Anglican Church

Well THIS ain't gonna work!

HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be allowed to marry their boyfriends under a proposal drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new civil partnerships law giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples will not lose their licences to be priests.

They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. (Two chances of this working: "No" chance and "Fat" chance.)
The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage. They accept, however, that the new law leaves them little choice but to accept the right of gay clergy to have civil partners.

The decision is likely to reopen the row over homosexuality that has split the worldwide Anglican communion. It may also overshadow an international meeting of senior bishops next month designed to heal rifts between liberals and conservatives over the issue.

The U.N. will shortly celebrate its 60th birthday and apparently George Bush, Condi Rice and others have not yet RSVP'd.

As Capt Ed notes:

"The UN has collapsed into a crime family, where money and personnel intended to assist the most vulnerable instead work to the support of the most evil tyrants, where forces intended on protecting the innocent abandon them to enemies and sexually assault the female survivors, and where the various dictatorships and kleptocracies who pursue slavery and terrorism run committees that focus their ire on Western nations for not putting even more resources at their disposal to continue these travesties. Its management has proven itself above accountability and its membership has encouraged all of it for a chance to handicap the Western democracies in their bid to spread true freedom and liberty across the globe.

What's there to celebrate?"

JB here: Capt Ed has exactly, in my humble opinion, captured the true nature of the current incarnation of the U.N. To use a phrase from Jay Tea of Wizbangblog.com; you might call the U.N. "a cornucopia of scummery."

From Danielle Crittendon - found on Huffington Post - A free woman or not

1. Are you allowed to drive a car? Y/N
2. Must you be accompanied at all times in public by a male escort? Y/N
3. If you were to say "what the hell" and drive to the mall by yourself, would you be immediately surrounded by bat-wielding male police officers? Y/N
4. Could you be beaten for saying �what the hell�? Y/N
5. When you go outside on a hot summer day, can you wear shorts and a t-shirt? Y/N
6. You wouldn�t know what the weather was because your vision is a confined to the small slit opening in a burkha or abaya? Y/N
7. Have you ever been stoned at a party? Y/ N
8. Have you ever been buried up to your neck and stoned (i.e. with rocks) for kissing a man not your husband at a party? Y/N
9. Were you free to marry the man of your choice or, as it may be, free not to marry? Y/N
10. Did your parents force you to marry a man of their choosing? Y/N
11. If you refused your parents� choice of husband would you be banished from the family and/or beaten within an inch of your life and/or to death? Y/N
12. Were you 11-years-old when you were married? Y/N
13. Does your husband have more than one wife? Y/N
14. Does your religion permit and encourage �moderate beatings� by the husband whenever he feels his wife is disobedient? Y/N
15. If you are unhappy with your husband, can you initiate a divorce? Y/N
16. Were you educated? Y/N
17. Were you educated for a career? Y/N
18. Was the career that of a suicide bomber? Y/N
19. When dealing with the law or facing a court case, is your word valued at half that of a man�s? Y/N
20. In a rape case in which there are no witnesses, is your word worth nothing against that of the rapist�s�and furthermore, for the admission of sex with a man outside of marriage, even forcibly, can you be put to death? Y/N
21. Can you vote? Y/N
22. Can you read any book you like? Y/N
23. Did you read the Arabic version of �Fear of Flying�? (oh, skip this one�it doesn�t exist)
24. Is fear of flying how you feel whenever you step on a plane post-9/11?

SCORING: If you answered �yes� to questions 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16, 17, 18, 22,23, and 25, congratulations! You live in the freest society for women in the history of Planet Earth. If you answered �yes� to any of the other questions, Allahu Akbar!

JB here: WOW, Danielle's 24 questions truly high-light the difference between a free society and a closed, totalitarian regime who's philosophical basis is the Koran. Hmm, Jesus Christ really did liberate people, really did liberate women.

From the Sheep Crib - what should we fear?

"I used to be fascinated by the creature images in the last book of the Bible; that is, until I was privileged to hear a lecture on the micro- and macro-systems in God's creation. It was the first time I'd heard a believer claim man will never mine the full depth of the microsciences or explore the full reaches of the heavens.

God is infinite and, though He is transcendent, one must grasp that there is nothing too small or too huge for an infinite God to make. Think about that for ten minutes; I guarantee one fine headache.

Stop and consider for a moment what an electron microscopic photo of a bacterium or the AIDS virus would look like to the Apostle John in a vision on Patmos? Consider Revelation 13:2 ...

And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.

So what's this all about? It's about this: for a while, there was not a week that went by I didn't hear about "wars and rumors or wars" and "famines" and "earthquakes" [Mark 13:7-8]. Now, in recent weeks I've been hearing of "pestilence"; specifically PVL MRSA Toxin, 52 cases reported in Scotland last year. "............

JB here: Gilmartin truly gives us something to consider. If Revelation holds true, are we to be destroyed by virii and bacteria? It does give one pause. Actually the ways in which we could be destroyed appear to be truly endless. But considering what a virus or bacterium looks like under a powerful microscope - hmmm.

THE RISE OF SPYWARE from Instapundit

Mainstream children's Web sites host a glut of adware, a security firm said this week, proof that spyware makers are targeting kids in an attempt to slip by parents and get their software onto home computers.
Over a three-month period, said Kraig Lane, a group product manager in Symantec's consumer division, his lab took new PCs out of the box, connected them to the Internet without monkeying with any of the default settings in Windows XP SP2, then surfed well-known sites in several categories, ranging from kids and sports to news and shopping.

"Our testers went to name-brand Web sites, and spent 30 minutes to an hour reading or interacting with sites," said Lane. Testers tried to emulate real-world browser by reading articles, interacting with the site's features, but not explicitly looking to accumulate files by downloading. "Then they ran spyware detection software and counted up what kind of security risks and how many files had been installed on the machines," Lane said.

Children were the biggest target for spyware makers, by far. The trip to several kids' sites installed a whopping 359 pieces of adware on Symantec's PCs, five times more than the nearest category rival, travel. Popup ads proliferated on the machines after that, making them virtually unusable.

JB here: If you don't hate spyware, you're not paying attention. Now they're trying to sneak it onto our machines thru children's websites. The word "irritating" doesn't quite convey the anger over this. BUT, that's part of the price of "free internet info."

Found on wizbangblog.com - interesting commentary

I once read a book about the development of Windows NT (no, I really don't know why). It introduced me to a wonderful concept, inelegantly named "eating your own dog food." It was a stage of development where the programmers were forced to actually install and run Windows NT on their own computers and use that for work, to see how their efforts work for a user.

I think it's a great idea. It forces people to see just how their efforts work for the people on the other side of the fence, to see their perspective. What seems perfectly intuitive and simple to the engineer can be baffling to the end-user....................................


JB here: One of the things Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" focused on was making sure the Congress itself lived by the rules it imposed upon other corporations. However, "Contract with America" was some years ago and I'd be willing to bet that in the last decade and 1/2, the Congress has once again waived the rules of commerce that they insist others follow. But I don't know that for sure.
Should a congress have to "eat its own dog food?" ABSOLUTELY!

Gerald Peary's commentary on teachers:

School Teachers

It's another damned September, and I'm back in school, writhing and kicking like many of you, but on the other side of the desk. I'm a teacher, the one with the chalky crumpled sports jacket, the nostalgic-for-1967 haircut and jeans, and the by-rote explanation of my get-tough grading policy. Is there verity to the stereotype of teachers as geeky, grumpy, and oblivious to fashion, clinging to pre-computer era standards? Sure, I say, peeking in a mirror (though rarely) at my professor self.

And what about teaching because you can't do real work? Or because you are too eccentric to succeed among adults?

All the above are often true in my calling, and they've been true, and will stay so. Whenever Frederick Wiseman shows High School(1968), his wry documentary of student-faculty life at a Philadelphia public school, people come up to him and exclaim, "That's my high school! I had those weird teachers!" They've been saying that for 33 years.


JB here: I've always had this secret desire to leave my "chosen field" someday and try my hand at teaching high school. I suspect that people like myself who have a desire to teach high school are living in a dream world of schools being like those seen in "Goodbye Mr. Chips" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
Ah, callow youth. Luckily or unluckily I have good memories of my high school years. I had some enjoyable teachers and I was the favorite of our spinster librarian, Miss Imogene Fokker - that is correct. I was always in the library during school day breaks either checking out or returning books. I was a huge reader back then and Miss Fokker was appreciative. She was a pleasant looking but dimunitive female who wore glasses and had a pageboy style haircut with nairy a hair ever out of place. It makes you wonder what her life was actually like.

But, "here's to you Miss Fokker." I hope life treated you well -- after all you treated me well. JB

Dr. Albert Mohler's address to the graduating seniors of Union University - May 21 2005

..............................
There is a sense in which that’s exactly what we would like to take place here tonight. We would like to have some time traveler from the future come to May 2005, emerge even here tonight from your class, to tell us where you have been and where you have gone. We would welcome a visitor from this class who could return from the future—to come back and tell us what you have seen, what you have done, what you have experienced, what you have witnessed. What about the impact you have left in the world?

It would be incredible if tonight we could have some visitor from the future, from your class, come and tell what you have done. For tonight, we have to look forward in hope, in confidence, and in anticipation. But the time is shorter than it appears. You look healthy. You look vigorous. You look ready. But you are going to die.

The time for all of us is far shorter than first appears. I can remember all too poignantly sitting exactly where you sit. Now I have to picture sitting with your parents, as my children will all too soon sit with you. For some the time will be longer, for some the time shorter. In the span of eternity, even in the expanse of human history, the time is short for all of us.

JB here: The years do rush by. I quite vividly remember standing in line in the parking lot of my high school wearing my blue gown 39 years ago (1966). I ask myself on a regular basis, "How can it be almost 40 years since I graduated from high school?"
So I find myself, to paraphrase Dr. Mohler, looking a) not too healthy, b) not to vigorous, c) not too ready, d) much much closer to dying than 39 years ago.
If there is a God, will He find me ready? I hope so because I have eternity in front of me.

Death of the "Mainline."

The mainline church is dying. Its traditional givers are being buried faster than you can say "institutional loyalty." The Roomers who follow them will use their inheritances to buy SUVs and tummy-tucks. The Busters who follow them will spend their share to pay off credit cards and luxury vacations. Their children will use whatever scraps are left on flat-screen televisions, psychiatrists, and their share of national debt. And all the while, as trillions pass from hand to hand to hand, the mainline institutions are busy arguing over adiahora, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, and complaining that someone moved their cheese."
...............................
There is a simple five-point biblical model for the congregation of the post-Christian world. It is found in the second chapter of Acts and it looks a lot like the model for the preChristian world.

* They met in homes.

* They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching (Word).

* They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread (Sacrament).

* They dedicated themselves to prayer.

* They took darn good care of each other.

If you wish to grow a church that not only survives but also thrives in the uncharted waters of the future, I suggest you go back to the future and look no further than Acts 2. The fun part of all this is that you get to be radical and reactionary all at the same time.

JB here: I like the article and agree with most of it. I do believe, however, the author neglected 1 particularly telling issue. Any church that no longer bases it beliefs upon the written word of the Creator God is bound to become irrelevant and dead. The more the mainline has watered down the Scriptures, the "deader" they have become. Going to a house-church model won't help them if they focus their teaching on sociological cant - driven hither and yon by every fresh wind of thought emanating from the Universities who are united in just 1 thing. They don't believe there is a Creator God and they certainly don't intend to listen to Him if he does happen to exist. Any church that relies on the philosophy of the modern university is "deader then a doornail" already.

Steve Bruce in the news.scotsman.com

DEATH OF GREAT BRITIAN'S CHURCH
The English lost their interest in religion first; Scots (at least those of the countryside and the burgh) still "took" the People's Friend and the Sunday Post (the medicinal verb was deliberate) and dutifully attended the national church. Deprived of political autonomy, a stateless nation sustained its somewhat joyless but utterly reliable soul by adhering to the Presbyterian Kirk.

No more. When the prudent son of the manse was a student, the Kirk had 1.34 million members. The current membership is less than half that. More worrying for the Church of Scotland's future, only 7,500 babies were christened last year, 500 fewer than the year before. Not all of those will go on to become actively involved, but this is the pool from which recruits are drawn. The effect of it drying up can be seen in every congregation in the land: the men and women in the pews are mostly old. In a major 2001 survey, the most popular religion among Scots under 35 was "None".

The Kirk's loss of 60 per cent of attenders since 1960 is dramatic enough, but the full extent of secularization becomes clear if we take a longer time span. In 1851, about half of Scots regularly attended church, most had some formal Christian instruction, and basic Christian ideas were taken for granted. Now, only 10 per cent attend church and the proportion familiar with Christianity is barely larger. In 1900, being Christian was expected; in 2005, it is exceptional.

JB here: Thanks to sheepcrib.blogspot.com for the tip.
Where goest the U.S.?
If you are a devout believer, you undoubtedly think God's blessings upon the U.S. are largely due to an Evangelical remnant that still worships God. But what happens when that remnant gets too small? Will all be lost then? Will a nation implode upon its own foolishness and desire to have no moral laws setting boundaries about its own lusts and wants. Hmm

Dr. Sanity provides wisdom:

"Acquired Situational Narcissism"

The always-informative Dr. Sanity provides her expert opinion on why some of our "esteemed" elected officials act as they do:

There is a description of a disorder called "Acquired Situational Narcissism" which seems to apply to many of our elected officials. If you take someone with a few narcissistic traits (and what politician doesn't have them?) and put them in a situation where they are adored, worshipped, and make to think (by the adoring and worshipping staff) that they are the center of the universe; and that words from their mouth are the font of all wisdom and knowledge--you would get something similar to the grandstanding meatheads we see every day on our TV screens.

JB here: Be sure and read it all. Hat tip to sheepcrib.blogspot.com

From the Llamabutchers

Revenge of the Sith---the LLama Review
.................................
To call the acting wooden is an insult to the memory of Charlie McCarthy. Let's just say I've seen cans of Dinty Moore stew with greater depth than Hayden Christensen. Mr. Bill was able to emote better. Padame? She basically spends the first two acts biting her finger nails and pouting from her balcony.

During the pivotal dramatic love scene of Act 2, I kept looking at Anakin and hearing him whine, "Padme, I think Chuck hates me....why does Chuck hate me? I think he wants to kill me, Padme..."
.................................................
The greatest failure is the writing out of Han Solo. Every other character that has any impact on the middle trilogy makes an appearance or is set up with a backstory---except Han Solo. Solo is what makes the first movie work: the disrespect for all the Force mumbo jumbo, the insouciance, the swagger--let's face it, Han Solo is fun. It's the element that the starting trilogy completely lacks--a sense of fun. It would be like the Harry Potter stories without the Weasleys, and it makes the betrayal by Anakin that much less believable.
.............................................
The last Act delivers it all: all the good guys die, save Obi-Wan and Yoda. The juxtaposition of the birth of the twins and the birth of Vader. The movie is worth all the hype and all the crap of the first 2 2/3rds episodes simply for the scene of Obi-Wan, leaving the desiccated Vader at the edge of the river of lava, and picks up Anakin's light saber, followed shortly by the hooded Obi-Wan delivering the baby Luke into the hands of Aunt Beru and she turns to Uncle Owen, who is standing in the same position as Luke, looking out at the Tatooine moons in Episode IV.

The mythical line is complete: the wizard/priest delivers the boy-king wrapped in swaddling clothes to the kindly shepherd, and will wait patiently to deliver the sword of fire. the end

JB here: Thanks to one of the Llamabutchers for an excellent critique/analysis. Maybe I'll go see it after all.

The saddest post - offered by an atheist

Ann Coulter takes no prisoners on this one!



By Ann Coulter Wed May 18, 8:05 PM ET

When ace reporter Michael Isikoff had the scoop of the decade, a thoroughly sourced story about the president of the United States having an affair with an intern and then pressuring her to lie about it under oath, Newsweek decided not to run the story. Matt Drudge scooped Newsweek, followed by The Washington Post.

When Isikoff had a detailed account of Kathleen Willey's nasty sexual encounter with the president in the Oval Office, backed up with eyewitness and documentary evidence, Newsweek decided not to run it. Again, Matt Drudge got the story.

When Isikoff was the first with detailed reporting on Paula Jones' accusations against a sitting president, Isikoff's then-employer The Washington Post -- which owns Newsweek -- decided not to run it. The American Spectator got the story, followed by the Los Angeles Times.

So apparently it's possible for Michael Isikoff to have a story that actually is true, but for his editors not to run it........ (Read the rest)


JB here: Bias is an interesting thing. It tends to blind you to truths. Truths, while often painful, are better than lies. Lies just make you crazy. No wonder the MSM (mainstream media) drives conservatives crazy.

Eric D. Snyder's review of Star Wars - R.O.T.S

.................................
It's hard to compare "Revenge of the Sith" to the other five movies because it's so unlike them. It has fewer major characters than its brethren, not to mention fewer subplots and less levity. And it's almost exactly what it needs to be, a powerful middle film to end one trilogy and presage another. It's impossible for any prequel to be as good in our memories as the original trilogy was; technology, culture and the movie-going experience have changed too much since then. But "Revenge of the Sith" is the best of the prequels, and a worthy successor to the "Star Wars" legacy. Grade: B+

JB here: That's my problem - I don't like Movies, Books, Tales or Stories that have a sad ending. So, will I see this movie or not? Dang it; I didn't want to see Anakin become Darth Vader.

Mainline Churchs vs Conservative Churchs - Al Mohler

"A more comprehensive analysis has been offered by researchers Dean R. Hoge, Benton Johnson, and Donald A. Luidens, who conducted a major research project directed at churches affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations. Their work, Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers, acknowledges that the basic dynamic behind church growth and decline is theological rather than sociological or economic.

These researchers argue that the most important factor making churches strong is "the presence of a compelling teaching concerning the ultimate purpose and destiny of humankind." Dean Kelley identified this "compelling teaching" as "meanings." These meanings make demands upon believers, and these believers are far more likely to congregate together, rather than to join more liberal churches. Holding to strong beliefs, conservative Christians are less likely to accept weaker beliefs as being equally valid.

Hoge, Johnson, and Luidens are clear: "Our findings show that belief is the single best predictor of church participation, but it is orthodox Christian belief, and not the tenets of lay liberalism, that impels people to be involved in church."

When these researchers speak of "lay liberalism," they refer to a phenomenon they observed among mainline baby boomers, whose vision of Christianity involves very few definite beliefs or moral obligations. "Although lay liberalism has several different versions," they explain, "its defining feature is the rejection of the claim that Christianity, or any other faith, is the only true religion. Lay liberals have no compelling truth, no 'good news,' to proclaim, and few of them share the views that they do have with their friends and acquaintances."

JB here: I, being a restless type, finding it hard to sit still, be quiet and be somewhat confined, have always found church attendance to be a personal challenge. I believe that if the ancient Scriptures did not call about the followers of Jesus Christ to congregate regularly -- I wouldn't congregate. But it is clear that the assembling of believers is a requirement and must serve an important function. Therefore I try to put aside my restless/hyper-activity and be a regular participant with others who pursue after Jesus Christ. Somehow, it seems the least I can do.
If I had less intense beliefs, I wouldn't attend.

From Mark Steyn's website

"Used to be liberals had all the radical new ideas while conservatives were generally for the status quo, or at least that's what I imagine it was once like. It gets harder and harder every day to pretend otherwise that all big liberal ideas over the past 40 years, such as the sexual revolution, abortion, socialism, national health care, multiculturalism, moral relativism, feminism, internationalism, etc, have failed miserably in practice. Yet that's exactly what modern-day liberals spend most of their time and energy self-righteously and indignantly doing: trying to convince the rest of us through sheer force of will (and a little rhetoric), in the face of an ever-growing mountain of evidence against it, to continue the great liberal experiment toward its logical conclusion."

JB here: 'Tis true, all those politically liberal experiements in social engineering have only brought pain, poverty and paganism. They all are based upon a philosophy that simply denies the existence of God and His accurate diagnosis of mankind's condition.

Political Makeup of Faculties at the Universities

John McCaslin reports in his column today:

Staff at Yale University gave Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry $20 for every $1 they gave President Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign.

At Duke University, the ratio stood at $9 to $1. At Princeton University, a whopping $302 to $1 gap prevailed. Massachusetts Institute of Technology boasted a $43 to $1 Kerry-Bush disparity.

Basing its study, "Deep Blue Campuses," on Federal Election Commission records, the conservative Leadership Institute's Campus Leadership Program examined 25 of the nation's top universities. Every single one favored Kerry over Bush.

In fact, not a single employee of Dartmouth showed up in FEC records as having contributed to Bush.

Via Powerlineblog.com


JB here: Please, please don't ever argue that the university faculties are unbiased. EVERYBODY is biased, but faculty's are uniformly biased against conservatism (and they hate GWB).

IOWAHAWK has a blog that tickles the funny bone on many occasions. Today is one.

Newsweek Lutefisk Story Sparks Fury Across Volatile Midwest

Decorah, IA - The debris-strewn streets of this remote Midwestern hamlet remain under a tense 24-hour curfew tonight, following weekend demonstrations by rock- and figurine-throwing Lutheran farm wives that left over 200 people injured and leveled the Whippy Dip dairy freeze. The rioting appeared to be prompted, in part, by a report in Newsweek magazine claiming military guards at Spirit Lake’s notorious Okoboji internment center had flushed lutefisk down prison toilets. Newsweek’s late announcement of a retraction seems to have done little to quell the inflamed passions of Lutheran insurgents in the region, as outbreaks of violent mailbox bashings and cow tippings have been reported from Bowbells, North Dakota to Pekin, Illinois.

Whether the violence was triggered by Newsweek’s report of lutefisk desecration or frustration over chronic shortages of Beanie Babies and Old Style, one thing seems certain – occupying U.S. troops face a steep road to reestablish trust in this tinderbox of ancient hatreds and delicious dairy products. Some analysts say the latest outbreak represents the most vexing challenge to US strategy since its invasion the region three years ago.

“It could be months before we get the area back under control,” said Brigadier Gen. Glen Hastings of the US Army’s Southern Minnesota Command. “We’re hoping the tractor pull and swap meet seasons will help calm down some of the violent elements.”


‘Campground of Evil’ is the next post on Iowahawks' blog. Ya oughta read it shouldn't U? JB

Found on National Review Online - the Corner 5-17-05

I CAN NO LONGER REMAIN SILENT [John Derbyshire]
Star Wars is crap. The whole thing, all of them -- crap, crap, crap. An insult to the intelligence of our kids. Buck Rogers made more sense -- and that's not EVEN to mention Dan Dare, Tom Corbett, Kemlo, and countless other far-more-worthy-to-be-remembered precursors. George Lucas took classic space opera and MESSED IT UP. Verpfuscht! The Empire has no clothes.

JB here: I wish John Derbyshire wouldn't hide his true feelings when writing his posts. Let's have it straight J.D.!

Found on AlbertMohler.Com

"Henri Blocher, Professor of Systematic Theology at the Faculty Libre de Theologie Evangelique in France, argues that the persistent question of evil finds resolution only in the cross of Christ. Blocher's cross-centered theodicy is well summarized in this remarkable paragraph: "Evil is conquered as evil because God turns it back upon itself. He makes the supreme crime, the murder of the only righteous person, the very operation that abolishes sin. The maneuver is utterly unprecedented. No more complete victory could be imagined. God responds in the indirect way that is perfectly suited to the ambiguity of evil. He entraps the deceiver in his own wiles. Evil, like a judoist, takes advantage of the power of good, which it perverts; the Lord, like a supreme champion, replies by using the very grip of the opponent. So is fulfilled the surprising verse; 'With the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.'"
The verse cited is Psalm 18:26. Blocher's book, Evil and the Cross, has been recently republished by Kregel Academic & Professional.

JB here: One of my favorite maxims of wisdom:
There IS a God; I am not He!

From "The Corner" in National Review Online

This is an exact translation of one paragraph of an elderly Shiite cleric's statement on his death bed:

"You know like I do what lies behind this religion (Islam), after all this crime carried out against Iranians. let's do one good thing and tell the people what is behind this religion. Let's tell everyone that this religion is neither "martyr generating", nor pro-science nor pro the people, this religion tells the elite that it is for the plebs and it tells the plebs that it is for the elite, it tells the elite that all its silly laws are for the stupid plebs, in fact this religion is [an]"ignorance generator". It has come about to humiliate people. As you (Rafsanjani) [Leaders of the Iranians] once told me, it is one religion for the elite and another for the plebs. You rightly regard yourself, the supreme leader and your Guardian Council as the elite, and the "martyr generating" nation of Iran are the plebs. Now for the sake of God tell the truth to the people that there is nothing in this religion but stupidity and ignorance, other than silly laws about what is considered clean and what is untouchable, what is allowed and what is not allowed, believe me that God and the people will then forgive you, although I know you are conscious enough NOT to believe in God!"

JB here: Islam is a false religion - it brings only despair, death and destruction to its adherents. It is a very useful tool for Satan - and he uses it to the utmost.

From Powerlineblog.com

On the Iraqi insurgents/terrorists:

..... the killers in Iraq have no political goal. That is not the point.

The point is to kill. They have invented a whole new kind of murder... they are serial spree killers.

The distinction between a serial killer and a spree killer is that the first kills methodically over time, trying to evade capture so he can continue his murderous pastime; while the second has one violent incident in which he kills a bunch of people, then often kills himself or expects to be slain by the police. What we see today in Iraq is a combination of the two: terror bosses who methodically, over time, set up mass killing events, usually carried out by others who will die in the attempt, but sometimes remotely by themselves (sending a chained driver cruising the streets, then detonating the driver's car when he nears a target of opportunity).

But like serial and spree killers, like those who commit human sacrifice, the motivation is found not in the external world but in his own internal hell, in the voice that only he can hear, from his bloody, eldrich gods, who demand blood and souls, blood and souls in the name of Moloch, or Arioch, or Cthulhu, or Huitzilopochtli, who demand mass sacrifices in the Grand Pyramid (or the Great Mosque -- and it is significant that one of the favorite targets for the killers are mosques full of worshippers, as if they saw their red-dripping thunderclap as an explosive "amen" to the service).

JB here: Modern man in the western culture does not believe in Evil, certainly does not believe in a real Satan - roaming the earth bringing death and destruction. So modern man has difficulty understanding the point of the many suicide bombings killing adults, teens, children, grandparents, average working, worshiping Iraqis. It is all about killing people. And the people who orchestrate this take pleasure in the killing of people. It is what they are all about. It is what Satan is all about: death and destruction.

HOMER SIMPSON on a roll!

# Dear Lord: The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won't ask for anything more. If that is OK, please give me absolutely no sign. ... OK, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. ... Thy will be done.

Don't let Krusty's death get you down, boy. People die all the time, just like that. Why, you could wake up dead tomorrow! ... Well, good night.

Here are your messages: ‘You have thirty minutes to move your car.’ ‘You have ten minutes to move your car.’ ‘Your car has been impounded.’ ‘Your car has been crushed into a cube.’ ‘You have thirty minutes to move your cube.’

I like my beer cold, my TV loud and my homosexuals flaming.

I may occasionally kill out of anger; or to illustrate a point, but I'm no Grim Reaper!

# I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

If they think I'm going to stop at that stop sign, they're sadly mistaken!

I'm having the best day of my life, and I owe it all to not going to Church!

I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman.

I'm not a bad guy! I work hard, and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?

I've always wondered if there was a god. And now I know there is -- and it's me.
It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.

I've come to hate my own creation! Now I know how God feels!

Marge, don’t discourage the boy. Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals … except the weasel.

Now that happy moment between the time the lie is told and when it is found out.

Operator! Give me the number for 911!


JB here: Homer has presented endless possibilities to the writers of the Simpsons over the years. He is everyman and being a man myself; that is downright scary.

JOHN MARK REYNOLDS

Sometimes I fear that our American educational system has not learned this lesson. Just as in Athens most of the young are educated by our poets. Our poets perform on television, radio, and in the music. They worship Eros as a great god. My students come to college full of passion. Dimly, they perceive that they need something. Often, they want to attend to the texts. They simply cannot.

These students are unable to follow an argument. Amusement has made difficult study almost impossible for them. It is hard for them to imagine questions to which there are not immediate answers. After all, can't we just google it? We have amused them to death and they come to college drunk on years of television, degenerate music, and worthless movies.

It is easy to show them that following the logos is a better way, but many are unable to follow. They have been conditioned to worry first about themselves. The have been saturated with sexual images of love. Few have deep and meaningful relationships that are not also sexual. The number one question of college students at Biola University is, "Am I liked?" What is to be done with Alcibiades?
....................................................................................
Plato has described the death of an academic culture. Each school, each little academic community, begins with promise. The tools of the dialectic are freely available. The great books are cheap and freely available. However, the great books are hard. It is easier to follow a guru than look for the Good. The guru gives quick answers, the dialectic is hard. Books like the Bible are not written with lists of answers to all the questions we think it should answer. Instead, to get value from it, we must learn to ask what it is saying. Then we must question those sayings to see if they are true. This task is long and hard.

As a result education is often replaced by speech making. Students are often delighted to participate. They opine freely on their own. But in the end, such an institution, Plato warns, will be invaded by the stronger erotic souls. They will reduce college to a four year party before being forced to get jobs. Worst still, school will be reduced to a place where bad men learn the techniques that will help them manipulate the many.

If such a place will not follow the logos, then the best that can be done is to lull it into inactivity and leave.

JB here: I suggest you bookmark Dr. Reynolds. Your education will be enhanced.

A column by Jonah Goldberg on National Review Online


May 13, 2005, 8:06 a.m.
Do Not Be Afraid
Law and Order doesn’t get Christians.

"All right, enough already. The Christians aren’t coming to get you.

I can take the somber, frightened 'special reports' on National Public Radio, where you can literally hear the correspondents wringing their hands over the possibility that the “Darwin fish” affixed to their Volvos will be banned. I can even handle the dog-whistle shrieks of Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd types about the looming Inquisition led by an alliance of the new German (wink, wink) pope and the Kansas Board of Education."

(Jonah discusses the TV show Law & Order and it's attempt gone awry to portray conservative Christians standing against justice being carried out.)
.............................................
Regardless, the very idea that evangelical Christians would argue that being born again absolves you in this life for the consequences of your crimes is nonsense, plucked whole cloth in a fit of ignorance. But the complete, outrageous implausibility of the episode’s plot wasn’t the most infuriating part. Several times, various characters opine that the Christians’ legal tactics might work given “what’s happening in this country right now.” I half expected Pat Robertson to burst through McCoy’s office spraying holy water screaming, “Exorcist”-style, “The power of Christ compels you!”

The complexity of what conservative Christians really believe is lost on the writers of Law & Order — not surprising for a Hollywood show about New York that blends both coastal sensibilities perfectly.

I grew up in New York City, I know New York City, and I have this to tell my fellow New Yorkers: You are perfectly safe from the Christians hordes. None of the stuff supposedly “happening in America right now” is actually affecting Dowd or Krugman or the L&O writing teams. Pharmacies in New York and L.A. are still filling prescriptions for the “morning after” pill, schools are still teaching evolution, abortion clinics are humming along. And don’t e-mail me in a tizzy about gay marriage bans. Gay marriage didn’t exist under Bill Clinton either. - Jonah Goldberg

JB here: Jonah's best line; "The complexity of what conservative Christians really believe is lost on the writers of Law & Order." How True! ( or "Indeed" as Instapundit would say).
Unluckily, it's not just the writers of Law & Order who don't understand. It's almost everybody who does not comprehend staunch and radical faith in the God/Man - Jesus Christ. But Evangelicals have a most powerful advocate who takes care of His children. His children need not worry.

Mark Steyn

"If there’s one thing Russia could use, it’s more Russians. The country is midway through its transition from ‘superpower’ to ghost town. Russian men already have a lower life expectancy than Bangladeshis — not because Bangladesh is brimming with actuarial advantages but because, if he had four legs and hung from a tree in a rain forest, the Russian male would be on the endangered species list. By mid-century, vast empty Russia will have a smaller population than tiny Yemen. The decline in male longevity is unprecedented for a (relatively) advanced nation not at war. Russia has extraordinary rates of drug-fuelled Aids, hepatitis C, heart disease and TB, all of which are mere symptoms of an entire people unable to pull themselves out of self-destruction."

JB here: Life in the formerly godless Russia has been and is horrific. They may no longer believe in the salvation via communism, but they haven't yet turned towards any other salvation than salvation by alcohol, drugs, unfettered sex and lifestyle irresponsibility. Under Communism, you didn't have to practice personal responsibility; the State dictated who you were and what you should be about. Now with the State no longer in control the Russian people have not yet figured out who they are and what they should be about. They are as lost as they can be. God help them.

Another great phrase found today; Wizbangblog.com

"Oh, where shall I begin? It's a cornucopia of scummery."

JB here: I'm definitely adding "cornucopia of scummery" to my collection of repeatable phrases.
Indeed!

Found on Powerlineblog

We first wrote about David Blunkett this past December when he was the British Home Secretary who had been revealed to be a Home Secretary with a difference or two. He was alleged to have engaged in an affair with a married woman -- four months into her marriage. Blunkett was alleged to have fathered the child of the married woman.

The next sentence is classic phraseology -
"Blunkett, coincidentally, is a blind man in the land of one-eyed men..."

JB here: Without staunch moral underpinnings ( a prospect that brings dread to the average westerner these days) all of our leaders could be considered blind men in the land of one-eyed men.
It appears to be all show, all posturing, no meat. The absolutely radical exception would be GWB who actually puts actions to words. That's a strange experience among today's politicians who loath actions and pray the words will fool the masses long enough to bring re-election.

PHANTOM PROF

I found this new blog - Phantom Prof. Apparently an adjunct prof. at SMU ( a female) started her own blog and ended up not having her adjunct contract renewed because of it. She writes commentary on various items of interest from her perspective as a phantom professor (because she's an adjunct) on a pretty "hoity toity" campus - SMU.

I was an adjunct for a couple of years at the local state university. On the one hand, I enjoyed it immensely. On the other hand it paid so poorly that I gave up the position after 6 semesters.
I was never sure that the department heads particularly liked me ( though I think my students did). And the classes didn't work well with my regular working schedule. But being with the students and hearing their stories was always fun.

One of my secrets as an adjunct. MAKE THEM DO THE WORK. I made them write the course syllabi, assigned them to create the test questions and insisted they provide the lecture material though "group presentations." I would even chose someone to be my assistant and have them grade the multiple choice tests. I never assigned essays for a test; way too much work for me. I did have them write a paper on occasion but never more than 1 per semester. "Ya gotta work the system." The students worked it, I worked it in return. They received 3 hours of credit, I received $2,000 worth of pay. Not much pay for graduate degrees. unless you looked at the responsibility as something to enjoy and learn from.

POWERLINEBLOG.COM is Tops of the political blogs: There are 3 gentlemen( I believe 2 lawyers and 1 banker) involved and they're not particularly of the evangelical persuasion but they are very sharp and make excellent points in their many postings. I read them every day.

This was interesting:

"How Low Can They Go?

Someone apparently named D Wentworth went to the trouble of tracking down my office email address in order to send me the delightful email quoted in full below. He sent the same message to a number of other conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, and also sent a copy to our site email box:

I am a fat gay man looking for some action. I'm not too fat, kind of a mix of Limbaughs ass with Goldbergs head. If you are interested in some good Chrisitian gay sex, lets get it on!

Oh Rush btw - I got you a stash man of percocet, crack, and Boones!

We've gotten thousands of similar emails from liberal Democrats. We almost never read them (in fact, we hardly ever even see them), but every once in a while we pluck one out of the garbage can, pass it around and laugh at it. D Wentworth's message is in that category.

The person who wrote this email is, of course, deeply disturbed. What is significant, I think, is not his particular psychopathology, but the fact that this kind of sickness is so widespread. The ugly reality is that the weirdo who sent this email typifies a broad segment of the American left. That's why we get thousands of emails like this, not just a few dozen.

Oh, one more thing: we've learned a lot more than we ever wanted to know about the sexual fantasies of American lefties. We can tell you this: as reflected in our email, their fantasies are 100%, with zero exceptions, homosexual. Make of that what you will. I can't explain it."

JB here: Ancient Scripture states that homosexual acts lead to a corruption of the soul. The modern man appears intent upon disproving that thesis. But you read the attacks, such as the 1 above, and the people engaged in the attacks appear to be proving the thesis of Ancient Scripture.

Found on Michelle Malkin's website

ANOTHER HATE CRIME HOAX
By Michelle Malkin · May 09, 2005 06:01 AM

Did you hear about the lesbian Tamalpais High School student who was pelted with eggs, had her locker and car vandalized, and has been flooded with handmade hate messages? The words "Die Fag" were spray painted on her school's wall.

The incidents sparked outrage among the school's students, teachers, and administrators, who came together for an anti-hate vigil.

Well, the perpetrator has been suspended--the lesbian "victim," who admitted to police that she faked the incidents to garner attention:

JB here: The more leftist/radical types are desperately searching for Evangelicals who do hateful things to liberals and radicals. Unluckily, the liberals/leftist often (but not always) have to do their own dirty deeds and then blame it on the Evangelicals. Just where is a nasty, hate-filled Evangelical when you need him? sigh

National Review: Jay Nordlinger (Absolutely read the whole thing!)



May 09, 2005, 7:42 a.m.
The One and Only, &c.

Can you believe what President Bush said in the Baltics? Can you believe he went to the Baltics, before visiting Russia for the 60th anniversary? Oh, yes, you can, if you know President Bush.

I have said it before, friends, and will remind you again: There will never be another like him. Enjoy it while you can. The clock is ticking till January ’09.

From Dr. Al Mohler

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And the Bible contains so much material that runs against the moral sense of a largely-secularized society. Let’s just be honest and admit right up front that the Bible pulls no punches and leaves no room for a public relations effort to clean up the dust storm. The Bible begins with a straight-forward declaration of divine creation, complete with a divine design for every aspect of the created order. Then, we confront the creation of human beings as made in the image of God, and thus uniquely gifted and accountable as moral and spiritual creatures. And, we add, human beings are made male and female to the glory of the Creator. There it is--gender as part of the goodness of God’s creation. This is no vision of gender differences as mere social construction. Marriage immediately follows as the divinely--designed institution for human ordering, reproduction, sexuality, and romantic fulfillment. Marriage--the union of one man and one woman--is presented as an objective reality constituted as a moral covenant with legal and moral boundaries, not as a contract to be made, remade, or unmade at will.

Then comes sin. The third chapter of Genesis clearly fails to meet muster in terms of modern psychotherapeutic expectations. Responsibility for sin is laid right at human feet; and the consequences of sin--downright repressive--are worse than draconian. Most troubling of all, sin is presented as something that tells the truth about us--not merely the truth about a sinful world system. From beginning to end, the Bible undermines the modern secular worldview at its very foundation.

JB here: The plantive cry of the moderate (either secularist or Christian) "can't we all just get along?" is brought to nothing by the stand of ancient Scriptures. There is no half-way compromise. According to Scriptures, truth is truth and anything else is untruth. Wishing to make untruth truth, will never succeed. (Read the whole thing)

From the New Republic by Ross Douthat

( Speaking of the liberal/moderates view that the church would grow better if only it liberalized - got with the modern, secular agenda.)

..................................................................................................................
But in fact, exactly this experiment has already been carried out--by the mainline Protestant denominations, which have spent the last half-century moving to ordain women, accept homosexuality, endorse birth control, remarriage, and even in some cases abortion, and to permit local congregations to manage their own affairs with little or no interference from above. And over the same progressive half-century, mainline Protestantism has endured a slow-motion collapse--in influence, prestige, and membership.

The Episcopal Church offers the most striking example of this phenomenon, since it would seem to embody everything that a Garry Wills or a Maureen Dowd would like Catholicism to be--the liturgy and tradition, that is, without the sexual prohibitions and inconvenient dogmas. Yet in an era when John Paul II supposedly alienated so many otherwise faithful Catholics, it's Episcopalianism, not Catholicism, that's been hemorrhaging members, dropping from over 3.5 million American communicants in 1965 to under 2.5 million today. Far from making itself more appealing and more relevant, the Episcopal Church's reforms seemed to have decreased its ranks in the United States.

JB here: RADICAL PURSUIT of God brings transformation worth dying for. Anything less is probably just assuaging your guilt.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER? Found on Fox News

Food for Thought

Marshall Junior High in Clovis, New Mexico (search), was locked down after someone saw a boy carrying what police thought could be a weapon. Armed officers were placed on nearby rooftops, local streets were closed off, and dozens of anxious parents fled to the school to pull their children out of harm's way. But it turned out the threatening item was a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos, all wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-Shirt. The oversized burrito was for an assignment on product promotion.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report

JB here: I always knew a full blown burrito was incredibly dangerous. That fact has not yet stopped me from indulging in the treat, but neither have I been threatened with arrest for carrying one around in my car. Maybe I need to pay more attention.

Mother's Day

THANK YOU MOM!

Kudos and yips to mothers through-out the known and unknown universe. Where would mankind be without you?

I particularly praise my mother . She is now 83 and not in the best of health. In fact she nearly died in January of this year but God has seen fit to bring her back and give our family more time to know, talk to and love her.

I am her only son and she administered more punishment to me in the child years than my 4 sisters combined. While she has worried about that for decades; the reality is I received less than 1/2 the punishment I really deserved. I was a brat and she simply tried to direct me towards wisdom and maturity. Now that was a challenging task.

But, despite the spankings and time-outs, I always knew my Mother loved me. If I wanted to talk, she wanted to listen. She dedicated herself to preparing healthy food for her family. Sometimes the experiments in healthy eating did not always pan out ( see the spaghetti and liver-balls fiasco) but her heart desired that we would be healthy and have long lives.

She had respect for her children. No, she didn't equate us with adults and she did insist we treat her with respect but she never acted like we were ignorant morons (which of course we all were at times). She let us grow into ourselves and was patient with the outcome.

Finally, she was and is the most devout of mothers. She has a staunch faith in Jesus Christ and she made it her goal to act and live by that faith. The person one saw at church was the person one saw at home. There was no difference, there was no hypocrisy. For her faith she has been mightily blessed.

My mother and my, very healthy, father have been married for 63 years or so. They've had a great marriage. The family attributes a whole lot of that to my mother (yes Dad, you contributed too but Mom, well she was the glue that held things together).

So today I drink a coffee toast to my mother - . May she enjoy her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren until she is graduated from this imperfect and painful life to the perfect and joyful life with her mother, father and siblings in the presence of the Loving and Living God.

While surfing the internet at 5 a.m. Sunday morning I found this site. Below is just a couple of paragraphs. If you're interested in challenges facing the Mormons attempting to rely on Joseph Smith, you'll read it here.

"One by one, virtually every Mormon belief about the Book of Abraham once considered essential to its support and regarded as faith promoting, has been shattered by the facts.
"Not one trace of reliable evidence has appeared that would support the LDS view of the Book of Abraham as an authentic scripture, while an enormous amount of evidence is available to show that it is a man-made production of the nineteenth century, created by Joseph Smith to support his claim among his people to be a 'prophet, seer, and revelator.'... When an individual fails to respond openly and honestly to such a problem it only passes the problem--and the pain of dealing with it--to someone else, multiplying ignorance and hurt in the process....
"So much potential pain to loved ones and future generations could be avoided! How? By placing truth ahead of convenience, by being honest with ourselves and with others.
"The question of meeting challenges to our faith really does matter, because truth matters. The Bible gives us the promise that 'the truth shall make you free' (John 8:32)--and that includes being free from delusion." (By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus, pages 169, 171, 175, 181)


JB here: ANY religion founded by 1 man is guaranteed to be false. You can take it to 'Vegas and bet the house on it.

Found on Hugh Hewitt


Democratic Senator Harry Reid called George Bush a loser today, just as the president began a trip abroad. Classy. And which of course leads us to ask you to finish the sentence: "Harry Reid calling George Bush a loser is like ___ calling ____ a ____." E-mail your suggestions to hugh@hughhewitt.com.



Wilt Chamberlin calling the Pope promiscuous.

Neville Chamberlain calling Churchill a poor judge of German leaders.

Tom Daschle calling John Thune a loser!

Dean Martin calling Carrie Nation a boozer

Milli Vanilli calling Bob Dylan "inauthentic."

Jimmy Carter calling Ronald Regan a failed President


JB here: Read the whole thing. There's much more..

"Yips" to Llamabutchers.com

"Quoting P.J. O'Rourke; 'Politics is the business of gaining status and power without merit'."

JB here: A most telling quote. So few politicians actually have real "cojones." (Semi-Mexican for "guts.")

Favorite soul singer

Ga. Town Honors James Brown With Statue

Found on Town Hall by Marvin Olasky

Read what a largely forgotten scholar, J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937), said at Hampden-Sydney College on June 9, 1929.

Machen was a strong and courageous Christian. In 1929, he had for 23 years taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, a beautiful place that had just been taken over by theological liberals. He had suffered personal attacks in a decade-long seminary war now lost, but had held firm. He would return to Princeton from his graduation address in Virginia only to pack up and move to Philadelphia to start Westminster Theological Seminary.

Calmly but sadly, he began his Hampden-Sydney talk by noting that: "It is a serious step, in these days, even from the worldly point of view, to become a Christian. ... The man who today enters upon the Christian life is enlisting in a warfare against the whole current of the age."

He said that the conflict "can be avoided if the one who professes Christianity adapts his message to the desires of those who are about him. ... Such a Christianity ... causes no more disturbance than is caused to a stream by a chip that floats downward with the current. But very different is the case if the Christian proclaims without fear or favor the gospel that is contained in the Word of God."

JB here: J. Gresham Machen, a stupendous scholar; a great man was actually defrocked by the United Presbyterian Church due to his refusual to water down the ancient Scriptures and join the progressive/modern flow towards a more liberal church. He seemed to think the church would become irrelevant and die. The "mainline" Protestant Churches of our generation are a testament to his insight and wisdom. Does anybody attend anymore? Does anybody care.

A Disturbing, but not surprising, piece of news found on Michelle Malkin who found it on Frontpagemag.

Felons lose their right to vote while in prison in most states and even after release in a few states, including Florida. In 2000 an estimated 10,000 felons voted illegally in Florida. Where their voter registration was checked, 85 percent of these convicted felons were registered as Democrats.

(This makes perfect sense for them to favor the party of legalized theft, taxing the daylights out of the rich and productive so that the fruits of their labor can be given to the lazy and unproductive. Democratic Party class warfare is the criminal mindset in political form.)
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JB here: There are so many images that come to mind as one considers crooked politicians of the Democrat variety. However, given enough time in power the Repubs may match or surpass what the Dems have done, but probably not in my lifetime.

A GOD OF INCALCUABLE LOVE; YET A GOD OF ABSOLUTE JUSTICE


May 05, 2005

Okla. Mom Charged in Girl's Decapitation
By MATT SEDENSKY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -

For four years, she was known only as Precious Doe, a little girl whose headless body was found along a road. On Thursday, police identified the girl, arrested her mother on murder charges and pronounced the sad mystery solved.

The girl with big brown eyes and neat cornrows in her hair was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green, just shy of 4 when she was found.

Her mother, Michelle M. Johnson, 30, was charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Police said she told them her husband, Erica's stepfather, killed the girl with a kick to the head and used hedge clippers to sever her head.
.....................................................................
JB here: There is great evil in our world, a cancer that continues to work at destroying the fabric of society.
But there is a great God who brings great and exact justice on His time table. Ancient Scripture says the unrepentant wicked will NOT go unpunished.
Forgive me for MY sins.

The Names of God posted on The Sheeps Crib

El Elyon - God Most High
El Roi - God Who Sees
El Shaddai - All Mighty God
Jehovah Jireh - The Lord Who Provides
Jehovah Mekoddishkem - The Lord Who Sanctifies
Jehovah Nissi - The Lord My Banner
Jehovah Raah - The Lord My Shepherd
Jehovah Rapha - The Lord Who Heals
Jehovah Sabaoth - The Lord Of The Harvest
Jehovah Shalom - The Lord Of Peace
Jehovah Shammah - The Lord Is There
Jehovah Tsidkenu - The Lord Our Righteousness

JB here: The Ancient Scriptures are truly without peer and the God who provided them is the only God with a big "G".

AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS

On another website I DESIRE THE FUTURE there was a discussion today about music; how we respond to it and to what generation (60's, 70's, 80's etc) we most vibrate.
I love music. I love to drive down the road and crank the car stereo way up just letting the music pour over me. My folks never did that, though they were always exceedingly active in the music at all the churches they attended over the years. But I don't think they ever "cranked" up the car radio. However, they watch/listen to the concerts Bill Gaither produces for television everyday that they can. While there are quite a few of the newer artists; there are a lot of the older ones too. Most of them seem to have retained their voice.

But give me the car, a long stretch of open road, a lack of neighbors on that road and I will just flat out let it loose. The louder the better. Tears, blues, adrenaline and reminensce about the lost things of childhood; music brings them all to the heart and to the soul. And in the car, you can really get caught up in the feelings and passion of the music that touches your heart.

Found on AlbertMohler.Com

CHRISTIAN MORALITY AND PUBLIC LAW:
.....................................................................................
"Speaking from Christian conviction, I would finally suggest two principles for our consideration that come directly from the Word of God and from the command of Jesus. In the greatest commandment, we are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. The second is like it: We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. A Christian's motivation for entering the public square and advocating public policy is love of neighbor. Our concern in political, moral, social, and cultural engagement is not simply to impose Christianity--as if the mere imposition of a Christian moral code would be sufficient. Rather, our concern is love for our neighbor. We are motivated by love for other human beings, believing that health and welfare and happiness and commonweal are dependent on society's being ordered in such a way that the Creator's intentions for human relationships are honored and upheld--and that will inevitably require restrictions on human conduct. Only when the Creator's intentions for human society are upheld will His desire for human happiness also be realized among us.

As Christians, we understand the law of the harvest--as we sow, so shall we reap--and thus we must make arguments about action and consequence that deal not only with demographic and economic and cultural realities, but with issues far more important than any considered in the secular world. Love of neighbor means we are compelled out of concern for our fellow citizens to see the law and public policy rightly ordered in such a way that maximum human happiness will be achieved.

JB here: Christians have often been perceived, with good reason, as the "Thou Shalt Not" party. But the irony is this, unfettered freedom has always led to great pain and personal and corporate destruction. As a culture adheres more closely to principles of life found in ancient scripture, the culture is healthier and it is happier.
"Thou shalt not touch" the hot stove does limit one's freedom; but the benefits are clear.

Of course if you're into pain then by all means reject the tenets of ancient scripture. You will know pain.

Found on ALBERTMOHLER.COM

Posted: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 at 4:09 pm ET

Unstrange Bedfellows--Bishop Gene Robinson and Planned Parenthood

Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church USA's first openly-homsoexual bishop, recently addressed a Planned Parenthood "prayer breakfast" and national leadership conference. According to The Washington Times, Robinson told the crowd that liberals must offer a "religious defense" against conservative Christianity. "Our defense against religious people has to be a religious defense. . . . We must use people of faith to counter the faith-based arguments against us," he said. In his article, reporter Jon Ward revealed that Robinson "took aim at traditional interpretations of the Bible." In the bishop's words: "We have allowed the Bible to be taken hostage, and it is being wielded by folks who would use it to hit us over the head. We have to take back those Scriptures . . . You know, those stories are our stories. I tell this to lesbian folk all the time: The story of freedom in Exodus is our story. . . . That's my story, and they can't have it." So, the Exodus is his story. The biblical account of the rescue of the Children of Israel from the hands of the Eyptians becomes a narrative of homosexual liberation. How does he get to this? Look at his principle of biblical interpretation: "What an unimaginative God it would be if God only put one meaning in any verse of Scripture." Ah, imagination. It certainly takes a great deal of imagination to get to Bishop Robinson's interpretation of Scripture--especially those texts that so clearly condemn homosexuality as sin.
........

JB here: There is more. As you might well suspect "the bish" also sports a woman's right to have an abortion; but only in a loving and thoughtful way.

My mother-in-law is doing quite poorly; she may die soon. Her husband died 6 or 7 months ago after suffering from Parkinson's disease for 20 years. My mother-in-law had her first 4 children before the eldest (my wife) turned 7. Just think, 4 little girls all under the age of 7 (no twins). Life had to be quite hectic and chaotic. Plus they were very poor. But abortion? Never an option in that family - thank goodness. I have wonderful sister-in-laws. BTW, my in-laws added 2 more children some years after the first 4. Their last child was FINALLY a boy. And that's the way it was.

Found on Yahoo.com


By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer Mon May 2, 6:34 PM ET

LONDON - Adolf Hitler was a shaking, graying, weakened man who "sank into himself" in the final days before his suicide on April 30, 1945, according to the first published account of his nurse, who worked in his bunker as Allied forces closed in on Berlin.
ADVERTISEMENT

Erna Flegel, now 93 and living in a nursing home in northern Germany, told Britain's Guardian newspaper in an interview published Monday that Hitler "had a lot of gray hair and gave the impression of a man at least 15 to 20 years older," toward the end of his life.

"In the last few days, Hitler sank into himself," Flegel said. "He shook a great deal, walking was difficult for him, his right side was still very much weakened as a result of the attempt on his life (in July 1944)."

With defeat imminent, Hitler, 56, shot himself and his mistress Eva Braun — whom he married shortly before his death — committed suicide by taking cyanide in his underground bunker in Berlin.

Flegel dismissed Braun.

"She didn't have any importance. Nobody expected much of her," she said. "She wasn't really his wife."

By contrast, Flegel described Magda Goebbels, wife of Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, as "a brilliant woman, on a far higher level than most people."

The Goebbels also killed themselves and poisoned their six children in the bunker after Hitler's death.

Flegel said she tried to persuade Mrs. Goebbels not to take the lives of her children as Russian troops got closer.

But Goebbels replied: "I belong to my husband. And the children belong to me," Flegel recalled.

"You have to understand that we were living outside normal reality," Flegel said..............


JB here: As a personal matter I'm also currently 56, the same age as Hitler when he committed suicide. I don't feel like committing suicide; homicide - yes, but not suicide. Let's look at this objectively, Hitler didn't face the daily vehicle congestion that I do on the roads of Florida.
All kidding aside; one wonders how this basically incompetent little man ever came to rule and abuse a great country like Germany. Hitler wasn't physically distinguished, wasn't big, wasn't handsome and doesn't appear to have been a great "networker." But he assumed power and changed the world bringing about the deaths of many millions in the process.

Did Hitler serve God's purposes? Does the "sovereignty of God" account for Hitler?

One of my favorite pieces of wisdom: "There is a God, I am not He."
So I don't understand, but it is not required that I do. JB

Found on NationalReview.com (Be sure and read the whole thing; it is a "hoot." Gibson (gratuitous humor based on old television westerns)

By Christina Hoff Sommers

Warning:The following contains adult (in this case, collegiate) language, along with gratuitous references to male and female genitalia.

College administrators have been enthusiastic supporters Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues and schools across the nation celebrate “V-Day” (short for Vagina Day) every year. But when the College Republicans at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island rained on the celebrations of V-Day by inaugurating Penis Day and staging a satire called The Penis Monologues, the official reaction was horror. Two participating students, Monique Stuart and Andy Mainiero, have just received sharp letters of reprimand and have been placed on probation by the Office of Judicial Affairs. The costume of the P-Day “mascot” — a friendly looking “penis” named Testaclese, has been confiscated and is under lock and key in the office of the assistant dean of student affairs, John King.


The P-Day satirists are the first to admit that their initiative is tasteless and crude. But they rightly point out that V-Day is far more extreme. They are shocked that the administration has come down hard on their good-natured spoof, when all along it has been completely accommodating to the in-your-face vulgarity of the vagina activists.


JB here: Ya know, women must be careful when engaging (young) men in the war of the sexes. The (young) men will be less circumspect, much cruder and more over-the-top then the women. The women's boundaries for what is acceptable will come before the men's ( many of whom have no boundaries in tastelessness in our "liberated" society.)
I suspect the "V" monologues are on the way out. The Young Repubs of at Roger Williams U. have set a standard which is sure to catch on rapid-fire across college campi with the "knuckle-dragging numbskulls" of Lambda Lambda Lambda (The Tri Lambs) and their ilk. Will the Young Males of any University gladly celebrate "P" day? Is Jane Fonda unpopular with the Vietnam Vets? Is Rush Limbaugh conservative? If you answered "yes" to the last 2 questions, you'll undoubtedly select the correct answer to the first question.

Found in Hatemongers Quarterly May 2 2005

Hate Mongers discussing a "personal add."

"Herpes-Hindered

If you know what that’s like, we’ve already got something in common. Smart, sexy, free-spirited critical thinker, 39, seeks long-term love. Please be leftist, into books, films, changing the world.

We know what you are thinking, dear reader: This chick sounds mighty classy. In fact, we found it surprising that such a critical thinker who aims to “change the world” would be herpes-stricken. Who would have thought that she would be a leftist?

Clearly, this advertisement says a great deal about the current state of American politics. We don’t want to make assumptions based on anecdotal evidence, but we think that this ad makes clear that every Democrat has herpes.

As far as we can tell, this lady’s sufficiently “free-spirited” to have a nasty sexually transmitted disease, but insufficiently “free-spirited” to enjoy the company of a conservative.

Hey: We all have our limits. Hers just happens to be right after herpes, and right before conservative."


JB here: As Hatemonger's makes the point, "free-spirited" can definitely come at a price. Secondly, in our culture "free-spirited" does seem to correlate many times with "promiscuous." But even an exceedingly careful perusual of the personal adds will never turn up the phrase suggesting that one is actually promiscuous, only "free-spirited."
Virginity, for the non-married, may actually be a very good thing.

Found on President Aristotle
(JB here: It's a tremendous read -- all of it.)

It was Oswald Spengler who seems to have seen it first, TS Eliot who saw it most clearly: the death of Europe and European civilization. When Eliot wrote The Waste Land in 1922, he saw the life of a great culture, a great continent, sinking down into mud and dead branches.
.................................................................................................................

Eliot came in the role of the Old Testament prophet, a new Ezekiel who had seen his wife die (emotionally and mentally in Eliot's case), and had never shed a tear; a man face to face with a god whom he did not understand, and an avalanche of violence and desolation that swept away everything he loved. Only now was the aftermath--the arid waterless dessicated dryness of spirit, a heart as hard and dry as a burnt potsherd on a desert at high noon.

...................................................................................................................

The language was Dante's, the vision Bertrand Russell's--it was a vision that came to Russell on the streets of London, one he says he shared with Eliot. For Eliot and Russell had been joined together in the Bloomsbury circle--Russell had taken Eliot's wife as a prize, taken her within two weeks of her returning from her honeymoon with Eliot. Soon Russell offered the apparently unsuspecting Eliot space in his house for Eliot and his wife--the better to control his prey. Russell was then globally famous as a philosopher, had led the destruction of post-Kantian Idealist philosophy, and was laying the foundations for the analytical philosophy that would soon control the philosophy departments of most of the English-speaking world. For his part, Eliot had written a doctoral dissertation on Idealist philosophy at Harvard, but would never join the analytical movement: the philosopher who succeeded in putting himself in Eliot's wife's heart never succeeded in putting his philosophy into the heart of Eliot.

II The Game of Chess
I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

Eliot's marriage had become a purgatorio; Eliot's wife became increasingly unstable and she would die in an insane asylum. The years after World War I were a time of melting marriages and widespread abortion, abortions both outside marriage and within: "The chemist said it would be alright," says a character in The Waste Land, "but I've never been the same." Nor has Europe.

JB here: Question: Does sin inevitably bring pain? Is there a moral universe with its own laws that inevitably punish those who break them? Or, do some people never suffer for their violation of the moral universe? We know T.S. Eliot suffered. Obviously Mrs. Eliot suffered. But what about Bertrand Russell? Did he suffer; experience guilt, feel any remorse or responsibility? PROBABLY NOT. After all he attempted to build a philosophy that would allow him to follow his passions, no matter how perverse. Yet, " it is appointed unto man once to die, then judgement." But possibly, on this planet, Bertrand Russell knew emptiness, but no necessarily suffering. He may well have simply left that to others.