End of an Affair: "It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue."
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Have we become immune to outrage? This pious admission by the Washington Post doesn't blunt the fact that the Post and the rest of the major media have perpetrated this hoax of Wilson's for the last several years, willing to break the 9th Commandment in order to pull down the poll numbers of President Bush and destroy him politically.
But some things don't go away with an "oops." Where are the newspapers and TV heads who will express the outrage this admission deserves? Dan Rather fabricated documents to "get" Bush; Everyone in the country knew that Wilson was the bad guy in the Plame issue. Only these corrupt, abased, and perverted news people don't seem to get it.
But what do you think of the moral character of those who defend infanticide and sodomy? What's a lie or two? That's what its all about you know. The reason that these people hate Bush is that he represents a threat to promote traditional values: especially saving the babies and inhibiting sexual perversion. Just remember that.
But how does Scooter Libby get his reputation back?
The news media should reveal corruption, not spread it around. "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." --Jesus.
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Friday, September 01, 2006
: "-- Bills that would give California's local governments more power to fight Wal-Mart and other huge stores are heading to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, over the objections of the giant retailer, business groups and Republican lawmakers."
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This is wonderful news--for the red states. These means that doing business will cost more in California, taxes will go up to enforce these regulations, the cost of goods will go up, and the exodus of business and people will accelerate as people escape to the freedom of the red states. The liberals won't get it, of course, and blame other people's selfishness, being blind to their own.
"Fight Walmart?" I can think of one or two much more important enemies that ought to concern the state of California rather than successful businesses. I guess Wallmart isn't paying enough into campaign slush funds. That's the modern way corruption in government works. Ask Bill Gates. Pony up or becoome the enemy of the state. In the old days the racketeers were less sophisticated: they threw a brick though your window if you didn't buy protection. Now it isn't a brick; it is a lawyer with a subpoena from a government regulatory agency. It's not nearly so messy as the old days. Al Capone would have envied these guys. Al Capone didn't go to jail because he was a crook; he was dumb.
Good for the red states. Bad for the country.
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This is wonderful news--for the red states. These means that doing business will cost more in California, taxes will go up to enforce these regulations, the cost of goods will go up, and the exodus of business and people will accelerate as people escape to the freedom of the red states. The liberals won't get it, of course, and blame other people's selfishness, being blind to their own.
"Fight Walmart?" I can think of one or two much more important enemies that ought to concern the state of California rather than successful businesses. I guess Wallmart isn't paying enough into campaign slush funds. That's the modern way corruption in government works. Ask Bill Gates. Pony up or becoome the enemy of the state. In the old days the racketeers were less sophisticated: they threw a brick though your window if you didn't buy protection. Now it isn't a brick; it is a lawyer with a subpoena from a government regulatory agency. It's not nearly so messy as the old days. Al Capone would have envied these guys. Al Capone didn't go to jail because he was a crook; he was dumb.
Good for the red states. Bad for the country.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
FOXNews.com - Governors Ask Rumsfeld to Oppose Bush's National Guard Plan - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum: "All 50 governors earlier this month signed a formal letter opposing a House provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would let Bush federalize the Guard without governors' consent in the event of a 'serious natural or manmade disaster, accident or catastrophe.'"
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Ok, that's fair. Then let them stand up and tell the world that the governor of Louisiania had reponsibility far more than President Bush for the Katrina disaster. They can't have it both ways. Whoever is in charge has the responsibility.
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Ok, that's fair. Then let them stand up and tell the world that the governor of Louisiania had reponsibility far more than President Bush for the Katrina disaster. They can't have it both ways. Whoever is in charge has the responsibility.
Monday, August 28, 2006
BREITBART.COM - Kerry Revives 2004 Election Allegations: "An e-mail will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio. The bulk of the e-mail criticizes Strickland's opponent, GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official. "
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These people, starting with Al Gore, are seeking to poison the election system in the United States for their own imagined gain. They would turn us into a third world nation that despises the rule of law. Nixon was better than this whole modern crowd of Democrats. He refused to challenge Kennedy's narrow win in 1950 although there were plenty of grounds. Nixon did not want to damage the public's view of the process.
Sidenote: seems that other liberals are learning from Al Gore. Witness the fiasco south of the border. The losers there threatened to make Mexico "ungovernable" if they lost their court appeal. On the other hand, who said that Mexico was governable? Their only hope is for the election to stand with a conservative in power. Liberalism destabilizes government everywhere, pitting citizen against citizen, group against group, wrong against right. People in America are catching on--they have been restless, but didn't know the reason. They are learning and will teach liberals a lesson this election, too.
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These people, starting with Al Gore, are seeking to poison the election system in the United States for their own imagined gain. They would turn us into a third world nation that despises the rule of law. Nixon was better than this whole modern crowd of Democrats. He refused to challenge Kennedy's narrow win in 1950 although there were plenty of grounds. Nixon did not want to damage the public's view of the process.
Sidenote: seems that other liberals are learning from Al Gore. Witness the fiasco south of the border. The losers there threatened to make Mexico "ungovernable" if they lost their court appeal. On the other hand, who said that Mexico was governable? Their only hope is for the election to stand with a conservative in power. Liberalism destabilizes government everywhere, pitting citizen against citizen, group against group, wrong against right. People in America are catching on--they have been restless, but didn't know the reason. They are learning and will teach liberals a lesson this election, too.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
What did you do in the war, UNIFIL?: "UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah 'fired rockets in large numbers from various locations' and Hezbollah's rockets 'were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations' are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got."
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No wonder Israel sent a rocket or two their way during the latest war over there. Do not think that the new contingent of UN troops will be any better. 15000 troops will be 7.5 times as bad as 2000 troops. They will probably serve as guards and spotters for Hezbollah.
The world is mad.
Those who support the United Nations as a means to achieve peace on earth and establish the security of the American people are either living in a fantasy world, with their eyes closed to the reality of the world as it is or they are blinded by false religion. There are many Americans who are not friends of this country, its laws, its religion, or its traditions. In the cold war we used the term "useful idiot" to describe those who thought that communism was the hope of the world and were used of the Soviet Union to undermine American policy.
Neutrality is a myth. We face real evil today. Human sacrifice, even the sacrifice of babies and children, is still being practiced in many places of the world. Whether it is a lunatic religion that straps bombs on children, or a medical practicioner who rips a baby from its mother's womb, the end result is the same. A religion that allows either is an evil religion, and the god served is a false god--not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Baal worship is alive, but not well.
I will be preaching at 11:30 at Trinity Covenant Church [see link at the right] on "Stolen Gods." Gods that can be stolen are not gods, and you cannot steal God from His faithful worshippers.
Jesus Christ cannot be known after the flesh. He is in heaven and must be found there. Read the Bible to find out how, especially Luke, John, and Romans. A good place to start.
“But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” (Psalms 50:16-23 AV)
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
God is not like any other that man can imagine. His fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah 'fired rockets in large numbers from various locations' and Hezbollah's rockets 'were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations' are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got."
===============
No wonder Israel sent a rocket or two their way during the latest war over there. Do not think that the new contingent of UN troops will be any better. 15000 troops will be 7.5 times as bad as 2000 troops. They will probably serve as guards and spotters for Hezbollah.
The world is mad.
Those who support the United Nations as a means to achieve peace on earth and establish the security of the American people are either living in a fantasy world, with their eyes closed to the reality of the world as it is or they are blinded by false religion. There are many Americans who are not friends of this country, its laws, its religion, or its traditions. In the cold war we used the term "useful idiot" to describe those who thought that communism was the hope of the world and were used of the Soviet Union to undermine American policy.
Neutrality is a myth. We face real evil today. Human sacrifice, even the sacrifice of babies and children, is still being practiced in many places of the world. Whether it is a lunatic religion that straps bombs on children, or a medical practicioner who rips a baby from its mother's womb, the end result is the same. A religion that allows either is an evil religion, and the god served is a false god--not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Baal worship is alive, but not well.
I will be preaching at 11:30 at Trinity Covenant Church [see link at the right] on "Stolen Gods." Gods that can be stolen are not gods, and you cannot steal God from His faithful worshippers.
Jesus Christ cannot be known after the flesh. He is in heaven and must be found there. Read the Bible to find out how, especially Luke, John, and Romans. A good place to start.
“But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” (Psalms 50:16-23 AV)
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
God is not like any other that man can imagine. His fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Excite News: "France said on Thursday it was ready to send an extra 1,600 troops to bolster a revamped U.N. force for Lebanon, bringing the total French contingent to 2,000 and making it easier to recruit other nations."
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This is rich, isn't it? A nation that could not defend itself successfully in any major war of the 20th century, who could not defend its possessions in South East Asia, is now going to be the protector of Israel--or are they really there to protect the terrorists. Virulent anti-semitism exits widespread in France, so I suspect that Israel will not disarm.
But it is good that the UN is impotent. Who needs world government, anyway? But what will the fundamentalist do if world government is impotent? What kind of anti-Christ is that?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Excite News - Syria Warns Against Deployment of Troops: "Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday the situation in Lebanon was 'explosive' while Syria's president says the deployment of international troops along the Syria-Lebanon border would be a 'hostile' act."
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Isn't the United Nations wonderful. We all know, of course, that talking is so much better than warfare. David was so benighted and he thought that it was a godly thing to do, to kill Goliath. We are so much more enlightened nowadays. Modern Davids sit down and drink latte and "negotiate" with Goliath. "Suppose we give some of us to you for slaves? would that be satisfactory? You want all of us? Well, I don't think Saul will go for that. What about 1 in 10. God says that we will someday be as the sand of the sea in number, so even 1/10 of that would be quite a bunch. No? Well, what do you want then? All of us? I am afraid that this will go nowhere if we don't see some movement on your part. You want to do what to my flesh? What kind of diplomacy is THAT?"
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Isn't the United Nations wonderful. We all know, of course, that talking is so much better than warfare. David was so benighted and he thought that it was a godly thing to do, to kill Goliath. We are so much more enlightened nowadays. Modern Davids sit down and drink latte and "negotiate" with Goliath. "Suppose we give some of us to you for slaves? would that be satisfactory? You want all of us? Well, I don't think Saul will go for that. What about 1 in 10. God says that we will someday be as the sand of the sea in number, so even 1/10 of that would be quite a bunch. No? Well, what do you want then? All of us? I am afraid that this will go nowhere if we don't see some movement on your part. You want to do what to my flesh? What kind of diplomacy is THAT?"
Sunday, August 20, 2006
My Way News - Annan: Israeli Raid Violates Cease-Fire: "Israel said the raid was launched to stop arms smuggling from Iran and Syria to the militant Shiite fighters, while Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called the operation a 'flagrant violation' of the U.N. truce."
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What a sham this whole thing is. The only thing worse than the phony-balogny called the United Nations in general and Annan in particular would be a United Nations that meant what it said and could enforce its wicked decrees.
The United Nations is a graven and lying image of the Kingdom of God and needs to be considered with the horror it deserves by every child of God. We need to pronounce the decree of God, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Babylon fell when Jesus died and rose, and those who put their trust in her will find no rest.
Babylon can do no good nor evil, but can thoroughly corrupt all those who bow at her altar. Such become unfit for leadership.
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What a sham this whole thing is. The only thing worse than the phony-balogny called the United Nations in general and Annan in particular would be a United Nations that meant what it said and could enforce its wicked decrees.
The United Nations is a graven and lying image of the Kingdom of God and needs to be considered with the horror it deserves by every child of God. We need to pronounce the decree of God, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Babylon fell when Jesus died and rose, and those who put their trust in her will find no rest.
Babylon can do no good nor evil, but can thoroughly corrupt all those who bow at her altar. Such become unfit for leadership.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Real Teachings of the Koran: "During the Cold War, American intelligence loved getting its hands on defectors from communism. The reasoning was that these people had the best information about the plans of the other side, information that would help America defeat them.
In the present war against what President Bush has properly labeled 'Islamic fascism,' defectors are just as valuable."
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Cal Thomas has interviewed one such defector, and his account is chilling. Everyone ought to read this column.
In the present war against what President Bush has properly labeled 'Islamic fascism,' defectors are just as valuable."
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Cal Thomas has interviewed one such defector, and his account is chilling. Everyone ought to read this column.
Friday, August 18, 2006
US says it has no plans to invade Cuba - Yahoo! News: "In his first public statement as interim ruler, published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma, Raul Castro said he had mobilized tens of thousands of reservists and militia members to face a possible US invasion threat."
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There is a story that in ancient times a long-necked dinosaur lived on the earth. Its neck was so long that if it received a mortal wound in its body it would take a long time before the news of its death reached its brain.
Someone needs to tell the Castros that Cuba is dead, communism is dead. It has been mortally wounded, but the news hasn't reached their brains yet. There are a lot of people in that same fix.
Evolution is dead, mortally wounded by the science and physics of the last thirty years. It hasn't reached the brain yet of the educational establishment who does research or those politicians who hand out government largess to them.
The same thing could be said of feminism. Only a few old ugly women are still true believers. The news hasn't hit their brains yet.
Again, it is also true of the Federal Vision. They are still trying to explain it, but the Reformed community understands it now. Judiciary after judiciary in the Reformed community are taking clear and strong stands critical of it and its mommy and daddy, Norman Shepherd and the New Perspectives on Paul. Its a very long neck in this case and it is taking a very long time for the news to reach the head of the Federal Vision people. Don't know what the Federal Vision is? Try this link.
Then there are the Islamo-Fascists. Their death was a long one: Tours, Granada, Vienna. The body is twitching again, and they forget that the power of the Risen Christ is against them and they cannot win anything but temporary and costly victories. This neck is also a very long one, but the news will eventually reach the brain, carried perhaps by a marine or stealth bomber. The West may suffer a great deal in this one because we have been disloyal to that same Christ, but there is no doubt as to the outcome of the conflict. You cannot gain life by loving death and murder. It's been tried before, young terrorists:
"Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner [stone], a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." (Isaiah 28:15-18 AV)
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There is a story that in ancient times a long-necked dinosaur lived on the earth. Its neck was so long that if it received a mortal wound in its body it would take a long time before the news of its death reached its brain.
Someone needs to tell the Castros that Cuba is dead, communism is dead. It has been mortally wounded, but the news hasn't reached their brains yet. There are a lot of people in that same fix.
Evolution is dead, mortally wounded by the science and physics of the last thirty years. It hasn't reached the brain yet of the educational establishment who does research or those politicians who hand out government largess to them.
The same thing could be said of feminism. Only a few old ugly women are still true believers. The news hasn't hit their brains yet.
Again, it is also true of the Federal Vision. They are still trying to explain it, but the Reformed community understands it now. Judiciary after judiciary in the Reformed community are taking clear and strong stands critical of it and its mommy and daddy, Norman Shepherd and the New Perspectives on Paul. Its a very long neck in this case and it is taking a very long time for the news to reach the head of the Federal Vision people. Don't know what the Federal Vision is? Try this link.
Then there are the Islamo-Fascists. Their death was a long one: Tours, Granada, Vienna. The body is twitching again, and they forget that the power of the Risen Christ is against them and they cannot win anything but temporary and costly victories. This neck is also a very long one, but the news will eventually reach the brain, carried perhaps by a marine or stealth bomber. The West may suffer a great deal in this one because we have been disloyal to that same Christ, but there is no doubt as to the outcome of the conflict. You cannot gain life by loving death and murder. It's been tried before, young terrorists:
"Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner [stone], a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." (Isaiah 28:15-18 AV)
Hizbollah stumps up cash for Lebanese war victims |Top News |Reuters.com: "Hizbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group's support among Lebanon's Shi'ites and embarrassing the Beirut government."
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So what's new? Al Capone was one of the major dispensers of welfare, food, and other niceties to the poor in Chicago during his heyday. Others build political machines that regularly bought votes in cities all over the U. S. It seems that maybe Hizbollah is on its way to being a respectible dispenser of goodies in return for political power and the destruction of its enemies, chief among them America and Israel.
It takes a lot of money to buy elections in the U.S., even if you keep the law while doing it. But it can be managed by good lawyers and campaign advisors.
It is a lot of trouble if you are out of office, however. You must rely upon promises. Or, if ideas for promises are scarce, you can simply keep up a drum beat of criticism about those who are in office. The latter is risky, however, because voters might possibly remember and expect you to not make mistakes when you are in office.
It's a tough world, except for those who are drinking out of the hose.
==========
So what's new? Al Capone was one of the major dispensers of welfare, food, and other niceties to the poor in Chicago during his heyday. Others build political machines that regularly bought votes in cities all over the U. S. It seems that maybe Hizbollah is on its way to being a respectible dispenser of goodies in return for political power and the destruction of its enemies, chief among them America and Israel.
It takes a lot of money to buy elections in the U.S., even if you keep the law while doing it. But it can be managed by good lawyers and campaign advisors.
It is a lot of trouble if you are out of office, however. You must rely upon promises. Or, if ideas for promises are scarce, you can simply keep up a drum beat of criticism about those who are in office. The latter is risky, however, because voters might possibly remember and expect you to not make mistakes when you are in office.
It's a tough world, except for those who are drinking out of the hose.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Michael Ledeen on War on National Review Online: "The longer we wait, the larger the real war becomes. Iran has been at war with us for 27 years and we have yet to respond. As time passes, and our fecklessness is confirmed, the mullahs' confidence grows. Surely they must believe that their moment has come, that we will never respond, that they can bloody us and force us to retreat. That is the clear lesson of Lebanon, and they are undoubtedly raising the stakes for the next round. The Iranian missiles used against Israeli warships off the coast of Lebanon are now pouring into Somalia, and will be used against our ships in one of the most strategically sensitive areas of the world economy. The clandestine network rolled up in London surely extends to this country, and it is only a matter of time until they get lucky. Just a few weeks ago, the Germans fortunately discovered powerful bombs on their railroads. The French found similar weapons a couple of years ago. The Italians have arrested 40 people, are expelling many others, and have more than a thousand under surveillance."
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Ladeen has nailed it. What part of hate don't we understand? Just because someone says that his religion is not a religion of hatred doesn't mean it isn't.
Our real enemy is our humanistic, liberal unbelief. [See blog below]
"He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool." (Proverbs 10:18 AV)
"Burning lips and a wicked heart [are like] a potsherd covered with silver dross. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation." (Proverbs 26:23-26 AV)
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Ladeen has nailed it. What part of hate don't we understand? Just because someone says that his religion is not a religion of hatred doesn't mean it isn't.
Our real enemy is our humanistic, liberal unbelief. [See blog below]
"He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool." (Proverbs 10:18 AV)
"Burning lips and a wicked heart [are like] a potsherd covered with silver dross. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation." (Proverbs 26:23-26 AV)
Monday, August 14, 2006
Gunmen kidnap Fox News journalists in Gaza: witness�|�Top News�|�Reuters.com: "GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News television channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness said."
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How nice is this cease fire. Someone should tell the other side.
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How nice is this cease fire. Someone should tell the other side.
Hizbullah claims 'big victory' | Jerusalem Post: "Hizbullah distributed leaflets on Monday congratulating Lebanon on its 'big victory' and thanking citizens for their patience during the 34-day war with Israel. "
===============
Once again, the United Nations bails out the bad guys, arranging a cease fire so that Hizbullah, who were getting their butts whipped, would gain time to regroup, rearm, and fight again another day. The civilians are returning to south Lebanon so that Hizbullah can use them for human shields. The "Peace" forces from the UN will not have the guts to root out Hizbullah, and Israel is again betrayed by the chicken-hearted.
The United Nations not only has outlived its usefullness, but is a malignancy that needs to be excised. They are like Eli, "My sons do not so wickedly," but did nothing to stop the wickedness. The only thing worse than this United Nations would be a United Nations with the force and will to enforce its ungodly, corrupt, and foul agenda.
But take heart, child of God: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." (Revelation 18:2 AV)
Jesus Christ is risen, ascended, and sits at the right hand of God.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth; 11 And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11 AV)
His Kingdom is one of truth and righteousness, and His eternal throne cannot be touched by the corruption of men. Amen and Amen.
===============
Once again, the United Nations bails out the bad guys, arranging a cease fire so that Hizbullah, who were getting their butts whipped, would gain time to regroup, rearm, and fight again another day. The civilians are returning to south Lebanon so that Hizbullah can use them for human shields. The "Peace" forces from the UN will not have the guts to root out Hizbullah, and Israel is again betrayed by the chicken-hearted.
The United Nations not only has outlived its usefullness, but is a malignancy that needs to be excised. They are like Eli, "My sons do not so wickedly," but did nothing to stop the wickedness. The only thing worse than this United Nations would be a United Nations with the force and will to enforce its ungodly, corrupt, and foul agenda.
But take heart, child of God: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." (Revelation 18:2 AV)
Jesus Christ is risen, ascended, and sits at the right hand of God.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth; 11 And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11 AV)
His Kingdom is one of truth and righteousness, and His eternal throne cannot be touched by the corruption of men. Amen and Amen.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Death of Optimistic Liberalism.
It's completely dead, you know. The universal brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God has died a well deserved death.
The rise of pure evil has dealt a fatal blow to this monstrous dream and optimistic folly. The first blows came from the wars of the twentieth century--Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and others. But these were at least Christian economic heresies. There was an implicit suicidal impulse, of course, and these systems died because of this impulse, but hope remained among the true believers, for they thought that the failure was because of bad planning selfish capitalism in the West which brought about the ruin of these better systems, which were based upon the inherent goodness of men and altruism. They thought they could win and still bring in the utopian society where there would be economic freedom for all, no national boundaries, and brotherhood and fraternity. The ideal of the French Revolution would be achieved, Brotherhood, Equality, Liberty. Narrow religious prejudice, racial prejudice, and parochialism would be banished from the earth for the brotherhood of man.
The whole dream of the Enlightenment which spawned this whole utopian fantasy was based upon theological heresies involving the nature of God and the nature of man. The new world would not need any religion, but if one is necessary for the ignorant, the only one that could be tolerated would be the false worship of a god who was indifferent to evil and good and made no distinction between them; one who was not involved in the world, loving all men and who will not judge the world in righteousness, making no distinction between the sheep and the goats.
Because there is no such thing as evil, there must be no punishment for criminals but redemption and forgiveness. Children must not be punished, for this damages self-esteem, and they must all consider themselves the children of God, no matter what their deed are. All people are of equal worth, no matter how they choose to live their lives, and have the right to food, shelter, medical attention, and civil liberties. The ideas have been wearing pretty thin, and are on the point of being swept away, by the pure evil that now faces the world, which will ultimate bring disillusionment and the crashing down of the tottering institutions that are no longer in touch with reality.
When women are willing to take their babies onto airplanes and use them as a cover for suicidal bombings [see following article]; when people are willing to murder their own people along with the infidels, then we are dealing with a mindset that is strange to Western civilization that was nurtured in the womb of Christianity. Pure evil has arisen in the womb of fundamental Islam. The love of death, the glorification of suicide, the willingness to kill millions in undifferentiated slaughter is an inversion of the great truths of the teachings of Christ and the Christian heritage of the West. Christ never taught His people that the way to heaven was by murder and death and revenge, but by faith the forgiveness of sins, praying for your enemies, and doing good to all men. Christians have not always lived up to these ideals, but their failure is their own, and those who did not practice Christian ideals have been condemned by other Christians. The spirit of Resurrection and Life in Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, is totally the opposite of the spirit that drives Islam.
For a thousand years, the church was attacked by Islam, from the time that Muslim invaders came out of Arabia, conquering Palestine and Northern Africa, converting the populations by the sword, destroying churches, slaughtering Christians and priests and ministers and bringing all into bondage to the "obedience" of Islam. It was only by the heroics of Charles Martel and a great Christian Army at Tours, France, in 732, that Europe was spared, but for the next thousand years, Christianity had to endure constant pressure from the various Sultans and Satraps who called themselves the Army of God. Not only Christian Byzantium, but also Christian Russia, constantly were at war with Islam, who had taken by force lands belonging to these peoples.
The sad thing, is that in the name of the brotherhood of man, the schools in the West have not taught the true history of the wicked advance and tyranny of Islam and crushing of freedom in these lands. Instead they have focussed on the Crusades, which were a legitimate and proper response of the Christian West against the evil of Islam, in spite of the excesses and foolishness by which they were conducted.
Europe faced a most dreadful peril after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the way was open into the heartland of Europe for the Eastern Roman [Greek] Empire had been a buffer protecting Europe since the early Islamic conquests. Europe was torn by wars and petty quarrels and did not truly understand its peril which came to a head by the Ottoman advance in the 17th century. The high water mark of this advance was reached before the walls of Vienna in 1683, when a combined army of Polish, Austrian, and German troops under the command of Jan III Sobieski, head of Poland-Lithuania smash the "Army of God" and Islam retreated to Asia Minor. Islam never recovered from this defeat and the Ottoman Empire went into a long decline until it was partitioned after the World Wars of the twentieth century, during which it sided with the forces of evil, supporting Hitler and the Axis Powers. Islam oppresses its women, sends its children on suicide missions, is venomously anti-semitic, and know nothing of religious or civil liberties.
There is nothing in the teaching of Mohammed that even resembles Christ's teaching to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God's the things that are God's." In Islam the church is the state and the state is the church. The kingdom of Allah is an earthly kingdom and it must be obeyed without question.
There is no freedom of conscience and no idea of a personal God. In so many ways it is the antithesis of the Christian faith. Until the Protestant Reformation, Muhammad was considered the Anti-Christ until Luther transferred that honor to the Papacy. Luther, perhaps, was wrong on that one.
The present terrorism that Islam has launched against the West is nothing new and is not the fault of the West. The wickedness is in the hearts and minds of those who are in bondage to the devil, alienated from the life of God that is in Jesus Christ. This struggle will not be over in our lifetime or in the lifetime of our children. The attack will be upon the bodies of Christians, but the true enemy of Islam is the Lord Jesus. Because He is in heaven and beyond the reach of all Satanic power, His people will suffer the wrath of the enemies of Christ, but the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, for their war is not against flesh and blood but against the very God who created the heavens and the earth. They shall not prevail, but will fail just as they have throughout history. Hate and murder cannot overcome grace and life.
But liberalism is dead. Men are not all brothers. Although all men descend from Adam and are under the curse of sin and death, Jesus Christ by His grace and resurrections has brought life and immortality to light. Those who believe are the true sons of God. Those who do not believe are of their father the devil, no matter what their pretenses. As Jesus said to Anti-Christ in HIs day: "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44 AV)
There are liars and murderers today, who do the works of their father the devil. This is reality and those who refuse to accept it will perish with them.
"...what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15 AV)
There can be no neutrality or triangulation in this conflict.
The rise of pure evil has dealt a fatal blow to this monstrous dream and optimistic folly. The first blows came from the wars of the twentieth century--Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and others. But these were at least Christian economic heresies. There was an implicit suicidal impulse, of course, and these systems died because of this impulse, but hope remained among the true believers, for they thought that the failure was because of bad planning selfish capitalism in the West which brought about the ruin of these better systems, which were based upon the inherent goodness of men and altruism. They thought they could win and still bring in the utopian society where there would be economic freedom for all, no national boundaries, and brotherhood and fraternity. The ideal of the French Revolution would be achieved, Brotherhood, Equality, Liberty. Narrow religious prejudice, racial prejudice, and parochialism would be banished from the earth for the brotherhood of man.
The whole dream of the Enlightenment which spawned this whole utopian fantasy was based upon theological heresies involving the nature of God and the nature of man. The new world would not need any religion, but if one is necessary for the ignorant, the only one that could be tolerated would be the false worship of a god who was indifferent to evil and good and made no distinction between them; one who was not involved in the world, loving all men and who will not judge the world in righteousness, making no distinction between the sheep and the goats.
Because there is no such thing as evil, there must be no punishment for criminals but redemption and forgiveness. Children must not be punished, for this damages self-esteem, and they must all consider themselves the children of God, no matter what their deed are. All people are of equal worth, no matter how they choose to live their lives, and have the right to food, shelter, medical attention, and civil liberties. The ideas have been wearing pretty thin, and are on the point of being swept away, by the pure evil that now faces the world, which will ultimate bring disillusionment and the crashing down of the tottering institutions that are no longer in touch with reality.
When women are willing to take their babies onto airplanes and use them as a cover for suicidal bombings [see following article]; when people are willing to murder their own people along with the infidels, then we are dealing with a mindset that is strange to Western civilization that was nurtured in the womb of Christianity. Pure evil has arisen in the womb of fundamental Islam. The love of death, the glorification of suicide, the willingness to kill millions in undifferentiated slaughter is an inversion of the great truths of the teachings of Christ and the Christian heritage of the West. Christ never taught His people that the way to heaven was by murder and death and revenge, but by faith the forgiveness of sins, praying for your enemies, and doing good to all men. Christians have not always lived up to these ideals, but their failure is their own, and those who did not practice Christian ideals have been condemned by other Christians. The spirit of Resurrection and Life in Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, is totally the opposite of the spirit that drives Islam.
For a thousand years, the church was attacked by Islam, from the time that Muslim invaders came out of Arabia, conquering Palestine and Northern Africa, converting the populations by the sword, destroying churches, slaughtering Christians and priests and ministers and bringing all into bondage to the "obedience" of Islam. It was only by the heroics of Charles Martel and a great Christian Army at Tours, France, in 732, that Europe was spared, but for the next thousand years, Christianity had to endure constant pressure from the various Sultans and Satraps who called themselves the Army of God. Not only Christian Byzantium, but also Christian Russia, constantly were at war with Islam, who had taken by force lands belonging to these peoples.
The sad thing, is that in the name of the brotherhood of man, the schools in the West have not taught the true history of the wicked advance and tyranny of Islam and crushing of freedom in these lands. Instead they have focussed on the Crusades, which were a legitimate and proper response of the Christian West against the evil of Islam, in spite of the excesses and foolishness by which they were conducted.
Europe faced a most dreadful peril after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the way was open into the heartland of Europe for the Eastern Roman [Greek] Empire had been a buffer protecting Europe since the early Islamic conquests. Europe was torn by wars and petty quarrels and did not truly understand its peril which came to a head by the Ottoman advance in the 17th century. The high water mark of this advance was reached before the walls of Vienna in 1683, when a combined army of Polish, Austrian, and German troops under the command of Jan III Sobieski, head of Poland-Lithuania smash the "Army of God" and Islam retreated to Asia Minor. Islam never recovered from this defeat and the Ottoman Empire went into a long decline until it was partitioned after the World Wars of the twentieth century, during which it sided with the forces of evil, supporting Hitler and the Axis Powers. Islam oppresses its women, sends its children on suicide missions, is venomously anti-semitic, and know nothing of religious or civil liberties.
There is nothing in the teaching of Mohammed that even resembles Christ's teaching to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God's the things that are God's." In Islam the church is the state and the state is the church. The kingdom of Allah is an earthly kingdom and it must be obeyed without question.
There is no freedom of conscience and no idea of a personal God. In so many ways it is the antithesis of the Christian faith. Until the Protestant Reformation, Muhammad was considered the Anti-Christ until Luther transferred that honor to the Papacy. Luther, perhaps, was wrong on that one.
The present terrorism that Islam has launched against the West is nothing new and is not the fault of the West. The wickedness is in the hearts and minds of those who are in bondage to the devil, alienated from the life of God that is in Jesus Christ. This struggle will not be over in our lifetime or in the lifetime of our children. The attack will be upon the bodies of Christians, but the true enemy of Islam is the Lord Jesus. Because He is in heaven and beyond the reach of all Satanic power, His people will suffer the wrath of the enemies of Christ, but the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, for their war is not against flesh and blood but against the very God who created the heavens and the earth. They shall not prevail, but will fail just as they have throughout history. Hate and murder cannot overcome grace and life.
But liberalism is dead. Men are not all brothers. Although all men descend from Adam and are under the curse of sin and death, Jesus Christ by His grace and resurrections has brought life and immortality to light. Those who believe are the true sons of God. Those who do not believe are of their father the devil, no matter what their pretenses. As Jesus said to Anti-Christ in HIs day: "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44 AV)
There are liars and murderers today, who do the works of their father the devil. This is reality and those who refuse to accept it will perish with them.
"...what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15 AV)
There can be no neutrality or triangulation in this conflict.
The Sun Online - News: Hunt on for baby bombers: "HATE-filled mums willing to sacrifice themselves and their BABIES are being hunted in the war on terror."
==============
What kind of religion is this?
“Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” (Romans 1:31 AV)
These people are not at war with Israel or with the United States or with Christianity. They are at war with God and everything decent and respectible.
“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:18-19 AV)
==============
What kind of religion is this?
“Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” (Romans 1:31 AV)
These people are not at war with Israel or with the United States or with Christianity. They are at war with God and everything decent and respectible.
“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:18-19 AV)
You Have Got to Read This.
Jim Mader did me a favor a couple months ago by sending me a review of Daggers of the Mind by Dr. Gordon Warme. For other reviews click here.
The review sent by Jim to me is by Brian Bethune and is reproduced below:
The meaning of crazy
Dr. Gordon Warme argues there's no biological basis for mental illness
BRIAN BETHUNE
Dr. Gordon Warme is 73, a distinguished psychiatrist who taught at the University of Toronto for three decades, and the proud new owner of a pionus parrot from South America, a genus known for its subtle coloration and relatively quiet voice. He's also a heretic -- a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintains, in a polite and muted fashion, that there isn't a scrap of evidence that mental illnesses are caused by any biological dysfunction. Warme argues in Daggers of the Mind, a humane apologia for his profession, that science, and drug-obsessed psychiatrists, are charging down the wrong track, misleading patients and forgetting that "most, if not all, of the effects of psychiatry are magical."
"Psychiatrists committed to biological explanations," Warme says in an interview, "will show me brain scans and point out tiny abnormalities in a high percentage of the brains of schizophrenia patients -- but the same range of imperfections will show up in healthy people's brains. If I push them and say, 'Show me evidence,' they'll finally say 'You're right,' but they don't want to talk about it. If you want to get ahead in our profession you have to write papers that promote this nonsense. And that's morally wrong. To tell our patients -- without any evidence -- that they have abnormal brain chemistry is just as crazy as some guy over there shuffling, grunting and staring into space."
This is heresy indeed, in an era in which the biological roots of virtually every unhappiness is an article of faith among experts and lay people alike. The sharp point of Warme's spear is aimed straight at schizophrenia -- the mental disorder most adamantly portrayed as an organic disease by those who treat it, and by the families of those who suffer it. Any textbook, any website devoted to the condition, opens with a confident statement of fact -- Warme would call it superstition: schizophrenia is a brain disease. Only further in will the reader find what Warme points to as telltale signs of pseudo-science -- researchers "do not yet understand all of the factors," or "it appears likely that."
Warme argues that psychiatrists have forgotten that illness is a metaphor for what they are observing -- a very useful metaphor, Warme agrees. The disease concept "removes the urge to fear or hate, the judgmental element." But it adds a declaration of biological abnormality -- read biological inferiority, according to Warme, who considers the label an affront to the autonomy and human dignity of his patients.
What, then, does a skeptical and infinitely curious headshrinker, a mental health professional who tosses around words like "crazy" and "mad" in exactly the same way as regular folks do, make of schizophrenia and other mental disorders? It's worth bearing in mind that heresy, too, is only a metaphor, for Warme offers no counter-church with an absolute truth of its own. "Madness," he says slowly, "is another way of life, another way of being human. Schizophrenia is stable across time and place; its roots are archetypical -- every culture provides its members with a blueprint on how to be mad."
The suffering is real, and so is the help experts provide. But what psychiatrists actually do is not far removed from the rituals of a Mayan shaman waving a chicken over a troubled patient. Even drugs, which have a success rate barely distinguishable from that achieved by sugar pills, function entirely through the placebo effect, what Warme calls the enchantment or magic of his profession. "That's where I really get into trouble," he says, "when I say all psychotherapy is a placebo, when I tell my closest associates that for all the good we can do through wise talk and encouragement, we do not cure our patients, because they never had a disease."
What do his own patients think? "For 20 years I've seen people who came to me saying they were depressed. After 10 minutes they never say the word again, even if I see them for five years. It's clear to me that 'depression' is a magic entry phrase to one of the wise men." And unhappy people have even more practical reasons for claiming depression: "Does medicare pay for you to go to a doctor to say 'I'm not getting along with my husband'?" Warme asks sardonically.
Human suffering is eternal, Warme believes -- there will never be a biological, drug-based fine tuning that will end it. Warme has no objection to any relief that can be offered without serious side effects, from drugs to electroshock to sacrificed chickens. But as a rational humanist skeptic, what he really believes in is the aesthetic cure. "In films, books and operas, we discover human nature writ large, with complexities, blemishes and perversities included. Like psychiatrists, art invites you to wrestle with ghosts. I listen to my patients and they tell me the same archetypical stories I read in Homer." His job, Warme figures, is to convince patients to become more conscious creators of their own selves, "to look over the way they have lived their lives, to tell them that the story you have lived up to now -- you might benefit from a different story."
***
[The following comments by cwp]
It is too bad that Dr. Warme does not accept the story of Jesus. That is the greatest story of all and it has transformed lives for two thousand years--in fact, the story of Jesus when it was only a promise of the prophets of God transformed lives when it was believed: witness Abraham, Moses, Elijah and others.
Churches need to abandon the lies of false prophets and return to the Scriptures.
Bethune reviews books for McCleans, a Canadian publication. His viewpoint is liberal Christian, I suppose, for he accepts the idea that Jesus' mission was only to transform Israel, not the world [Paul messed up the message of Jesus], but his review of Warme is very welcome. For more click here.
The review sent by Jim to me is by Brian Bethune and is reproduced below:
The meaning of crazy
Dr. Gordon Warme argues there's no biological basis for mental illness
BRIAN BETHUNE
Dr. Gordon Warme is 73, a distinguished psychiatrist who taught at the University of Toronto for three decades, and the proud new owner of a pionus parrot from South America, a genus known for its subtle coloration and relatively quiet voice. He's also a heretic -- a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintains, in a polite and muted fashion, that there isn't a scrap of evidence that mental illnesses are caused by any biological dysfunction. Warme argues in Daggers of the Mind, a humane apologia for his profession, that science, and drug-obsessed psychiatrists, are charging down the wrong track, misleading patients and forgetting that "most, if not all, of the effects of psychiatry are magical."
"Psychiatrists committed to biological explanations," Warme says in an interview, "will show me brain scans and point out tiny abnormalities in a high percentage of the brains of schizophrenia patients -- but the same range of imperfections will show up in healthy people's brains. If I push them and say, 'Show me evidence,' they'll finally say 'You're right,' but they don't want to talk about it. If you want to get ahead in our profession you have to write papers that promote this nonsense. And that's morally wrong. To tell our patients -- without any evidence -- that they have abnormal brain chemistry is just as crazy as some guy over there shuffling, grunting and staring into space."
This is heresy indeed, in an era in which the biological roots of virtually every unhappiness is an article of faith among experts and lay people alike. The sharp point of Warme's spear is aimed straight at schizophrenia -- the mental disorder most adamantly portrayed as an organic disease by those who treat it, and by the families of those who suffer it. Any textbook, any website devoted to the condition, opens with a confident statement of fact -- Warme would call it superstition: schizophrenia is a brain disease. Only further in will the reader find what Warme points to as telltale signs of pseudo-science -- researchers "do not yet understand all of the factors," or "it appears likely that."
Warme argues that psychiatrists have forgotten that illness is a metaphor for what they are observing -- a very useful metaphor, Warme agrees. The disease concept "removes the urge to fear or hate, the judgmental element." But it adds a declaration of biological abnormality -- read biological inferiority, according to Warme, who considers the label an affront to the autonomy and human dignity of his patients.
What, then, does a skeptical and infinitely curious headshrinker, a mental health professional who tosses around words like "crazy" and "mad" in exactly the same way as regular folks do, make of schizophrenia and other mental disorders? It's worth bearing in mind that heresy, too, is only a metaphor, for Warme offers no counter-church with an absolute truth of its own. "Madness," he says slowly, "is another way of life, another way of being human. Schizophrenia is stable across time and place; its roots are archetypical -- every culture provides its members with a blueprint on how to be mad."
The suffering is real, and so is the help experts provide. But what psychiatrists actually do is not far removed from the rituals of a Mayan shaman waving a chicken over a troubled patient. Even drugs, which have a success rate barely distinguishable from that achieved by sugar pills, function entirely through the placebo effect, what Warme calls the enchantment or magic of his profession. "That's where I really get into trouble," he says, "when I say all psychotherapy is a placebo, when I tell my closest associates that for all the good we can do through wise talk and encouragement, we do not cure our patients, because they never had a disease."
What do his own patients think? "For 20 years I've seen people who came to me saying they were depressed. After 10 minutes they never say the word again, even if I see them for five years. It's clear to me that 'depression' is a magic entry phrase to one of the wise men." And unhappy people have even more practical reasons for claiming depression: "Does medicare pay for you to go to a doctor to say 'I'm not getting along with my husband'?" Warme asks sardonically.
Human suffering is eternal, Warme believes -- there will never be a biological, drug-based fine tuning that will end it. Warme has no objection to any relief that can be offered without serious side effects, from drugs to electroshock to sacrificed chickens. But as a rational humanist skeptic, what he really believes in is the aesthetic cure. "In films, books and operas, we discover human nature writ large, with complexities, blemishes and perversities included. Like psychiatrists, art invites you to wrestle with ghosts. I listen to my patients and they tell me the same archetypical stories I read in Homer." His job, Warme figures, is to convince patients to become more conscious creators of their own selves, "to look over the way they have lived their lives, to tell them that the story you have lived up to now -- you might benefit from a different story."
***
[The following comments by cwp]
It is too bad that Dr. Warme does not accept the story of Jesus. That is the greatest story of all and it has transformed lives for two thousand years--in fact, the story of Jesus when it was only a promise of the prophets of God transformed lives when it was believed: witness Abraham, Moses, Elijah and others.
Churches need to abandon the lies of false prophets and return to the Scriptures.
Bethune reviews books for McCleans, a Canadian publication. His viewpoint is liberal Christian, I suppose, for he accepts the idea that Jesus' mission was only to transform Israel, not the world [Paul messed up the message of Jesus], but his review of Warme is very welcome. For more click here.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Telegraph | News | University students at centre of terror plots: "The recruitment of Muslim students at British universities to take part in terrorist attacks is at the heart of the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets, it is feared.
A dossier of extremist Islamic literature has been uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph on the campus of a north London university, one of whose students has suspected links to the alleged terrorist attack."
==============
So the chickens are coming home to roost. The devils let loose in the sixties and seventies--devils of disloyalty, flag-burning, uncivil disobedience, liberty to break every one of God's commandments, scoffing at Western culture, relativism in morals and religion, and nations without the guts to enforce their own laws.
I wonder what is going on in American universities. But the highest good is freedom of speech. Isn't it? Are you certain?
A dossier of extremist Islamic literature has been uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph on the campus of a north London university, one of whose students has suspected links to the alleged terrorist attack."
==============
So the chickens are coming home to roost. The devils let loose in the sixties and seventies--devils of disloyalty, flag-burning, uncivil disobedience, liberty to break every one of God's commandments, scoffing at Western culture, relativism in morals and religion, and nations without the guts to enforce their own laws.
I wonder what is going on in American universities. But the highest good is freedom of speech. Isn't it? Are you certain?
Note. British Muslims don't like Blair's war on terror.
"Tony Blair has been warned by leading British Muslims that the Iraq war and the UK's failure to use its influence to end Israeli attacks on civilians are fuelling extremism at home. Their views are set out in a letter as a full-page advertisement in newspapers." The Independent
If Muslims in America and other places west are serious this is what they can do, I have a few suggestions. If they are afraid of their neighbors, if they are afraid of "profiling," [which we have been doing for years--it's called affirmative action], if they want to be good citizens of America or other lands, then they need to DO some things, as opposed to moaning and groaning about being mistreated.
1. Let them in no uncertain terms denounce all expressions of hatred for the West, for Christianity, for Israel, and other forms of racism. If their religion is an advanced and more perfect religion, then they should go and learn what it means, "love you enemies, pray for them that despitefully use you." If their faith cannot understand how God could die to give life to men, then their religion is far below the doctrine of Christ. Jesus did not send his disciples out to kill the enemies by blowing them up with bombs strapped to Christian children. Christians have not always lived up to the ideals of the Master, but they have never stooped to THAT. Even the Jewish faith is better than that. They cannot see how God could die, but they do renounce suicide and believe in enduring suffering, rejecting the coward's way out.
2. Let them turn evidence over about teachers in Mosques that teach that suicide is noble and such martyrdom is worthy. Let them take out full page ads in our newspapers denouncing those who teach such things. Put their money where their mouths are. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
3. Let them turn evidence over about those who are plotting suicide missions to the proper authorities and bear witness in trial against their own, if their own are suicidal monsters. If this is not a teaching of Islam, then let them be up front about it and treat suicide with the horror it deserves. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
4. Solomon said it: "All that hate me [Wisdom] love death." [Prov 8:36] There is nothing godly about loving death and promoting death, for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the insane man regained his senses, he no longer was content to live among the tombs. [Mark 5] Those who what to live among the dead should go back to where the killing fields are.
5. Is this the gratitude the West gets for allowing Muslims to live in America, work at good jobs, get a good education, build their mosques, and live in peace? If the Islamic Americans do not take the lead in combatting the suicidal maniacs of Islam in no uncertain terms, there will be a backlash in America and Western Europe that they will not believe. The West has learned the Christian lessons of tolerance, of patience, and long suffering, but there is a vigor and a hardiness that Islam does not want to unleash. We are the children of Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Sobieski. Beware the wrath of patient men.
6. Do something for your own people. Quit wallowing in self pity and do something to help the poor and suffering in the Islamic world [the cure is capitalism and freedom]. The oil money alone should have transformed the region except that Islam has allowed itself to be mislead by demagogues that have kept the people in bondage, fostered their self-hatred and hatred for each other, while lining their own pockets and stained their hands with the blood of their own, spending the wealth of the people to support murder and violence. It was not Israel or President Bush who filled the mass graves in Iraq. Islam must learn to face truth and not allow itself to comfort itself with lies. Those who think that they alone should be permitted to live do not understand or deserve the gift of life.
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:” (Isaiah 28:15 AV)
"Tony Blair has been warned by leading British Muslims that the Iraq war and the UK's failure to use its influence to end Israeli attacks on civilians are fuelling extremism at home. Their views are set out in a letter as a full-page advertisement in newspapers." The Independent
If Muslims in America and other places west are serious this is what they can do, I have a few suggestions. If they are afraid of their neighbors, if they are afraid of "profiling," [which we have been doing for years--it's called affirmative action], if they want to be good citizens of America or other lands, then they need to DO some things, as opposed to moaning and groaning about being mistreated.
1. Let them in no uncertain terms denounce all expressions of hatred for the West, for Christianity, for Israel, and other forms of racism. If their religion is an advanced and more perfect religion, then they should go and learn what it means, "love you enemies, pray for them that despitefully use you." If their faith cannot understand how God could die to give life to men, then their religion is far below the doctrine of Christ. Jesus did not send his disciples out to kill the enemies by blowing them up with bombs strapped to Christian children. Christians have not always lived up to the ideals of the Master, but they have never stooped to THAT. Even the Jewish faith is better than that. They cannot see how God could die, but they do renounce suicide and believe in enduring suffering, rejecting the coward's way out.
2. Let them turn evidence over about teachers in Mosques that teach that suicide is noble and such martyrdom is worthy. Let them take out full page ads in our newspapers denouncing those who teach such things. Put their money where their mouths are. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
3. Let them turn evidence over about those who are plotting suicide missions to the proper authorities and bear witness in trial against their own, if their own are suicidal monsters. If this is not a teaching of Islam, then let them be up front about it and treat suicide with the horror it deserves. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
4. Solomon said it: "All that hate me [Wisdom] love death." [Prov 8:36] There is nothing godly about loving death and promoting death, for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the insane man regained his senses, he no longer was content to live among the tombs. [Mark 5] Those who what to live among the dead should go back to where the killing fields are.
5. Is this the gratitude the West gets for allowing Muslims to live in America, work at good jobs, get a good education, build their mosques, and live in peace? If the Islamic Americans do not take the lead in combatting the suicidal maniacs of Islam in no uncertain terms, there will be a backlash in America and Western Europe that they will not believe. The West has learned the Christian lessons of tolerance, of patience, and long suffering, but there is a vigor and a hardiness that Islam does not want to unleash. We are the children of Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Sobieski. Beware the wrath of patient men.
6. Do something for your own people. Quit wallowing in self pity and do something to help the poor and suffering in the Islamic world [the cure is capitalism and freedom]. The oil money alone should have transformed the region except that Islam has allowed itself to be mislead by demagogues that have kept the people in bondage, fostered their self-hatred and hatred for each other, while lining their own pockets and stained their hands with the blood of their own, spending the wealth of the people to support murder and violence. It was not Israel or President Bush who filled the mass graves in Iraq. Islam must learn to face truth and not allow itself to comfort itself with lies. Those who think that they alone should be permitted to live do not understand or deserve the gift of life.
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:” (Isaiah 28:15 AV)
BREITBART.COM - Cheney Accused of Politicizing Terrorism: "Senate Democratic leaders on Friday accused Vice President Dick Cheney of playing politics with terrorism and contended that voters won't buy Republican arguments that the GOP is stronger on national security.
'They've run this play one too many times,' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a conference call with reporters. 'The American people simply do not recognize any validity in what they're saying.' "
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Well, I guess the Dem.'s would know about this. They have been doing this since 9-11, beginning with criticizing Bush for reading to school children on the day of the attack. It hasn't lightened up since. So I guess they would know.
Old political trick: accuse your opponents of what you are doing.
'They've run this play one too many times,' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a conference call with reporters. 'The American people simply do not recognize any validity in what they're saying.' "
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Well, I guess the Dem.'s would know about this. They have been doing this since 9-11, beginning with criticizing Bush for reading to school children on the day of the attack. It hasn't lightened up since. So I guess they would know.
Old political trick: accuse your opponents of what you are doing.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The work of the Spirit in the Old Testament and in the New.
I was cleaning out some old correspondence from my "sent" box, and found this letter that I sent to one of our church members after a question and some comments made in our weekly Bible study. It seemed good to put it on the blog.
Your question was very good and very timely. The Holy Spirit's work in the OT, though similar in the elect, was different in Israel than it is in the church. The Kingdom was external, administered by carnal ordinances and ceremonies, and the work of the Spirit was to keep it confined, to preserve the promise until the Seed should come. When Christ came, the Kingdom was revealed to be not of this world, but inward in the heart, administered by the inward work of the Spirit.
There is now no temple toward which we turn to pray, but we lift our hearts to heaven wherever we are at any time, and can meet in caves or among the rocks, gathered in the name of Jesus. We have no king and no Priest on earth, but One eternal in the heavens.
The Old Testament produced no Peters or Pauls who brought many into life by preaching the Gospel, but Davids and Joshuas and Samsons who slew thousands. David and Samson did what they did by the Holy Spirit, but by the Spirit who had a different object in view than the saving of the world. This is not a different Holy Spirit, but the same Spirit doing other things. The church is promised a holiness and sanctification in such passages as Exekiel 36:26 and Zech. 12;10 that was only dimly seen in the days of circumcision. David wielded a sword of a soldier, Paul and Peter the sword of the Spirit. Paul did not uses carnal weapons, but weapons that were mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is nothing in the OT that sets forth the life of the Christian as we find in Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." [Gal 2:20]
In a word, the difference is between promise and fulfillment. The saints in the OT lived in terms of promise, just as a man may be transformed and filled with joy and anticipation when he gets engaged to the girl of his dreams; but his joy and transformation is quite different from what he experiences when the day of marriage finally comes and he is finally married and takes her into his home. But in the church there is even a greater fulfillment or marriage yet to come, for we shall see Him face to face and know as we are known.
We now see much more clearly than Israel saw, but there is still more to come in the eternal glory. That glory we will share with the elect of Israel and the reprobate of the church will suffer the wrath of God just as the reprobate of Israel did.
There is both continuity and discontinuity between the church in the OT and the church in the new. Continuity because both are the people of God and the Spirit was given to them and the elect were truly saved and regenerated by that Spirit. Discontinuity because the church is not Israel after the flesh, born of a fleshly seed, but the Israel of God who by the Spirit are made and administered a kingdom not of this world, a kingdom whose conversation is in Heaven, whose king and priest is in Heaven, and people not of the world whose love and devotion are not to the Jerusalem which is below, but to the Jerusalem which is above, where our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and to the church where its citizens gather to offer spiritual worship.
If the church overstresses the continuity, we get institutions like Rome who think they are the kingdom of God and they gather in worldly places to offer carnal worship of ceremonies according to the sensual flesh; if the church overstresses the discontinuity, we get dispensationalism and pentecostalism and lawlessness and radical individualism. We Reformed usually get cussed at from both sides! At least when we get it right.
Your question was very good and your comments were right on the money. A great deal of consequence to our lives and our churches depends on how we answer that question. The Spirit does not come by lawkeeping, but by the Gospel, according to Galatians 3:1ff. The Holy Spirit in the OT knocked down the walls of Jericho; in the NT he breaks down other kinds of walls; those that hold us in spiritual bondage and are far stronger than those made of stones and mortar. If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Your question was very good and very timely. The Holy Spirit's work in the OT, though similar in the elect, was different in Israel than it is in the church. The Kingdom was external, administered by carnal ordinances and ceremonies, and the work of the Spirit was to keep it confined, to preserve the promise until the Seed should come. When Christ came, the Kingdom was revealed to be not of this world, but inward in the heart, administered by the inward work of the Spirit.
There is now no temple toward which we turn to pray, but we lift our hearts to heaven wherever we are at any time, and can meet in caves or among the rocks, gathered in the name of Jesus. We have no king and no Priest on earth, but One eternal in the heavens.
The Old Testament produced no Peters or Pauls who brought many into life by preaching the Gospel, but Davids and Joshuas and Samsons who slew thousands. David and Samson did what they did by the Holy Spirit, but by the Spirit who had a different object in view than the saving of the world. This is not a different Holy Spirit, but the same Spirit doing other things. The church is promised a holiness and sanctification in such passages as Exekiel 36:26 and Zech. 12;10 that was only dimly seen in the days of circumcision. David wielded a sword of a soldier, Paul and Peter the sword of the Spirit. Paul did not uses carnal weapons, but weapons that were mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is nothing in the OT that sets forth the life of the Christian as we find in Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." [Gal 2:20]
In a word, the difference is between promise and fulfillment. The saints in the OT lived in terms of promise, just as a man may be transformed and filled with joy and anticipation when he gets engaged to the girl of his dreams; but his joy and transformation is quite different from what he experiences when the day of marriage finally comes and he is finally married and takes her into his home. But in the church there is even a greater fulfillment or marriage yet to come, for we shall see Him face to face and know as we are known.
We now see much more clearly than Israel saw, but there is still more to come in the eternal glory. That glory we will share with the elect of Israel and the reprobate of the church will suffer the wrath of God just as the reprobate of Israel did.
There is both continuity and discontinuity between the church in the OT and the church in the new. Continuity because both are the people of God and the Spirit was given to them and the elect were truly saved and regenerated by that Spirit. Discontinuity because the church is not Israel after the flesh, born of a fleshly seed, but the Israel of God who by the Spirit are made and administered a kingdom not of this world, a kingdom whose conversation is in Heaven, whose king and priest is in Heaven, and people not of the world whose love and devotion are not to the Jerusalem which is below, but to the Jerusalem which is above, where our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and to the church where its citizens gather to offer spiritual worship.
If the church overstresses the continuity, we get institutions like Rome who think they are the kingdom of God and they gather in worldly places to offer carnal worship of ceremonies according to the sensual flesh; if the church overstresses the discontinuity, we get dispensationalism and pentecostalism and lawlessness and radical individualism. We Reformed usually get cussed at from both sides! At least when we get it right.
Your question was very good and your comments were right on the money. A great deal of consequence to our lives and our churches depends on how we answer that question. The Spirit does not come by lawkeeping, but by the Gospel, according to Galatians 3:1ff. The Holy Spirit in the OT knocked down the walls of Jericho; in the NT he breaks down other kinds of walls; those that hold us in spiritual bondage and are far stronger than those made of stones and mortar. If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Local News: "For example, Hurricane Hugo's strength was underestimated based on images taken from an angle, and similar errors probably occurred frequently in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was less satellite coverage, the authors write.
While there may be trends in storm intensity linked to sea temperatures, which have increased, the 'trends are very likely to be much smaller (or even negligible) than those found in the recent studies,' the paper says."
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Bad science is bad science, especially when it is used to support a political agenda like Algore's.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sun kills 60,000 a year, WHO says. Reuters.com: "As many as 60,000 people a year die from too much sun, mostly from malignant skin cancer, the World Health Organization reported on Wednesday."
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I call on all our legislators, judges, and whoever, to put all the resources of the government into research to provide the world with a cleaner source of light and heat. The same energy that has been put into the war against big tobacco should be put into the war against Big Sun.
I am contemplating a lawsuit against all those advertizers who promote outside sports, including big baseball, big football, big skiing, big hiking, big sunbathing, big swimming, and Mr. Big whereever he is because of the lifelong exposure I have had to the sun. Nobody gave me sufficient warning of the terrible hazzard I was exposed to from my earliest youth. The question is this: who knew, when did they know, and how much did they know?
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I call on all our legislators, judges, and whoever, to put all the resources of the government into research to provide the world with a cleaner source of light and heat. The same energy that has been put into the war against big tobacco should be put into the war against Big Sun.
I am contemplating a lawsuit against all those advertizers who promote outside sports, including big baseball, big football, big skiing, big hiking, big sunbathing, big swimming, and Mr. Big whereever he is because of the lifelong exposure I have had to the sun. Nobody gave me sufficient warning of the terrible hazzard I was exposed to from my earliest youth. The question is this: who knew, when did they know, and how much did they know?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Excite News - U.S., Others Fail to Agree on Cease-Fire: "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the solution to the Mideast crisis should involve Iran and Syria. He also called for the formation of a multinational force to help Lebanon assert its authority and implement U.N. resolutions that would disarm Hezbollah."
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Is this guy an anti-semite, or what? Where has he been the last umpteen years, when Hezbollah was digging fortifications and tunnels and stockpiling rockets in Lebanon. He only finds out that something must be done when Israel finds out they must secure themselves? Kofi is the lead boil on the infection called the United Nations.
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Is this guy an anti-semite, or what? Where has he been the last umpteen years, when Hezbollah was digging fortifications and tunnels and stockpiling rockets in Lebanon. He only finds out that something must be done when Israel finds out they must secure themselves? Kofi is the lead boil on the infection called the United Nations.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
FOXNews.com - 29 Deaths Probed as California Heat Wave Continues; Rolling Blackouts Feared - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As the death toll from a scorching heat wave rose and record demand tested the state's power supply, energy managers feared they may have to trigger rolling blackouts. "
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Of course it is George Bush's fault. The dumbest man who was ever president continues to fool everyone and is now getting revenge on California for giving their electoral votes to John Kerry.
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Of course it is George Bush's fault. The dumbest man who was ever president continues to fool everyone and is now getting revenge on California for giving their electoral votes to John Kerry.
Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush | World Wide Weird | The Australian: "'I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent,' said Ms Williams, 64.
'Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.' Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered. "
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Is this the western liberal equivilent of the Taliban and Hamas and Hezbollah? They are teaching children in Islamic lands the same message: Kill George Bush. Why do we have to put up with these people?
'Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.' Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered. "
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Is this the western liberal equivilent of the Taliban and Hamas and Hezbollah? They are teaching children in Islamic lands the same message: Kill George Bush. Why do we have to put up with these people?
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Excite News: "Civilians have taken the brunt of the war that has cost 369 lives in Lebanon and killed 37 Israelis."
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How can this be? Civilians dying in war? Civilians are innocent in war. They do not give aid and help to the soldiers, do they? Do they elect the officials and pay the taxes that support the war machines? Certainly the civilians of Lebanon have nothing to do with the Hezbollah, do they? Are there rockets hidden in their homes? Surely it would not be expected that if weapons are hidden in homes and mosques they are off limits to attack, would it?
Of course, the death of civilians makes good propaganda. What is evil, though, is the American and world press serving as propaganda agents.
In World War I, military supplies were loaded into the lower decks of the Lusitania for use of the Allies against Germany. German intelligence discovered the cargo of the passenger ship, and sent uboats to sink it. Of course, it was wonderful propaganda against Germany, and America came into the war because of it. It took many years before the cargo of the ship became public. Some things never change, but war is war, and it is waged on many levels. Those who publish the propaganda of the enemy are as much traitors as any citizen who would take up arms against their own nation, and they should be punished under the Constitution of the United States which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
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How can this be? Civilians dying in war? Civilians are innocent in war. They do not give aid and help to the soldiers, do they? Do they elect the officials and pay the taxes that support the war machines? Certainly the civilians of Lebanon have nothing to do with the Hezbollah, do they? Are there rockets hidden in their homes? Surely it would not be expected that if weapons are hidden in homes and mosques they are off limits to attack, would it?
Of course, the death of civilians makes good propaganda. What is evil, though, is the American and world press serving as propaganda agents.
In World War I, military supplies were loaded into the lower decks of the Lusitania for use of the Allies against Germany. German intelligence discovered the cargo of the passenger ship, and sent uboats to sink it. Of course, it was wonderful propaganda against Germany, and America came into the war because of it. It took many years before the cargo of the ship became public. Some things never change, but war is war, and it is waged on many levels. Those who publish the propaganda of the enemy are as much traitors as any citizen who would take up arms against their own nation, and they should be punished under the Constitution of the United States which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
Saturday, July 22, 2006
What's Hard about It?
Denis Boyles in National Review Online asks a good question: "Why doesn't Hezbollah give back the two soldiers they kidnapped? Hm.
I guess that radical Islamists are just stupid. Of course, a non-P.C. guy like me might also ask, "If they weren't really stupid, would they be radical Islamists?
Playground lament: "It all started when he hit me back."
I guess that radical Islamists are just stupid. Of course, a non-P.C. guy like me might also ask, "If they weren't really stupid, would they be radical Islamists?
Playground lament: "It all started when he hit me back."
What is the difference?
Intolerance---the unforgivable sin of the twentieth century. Christian orthodoxy has always taught that those who do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God will not go to heaven. Islamic orthodoxy teaches that the Christian infidels will not go to heaven. Although there may be different views about the nature of reward and punishment in the next life, the conviction of the two major religions of the world are similar in this respect: it is good to believe our religion and it is very bad not to believe in our religion.
They teach the same thing, right? Wrong. There is a superficial similarity only if you do not take the time to understand distinctions. True definitions are always in the distinctions, not the similarities. Men and chickens are similar in that they are both bipeds. The definition is in the difference.
Faith to Islam is submission to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Faith to Christianity is submission to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Similar, right? Again, wrong. Where in Islam is it taught to "Render unto the Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"? To Islam Caesar's things are the things of God, and Caesar must use all in his power to subject everything to the teachings of Mohammed.
It is true that there have been at times popular teachings within Christianity to bring all government and rule under the laws of Christ and a theocratic system. The horrors of this thinking are equal to the horrors of Islam. The difference is this: Those who taught such things to the Church do not derive their teachings from Christ, who said that His kingdom is not of this world. They got their teachings from Moses and misapplied them to the church, forgetting that Moses did not give us the bread from heaven. Those who only followed Moses ate the bread in the wilderness and died.
This preacher is not a pacifist. Government has the authority to go to war to defend the liberties of its people. Those who threaten the liberty of a free people should feel the wrath of those free people, as God gives them opportunity. But I am strongly opposed to any war for the spread of the Christian faith. True faith does not come from any kind of coercion, but only by the free work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men by the Gospel.
I am for war against lawless regimes would impose their idolatrous rule on free people. A person that hates Christianity so much that they cannot see this difference is a dangerous person. In times of religious uncertainty people have a way of returning to the original teachings of the founder of their faith. We have seen that happen in the last fifty or sixty years as Islamic people all over the world have sought to return to the teachings of Mohammed. That is not encouraging. The only kind of Muslim that the West can live with is the modernistic, liberal Muslim who allegorizes the teachings of Mohammed in terms of the Western enlightenment. In other words, non-dogmatic Muslims who do not take the teachings of the Koran too seriously or the teachings of Mohammed seriously.
It would be a great thing if Western Christianity would return to the teachings of Christ, our Founder. The two great advantages that Chistianity has over all the religions of the world are the character and teaching of our Founder, the Lord Jesus. "Love your enemies"; "Do good to those that despitefully use you"; "Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith": "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"; "Forgive your enemies"; "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask;" "It is not that which enters into the man that defiles the man, but that which comes forth from the man;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...."; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly”; "The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Read the New Testament.
They teach the same thing, right? Wrong. There is a superficial similarity only if you do not take the time to understand distinctions. True definitions are always in the distinctions, not the similarities. Men and chickens are similar in that they are both bipeds. The definition is in the difference.
Faith to Islam is submission to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Faith to Christianity is submission to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Similar, right? Again, wrong. Where in Islam is it taught to "Render unto the Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"? To Islam Caesar's things are the things of God, and Caesar must use all in his power to subject everything to the teachings of Mohammed.
It is true that there have been at times popular teachings within Christianity to bring all government and rule under the laws of Christ and a theocratic system. The horrors of this thinking are equal to the horrors of Islam. The difference is this: Those who taught such things to the Church do not derive their teachings from Christ, who said that His kingdom is not of this world. They got their teachings from Moses and misapplied them to the church, forgetting that Moses did not give us the bread from heaven. Those who only followed Moses ate the bread in the wilderness and died.
This preacher is not a pacifist. Government has the authority to go to war to defend the liberties of its people. Those who threaten the liberty of a free people should feel the wrath of those free people, as God gives them opportunity. But I am strongly opposed to any war for the spread of the Christian faith. True faith does not come from any kind of coercion, but only by the free work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men by the Gospel.
I am for war against lawless regimes would impose their idolatrous rule on free people. A person that hates Christianity so much that they cannot see this difference is a dangerous person. In times of religious uncertainty people have a way of returning to the original teachings of the founder of their faith. We have seen that happen in the last fifty or sixty years as Islamic people all over the world have sought to return to the teachings of Mohammed. That is not encouraging. The only kind of Muslim that the West can live with is the modernistic, liberal Muslim who allegorizes the teachings of Mohammed in terms of the Western enlightenment. In other words, non-dogmatic Muslims who do not take the teachings of the Koran too seriously or the teachings of Mohammed seriously.
It would be a great thing if Western Christianity would return to the teachings of Christ, our Founder. The two great advantages that Chistianity has over all the religions of the world are the character and teaching of our Founder, the Lord Jesus. "Love your enemies"; "Do good to those that despitefully use you"; "Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith": "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"; "Forgive your enemies"; "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask;" "It is not that which enters into the man that defiles the man, but that which comes forth from the man;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...."; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly”; "The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Read the New Testament.
BREITBART.COM - Judge Orders Teen to Cancer TreatmentA judge ruled Friday that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital by Tuesday and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family's attorney said.
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Hope the kid doesn't have Terri Schaivo's doctor.
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Hope the kid doesn't have Terri Schaivo's doctor.
Friday, July 21, 2006
What a Great Experience
My wife and I just returned from the Black Hills this week, where I was one of the speakers at the Heidelberg Youth Camp. This camp is held every year for junior and senior high schools students from the North and South Classes of the Reformed Church in the U.S.
At the combined worship service on Wednesday night I saw over one hundred youth sit quietly for well over an hour. They sang hymns [yes, old hymns and psalms] with gusto, prayed the Lord's Prayer, recited the Apostles' Creed and took notes on a sermon by Rev. Dan Rogers on a portion of John 6. No, there were no praise ditties or dramas or silly skits or rock 'n roll bands to jazz them up Don't say it cannot be done, because I just saw it.
Of course, these young people come from good homes; of course they are taught the faith at home; of course they attend good churches that love the Bible and teach that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Of course they are young people whose parents and churches and pastors and leaders have invested a lot of time and effort to teach a serious and sober approach to the Christian faith.
Don't say it cannot be done. Did I say that all ready?
At the combined worship service on Wednesday night I saw over one hundred youth sit quietly for well over an hour. They sang hymns [yes, old hymns and psalms] with gusto, prayed the Lord's Prayer, recited the Apostles' Creed and took notes on a sermon by Rev. Dan Rogers on a portion of John 6. No, there were no praise ditties or dramas or silly skits or rock 'n roll bands to jazz them up Don't say it cannot be done, because I just saw it.
Of course, these young people come from good homes; of course they are taught the faith at home; of course they attend good churches that love the Bible and teach that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Of course they are young people whose parents and churches and pastors and leaders have invested a lot of time and effort to teach a serious and sober approach to the Christian faith.
Don't say it cannot be done. Did I say that all ready?
Monday, July 17, 2006
AMA: Docs Shouldn't Help In Executions: "American Medical Association President Dr. William G. Plested said Monday that medical professionals should not participate in executions of prisoners."
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Let's get this straight, so we can understand the ethics involved. A doctor cannot participate in the execution of rapists, murderers, and other human malefactors, but is good and compassionate if he slays a baby in the womb. And Dr. Plested is worried about "public confidence in the medical profession?"
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Let's get this straight, so we can understand the ethics involved. A doctor cannot participate in the execution of rapists, murderers, and other human malefactors, but is good and compassionate if he slays a baby in the womb. And Dr. Plested is worried about "public confidence in the medical profession?"
FV at Theological Figs
I have moved the blogs about ideas related to reality and the Federal Vision to Theological Figs. Click here to go to Theological Figs
It's Our War: "What's happening in the Middle East, then, isn't just another chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. You might even say this is part of the Islamist war on the West--but is India part of the West? Better to say that what's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States."
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Kristol has it right. It is religion on their part, but it is not religion on our part, and it shouldn't be. It would be a mistake for the U.S. to consider this a "holy war," to gain some unbiblical recognition for today's Israel as a people favored of God. They are not, for they are not blessed anymore than any other natiion is blessed who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Mediator.
The United States and India are allies in the war against Islamists, although India is far from being any sort of Christian nation, even a backslidden one. The Islamists are using religion to try to rally Islam against the U. S., but we must not let them win that propaganda war; the war will be much harder to win if it is fought on the ground of religion rather than polity. Japan, China, and India are not part of the [formerly] Christian West, but they are natural allies against Islamists.
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Kristol has it right. It is religion on their part, but it is not religion on our part, and it shouldn't be. It would be a mistake for the U.S. to consider this a "holy war," to gain some unbiblical recognition for today's Israel as a people favored of God. They are not, for they are not blessed anymore than any other natiion is blessed who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Mediator.
The United States and India are allies in the war against Islamists, although India is far from being any sort of Christian nation, even a backslidden one. The Islamists are using religion to try to rally Islam against the U. S., but we must not let them win that propaganda war; the war will be much harder to win if it is fought on the ground of religion rather than polity. Japan, China, and India are not part of the [formerly] Christian West, but they are natural allies against Islamists.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
USATODAY.com - Couric's ready to 'start doing the job': "Viewers told her they want more perspective and 'a better understanding of the ramifications of the news,' she [Couric] says. 'I got the distinct sense they want us to go a little bit deeper' with historical background and 'how is this relevant to their lives. (And) we heard from many people the news is just too depressing. Obviously, we can't sugar-coat what's going on, but there are cases where we can be more solution-oriented.' "
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Hey! You have to have some solutions, first, you know. You do know, don't you, Katie?
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Hey! You have to have some solutions, first, you know. You do know, don't you, Katie?
It's a No-Brainer
Israel is our only truly reliable friend in the region. They have the military means and the will to defend themselves. Of course President Bush is right in standing behind Israel in the present crisis. The nations around Israel are slow learners, and have suffered immense losses in every generation siince WW II. It seems that it is time again for them to learn another lesson. If, by chance, Israel should take out Iran's nuclear potential...
The sky is falling!
The sky is falling!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Egypt primes children for jihad - News from Israel, Ynetnews: "An Egyptian Islamic cleric working for the state ministry of religious endowment has used a children's television program to encourage young children to strive for holy war.
During program, made available by the Arabic translation service MEMRI , the cleric told a story about Muslim children in history keen to 'sacrifice' themselves and kill 'infidels' for the cause of Islam. "
---------------------
Where is the outrage in Islam? If an American minister was recorded praising three years old girls for calling Jews dogs and pigs, he would create a storm of outrage in Christian communities everywhere. Where are the so-called famous Islam streets to protest this outrage.
I know the answer. There is no outrage, for such things are the natural ourgrowth of this "religion of peace."
But Islamists do count as a creditable challenge to Christianity. A resort to force in religious matters is a sign that you have lost the intellectual and spiritual battle. A threat to democracy? Yes, but Christianity is not the same as democratic liberalism.
Might the conditions be coming into existence for the world's last great religious war? There will be no middle ground in that war.
Emerson said that truth is beautiful. So also, are lies.
During program, made available by the Arabic translation service MEMRI , the cleric told a story about Muslim children in history keen to 'sacrifice' themselves and kill 'infidels' for the cause of Islam. "
---------------------
Where is the outrage in Islam? If an American minister was recorded praising three years old girls for calling Jews dogs and pigs, he would create a storm of outrage in Christian communities everywhere. Where are the so-called famous Islam streets to protest this outrage.
I know the answer. There is no outrage, for such things are the natural ourgrowth of this "religion of peace."
But Islamists do count as a creditable challenge to Christianity. A resort to force in religious matters is a sign that you have lost the intellectual and spiritual battle. A threat to democracy? Yes, but Christianity is not the same as democratic liberalism.
Might the conditions be coming into existence for the world's last great religious war? There will be no middle ground in that war.
Emerson said that truth is beautiful. So also, are lies.
Chicken lays mystery Allah egg�|�Reuters.com: "A chicken in a Kazakh village has laid an egg with the word 'Allah' inscribed on its shell, state media reported Thursday.
'Our mosque confirmed that it says 'Allah' in Arabic,' Bites Amantayeva, a farmer from the village of Stepnoi in eastern Kazakhstan, told state news agency Kazinform."
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How can you argue with this? It certainly trumps the face of Jesus on a pizza or such. It's true to the Islamic prohibition of any pictures.
I don't know what the message means, but it must mean something. Perhaps it means that Islam has laid an egg, but who knows?
'Our mosque confirmed that it says 'Allah' in Arabic,' Bites Amantayeva, a farmer from the village of Stepnoi in eastern Kazakhstan, told state news agency Kazinform."
===================
How can you argue with this? It certainly trumps the face of Jesus on a pizza or such. It's true to the Islamic prohibition of any pictures.
I don't know what the message means, but it must mean something. Perhaps it means that Islam has laid an egg, but who knows?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Moved FV to Theological Figs
I have moved the blogs about ideas related to reality and the Federal Vision to Theological Figs. Click here to go to Theological Figs
CHARGE: BUSH STOLE MEXICAN ELECTION: "Charge: Bush Stole Mexican Election
Is it Florida redux?
It's not clear whether the Mexican election, now certifying Felipe Calderon of the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN), will turn into a crisis like America witnessed in Florida after the 2000 election.
Already the two elections have one thing in common: left-wingers are claiming George Bush stole the election.
And yes, that includes the Mexican election."
-----------------
Isn't it amazing that some dumb bunny like George W. Bush could successfully steal three elections?
But then, if you can believe that Jesus Christ never lived and that Christianity was invented as a hoax only now revealed by the Da Vinci Code, I guess you can believe most anything, including the incredible intelligence and craftiness of a dolt like Dubya.
Is it Florida redux?
It's not clear whether the Mexican election, now certifying Felipe Calderon of the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN), will turn into a crisis like America witnessed in Florida after the 2000 election.
Already the two elections have one thing in common: left-wingers are claiming George Bush stole the election.
And yes, that includes the Mexican election."
-----------------
Isn't it amazing that some dumb bunny like George W. Bush could successfully steal three elections?
But then, if you can believe that Jesus Christ never lived and that Christianity was invented as a hoax only now revealed by the Da Vinci Code, I guess you can believe most anything, including the incredible intelligence and craftiness of a dolt like Dubya.
It's the Message, Stupid!
NR / Digital Article: "Biologists commonly blur the information into the slippery synecdoche of DNA, a material molecule, and imply that life is biochemistry rather than information processing. But even here, the deoxyribonucleic acid that bears the word is not itself the word. Like a sheet of paper or a computer memory chip, DNA bears messages but its chemistry is irrelevant to its content. The alphabet's nucleotide 'bases' form 'words' without help from their bonds with the helical sugar-phosphate backbone that frames them. The genetic words are no more dictated by the chemistry of their frame than the words in Scrabble are determined by the chemistry of their wooden racks or by the force of gravity that holds them.
This reality expresses a key insight of Francis Crick, the Nobel laureate co-author of the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. Crick expounded and enshrined what he called the 'Central Dogma' of molecular biology. The Central Dogma shows that influence can flow from the arrangement of the nucleotides on the DNA molecule to the arrangement of amino acids in proteins, but not from proteins to DNA. Like a sheet of paper or a series of magnetic points on a computer's hard disk or the electrical domains in a random-access memory -- or indeed all the undulations of the electromagnetic spectrum that bear information through air or wires in telecommunications -- DNA is a neutral carrier of information, independent of its chemistry and physics. By asserting that the DNA message precedes and regulates the form of the proteins, and that proteins cannot specify a DNA program, Crick's Central Dogma unintentionally recapitulates St. John's assertion of the primacy of the word over the flesh. "
===============
This is a dynamite article in the current issue of National Review [July 17, 2006]by George Gilder, editor-in-chief of Gilder Technology Report and co-founder of the Discovery Institute. His most recent book, The Silicon Eye, was a finalist for the Royal Society's Aventis Prize for science.
You should pick one up just to read this article. His major thesis: the material that carries the message is not the message itself. DNA is not the messaage: it is the vehicle for carrying the message. The copper wire is not telephone call; we can now make the call without the copper wire; but the radio waves and the sattelite are not the message, either. A man's body is mot the message of the man. The body may be an instrument of righteousness, or unrighteousness, as Paul said so well in Romans 6, either to life unto life, or death unto death.
The material in a computer is not the message in the computer. The message in the computer is the one that is programmed into the computer's ROM or RAM. The message can be saved by a laser on a cd, on magnetic disk or tape or simply reside in the RAM or ROM. The message can be sent over a wire, over the air, or over a fiberoptic line. It can be converted to audio and played to be heard by the ear, or converted to blips of light and dark and be read on a computer screen as you are doing now.
The material is neutral and can be used either for good or evil; to transmit the Good News of the Bible or outrageous pronography or racism. The medium is not the message, but the means of conveying the message. In this way the word can become flesh, but even then, the flesh is not the message. Many men have been crucified; the crucifixion of Christ has very special meaning because of the message, not because of the fact of the crucifixion.
This is to say that there is meaning in the world, but the meaning is not in the substance, but in the idea that the substance carries. Those who look for meaning in the substance itself are as crazy as a person who would try to get the meaning from his computer by chewing on the keyboard. A computer that is not turned on and operated by a thinking person is useless for information, but might serve as a door stop. So is a man who disconnected from His Creator. He is useless for information, but God might fine other uses for him.
This reality expresses a key insight of Francis Crick, the Nobel laureate co-author of the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. Crick expounded and enshrined what he called the 'Central Dogma' of molecular biology. The Central Dogma shows that influence can flow from the arrangement of the nucleotides on the DNA molecule to the arrangement of amino acids in proteins, but not from proteins to DNA. Like a sheet of paper or a series of magnetic points on a computer's hard disk or the electrical domains in a random-access memory -- or indeed all the undulations of the electromagnetic spectrum that bear information through air or wires in telecommunications -- DNA is a neutral carrier of information, independent of its chemistry and physics. By asserting that the DNA message precedes and regulates the form of the proteins, and that proteins cannot specify a DNA program, Crick's Central Dogma unintentionally recapitulates St. John's assertion of the primacy of the word over the flesh. "
===============
This is a dynamite article in the current issue of National Review [July 17, 2006]by George Gilder, editor-in-chief of Gilder Technology Report and co-founder of the Discovery Institute. His most recent book, The Silicon Eye, was a finalist for the Royal Society's Aventis Prize for science.
You should pick one up just to read this article. His major thesis: the material that carries the message is not the message itself. DNA is not the messaage: it is the vehicle for carrying the message. The copper wire is not telephone call; we can now make the call without the copper wire; but the radio waves and the sattelite are not the message, either. A man's body is mot the message of the man. The body may be an instrument of righteousness, or unrighteousness, as Paul said so well in Romans 6, either to life unto life, or death unto death.
The material in a computer is not the message in the computer. The message in the computer is the one that is programmed into the computer's ROM or RAM. The message can be saved by a laser on a cd, on magnetic disk or tape or simply reside in the RAM or ROM. The message can be sent over a wire, over the air, or over a fiberoptic line. It can be converted to audio and played to be heard by the ear, or converted to blips of light and dark and be read on a computer screen as you are doing now.
The material is neutral and can be used either for good or evil; to transmit the Good News of the Bible or outrageous pronography or racism. The medium is not the message, but the means of conveying the message. In this way the word can become flesh, but even then, the flesh is not the message. Many men have been crucified; the crucifixion of Christ has very special meaning because of the message, not because of the fact of the crucifixion.
This is to say that there is meaning in the world, but the meaning is not in the substance, but in the idea that the substance carries. Those who look for meaning in the substance itself are as crazy as a person who would try to get the meaning from his computer by chewing on the keyboard. A computer that is not turned on and operated by a thinking person is useless for information, but might serve as a door stop. So is a man who disconnected from His Creator. He is useless for information, but God might fine other uses for him.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Worked well for Gore, Didn't it?
Excite News - Mexico's Calderon Has Insurmountable Lead: "Lopez Obrador stoked fears that Mexico was returning to its fraudulent past, in which the former ruling party rigged elections in its favor for decades.
'They know very well that they don't have anything to celebrate,' he said of Calderon's party. 'It is all choreographed. There is no joy. They know very well what they did.'"
------------
Must have Algore for his campaigned manager. He should take heed: didn't work well for algore.
'They know very well that they don't have anything to celebrate,' he said of Calderon's party. 'It is all choreographed. There is no joy. They know very well what they did.'"
------------
Must have Algore for his campaigned manager. He should take heed: didn't work well for algore.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Thoreau's
Declaration of Independence: "Walden gives us pause to think on the true meaning of human freedom and American independence. Thoreau's spiritual message of nonconformity is a challenge we all should aspire toward. He went to Walden Pond not to escape, but to encounter, the problem of reductionist modernity. He is no mere naturalist or environmentalist. Thoreau recognized that though man lives in nature, he has a supernatural end transcending nature and the world. He would have been critical of modern day environmentalists who 'no longer camp for a night, but have camped down on earth and forgotten heaven.' "
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Yep, Thoreau really knew what human freedom and American independence are: living at the expense of someone else. In this case it was at the expense of his "friend" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hence, he became the father of all those who refuse to get real, productive jobs, but want to indulge their primeval scream at someone else's expense. Long live the loon that cries over Waldon Pond!
He isn't the first one who made a "Declaration of Independence" for the human soul. Seems like someone said it first in the Garden of Eden, "Ye shall be as gods...."
You don't save your soul by abandoning the world and living in idle sloth. You save it by working out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Declaration of Independence: "Walden gives us pause to think on the true meaning of human freedom and American independence. Thoreau's spiritual message of nonconformity is a challenge we all should aspire toward. He went to Walden Pond not to escape, but to encounter, the problem of reductionist modernity. He is no mere naturalist or environmentalist. Thoreau recognized that though man lives in nature, he has a supernatural end transcending nature and the world. He would have been critical of modern day environmentalists who 'no longer camp for a night, but have camped down on earth and forgotten heaven.' "
---------
Yep, Thoreau really knew what human freedom and American independence are: living at the expense of someone else. In this case it was at the expense of his "friend" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hence, he became the father of all those who refuse to get real, productive jobs, but want to indulge their primeval scream at someone else's expense. Long live the loon that cries over Waldon Pond!
He isn't the first one who made a "Declaration of Independence" for the human soul. Seems like someone said it first in the Garden of Eden, "Ye shall be as gods...."
You don't save your soul by abandoning the world and living in idle sloth. You save it by working out your salvation with fear and trembling.
BREITBART.COM - US stars align in anti-Iraq war hunger strike: "Some protestors and experts in public opinion put that down to the absence of the Vietnam War style conscription draft, which means only professional soldiers or reservists can be sent off to war. "
----------------------
Once in a while a glimmer of truth seeps out in spite of the bias of the main-stream media. The Viet Nam protests were not because of ideology or high ideals, but because of a generation that did not want to be inconvenienced or taken away from their lusts and pleasures. "Make love, not war," is the only creed that resonated with them. If there had been no draft, there would have been no protests and the blood bath directed by the communists could have been avoided. Sad. But they still think they were noble.
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Once in a while a glimmer of truth seeps out in spite of the bias of the main-stream media. The Viet Nam protests were not because of ideology or high ideals, but because of a generation that did not want to be inconvenienced or taken away from their lusts and pleasures. "Make love, not war," is the only creed that resonated with them. If there had been no draft, there would have been no protests and the blood bath directed by the communists could have been avoided. Sad. But they still think they were noble.
Monday, July 03, 2006
BREITBART.COM - Judge Temporarily Bars Navy Use of Sonar: "A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday barring the Navy from using a type of sonar, allegedly harmful to marine mammals, during a Pacific warfare exercise scheduled to begin this week.
The order comes three days after the Navy obtained a six-month national defense exemption from the Defense Department allowing it to use 'mid-frequency active sonar.'
Environmental groups had sued to stop the sonar use during the exercises off Hawaii. The sonar portion of the war games was set to start Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in her order that the plaintiffs 'have shown a possibility that RIMPAC 2006 will kill, injure, and disturb many marine species, including marine mammals, in waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands.' "
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Most people do not realize that the President and Congress have as much right to interpret the Constitution as the courts do, and early in the days of these United States presidents did just that and refused to obey decisions such as Florence-Marie Cooper's above. This warm-fuzzy decision is a good example why women should not be in government, nor should sissified men. Imagine: a dolphin's comfort trumps the defense needs of the United States and her citizens! These people should all be thrown out of office. See my article on the "Nanny Church in the Nanny State."
The order comes three days after the Navy obtained a six-month national defense exemption from the Defense Department allowing it to use 'mid-frequency active sonar.'
Environmental groups had sued to stop the sonar use during the exercises off Hawaii. The sonar portion of the war games was set to start Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in her order that the plaintiffs 'have shown a possibility that RIMPAC 2006 will kill, injure, and disturb many marine species, including marine mammals, in waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands.' "
--------------
Most people do not realize that the President and Congress have as much right to interpret the Constitution as the courts do, and early in the days of these United States presidents did just that and refused to obey decisions such as Florence-Marie Cooper's above. This warm-fuzzy decision is a good example why women should not be in government, nor should sissified men. Imagine: a dolphin's comfort trumps the defense needs of the United States and her citizens! These people should all be thrown out of office. See my article on the "Nanny Church in the Nanny State."
Monday, June 12, 2006
Deadly Intent: Ann Coulter, Word Warrior - New York Times: "Without the total package, Ms. Coulter would be just one more nut living in Mom's basement. You can accuse her of cynicism all you want, but the fact that she is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."
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First the necessary disclaimer. I am not a great fan of Ann Coulter, but I do enjoy her giving the dickens to the New York Time, one of the few things I like less than Ann Coulter.
The quote above is the reason I desest the NYT. Other than the facts that they make up the News, use vicious words to skewer their enemies even better than Ann Coulter does, and have a treasonal rapport with the nations enemies, I detest their patronizing attitude toward the "rest of us." Let's see now, Maureen Dowd is a "leading political writer" loved by the NYT, and is even more vicious than Ann Coulter is. Does that say something about the "rest of us," Madame NYT?
Maybe we will get somewhere in civilizing the political dialogue in this country, when the NYT and others of the elite media get off their high horses and quit dissing the "rest of us."
On the other hand, I suspect that the Old Grey Lady's real complaint is that they are losing subscribers, reputation for integrity, and market position. Not being the only game in town anymore because of radio and the digital media, hit pieces like this one on Ann Coulter may just be part of the dying spasms of the old order.
==========
First the necessary disclaimer. I am not a great fan of Ann Coulter, but I do enjoy her giving the dickens to the New York Time, one of the few things I like less than Ann Coulter.
The quote above is the reason I desest the NYT. Other than the facts that they make up the News, use vicious words to skewer their enemies even better than Ann Coulter does, and have a treasonal rapport with the nations enemies, I detest their patronizing attitude toward the "rest of us." Let's see now, Maureen Dowd is a "leading political writer" loved by the NYT, and is even more vicious than Ann Coulter is. Does that say something about the "rest of us," Madame NYT?
Maybe we will get somewhere in civilizing the political dialogue in this country, when the NYT and others of the elite media get off their high horses and quit dissing the "rest of us."
On the other hand, I suspect that the Old Grey Lady's real complaint is that they are losing subscribers, reputation for integrity, and market position. Not being the only game in town anymore because of radio and the digital media, hit pieces like this one on Ann Coulter may just be part of the dying spasms of the old order.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. (Isaiah 1:5 AV)
Unrepented sin is a disease that gets worse and worse. In a body politic the sins of one generation, if not repented and renounced, will infect the generations to come.
"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and is not washed from their filthiness. (Proverbs 30:12 AV)
The generation that won the war against Hitler has been called by one of their own The Greatest Generation. This generation won a great war against Hitler and continued to resist and were able to overcome Communism. They made advances against civil wrongs in this country. But they lost the most important battle of all, the war for the minds of the next generation, because they lost their own faith.
No one who wasn't ignorant of the great warriors who fought the War for American Independence would ever have allowed the name greatest to be given to another generation. This is another indictment against what has become public school education, with its bias against the past.
But the so-called Greatest Generation did not teach their children the great truth of Christianity or the morality that made this nation great. They did not expel from their churches and universities the unworthy and ignorant. They did not discipline their children but reared a lawless and rebellious generation. Their own faith had degenerated to empty moralism and dead ceremonies. They did not repent of this. They still haven't. In the place of repentance they have substituted public relations and re-definition.
The generation that followed the mis-named Greatest Generation were brought up on Dr. Spock and spoiled by one of the greatest outpouring of material goods and pleasures that any nation has ever known. They immersed themselves in drugs, sex, rebellion, and alternate religions. They lived for what made them feel good: their immoral music, perverted religions, or philosophical fancies. This could have been predicted, given their nurture on Spock and Twinkies. Fathers and Mothers surrendered en masse and as individuals.
This writer has spent his whole life in education. I graduated from high school in 1952, went to college, and got my first teaching job in 1959, seven years out of high school. I could not believe what had happened to young people. There was plenty of wickedness in the public schools I attended, but we knew how to blush, how to hide our transgressions, and how to pretend virtue, as Hamlet said. Hypocrisy is the complement that vice pays to virtue, a wise man said. But in those seven years I saw the future of America, and I was not wrong. The sin of forwardness was added to other crimes. As David wrote: Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalms 19:13 AV)
The new justification that parents used, "Well, at least he is honest about it." so was Al Capone.
It is not true that honesty in wickedness is a virtue. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:15 AV) When I was a boy, we knew how to turn white, and then blush, when our transgressions were found out. The bible says it is a kind of virtue to be ashamed. That changed in my experience between 1952 and 1959, when the generation I speak of was in grade school. Their character was already formed, and this was in a Christian school. There was more outward morality in the public school I had attended just so few years before at the same age.
These spoiled brats never did grow up. They did not want to fight for their country, not because of high ideals, but simply because they were lazy and spoiled. If there had been no draft, there would have been no flights to Canada, no protests on the campuses. They were gutless wonders with high-sounding ideals which masked their own essential selfishness.
Like a scourge of locusts this generation of self-righteous, spoiled, and self-centered children have left barrenness behind them. Discipline disappeared in schools, because children would not endure it, and the parents would tolerate it, for Johnny couldn't sit still because he had never been made to sit still. So instead of a rap on the rear, this generation devised new diseases and syndromes to be treated by new drugs that robbed boys of their manhood and reduced them to whimpering misfits.
They could not sit still long enough to listen to a sermon that lasts more than 10 minutes, if that. So they must bring the churches up to date. Bibles must be no more than 5th or 6th grade level, music must not require thought. Preachers must "feel" the text--didn't matter what the text meant.
The only thing they were absolutely certain about was their right to say, do, and think whatsoever they pleased at any time and any place. It does not take centuries to destroy a civilization and a moral order; it can be done in one generation.
Because immediate gratification is what drove and drives this generation, laws against any kind of sexual gratification must be attacked, including laws against fornication, sodomy, pedophilia, bestiality. No thought must be taken for tomorrow and the results of the destruction of morals, for love me tonight is the only workable motto for degenerates. An inconvenient pregnancy can be remedied by murder. Just keep the party going. A new world is coming and the old with their hang-ups must give way. In the new world it will all "hang out," and hang out it did.
If law and tradition got in the way of instant gratification, they must be attacked also. Law, tradition, culture, decency, patriotism, and religion were mocked unmercifully by the sixties generation. The most popular television shows of this generation routinely attacked military honor, honesty, and sexual decency.
Blessed with unprecedented prosperity and scientific knowledge, America roared through the last half of the 20th Century. We rocked and rolled, and today speak with nostalgia of the abomination of Woodstock and other degenerate revival meetings for arrogant rebels. We rewarded those who pandered to our lusts and rebellion great rewards of money and fame, many of them preachers who gave standing to our lusts and rebellion. Every aspect of America life: the lesson of the music was plain to those who knew the language: It is right to do whatever you want to do, and it is right to destroy anyone who gets in your way, including churches, schools, families, courts, business. The Age of Aquarius is upon us and we will bring it in over your dead bodies and the ruins of your institutions.
But something very precious was gone from the American soul, the fear of God and a love for righteousness. Church services became entertainment services to stoke self-worth and self-congratulation. Hell fire disappeared from the vocabulary as did repentance and the Ten Commandments. People laughed at their fornication, their lies, their thefts, and their infidelities. Newspapers that once printed the uniform Sunday School Lesson and routinely printed the sermons of famous preachers did so no more, but faithfully recorded every scandal that afflicted the church, reported the slanders of the ungodly, and warred on decency by promoting sexual license and infidelity. This generation idolized a president who used the Oval Office to satisfy his corrupt sexual desires--and still laughs at it. Thus the world ends, not with bang, but a giggle--and not even a nervous one, but the giggle of small boys behind the barn telling nasty jokes, with one set as a watchmen, lest adults come. But now the adults tell the jokes. Ho, ho, ho.
Another casualty was justice. It took just five days to convict the man who tried to assassinate FDR and who did shoot the mayor of Chicago. When the mayor died, the man was taken from prison, tried, and executed within five months of his crime. But the generation that hated responsibility and refused to suffer would not allow the courts to do their job either. They invented new rights and new "safeguards"---they learned their skill well in seeking to avoid fighting for their country in Viet Nam. Now they would make it exceeding difficult to convict a criminal. They never got real jobs but became lawyers and teachers and wove their rebellion against decency and morality into the very warp and woof on the American justice system, so that their right to break every one of the Ten Commandments could never be challenged. They learned to protect their own, while savaging their opponents.
They have never repented of these things. But we have may well have lost our ability to have a moral society, decent homes and safe schools, and protect ourselves from foreign enemies who hate us.
What a great nation this generation has given us. We send our girls to war. Boys cannot be boys in school, but must be drugged so they will behave like girls. Homosexuals are in our face. We routinely slaughter millions of people before they are born so that we don't have too many of us. Instead, we import aliens to work for us at slave wages. Sodomy, adultery, fornication, and flagrant sexual perversions are considered normal. Freedom of speech is dead on the college campus and ignorant and half-educated professors promote a political agenda of socialism and atheism, while thumbing their nose at the taxpayers that pay their salaries.
It is time to repent, not only of our own sins, but of the sins of our fathers that have brought us to this place.
I will write more on this subject.
"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and is not washed from their filthiness. (Proverbs 30:12 AV)
The generation that won the war against Hitler has been called by one of their own The Greatest Generation. This generation won a great war against Hitler and continued to resist and were able to overcome Communism. They made advances against civil wrongs in this country. But they lost the most important battle of all, the war for the minds of the next generation, because they lost their own faith.
No one who wasn't ignorant of the great warriors who fought the War for American Independence would ever have allowed the name greatest to be given to another generation. This is another indictment against what has become public school education, with its bias against the past.
But the so-called Greatest Generation did not teach their children the great truth of Christianity or the morality that made this nation great. They did not expel from their churches and universities the unworthy and ignorant. They did not discipline their children but reared a lawless and rebellious generation. Their own faith had degenerated to empty moralism and dead ceremonies. They did not repent of this. They still haven't. In the place of repentance they have substituted public relations and re-definition.
The generation that followed the mis-named Greatest Generation were brought up on Dr. Spock and spoiled by one of the greatest outpouring of material goods and pleasures that any nation has ever known. They immersed themselves in drugs, sex, rebellion, and alternate religions. They lived for what made them feel good: their immoral music, perverted religions, or philosophical fancies. This could have been predicted, given their nurture on Spock and Twinkies. Fathers and Mothers surrendered en masse and as individuals.
This writer has spent his whole life in education. I graduated from high school in 1952, went to college, and got my first teaching job in 1959, seven years out of high school. I could not believe what had happened to young people. There was plenty of wickedness in the public schools I attended, but we knew how to blush, how to hide our transgressions, and how to pretend virtue, as Hamlet said. Hypocrisy is the complement that vice pays to virtue, a wise man said. But in those seven years I saw the future of America, and I was not wrong. The sin of forwardness was added to other crimes. As David wrote: Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. (Psalms 19:13 AV)
The new justification that parents used, "Well, at least he is honest about it." so was Al Capone.
It is not true that honesty in wickedness is a virtue. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:15 AV) When I was a boy, we knew how to turn white, and then blush, when our transgressions were found out. The bible says it is a kind of virtue to be ashamed. That changed in my experience between 1952 and 1959, when the generation I speak of was in grade school. Their character was already formed, and this was in a Christian school. There was more outward morality in the public school I had attended just so few years before at the same age.
These spoiled brats never did grow up. They did not want to fight for their country, not because of high ideals, but simply because they were lazy and spoiled. If there had been no draft, there would have been no flights to Canada, no protests on the campuses. They were gutless wonders with high-sounding ideals which masked their own essential selfishness.
Like a scourge of locusts this generation of self-righteous, spoiled, and self-centered children have left barrenness behind them. Discipline disappeared in schools, because children would not endure it, and the parents would tolerate it, for Johnny couldn't sit still because he had never been made to sit still. So instead of a rap on the rear, this generation devised new diseases and syndromes to be treated by new drugs that robbed boys of their manhood and reduced them to whimpering misfits.
They could not sit still long enough to listen to a sermon that lasts more than 10 minutes, if that. So they must bring the churches up to date. Bibles must be no more than 5th or 6th grade level, music must not require thought. Preachers must "feel" the text--didn't matter what the text meant.
The only thing they were absolutely certain about was their right to say, do, and think whatsoever they pleased at any time and any place. It does not take centuries to destroy a civilization and a moral order; it can be done in one generation.
Because immediate gratification is what drove and drives this generation, laws against any kind of sexual gratification must be attacked, including laws against fornication, sodomy, pedophilia, bestiality. No thought must be taken for tomorrow and the results of the destruction of morals, for love me tonight is the only workable motto for degenerates. An inconvenient pregnancy can be remedied by murder. Just keep the party going. A new world is coming and the old with their hang-ups must give way. In the new world it will all "hang out," and hang out it did.
If law and tradition got in the way of instant gratification, they must be attacked also. Law, tradition, culture, decency, patriotism, and religion were mocked unmercifully by the sixties generation. The most popular television shows of this generation routinely attacked military honor, honesty, and sexual decency.
Blessed with unprecedented prosperity and scientific knowledge, America roared through the last half of the 20th Century. We rocked and rolled, and today speak with nostalgia of the abomination of Woodstock and other degenerate revival meetings for arrogant rebels. We rewarded those who pandered to our lusts and rebellion great rewards of money and fame, many of them preachers who gave standing to our lusts and rebellion. Every aspect of America life: the lesson of the music was plain to those who knew the language: It is right to do whatever you want to do, and it is right to destroy anyone who gets in your way, including churches, schools, families, courts, business. The Age of Aquarius is upon us and we will bring it in over your dead bodies and the ruins of your institutions.
But something very precious was gone from the American soul, the fear of God and a love for righteousness. Church services became entertainment services to stoke self-worth and self-congratulation. Hell fire disappeared from the vocabulary as did repentance and the Ten Commandments. People laughed at their fornication, their lies, their thefts, and their infidelities. Newspapers that once printed the uniform Sunday School Lesson and routinely printed the sermons of famous preachers did so no more, but faithfully recorded every scandal that afflicted the church, reported the slanders of the ungodly, and warred on decency by promoting sexual license and infidelity. This generation idolized a president who used the Oval Office to satisfy his corrupt sexual desires--and still laughs at it. Thus the world ends, not with bang, but a giggle--and not even a nervous one, but the giggle of small boys behind the barn telling nasty jokes, with one set as a watchmen, lest adults come. But now the adults tell the jokes. Ho, ho, ho.
Another casualty was justice. It took just five days to convict the man who tried to assassinate FDR and who did shoot the mayor of Chicago. When the mayor died, the man was taken from prison, tried, and executed within five months of his crime. But the generation that hated responsibility and refused to suffer would not allow the courts to do their job either. They invented new rights and new "safeguards"---they learned their skill well in seeking to avoid fighting for their country in Viet Nam. Now they would make it exceeding difficult to convict a criminal. They never got real jobs but became lawyers and teachers and wove their rebellion against decency and morality into the very warp and woof on the American justice system, so that their right to break every one of the Ten Commandments could never be challenged. They learned to protect their own, while savaging their opponents.
They have never repented of these things. But we have may well have lost our ability to have a moral society, decent homes and safe schools, and protect ourselves from foreign enemies who hate us.
What a great nation this generation has given us. We send our girls to war. Boys cannot be boys in school, but must be drugged so they will behave like girls. Homosexuals are in our face. We routinely slaughter millions of people before they are born so that we don't have too many of us. Instead, we import aliens to work for us at slave wages. Sodomy, adultery, fornication, and flagrant sexual perversions are considered normal. Freedom of speech is dead on the college campus and ignorant and half-educated professors promote a political agenda of socialism and atheism, while thumbing their nose at the taxpayers that pay their salaries.
It is time to repent, not only of our own sins, but of the sins of our fathers that have brought us to this place.
I will write more on this subject.
Without faith, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. --Solomon
RealClearPolitics - Articles - Europe's Good Intentions Have Gone Sour: "Despite a public anti-Americanism, individual Europeans extend the old warmth and friendship to American visitors. Yet beneath the veneer of the good life, there is also a detectable air of uncertainty in Europe this summer, one perhaps similar to that of 1914 or the late 1930s."
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Say, do you think that a turning away from the God of the Bible has anything to do with this? A pertinent NEW Testament passage might be: "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 AV)
There is no room in the thought of the modern man for any God except the good one, and only then in the whimper, "If God is good and all powerful, how could He have let ____ happen."
The Bible knows nothing of such a God, and Christians don't worship such a wimpish conception. Yes, God is good and God is all powerful: that is exactly why bad things happen, because He cannot deny Himself but MUST punish the wicked. The real God moves His people to pray as David did in Psalm 58:6-11
"Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. 7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth."
This God hasn't forgotten the world, even though the world has forgotten Him. But maybe Europe and the children other nations who have forgotten God will remember. Where are the faithful preachers? Who will tell the world where the disaster comes from?
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Say, do you think that a turning away from the God of the Bible has anything to do with this? A pertinent NEW Testament passage might be: "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 AV)
There is no room in the thought of the modern man for any God except the good one, and only then in the whimper, "If God is good and all powerful, how could He have let ____ happen."
The Bible knows nothing of such a God, and Christians don't worship such a wimpish conception. Yes, God is good and God is all powerful: that is exactly why bad things happen, because He cannot deny Himself but MUST punish the wicked. The real God moves His people to pray as David did in Psalm 58:6-11
"Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. 7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth."
This God hasn't forgotten the world, even though the world has forgotten Him. But maybe Europe and the children other nations who have forgotten God will remember. Where are the faithful preachers? Who will tell the world where the disaster comes from?
A Real Hater?
BBC NEWS UK Wales Gore in Hay climate change plea: "But Mr Gore, fresh from an appearance at the Cannes film festival, delivered a starker message that the world was now facing a 'danger which could bring the end of civilisation.' "
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But how can you believe a man who has been the purveyor of more hate than any American in the last 100 years. I speak of the hatred of George W. Bush, by the liberal elite, who took their cue from Gore that Bush stole the election in 2000.
Richard Nixon faced the same issues in 1960, when there were strong indictions that democratic shenannigans in Illinois and Texas had delivered the election to John Kennedy. Nixon refused to challenge the elections in the court [while privately vowing to do a better job of poll watching if he ever got another chance], because Nixon felt it would leave a legacy of bitterness in the American electorate, and send a very bad message to the rest of the world. Nixon loved his country. Gore refused to follow Nixon's lead, for modern liberals love power, no matter what the cost to the electorate or the public morale.
Charge you opponent with every crime that you can imagine, no matter what the residue of hate that your spread around. There is no question. The polarization of American politics and the bitterness of the left is the direct responsibility of Al Gore. Even Kerry is a better man than Gore, for he refused to pout over Ohio and make wild charges in 2004. The Gore legacy may very well be the fire of hatred and bitterness that may last for a generation and do more harm to our great nation than any Chicken Little warning of warming.
==========
But how can you believe a man who has been the purveyor of more hate than any American in the last 100 years. I speak of the hatred of George W. Bush, by the liberal elite, who took their cue from Gore that Bush stole the election in 2000.
Richard Nixon faced the same issues in 1960, when there were strong indictions that democratic shenannigans in Illinois and Texas had delivered the election to John Kennedy. Nixon refused to challenge the elections in the court [while privately vowing to do a better job of poll watching if he ever got another chance], because Nixon felt it would leave a legacy of bitterness in the American electorate, and send a very bad message to the rest of the world. Nixon loved his country. Gore refused to follow Nixon's lead, for modern liberals love power, no matter what the cost to the electorate or the public morale.
Charge you opponent with every crime that you can imagine, no matter what the residue of hate that your spread around. There is no question. The polarization of American politics and the bitterness of the left is the direct responsibility of Al Gore. Even Kerry is a better man than Gore, for he refused to pout over Ohio and make wild charges in 2004. The Gore legacy may very well be the fire of hatred and bitterness that may last for a generation and do more harm to our great nation than any Chicken Little warning of warming.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
In a Dream?
Pope: How Could God 'Tolerate' Holocaust?: "Benedict walked along the row of plaques at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex's memorial, one in the language of each nationality whose members died there. As he stopped to pray, a light rain stopped and a brilliant rainbow appeared over the camp. 'To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible - and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany,' he said later. 'In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?'"
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You would think that an infallible pope would know better. What do you mean, "Why did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
As a matter of fact, God is not silent and has never been silent. He will also certainly punish the wicked and bring every evil thought and deed into judgment as Isaiah said so succinctly: Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. 14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." (Isaiah 30:8-14)
Where is the Third Reich? Where is Hitler? Where is the Soviet Union? Where is Mussolini? All gone and in hell, where all the nations go that forget God. And where is it written that God's people don't have to suffer? People have suffered immensely since the beginning of the world, from Abel that was slain by his brother to our Lord Jesus who was crucified by those who should have known better.
Where is it written that only the guilty suffer? that God does not have a purpose in suffering, as He did in the case of Job. I think it is terrible what Hitler did to the Jews. I also think that it is terrible what happened in Rwanda, and in Cambodia, and in the Soviet Gulag. There are still piles of bones of Germans and French from the battlefield of Verdun in World War I. I recently visited the battlefield of Fredericksburg from our own Civil War and saw the thousands of graves of Union soldiers who died there--only about one-tenth of them identified. They were mostly kids in their teens.
But this does not mean that God is silent. It rather means that God is speaking fortissimo, if we only had ears to hear. Man's end is not on this earth, and earth becomes a hell for those who seek heaven here. When the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and the Stalins and the Osamas and such like, some with American citizenship, forsake the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Lord Jesus then comes to pass what God has clearly spoken in His word, for He would have us know that Scripture cannot be broken.
But the judgment of the world is not yet. God has other things to do right now. He is busy calling out His people to faith and hope, a people whose conversation is in heaven, who inheritance is God Himself and not the things of the world.
Psalms 76:10 "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." The wicked and the righteous suffer the same things on the earth, the difference is the purpose of the sufferings and their condition in eternity.
David expressed this poignantly in Psalm 73. He fretted against the Lord because their did not seem to be any difference between the godly and the ungodly. "I have cleansed my hands in vain," he pouted. In fact, it even appears that the ungodly get along better than the godly. It was very painful for him, and he didn't "get it" until he went to the sanctuary of the Lord, the place where the eternal God made His name known: Psalm 73: 16-20:
"When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. 19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image."
The Pope needs to awake from his dream, too.
----------------
You would think that an infallible pope would know better. What do you mean, "Why did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
As a matter of fact, God is not silent and has never been silent. He will also certainly punish the wicked and bring every evil thought and deed into judgment as Isaiah said so succinctly: Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. 14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." (Isaiah 30:8-14)
Where is the Third Reich? Where is Hitler? Where is the Soviet Union? Where is Mussolini? All gone and in hell, where all the nations go that forget God. And where is it written that God's people don't have to suffer? People have suffered immensely since the beginning of the world, from Abel that was slain by his brother to our Lord Jesus who was crucified by those who should have known better.
Where is it written that only the guilty suffer? that God does not have a purpose in suffering, as He did in the case of Job. I think it is terrible what Hitler did to the Jews. I also think that it is terrible what happened in Rwanda, and in Cambodia, and in the Soviet Gulag. There are still piles of bones of Germans and French from the battlefield of Verdun in World War I. I recently visited the battlefield of Fredericksburg from our own Civil War and saw the thousands of graves of Union soldiers who died there--only about one-tenth of them identified. They were mostly kids in their teens.
But this does not mean that God is silent. It rather means that God is speaking fortissimo, if we only had ears to hear. Man's end is not on this earth, and earth becomes a hell for those who seek heaven here. When the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and the Stalins and the Osamas and such like, some with American citizenship, forsake the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Lord Jesus then comes to pass what God has clearly spoken in His word, for He would have us know that Scripture cannot be broken.
But the judgment of the world is not yet. God has other things to do right now. He is busy calling out His people to faith and hope, a people whose conversation is in heaven, who inheritance is God Himself and not the things of the world.
Psalms 76:10 "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." The wicked and the righteous suffer the same things on the earth, the difference is the purpose of the sufferings and their condition in eternity.
David expressed this poignantly in Psalm 73. He fretted against the Lord because their did not seem to be any difference between the godly and the ungodly. "I have cleansed my hands in vain," he pouted. In fact, it even appears that the ungodly get along better than the godly. It was very painful for him, and he didn't "get it" until he went to the sanctuary of the Lord, the place where the eternal God made His name known: Psalm 73: 16-20:
"When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. 19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image."
The Pope needs to awake from his dream, too.
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