What's that smell coming out of ABCNEWS?

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH: "ABC 'GOOD MORNING AMERICA' ON DOG POO ALERT

Answer: Dog Poo was found in the 6th floor conference room in mid-town NYC by an executive late last week!

'I love you all BUT give me a break,' demands GOOD MORNING AMERICA business manager Pam Tepper in an urgent e-mail to staff. 'You should not bring your dog to work. Please do not let this happen again.'

The gift left behind by the mystery canine at ABCNEWS follows a growing trend of city dwellers bringing their pets into the office space. "
================

Given their news coverage, why do they worry about dog poo?

Free-Style, Ad-hoc Sort of Worship....

Out of Control: "Those who choose to hold the view that we are to abandon all organized and disciplined religion for a more free-style, ad-hoc sort of worship are going to have to reject a good bit of scripture in doing so."
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Put this weblog on your favorites list. Good and thoughtful stuff.

Inside Politics - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: " Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid yesterday endorsed Republican Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Michael D. Crapo of Idaho as possible Supreme Court nominees, should a vacancy occur.
'If you want names, I'll give you names. I think Mel Martinez is a good name, Mike DeWine, Mike Crapo are three that come to my mind,' the Nevada Democrat said in response to reporters' questions. "
==========
So now senators choose the Supreme Court justices? But what does the constitution mean? Lawless men pick lawless men to a lawless court. No wonder they don't like the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments and the Rich Against the Poor.

Have a Nice Day! 

If there is no transcendent law, but law simply arises from history and experience, then the law is flexable and pliable and there is no protection for the low against the mighty. That is why the recent supreme court decisions concerning eminent domain and the Ten Commandments are related.

Concerning the Ten Commandments, the liberal justices who fear neither God nor man, decreed out of their own autonomy and lawlessness that the Ten Commandments could be posted in public places as long as there was not "religious" motive for doing so. In other words, if they are not recognized as transcendent law, but simply an expression of our history.

But the Ten Commandments are not an expression of our history. They were given by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments produced a nation and a history, not the other way around.

But sure enough, the same spirit of Belial that produced that decision decided out of their own autonomy and lawlessness that "public use" could mean that New London, Connecticut, could take land by eminent domain and give it to a large and rich company like Pfizer. This means that "public use" suddenly changes its meaning to mean "enhanced tax benefits" to the city, a meaning that has never been assigned to those words in the constitution in over 200 years.

But, oh well. As Humpty Dumpty said in Through the Looking Glass
"When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

If anyone who reads this thinks that our liberties are protected by the Constitution, then you have another think coming, as Grandma used to say.

Cato News Release - June 23, 2005: " Unfortunately, today's ruling breaks faith with the Constitution, by holding that local bureaucrats have the power to take your property and give it to someone they hope will generate more revenue for city coffers. That leaves every property owner and small business person with more reason to fear that their homes and businesses will be confiscated for the benefit of someone wealthier or better connected. That's the very opposite of the system of stable private property our Founders meant to secure.'"
==========

This court's ruling is an economic disaster. One of the absolute requirements for a vibrant economy is secure property rights. Churches better see the handwriting on the wall, because they do not generate income for the state. Now the government has a tool to close them down and sell the property to businesses that will generate income.

Commentary - Bush's Calling: "For the most part, though, liberal animus toward Bush's faith comes from the opposite direction. It is his religious sincerity that infuriates and frightens, especially when contrasted with the easy and empty Bible-toting of, say, a Bill Clinton. "
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This is a thoughtful and provocative article. It does help explain why both religious liberals and creedal Christians are uncomfortable with George W. Most American Biblebelievers are evangelical, in the sense of revival Christians, ones who have had an experience with Christ but have not organized it creedally.


My front yard 

Sunset in America


My Way News:

"More recently the city has suffered the kind of economic woes afflicting urban areas across the country, with losses of residents and jobs. Last month, the Pentagon also announced plans to close the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, one of the city's largest employers, which would eliminate thousands of jobs.

The New London neighborhood that will be swept away includes Victorian-era houses and small businesses that in some instances have been owned by several generations of families. Among the New London residents in the case is a couple in their 80s who have lived in the same home for more than 50 years."

==========

This is liberalism in its most naked form. Take the property for the rich and powerful and may the poor go hang. Read the article and see how the justices lined up. Then remember why democrats want to remain in control of the courts. Frist and Bush must change the rules of the Senate in order to get Bush's nominees for the courts. The courts are the great instrument of tyranny in America today.

Who, me? 

Conspiracy Theories - If you liked The Da Vinci Code, you'll love the Downing Street Memo. By Christopher Hitchens: "Conspiracy Theories
If you liked The Da Vinci Code, you'll love the Downing Street Memo.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Tuesday, June 21, 2005, at 9:42 AM PT

"A few weeks ago, at an airport in Europe, I saw Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code staring at me across the bookstore bins. I had seen it many times before and averted my gaze, but I was facing a long delay, and I suddenly thought: May as well get it over with.
Well, of course I knew it would be bad. I just didn't know that it would be that bad. Never mind for now the breathless and witless style, or the mashed-paper characters, or the lazy, puerile reliance...." [That gives you flavor].

sunset

sunset 

 

This is the picture that should have appeared on my last blog.

No Place Like Home

My wife and I have been away for a week.  We visited relatives in Oregon and California.  It was a good time.  In Oregon we saw some of my cousins and Penny's brother and sister.

 

We worshipped at Faith RCUS in Anderson on Sunday.  Rev. Hank Bowen is doing a good job there and it was great to see old friends.  We spent twenty-five years in Anderson and it is good to see those who are going on with the Lord.

 

We also saw two grandchildren in Anderson.  There is nothing in the world like grandchildren. They are the joy of our hearts, and they keep us young.

 

We were in McKinleyville when the earthquake hit on Tuesday.  I was watching the third NBA game between Detroit and San Antonia when the bed began to shake.  Didn't seem to be much of a big deal.  About fifteen minutes later a warning scrolled across the screen that there was a tsunami warning from the Mexican to the Canadian border.  So Penny and I drove down to the beach to see what would happen.  [O come now, we didn't really drive to beach--we are not that dumb.]  We drove to a high point overlooking the beach.  Nothing happened but I got a great picture of the sunset.

 

It was good to be away, but there is no place like home.

 

HoustonChronicle.com - Report says Louisiana's coa...

HoustonChronicle.com - Report says Louisiana's coastline is sinking; Texas' could be next

The report centers on the humble benchmark, a small metal disk bolted to the ground, that provides a standard elevation above sea level for land surveying and mapping as well as determining flood-prone areas.

But there's one problem with benchmarks: They don't give reliable elevation readings if they're sinking along with everything else.

================================

It seems that the Gulf coast is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. It was only recently discovered that those who monitor such things have been using "benchmarks" that are sinking with everything else.

Sorta like evolutionary science, y'know. "We know that these fossils are x many years old because they are in rocks that are x many years old. We know that the rocks are x many years old because of the fossils, y'know. Very simple." Not that really simple, of course. It takes more than a little dust to fool the people.

Unless, of course, they have a stake in being deceived. Just a few "benchmark" assumptions prove wrong and the whole monstrous structure sinks into oblivion. Except it doesn't really. Someone comes along, dredges it, the water out, renames it, and sells it as brand new stuff. And so the carousel continues to spin. It seems like a good ride, as we continue to measure ourselves by elastic rulers.

2Co 10:12 "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."

Question: Why would anyone who pretends to be a scientist not recognize that a stake driven into the ground could not serve to establish elevation, unless you assume that the ground is stable? But please, oh please. Don't ask us to examine our presuppositions. We might lose some government funding. We are scientists from the government. Any other questions? But don't grovel. We are just like you, only much better paid. Bye, bye, Galveston.

This Socialistic Power Was Aborted Before Birth

Opinion - Gerard Baker US Editor Times Online: "But Europe looked inward, not outward. Instead of focusing on what was needed � American and British-style labour reforms, tax cuts and deregulation � Europe embarked on a quix- otic exercise. It sought to weld a dozen or more disparate countries into an unbreakable economic union, all settled snug and warm under the fraying comfort blanket of expensive welfare systems. "
=========================
Socialism has to be imposed by force or other forms of trickery and oppression like courts making law, contrary to the Constitution. People never vote for socialism. It has to be disquised as something else.

The USSR fell because socialism doesn't work. The rank and file of Europeans understand it, it seems.

EU in crisis as France rejects EU constitution: "'...

EU in crisis as France rejects EU constitution: "'This raises profound questions for all of us about the future direction of Europe,' Straw told reporters. 'What we want now is a period of reflection.'"

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Great idea, Mr. Straw.  All of Europe needs to reflect.  I would suggest Revelation 14:8:  "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

 

Repentance is a good idea.  Needs reflection.

Mike Adams at His Best.

Mike S. Adams: Adult DDD: "The reason I am writing is to warn you of a new syndrome that may (hopefully) soon sweep the nation. It is called Adult Determinism Deficit Disorder, or ADDD. This disorder is characterized by an unwillingness to allow any tragedy, no matter how large, to keep you from succeeding. "
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Mike Adams is my favorite college professor. Hurrah for ADDD. People really need to catch it. Its symptoms are an unwillingness to be dissuaded from reaching your goal. In modern America the major epidemic in academic circles is excusus enablementus the symptoms of which are the ability to provide an excuse for every failure. Make sure you read Professor Adams' article.

'New York Times' To Distribute New 'Credibility' D...

'New York Times' To Distribute New 'Credibility' Document This Week

 

Hmmmm.  Let's see now.  What would be a good "credibility" policy for the NYT?  Telling the truth?   Hmm.

 

Nah! 

 

Lies are so much more interesting and lively!  Why should Newsweek get all the fun for starting riots throughout the world?

Missing Chapters of Clinton's "My Life" Exposed in...

Missing Chapters of Clinton's "My Life" Exposed in New Book - Yahoo! News: "In 'Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine' (World Ahead Publishing, $25.95, ISBN 0974670138), author Candice E. Jackson documents how Bill Clinton used his political power to harass, intimidate, and terrorize women who got in his way. Whether it was assembling a smear team to attack a grief-stricken widow, threatening a reporter for her research into an Arkansas health care scandal, or hiring private investigators to bully an ex-flame's family members, Jackson says that Clinton showed no reluctance to go after any woman who inconvenienced his political career."

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Now isn't this delicious?.  Does Candice E. Jackson, a card-carrying feminist think that she can atone for her silence and the silence of her phony comrades during the Clinton administration?   Is this book going to give the American people the reassurance that Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, CBS news, etc., and the feminist establishment are now going to tell the truth about current liberal darlings?

 

Is Candy-baby going to take the proceeds of her book to reimburse the ladies who were assaulted, the political careers ruined, the families torn apart by this vulture that she and her cronies promoted and kept in office.   Is abortion worth it?:  Shame, shame, shame.

 

Where is the intellectual honesty?  Where is Candy's integrity.  Now that the politics are over, she decides to cash in. 

 

As I write this, I am watching a special on CBS on "Bull **** "   Just the network to do it.  They probably know more about it than anyone.

 

Just remember.  Judgment day is coming.

 

Jeremiah 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

New York Post Online Edition:: "Other times, a nom...

New York Post Online Edition:: "Other times, a nominee becomes an occasion for a senator to perform a holier-than-thou tap-dance. Such was the case yesterday with John Bolton and the Republican senator from Ohio, George Voinovich, who insulted and attacked Bolton without ever having bothered to attend one of the committee hearings in which Bolton testified."
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Bullies are despicable people. Power attracts bullies, who delight in running over people. This is the reason that power attracts some of the most depraved of human beings. A good man reluctantly exercises power over another--the bully delights in it.

Oh! That Makes It Safe!

"We should not pay attentoin to fears of murders and conspiracies...becasuse we can require concurrence from both physicans and officials of the state." Dr. Herbert Schlossberg Idols for Destruction, page 290. Dr. Schlossberg was talking about euthanasia, or the mercy killing of the old and the infirm, which even in 1980 was being called for by people like Francis Crick, who wanted a "new ethic" that would insist on mandatory death for all person over eighty years of age.

The humanistic state wants to meddle in every affair of life to promote fairness and "justice." When it fails, it seeks solution in the death and dismemberment of its citizens. Prime witness: Terri Schaivo.

Hanoi Jane's Confession:

Jane: I don't want to offend anyone. But I believe people have different ways of approaching The Word. For me, it's metaphor, written by people a long time after Christ died. And interpreted by specific groups. I read the gospels that aren't included in the Bible. These make me feel good about calling myself a Christian. What we are seeing today are policymakers who say they're Christians. New York Post

The Girl, the Baby, and the Blind.

The following is a parable.

In my dream I saw a little girl carrying a baby doll. It was obvious that she was very much in love with the doll, for she carried it everywhere and worked very hard to take care of it.

Also in my dream there were many people standing around. They were all blind.

They heard the sounds that the little girl made when she was caring for the doll baby. They heard her speak words of endearment to it. They heard her coos and kisses.

They marvelled at her love. "What a loving person she is. She really loves that baby," they said to each other. They willingly gave her money and other goods because they recognized that she was doing such a good thing.

They thought the baby was real.

The little girl accepted all the good things that were given to her. She piled the goods about the doll. She was very happy as she continued her pretend game.

Soon she came to demand more and more from all the blind people. They could not refuse her tears when she said that her "baby" needed more and more of their goods.

The blind people wept over her kindness and love and care for the baby. They did not know that the baby was a doll, a fake baby. Because they were blind they could not see that the little girl was living a fantasy that seemed real to her.

Then in my dream I saw an old man. His eyes were dim, but he could see faintly. He wondered at all the wealth being showered on the doll. "That doll is not alive," he said. "It will never live. The girl does not love; she is just pretending."

The poor old man. The last thing he saw before he was torn to pieces by the blind men, was the painted smile on the face of the doll.

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

With Respect to Terri Schaivo

'How long have I been away?' asks firefighter as he awakes after 10 years: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Nearly 9-1/2 years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He asked for his wife."

Too bad he didn't have a humanitarian judge and a compassionate wife who were wise enough to perceive that the quality of his life was too low to warrant food and water.

A Terri Schaivo Moment!

It came to me in a flash.  It was so clear and the light was so clear that it must have come from above.  It was a metaphysical moment.

 

Terri Schaivo has shown us the way.  This poor woman's life was illuminated with a light that might very well be the salvation of our nation.

 

She has shown us the way to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the family, education, and the nation's economy.

 

It is so simple that I am amazed that I did not see it before.

 

Just kill all the people whose lives are below the accepted threshhold of "quality."

 

There are a great many people who are too old to amount to anything, but they cost a great deal of money in the Social Security System.  They occupy nursing homes, hospitals, and hospice care.  Their quality of life is terrible.  Many of them have lost their minds, control of their bowells, and even the ability to breathe on their own.  Why should such people be permitted to live?  It would be a mercy to put them out of their misery.  They are draining the resources of their families and friends, not to mention the immense resources of the state.  With one stroke of the pen, if all those over the age of 80 had their throats cut, we would be well on the way to saving Social Security, or perhaps eliminating it all together.

 

Along with the aged, there are a great many other people whose intelligence is below the threshhold of "quality."  They will never succeed in school and many of them will never learn to read.  They cannot talk or communicate except in gibberish.  Why should such people continue to soak up the resources of the community?  The quality of their lives is much too low for them to live a quality life that is worthy of the name.  Some of them cannot even feed themselves or go to the bathroom alone.  Didn't Jesus say that the unfruitful tree should be cut down?  "Why does it cumber the earth?"

 

The husband who does not have a quality wife should just execute her.  Why should she drain the family resources?.  Disobedient or lazy children likewise.  Why should a dope-smoking, drug-ingesting misfit with rings in his nose be permitted to live?  What is the quality of his life?  Do you imagine how much money could be saved for the family in special ed, psychological treatment, counsellors, and medical bills with a well-placed 45 caliber slug?  Why should a bad wife or bad children be allowed to destroy the quality of life?  Every family should have the right to shoot boys or girls who are dragging down the quality of the life of the family by their low-life or stupid behavior. Why not?  What would be wrong with that?  They would just be Terri Schaivo moments.

 

Those who do not deserve resources simply will not get them.  Terri showed us the way.  When her life no longer had sufficient quality, she no longer deserved to be given water or food.  Why should she?  There is no rational reason why she should have.  She didn't even appear to be conscious.  The same case could be made for many students in school.  I know I had some in my classes.

 

The schools could be saved by the simple expedient of executing every child who falls below a grade average of "C."   The time frame could be negotiated.  Do you realize how much money is spent trying to educate the stupid?  Immense resources are expended upon people who will never achieve a quality mind.  The same thing goes for lousy teachers.  Why should incompetent teachers who can't spell or think be allowed to continue to soak up the resources of the state?   If life can fall so low that it does not even deserve water and food, why should it be educated and counselled?

 

The choice should not belong to the persons we kill, of course.  They are not to be the judge of the quality of their lives, just like Terri Schaivo could not.  Husbands are competent to judge whether wives are of sufficient quality, and parents may be allowed to judge the quality of their children, unless they get maudlin and sentimental over it, and then the courts will have to step in.   It might not be good policy for children to decide whether their parents are of sufficent quality, but perhaps courts of appeal could be established for a while until all the incompetent and low-quality parents are shot.

 

Eventually the judges would have the final say, of course, just as in the Terri Schaivo case.  It would be very important, then, to have high quality judges, because it might be very difficult to shoot the judges that need to be shot.  Who would do that?  That's a tough nut to crack, but after a while all the low quality people would be eliminated and that should raise the level of judges.

 

Of course, bigotted people like Christians would also have to be shot, because their minds are of such low quality that they will continue to be a pain in the neck to everyone.  Why should they get resources?

 

What would be wrong with it?

 

Thank you, Terri.  By your death you have shown us the way to salvation.

Happy Face Christianity?

Good article by Brannon S. House 

 

Excerpt:

 

To attract the largest followings possible and because they have bought the lie of the new tolerance, many of America's churches, Christian publishers and Christian radio stations – whether they know it or not – have rejected biblical Christianity and adopted the more popular but bogus gospel of Christian happy-talk. As a result, churches brim with converts committed only to their personal self-actualization, publishers lavish feel-good pabulum on their readers, and the airwaves ring with an emotive rendering of Christianity that would fit nicely alongside the corruptions of faith Jesus chides in the second and third chapters of Revelation.

More than 30 years ago, Vance Havner, in his book "Playing Marbles with Diamonds," offered the following insightful:

The devil is not fighting religion; he is too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it. … We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the truth and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch, and popular preachers have developed ear-tickling to a fine art. Today, the angle is to avoid "negative" preaching and accentuate only the positive.

This Is Still Pretty Good

[The following is something I wrote back in 2003 for this blog.  I read it again, and it is still pretty good!]

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson did for education what Finney did for religion in America. Emerson, as the leader of the New England Brahmans was more enamored with Hinduism than he was Christianity--in fact he thought that Christianity could be reduced to a single emotional response, an qpproach that is still bearing bitter fruit in our churches. The perfect spokesman for his point of view arrived with the emergence of the poet Walt Whitman. Whitman's opus "Song of Myself" was the foreshadowing of modern preoccupation with self and bodily processes. If religion is self-absorption with feeling, then self-absorption triumphs in sexual pleasure, personal gratification, and complete selfishness.

Finney brought the same principle to evangelism and religion. Objective truth was abandoned in terms of preoccupation with man's decisions and feelings. In Finney's revivals Emerson's ideal came close to being realized as doctrine and church structure was abandoned for personal ecstasy and irrationalism. "Truth" was no longer defined in terms of propositions that can be contradicted and examined, but in terms of the "experience" of God. How you felt about religion was far more important than what you thought.

The modern deconstruction of doctrine and truth is the result. It is interesting that the church once confessed the truth in terms of creeds and doctrines that could be understood and preached. Modern protestantism has degenerated to where the greatest evidence of the Holy Spirits work is in irrational mutterings and peepings. Go figure.

I had rather be a Muslim that lives for something than a goofy Christian who will live for nothing. But I am neither. I am a minister of the Reformed Church in the U.S. who loves the truth of the creeds and the great doctrines of the Scripture, and am proud of the privilege to confess them.

True Community

Check out the blog at Dead Men's Voices.

Contemporary Music?

Why I left the Contempora;ry Christian Music Movement   is a must read for ministers and elders in the Christian Church.  Written by a former "worship leader,"  Dan Lucarini nails what's wrong with CCM, as he calls it.  Includes a critique of "praise music."

 

Have you ever wondered why churches have wars over music?  I won't reproduce his arguments here, but you will find where the arrogance, the pride, the unbending, the strife is.  Read it and weep for our churches.

 

Evangelical Press,  P. O. Box 825, Webster, NY 14580, USA    ISBN 0 85234 517 8

You Won't Get Clean Water in this Hole.

The U.N., Preying on the Weak (washingtonpost.com): "In fact, abuse at these camps went beyond sexual violations: Injustices of one sort or another were perpetrated by U.N. missions or their affiliated nongovernmental organizations every day in the camps I visited. Corruption was the norm, in particular the embezzlement of food and funds by NGO officials, which often left camp resources dangerously inadequate. Utterly arbitrary judicial systems in the camps subjected refugees to violent physical punishment or months in prison for trivial offenses -- all at the whim of officials and in the absence of any sort of hearing. "
===============
What do you really expect? The United Nations is a confederation of gangster nations, most of which are two-bit dictators who have no regard for what Americans consider human rights. Why should they act any differently when they are wearing a UN ensignia?

The United States Constitution requires the national government to secure a democratic government in each state. This ensures that across the United States there will be some uniformity on what justice and truth are. Why do we belong to an organization that tramples upon what we call our ideals daily? An organization that cries foul if the United States thinks that a dictator like Saddam must go?

Thank God for George Bush. With all the flaws that some of us see in his administration, there is one star that shines so bright that it blots out the other: He would not subject the national security of the United States to the gangsters of the U.N. This is the first duty of the national government: to secure the liberties of the American People.

We just hope and pray that George the Great will do the next essential thing--clean up the judiary, so that the constitution is again the law of the land, not some "international consensus" or the emotional fuzzy-logic opinions of those who would be God.

It Would Have Been SOOO Neat!

It's too bad.  SaveToby is a hoax, say the Urban Legands people.  But it would have been so neat.  I am always willing for a good gimmick to stick to the tree-hugging people.

 

You may have seen it on the news tonight--that Toby, a cute rabbit whose picture appears on the web site, will be slain and eaten if a bunch of money is not paid into the Save Toby fund.

 

It seems that Animal Rights people are all up in the air.  It doesn't matter that thousands of rabbits are eaten or destroyed every year by people and many millions more provide necessary sustenence to wolves, coyotes, weasels, foxes, and vairous other noble creatures created by God with a hunger for rabbits.

 

But I am for anything that will separate these people from their money--the Animal Rights people, that is.  Animal rights is an oxymoron anyway.  Animals are property and have no rights, unlike Terri Schaivo who was recently judicially murdered, without any outcry from the Peta people.

 

It is so sad.  About Toby, I mean.  What a wonderful moral dilemma it would have been for the tofu crowd.

 

Bytheway, it is ok to eat meat.  See my article at BasketofFigs.

CNN.com - Kerry cites voter intimidation examples - Apr 10, 2005: "'Kerry...suggested the United States should spend as much time promoting democracy at home as it does abroad in countries like Iraq.We need to go about the business of making our own democracy in America work better,' he said."
==============
Translation: "Sniff, sniff. Boo hoo. I'm such loser."

Lobbyist for the DNC?

Quest to get a Republican to fight DeLay may have crossed a line: "On March 24, former Congressman Bob Livingston was sent an e-mail by a New York Times editorial page staffer suggesting he write an op-ed essay. Would Livingston, who in 1998 gave up certain elevation to be House speaker because of a sexual affair, write about how Majority Leader Tom DeLay should now act under fire? In a subsequent conversation, it was made clear the Times wanted the prominent Republican to say DeLay should step aside for the good of the party."

===========

It is so boring and time-consuming to go out to learn the news;  why bother when you can gin it up?  Liberal rags like the NYT, when they aren't actually printing lies and slander, try to make the news.  If there is no Republican that is opposing Tom Delay, then they try to manufacture one.  The Times needs to register as a political lobbyist for the Democratic National Committee.  Do campaign spending limits apply?

It's The Differences!

Dennis Prager: The Left's battle to restore chaos: Judeo-Christian values: Part X

 

May favorite Jew, Dennis Prager, nails it on this one:  the differences between humanism and biblical values:

1. Good and evil: Central to the Judeo-Christian value system is that good and evil are polar opposites and "Woe unto those who call evil good, and good evil" (Isaiah). Opponents of Judeo-Christian values have made war on moral absolutes, on God-based moral values.

2. God and man: God is God and man is man. There is an infinite gulf between man and God, and God is infinitely higher than man. For the Left, man is God and God is man (these were the very words used by Marx and Engels). Each man is the source of values and the measure of all things, unaccountable to any God.

3. Man and woman: "And God created Adam [i.e., the human being], male and female He created them"

4. Holy and profane: A major separation in the Judeo-Christian values system is between the holy and the profane. Applied to speech, this means, for example, that cursing is regarded far less seriously in those parts of society estranged from Judeo-Christian values. Applied to sex, this means that sexual intercourse has a dimension of holiness unknown to the Left, which regards it as a volitional and health issues.

Read the whole article:  The above is just an outline.

Central to the success of humanist thinking is the acceptance of the idea that the Law of Contradiction is rationalism and cannot be applied to human thought.  This is implicitly to affirm that God can be something other than He is, that there is no certain reality, and lies are unimportant.  If somewhere in the deep reaches of God's being all contradictions are resolved, then why die for truth, or why die or live for anything?  Everything is the same.   I am a Van Tilian, but shame on every Van Tilian who thinks dialectically after Hegel, as if true contradictions can be resolved.  See my links on Van Til at http://basketoffigs.nstemp.org/Apologetics/index.htm

Thank the Lord if you have enjoyed the blog.  It is because we are locked into blizzard conditions today in Colorado Springs, and I didn't preach.

In Memory of Terri Schaivo

Has anyone noticed how strange a country we are--we starve  Terri Schaivo and give Secret Service protection to a duck in Washington D. C. ?  Strange.

Ten Reasons to Be a Calvinist

1. Calvinists tend to wear wool and cotton. Arminians tend to wear lime-green polyester leisure suits.

2. John Calvin moved away from France, setting a good example.

3. Calvin sounds like Calvin Klein..very chic clothes.

4. Calvinists can drink adult beverages.

5. Calvinists can smoke good cigars.

6. Arminians are into prophecy conferences where they talk about Star-Trek eschatology and the mark of the Beast. Calvinsts have conferences on "life and culture," art, social justice and other highbrow things like that. Afterwards, we do to the local pub and talk about philosophy over a pint of Bass ale.

7. Calvinists have close ties with Scotland and Scotland is very cool: you know--Sean Connery, the movie Highlander, Bagpipes, the Loch Ness Monster, Glenlivet 18 year old Scotch, the movie Train Spotting, Brave Heart, etc.,

8. Calvinists think we are smarter than anybody else. We have high self esteem. We talk about supra- and infra- and know what we mean. We know the difference between the Economic Trinity and the Ontological Trinity. We know about the filioque and why Rome was right, although we don't like Rome much.

9. It is more dignified to say, "I go to Grace Reformed Church" than to say, "I go to Washed in the Blood Worship Center," or "I go to Happy Wind Fellowship Believers Assembly," or "I go to the "Latter-Day-Rain Deliverance Tabernacle Prophecy Center," or "I go to the Philadelphia Church of the Majority Text," or to say "I go to the Lithuanian Apostolic Orthodox Autocephalic Church of the Baltic Union of 1838."

10. Calvinists had no choice; it was predestined.

Worship Revisited

Just Do It?

Back on January 23 I published a blog about how you can know that worship is taking place. It was a rather tongue in cheek rant that you can read in the archives by clicking the proper link on the right side of this page.

Since then it has been interesting to see it travel about the web. Other bloggers have referred to it, and have commented on it, and readers of other blogs have commented on it. I don't permit comments on this blog because I don't want to read them all and I am not interested in getting into a "dialogue"--much to feely-meely for me.

Anyway, I have enjoyed what people have written on other blogs that have linked to this one. The most common reaction, it seems, goes something like this: "How do you know whether someone is worshipping or not? That person with hands up, or clapping, or bouncing to the tune may be worshipping in their own way. You don't know people's hearts."

Well, they got that right. I don't presume to know people's hearts, for that knowledge is reserved for God alone--it is off limits even for the devil. [You didn't know that? Maybe there are some other things you don't know.]

But so what? It is a non-sequitur. Not knowing people's hearts has nothing to do with knowing whether a person is worshipping. Doesn't the Bible say anything about worship? Is the theme of the Bible this afterall: "Let everybody just do their own thing?" Then why did God bother, if He did not have some very important things to say about Himself and how He is to be served?

Look up Nadab and Abihu. King Uzziah. King Saul. Ananias and Sapphira. Just for a start. Then try the Second Commandment. If you want more, try to find out what the Apostle Paul meant by "will worship" in Colossians 2:23.

That is, if you are interested in such stuff. How people worship is not important, is it?

"Ye have turned judgment into gall..." Amos 6:12

Hannity.com: "Landmark president Mark R. Levin said, "...Starting with the vicious attack on Judge Robert Bork's character in 1987, and continuing with several of President Bush's nominees, Kennedy, working with People for the American Way and other groups, has sought to tear down the reputations of justices, judges and judicial nominees with whom he disagrees.'"

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It is time that good people began to fight back against Kennedy and his cronies.  It is an old tactic, devised by the devil himself in the Garden of Eden:  accuse your enemies of what you are doing yourself.    Satan accused God of using deceitful and manipulative words [see Genesis 3].  Democrats are now accusing Republicans of trying to overthrow the rule of law and the courts, when they have been overthrowing the rule of law and corrupting the judiciary as long as this preacher has been alive.  I can read the Constitution of the United States of America.  I understand what it says, and no corrupt men and women in black robes can make it say what it doesn't.  It protects our life, liberty, and property, and yet corrupt judges from the Supreme Court on down deliberately starved to death Terri Schaivo, because a death-loving lobby convinced a judge that her life did not have enough quality to permit her to live.

 

Americans think they are secure in the their life, liberty, and property.  But property is taken without due process all across this country in the name of eminent domain and zoning and environmental protection and a thousand other ways; money is taken to buy votes, coddle criminals, conduct social experiments, and a thousand other ways thieves reach into the pockets of American citizens through court and judicial decrees; liberty to use property, bear guns, buy political ads, speak from the pulpit on moral issues, liberty to speak and think freely is curtailed on a thousand college campuses in the name of political correctness; the IRS snoops into every detail of a citizens personal and financial life, but a mother's privacy is respected when she murders her unborn.  Rats and mice and other rodents cannot be starved because the quality of their lives is greater than Terri Schaivo's.  All by a judicial system that has been corrupted by the likes of Ted Kennedy and his liberal, lawless, gangsters.

 

Liberals know no law but the law of power, power in their own hands, meddling in the affairs of others in order to protect their own immoral and wicked lifestyles.  They will lie and slander good judges to keep them off the high courts so that selfish pleasure-loving fornicators can murder the fruit of their fornication and adultery.  They will destroy the character of fine judges to deny them a place on high courts so that drug lords and thugs can be secure in their civil rights and continue to vote for liberals.

 

No judge has the right to decide that any living human being is unworthy of life except in the case of capital crime, according to the law of our Creator.  Any judge who makes and enforces such a decision on any human citizen is a criminal and ought to be impeached and tried in a criminal court.

 

Has life become so cheap to us that it means nothing to us that Terri Schaivo, whose only offense was not being able to speak, was put to death because someone decided she was not conscious and therefore not fit to live?  Is this the Final Solution for the weakest among us? 

 

Why are not more people, especially Christians, outraged by this?  Are we stumps and blocks, sans eyes, sans taste, sans feelings?  Has the church lost all moral compass? 

 

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Jer 5:4  Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

 

Shame, shame, shame, shame!

Hurrah for the Second Amendment!!

Yahoo! News - Florida eyes allowing residents to open fire whenever they see threat: "Florida's legislature has approved a bill that would give residents the right to open fire against anyone they perceive as a threat in public, instead of having to try to avoid a conflict as under prevailing law. "

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Hurrah for the Second Amendment.  There was a time when Americans could be expected to defend themselves; they didn't whimper about calling the cops.  It was a simpler time, but not a more violent time.  A man could go anywhere in America he wanted to.

In Memory of Terri Schaivo

The following are quotations from an interview with R. C. Sproul: 

 

"What happened to Terri Schiavo is symbolic and illustrative of a significant shift in the structure of our culture. Though there are many complex issues here that we can discuss, what we've just witnessed is the willful starving and dehydration of a living human being. If we did that to one of our pets, we would be arrested. If we did that to a convicted killer on death row in one of America's prisons, we would be charged with cruel and unusual punishment."

 

"There is no more fundamental civil right according to the Constitution than the right to life. And if the government cannot be involved in this, then the government should not be involved in anything. The issues here are so much larger and more serious than the life of one person, as serious as that is. What I've seen is the serious threat to the whole principle of the balance of power in the government of the United States."

 

"A reasonable response to this tragedy would include within it an emotional response, because a heart that is not moved by understanding is really not rational. I think there should be a cry of mourning but also a cry of protest throughout the land. We have an ethical crisis in this country that is not going to go away with respect to the sanctity of human life."

 

You can hear the entire interview at: 

 

http://www.ligonier.org/

Want to Fix It?

MSNBC - Charities used as tax dodges, IRS chief says: "Charities and other nonprofits exempted from taxes because they serve a public purpose have become a hotbed of tax evasion and abuse, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service."
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The Internal Revenu Service is the most corrupting influence in America. It would be easy to fix. Simply replace it with a national sales tax. People who spend would pay more. Too simple, because the true reason for the Income Tax is to control people and behavior, not raise money.

Centrist Democrats warn liberals - The Washington ...

Democrats Want to Find Out Who They Are!

 

Centrist Democrats warn liberals - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - April 04, 2005: "But party liberals last week dismissed the DLC's advice as warmed-over Republicanism.

"'I can't tell the difference between the positions the DLC puts forward and Republican policy,' said Jack Blum, counsel for the liberal Americans for Democratic Action.
'I've read this before and I am not carried away by it. Nobody in the Democratic Party, and that most especially includes the liberals in the Americans for Democratic Action, opposes fighting the terrorists.' "

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Hoo, boy.  Go for it.  Let's have the ruckus.  Blum and his crowd have a very strange way of fighting terrorism:  "It's all America's fault.  We need to have the French and Germans teach us how to be more 'sensitive' to their needs and our incipient nazism.  If we can just get the world to love us, they won't hate us so much.  We need to learn how to bite our lower lip, not keep a stiff upper one."

 

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - 12 Nabbed in Spain Train Blasts Probe: "The Interior Ministry said six Moroccans, three Syrians, one Egyptian, one Palestinian and one Algerian were arrested in raids in and around the city."
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Hmmmm. Would it be bigotry to suggest that there is something that these people have in common?

Katie Blog

Check out my Katie Blog today on Very Good Figs. Click the link on the right. Life goes on for all of us except Terri Schaivo.

Dedicated to the memory of Terri Schaivo

If you do not know why it is wrong to commit suicide or to withhold life from the weak and helpless, then you are wasting the life that God has given to you.

Proverbs 8:36 "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."

Canadian seal cull sparks protests - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News:

The hunt is expected to bring poor coastal communities millions of dollars but has been condemned by animal rights activists as barbaric."
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In memory of Terri Schaivo. Wasn't her life as important as a seal?

In Memory of Terri Schaivo:

Jer 22:3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

FrontPage magazine.com :: Lying about Terri Schiavo by Nat Hentoff: "So intent is Michael Schiavo on having his wife die of starvation that one of his lawyers, after the governor's order to reconnect the feeding tube, faxed doctors in the county where the life-saving procedure was about to take place, threatening to sue any physician who reinserted a feeding tube. The husband had immediately gone to court to get a judge to revoke what the legislature and the governor had done. "
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Nat Hentoff is no conservative, and he is no part of the religious right, but he is telling the truth about Terri Schiavo. Read this and weep.

Within a short time, from the point of view of my consciousness, the body of Terri Schaivo will be so deprived of water and food that it will no longer be a fit instrument for the soul, and her soul will depart to be with, as her husband puts it, "Jesus."

The post is not concerned about the question of the immortality of the soul [which I accept], although it is a related issue.

The basic question that has concerned the world over the past weeks is the question of consciousness. Michael Schaivo's lawyer, who sits on the board of the hospice that "cares" for her, is a self-proclaimed "right-to-die" activist and has argued, along with his "experts," that she is in a state of "euphoria." He also argues that she is not conscious. That raises a problem for if "euphoria" is a sense of well being and Terri Schaivo is in such a state, how does she know that she is in such a state? If she is not conscious then she is not aware of anything. So how could she feel ok? Is this some kind of voodoo? Slight of hand mumbo jumbo?

From a scientific viewpoint, we do not even know what consciousness is. Is there such a thing? Are there various states of consciousness, and have the courts of the United States been snookered into establishing an eastern religious view of consciousness in order to justify the mercy-killing of Terri Schaivo?

Can one be conscious without sensory perception? Is consciousness simply the sum total of the signals that the body sends us, which the brain sorts out? Are dreams a form of non-sensory consciousness? How is consiciousness unified, so that the dog that runs toward us is perceived to be the same dog that we later see running away from us, which we think of as the same dog we saw yesterday. Is the woman I went to bed with the same one I woke up with? How do I know?

How can it possibly be moral to kill someone's body, as in the case of Terri Schaivo, when we do not know whether or not she is consicious, and we cannot know whether she is conscious unless we know what constitutes the relationship between the sensory perception and consciousness, or if there is even one at all, or even if there is such a thing as consciousness as we commonly think of it? How do you even know that this is the same article that you started to read a few minutes ago?

If a person can be conscious without sensory perception, then how do we know that Terri Schaivo has not been conscious? How do we measure it? Did she know she was being starved to death while not feeling it?

Is it justified to murder people if they don't feel anything? If so, building bigger bombs might be a most humane solution to many of the world's problems. Ovens and other "final solutions" might be imagined that would give many low quality lives a sense of euphoria while their bodies are consumed.

Do angels and demons exist? If so, how do they relate to the sensory world if they have no bodies? With no bodies, how could they emit brain waves or speak? Can human beings be conscious without their bodies? Are spirits just electromagnetic or some other collection of electrical charges that can be vacuumed up and filed away in the basement of Ghostbusters, Inc.?

This writer maintains [admittedly on Christian grounds] that a person is alive as long as the soul resides in the body. Consciousness is something apart from the body and may exist apart from the body, though it is closely connected to the body while the body lives. See my article on "Where Is the Soul." Click

The murder of Terri Schaivo is the natural and logical result of a mechanical and materialistic view of reality that denies spirituality except in terms of materialistic principles. Science does not accept the existence of anything that cannot be measured by the senses. The same principles that operate through out the culture of death which is the abortion industry are exactly the same ones that operate in the right-to-die industry.

I suppose the partial-birth victim also experiences euphoria while his little body is being torn apart and ripped from his mother's womb. Who are these monsters among us?

Unless science can demonstrate what consciousness is and that a person ceases to exist when the body dies, then the killing of Terri Schaivo is not justified. Who are these people who presume to know that she is not conscious of what people are doing to her? Do gods again walk among us?

Mt 10:28 "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Luke 15:22-24 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

It is God who determines the value of a life, whether of a rich man or a begger covered with sores. He will judge both Terri Schaivo and her tormentors.

TERRI SCHIAVO TO DIE IN ATTORNEY'S "DEATH FACTORY"? SUNCOAST HOSPICE BOSS WAS GEORGE FELOS...: "Terri Schiavo, an incapacitated but warmly responsive young woman, is in the care of 'The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast' ('Hospice House Woodside') at 300 East Bay Drive, Largo, Florida. But unknown to her advocates, all of Terri's medical care has been influenced by a Past Chairman of the Hospice's Board of Directors - George J. Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, and self-described 'right-to-die' advocate."
++++++++++++++++
Be not deceived. This case is not about Terri Schiavo. It is a right to die case, engineered by those who love death and hate the wisdom of God. That wisdom is described in Proverbs 8:

32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. 36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

Lawyer Invokes Easter in Call for Terri Schiavo's Death -- GOPUSA: "(CNSNews.com) -- Prior to a new hearing by the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, the attorney for Michael Schiavo invoked the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ while calling on Terri Schiavo's parents to end their efforts to save their daughter's life.

"'We believe it's time for that to stop as we approach this Easter weekend,' noted 'right-to-die' attorney, author and activist George Felos told a throng of gathered television cameras, 'and that Mrs. Schiavo be able to die in peace.'"
===============
"By your words you will be condemned," is the way Jesus put it. So it's "Mrs. Schiavo," huh? Dying "in peace" it is, eh? Who are these apostate and depraved lawyers and "scientists" who have the wisdom and knowledge to decide when life is of such low quality that it can be terminated? Terri Schiavo's only crime is being unable to tell the world what a scum her husband is. So she must die. She is being starved to death. Every judge who remained silent these past days is complicent in her murder.

I think we ought to remove life support from Charles Manson. There are some others who come to mind, also. Sirhan Sirhan? Pretty low and depraved people whose lives are far below the value of Terri Schiavo.

Why limit abortion at all? Let's extend it to sixteen years old at least, for many teenagers live lives of limited value. Why should parents be constrained to feed and clothe and tend these hideous people? Why are they allowed to crawl between heaven and earth?

And the nursing homes? Ever been there lately? Why should these people be allowed to live lives of such low quality? Many of them cannot breathe on their own and carry oxygen bottles from place to place. I spare you more disgusting details. We need to kill them all, if we are ever going to have a beautiful and good society.

Let release Jack Kevorkian from prison and put him on the Supreme Court, and his picture on our currency and coins. He is one of the few among us who knows when people ought to die and we should take advantage of his expertese.

But what if they are innocent? and justice has miscarried? Yes, and what if Terri Schiavo is conscious at some level? But so many learned people have entered evidence in her case? Yes, and what if they are wrong. Why bleed for these others and not bleed for her?

She has been of some value, however. Her husband will inherit a good deal of money, and she has caused America to look at who is really governing America. Is isn't the Bushes and it isn't the state legislature and not the federal legislature. Rotten, depraved judges, whose lives are of far less worth than Terri Schiavo's. These are the scum who have stolen our livlihood and property for spotted owls and preble jumping mice, given us abortion on demand, corrupted our schools with evolution and communism, protected outlaws who call themselves college professors, refused protection for our borders, placed our laws under foreign philosophies and corruption, extended American rights to terrorists and prisoners of war and those who would destroy those rights, and destroyed our families and Christian marriage. They have turned our schools into advocacy for the sodomite agenda, for international socialism, and confiscation of wealth.

If the Republicans do not do whatever is necessary to get decent judges, then America, instead of being the hill from which light goes to all the world, will be the hill where antichrist dwells, who kingdom corrupts the whole world, filling the world with sodomy, persecution, blood, theft. The judges are in contempt of Congress and the President and it is high time for both these branches of government to return the nation to a true division of power, by limiting the jurisdiction of federal courts, and scrapping those courts that do not comply. They have these powers under the Constitution and they need to assert them, by force if necessary.

The Republican Senators, instead of worrying about the future of their own little precious club, need to be thinking about the future of the republic, of their own famlies and friends. Do you think that Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Hilary, and the rest of the internationalist socialist sodomite lying lobby will spare any conservative and Christian ideal if they ever gain power back through the corrupt judiciary? It is time for Republicans to stop worrying about being liked by liberal senators who have no morals and no faith and do what needs to be done to restore the fundamental liberties of life, liberty, and property, for without these there is no pursuit of happiness.

If we are descended from the scum in a prehistoric pond, why does any life have any value? Why get excited about school children killing each other? Why care how anyone lives their lives? Why get excited if school boys don Nazi dress and think about guns and death constantly? Stalin is equal to Hitler is equal to Richard Nixon is equal to FDR is equal to Mother Teresa is equal to Buddha is equal to Saint John. It all comes from that prehistoric scum. We are all scum, we act like scum. Scum we are and to scum we will return. Why should parents feed their kids? Just because of some inherited instinct from baboons? Why does any life have any meaning?

Revelation 12:12 "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

Excite News: "Sung, who has not been involved with the case, said of Cheshire that 'unfortunately his feelings, and possibly his religious beliefs, are affecting his medical decision.' The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, which notes on its Web site that it was founded by Christian bioethicists, lists Cheshire as its director of biotech ethics."
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And we certainly don't want any religious beliefs affecting our view of whether or not someone is alive now, do we.

O, Lord God. Have mercy upon the poor blind people of this once great nation that was once a moral light to the world. We rejected the moral and spiritual darkness of Europe once, and may we find the faith to do it again! Have mercy upon us!

Excite News: "The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, rejecting a desperate appeal by her parents to keep their severely brain-damaged daughter alive."
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Well, at least they are consistent: kill the unborn; kill the old; kill the weakest among us. Who needs life? who needs God? who needs the Resurrection? The New Order of death, of shrouds, of the macabre, the abortionist, the sodomite, the gayless, childless, sodomite marriage is upon us.

Does anyone now doubt that the Republicans need to step up to the plate and get the courts under control? If the Republicans do not seize this opportunity to get Bush's court nominees through the confirmation process--and they have opportunity through the "nuclear" option--then I will never be persuaded again that they are the party of opportunity.

Put a shroud around the Statue of Liberty; break the liberty bell in pieces; if citizens do not have the unalienable right to life, what else is there?

Do not look for the judgment of God. It is already upon us. The soul is already gone from the body politic. We are worse off than Terri Schaivo. America is truly in a vegetative state, with no soul in the body.

Where the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Happy Easter.

Herald.com | 03/21/2005 | IRS probes politics at church: "A Liberty City church's tax-exempt status is in jeopardy as the IRS has launched a probe into a visit by former candidate John Kerry last fall. Some wonder if the probe is politically motivated."
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Hey, so what's new? Conservative churches and conservative religious organizations have been harrassed for years for the slightest reference to political matters. If Republicans are harrassing the liberals, there is something in me that says they deserve it. But a much stronger something says, "All of you butt out. Let's restore freedom of speech to the churches."

News: "``The U.S. leaders - the president, vice president and other key leaders - were hiding up to three days after the Sept. 11 attacks,'' Khamenei said. ``We are not like that. If a bitter experience occurs for this nation, God forbid, or if it is tested, we will wear military uniforms at the front of the nation and prepare for sacrifice.'' "
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Anyone want to bet that he would be in a hole like Saddam or whats-his-name hiding in Afghanistan--or already rotting in his hole?

Dennis Prager: Part VIII: Judeo-Christian values are larger than Judaism or Christianity: "Of course, most Protestant Christians who hold Judeo-Christian values continue to believe that there is no salvation outside of faith in Christ. But precisely because they do hold Judeo-Christian values, they work hand in hand with others whose faith they deem insufficient or incorrect (e.g., Jews and Mormons). So while they theologically reject other faiths, evangelical Christians are the single strongest advocates of Judeo-Christian values."
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And so Dennis Prager [my favorite Jew] continues with his wonderful series of essays on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Everyone needs to read this series of articles.

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan: "Here's both a political and a public-relations reality: The Republican Party controls the Senate, the House and the White House. The Republicans are in charge. They have the power. If they can't save this woman's life, they will face a reckoning from a sizable portion of their own base. And they will of course deserve it.

This should concentrate their minds.

So should this: America is watching. As the deadline for removal of Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube approaches, the story has broken through as never before in the media.

There is a passionate, highly motivated and sincere group of voters and activists who care deeply about whether Terri Schiavo is allowed to live. Their reasoning, ultimately, is this: Be on the side of life. They remind me of what Winston Churchill said once when he became home secretary in charge of England's prisons. He was seated at dinner with a jabbery lady who said that if she were ever given a life sentence she'd rather die than serve it. He reared back. No, he said, always choose life! 'Death's the only thing you can't get out of!'"
================

Republicans, are you listening? Maybe one of the greatest moral issues of our day is the life of Terri Schiavo. Is being pro-life being willing to care as much for starving a human being as for a mouse in a school house? Where is the humane society?: I once got a letter from the humane society because a boy brought a live mouse to school to feed his pet snake. Is Terri Schiavo's life worth as much as a mouse?

Are we going to watch the slow starving of a human being, an agonizing death that we would not tolerate in a pet dog or pet cat? If people go to jail for setting a cat on fire, shouldn't the people who removed the tube this afternoon be worthy of at least a public flogging?

Have we lost our moral sense and compass?

May God have mercy on our national soul.

De 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Yahoo! News - Professor Charged With Faking Grant Info: " A former medical school professor was accused Thursday of fabricating research data on closely watched topics such as menopause, aging and hormone supplements to win millions of dollars in grant money from the federal government. "
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Now let's see. Following the logic of the liberal media, our conclusion should be something like this. Just as crooked tele-evangelists like Jimmy Bakker indicate that all preachers are religious quacks who are out to get the money of widows and orphans, it is evident that Dr. Eric T. Poehlman is evidence that all who labor in modern science are fakes and are out to get the government's money.

But why should Poehlman be different from so many other illustrious scientists who faked their results, like Margaret Mead, Sigmund Freud, Masters and Johnson, Darwin and so many others who built the modern house of cards that evolution and moral corruption rests upon.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Dish It Out, Ladies: "Men take professional criticism more personally when it comes from a woman. When I wrote columns about the Clinton impeachment opera bouffe, Chris Matthews said that for poor Bill, it must feel as though he had another wife hectoring him. "
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Speaking of repealing God's law, poor Maureen Dowd is in the same fix as the judge in my previous blog. Can't do it, poor little Maureen. God has given authority to the man as Paul, the great Apostle of liberty, wrote in 1Cor. 11:3, "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."

You can't repeal this law any more than Judge Kramer can repeal the one about sodomites.

People should remember the crucifixion of Christ. Just when they thought they had won, the forces of evil experienced their greatest defeat of history. Satan's kingdom is at its most vulnerable when God's people are weak and helpless and under the thumb of tyranny. God loves to show Himself strong in behalf of his downtrodden saints.

But Maureen Dowd will keep spitting into the wind. She is a slow learner.

My Way News: "In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional."
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Interesting, huh. Somebody needs to tell Judge Kramer that what his is trying to do has been tried before, with predictable results.

I mean repealing the Law of God. The Law of God is not an abstraction, but is binding upon every man everywhere, whether he agrees with it or not, for the Law of God was not passed by human legislators, but was written with the finger of God on two tables of stone [Read Exodus 20].

Jesus reaffirmed it when he said, "Scripture cannot be broken...." John 10:35.

It's an old, old story, begun in the Garden of Eden and the last chapter has not been written yet. But we know how it will turn out. No mystery here.

People's Daily Online -- "I don't think US should be the leader of the world": "Another source of the resentment is the perception that Bush administration wants to act unilaterally in the world, outside of alliance that traditionally governed the ways Bush made foreign policy decisions. In some ways the core of perception problems is centered on 911 terrorist attacks in 2001 in which the US government and Bush administration reacted by deciding that the country would make decisions in foreign affairs that respond only to US interests. They were not going to consult very widely, and not to compromise in making those decisions. That caused rift even among the US allies. So it is natural to see that the image of America is the lowest in public opinion. "
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So who do you want, Mr. Phillip Bennett? The Chinese? The French? the Russians? Oh, I get it. You think American newspapermen should be the real leaders. When are you libs going to realize that you and your philosophical ancestors going to realize that you have been wrong on every major issue in the Bolsheveks rose to power by murder, rapine, and terror during WW I? You have been wrong about Cuba, Russia, China, North Korea, Bosnia, Africa, Vietnam, and Central America. Seems there is a pattern here. Every time a communist arises, you begin to salivate, and hope for the salvation of the world.

But you are clever. You form the perception and then you say it is too bad that people think like this. It isn't that Bush didn't consult; you know that, of course. He just refused to submit American interests to the French and the Germans and the Russians. The world doesn't regret it, Mr. Bennett. It is you and your liberal friends who have found your dream lying in the ashes of the Twin Towers. You and your liberal friends lie and lie and lie, and deplore the fact that people have a "perception." But we get it. That's why thinking Americans don't believe the newspapers anymore.

But the jig is up. The American people understand it now, and they understand you. You cannot buy them any more with bread and circuses. 9/11 changed all that, even if it did not change you. Those bombers might be gallant warriors to you and your kind, but they were murdering representatives of a murdering sect. Americans are slow sometimes, but beware when they finally get it. Americans aren't perfect, but they didn't stand for Hitler killing Jews or the Taliban shooting women on the soccer field, or Saddam enjoying his rape houses. You may have a stomach for it. It was your hero Joseph Stalin who said that you have to break eggs to make an omelet.

No thanks. We don't like the omelet, and we don't like people who would rather get good press in China than in Colorado Springs.

Dennis Prager: Hate evil: Case for Judeo-Christian values, part VII: "Much of humanity doesn't. But if you embrace Judeo-Christian values, you must."
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Must what? Read the article.

Regular readers of this blog know that my favorite Jew is Dennis Prager. If you link to townhall.com you will find a series of articles making the case of Judeo-Christian values [meaning the Ten Commandments, of course]. He makes a much better case for Christianity than many Protestant preachers.

Hating evil is the flip side of loving good. Ps 97:10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

The best is to love the good and hate the evil. Second best is to love the evil and hate the good. Worst of all is to refuse to see the difference. According to Revelation 3:16 such people make God sick to His stomach. [This is a figure of speech of course, as should be obvious, even to Biblical literalists. But that is another blog.]

The reason that God gets sick to his stomach over such people, is that they are so santimonious about their superior intelligence and fine sensitivities. They are above good and evil, because they love everybody so much. How could they be judgmental? Judgmentalism is so red state. In this they take their God-given intelligence and ability [which they deny because they think these things are their own] and allow them to be used in the service of evil. As Hosea puts it, Ho 2:8 "For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." The good gifts of God come from Him, and it is a frightful thing to turn these things to the use of evil, especially while you are pretending to be above good and evil.

A man may choose which ideas he is going to believe, but he is not free to choose the consequences of his choice. Life is something like those little books that children read where they come to a place where they make a choice and then are directed to a page where the story proceeds according to the choice they made.

That's why man's misery is so great, as Solomon put it. Ec 8:6 "Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him." The consequences of our choices reveal the nature of our purposes, and because man's natural purposes are sinful, when the time and judgment arises man's misery of great.

A man may choose to believe that men are naturaly good. He will then conclude that man must be free to live his life according to his good impulses. The experiment will fail, as it has for the last two or three generation of Dr. Spock America. The public school system, based upon that desperately rosy and unrealistic expectation of human nature, is an unmitigated disaster, and everyone knows it, except the teacher's union and politicians bought and paid for by the union.

But people hold to their delusions, as Solomon again put it: Pr 17:12 "Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly." People don't mind being wrong, but they hate to have their folly exposed. A man may play the fool, but he hates to have it pointed out. A man's ideas are so dear to him that the anger of a mother bear is safer than his.

Augustine had the grace and character to write his Retractions near the end of his life. Unfortunately, Rousseau and Dewey and other fathers of liberal thought did not live long enough to see the unmitigated disaster their ideas have wrought. But they will know at the Day of Judgment.

Ideas have consequences and men have no choice in the matter of consequences.

Strongly urge all to to visit Dead Men's Voices, Wheat and Chaff, and Two Edged Sword. The links are on the right. Very good stuff.

There isn't any question about it. We were all born naked into the world, but we were not born into a naked world. A lot of stuff was going on before we ever saw the light of day.

Most of us don't realize this right away. We think the world began with us. But it didn't, you know.

There were people who lived long ago who were doing some important things. People like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses, of course, and the Apostles, Matthew, John, Peter, and Paul.

What are you going to do with these people? There are millions of people who firmly believe that these people spoke the word of God, and try to live by their words. What you do with their ideas is important.

Most important of all is Jesus Christ. What do you do with Him? You have to do something, because the world of today is very much shaped by His teachings and His life. Who was He, anyway.

You can say that He was a poor, misguided person, who was probably mad and said some good things. Of course, you have to say that a bunch of people are idiots for following such a person. But if you say that, then you have to say that human nature has something wrong with it, the fundamental premise of the teaching and the work of Christ. If He was right about that, then maybe you ought to consider some other things He said.

You can say that He never lived, that some people made Him up. Then you are still stuck with the human nature question. But what about the genius of the people who made Him up? To be able to generate and perpetuate such a fraud is incredible. Anyone who thinks that a conspiracy of that magnitude could be imposed upon the people of the world is bound to have a most gloomy view of the world and history. Is is egotism or naivte that would believe that everyone is subject to the mother of all conspiracies except you. Would that then influence everything you think about the world and history? Something to think about.

You can say that He is the Son of God, as He said He was. But then you still have a great problem: if He is the Son of God, His teachings require you to make some major moral and spiritual changes, both inwardly and outwardly. It could be revolutionary.

But not as revolutionary as to think you can ignore Him. Everyone must make a decision about Christ. Not making one is a decision.

Police Arrest 8-Year-Old After Alleged Outburst in Williamsburg Elementary School: "James City County Police arrested an eight-year-old boy who allegedly had a violent outburst in school."
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What does this story have to do with Bush's judicial nominations? Everything.

No one would have called the police when I was a kid. I remember the afternoon our school bus driver put an unruly kid off the bus on a country road about three miles from his home. [I think the kid was named Powell, but was no relation to me]. The kid was about 10 years old and he did get off the bus and then suddenly burst back in through the open door, crying, and began to throw fists at the driver. Guess he didn't want to walk home. The driver said he could sit down--he did, and was taken home, very quiet and subdued.

The point? No one even thought of calling the police. The school handled it. I don't know what they did, but the kid was ok after that, although still a pain in the neck sometimes to me.

It's a civil rights thing nowadays. Schools cannot discipline kids; kids know they can't be struck. We know we could be "licked," if we were naughty and it acted as a restraint on me and others. But judges have eroded discipline in all areas of society in the name of "civil rights." The erosion was not done by the legislatures or the executive branches of the government--but by anarchic judges who impose their private opinions and feelings on a "living constitution," finding rights where none exist, and finding "halos" and "Penumbras" and, if necessary, appealing to "world opinion" [meaning elitist overseas opinions] to impose their tyranny upon us all. It is time they went away.

Side note: [My parents would have been embarrassed and chagrined if I had ever been whipped at school, and I would probably have gotten another whipping when I got home. But that was another day. Teachers were respectible, didn't use drugs or have sex with kids. They knew their A,B.C.'s and loved their country. At least where I went to school. Most of them went to church and had respect for church. They thought their job was to teach readin', 'riting, and 'rithmetic. They thought that was enough to change the world. The next generations of teachers had a different agenda. What good is reading if you can't save the whales? The courts protected these idiots and now families are enslaved by them.

But mostly the schools are more and more enslaved by the kids. Who needs a lawsuit? Call the cops and let them handle it.

Please see the new blog at "Good Figs." Use the link at the right.

So now five members of the Supreme Court, taking in consideration "world opinion," has decided that it is unconsitutional for states to execute axe murderers, serial killers, cop killers, and other cold-blooded psychopaths who have accidently not attained the age of 18 years.

Where do they find this in the constitution? In the same place that theological perverts have found that the Bible permits women to be deacons, elders, and pastors, that God is "open" and yields to man's freewill, that good works get you into heaven, that Jesus is not God, and that you can do whatever you want in "worship." If the theology of the Bible does not bind us shall we be bound by the lilliputian cords of man's law? Let's rock 'n roll, baby!

But I guess a lawless Supreme Court has a great deal in common with axe murderers, serial killers, cop killers, and other cold-blooded psychopaths. Both are without law.

If the Bible is not a contract that binds the people of God in ethics and theology, then why should we be bound by our own constitutions? What does a covenant mean, anyway, if nothing binds me but my own reason? If the Bible is a "living" document that means whatever a generation wants it to men, then why should the constitution be treated any differently? Hallelujah! The Constitution lives! at least in the perverted imaginations of five old people on the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, if God is a Rock [Ps. 18:31]and Scripture cannot be broken [John 10:35], then there might very well be gloomy days ahead unless the other branches of government find the will and convictions to reign in this tyrannous court, as the constitution says they can.

Two-Edged Sword: "When one holds to doctrinal development what use can a creed that does not develop have? Why should one be bound to such an old formula? When one sees that history move and doctrine does as well (as they claim) creeds must be abandoned. The key phrase will be 'liberty of conscious' [sic ] to choose the 'historic tradition' that best fits you. "
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Good for you, Lee. We either have the "faith once for all delivered to the saints," and we build upon that. learning to understand it more and more, or we are in a world of flux and there is nothing to hold to.

mtv.com - News - Hunter S. Thompson: Shutting The Door, Painting The Windows Black, By Kurt Loder: "In the 1970s, Hunter Thompson inspired a legion of young journalists to believe that the best way to cover a story was to get tanked to the gills on drugs and alcohol, present oneself in a state of near-psychotic meltdown at the scene of whatever one was covering, and record the affronted and sometimes violent reactions of the people one encountered. Concepts like 'facts' and 'objectivity' were to be regarded as quaint, if not entirely notional. The author became the story. This was 'gonzo journalism.'"
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I guess this is what Dan Rather has been practicing all these years. Hippy, biased journalism. "Facts" and "objectivity" are quaint, huh? But you know, facts are stubborn things, as Bush the Elder once famously said. I guess that if you are a "gonzo journalist," if the facts get too depressing and quaint, you just blow your brains out.

You know, some ideas that people promote and profess to live by, don't seem to wear very well after a while. They don't die well living by them either.

Telegraph | News: "UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday."
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Good! Good! Good! Don't trust God. Don't trust your own power of self-defense. Trust these guys.

A few years ago, Student Lee Johnson, who is now an intern in Herried, SD, wrote a short piece on the Da Vinci Code which I intended to post on the web. Now that the Da Vinci Code is back in the news I thought I would reproduce it here.

Da Vinci Code Critique

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, is a novel about which Christians should be aware. This is not on account of the suspense-laden chapters or the who-dun-it mystery that enfolds, but because the false information about Christianity inside has taken hold of many minds and could lead people astray.

The plot of the book is simple enough. The four leading members of a secret society are killed, but before dying, the society’s grandmaster leaves a message and a series of clues to his granddaughter in the hope that the “secret” of the secret society does not pass out of existence. The secret is the location of the Holy Grail, however, it is not the Holy Grail as in the Cup of Christ, instead, it is documents and other assorted items that prove the secret nature of Christianity.

The author explains as the book goes along that the Holy Grail is a recovery of the “sacred feminine” within Christianity. The embodiment of the “sacred feminine” is Mary Magdelene, who was not only the wife of Christ, but also the mother of his baby and the rallying point for Christianity after his death. Furthermore, the author asserts that Jesus Christ was only a man who never claimed to be God. According to the book, this was all common knowledge until the council of Nicaea, when Constantine persuaded the church to elevate Christ to the level of God. Then Constantine supposedly created the modern Bible by removing some 80 gospels, which included references to Christ’s manhood and marriage, and leaving only the 4 that we have today, which included references to Jesus as God and Mary Magdelene as a prostitute. The author claims that the knowledge of the true nature of Christianity, including the identity of Christ’s descendents, was guarded and protected by this secret society. Leonardo Da Vinci had been a grandmaster of this society, and he included clues to the secret in his paintings. The clues that lead our two “heroes” to the “truth” are hidden in Da Vinci’s work. What Da Vinci really believed, I cannot say. For the sake of his soul, I hope it was not what is portrayed in this novel.

The idea that the true religion is passed down through secrecy is a Gnostic idea. The author even quotes heavily from the Gnostic Gospels, which he claims contain the truth about Christianity. The Bible, then, is a man-made document written purposefully to repress women and promote the idea that Jesus is God. The author merges Christianity with paganism, even implying that sex rituals lead to a greater understanding of truth. These are just a few of the disturbing falsehoods that Brown advocates in his novel. His historical accounts are easily repudiated with the writings of church fathers such as Eusebius or Tertullian. However, the church should be prepared for continuing assaults on the historicity of the Bible and the divinity of Christ in coming years.

This book is written in a very convincing manner, and for that reason is a danger to the uninstructed. The book even begins with a “Fact” page where it’s stated that, “All description of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”, which contributes to the notion that the Christian cover-up about the “sacred feminine” is real. It is not. This book has been a bestseller for months, and people are believing these lies. May God be glorified, and may his truth bring to light this latest stream of lies.

Tsunami victims to sue French hotel chain Accor, Thai govt, US authorities Messenger | Yahoo! Finance-: "Tsunami victims to sue French hotel chain Accor, Thai govt, US authorities"
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Ain't that ducky? We have now come to the complete circle of free-will theism. God doesn't control anything or bring anything to pass, and therefore man has complete free will to make his choices, right? He is therefore responsible for himself, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! This writer has maintained for many years that the true human responsibility cannot be maintained in a chance environment. If man has absolute freedom, then he is on his own. He is responsible for nothing, for things are always happening to him that somebody else should have taken care of. If he gets cancer from smoking, it just isn't his fault, it is the mean tobacco companies, and politicians, and the gov'ment and probably his mother and father who should have taken better care of his education. Do you wander that those who maintain the greatest lattitude to free will are always trying to tell you what to do, or trying to get the church to tell you what to do, or trying to get the gov'ment to tell you what to do? A pox on the whole bunch of them.

If he gets fat and sloppy from living on Big Macs, same story. If the tsunami comes and washes him away, same story. The United States--for if there is no God in your world, you look to the biggest and richest thing you can see--should have done something about it. Just sue the devil out of everyone in sight.

Do you still doubt that the Senate did a good thing last week by passing tort reform?

The elephant in the room that depraved men [that's all of us] refuse to see and will not see apart from the grace of God is a big one: God is the Creator, sustainer, upholder, and causes all things to come to pass for His glory. Every man is therefore responsible before the God who made him--not for the events that take place, but for his reaction to them. All things work together for good, but not for every men--only for those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose.

For good reading on this subject, click the Trinity Reformed Church link at the right and go to Creeds and Confessions and read the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession, and look up the Scripture references. You might learn something.