch refused to act), and the President winds up doing the legislature's job via executive orders. And the fourth branch of government--you and me--seems more interested in American Idol than America, so we fail to hold any branch responsible. It's like we left an 8 year-old in charge of the baby while we went out to a movie. In a conservative world, such dereliction of parental duties would result in dire consequences.

Why we do not demand proportional punishment for those who ignore timeless conservative principles in the public square is beyond me. The liberals must be, simply . . . crazy.
May I suggest a Thorazine drip?

John Who?

For a while there, with the media's coverage of Obam in Europe, it seemed as if he was the president. If that wasn't weird enough, this week with all the charges by the media about Palin's experience, it seems as if it is she who is running for president. I'm convinced that this week, had a person just awoken from a coma, they would swear the historic news this week was that the governor of Alaska had challenged the incumbent Barack Obama for the presidency. I suppose such is the case in the altered reality in which the media lives. But I think that one of the problems the media has had with McCain is that he is a person that they have hated to love; but Palin is a person they love to hate. The latter is much more motivating for meaness, as we have seen.

Compassion Democrat Style

If anyone ever thought that Katrina was anything but a political cash cow for Democrats to exploit ad nauseam, these two videos should dispel all remaining doubts. Where is the compassion? Real people endure these storms, and real people loose their lives and property. But for the Democrats, tragedies are nothing more than opportunities for political gain. This just goes to show that for Democrats, everything is political and nothing is not political. It might be your house being destroyed, your job lost, your retirement account decimated; but for the rich Democrat these are passed off with a chuckle and attributed to God helping Obama.

We can expect the apologies to fly if they haven't already, but what else should we expect from those for whom politics is the axis upon which their world turns. What we should not expect to see is contrition. Nor should we expect to see outrage at the insinuation that God caused this in response to evil, that evil being the Republicans having a convention.




This is Moore with the Liberal Keith Oberman. It's obvious that Moore realizes what an asinine thing he has just said and begins to backtrack by saying he hopes no one gets hurt and then begins to bash Dobson. I'm not sure Oberman realizes what occurred and continues to be his usual buffoonish self.

The Second Battle of Bull Katrina

The date was July 21st, 1861; the location, a creek called Bull Run near Manassas; a small town in Virgina about 20 miles south of Washington . The Union Army of Northeastern Virgina went out to engage the Confederate Army of the Potomac and would meet them at this location. Due to it's proximity to Washington and the predictable time and where-abouts they would meet, spectators, including members of the media and representatives from Washington and their wives dressed in their Sunday best, showed up to watch the coming bloodbath. Both armies were inexperienced, but both still put up a good fight that day with the outcome not for certain until the end of the battle when the Confederates routed the Union Army.

In the midst of the battle was a little house where an 85 year old invalid lady lay unable to leave. She was mortally wounded when her house came under attack from a battery of cannon.

The media and spectators were swept up in the Union route, and even though most Union soldiers performed heroically that day, for the most part the eye-witness accounts came from those journalist caught up in the chaos that ensued during the retreat. The reports that followed in the newspapers were devastating for Lincoln politically, and the cause he represented.

I can't help but see some similarities in mindset between Gustav and Bull Run. The known point of impact; the expectations of those involved, and the use of it to undermine an administration. The wild eyed anti-war, -Bush, -capitalism, -religion,
-America -whatever protesters of today and their friends in the media could not have conceived in their wildest dreams the event that was Katrina. Even the environmentalist got their pound of flesh in the logic-less debate that rages between the emotion based religion of climate change and reason. Though it would be too foolish even for the media to proclaim it, (Journalist still hold to a grain of self respect) it was certainly implied that had Bush signed the Kyoto Treaty, Katrina would not have happened; such is the landscape in which we operate during this current "information" age.

In a more sane time one might notice the problems with making something god that isn't, then giving it god like attributes. When the state becomes a people's god, it only stands to reason that that state ought to be able to control hurricanes. And if it can't, why it ought to at least be able to swoop down and pluck you off your roof. If it can't, there must be some evil hindering the state god. Enter George W. Bush.

Finding their new nuclear cannon of emotion, one can almost hear the hyperventilation of the media anytime there is even a hint of some swirling winds out in the Atlantic. This being the case, Gustav might seem kinda like the second battle of Bull Run. In bated breath the media gathered in mass in New Orleans this past weekend so as to give the world an even closer look at how much Bush hates blacks and the poor. The government this time, in an attempt to actually live up to it's god like expectations also amassed. I am convinced that Bush, seeing that his last opportunity to destroy New Orleans and his Democrat enimeis that live there would again fail, at the last moment diverted the storm to a barren stretch of coastline.

Sara Palin for VP

I endorse Sara Palin for Vice President of the United States of America. Here's a person with clarity; who does not see the difficult questions that arise in the governing of a diverse and strong nation in a hostile world as above her pay-grade.

Will Vote for Change

The Two Democrat Parties

That know it all PJ told me to run with my ideas about change, so here's my first attempt at cartooning.

Oh Where oh Where is Frasypoo?

I was just at DD2's blog and he was saying good-bye to frasypoo. Can anyone fill me in?

Death by TV

Our family rented a movie last night called "THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, The Journals of Thomas Merton". It was a good sixties vintage movie, fit for children, and educational ta boot. The plot was simple enough; a 14 year old boy runs away from home to accomplish his dream of living off the land. After finding a hawk's nest he steals a fledgling, trains it, gives it a name, and uses it for the gathering of food.

The sobering point of our movie night was not the movie but my little girl's reaction to it. We are very protective of what our children watch and as such they have not been exposed to a whole lot of violence. In this movie the hawk is accidentally killed by a hunter. When the movie was over we noticed our daughter's sadness and in a few moments she was in tears over the pet bird's death.

This was sobering because I couldn't help but think of how much worse is dumped into America's living rooms every night and taken in by young children who are not equipped to process it; nor are aided in the processing of it; nor for that matter should ever be exposed to it. I think it would be impossible for science to measure how much damage has been done to our society through the searing of young consciences by money hungry, ratings crazy, network CEO's. It's sad how worked up our society can become over the profits of oil companies, which actually produce something good, while having no concern about the profits and motivations of those who pollute the minds of our children.

I realize that parents are not totally innocent in this, and in fact perhaps are more to blame. But if we took that argument far enough, a society could justify parent's serving up meals of cake and cotton candy with a Crown Royal chaser. Ahh but those are bad for the body; who cares what's bad for the mind and soul?

An Abyss Called Hatred

As president elect Abraham Lincoln made his way to Washington across a nation on the brink of war , he was quoted as saying: "When men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that they mean the same thing while using the same words, it perhaps would be as well if they would keep silence".

This remains an apropos statement today and is along the same vane as an ealier post about the meaning of the word "racist". Much like the word "racist" I would contend that the word "hate" has also suffered torture. It is worthy of consideration that these two words, being cut from the same cloth, have both had to receive the same morphing to accommodate those who throw them around like rocks in a stoning.

Of course to the person who pays a little bit of attention, it is generally understood that the current meaning of this word is often "disagrees with me" or something like that. So then the words "he is preaching hate" usually means "he is preaching something with which I do not agree". This is more than unfortunate but is also frightening because it relieves self proclaimed victims of social "hatred" of any responsibility of self examination, or more importantly, of holding themselves to the very standards they proclaim. Many, after redefining the word, are guilty of the true meaning of that same word as they wage their war against people that simply disagree with them.

This is particularly frightening because of the ultimate ramifications of justifying true hatred under any circumstances. History is replete with example after example of the results of just such unchecked emotion; 9/11 being only the latest spectacular display. But in less sensational forms, but not less cancerous, it's happening everyday in America's culture wars. I have come to expect such self delusion from the left, what with their displays of vitriolic hatred aimed at president Bush, but I also contend that Bush haters have not cornered the market when it comes to such things either. I would especially caution the Body of Christ on this matter for the day is coming when it will find itself face to face with evil in the form of pure hatred. That will not be the day to begin working on a response.

Hatred is ultimately an abyss that once the self gives permission to enter, that self will find no bottom. In the end true hatred, even if it is directed against more true hatred, can only be quenched in the natural by death. Is it any wonder then that God's Word warns us that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death", and even more so Jesus' admonition to love our enemies. History does teach us that he who does not heed these words will in the end, become, the very thing he so hates.

The Meaningless Poll

After eight years of president Bush, we now have polls showing that most Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. (here, here, here) From the reports on this particular poll, one would think that most Americans are ready to vote in a leftest government that will put us on the B line to a EU type socialist nanny state. But those with a little bit of political savvy see these polls for what they are; propaganda.

These polls are designed to capitalize on eight years of negative press. The polls would infer that since Bush is president and therefore leader, and Bush is a Republican and so therefore conservative, and a Christian to boot, and the people are unhappy with the direction he has taken us, then the American people want a Democrat who is liberal and secular, and so should you! What the poll really reveals however is akin to people on a bus. A forth of the people are angry because the bus is headed northeast, a forth because it isn't headed west, another forth because they're not happy with the catering, leaving those that consider any direction but west a good thing.

If the polls were actually worth anything besides a platform for propaganda, conservatives could take solace in the historically low approval ratings of this current leftist congress. Lest a right winger be tempted he should consider that the left is causing this. The left does not approve of this congress because Bush is not impeached, and he Cheney and Rove are not behind bars.

Alas we can expect more of the same as Election Day approaches. There will be polls on homelessness, the fear of homelessness, latent racism, poverty, health care, sickness, pollution and basically all the other things that have always dogged mankind. And we can expect for the networks, under the guise of objectivity, to continue to take any opportunity to blame Bush and prostitute themselves as they increase the underlying message and goal of their reporting, which is Obama in 08.

The Blood of The Children

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants". This is a famous Thomas Jefferson Quote. In this era of sound bite thinking this quote has been reduced to a bumper sticker: "Freedom isn't free". The bumper sticker version removes the cost of freedom, blood, and who pays. But consider that perhaps the reason for the removal of such words extends beyond the mere distillation of the quote to a bumper sticker.

Given the pervasive media's morbid infatuation with the death toll in the war on terror, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that, although freedom isn't free, blood might be too high a price to pay. And perhaps this would be the right conclusion when thinking of freedom in the context of modernity. Yet when Jefferson penned those words, he did so within the confines of natural law; a self evident understanding that there was an absolute unchangeable standard that governed the whole of mankind. Within that context, the understanding of liberty dealt with over-reaching governments, tyrants and despots that were to be defeated, even if it meant sending patriots to die on the battlefield, if liberty were to be preserved. There was an understanding in that day by those who had fresh memories of the inherent and enduring tensions that exist between man's yearning for freedom and his lust for power. It is from that perspective that our constitutional government, with its original intent of law and separated powers, can be understood with clarity.

There has been a pernicious shift in prevailing thought in the last half century however. Gone are the underpinnings of an absolute standard upon which the cost of freedom was enumerated; replaced by the shifting sands of a relative standard. Upon this standard of every man a law unto himself, a society's understanding of what morality it should impose upon itself via legislation, and which old impositions should be expunged, is ever changing under the force of anyone who can muster the power to achieve that change. Say hello to the new liberties of the multi-billion dollar porn and abortion industry. Say good by to any standards of decency that might stand in the way, and the freedom of the expression of religion that might cause a tinge of guilt.

Another casualty of this shift in thinking for any nation is its ability to defend itself, for if there is no higher order, there is nothing to defend except licence to do what an individual wills no matter how disdainful. The price paid in a war of this sort is ultimately cheap in terms of Jefferson's "tree of liberty" because it is fought in the courtrooms of a dying and visionless nation where the worst thing that can happen to the "patriot" is the necessity for an appeal. In these battles the blood of the true patriots is trampled upon as dung on the court room floor. Because the truth of the matter is that people do not freely give their lives for the right to buy and sale smut, or the right of a the rapist, child molester or pedophile to roam free . In cultural wars the only nutrition the tree of Jefferson's brand of liberty receives is money. This might explain the tree's impoverished state in America.

This is not to say that a tree of liberty is not refreshed with blood however, for in fact one is. Instead of the blood of patriots and tyrants, it receives the blood of children and the innocent. This fact goes unnoticed because, unlike the blood of the patriot, of which we're constantly reminded with long face and scowl of the tally by those whom disagree with his mission, the children are dying for something with which the prevailing media agrees. This something is the casting off of old guilt riddled restraint, and so called Victorian repression. No longer do we as a society have to live with the repressive consequences of shame and guilt. Judgement and discernment have been thrown into the dungeon along with its contemporaries chastity and decency. But do not be deceived, there is a cost for such licentious liberties, and the larger burden of that cost is bore by the weakest among us: children. But it is a price even the ardent anti-war progressive, with his hand wringing over the death toll of war, and his cries of "it's for the children!" is willing to pay. It's a new day, with a new liberty, and a new price to pay for that liberty. And it's paid by the victims of child murderers, molesters, rapist, and pedophiles. And don't expect a daily tally on the six O:clock news either. But the blood of these children is no less the cost for our current brand of foundationless liberty.

The latest high profile blood spilled was that of twelve year old Brooke Bennett. She is a casualty of a society that sees the liberty of her alleged murderer, Michael Jacques, a convicted sex offender, as more important than her very life; a society that did not have the will to protect her from the evil with which she met; a society that could not even call wrong and evil any of his behavior leading up to the moment he demanded of Brooke her life. Unlike the soldier, Brooke was denied the peace that might comfort a soldier at his time of death as he hopes that his death is not in vane. She could not have known as her consciousness faded that through her death, a lost and deluded society might be able to muster the will to keep this from happening again; at least at the hand of this particular child molester.

The demented addicts of the free flow of smut who have given themselves over to whatever fantasies roam their darkened minds; or the self proclaimed free thinking "progressives" that have freed themselves from the constraints of any concept of objective morality, will not say thank you to Brooke Bennett. There will be no empty moments of silence in commemoration of her or others like her who have paid the ultimate price on their behalf. But we should. Hence forth on July 12th, the day of Brooke Bennett's birth, and her funeral, we should observe another kind of memorial day. We will remember the children who have died at the hands of convicted pedophiles, and their ilk so that a lost and deluded society might finally muster the will to protect the young and defenseless, at least from their particular murderers.

Right now as you read this, somewhere, there is a young and innocent child, perhaps playing with a toy on her living room floor. Somewhere else, perhaps nearby, is a convicted predator enjoying his liberty, prowling the streets in search of his next victim. And one day these two will meet, and while her assailant uses her for his enjoyment, she will die a tortuous and horrific death. And she will do so, not as a soldier trained, equipped and armed on a battle field fighting for a civilized society and so refreshing the tree of liberty, but instead in a quiet secluded place where her screams will be not heard. Like the soldier, that child will be giving her life for the cause of a liberty, but for an ungrateful recipient. And this liberty will be a liberty totally alien to that of Jefferson's. And as we will inevitable demonstrate, totally alien to that of a civilized and peaceful society.

The Last Time

At night I lay down with my five year old son and watch him go to sleep. For a time I did this only on occasion but later he ask for it every night. I began to think of this as an imposition because there were things that competed for my attention, not to mention the fact that I didn't really want to spend the time it took every night. It occurred to me however that there will come a time when he will be too old for this kind of a routine.

Also, it seems like last week that my little girl was in diapers. She's eight now and as such its been quite a while since I last changed one. This brings to mind that one day for both of my children I took a diaper off of them for the very last time and in so doing a door quietly closed to a part of their childhood; a childhood I'm already grieving over. The time will come when I will lay down with my son and we will look into each other's eyes as he drifts off to sleep; I will get up and go about my evening routine getting ready for bed, and never realize that that was the last time we will ever enjoy that particular routine. This reality really changes many "have to's" in family life to "get to's".

Life has a way of changing our outlook on things. I was driving into the Nashville airport one icy morning and a truck had slid on the ice and overturned right in front of the airport. There was a yellow sheet draped over the driver and I realized that his entire morning was a whole list of "last times" both for him and his family. What ever that family "had to" put up with before, I'd bet they would all love the opportunity to "get to" put up with it again one day.

We make a big deal about some last times such as the last time of being a certain age, or going to school, but I want to realize the small ones too, at least as much as a body can. In so doing I think that some of the mundaneness or unpleasantness of everyday life can more easily be embraced. So the next time one of your children spills his milk, or wakes you up afraid at three in the morning, or you are confronted with some other unpleasantness from a loved one, just remember that it might be the very last time it's ever going to happen. Listen for the door quietly closing and forever separating the way things were for you from the the way things are.

What do you think?

Trying to make a long distance call and having some problems, I decided to play around with my blog a little as I sit here and wait. I've always loved the "Inklings" blog and his posted photo, so I decided to imitate him by displaying a similar photo that I love.



I still like his better.

More Automation for Automobiles?

When I was young it seemed I was always in a hurry. I had the art of negotiating with traffic down to a science, and of course when negotiations failed, I resorted to blowing my horn.

Now I'm older and often look in my rear-view mirror to see what I use to look like ; tense face , frequent watch glances, and contempt for the guy in front of me who doesn't have to be anywhere for five years. Nowadays, when I do get in a hurry I find that it just takes too much effort to reach up and blow my horn all the time. That's why I invented a modification to perhaps the only thing not modified on the automobile since Henry Ford started the assembly line.

It seems we now have auto volume control, auto speed control, auto wipers, auto lights, auto-temp. control just to name a few; but we do not yet have auto-horn. The concept is simple enough. You install into your instrument panel a switch that causes your horn to blow automatically. Then when you see traffic slowing or stopping in front of you during your evening commute, you simply reach down and slip your horn into AUTO-BLOW, causing it to blow randomly, without too much dwell time of course, thus saving yourself all the effort of constantly reaching up every few minutes just to blow your horn.

Just so the reader will know, I don't have a patent. If I'm too lazy to blow my horn just think of the effort it would take to dial up my patent attorney; so if you're ambitious, feel free to get one (or not) and call your favorite Chinese manufacturer and put er into production. I'll buy one if it's less than five bucks, Promise.

The National Anthem

I think this is one of the best renditions of the Star Spangle Banner I've ever heard. It was filmed by someone holding a handheld video camera in a basket ball arena, and yet it is still bone chilling. Please go here to the site of Incog @Confessions of a closet Republican to have a listen.

Race Politics and Ideology

I grew up in a small town in rural Georgia. I can still remember walking past the water fountains in the court house; two of them side by side. Removed were the signs over them directing the thirsty person from which one to drink, but the the two fountains were still there almost as if monuments to a not so distant history of segregation.

As a child in the 60's I was too young to know the significance of two fountains; that there actually was a time when people, just because of the pigment in their skin, were treated differently; and by differently I mean badly.

Fast forward forty years and my how things have changed. America has progressed quite a bit; there is a Secretary of State, and a Supreme Court Justice, and a presumptive nominee for president, to name a few, with dark pigmented skin. One might conclude that racism is itself in the process of becoming history. This would be true too if racism were defined today as it was forty years ago; that definition being the oppression of blacks by whites. Many have discovered however that there is power to be gained by convincing blacks that not much has changed in the last half century. Since it is obvious that things have changed, the very word racism necessarily morphed into something totally different so that today it has a different application than did the same word in the sixties. It is now almost indistinguishable from the word ideology. Granted these two words have different meanings, but in the political realm on the topic of race relations they overlap and merge. This is evidenced by Bill Clinton, a white man, being called the first black president, and by Clarence Tomas, a black man, facing stiff opposition from blacks to a life time appointment to, I would argue, one of the most powerful positions in this land.

In conclusion, even though I voted for a black man for president (Alan Keys, I liked his polices) before doing so was cool, I can't help but to feel that I, and many others like me, will be seen as a racist because we oppose Obama due to his policies. If and when this happens I will have to remember to not become defensive because in the current sense of the word it might be true. It just goes to show that when old words get new meanings it causes confusion and communication breaks down; this I fear is something we can expect an abundance of as we make our way though this election season.

Bumper Sticker Thought

Following is a hodge podge of B.G. thinking reduced to a Bumper Sticker.

1. A bad education is evidenced by pride in knowledge; a good one by humility in fear of ignorance. (or better put: Better is the company of a smart person who thinks he's dumb, than a dumb person who thinks he's smart )

2. It's not nearly as good to be better off than someone, as it is bad to be worse off. (this one is in jest)

3. I wish I was half as compassionate as Liberals think they are.

5. A visionary without discipline is just a dreamer.

6. United we stand, so never disagree with Democrats.

7. I once saw a bumper sticker on a large SUV. It read: "I vote pro-environment". This got me to thinking of a greenie bumper sticker for my SUV: "If you can read this, you're polluting my planet"

8. Listening to Hillary's embellishment debacle I came up with a chant in case America has to defend herself while Hil's at the helm. "Hillary misspoke, and people croaked"

9. The world would be a much better place if everyone agreed with any one of it's inhabitants.

10. Weak leaders require weaker followers.

11. To Avoid being deceived, assume you have been.

12. Deceived leaders require deceived followers,
but deceived followers do not require deceived leaders.

13. Mercy is only as wonderful as sin is terrible.

14. It's one thing to say God loves you; it's quite another to say repent. Yet no-one can truly know the former without the ladder.

15. A bad education is evidenced by pride in knowledge; a good one by humility in fear of ignorance. (or better put: Better is the company of a smart person aware of his ignorance, than a dumb person who thinks he's smart )

A Juxtaposition

These are the words of a black pastor during a time when African-Americans had to drink from separate public water fountains, go to different schools, and sit in the back of the bus, in fact, who were being treated as less than human:

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. "

These are the words of a pastor during a time when an African American is winning the Democrat Party primary election; the same party, incidentally, insistent during the days of the former pastor that African Americans stay at the back of the bus:

"No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

The former pastor was Dr. Martin Luther King, the latter, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel

I've almost come to believe that any book on the threat of Islam is a must read. This one is no different.  The most poignant point Gabriel makes seems to be a common one among this genera.  It is that one need not wonder if the author is telling the truth, or has an agenda. No, the authors I've read are not simply asking us to listen to the them, they are asking us to listen to the  Muslims pouring out of their hate filled Friday morning pep-rallies, yelling Death to America.

Miss Gabriel is not only informative but she also draws you into the drama of a young life lived through a small nation's transition from peace to civil war. The first half reads much like an auto-biography in which she chronicles her life in a small-town in Lebanon. Lebanon's Civil war placed her in a bomb shelter from age 10 to 17. She later found work at a news agency in Israel, where she met her American husband and moved to the U.S.

I would recommend this book to the person not possessing the gumption to sit and read a 200 or so page documentary on the threats posed by militant Islam. Gabriel puts forth a human element in the Middle Eastern conflict as she describes daily life in a war torn country from a child's perspective. She, and her family, are touched in every way by war.  All receive injuries, she looses her first love to a bomb blast, sniper bullets are a daily reality, and they learn to survive, even though it meant eating weeds just outside of their shelter.

Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of the story is the contrast of cultures Gabriel is able to present. For although she was raised as a Christian, she was still raised in an Arab culture which meant that she was raised to hate Jews. But when her mother was seriously injured by shrapnel she found herself in an Israeli hospital where she received her first taste of Israeli life and compassion. Much of the remainder of her story is intertwined with comparisons of Arab and Western cultures. It is this comparison with an inside perspective that gives this book its biggest punch.

Also visit Mrs. Gabriel's activist organization American Congress for Truth (ACT).

Giving part II

Tigers got my back, one of my all time favorite blogs, just did an article on giving. I was going to leave a comment but decided to write a post. So I named it "Giving part II".

Since the beginning of "The Church", it seems that it has been misunderstood. There was a time when this bothered me dearly, but as I walk, struggle, climb, claw, and sometimes stroll along this path called life, things become more and more clear. Well of course the Church is misunderstood.

I think key to Jon's post on giving is his heart. Strange enough, three people could give the same amount, make the same sacrifice to do so, and have three different motivations. One could give for the purpose of receiving some blessing from God; another to assuage some personal guilt; while yet another could give out of a simple willingness to be obedient.

So who is the focus of the first person that gave?... or the second? I would say it is the giver himself. Ultimately it is not giving at all put a purchase, or an investment if you will. There's no obedience; just a plan or strategy. But Jon spoke of giving and expecting nothing in return. How can a man buy his salvation from a Holy and Just God anyway? No, he gave out of obedience, and that obedience not to a slave driver, or bully, but rather to an also Merciful and Holy God.

To a world who's God is money, this makes no sense. It begs the question: "what's in it for me?". While the Robert Tiltans of the world live large preying on this idolatry, others hold the "Gospel for Prophets" up as a hollow and shallow excuse to comfort themselves in their own rejection of God, and his son Jesus who is their only hope.

Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart, so ultimately the heart and its motivations is key to everything the believer does; a fact that has and always will cause the world to misunderstand His Body.

What to Say When, You Don't Have Nothing to Say

Well i'ts like... I don't know man. You know? It's kinda like, you know man? Like, I don't know: like this is freaking me out man; like, you know man? Hey, like dude..., like see what I'm sayin? Like man you know what i'm tryin to say man, like I don't know man; you know? Hey, like you know man, like what I'm tryin to say man, like... like... like... whatever man, that's all I'm tryin to say man; it's like what-ever dude.