"A man may deal with theory, and miss the whole impact of the truth." - G. Campbell Morgan
Sunday, November 30, 2008
How to Beat Your Wife
I think I posted this before but it helps to review. :-)
I'd hate to see how he beats a child.
Now He Tells Us
"I am not a miracle worker."
That's not exactly the impression he gave his followers during his campaign.
Supposedly, Obama has developed a facial tick and it's supposed to be visible in that interview but either it's not that bad or it occurs further along in the video than I can stand watching. My eyes hurt now.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Suspected Ideology Allegedly Strikes Again
Mark Steyn: Mumbai could happen just about anywhere
So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists don't seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we haven't yet held talks without preconditions with. This isn't about repudiating the Bush years, or withdrawing from Iraq, or even liquidating Israel. It's bigger than that. And if you don't have a strategy for beating back the ideology, you'll lose.
How Embarrassing
Cardboard 'man' keeps cops at bay
When officers arrived, they saw what they thought was at least one person through the windows of the bank, which had its blinds drawn, according to authorities.
Police sealed off the area to traffic and evacuated residents in three nearby apartment buildings.
"I drove in the parking lot (of my apartment building) and see all these guys with guns," said Ross Stout, who lives nearby.
Authorities tried to make contact with whoever might be in the building. Officers used bullhorns and then tried to call inside the building, Forrest said.
After failing to get any response from the figure inside, the SWAT team entered.
To their chagrin, they discovered the "person" seen inside the building was a full-size cardboard figure, Forrest said.
Bad guy 1, cops 0.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Couple of Cool Videos
Using tilt-shift photography
The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Inclusiveness through Exclusivity
Ottawa university boots cystic fibrosis from charity drive
The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough.
Cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men" said the motion read Monday night to student councillors, who voted almost unanimously in favour of it.
It gets worse:
It is correct to say that cystic fibrosis "does affect Caucasian populations primarily," according to Cathleen Morrison, CEO of the CCFF.
However, the term Caucasian includes people from South Asia, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and Israel, Morrison said.
"These are Caucasian populations," Morrison told CTV.ca. "These people do not have white skin. They have CF, it now seems, in the same ratios as other Caucasian people who do have white skin."
Non-white caucasians are OK, it's just those damn white people they can't stand.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Poking Sticks at False Gods
The price of dissent on global warming
I've seen evidence, which I believe, that says there has not been a rise in global temperature since 1998, despite the increase in carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere. This makes me think the global warmers are telling lies: CO2 is not the driver. The idiot fringe has accused me of being like a Holocaust denier, which is ludicrous. Climate change is all about cycles. It's a natural thing and has always happened. When the Romans lived in Britain they were growing very good red grapes and making wine on the borders of Scotland. It was evidently a lot warmer.
If you were sitting next to me 10,000 years ago, we'd be under ice. So thank God for global warming for ending that ice age; we wouldn't be here otherwise.
People such as former American vice-president Al Gore say that millions of us will die because of global warming, which I think is a pretty stupid thing to say if you've got no proof. And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that CO2 has anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry.
In fact, it's not even science any more; it's anti-science.
There's no proof, it's just projections, and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry-pick the ones that support their beliefs. To date, the way the so-called Greens and the BBC, the Royal Society and even political parties have handled this smacks of McCarthyism at its worst.
Global warming is part of a natural cycle and there's nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist.
What's the Big Deal?
This clip has gotten a lot of negative coverage, especially from MSNBC. But it's not gory, and it happens to be reality. Where do you think turkey comes from? Why try to pretend our food just magically appears in supermarkets? That's not reality. It used to be people did this in their backyards in this country. I wish more still did, we need a more decentralized food supply.
This guy gets it:
Hat tip: Treacher
Sign the Petition
Insufficient public interest?
Another lawsuit attempting to obtain a copy of Barack Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate was thrown out Friday by a judge who said there was "insufficient evidence to indicate that the public interest supports" the document's release.
Judge Bert Ayabe upheld arguments from Republican Gov. Linda Lingle's office, which, inexplicably, has fought tooth and nail to protect the birth certificate from public scrutiny even though it remains the key to establishing whether the man elected to be the next president is actually eligible under the Constitution.
Ayabe ruled that Andy Martin, the man who filed the suit, did not have standing under state law because he did "not have a direct and tangible interest in the vital statistic records being sought, namely the birth certificate of President Obama."
Yes, you read that right. The judge in the case not only denied the motion, he also elevated Obama to the presidency before the Electoral College votes and before the Inauguration takes place Jan. 20. Is it any wonder he didn't understand the constitutional issues at stake?
But it is that other excuse for not releasing the document that really has me bugged – "insufficient evidence to indicate that the public interest supports" the release.
Sign the Petition
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
And No Vouchers for You!
Liberal messiah sending his daughters to ritzy private school
Michelle believes very strongly in the value of public education, mind you. Just not for her kids.
I don't blame him, I would do the same, but not while denying others the chance to get out of the cesspool, too.
What Every Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is Wearing
Bra for the boys
"I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time',"
Don't negotiate with Somali pirates without one.
Flying Out of Newark Airport?
Controllers say planes still making wrong turn at Newark Airport
One of the comments: "They're making wrong turns because they don't know about the jughandles."
By golly, I think he's right.
We need 'Warriors' not 'Worriers,'
Where's Gen. Patton when you need him?
Though Adm. Mullen is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and holds control of the most powerful military in the history of humanity, a ragtag group of Somali terrorists on speed boats and wielding machine guns have all but stopped commercial shipping in one of the busiest and most lucrative shipping lanes in the world. All the U.S., the "international community," the U.N., the Saudis, can do is pay the $25 million ransom, and Adm. Mullen brags about the effectiveness of the enemy:
MULLEN: The – they're very good at what they do. They're highly, you know, they're very well-armed. Tactically they're very good. And so once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to get them off, because clearly now they hold hostages. And from the standpoint of – the question then becomes, well, what do you do about the hostages? And that's where the standoff is.
Instead of having a real man, an intelligent man, a competent man of action like Gen. Patton, whose resume in World War II alone solidified his place as arguably the greatest military leader in American history, we have the bungling incompetence of President Bush, the uselessness of Adm. Mullen and the vanity of U.N. diplomacy with terrorists.
Dr. Savage concluded with these statements: "We need 'warriors' not 'worriers,'" and "If we have the greatest military in the world, but are afraid to use it, what good is it to us?"
This is so sad. We're screwed.
We Know
The government is making suckers of us all
"It is not your money."
That about says it all - and that was a Republican congressman that said that. We're all so screwed.
Not Caught on Tape
Helicopter in dramatic near-miss with 'sinister' UFO 1,500ft above Birmingham.
It was a cloudless night and the police helicopter was carrying out surveillance over Birmingham when the attention suddenly switched from ground to sky.
Beside it was a small aircraft beaming out continuous blue-green lights.
It came within almost 300ft, forcing the pilot to swerve out of its path, and appeared to circle the helicopter in a cheeky gesture before flying off.
Sinister, cheeky aliens. Har.
They have more cameras in England than anywhere and they don't have them in police helicopters?
A commenter posts: "Call me a conspiracy nut but I think we are being fed more and more of this nonsense for a reason."
Be Careful With Your Keys
How a camera can 'steal' your keys
Scientists in California have developed a software algorithm that automatically creates a physical key based solely on a picture of one, regardless of angle or distance. The project, called Sneakey, was meant to warn people about the dangers of haphazardly placing keys in the open or posting images of them online.
What would we do without scientists?
Friday, November 21, 2008
Firewalker
I've been to a fire festival in Japan. They build a huge bonfire with mostly small tree branches and when it burns down they rake it flat and everyone walks through it. It didn't seem very magical to me, literally anyone who wanted to could and did walk through it. I agree with the video, it's just contact time.
America is Going the Wrong Way
Has been for some time. Electing Obama is not change, it's putting the pedal to the metal.
Bush's Legacy: European Socialism
- At the G-20 meeting, Bush agreed to subject the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other regulatory agencies to the supervision of a global entity that would critique its regulatory standards and demand changes if it felt they were necessary.
- All kinds of political agendas are advancing under the cover of response to the global financial crisis. Where Franklin Roosevelt saved capitalism by regulating it, Bush, to say nothing of Obama, has given the government control over our major financial and insurance institutions. And it isn't even our government! The power has now been transferred to the international community, led by the socialists in the European Union.
House of Cards
How atheism is being sold to America
- He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize that fact was to knock it down.
- Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if you wanted us to behave like the lilies of the field you might have given us an organization more like theirs. But that, I suppose, is just your grand experiment. Or no; not an experiment, for you have no need to find things out. Rather your grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron, a "spiritual animal." To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants its mate, and say, "Now get on with it. Become a god."
- Our life is a gift – including the suffering. It's time we stopped spitting at the gift-Giver. Atheists who rant pompously against God are a little like ants, muttering and sputtering furiously against man, believing themselves superior to him (if he even exists!).
- So, even if we suffer, even if we need to be "knocked silly" like C.S. Lewis, even if we lose everything like Job, what of it? The magic of redemption is in the air when we suffer with patience and humility and without anger – and allow God to transform us at our core, into the giant oak. This is a great mystery.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
IAEA: Syrian site failed the duck test
Syria denies that the site hit by Israel in September 2007 had anything to do with nuclear work, but the IAEA says it looked and quacked like an atomic duck to them.
It Boils Down to This
Why socialism is evil
Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism.
Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you, and I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.
Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.
Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible, but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.
I know people who would think it OK to force a neighbor to mow the elderly widow's lawn; as long as it wasn't them.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Stop the Bailouts
Neal Boortz is right about this: The Voting Is Far From Over
Now first, let’s get this little fact out of the way. What the political types in Washington are discussing right now is not really a bailout of the automakers. It’s a bailout of the United Auto Workers. It’s a union bailout. It’s payback for the millions of dollars and thousands of hours union volunteers have poured into (almost exclusively Democrat) political campaigns. These politicians are trying to save union jobs at the current inflated rate .. nothing less.
Just why are these U.S. auto makers in trouble? They’re on the ropes because they’ve been losing elections. Automobile buyers have been casting their ballots for the other candidates. They looked at the field, talked to their friends, watched endless campaign (car) commercials on television, and voted. They voted for Toyota and Honda. If they had a pant-full of ballots to cast the vote went to Jaguar, Mercedes and Lexus. True, some voters liked the Big-Three candidates, but not enough. The buyers cast their votes for performance, styling, warranties and value. Somehow they intuitively knew that they would get more value from a manufacturer paying $40 per hour for labor than from one spending almost twice that much.
You really should read the whole thing, he explains it well.
A Lucky Puppy
Miracle pup clings to bonnet
he hit the dog so hard he was embedded in the grill under the bonnet of the Peugeot 207 and managed to cling on until the car eventually stopped.
Vets have treated the stray for a broken leg and bruising and he's now in a police pound looking for new owner.
Look at the picture at the link.
Illinois Prisons are 'Torturing' Inmates
Obama asked to save prisoners from soy 'torture'
"This is a diet based largely on soy protein powder and soy flour. As you stated on last night's 60 Minutes Program, America does not condone torture. I think you would agree that what is happening in the Illinois prisons is a form of torture,"
Yes, you read that correctly, serving soy products to prisoners is torture. One persons health craze is another persons torture, I guess.
What ever happened to chain gangs? When there were chain gangs they didn't have so much time to bring frivolous law suits against the prisons.
Pirates Suck
Iranian grain ship seized as Somali pirates hold world to ransom
Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the world’s governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade.
What? The world's governments and navies are powerless against pirates? What are we, a bunch of pansies? We are not so bad at killing terrorists, even though we hold to a bunch of self-imposed limitations on how we do it. Pirates are just terrorists at sea. I say we kill the pirates. If they don't have an incentive to stop pirating, which, apparently, is quite lucrative, they will keep doing it and get more and more sophisticated and adept in their pirating. Kill the pirates, sink their boats, destroy their ports. At least one guy knows where they are.
I'm not sure why pirates are so glamorized in movies because real pirates suck. Seriously. Even the old ones from years ago, they were just horrible.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Pretty Girl
Man of Mystery
Wants to remain so.
Where's the birth certificate?
This just won't go away.
All that Barack Obama would have to do to put this issue to rest is to release his complete birth certificate, revealing where he was born and who were his parents.
It seems a simple thing.
Personally, I doubt the Democratic Party would be so stupid as to run an ineligible candidate for president of the United States. I doubt Hillary Clinton would have accepted defeat at the hands of a candidate ineligible for the job.
So it would seem Obama is simply thumbing his nose at the Constitution and the concerns of millions of American people. After all, he has made it clear the Constitution doesn't mean what it says anyway. It's all a matter of opinion.
Maybe his intransigence on this seemingly ridiculous matter is just his way of showing he will, as president, consider himself above the Constitution. I don't know any other way to interpret his behavior, do you?
Too many questions and never any answers with Obama.
What does the Dog do when it finally Catches the Car?
Life of Riley vs. Life of Brian
Democrats are thinking it's going to be a long and disappointing four to eight years for Republicans, but I believe it's going to be the other way around. Republicans know exactly what's coming – many Democrats do not. Or should I say, they don't know what's not coming.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
In a Word ... Yes.
Is liberalism political madness?
Rossiter said that liberalism is "based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions; modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded."
How Did They Do That?
Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?
The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside out, via a spiraling, inclined interior tunnel—an idea that contradicts the prevailing wisdom that the monuments were built using an external ramp.
Yeah, it's not what they taught you. Surprised?
Puppy Baby Mills
Police raids reveal 'baby farms'
POLICE raids have revealed an alleged network baby "farms" or "factories" in Nigeria, forcing a new look at the scope of people trafficking in the country.
In Africa. Figures.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Give Us a King to Rule Over Us
Ex-Hitler youth's warning to America
"Democratic procedures can be subverted and dishonest politicians are like sand in the gearbox, abundant, everywhere and destructive," he writes. "What I see in America today is people painting their cabins while the ship goes down. Today in America we are witnessing a repeat performance of the tragedy of 1933 when an entire nation let itself be led like a lamb to the Socialist slaughterhouse. This time, the end of freedom is inevitable unless America rises to her mission and destiny."
This is interesting, although using Hitler as an example distracts from the truth. It's not going to be exactly the same. The fact is the country is heading in the direction of allowing the government to step on our necks and tell us how it's going to be. And it's a way that doesn't work.
Americans have fought long and hard, many giving their lives to prevent this and now we are at the point of voluntarily putting on the yoke of government.
It's hard to believe.
Unbelievable
Dallas ISD faulted for using fake Social Security numbers
Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.
Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere.
"What she said:
"You can't just arbitrarily issue Social Security numbers," she said. "Even if your intention is good, it's not legal.
I wonder how many other school districts do this? And why not? It's not like anyone will have to pay a price for it, except the American people. No big deal.
Friday, November 14, 2008
It's About Time
FDA blocks import of Chinese milk products
The Food and Drug Administration has begun blocking the import of milk products from China in an effort to ensure that products contaminated with melamine do not enter the U.S. market.
The agency listed dozens of products, including cereals, snack foods, cheese, ice cream, carbonated drinks, candy, puddings and pet foods as potentially contaminated with melamine, which is used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer.
What about products already in the U.S.?
Tolerance and the Open Mind
Teen told to 'burn' for McCain T-shirt
Girl does an experiment at school to find out how people react when she wears a McCain t-shirt one day and an Obama t-shirt the next.
First, the McCain shirt,
The students were openly hostile, criticizing her support for McCain.
"People were upset," Vogt said. "But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it."
The harsh words didn't stop there.
"One person told me to go die," she said. "It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed."
Even Vogt's teachers chimed in.
"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," the teen said. "Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said."
One boy said Vogt should be killed for wearing the T-shirt.
"He said, 'You should be crucifixed,'" she told the Tribune. "It was kind of funny because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?'"
Classmates told Vogt she deserved to be "burned with her shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican," while others accused her of backing homicidal skinheads who sought to kill Obama by supporting McCain.
And the Obama shirt?
The next day, Vogt decided to complete her experiment by wearing an identical white T-shirt to school – but this time it had the blue words "Obama girl" painted on the front.
"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," she told the Tribune.
A few students were confused about Vogt's loyalties.
"A lot of people liked it," she said. "But some people told me I was a flip-flopper. They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "
And so it goes.
"I said, here you are, promoting this person [Obama] that believes we are all equal and included, and look what you've done?" the teacher said. "The students were kind of like, 'Oh, yeah.' I think they got it."
Somehow, I think not.
RINO Season is ...
Officially open says Ted Nugent.
Like any entity that abandons basic quality control, political parties rot from within. It happened to the Democrats long ago, and now has become the case with the Republican Party, which has strayed from its conservative underpinnings.
Uncle Ted hereby declares it is open season on RINOs. No bag limits or permits required. Conservative ideas, arguments and votes are the weapons we will use. Hunt them down and shine a blazing light on these RINO turncoat cockroaches.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Missing Child Found!
Under the floorboards?
Officers said it appears that somehow the child fell off the bed, got stuck in the opening and wiggled through.
Tres Bizarre.
After the case was resolved, Department of Human Services workers were called in and found the grandparents' home to be unsuitable for children, Officer John Mikkola said.
The parents of the three children then voluntarily invited DHS to come to their Mill City home that was also found to be unsuitable for children, Mikkola said.
DHS workers who took the three children into custody said the homes were just too dirty,
Now they're missing all 3 kids.
I Think I See the Problem
Dentist faces new lawsuit
A dentist and oral surgeon with a controversial past, including a raft of malpractice suits and a reprimand in a patient's death, has been sued again, this time by a Kirkland woman who said he botched a breast reduction on her three years ago when she was 15.
I'm not defending the dentist at all, but ... You had breast reduction surgery done by a dentist? And you were 15, so your parents had to know, right? And they let you get breast reduction surgery done by a dentist?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wise in Their Own Eyes
"Intellectuals"
Among the many wonders to be expected from an Obama administration, if Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times is to be believed, is ending "the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life."
He cited Adlai Stevenson, the suave and debonair governor of Illinois, who twice ran for president against Eisenhower in the 1950s, as an example of an intellectual in politics.
Intellectuals, according to Mr. Kristof, are people who are "interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity," people who "read the classics."
It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
Nations United Against Freedom
U.N.American Agenda
Nobody is happier about the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States than the folks at the United Nations. It is as if they finally discovered kryptonite, and Superman will soon be disabled.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Great is the Revelation of the Secret of Wholeness
God's Mysteries
This word mystery is used in the New Testament of an insight into reality that is hidden from secular wisdom. The secular mind does not understand this mystery. It is something only revelation makes clear, so it will never be part of the human compendium of knowledge. You will not find it elucidated in any encyclopedia of human discovery; it is not to be found in our great universities, by and large, except as it is introduced by the church. It is a mystery, a secret about life that is hidden from the secular mind and made known only to believing hearts.
Yet this mystery is the answer to the puzzles of life. Anyone alive today knows that there are obvious gaps in human knowledge that keep us groping in darkness, unable to solve our problems. That is why every generation deals with the same dilemmas over and over again. We review the past continually but never learn from it.
The reason is that we are missing elements of truth about ourselves, about God, and about the universe; and those missing elements are found only in the pages of Scripture. That is what makes the Bible the most important and unique book in the world. Nothing reveals this truth except the mind and will of God through the Spirit of God. This is the heart of that mystery. So it is indeed the great mystery, a significant and important truth. --Ray Stedman
I Didn't See This Coming
Man 'wants to marry' cartoon character
Dude, snap out of it. Lay off the manga and anime. You cannot be a two-dimensional character. They are figments of someone's imagination. Being able to have a relationship with a two-dimensional character is a figment of your imagination. If you want to pretend you're married to a character, go for it, no one can stop you. Just stop trying reach back from your delusion and trying to pull the rest of us in with you.
Speaking of Two-Dimensional Characters
Obama's a better Symbol than a President
In his Wednesday night infomercial, Obama declared that his "fundamental belief" was that "I am my brother's keeper." Back in Kenya, his brother lives in a shack on 12 bucks a year. If Barack is his brother's keeper, why couldn't he send him a $10 bill and nearly double the guy's income? The reality is that Barack Obama assumes the government should be his brother's keeper, and his aunt's keeper. Why be surprised by that? For 20 years in Illinois, Obama has marinated in the swamps of the Chicago political machine and the campus radicalism of William Ayers and Rashid Khalidi. In such a world, the redistributive urge is more or less a minimum entry qualification.
Let the government take care of it so I can forget about all those people and go on with my life. It's not my job, I pay taxes.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Let's Talk Iran
Understanding Iran
There is a striking tendency among people in modern Western governments not to recognize the existence of evil in the world. My professional career has largely been spent studying evil. My Ph.D. is in Modern European History, and I studied fascism. Before that I was research assistant for a historian named George Mosse, who wrote books on National Socialism. People from my generation studied these things because we were trying desperately to understand how men like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin came to power, and why nobody saw it coming and understood what was at stake. Why was there the humiliation of Munich and then the Nazi invasion of Poland before an appeasement government in Britain fell and Winston Churchill came to power? Why did it require Pearl Harbor for the U.S. to enter World War II? Could we get to the point where we understood these evil regimes so well that when the next one came along we would see it coming and stop it in its tracks? But over the past 30 years we have seen the same situation play out with Iran, and still we dream of negotiation.
In Natan Sharansky’s useful formulation, if you want to know how a country will behave internationally, look at the way it treats its own people. The Iranian regime treats its people with total contempt. Consider its treatment of women. Although you will never hear the American women’s rights movement complain about it, women in Iran are officially worth half a man. It is in Iran’s Constitution. If a woman who is pregnant with a male fetus gets killed in an automobile accident, Sharia law requires the guilty party in the other car to pay a full fine for the fetus and only half that fine for the woman. This carries through every aspect of Iranian society. Women can’t own or dispose of property. If a woman’s husband dies, the family of the husband disposes of his estate. That’s the contempt that awaits us if the Iranians have their way. In fact, they view the entire non-Muslim world as worth even less than Muslim women.
But I repeat: They tell us America is the problem nation. People who grew up and live in America have the gall to tell us that. Again I say: Ha! America is the shining city on a hill compared to the rest of the world. But as we kick God out of our American dream, so God will let our dream fade.
Mark Steyn Spot-On as Usual
'Center-right' America lurches further left
"The greatest dangers to liberty," wrote Justice Brandeis, "lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
Now who does that remind you of?
Ha! Trick question! Never mind Obama, it's John McCain. He encroached on our liberties with the constitutional abomination of McCain-Feingold. Well-meaning but without understanding, he proposed that the federal government buy up all these junk mortgages so that people would be able to stay in "their" homes. And this is the "center-right" candidate? It's hard for Republicans to hammer Obama as a socialist when their own party's nationalizing the banks and its presidential nominee is denouncing the private sector for putting profits before patriotism. That's why Joe the Plumber struck a chord: He briefly turned a one-and-a-half party election back into a two-party choice again.
Here They Come
Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts
Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers' personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.
But wait, there's more...
The current retirement system, Ghilarducci said, "exacerbates income and wealth inequalities" because tax breaks for voluntary retirement accounts are "skewed to the wealthy because it is easier for them to save, and because they receive bigger tax breaks when they do."
"I'm just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading — spreading the wealth."
I'm still waiting for my car and house payment check from the government. Did you get yours yet?
Brainiac of the Year
A Coweta County man who set his house on fire while cleaning out cobwebs with a blowtorch won't be charged,
Ever hear of a pressure washer? Or a broom?
RIP: Self-Governance
You're not qualified.
Marxist tsunami won't douse liberty
It is not just a victory for the Democrats; it is a Marxist tsunami. The principles that have guided President-elect Obama to this point are deeply rooted in Marxist philosophy. He is now in the position to infuse government with this philosophy through his appointments and legislative agenda. Democrats Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Frank and others with recognizable names are only the face of what's in store. Behind this face is a force teaming with the power to obliterate the U.S. Constitution and the machinery of self-governance it created.
The God to whom our founders prayed for guidance has been thrown overboard by the modern Democrat Party. For at least a generation, Karl Marx has provided both inspiration and guidance to the people who are now in control of America. Republicans have not just been out-maneuvered and out-campaigned; some Republicans have been willing participants, joining the Democrats in the worship of Marxist ideals.
This Democrat tsunami is not only a defeat of Republicans; it is a defeat of freedom.
Freedom, as defined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, cannot exist when government ignores the limitations placed upon it by the Constitution. Government, led by both Democrats and Republicans, started ignoring these limitations long ago and has now grown into a people-management machine that would make Karl Marx proud.
This transformation has been possible only because the people have allowed it. Now, a majority of people expect it, and even demand it. When this tsunami settles across the land, the federal government will truly be the people-management authority of the United States. And what's worse, Democrats are likely to welcome the global central bank to be discussed at a global economic summit this month, which would transform the United States into an administrative unit of the global people-management authority – the United Nations.
Nukes for the Neighborhood
Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
Well, it's better than flying cars. Of course, the government will make it cost prohibitive in America, where anything short of actual photosynthesis is unacceptable to environmentalists.
Here's Something That Really Needs Changing
'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge
Yet Mary and the others at the shelter are the lucky ones for they, at least, are alive. Many of those branded "child-witches" are murdered - hacked to death with machetes, poisoned, drowned, or buried alive in an attempt to drive Satan out of their soul.
The devil's children are "identified" by powerful religious leaders at extremist churches where Christianity and traditional beliefs have combined to produce a deep-rooted belief in, and fear of, witchcraft. The priests spread the message that child-witches bring destruction, disease and death to their families. And they say that, once possessed, children can cast spells and contaminate others.
This is completely sick and must be stopped. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity, it a complete perversion.
The religious leaders offer help to the families whose children are named as witches, but at a price. The churches run exorcism, or "deliverance", evenings where the pastors attempt to drive out the evil spirits. Only they have the power to cleanse the child of evil spirits, they say. The exorcism costs the families up to a year's income.
There's the money angle. Destroy children for a paycheck, how sick can you get? See the post below this, I guess.
And there's something fundamentally wrong with America? Ha! What a joke.
It Happened
Yes, as hard as it is to imagine, people can be that cruel and heartless and if it happened before it can happen again. We haven't "evolved" beyond heartlessness, far from it.
Auschwitz blueprints surface in Germany
"These documents reveal that everyone who had even anything remotely to do with the planning and construction of the concentration camp must have know that people were to be gassed to death in assembly-line fashion," Bild wrote.
"The documents refute once and for all claims by those who deny the Holocaust even took place,"
Friday, November 07, 2008
Leave Sarah Alone
McCain lost this election and if you ask me, he lost it the moment he was nominated. He never should have been nominated at all, he was the wrong man at the wrong time. The only thing he had going for him was that he wasn't as far left as Obama. That, and Sarah Palin.
I'm tired of hearing all the Sarah bashing on the news. I can understand disagreeing with her politics but beyond that you're only showing the world your own insecurities. I can't think of any man in politics alive right now with as much class as Sarah. Of course she's not perfect, but then, neither are you or I.
Life is Like That
"You would deduce that the entire cosmos is not exactly like what you can see within your own horizon."
From: Unknown "Structures" Tugging at Universe, Study Says
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Don't Be So Selfish!
Obama campaign workers angry over unpaid wages
"It should have been $480. It's $230," said Imani Sankofa.
"They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90," said Charles Martin.
"I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned," said Randall Waldon.
You worked for the "spread the wealth" candidate, well, he's spreading the wealth. He wants to make sure those under you get a chance, too. Fair is fair. How does it feel?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Yes, It Has
The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace
It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.
His treatment from the left, especially, has been beyond the pale.
The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.
Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.
Joe - A Dying Breed
Peggy the Moocher
The bailout bonanza blurred the differences between the two major political parties, but the Peggy the Moocher video shows there are still basically two starkly contrasting views of government in this country among the rank-and-file electorate. Unlike Joe the Plumber, Peggy sees government as her salvation and the president as her subsidizer-in-chief. She voted with the expectation that the Spreader of Wealth will reward her with payback. Joe just wants Washington to leave him alone to fend for himself.
Why are today’s students often taught to hate the United States?
Gnostic Education
People want to believe that a body of secret knowledge will free them from Christianity’s stern admonitions to work hard, save for a rainy day, abjure hedonism, and recognize that perfection of human life is impossible in the earthly realm. It’s so much easier to eat, drink, be merry, and let the government take care of us.
It's Over, the People Have Spoken
America proclaims: Obama is 'the One'
Some of them proclaimed it more than once.
It's amazing how smooth voting is when Democrats win.
Congratulations to Obama.
I Think That's Against the Law...
But that's OK.
"And you came out and saw the long lines and decided to come back?"
"Yeah, I decided to come back and vote a couple of times," he said.
The CNN reported laughed and said, "I think that's against the law, but that's OK."
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Consider Carefully Your Vote
I don't quite know what to make of this. He starts off good, I agree with where he is going. Then he freaks out about halfway through. Just about as I'm reaching for the stop button he calms down and gets his head on straight again. He goes off again a few times more but just listen through, it's entertaining.
I don't like all the black this and white trash that. I'm not comfortable at all with people who talk like this guy, it's wrong, especially from a church pulpit. And I don't understand why they call him (Obama) Tarzan. Must be a black thing. He's addressing black people so I won't come down too hard on him, but I don't know any white people who talk anywhere near like this at all. Ever. Even in the most private of conversations. There must be some, but I don't know them.
This one is much better. But hear both.
One side note: I know many Christians who do not celebrate Christmas. I know many who do. I won't argue which is right or wrong except to say that celebrating or not celebrating Christmas does not make you a Christian. I say this not in defense of Obama, but in defense of the many true Christians who, by faith, do not celebrate Christmas.
How It's Done
Cops: Cape Girardeau woman kills man who returned to rape her second time
The 57-year-old woman shot Ronnie W. Preyer, 47, a registered sex offender, in the chest with a shotgun when he broke through her locked basement door.
The woman told police he was the same man who raped her several days earlier. Officials do not intend to seek charges against her.
Police cannot protect you. If you don't protect yourself, nobody else will - not even Obama. In fact, there's a better than average chance the Democrats will make what she did illegal if Obama is elected. Then who ya gonna call?
I Will Make America Defenseless
Obama's surrender to China
He favors a weakened America.
He would like to see America become more like the rest of the world – where freedom is rare and happiness rarer.
He would like to see America knocked down a notch or two in the eyes of the rest of the world, which envies what we have and who we were, if not who we have become.
He would like to see the world's playing field leveled – even if that means the ascendancy of a great totalitarian power and sworn enemy of liberty.
He would like to see Americans forced to hand over more of their hard-earned dollars to corrupt governments around the world.
That's what Obama wants. And, as president, he has made it clear he will do whatever is necessary to see his agenda fulfilled – including the disarming of America and Americans.
People Can't Be This Gullible, Can They?
Some people are going to be in for a rude awakening if Obama wins. Of course, if he loses they will always think he would have done everything they think he's going to do - but can't - and the evil Republicans will have ruined their lives. They think like children, take the lollipop and they cry, give it back and they smile.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Deep Down, You Know Him
Here's a good one by Burt Prelutsky
First off, I keep hearing people say they don’t know Barack Obama. Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever known a presidential candidate nearly so well. I may not have seen his birth certificate or his medical records, but I’ve certainly heard his words, his wife’s words and his pastor’s words, and I feel they’ve told me all I need to know about this demagogue.
I know that he believes in the Marxist principle of sharing the wealth, and I know that doesn’t refer to his own wealth, but to everybody else’s. I know that he shares Mrs. Obama’s lack of pride in America, and that, in his gut, he believes America is a racist nation.
I know he shares Rev. Wright’s hatred of white people. Because he depends on their votes, he keeps that belief under wraps, but it certainly comes through loud and clear in his books.
I know that the people he surrounds himself with, people like Wright, Father Pfleger, Louis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko and Bill Ayres, are vile. And the ones whom he is forced by circumstance to be allied with, people like Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and John Murtha, are not much better.
Read the whole thing, it's one page.
Confessions (?) of Obama Staffers
What you were never intended to know in this election - A Hillary staffer comes clean
Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. I’ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now.
Confession of an Obama Blogger
There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.
The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
I am saying this because I know HRC was better for the country, and now realize this. I was too late by the time I connected to her. To me Barack was just a cool young dude that seemed like a star. I didn’t know him or his policies, but now I understand more than I care to and I realize his interests are more for him, and the DNC and all working like puppets with dean. I always thought a president wanted the better good for the country. The end result I see is everyone dependent on the government, this means more and more people voting for the DNC. This means the future is forever altered. I don’t see this as america, so I am now supporting John Mccain.
Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool.
this is a big conspiracy and I am so shocked that its not realized.
Not Flying Cars Again!
Flying car based on Ferrari 'could be reality within two years'
It will have the ability to take off vertically and hover thanks to eight powerful thrusters which direct air down for take off. Vents then tilt so the car can fly forward.
How wonderful. Of course, it would need to take off and land from helo pads. It wouldn't quite work for the people on the ground if it came in for a landing on Main Street.
"Hey dude, I'm just blown away by your car! It's a scorcher!"
We Can't Afford Obama
I'll make energy prices "skyrocket"
That will show those evil rich people.
I say we go back to using whale oil for our lights. It's a renewable energy source - we could have whale farms. :-)
Florida Living
"You're going to tell me where my teeth are, or I'm going to kill you,"
Dugas got angry and gave Deeringer what she told police were "flying lessons" – he tossed her up in the air and on the kitchen floor,
But, of course:
After officers arrived, Deeringer found her teeth behind the TV stand,
Propaganda Poster
Bark for Barack
This is interesting considering I just posted a link to a commentary called "Sit. Stay. Rollover. Beg"
Of course, there is a communist connection. There always seems to be when looking at Obama.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
All Talk, No Experience
Ego and Mouth
For someone who has actually accomplished nothing to blithely talk about taking away what has been earned by those who have accomplished something, and give it to whomever he chooses in the name of "spreading the wealth," is the kind of casual arrogance that has led to many economic catastrophes in many countries.
The equally casual ease with which Barack Obama has talked about appointing judges on the basis of their empathies with various segments of the population makes a mockery of the very concept of law.
Sesame Street Economics
Barack Obama And The Economics Of Sesame Street
And while we're not thinking, let's usher-in a new President who can shelter us from the harsh considerations of risk and reward, market competition, investment and planning, and all the rest. Let’s elect a President who has distilled economic realities into simple juxtapositions that even a kid can understand- - things like "fairness" versus "unfairness," and "selfishness" versus "neighborliness."
Independence Is Too Much Like Work...
For way too many Americans. It seems like people will work harder to get something for nothing than to put in a hard days work to earn it.
Sit. Stay. Roll over. Beg
All because we've become dogs. We roll over in submission for someone to scratch our bellies. We cower when we're smacked with a newspaper. We beg for treats. Our world implodes when our masters are angry with us.
We have lost the ability and, apparently, the interest in maintaining our independence. Cherished concepts such as personal liberty, individual responsibility, success through hard work, and other high and admirable standards are no longer desired. If this is truly the case, we are doomed as a nation.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
This Present Darkness
Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. --Ephesians 6:12
According to the apostle, the darkness of which he was conscious was a result of the fact that these evil spiritualities had seized upon the world, and were dominating its thought; and the inspirations of human activity were the suggestions made in the secret places of human life by these evil forces.
The apostle here recognizes the fact that the apparent is the result of the hidden. To quote from the New Testament, in another connection, something that has another application, but the philosophy of which is patent here also - "What is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear." The apostle recognizes the fact that if we would understand any human situation we must get behind the actual appearances of the moment and discover the inspirational centers from which these things have sprung. He recognizes that the natural is always the expression of the supernatural. I have used these words, natural and supernatural, in our common way, both of them needing to be safeguarded from popular abuse. The natural, that is that which we see, and think we understand, and can account for; this, the apostle declares, is always the expression of what we call the supernatural; that is that which we cannot see, which we do not seem to understand, which we cannot always account for. Out of that general statement of the philosophy of apostolic thinking, we deduce the one application that material calamities always result from spiritual malignity; that the things that create the darkness of this hour in which we live, appalling us with its horror, are the dark things that have been at work for long years. The profoundest calamity is not the immediate clash of battle and shedding of blood, but the mental dislocation and spiritual corruption that lie behind these things; that have made them not only possible, but necessary, and now actual. The warfare of the Christian church is in that spiritual realm. In this very hour of physical conflict she needs to understand her spiritual foes, and so to adjust herself that she may be the instrument of God against the things that make such calamity possible.
What are the inspirations of war? I wonder how many have seriously taken time to ask the question, "Whence come wars?" The march of every army, the mobilizing for war, and all that we are almost sure, presently, to hear and know of slaughter and of the shambles, have sprung out of human thinking. Apart from human thinking, these things could never be. Feeling one's way back then, honestly, to the original inspiring motive, not for the moment referring to any one nation or to any one man, we are bound to say that all war springs out of the lust for power. I admit that under certain conditions, and in certain circumstances, men speak of prestige; under certain conditions, and in certain circumstances, men speak of honor - using the word too often in an abused and degraded way. At the back of everything there is lust for power. War has always been the outcome of it. In the day of battle there may be two opposing nations, forces, or men, both of them actuated by this lust of power; or, on the other hand, war may be caused by one nation's lust of power, and the necessity for resisting that lust for power on the part of other nations. Therefore, there may be an element of righteousness in the conflict. But even then, the beginning is the same; not on the part of those who are driven into the conflict against there will, but on the part of those who are the aggressors. The origination of war in the human mind is lust for power.
The trouble is that this statement does not stagger the soul as it ought to do. And why not? Because we have not yet thoroughly apprehended the meaning of or believed in the declaration of Christ when He said, speaking for Himself and for His own, that the secret of greatness and fitness for the Kingdom of God is not power exercised over someone else, but service rendered to someone else.
I take a step further. If that be the inspiration of war in the human mind, proceeding out of it in the human conscience is the denial of morality. First there is a philosophy of denial, sometimes clearly formulated, at other times not formulated, but always existent. When there is a denial of morality, then immediately there is an apotheosis of brute force.
Here, because I have to deal with matters of the hour, I am compelled to take an illustration. That great nation of Germany, to which we owe so much for its scientific investigation and its wonderful learning, has, for more than a generation, been under the influence of a philosophy that has denied that reality of the moral. The philosophy of Nietzsche may be condensed into this one brief sentence - "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted to the strong." When that is believed subconsciously by a people, it comes out sooner or later as an actuality. At the back of a passion for war, wherever it exists, is the denial of morality. According to the apostolic interpretation, all this proceeds from the influence of the spiritualities of wickedness, and human submission thereto. These movements of mind and attitudes of soul result in ghastly ingenuity for the destruction of human life in order to the obtaining of power. Pride, and hate, and frauds are the things that lie at the back of war. Our nation today is compelled to war in the interest of righteousness, but the occasion of the necessity has been created by an inspiration entirely evil.
The cleanest place in the war of 1914 will be the field of blood, where men, heroic and daring, fall and die! The most corrupt place is the spiritual darkness in which these shambles were made possible. There is the true region of horror; and into that realm the church is called, in order to grapple with the forces of evil that have made the actuality possible and even necessary, and in order that the thing that all men are saying in one way or another may be true: Never again can this thing happen! The trouble is that even we, who name the name of Christ, too often shudder in the wrong place. To take this vast and ghastly business and illustrate it in the microcosm of individual experience - we shudder when the murderer is arrested with the blood of his victim upon his hand. God shudders at the first movement in his soul that makes the murder possible. Jesus said, "It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you that there is to be in the heart neither contempt nor anger, and then murder will be impossible!" To return from that microcosm of individual experience to this microcosm of shame and agony, let us remember that the place where we ought to shudder and blanch with fear is in the presence of the spiritual and mental derangement that has made this thing possible! There our fight must be fought. Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers; against the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritualities of malignant intention in the heavenly places. --G. Morgan Campbell, This Darkness, from God, Humanity and the War.
This was written during World War I but it applies to us just the same. We are yet in "the mental dislocation and spiritual corruption that lie behind" phase, but closing in fast on the physical manifestation of it.
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