She’s No Mother Teresa!

Once again, we see irrefutable proof that financial and social power do not necessarily translate into brain power. This from first-lady wannabe Teresa Ketchup-Kerry, speaking on the relief effort for the Caribbean in the aftermath of hurricane Francis…

"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids. Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes."

I hardly know where to start with this gem of a quote.

I would pay good cash money to see Teresa go for five minutes without clothes in early September at the camp ground in Flamingo at the southernmost tip of Florida. Not, mind you, for the sexual aspect (oooh, that made me shiver with revulsion just thinking about it), but for the look on her face and her bodily contortions as she fought off the cloud of mosquitoes descending on her exposed flesh. Yeah, let’s let those kids go without clothes for a while… it’ll be good for ‘em!

I suspect Abraham Maslow would find Teresa’s reordering of basic human needs interesting to say the least. I guess for that matter, anyone who lived prior to the mid twentieth century would too. Electricity is more important than food and clothing? What planet is she from?... (rhetorical question… she’s from the planet T-9345-Rich-Privilaged-Yankee-Snot). We’ve come a long way in a hundred years if electricity is number two on the hierarchy of basic human needs.

So, is Teresa going to donate a couple of barges of gas to go with those generators… and get it down there (in less than two weeks)… and distribute it… all with no power and trees down all over the roads? Yeah… she’s thinking ahead isn’t she.

Teresa calls to mind one of Solomon’s wise observations:

Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.

I feel sorry for Teresa’s father. This must be a sad verse for him.

Muslim Adventure Day?

Since WND broke the story, there’s been a lot of furor over Great Adventure’s Muslim day at Six Flags. The original article and much of the commentary I’ve read from other conservative bloggers, professional and amateur, has railed against the exclusivity of the event, as if it were some constitutional separation of public venue and religion issue.

That’s a crock! If Great Adventures wants to promote an exclusively Muslim day, that’s their business… the key word there being, ‘business’. If, perhaps, I don’t agree with that business decision, my recourse is to not patronize that business or to ignore it and go have fun anyway. Personally, I’m in the ‘not patronize’ camp. However, if I were in the ‘ignore it’ camp, I’d appreciate the advanced warning so I could stay away from the park on Muslim day… and gay day… and prostitute day… and international cross-dresser day… and ACLU day! Those are all just as much the enemies of our country as the islamofascists in my mind, and don’t deserve special recognition at any venue, public or private.

Bottom line… complain about the business decision… complain about the social ramifications… boycott if you like… but don’t complain about the legality of Muslim Adventure Day at Six Flags.

Anybody for a boat ride?

9/15 update:
This was kind of a time sensitive post. If you didn't get a chance to look at the data buoy link below, what it said was that just east of the center of Ivan, waves peaked at 36' with a 13 second wave period. Zoinks!

Check this out.

The column labeled WVHT is Wave Height. That's as measured from sea level... therefore double for crest to trough height. The column labeled DPD is Dominant Wave Period... that's the time between crests.

So in the gulf, in my boat we'd be traveling down 70', then back up 70' all within about 13 seconds... over and over and over. Feeling sick yet?

Oh The Irony...

It looks like Danny boy actually relied on a pajama wearer and specifically rejected the advice of the suits! It just doesn't get any better than this! Check out the story from... get this... ABC News.

The rats are scrambling off the sinking ship. Expect some CBS rats to be the next to run. What I'm' anxious to see is what rat will identify the u-boat that fired the torpedo!.

A ‘Recognized’ Pajama Wearer!

So… Dan’s ‘recognized expert’ wears pajamas too! According to Fox, Dan’s supposed document expert is not only not recognized… he doesn’t sound much like an expert either. He has no certification from an authoritative forensic organization, nor has he any formal education in document forensics. In fact, the best he seems to be able to offer is his supposed ability to divine personality traits solely from a signature. Sounds like a recognized quack to me!

King of the Mountain!

Big Bald in N.C.

The ‘Recognized’ Expert

So Dan had his ‘recognized expert’ review the Bush National Guard documents he aired on his show, huh? I guess the blogosphere popped the lid on that one. One significant phenomenon of the blogosphere is the sudden ‘recognition’ of a great many experts out there who’ve never been formally recognized. In addition, the web has removed the impediments to raw data to that large group of ‘unrecognized’ experts.

The result? Exactly what we’re seeing with the Bush documents story.

I’m constantly astonished at what I see in the blogosphere… amazing writers, incredibly knowledgeable folks regarding every topic under the sun (and a few above), every day people full of wisdom, knowledge and ability that simply hasn’t been recognized. The blogosphere is leading a cultural revolution that will fundamentally change the way news and opinion is disseminated in this country and the world.

Observations From the Football Game

I went to a college game today… noticed a few a things that may interest you… I know they did me…

Rebellious Republicans?...
I was encouraged to see a goodly number of very young college students wearing Bush stickers. As a matter of fact, they seemed to outnumber the somewhat older crowd wearing Kerry stickers. Keep in mind, we’re talking major league college town here, so I’d consider it a Kerry stronghold. I have a couple of theories:

Theory #1: These were simply the incoming freshmen who’s minds haven’t been polluted by their ultra-liberal, underachieving, intellectually minded profs (those would be the older ones wearing the Kerry stickers).

Theory #2: Here’s a more interesting theory… this is simply a generation in rebellion. After all, what’s a young adult to do when the generation(s) before them have slid into such a low state of moral decay that their immorality is untoppable (or unbottomable)? How does one rebel against an older generation that’s already done the worst that you could do? You rebel in the other direction! If you have leadership figures like Bill Clinton, the anything goes moral relevance crowd, ultra-liberal, humanist intellectuals, you rebel by leaning the other direction (that would be to the right).

Perhaps this is society finding moral equilibrium? A few generations rebel by leaning left, until society has reached a point that leaning any further left is self-destructive… at which point it swings back right again. That society gravitates from one extreme to the other seems a given if you examine history. Perhaps generational rebellion is the mechanism by which this phenomenon happens. There’s one for you intellectuals to ponder.

The “nothing will change my mind” crowd….
Don’t you just love it when the ref makes a call against the home team and the crowd boos madly, despite the fact that the ref was standing three feet from the play and most of the crowd is somewhere from three hundred to three thousand feet from the play? And then, the play is replayed on the jumbotron which clearly demonstrates that the ref was right, and the crowd boos wildly again.

This is simply a graphic demonstration of a universal truth…. A great number of people could care less about truth… they simply want their guy to win no matter what. Evidence means nothing. Voting records mean nothing. The very words of their man mean nothing. They are blind to the truth and no matter how big the jumbotron, they won’t see it.

Hysterical weathermen
We’ve seen an awful lot of that lately here in Florida. Now the NCAA has this new rule that if there’s severe weather within ten miles of the stadium, the game will be suspended until it clears. So, we had our normal afternoon thundershower pass through… didn’t even come close to the stadium (five miles by the super-scientific, and generally reliable “one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand” method). But, we had to stop the game for an hour and have 80,000 people panic that they were going to be swept away by weather of Biblical proportions. I’m sick of the weather melodrama. Why can’t we just use a little common sense and get out of it when it gets bad? No… we have to analyze a hurricane from two thousand miles away and get all worked up in a lather two weeks before it actually gets here. I predict we’ll have very few football games in Florida that will be played in less than four hours.

Speaking of Rebellious…
The skirts have gotten so short that you can see their crotch as they walk up the stadium steps. That’s pretty disgusting. Do these girls not think of that before they dress for the game? And don't call me a leering old pervert.... they walk right in front of me while I'm trying to watch the game!

Speaking of Disgusting…
Sorry to be so politically incorrect, but come on flag girls (or flag persons nowadays) and majorettes… please lose some weight! When my wife was a flag girl in the seventies, they had weight restrictions. Of course, we can’t have that in this age of political enlightenment. There were several out there that looked as if they could be playing in the game instead of in the band!

OK… send me the hate mail. I can hear the apologetics now, "You can't discriminate against those poor girls because of their disease." Perhaps the currently rampant disease of low expectations is to blame for their total lack of motivation to maintain their bodies as a temple. Sorry… I just come from a different age.

I'm Back!

Back from a vacation and a half and extended periods of power and internet outage courtesy of Charley and Francis (bet you can't guess what state in which I live). And, this short reprieve may be rudely interrupted by Ivan the Terrible.

All in all, the family is doing fine. However, we have friends that aren't. Keep the middle part of the state in your prayers... they got hit pretty hard.

A Voting Activist?

Gee, I didn't know I was voting activist. I guess according to this article I am though... yet another example of how unreliable these new "nothing less than 100 percent accuracy, privacy and security" (read it on the manufactuer's site... I'm not making it up) machines are.

All these machines do is take good old fashion stupidity and mask it with complexity. For more details, read my previous post on this topic.

Hate Speech? Sign me up!

You've seen the recent stories about biblical views or scripture as hate speech. Canada, Google, soon to be the U.S.. Here's what Solomon had to say about it:

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil (Prov 8:13)

If my choice is to accept homosexuality, abortion, corruption or spout "hate" speech against it, then sign me up for the hate speech. Given the trend of the day in this country, I suspect I'll be in hot water some day. But that's OK... at least where I'm going it will be nice and cool.

A Crowded Future?

Seems that the islamoterrorist age is changing the futuristic views of twentieth century science fiction writers. Do you remember those futuristic films and books where the 21st century is portrayed as locales of overcrowded, overbuilt, urban nightmares? “Soylent Green” comes to mind, but there are many others.

Looking at the Olympics and political conventions, it seems that people are now too frightened to congregate in masses. If terrorism continues unchecked, I look for the trend to extend beyond special events and begin to affect people’s choice of where to live. Mega-cities may become a fad of the past. That is, excepting the Islamic countries of course.

Don’t you just hate it when you’re right?

True to my words (hey, I have to toot my own horn every now and then), the wheels are coming off Moore’s film. I expect that by election time, there will be very little left.

Not only are condemnations coming from all corners… even unexpected ones… reported even by the mainstream lefty media… but the left wing wackos that see the world through hate-tinted glasses, as does Moore, are coming out of the woodwork and diluting Moore’s message to the average semi-sane citizen simply by their enthusiastic association with him and his movie.

If the Dems had any smarts about them (I guess they wouldn’t be Dems then, would they), they would have shunned Moore at the convention rather than setting him in places of honor.

It’ll be fun watching F9/11 self-destruct in the coming months.

Roger Comfortably Numb?

I’m so disappointed when someone whom I hold in high regard fails to live up to my expectations. Such is the case with Roger Waters formerly of Pink Floyd and his campaign against Israel’s security fence. From Roger:

"The poverty inflicted by the wall has been devastating for Palestinians. It has kept children from their schools, the sick from proper medical care and continues to destroy the Palestinian economy."

Yeah, and based on statistical before and after evidence, kept hundreds of murderous, suicidal maniacs out of Israel.

As seems so often case with highly artistic people, Roger is apparently doing most of his reasoning below the shoulders. Perhaps everything above is comfortably numb from his escapades with Pink Floyd.

Roger enjoyed enormous success playing Pink Floyd’s album, “The Wall” off the fall of the Berlin wall. I can only surmise that in Roger’s highly emotional thought process, he’s missed the key differences in the Berlin wall and the Israeli Security fence. The Berlin wall was not a wall to keep the invaders out… its intent was to keep the miserable captured masses in. Of course, there are myriad other differences between the 1950s Soviet Union and modern day Israel that would confound Roger’s implied comparison of the two, but this one distinction alone is enough in my mind to blow Roger’s arguments right out of the Waters.

Perhaps my disappointment in Roger stems from the fact that my respect was based on a youthful fascination with his music. I’ve always been one to appreciate musical talents without paying much attention to the message behind the music… simple-minded naivety on my part I guess.

Presidential Choices

In an invaluable public service, utilizing bleeding edge tools, weeks of hard work and with the seriousness of a librarian, I have compiled a comprehensive list of our presidential choices (see sidebar). Being the concerned citizen that I am, I want to make certain that we all have all the facts and can make an intelligent decision about this most important of choices.

Use this list to the greater benefit of our country.

"It's just a little bunny."

Like King Arthur and his knights, the conservative press seem to be placing way too much emphasis on the way the bunny looks.  OK, I know... he looks like a goober.  But since when does looking like a goober disqualify one from the office of POTUS?  There's a plethora of other more dangerous traits to which valuable editorial and news space could be devoted.

I'd rather have some good Tim analysis... It's not the goobery looks you have to worry about... it's the teeth!

What goes around, comes around...

From James Rubin on W's new waffles video: 

"There's no question that comments here or there, taken out of context and thrown together, are intended by Republicans to try to simplify or dumb down a crucial issue of war and peace into a simple yes-no question,"

Hmmmm.... taken out of context and and thrown together... haven't seen that anywhere else recently, have we?

You know something's fishy when even Bin Laden' s brother complains of wanton inaccuracy (that would be a fancy euphemism for lying).  If you want to see a lot of fishy, here's the place.

I Agree With the ACLU???

Say it ain’t so!   Sadly, however, it is.  The topic is Florida’s moronic law that forbids recounts in counties where electronic voting machines are used.  What ignorant buffoon came up with that idea?
 
Before launching into a tirade about electronic voting… a quick disclaimer:  I’m not an old fart technophobe! (OK, maybe an old fart, but hopefully the gray imparts some aura of wisdom).  I manage the development group of the largest software development company in a city of one million people.  In our niche market, we’re the leading software provider in the world.  If I’m labeled a technophobe, it’s only because I have a more keen understanding than most of what can go wrong with hardware and software.

Relying on electronic voting machines with no hard-copy backup or a law that says you can’t use it even if you have it, is pure unadulterated political suicide… period!  I’ll take it even a step further. Electronics should be used strictly for vote gathering, with the result individually and immediately recorded on a hard medium (paper), verified by the voter before leaving the polling machine, erased from the electronic medium after the voter confirms the ballot and counted mechanically en masse after polls have closed.

Here’s why for each step:

1.)  Vote Gathering.  This should be the only step in which electronics play any part. The human to machine interface (GUI to you developers out there) of a properly designed touch screen is infinitely more intelligible to the ignorant masses than the human to machine interface of mechanical voting devices, which was the main reason precipitating the push for electronic voting (remember the Palm Beach ballot design debacle?).  In addition, it is far easier and quicker to modify an electronic interface than a mechanical interface for the ever-changing needs of elections.

2.) Record the vote on paper.  Computers (or any electronic storage medium) are far too fragile to rely on for storing votes for any length of time.  The ideal should be to minimize the time a vote spends on electronic media.  In practice, the shortest amount of time is from the vote selection to the recording of that vote on a more permanent media (paper).  In addition to fragility, the enormous complexity of computers invites fraud.  Any dufus  can tell if a paper vote has been altered.  It takes an expert to track down electronic fraud and chances are excellent the fraud will never be noticed in the first place.  Finally, any voting machine that doesn’t generate a means for recount is in my mind (and should be by law) criminally negligent.  Only politicians and lawyers could have possibly come up with this scheme to defraud the American voter.

3.) Voter verifies ballot.  When I leave the voting machine, I want assurances that my vote was, or will be tallied.  When I hit the Submit button on an electronic touch screen and my vote disappears into the black hole of the bit bucket, I have no assurance whatsoever that my vote was recorded correctly, or even recorded at all.  With a paper ballot in my hand, I can walk to the ballot box, drop my ballot in and be relatively confident that my vote will be counted.

4.) Erased from the voting machine.  Voting is private.  A voting machine should give me the same comfort level as the sleeve over my ballot that someone else won’t review my vote.

5.) Count ballots mechanically.  Optical scanning technology is at a sufficient state of maturity to count ballots.  As is currently the case, handling of ballots by other than the voter’s hands should be kept to a bare minimum. In the case of close races, ballots can be recounted by hand.

 
I may be accused of educating the enemy, but consider the ease with which any electronic machine (including voting machines) can be disabled:

Simply slip a fully charged power supply grade capacitor in your pocket.  It’s about the size of a cell phone.  I’d highly recommend putting your car keys in your other pocket.  Discharge the capacitor on any metallic surface of the machine, preferably the ports in the back.  Zap!... You might want to use an appropriately sized resistor to minimize the noise of the discharge… or just sneeze loudly at the same time.  Result:  a practically guaranteed loss of data held within the memory of that machine.

If data is stored on any type of magnetic media (hard disks), hold on to your capacitor from above and add a wire wound metallic bar (a big nail will do) in your other pocket.  Now, rather than discharging the capacitor into the machine (the entire case may be plastic), discharge it into your homemade electro-magnet… and wallah!… you have a bargain basement EMP attack.  You’ll most likely scramble the disk’s brains and if your pulse is strong enough (doubtful though), you might scramble some electronics too.

Forget the semi-sophisticated approach… pick the thing up and slam it to the ground.  You can stomp it once or twice for good measure too.  There!... that’s a good five hundred evil republican votes down the drain.  Then you limp out and apologize to the 85 year old poll worker that you tripped and fell on the voting machine.  Hey… you’re a criminal… what’s a little white lie?  If you’re a lawyer (which would make sense in this case), you can also sue for tripping on the improperly designed voting machine legs.

Of course, you’ll want to perform these acts late in the voting day so as many votes as possible are permanently lost.  These examples represent highly unsophisticated attacks.  The resources of a more determined enemy could be brought to bear in more sophisticated attacks such as defeating the software, or the electronic transmission of votes from precincts to headquarters, or in direct manipulation of vote counts.  Don’t think it can happen?  Download a few things via Kazaa and see what you think after that.

Forget criminal activity… what about a thunderstorm taking out an entire precinct late in the afternoon?  It happened in my house… destroyed every piece of electronics in the entire abode.  Can you imagine losing 10,000 votes in the blink of an eye?  I can.  How about the 110 year old blue haired snowbird from New Joisey that puts her car in drive instead of reverse and plows through the heart of the precinct destroying everything in her path?  Yeah... I could see that happening!

Stability and complexity always exist in an inverse relationship.  The increased complexity of electronic vote storage, transmission and tabulation only invites instability, whether that be from purposeful maliciousness or simple unplanned natural events.  To add to that inherent instability by not providing a backup means of vote tabulation, or worse, to specifically deny it’s use, is simply unacceptable.  When it comes to something as important as voting for our leaders, we need to employ a KISS approach.  Unfortunately, the KISS philosophy doesn’t seem to be one of our government’s strong suits.  

If this law is allowed to stand, old Algore only thought that votes went uncounted in 2000... because in the infamous words of BTO, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

Do Terrorists Have A Sense of Humor?

Check out this comprehensive post from the New England Republican  (I'm impressed one actually exists) via the best of Homespun last night. 

Scary?  It is to me... but Bin Laden and his bunch must be laughing their butts off right now... regardless of whether the Syrians were really a band or the more likely probability.

Mr. Minority Has A Soul

Checked out a new blog today… Mr. Minority – Speaks His Mind.  Good blog.  I’m actually very much like Mr. Minority, with only one small difference… I’m actually a CCECMAMIWGOGJP (because I drive a Jeep).

I’d like to lend some biblical credence to Mr.Minority’s excellent post on Rene Descartes’ “I think therefore I am”, in which Mr. Minority comes to the 100% correct conclusion that what sets us apart from the animals is not our cognizant ability, but the fact that man has a soul.

In Genesis 2:19, we read:

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

 
Please note that God created the animals from “out of the ground” and then paraded them before Adam to see what he would call them.  I understand from the latter part of this verse that God didn’t set a clay model of a cow in front of Adam and ask, “What does this look like?” and Adam replied, “A cow.”  No… he paraded “every living creature” in front of Adam and Adam named them all.  So, a giraffe walks by and Adam says, “That’s a giraffe.”… and an eagle flies by and Adam says, “That’s an eagle.”… and a porpoise swims by and Adam says, “That’s a porpoise.”   So, out of the ground, God created living creatures.

Very similarly, in 2:7, “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground”.  Again, I would understand that just as with the animals, God formed a living, breathing creature from the dust of the ground… man.  So that when he finished, he had standing before him an animate object, not an exquisitely shaped pile of clay.  But here is where God’s creation of man departs from that of the animals, because then God, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” 
 
As Mr. Minority correctly concludes, man is very different from the animals because God breathed the “breath of life” into him… God gave him a soul.
 

 

 

Varoom!

Hey Jarhead... almost ready to roll. When you coming back home? 

First Analysis - 9/11 Commission Recommendations

The 9/11 Commission Report is out and at a minimum, the Executive Summary is a must read for every citizen of these United States. Despite controversy over partisanship with one of the members, I believe we have to take this as the best effort of our government to discern what happened on and leading up to 9/11, and most importantly, beginning on page 16, what to do about it.

I’m sure the recommendations will be fodder for a gazillion commentaries, debates, bickering on the hill and partisan wrangling. I myself plan to read them carefully and offer my own views to my legions of (OK, maybe five or so) faithful readers. My initial outlook is that the commission has made some very good recommendations.

I’ll start with by far the most important of the commission’s recommendations… which also happen to be the hardest to implement and which the failure on our part to implement will be most responsible for the future destruction of our country as we know it today.  On page 18, we see the following recommendations:

Define the message and stand as an example of moral leadership in the world. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Ladin have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and its friends have the advantage—our vision can offer a better future.

Communicate and defend American ideals in the Islamic world, through much stronger public diplomacy to reach more people, including students and leaders outside of government. Our efforts here should be as strong as they were in combating closed societies during the Cold War.

 
In a nutshell, we should offer the world moral and idealistic leadership.  We should export our American ideals to the Islamic world as we did to the communist world during the cold war.  Excellent words… outstanding thoughts… wonderful intentions, but what morals and what ideals are we trying to export?  Are they the same morals that we exported a mere 30 to 40 years ago to the communist Soviet Union?

Are we exporting our ideals and morality from a country…

Where the government and half of the population can’t decide if homosexuality is immoral or not? 
Where the highest government judiciary not only allows, but demands that all manner of sexual perversion be explicitly available to our children in government run libraries?
Where our government run school system teaches sex education by offering flavored condoms to thirteen year olds to taste… even over the objections of parents? 
Where the leader of the free world redefines sexual relations (and the word ‘is’) for an entire generation? 
Where the very idea of God is systematically being purged from every aspect of the government?
Where gangsters and pimps and whores are celebrated as role models in the youth culture?
Where the entertainment industry glorifies extreme violence and all manner of sexual immorality?

These are exactly the values and ideals that any God-fearing people loathe, and which the radical ones want to destroy with the edge of a sword (or a nuclear bomb… whichever’s more convenient).

How can we “stand as an example of moral leadership in the world” when the very morality of our leader is attacked by our own citizens as religious fanaticism?  How, when the immorality of our former leader is glossed over as unimportant?  How, when the moral state of our country is in a slow spiral headed for the all-time lows of the latter half of the Roman empire and the ancient Biblical city of Sodom?  Are we really so naïve as to believe that Muslim countries don’t read the headlines of our papers and make those very same comparisons?  Even the Muslims are aware of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We have some serious back-pedaling to do if we’re to offer the world moral and idealistic leadership. I fear just since the 1950s we’ve lost so much moral ground as to have reached the point of no return.  I hope for my children’s and their children’s sakes that I’m wrong.

Please don’t take me wrong in my observations.  I’m far from Michael Moore and the blame America first crowd.  What I’m saying is that to implement the 9/11 Commission’s suggestions on moral and idealistic leadership (which I think are excellent), we’ve got some hard work ahead of us.  We’re going to need a serious moral awakening in this country before preaching morality to the Middle East, or we’ll be no better than the Pharisees seeking to pull the mote out their eye while not beholding the beam in our own.

The Big Picture

I’m flying as I write this.  As long as I’ve flown (about 30 years now), I never tire of it.  The change in perspective is amazing every time I go up.  I get just as excited as Charlie in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Despite living in his town all of his life, seeing it from a higher perspective amazed him.
 
I’m flying along the east coast of Florida looking down at the entire length of the Intercoastal Waterway which I’ve navigated several times by boat and will again this August. My wife is always concerned as I set off on these annual nautical sabbaticals… “how do you know where you are and where you’re going?”, she asks.  “I have map in my head.”, I answer. And while that may sound flippant, it’s entirely accurate.  Just as WWII naval pilots could identify enemy warships by profile alone, I can look out the window of the plane and identify every inlet (Ponce, just south of Daytona shown in photo), every town, and almost every bridge. When I’m in the boat, I simply recall that image in my head to recognize where I am.
 
So what does all this have to do with the price of tea in China?  Well, not much with the price of tea, but a whole lot to do with life in general.  To navigate the temptations and turmoils of life, it sure helps to have a larger perspective.  Life is not very easy (or fulfilling) if your only goal is to make it through the end of the day.  Abraham Maslow had some interesting thoughts on this subject. 
 
However, Solomon probably sums it up the best in his writings in Ecclesiastes. A cursory reading of this book of wisdom (philosophy), reveals a bleak picture of life indeed. In fact, one might get downright depressed reading Ecclesiastes if they didn’t make it all the way to the end. Solomon paints of picture of hard work for little benefit, all manner of injustice, unfulfilling activities, and futile endeavors.  However, one must understand Solomon’s perspective throughout the book to realize why his message is so downtrodden. The perspective which the reader sees over and over again is “under the sun”, i.e. from an earthly, humanly perspective. 
 
Solomon’s perspective in Ecclesiastes is analogous to navigating the Intercoastal Waterway with no map in your head, no aerial view, no nautical charts… just plodding from marker to marker with no idea of what lies ahead and how far you have to go.  All of which leads to a stress filled, not very enjoyable boat trip.
 
Fortunately, Solomon doesn’t end his search for fulfillment on such a sour note. In the end, he concludes: 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.( Eccl 12:13-14) 

 
Sobering words, but a door to the big picture… a realization that the toils and tribulations of this life are not all we have to look forward to… a map to the grander purpose of life that lends meaning and direction to our short time here on earth. 

Ooops (again)...

[spoken in Slim Pickens accent]... "Dang, that was lucky... dern near lost a $12.00 sock!" 

Ooops!

I inadvertently slipped those documents in my sock... honest mistake... do it all the time. [sheepish grin].  

Norway to Ban Islam?

I’m glad someone has the sense to recognize the threat Islam represents to democracy… and the ‘nads to stand up and say something about it.  These Norwegian pols are taking the correct approach too… equating Islam to Nazism, effectively treating Islam as a dangerous political system instead of a religion.  That’s the only way the threat of Islam will ever be counteracted in this country because of the 1st amendment protection of religious expression. 
 
Once Islam is recognized as a political system, it plainly becomes the clear and present danger to our government that it really is.  Islam’s world-theocratic aspirations are just as much a danger to democracy as communism’s world-socialistic aspirations were. 
 
Recognized as a political system, it can be dealt with politically, without cries of foul over the suppression or elevation of one religion over another.  What are we going to do the first time a political candidate runs for office (no matter how insignificant) under the banner of Islam in this country?  That threat should be preempted just as it was in the 40’s and 50’s with the communist party when the party was refused placement on voting ballots.
 
Go Norway… blaze a path for us to follow.

61 New Puppets!

Bush announces the African Americans for Bush National Steering Committee. 
 
Gee Mr. Bond and Mr. Mfume, I wonder how many W. has to get before they're not puppets anymore?  I'd sure like to see Mr. Bond and Mr. Mfume call Lynn Swann a puppet to his face in front of a crowd.  There's a mental image!

Attacking Bush's Faith?

Have you noticed lately the increase in attacks on President Bush’s faith?  The attacks have come from all quarters, but are typified by Ellen Ratner’s recent post on WorldNetDaily.
 
Ellen Ratner is one of the few liberal pundits for which I actually have respect.  She seems to genuinely attempt to understand truths, and frequently has some pearls of wisdom in her commentaries.  I feel sorry for her enduring the personal attacks she describes in this article… certainly, these types of attacks are very un-Christ like in nature.  Paul’s advice to Timothy comes to mind: 
 

2 Tim 2:24-25 - And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

 
With all that said, unfortunately, Ellen frequently misses the mark, as she does in this case: 
 

But it's important to look more deeply into the issue of "choice." The position of George W. Bush is that life is sacred. The Sixth Commandment says, "Thou Shall Not Kill." This is a non-negotiable as far as God is concerned. It's not a mere mortal's right to determine who lives and dies. That should be left up to God. Fine. Can someone then explain to me how it is that the same man who uses the "life is sacred" argument to deny a woman's right to choose her destiny can put more than 140 people to death, including a woman who proclaims the same Jesus Christ George W. Bush does as her personal savior?

 
Ok Ellen, I’ll take a stab at it…
 
As a Jew, she better than most, should understand the concept of capital punishment.  Yes, the sixth commandment commands, “Thou shalt not kill”… and then the rest of the Mosaic law (which so many Jews conveniently forget) goes on to specify capital punishment for a wide variety of offenses.  Contradictory?  No.  God simply gives the general command and then lists the specific exceptions. 
 
Of course, there are differences today.  We don’t operate as a theocracy as did pre-Messiah Israel (when not under bondage to other nations). However, the New law anticipates this fact in Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-14, in which the government is considered the arm of God to carry out punishment on evil doers.  Bush simply “beareth not the sword in vain”.  Paul’s advice from Romans 13 in a nutshell … if you’re going to do evil, be prepared to accept the consequences from your government.  And regarding the woman who proclaimed Jesus before being executed, don’t forget Ellen, Paul’s advice is specifically written to Christians.
 
Regarding, “…to deny a woman's right to choose her destiny…”, if a woman’s destiny is her very life, I have no argument with Ellen.  However, if Ellen defines a woman’s destiny as mere convenience… “I’m too [fill in the blank] for a child right now”, then Ellen is way off base. See my previous post on this topic.
 
Keep trying Ellen.  We’ll make a conservative Jew out of you yet.

Bahamas ain't no Key West

Hey mon, I guess Rosie didn't do any shopping in the Bahamas.  The Bahamas boast the most churches per capita than any country in the world... not quite the gay Mecca of Key West.   
 
Sounds like an excellent retirement possibility for me!

Welcome Lucianne Surfers...

Got a nice spike in traffic this afternoon as one of my posts found its way on to Lucianne.com (not by my hand).  Welcome Lucianne surfers... hope you'll look around and come back.

Another Kerry vs. Bush...

Go to www.GeorgeBush.com... and then hit the back button in your browser.
 
Now go to www.JohnKerry.com... and then hit the back button in your browser.
 
Did you ever feel like you were stuck with something you really didn't want?
 
Just another small but meaningful difference in philosophy between the two.

The Authority of Silence

Father:  “I want you to drive to the grocery store and get some milk and bread.”
Sixteen Year Old:  “No prob, old guy.”
{30 minutes later}
Mother:  “Where’s that son of ours?”
Father:  “I don’t know.  I sent him to the store to get some milk and bread.”
{one hour later}
Mother:  “I’m really getting worried about junior.  Should we go look for him?”
Father:  “Yeah, me too.  I’ll run down to the store and see if see him.”
{as Father walks out the door and Son screeches to a halt in the driveway}
Father (angrily): “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”
Sixteen Year Old: “What are you yellin’ at me for? I did what you asked!  I went to the store and got milk and bread!”
Father:  “It doesn’t take an hour to get bread and milk.  Where have you been?”
Sixteen Year Old:  “I stopped by Bobby’s house to show him my license, and Cindy’s to give her a ride, and I drove through Wendy’s for some lunch.”
 
What do you think?  Did the son do as the father asked?  Your answer may differ based on age.  My answer (from the perspective of the Father of a sixteen year old):  Definitely Not!
 
Did the father authorize the side trips?  No.  Did the father need to specifically add exclusion clauses to his command?  No.  Imagine the precedent for us fathers… 
 

“I want you to drive to the grocery store and get some milk and bread… and you can’t go to your friends’ house, and you can’t buy anything but milk and bread, and you can’t take the longest route you can find, and you can’t… can’t… can’t… can’t.

 
Why is this such a difficult concept?  I think most would say, “It’s not.”  It’s not, huh?  Then why is there: 
  
A Social Security Administration? 
A  Federal Education Department? 
An  African Development Foundation? 
A Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs Office? 
An  Overseas Private Investment Corporation? 
A National Endowment for the Arts? 
An Inter-American Foundation?

Are these functions of the federal government authorized by the constitution, specifically in Section 8 which iterates the authorized expenditures of the federal government?   I haven’t found them.  Did the founding fathers just forget to add them?  Did the founding fathers simply intend Section 8 as a base list from which to start?  Did they specifically have to exclude any other types of expenditures? 
 
No, No, No and… (drum roll please)… No!
 
Switching gears for a moment, I would suggest that the vast majority of Christian organizations have also been stung by disregard for the authority of silence.  However, this disregard has been allowed to mature for 2000 years rather than a mere 200 with disastrous results for the Lord’s Church. 
 
There is no doubt that, just as the father of the sixteen year old above, God does not consider his silence as carte blanche for Christians to do whatever seems right.  This very principle is used by the writer of Hebrews to argue that Jesus could not have been a priest under the old law because, “… it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.”  God told the Israelites that priests were to come from the tribe of Levi… he didn’t have to say, “Priest must come from the tribe of Levi and no other tribe, in particular not Simeon and not Benjamin and not Reuben and not….”
 
There are myriad implications with regards to the Church… administration, organization, collection and spending of money, activities, method of salvation, articles of worship, etc.  Here’s an example: 
 

1 Cor 16:1-2  Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.  2.  Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

 
When you add up all the commands and examples of Christians giving of their means to support the work of the Church, when is the Church authorized to take up a collection?  Answer:  “the first day of the week”.  How many organizations limit their collections to only “the first day of the week”?  A paltry few I dare say.
 
How about a more controversial one:
 
Look up all the verses about music/singing in the worship service in the New Testament.  When you’re done, your list should look something like this:
 
Rom 15:9, 1 Cor 14:15, Eph 5:19, Col 3:16, Heb 2:12, James 5:13
 
In which, you’ll find first century Christians “singing and making melody in  your heart to the Lord.”  No mention of instrumentation anywhere in the New Testament… and not because instruments weren't available.  David used instruments a thousand years before New Testament times.  Indeed, it wasn’t until the 1800s that instrumental music found its way into churches and when first suggested, was considered blasmephous. 
 
“Oh, how stupid.”, you say.  Well, not so stupid… just a biblical concept that’s been subordinated for so long that few understand it anymore.  “Oh, what a weird idea.”, you say.  Well, not so weird either. The very derivation of our word acapella (or more correctly a capella) is the Latin for, “in the way of the Church”.  Therefore to sing acapella (i.e. without instruments) is to sing in the way of the Church.  The concept of singing without instruments in churches is so foreign today that the very meaning of the word acapella has been lost.
 
The authority of silence is a powerful, though frequently overlooked concept. Were we to employ it more in our country, we’d have a country that looked much more like the founding father’s vision.  Were we to employ it more in our religious organizations, we’d have a Church that looked much more like the Father’s vision. 
 

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

We heard about these guys briefly and then the major media shut them out.  Here's a link to their site in case you want to take a look.  They have something compelling to say. 
 
I know when I interview a potential supervisor or manager, one thing I want to know is what do his current and past subordinates think of him/her.  If they're afraid to use a past subordinate as a reference, I'm afraid of them.
 
Based on these swift boat vets (who, interestingly enough, were on both sides of the command chain from Kerry), I'm afraid of him.

How's the Economy?

Here's the kind of news I like to see...  "Freight glut hits railroads ".
The word "economy" is used five times in this article...

"...resurgent economy (twice)"
"...growing economy pushes consumption..."
"The economy picked up..."
"...unable to catch up to the fast-growing economy."

Come on Dems... put a spin on that!

Bush vs. Kerry

You notice any differences in Kerry and Bush? 
 
Bush takes an unequivocal stand on homosexual “weddings”.
Kerry doesn’t even show up to vote.
 
Bush refuses to speak to NAACP based on principle (that being an objection to the bitterly partisan stance of what should be a non-partisan organization)
Kerry refuses to let Hillary speak… that is until the screams get loud enough, then he backs down.
 
Bush goes to war on principle and sticks with it despite problems and unpopularity
Kerry votes for war, then against it, then doesn’t bother to show up for subsequent votes on funding.
 
There’s lots more.  Check it out here.
 
I may not always agree with Bush’s stance, but at least I know where he stands!

Country Songs...

I'm always up for a good laugh.  Here's a good one from HipperCritical... the latest on Homespun Bloggers.

Donkey or Elephant?*

Most descriptive of which Political party? 

I (Liberal), Robot

I’ve always wondered where all those dope-head commie peace-nick hippies went after the 60s. Now I know. They’re writing children’s shows and software.

This from NewsMax:

Computer savvy and interested in presidential politics, 13-year-old Erin was upset to learn that America Online's Instant Message (AIM) robot "Smarter Child" favored Democrat John Kerry in this year's election. Erin, whose last name is being omitted in this article, is a fan of President Bush.

Read the rest of the article… it’s amazing and disgusting all at once. It reminds of the new movie, “I, Robot” where the robots are out killing people. In this day and age, they’re simply subverting children’s beliefs. Of course, as a programmer myself, I know that it’s not the robot or the program, it’s the personality behind the program. I’m repulsed to see a company imposing its political agenda on our youth in such an underhanded, sly, devious fashion.

In a similar vein, I was watching the Disney channel with my daughter the other day. I was amazed at the liberal, rebellious undercurrent of the show. The premise was that the school principal was tearing down the old rusting hulk of the schoolyard jungle gym and replacing it with a new fancy one. The kids didn’t want the old one torn down.

The principal and teachers were portrayed as old, cranky, mean-spirited, unreasonable derelicts, while the children were the righteous, smart, we-know-what’s-best-for-us, popular crowd. What followed could have been right out of a news video of U.C Berkley in the 60s. All the school children draped on the jungle gym chanting, “Heck no, we won’t go”, as the principal threatened to bull-doze the structure while they were still on it! And, of course, we had to get the union slant in too. When the principal commands the construction workers to tear it down, the union worker says, “Sorry, union rules forbid tearing down a jungle gym with kids on it.”

And I thought HBO and Cinemax were bad!

Smelly Muts?

For those of you that peruse the 10 minute list, I'm sure you've seen the auto-generated porn front blogs (I wish Blogger would/could do something about those). Anyway, I was browsing through this evening and saw... no lie...

"Interracial Dogfart Series".

Wow! Sex must be getting even weirder than I thought nowadays.

Amendments vs. Judges

This from FoxNews:

"We have something else going on here ... none of the various proposed constitutional amendments have gone through the judicial process to help the Senate determine whether a proposed amendment is necessary … changing the fundamental charter of our nation should not be proposed in a haphazard manner," Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Uh Huh... I can see Leahy's point of view... why change the constitution via admendment when you can change its meaning via the judicial branch?

Protecting Lady Liberty*

How about those Coasties! 

Back to Front Porch Days

We had a big storm blow through Sunday. My wife and I stood in the garage door and watched as it blew. It was quite literally a ten minute hurricane. Actually, we found out later that funnel clouds had been spotted over our location. Trees were felled up and down the street and we lost power for the rest of the day.

So, what did the neighborhood do without computers and TVs and video games for six hours? We did exactly what, once upon a time, many did every day. We walked down the street and talked to our neighbors… some we hadn’t seen in a year or two. We sat on the front porch and watched the world go by and waved to more neighbors. We went to Church and came home and walked around some more and talked to more neighbors. I learned more about my neighbors in a few hours than the previous 20 years I’ve lived in the neighborhood.

I miss those porch sitting days when I was a kid. But I guess this blogging thing is analogous to those porch sitting days. I’m sitting on the front porch of the internet sharing my opinions with others, nodding when I agree, shaking my head when I don’t. It sure is a bigger neighborhood, but the people seem just as neighborly. Tom is helping with the virtual front porch at HOMESPUN BLOGGERS… y’all neighbors should check it out.

Hey WorldNetDaily, Sabbath = Saturday

I wish that WorldNetDaily (an otherwise excellent source of news and commentary) would stop showing their ignorance on the topic of the Sabbath by continually referring to Sunday as the Sabbath day in their headlines. The Sabbath day is the seventh day… Saturday… always has been, always will be. Sunday is the first day of the week… you know, the day after Saturday.

This particular article is about a dim-witted public relations shtick by a Seventh Day Adventist preacher to draw attention to his belief that Christians should be worshipping on Saturday rather than Sunday. Were he a Jew, he’d have an argument. But, as a Christian, he (and I) are subject not to the law of Moses, but to the new law, which even a cursory reading of Galatians and Hebrews will reveal.

He is correct in stating that you won’t find a direct command to worship on Sunday or keep Sunday Holy as you find about the Sabbath day in the fourth commandment (he’s not so stupid as to lose a million bucks). However, there is more to scriptural authority than direct command, particularly in the New Testament. We also take the “God breathed” (2 Tim 3:16) documented actions (hence the book of Acts) of the first century Christians as authority for our actions as Christians today. And in that respect, we find the early Christians meeting and worshipping on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7)

I think the WorldNetDaily folks understand this based on the article, but presumably in defense of their headlines, they offer this:

“In the lexicon of modern society, the debate over which day is holy – that is, set apart to God – goes unresolved by the editors of Webster's New World College Dictionary. While the first definition of sabbath calls it "the seventh day of the week (Saturday), set aside for rest and worship and observed as such by Jews (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) and some Christian denominations," its second meaning defines it as "Sunday as the usual Christian day of rest and worship."

No offense to Websters or WorldNetDaily, but I’m not turning to a “lexicon of modern society” to get the meanings of ancient Biblical words and concepts. I’ll stick with a Vines Expository. Using Websters to define 4000 year old Hebrew words is much like the modern day morphing of the Constitution’s non-establishment clause into the ACLU’s “separation of Church and state”. WorldNetDaily rails against this abortion of concept. Why not do the same for the Sabbath day?

The Philipinos Cave

They’re pulling out of Iraq… a move that may very well save the life of Angelo dela Cruz if he’s not dead already. Will it buy any more than that? Will the withdrawal win the Philipinos any short or long term peace from the blood thirsty Muslims? Will this decision save more lives than it loses?

Not if the Barbary Pirates are any indication. If you’re not familiar with this history lesson, it’s an excellent one to learn. It’s the source of “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn (go Jarhead Journal), and has direct application in our situation with Islamic terrorists today. It’s also a testimony to the integrity, grit and honor of our founding fathers… Thomas Jefferson in this particular instance.

Learn the history of the Barbary Coast and then decide who seems more like Thomas Jefferson... JohnJohn or G.W.

Law or Suggestion?

This, from FoxNews:

“Women senators are expressing outrage at a controversial judicial nominee who co-authored a 1997 article with his wife in which he suggested biblical passages about wives being subservient to their husbands should be”… [Gasp!]… “taken literally.”

Well, how else would you take God’s law?! Mere suggestions? As subject to current societal standards? With a grain of salt?

Officer: “Sir, didn’t you see that 55mph speed limit sign a mile back?
Speeder: “Yes officer, but I thought it was simply a suggestion of a reasonable speed for this road.”
Officer: “Sign here, please.”

The law is the law… you either live by it or you don’t.

These senators' attitude (which unfortunately is shared by most of the world today) towards God’s law is echoed in their attitude towards our country’s constitution. It’s a living document, made to be bent and shaped and molded to the society of the day. I don’t think that’s what the founding fathers had in mind, and I certainly don’t think that’s what the creating Father had in mind either.

Political Conventions Obsolete?

I just saw on FoxNews that the city of New York is expecting to spend about 76 million smackaroos for security at the Republican convention. I’m sure that doesn’t include moneys spent at the state and federal levels… so what do you think?... maybe 100 million tax payer bucks just for the Republican convention? Maybe more? And that’s in cold hard cash! Think of the millions more in lost productivity by surrounding businesses due to security demanded disruptions. I doubt the revenue brought in by the convention will come anywhere close to offsetting these costs. The Democratic convention is much the same. The port will be closed (care to place a dollar figure on that?)… the largest subway station closed… and whatever else closed. Big money!

This all begs the question in my mind, “Is it worth it?” Is there a better way to nominate a presidential candidate in this “connected” day and age than to offer up a ripe, juicy target for anarchists, environmentalists, islamists and every other terrorist type out there in wacko land?

Hmmmm… to formulate an answer, I had to do some research. I must plead ignorance as to what the real purpose of the political conventions is, other than the obvious purpose of officially nominating a presidential candidate. I mean, if that’s all they do… it’s a no brainer! Delegates don’t have to pack into a big room to cast their votes. Have an electronic town hall and save the plane fare (or more importantly, my tax dollars). By this time in the year, the selection of a candidate is anticlimactic anyway.

So I did a little research, and the best that I came up with was that the political conventions have been whittled down to little more than political infomercials. That’s it!? Wow, it really is a no brainer! Let’s save some tax payer money and deny our enemies two more high-profile targets.

Of course, there will be those that argue we’re giving in to the terrorists if we nominate presidential candidates in a different manner. I must admit, that exact thought was second thing that popped into my mind when I first thought of doing away with the conventions. However, upon further reflection, this isn’t really “caving into” terrorism… it’s simply changing tactics to put our enemies on the defensive and remove targets of opportunity… time honored military tactics. It’s using our strengths to overcome our weaknesses.

So what do you say? Has the political convention gone the way of the Dodo bird?

Almost Ready!*

The beast is almost ready to roll! Jarhead Journal!... we're going to have to go for a spin when you get home. 

You Gotta See This!

It's a serious ROFLMAO (for those of you that remember Compuserve days).

This Land Is My Land.

HOMESPUN BLOGGERS

Tom over at MuD & PHuD has started a new blog enterprise... the HOMESPUN BLOGGERS. It's a colaboration of us bloggers not for hire (actually, if someone wants me, let me know)... just out there letting our opinions, or in most cases, facts, be known.

Thanks Tom!

The Robert Reich Declaration of Independence

Please read previous two posts to get the background for this to make sense...


The Declaration of Independence if Robert Reich had been a founding father:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Natural Selection entitle them, an unswerving respect to the omniscience of smart men requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We the omniscient, hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men have evolved in equal conditions, that they are endowed by their Government with certain Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty from any and all Deity, Happiness, Health, Financial Security, a Home, a Job, Full Retirement, and any other right determined by the popular vote of the masses, that since these rights are endowed by such Government by mass approval, that there are no unalienable rights and that these rights can be revoked or endowed by their Government as post-modernistic culture demands…

If you can't spot the differences...
A. Shame on you
B. Learn!

To Illustrate the Previous Point...

Robert Reich (Clinton's Labor Secretary) gives practical voice to my previous post in his recent column in the American Prospect:

"The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face."

The "primacy of the individual" vs. "allegiance to a higher authority". Humanism vs. God. What country would you rather live in?... one where Robert Reich decides what's moral or not or one in which morality is defined by God? If comments like Mr. Reich's don't scare you... they should!

The Fall of America?

Pastor gets prison for sermon. This headline pertains to a Swedish pastor, but it won’t be long before these headlines will refer to an American. The crime? Espousing the biblical truth that homosexuality is immoral… "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society" as this preacher put it. Already, American preachers are looking for “sermon insurance”… although that will only suffice for civil attacks. When preaching the truth becomes criminal, the only insurance a preacher will have will be his faith.

This country was founded on the desire for religious freedom. Christians fled here in droves to escape the officially state sanctioned Church of England to practice a more biblical form of Christianity. The concept was simple: the government should not mandate one religious group over another. However, that is exactly what is happening in this country and the world over right now.

The religion of Humanism is demanding and receiving the right to be the official state sponsored religion in this country. It’s already well ensconced in Europe and Canada. Call it whatever you want… humanism, moral relativity, secularism, post-modernistic thought, atheism, cultural relativity, new age… they all boil down to the same thing… placing man ahead of, and in place of God as the ultimate moral authority. Certainly, practitioners of this religion wouldn’t call it a “religion”, but make no mistake, that is exactly what it is. And, until our government recognizes humanism as such, the humanists will continue to not only drive every vestige of God from our society, but vilify and criminalize any expression of God’s law.

God’s law is the very foundation of this country’s law. One only need spend a week in Washington, D.C. observing the memorials to our country’s founding to realize this fact. This country will not survive if its very foundation is ripped out from underneath it.

The Wizard Of Oz...

... is on the TV over my shoulder right now. Quote of the day from the scarecrow... "A lot of people without brains do a lot of talking."

Amen, brother scarecrow!

Moore's Not So Smart.

Agree with him or not, he's not quite as smart as he pretends to be. As a damaging propaganda piece against Bush (which is exactly what he intends “Fahrenheit 9/11” to be), its release comes far too early to still be a poignant factor four months from now. If anything, his choice of release date may backfire for the following reasons:

1. Moore has given those with even a remote interest in the facts plenty of time to check up on his. Of course, there is the crowd that has no interest in the facts regardless of evidence… they will never be swayed. However, for the rest of you, here’s a good place to start.

2. Even the liberal mainstream press, wanting desperately to see Moore’s attacks succeed against Bush can’t hold back the truth for that long. The fact finders will be many and persuasive… even coming from the ranks of liberals and Dems that don’t want to be caught with their pants down as the facts are revealed. We’re already seeing the first wave of these liberal nay-sayers pop up in the press (Clark, Koch, Newsweek, etc.). Had Moore released in mid October, the emotional high would have overwhelmed Bush before rationality had a chance to set in. With the early release date, the factual low for the liberals will be in full phase by November.

3. Moore has given Bush the time to respond. Don’t chalk this up to a sense of fair play though. I suspect greed had much more to do with the release date decision.

4. The attention span of most people, particularly the younger generation that he courts, is probably at its lowest point in the history of man. Four months is a lifetime for this generation. For evidence, one only needs to look back at newspaper and editorial headlines four months after 9/11. “Fahrenheit 9/11” will be little more than an afterthought by November.

5. The early release will allow all the wacko groups on the extreme left to come out in praise of the film. Mainstream libs and Dems won’t want to be associated with these groups.

Moore’s a smart guy… certainly gifted at putting a narrative film together… but he’s not a purveyor of the big picture. I’ll take dumb ole’ Bush smarts over Moore any day!