Special Dog's Conservative Bark

Dupes....Redux

2012-01-27T20:59:00.000-05:00

The following is a blog from September 15th of this past year.

September 15, 2011
The relationship between the American Progressive and Communism has always been a dysfunctional one, the Progressive longing for someone to look to as a hero and the Communist not only abusing that adulation but sneering at those so gullible as to think that there is anything compassionate or daring about them. The communist knew the extraordinary weaknesses of the liberal American mind and has taken advantage of it from the beginning for a century now! It has a new face today, hiding behind a semi-capitalist veil, for it retreated and reinvented its outward appearance. The generation will never be able to say that they were not told, nor warned, for the evidence is everywhere if only we would look. I've reported on more than a dozen outstanding books on the deteriorating condition of our nation and its causes in this blog of almost three years but none of secular content more needed than the one I put before you today. I do not believe that any liberal can read this book and not be concerned that they may have been duped. One might very well read a chapter and then throw the book away, or skim it and not accept its message but if one reads the book through they will view our political landscape differently. The title of the book is Dupes, How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives For A Century. I'm very familiar with the author for I had read a few of his previous books and although I admired him as a Professor of Political Science at Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania, one of America's finest colleges, I did not know that he had it in him to produce such a monumentally important work, with such clarity, and systematized in such a way to take the reader on a trip through American history and awaken him in the process. Professor Kengor filleted the meat of Communist propaganda so expertly as to expose the rotten flesh and release the stench that permeates liberal politics, higher education and the mainstream media. You have to read this book...if you care about America. A blurb from Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute says the same thing: "Face it. you are going to have to read this book!" Why...so that you show your knowledge of Communism in some future conversation? No, rather that you can read it and weep and hopefully sound your own alarm in that future conversation. In another blurb, Fred Barnes wrote that it left him "amazed and a bit frightened." The Weekly Standard's Barnes has been sounding an alarm for decades yet it still made him a bit frightened! Reading the book was a culmination of research that I had already been doing, that the Communist has reappeared in America in a new guise, and yet i was dumbfounded by the volume of evidence and not a little disappointed in being reminded of my own history of being duped in the late 1970s. Kengor is going to take you back to September of 1919 in Chicago where communism first began its assault on the American mind. You will see the essence of class hatred in it from its beginning and recognize the tactic from the Left today. you will see one celebrity or person of note after another taken in by the lies, many waking up later, angry and indignant. Even the most ardent admirer of Franklin Roosevelt will have to reassess that admiration as Roosevelt was taken in by Uncle Joe Stalin thanks to the leftists all around him. Read and weep at how much of our media was not only taken in but even today ridicules those who are not duped. Will they have the character to admit that they were wrong, if and when they also awaken, as many of their predecessors did? You will see heroes and you will see buffoons who were, and are, very useful idiots for communism, and too many who were out-and-out traitors. You will see how Hollywood was used and many of the biggest names duped. Compare this to the stars of today while you read. And you will see Ronald Reagan as a liberal Democrat and head of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, admittedly himself duped for a time, and recognize his courage and greatness on display even then! No one made this man and he was no late bloomer. Communism has a new face but the essence remains the same, for God is still banished and revolutions are still started, as despicably as ever, through hatred and propaganda. Lying is as common as breathing. One class is pitted against another. Educators are still sought for their influence on the youth. Unions are still infiltrated as are the arts. College students are intellectually brutalized and the new media is still wooed with dreams that they might actually be more important than the news they report. The SDS mentality (Students for a Democratic Society) that the Communist so effectively used against our miltary's efforts in Vietnam is alive in many of its former leaders who have grown up, quite naturally to become college professors, and in the case of bill Ayers, prepare their comrades, and those they mentor, to run for elective office, even the presidency. Communism is alive but not well because it can only remain beneath the surface for so long until the rains of tyranny expose the caskets of dead ideas, tyrants and false promises. Paul Kengor lays it our very clearly for the reader how lies told about George Bush's intentions in Iraq and how accusations of a warmongering, racist, America that has lured the college student, the idle and the malcontent over the past thirty years, are just reheated deceptions dusted off from older communist scripts where only the names have changed. Who is Frank Marshall Davis and why was the media silent on this Communist mentor to our current President? Why is Jimmy Carter still a dupe? How was Edward Kennedy, who I had volunteered for, one of the biggest dupes of all? One need not be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party to be a Communist as Kengor points out, and one can think of themselves as a patriot and yet be a prize dupe. Kengor says that they will continue to call us scare mongers and McCarthyite fanatics but this is just another tired and true tactic from the bowels of Moscow's Comintern. He concludes his book with these thoughts, "The most mordant irony for the liberals who lend cover is that while they laugh at the anti-Communists, they seem to have no idea that the loudest howls have always emanated from the Communists who take them as dupes: gullible fools to be used to advance the Communist cause."

Communism For 1000, Alex

2012-01-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

Today's blog feeds off of the previous blog so I did something that I haven't done before. I went back and highlighted the specific passages that pertain to what I'm going to write about here. What we saw in last night's State of the Union Address was a form of mind control, a form of Alinskyite political philosophy and worse. Senator Jim DeMint said that it could not even be taken seriously. Rush Limbaugh called it "chock full of lies" and Newt Gingrich wrote "Obama is a very sophisticated Marxist philosopher, combining the highly advanced social manipulation tactics of Alinsky with careful, long-developed insights in how to craft a modern, neo-Marxist message to sell to a majority of modern America" Misinformation propaganda never worries about telling lies, in fact, as previously mentioned, the bigger the lie the better....just keep telling it and the initial shock will wear off replaced by a boredom where the truth challenges the lie until no one really wants to hear of it anymore. The media impression of a President announced with regal bearing, slowly walking with his cortege into the magnificence of the United States House chamber is a powerful tool, but one report had the speech given at an eighth grade level. I've warned consistently throughout this blog that the GOP had better not base this whole election on the economy. There's a scene from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid where the duo is trapped on a cliff overlooking a river. Butch wants to jump while Sundance is nervously hesitant. Butch presses the issue and the response he hears is "I can't Swim." Butch is incredulous, "You can't swim? The fall alone will probably kill you!" The health of the economy is important but there are numerous other issues with even more potentially devastating implications. Today's rampant doublespeak fits perfectly into the statistical world of economics. Proclaim what you want...whose going to challenge it...except people who actually know the subjects and no one is going to listen to them anyway. We have a Marxist president but how many people would even care about that. A poll recently released in Germany states that "one in five young Germans has no idea that Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp" and that "Auschwitz meant nothing to 21 percent of 18-29 years" and "nearly a third were unaware that Auschwitz was in today's Poland." Far too few Americans know what Communism was and is, nor Marxism. In fact they are voting for it! This whole issue is at the core of the Republican primary contests. If one sees this danger at the very doorstep of America, in its entirety-in its potential horror and its home grown support, one gravitates quickly to Conservatives. If one cannot see the imminent chaos hovering over us like a vulture they fit nicely in with the Moderates. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave these words to Sherlock Holmes spoken to Dr. Watson, "You see, but you do not observe." Dear readers, please at least attempt to observe the method behind the man and the tactic behind the words. My blog of June 21, 2011 titled Focus On The White House points to only some of the other issues, constitutional, domestic and international, that have to be kept at the forefront of this coming election campaign, should God even will us to have another before His long-suffering with us reverts to judgment.

Those Who Ignore History.....

2012-01-22T23:54:00.001-05:00

Erwin W. Lutzer is an Evangelical and long-time pastor of Moody Church in Chicago. He's the author of Hitler's Cross and is known for his studies into Hitler's Germany, its relation to the German Christian church and for warnings to America on the temptation of such a mass movement as Nazism. He followed up his award winning book with When A Nation Forgets God, 7 Lessens We must Learn From Nazi Germany. This book can be purchased from Amazon.com for under ten dollars and I encourage you to give it to your loved ones, to friends and to anyone concerned about the path that America has taken. What you will find in this paperback are remarkable similarities of Hitler's methods in conquering a culture for illicit purposes and our own slide into oblivion. This book answers questions on how we have come to the state that we are in by simply presenting strong evidence that the reader recognizes on the weakness of the human mind when in the hands of master villains. Erwin Lutzer begins by writing that "There were circumstances and widely accepted ideas that enabled the population (of Germany) to become a part of an evil that was greater than that of any individuals." He message is similar to Mark Levin's in his book Ameritopia but much more relevant to the Christian therefore even more needed here in America. That message, and the message throughout this blog, is that our allegiance is first to Almighty God and that if allegiance to the state is perverted by maniacal power hungry tyrants, the state becomes a god seeking to destroy the only true God. Lutzer informs us that "The experience of the church in Nazi Germany reminds us that Christ must always stand alone...worshipped as One who stands...not...alongside the government leaders of this world but as standing above them as King of Kings and Lord of Lords." His first warning is that Hitler first tried to make peace with the church on his terms, then took power away from the German Parliament and finally used that usurped power to "obliterate" the church... "transforming (it) so thoroughly that every vestige of Christianity would be smashed." The "Confessing Church" of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller that challenged Hitler was dealt with harshly. The state would take over from the church on all issues such as dedicating infants, marriage and holidays which would become paganized. God would be so separated from the state that He became an enemy of that state. Lutzer relates to us German theologian Niemoller's warning in a sermon, "We have all of us-the whole church and the whole community-we've been thrown into the Tempters sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff. Verily, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even the most indolent and peaceful person among us must see that the calm of meditative Christianity is at an end." Examples from today are given, one being a Florida Principle and Athletic Director threatened with jail for the crime of praying before lunch at school. Some reading this will say,"well, that's against the law," oblivious to what transpired in the enacting of that law. Lutzer's title of his first warning is When God Is Separated From Government, Judgement Follows. His second warning emanating from the Nazi experience is It's Always The Economy. I had a friend tell me just last week that he voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 for one reason and one reason only...the economy. Lutzer reminds us that Hitler "could never have come to power if the German economy had remained strong after World War II." Hitler exploited the crisis and the result was National Socialism. The author writes (as if we here do not already know and have not seen evidence of it today) "an economic crisis is always a gift to a leader who wants to capture a nation." Lutzer points out that "Hitler not only attracted the support of the middle class, but also of university students and professors." Hitler created emergencies when needed and the Germans didn't care if they were losing their freedoms as long as the economy improved. Even the "majority" of Lutheran churches sided with Hitler and when eventually "mandated to swear personal allegiance to Hitler," 800 pastors who refused to do so were "arrested and imprisoned." Hitler satisfied the people through monetary policies that would only later be shown as disastrous and on this Lutzer quotes Thomas Jefferson in "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." He also quotes Abraham Lincoln in "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor." Lutzer quotes Scripture in the feeding of the five thousand and the demand that Jesus be made king, "do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." (John 6:27) Lutzer's third warning is about the Law and is titled That Which Is Legal Might Also Be Evil. Hitler created his own laws to legitimate his crimes. The Jews were not persons, so the SS could "legally" kill them. In fact this was the defense given by many in the post-war trials. We suffer from this malady today for in the postmodern mind, laws are tools to accomplish our desires, not statutes of eternal truths. Today, Czars create their own laws in the form of regulations. One need look no further that Roe v. Wade to see how we legalized murder and one's conscience is clear simply because one is within the law. Same-sex marriage applies the same thinking. Under attack today are the thoughts of the Samuel Rutherfords and William Blackstones of yesteryear. Lutzer lays it out very clearly in, "A student of the history of law in the Untied States should have been able to predict that human life would soon be reclassified as unworthy of special protection. Abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, homosexual marriage- these are the inevitable result of secular humanism's (and evolution's) worldview. When God dies, so does man." Too often today we legislate from the bench, for the Constitution has become a "living document....(and), the Constitution is not absolute, judges are." Lutzer turns next in his warnigs to propaganda in Propaganda Can Change A Nation. We've all seen the response that Newt Gingrich has been given for comments in the debates. In my opinion, it's not the former House Speaker that generates standing ovations, but the fact that someone is finally shouting from a rooftop that the American media has long since become a Ministry of Propaganda. Anyone telling the truth to the American people in these debates would have been received with standing O's. Lutzer spends a lot of time on Hitler and his personal propaganda, quoting him from Mein Kampf, "The first task of propaganda is to win people for subsequent organization. (emphasis mine) The second task of propaganda is the disruption of the existing state of affairs and the permeation of this state of affairs with the new doctrine, while the second task of the organization must be the struggle for power, thus to achieve the final success of the doctrine." Just to be clear, that is Hitler writing...not Saul Alinsky. Lutzer continues, "Of course as any skilled propagandist knows the masses should never be told the end-game, that is, where the leader actually intends to take the people." Hitler believed that in order for people to believe the obvious lie that they had to be part of a "cultural current"..."He believed that many people would never change their minds individully, but would do so if they were in a crowd of several thousand convinced followers. When a seeker steps into a crowd of thousands, wrote Hitler, that seeker is swept away into the mighty effect of suggestive intoxication and enthusiasm...confirm(ing) to him the rightness of the new doctrine." Hitler knew that "terms and slogans could be used for broader appeal." Read, meditate and weep, if you will, on this quote from Mein Kampf ..."The magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds , they more easily fall a victim to the big lie than to the little one, (emphasis mine) since they themselves lie in little things but would be ashamed of lies that are too big." And yet another Hitler quote, "By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and consequently the most wretched life as paradise." Lutzer writes of Albert Einstein's feelings on Nazi Germany in that the universities, the newspapers and the intellectuals gave in to Hitler...only the (Confessing) church "stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth...I am (therefore) forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly." Lutzer turns next to Parents-Not The State, Are Responsible For A Child's Training Hmmm...where have I heard that concept before? From Hitler again..." German youth... must be consciously shaped according to principles which are recognized as correct...according to the principles of the ideology of National Socialism." Private schooling was abolished and "all education was unified under the Nazi ideology....textbooks were rewritten." Children's natural desire to be independent of parents was "exploited." Attitudes were taught and "values" were "clarified" and "facts were deliberately distorted." Here is another quote, from many years ago, this time from Harvard University professor Chester Pierce...(are you sitting down?) "every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our Founding Fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government....the truly well individual is the one who has rejected all these things...the true international child of the future." Lutzer's final plea..."take charge of your child's education." Erwin Lutzer's last two lessons to be learned have to do with what our response should be to what is going on. Are we to take hold of, what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, "cheap grace," or be inspire by costly grace? His last lesson is labelled We Must Exalt The Cross In The Gathering Darkness. From my perspective, and I have blogged upon it many times, the church today has found more powerful concepts to preach than the cross of Jesus Christ and here is the rub as it pertains to this book, preachers will look you in the eye after preaching a sermon that is 100 percent "application," void of the gospel, and tell you "well, the gospel is actually in the application." The overall church suffers immensely, is susceptible to all forms of poor teaching to heresy, and is perfectly content to live in a dumbed-down doctrinal Christianity, all because the shepherd has configured his logic in such a way that the gospel is not present...but present. American Christianity can learn a lot from the experiences of the German church, the first is that very difficult days are likely ahead and the most important that, as Lutzer conluded his book in a quote from Bonhoeffer, "it is before (the) cross and not before us that the world trembles." Erwin Lutzer took pains to emphasize that "Nazism did not rise out of a vacuum," that "cultural streams" were more problematic than individuals and I would like to emphasize that our peace in Jesus Christ is intact, through His strength so I offer once again, in part, a Puritan prayer from Arthur Bennett's Valley Of Vision, highly recommended for daily devotions and also available at Amazon.com:

Lord God Almighty,

May I maintain a supreme regard to another
and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger
and a pilgrim here.
Afford me all the direction, defense, support,
and consolation my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.
Give me large abundance of the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief
and uncertainties.

Ameritopia

2012-01-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

Mark Levin himself acknowledges that some people think that he writes differently than he speaks on his nationally syndicated radio talk show and it's something that I have noticed for quite some time. He's a little bit too pugnacious for me on the radio but when he pens his thoughts he is one of the very best, able to succinctly reach the ordinary American, albeit normal in a traditional sense. In Liberty And Tyranny, a former No.1 best seller, he contrasted the concept of liberty with the "growing tyranny of government-statism as I (Levin) broadly labelled it- which threatens our liberty, the character of our country, and our way of life." His latest book Ameritopia, The Unmaking Of America, is another powerful reference and I write of that book here. It's a lesson in the history of political philosophy particularly as it relates to our constitutional republican form of government and the present threat to it. He begins with the concept of utopianism which he describes as a "pseudo ideal...in which a heroic despot, a benevolent sovereign, or an enlightened oligarchy claims the ability and authority to provide for all the needs and fulfill all the wants of the individual-in exchange for his absolute servitude." As a format for the book he choose "four classic philosophical works-that best describe the utopian thinking and conduct in America," those being Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Describing Utopianism, the author writes that it is "irrational... (ignoring) the teaching and knowledge that have come before... (with) unachievable promises for knowledge-science and reason while laying claim to them all... abstraction framed as progress..., (stripping the individual and conforming him to the state)... deception disguised as hope... (based on) group identity... (ignoring economics and experience with a perverse definition of equality)... intolerant... rule by masterminds (and) driven by (their) own boundless conceit and delusional aspirations-which he identifies as a noble calling." He has a way with words for it's an accurate description of the liberal of today. On to the classic philosophical books that led us to where we find ourselves: Plato's Republic is a quest for a totalitarian state in which it is "not difficult to find the germs of Marxism, National Socialism, Islamicism and other forms of utopianism," a city that "provides for only the most basic needs of its citizens-food, shelter, clothing and shoes." Acknowledging a problem in these limits, and the need to provide more, he calls for "Guardians...who will wisely rule and guard the city." The individual is out of the picture. Man is born with a particular "metal" in which you and I are bronze while I presume the Clintons and Obamas are obviously gold. He writes, "Indoctrinization is..crucial." Does the following sound familiar..."Only those who are otherwise healthy, but suffer either an injury or seasonal malady, are entitled to medical care" for "the chronically ill are not beneficial to the city." The "philosophers must rule" and we certainly see this today in the arrogance of the intellectual of our elite universities. Thomas More, who was in King Henry VIII's court and eventually executed, devised a plan in Utopia for a radically regimented society that substituted "one evil for another" and is eerily "reminiscent of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward." Concluding with Thomas More, Levin writes, "Utopia is a tyrannical society, destructive of individual sovereignty and free will, with many of the attributes of a communist state." Thomas Hobbes was a "partisan of the English royalty" during and after the reign of Charles I. Necessary in his utopia was "Submission to the Leviathan (or Commonwealth)...(and) transferring one's rights to the sovereign." Men were equal only "in the sense that all individuals strive for survival." Levin adds "Liberty exists only to the extent the Sovereign permits." Man once again is stripped of "human qualities that contribute to the essence of life." Levin concludes with "Leviathan springs not from a virtuous government protective of a civil society, but a totalitarian regime." The elimination of private property and the family comes next with Marx's and Engels's Humanist Manifesto. Class struggle anyone? Here is the "Workers paradise." Levin's emphasis is that "in all four utopias, the individual and his family, are subservient to the state." Having given the foundation for totalitarianism, Levin turns to two men whose writings challenged Plato, More, Hobbes and Marx...John Locke and Montesquieu. The individual here had "value, dignity and significance." Levin writes "Locke makes the case for a civil and consensual government with just laws impartially enforced and in which the liberty and rights of the individual are respected, thereby rejecting the utopian centralized model where the philosopher/king, prince, sovereign or temporary despot rules over the masses and shapes the individual against his will." Enter the American colonies and those who would become Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Who would they choose to heed in forming the new nation? We all know the answer and Levin provides numerous quotes from the writings of Locke and Montesquieu including warnings of what the alternative was....warnings we need to hear again today. Mark Levin gives us the disturbing details of how men such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and others reverted to the utopian concept, so much so that we are in peril today of a total political philosophy transplant and are now, according to Levin, in the buffer stage of Ameritopia. Levin states that Plato would approve of Barack Obama. The author writes, "The essential question is whether, in America, the people's psychology has been so successfully warped, the individual's spirit so thoroughly trounced, and the civil society's institutions so effectively overwhelmed that revival is impossible." My take on this is that Mark Levin's book, Ameritopia, is indeed needed. I read this book in an evening. Surely we as a people can allot time to heed such warnings, surely we can teach them to our children. It's interesting that Levin used the word "revival." The Evangelical of today uses that word often and unfortunately, once again often, ties a revival of the gospel and revival of America together. I say "unfortunately," for the former leads to the latter but is wholly distinct from it and if we ignore this, the best that we can hope for is a traditional, patriotic America to oversee the fall of that America. A reformation is more to the point of what is needed, a turning of the entire population, or at least the vast majority, to, not John Locke, but Jesus Christ. Our indifference to our benefactor directly led our rejection of a Constitutional Republic in favor of utopian forms of government. Nonetheless, there is a political realm that has to be paid attention to. This book is an asset here....if it will be read, particular by more than the conservative block. Thomas More's Utopia was written in the year of our Lord 1516. Martin Luther penned his 95 Theses in 1517. None of the above mentioned books, nor any others save God's very Word to us, changed the world so as Luther's thoughts put on paper. Indeed we experienced a Reformation that led also to political change whose offspring was England and America. Please take the time to read Levin's book and to pass it on, but only if this action is bookended by prayer and a return to the only words penned by man, under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, that transforms not only nations but the souls of which make up those nations.

Rhinos, Hyenas and Jackasses...Oh My!

2012-01-19T23:20:00.000-05:00

The following blog is from September 14th, 2010:

The lampshade rotated slowly in the still and quiet room. Emanating from the top were two beams of light casting a glow on the planets on the ceiling. As the shade further turned, Buzz Lightyear appeared on the wall and slowly circled the room, wobbling over a Pittsburgh Penguins pennant, a Sydney Crosby Jersey, shower curtains revealed through the open bathroom door, two windows and an autographed framed photograph of President Ronald Reagan; not a standard decoration in the bedroom of a nine year old boy, but still appropriate in a world where most entertainments for children involve violence or some shaman witchcraft a la Harry Potter. The door creaked as it inched open. Dad would never oil that door for at night he wanted to know every time that it opened. The invading light made it appear as if Buzz was passing from out of the earth's shadow.

"Anyone awake?" He whispered hoping not to hear a response.
"Just me dad. I can't sleep."
Raising his voice to normal..."How about a fairy tale?"
"Yea!" came the reply.
Dad came in and sat on the lower bunk, the top reserved for a brother who had not shown up yet.
"How about Hanzel and Gretyl?"
"Nah."
"The Three Bears?"
"Oh sure, bears that talk! Come on dad!"
"But that's what fairy tales are supposed to be son. They free your imagination to think of strange things....like Little Red Riding Hood....a wolf in sheep's clothing...come on....huh?"
"You said that that women named Hillary is a wolf in sheep clothing."
"Well, that's true but that's what called a metaphor."
"A What?"
"Tell you later. I know. I have a story about scary Rhinos. Only they are scary for different reasons."
"Wow. A rhino could scare anyone!"
"These are different types of rhinos. Some of them are very small. Susie the rhino is about mom's size and Olympia the rhino carries a purse. Some are strong with very big muscles like Arnold the rhino, but as soon as Mrs. Arnold comes out, Arnold the rhino sneaks back into the bushes."
"So why are these rhinos scary?"
"Well, they are scary because they are pretending to be elephants. They're very dangerous to little children and babies not born yet because they are always stomping around. They like to live in big castles but when wolves come around they start to take down the castle walls."
"Why do they do that dad? Don't they know that the wolves will come in and eat them?"
"Well, part of the problem is that they do not have very good eyesight. They look at the wolves and think that they are cute little puppy dogs!"
"Wow!"
"And they don't hear very well either. You can warn them that there are bees buzzing all around and even yell 'Look out! The bees are going to sting you!' but they just keep on stomping on baby carriages and school books...so anyway, one day little bitty tea cups hopped up to them.."
"Oh come on dad, tea cups that hop?"
"Use your imagination son. The tea cups hopped up to them and told the rhinos to stop chewing on the animals constitution."
"They were chewing on the animal's constitution?"
"That's right son, chewing on it and spitting it out for there were two much trans fats in the Constitution and not enough fluoride and Prozac."
"What?"
"Never mind, I got carried away; but they chewed and chewed and said that they were going to make their own laws over the animal kingdom. All the other animals were scared because they knew that the rhinos would get big and fat and eat everything in sight, including all the other animal's food. That's why this is such a scary story."
"Wow! What happens then?"
"Well, one day the lion, the king of the jungle, came back and he was not very happy. He told the rhinos that they were not elephants, they were rhinos, and they were more like jackasses."
"What did he do then?"
"He roared at the rhino castle and it fell down, and he roared at Lisa the rhino and she cried, and he roared in Spanish at the rhino with the white hair!"
"Wow! How did he roar in Spanish?"
"He rolled his R's...anyway he put the tea cups in charge of the constitution, to protect it."
"And what did the elephants...I mean the rhinos...I mean the jackasses do?"
"Well, they cried for a while but then they said 'OK, so we're not elephants...we are really hyenas!' and they laughed this crazy laugh. And then they said that they were going to huff and puff and blow the tea cups away but they didn't have any lips to blow with......then they became lobbyists."
Yawn! "That's a good story dad. I think that I can go to sleep now."
"That's good son."
"Are you going to bed now dad?"
"Soon son... but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep...I'll explain that tomorrow."
He kissed his son on the forehead, put Buzz back into orbit and tiptoed out the door...creeek!

Glory Days?

2012-01-18T00:10:00.000-05:00

O to be young again, the exhilaration of finding out that there is more to life than a powder blue zip-up Jantzens jacket, bulging biceps or the latest Robert Redford movie. A nearly blank slate, more powerful than anything Steve Jobs could imagine, literally begs for information. O to be so smart once again, so wise, so sure of what is right and wrong. These comments are only partially tongue and cheek for a wonder of God's creation is to begin adulthood with such potential, but it's also fraught with difficulties. For one thing one doesn't automatically have a knowledge of all that is counterfeit, nor even how the counterfeit blends in with the truth. These things have to be learned and experienced, or at least studied from testimonies of others who have, and patience is not the most sought after commodity for one often desires to be a hero from the get-go, either a patriot or a revolutionary. Another pitfall is disappointment. One finds a leader or a philosophy only to discover that his (her) feet are made of clay and that the philosophy does not reward as promised. Yet another pitfall is not seeing those feet of clay and following too long and too close to the flame. But it's all worth it if God's hand is upon you. I would not want to discourage anyone to speak up for what they think is right, in fact I want to encourage it. It's part of our responsibility as the older generation to be able to guide without provoking. And when it is the younger generation that is right [it does happen] not only is humility called for but there should be thankfulness that the young are showing such signs of sound growth and intellectual maturity. Situations such as this should actually be savored for as we grow older, time and experience takes its toll and we look for the young to begin carrying the load. Rebelling against authority is a recipe for something that will go down with a sweet taste but only lead to illness. A young person quite naturally thinks he knows more than the parent for he see flaws from a 24/7 home life. What he doesn't realize is that he himself is a factory for flaws and that that parent most likely has done quite well at limiting them in a world hostile to God. One need look no further than our Founding Fathers, flawed as any other men, to see how imperfect men could come up with such a wise document. The highest example of this would be the Puritans who concocted the Westminster Standards, documents of such precision that they serve as moorings even in this postmodern world. God guides our thoughts and our pens in instances such as these. When his hand is lifted we come up with Das Kapital, Mein Kampf or Mao's Little Red Book. Only when God's laws are directly challenged are we to openly rebel and the Revolution of 1776 did not even qualify, but God, knowing that we are but dust, had mercy. This isn't the first blog like this that I have written and my advice is always the same; have patience, respect traditions if the results of such have been God honoring, don't burn bridges and realize that the enemy of God, that old serpent, is a master of disguises. (Unfortunately the image of Lisa Presley's character in Mars Attacks stays with me) Don't hurry into changing this world for your time will come soon enough. Concentrate on preparation and when you pray, do so with humility and not self-assuredness for God will honor the first but let you find out for yourself... the disastrous presumption of the second. No, I wouldn't want to be young again for I was headed to being a poster boy for immature, irrational thought all the while thinking that I was compassionate and a defender of the unfortunate. I found out that defending the unfortunate involved strengthening what was right not tearing it down; that honest inquiry does not mean fighting for a platform for ideas long since proven wrong and that true liberty is enslaving oneself to that which is good and... there is none good but one, that is, God. (Mk 10:18 KJV) If you are one of the young that I write about here, and have read my previous blog, you may have recoiled at my thoughts on the day and age that we live in. My advice...put away your Facebook, enjoy your sport as not only good exercise but as opportunity to grow in character but reject the mentality of Glory Days in either yourself or professionals, don't go after the lure of riches, heap upon yourself teachers who know our God and be wary of those who do not and tattoo upon your mind ...seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:33 ESV)

America.... Free...Free Fallin

2012-01-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

Dawn breaks and pull by pull the flag rises until its stars and stripes blend into the red sky. The 21st century America cold front collides with the warm heritage of American liberty. Dark clouds form above the eagle perched atop the pole and the flag snaps as the winds begin another day of adding to the tatters and waiting for the rain that month by month fades the blue and red hues that Americans have savored as the taste of freedom for so long. A icy chill settles in the bones of the one raising the flag for he knows that its stars and stripes will be indiscernible before long. He looks down to see if the cracks in the foundation supporting the pole have widened from the tremors that increasingly shake America...they have. He steps back, standing as erect as he can under the burden of seeing his nation collapse, and salutes; a tear forming as he knows that he may be the last to perform this duty. His mind wanders from, first... the drum and piper escorting the newly created flag, to the inspiration for Francis Scott Key's poem, to the charging Union soldier picking up the banner dropped by a fallen comrade in arms, to the lifting of the flagpole on Mt. Suribachi, to the camo flag on the fatigues of the grunt in Vietnam, to the brilliant contrast of red, white and blue with the gray mountain of fallen steel, brick and mortar of the World Trade Center, to the lone flag now raised in the Green Zone of Baghdad. In only a few hours cheers and shouts will be heard off in the distance, not for returning heroes, not as a President passes by, not as a war ends in victory but for the beginning of a football game. The Star Spangled Banner will play and be sung by the latest celebrity seeking a national spotlight but not a word of its lyrics will resonate with the power it had since Fort McHenry. We are not as the Roman Empire falling, we are as the Roman Empire beginning whose gods are numerous, whose Caesars consolidate powers given by a populace that only wants another day at the Colosseum. God's hand is being lifted and the exhilaration of choosing our own destiny emboldens us to stare into the eyes of Caesar and say not, "Give me liberty or give me death" but "Give me liberty to choose my own death." All the while the remaining Christians gather in their catacombs wondering if God's mercies on America are over; imploring of Him one more time for America to be a beacon to the nations, a people that not only openly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind but evidence the beneficence, mercy, majesty, power and glory of Him who created the universe and without whom not one molecule would continue to exist. It was a marvel and a wonder while it existed in its original form....these United States of America, but now they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd (Zech 10:2.) They are a people once different as night and day in their habits and their speech that bonded together as a new entity...Americans, freed from the tyranny of kings, freed from serfdom and most importantly freed from the lie that man is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, but that freedom, once defended, is now merely petted in the lap of luxury, "Free" as the famous rocker penned..."Free Fallin." The American Creed, never spoken but always evident, is now but a liberal screed against God, against tradition, and against history itself. The sun, obscured throughout the day by clouds, sets in the West. The rain that would normally give life to the fields, runs off of the frozen, barren and lifeless ground. The flag is lowered and gently folded into the shape of a tri-cornered hat, one of the last vestiges that remain of the fight for independence. No Taps is heard, only the music of the night coming from wherever the revellers gather after the game. The winds die down, no longer needed, for the flag has been taken down, while angels sent by God prepare to blow their trumpets.

Washington, Romney and Tebow

2012-01-08T23:33:00.000-05:00

Arnold Friberg was an American painter whose most famous painting hangs in many Christian homes, that painting was of George Washington praying (Tebowing if you will) beside his horse at Valley Forge. Friberg was a Mormon, not all that surprising since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a certain affinity for our first President, partially due to George Washington's well-known involvement with Freemasonry whose symbols and rituals are similar to those of Mormonism. Mr. Friberg received an Academy Award nomination for his previsualization paintings of Cecil B. DeMille's film The Ten Commandments. Two of the six Republican debaters on the stage last evening are Mormons. Prominent Southern Baptist Richard Land, in a Wall Street Journal piece of this past Saturday, wrote of the Iowa caucuses "60% of voters who identified themselves as evangelicals gave 42% of their votes to a Mormon (Mr. Romney) or a Catholic (Messrs. Santorum and Gingrich), while giving only 38% of their vote to fellow Protestants (Messrs. Perry and Paul and Mrs. Bachmann). So much for narrow denominational prejudices." He concluded the article with "It's not that their (evangelicals) stance on Mormonism is softening, but that their distrust and fear of Mr. Obama's policies are increasing."

The Scripture reading given today by the presider in our church service had a profound yet calming effect on me and I would like to give a few verses of that reading from the 11th chapter of Deuteronomy:
You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it) consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did......And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land the Lord is giving you....you shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

It has never been, nor is now, nor will ever be, that the chosen leaders of this land had delivered, or will deliver, us in times of war and depression. God has done that deed and He alone. We were privileged to have had our Constitution, to abolish slavery, to remain united, to survive the Axis Powers of World War II and the Communist world onslaught of the former Soviet Union because God willed it. We witnessed His miracles, felt the sting of His rod and the protection, from ourselves, of His staff. Are we now to say that He protected us from Imperial Japan, the Third Reich and the Soviet Union but cannot protect us from Barack Obama? The real question for Americans is not "Who is Mitt Romney, or even Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or Rick Perry but who is Jesus Christ." If Mr. Romney is elected, will we pray with him or even rejoice in his prayers? Is it his god that we are imploring mercy of? Will we wish the 50,000 Mormon missionaries around this world Godspeed, for we would have given them a powerful legitimacy by choosing to be led by their chief evangelist? Once again... let me reiterate...this is not about Mitt Romney, it is about Jesus Christ. A Romney nomination would only show how little we really know of the Savior that we proclaim. A Santorum or Gingrich nomination would prove nothing in itself either way. Christ needs no nomination or election victory to be King for He is that over the whole world and all of its kings. His glory will be on display whether we survive as a nation or not. Do we rise in the morning and retire in the evening with Jesus Christ on our mind? Are we known by our children as one who consistantly proclaimed Christ? If not then we know nothing, or have forgotten, of His wondrous deeds on our behalf, His power, glory, majesty and His judgments.

If you are interested, please see my blogs on:
George Washington....November 15, 2010
Mitt Romney..............October 10, 2011
Tim Tebow................November 25, 2011

Speech From The Throne, January 24, 2012

2012-01-05T23:47:00.000-05:00

You may remember how in last year's State of the Union address certain members of Congress came up with the idea of a new seating arrangement where Republicans and Democrats sat together instead of in the traditional left aisle and right aisle separation of the parties? The reason given for this idea that became known as Date Night was for a show of bipartisanship after the shooting of United States Congressman Gabrielle Giffords. You may also remember how one Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, refused to attend for personal reasons? Article II, Section 3 of our Constitution states of our President, He shall from time to time give to Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. The President is not required to appear in person and give a speech. In fact, President Thomas Jefferson refused to give this report as a speech for he considered it too close to the Speech from the Throne in the monarchical traditions. I assume that you read the newspapers and follow the news with more of a passing interest if you have read this far in a blog of this nature. You have seen how in just the last few days alone this President has continued and even expanded upon his radical circumventing of the Constitution. How far does this President have to go in his arrogance before the Republican members of Congress, en masse, realize and proclaim that a takeover of our Constitutional Republic is taking place? If last year's seating change was a response to a current event, may I suggest that the latest current event, the assault on our Constitution, be the catalyst for another temporary alteration of tradition, that being that Republicans would refuse to applaud the arrival of the President. Let the Democrats who have surrendered their party to the Alinskyite cabal glory as their king ascends his throne, and let the American public see first hand, for the media will never accurately describe what is taking place, that they had better pay more attention to the issues not only separating political parties but separating America from its past and its Constitution. What would the repercussions be for such a protest? The media has such great respect for protests going on all over the world and here in our cities, surely they would report it as such? No, this wouldn't classify as a protest to them but rather an abominable show of disrespect for the President of the United States for all the world to see. John Boehner, Speaker of the House, needs to find some answer to prevent but another instance of Barack Obama using a media event to bludgeon truth and distort reality. At the very least, the Republicans needs to show unity that they will not accept a media enthroned king, nor sit idly by as the scepter is waved over his appointees who will never have to report to Congress, nor answer to the American people.

Dragon Lady

2012-01-04T23:21:00.000-05:00

Well, there's speculation again about Hillary Clinton replacing Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. I can see Clinton doing this but only under one condition, that being that Barack Obama agrees to a deal where he resigns at some point during his second term, citing some very noble global cause to pursue of course, elevating Hillary to the position that she craves more than anything, a quid pro quo where she procures for him a second term and he runs with the ball for a while then laterals to her. It could happen but I'm still more inclined to believe that Barack Obama will either jump the sinking Democratic ship....or be heaved overboard. I've written it before and will repeat it here...Barack Obama knows that he has little-to-no chance of winning re-election. His immediate agenda is twofold, 1) act as if he is in full campaign mode just in case an asteroid hurls towards the earth, giving him the crisis needed to suspend the 2012 election, and 2) force feed America a diet of socialism and tyranny until calls and shouts for impeachment signal that its time to board the lifeboat, and those calls are getting nearer every day. The following blog is from November 19th, 2009. I add it here for a few reasons, to show that opposition to Barack Obama may have been there from the first but nothing like what it is today after three years of his arrogantly trampling our Constitution; and also to robustly warn that Hillary Clinton may come in to pitch in relief and that she has only two pitches, the spitball and the bean ball. She and her husband were the first king and queen of the Babylonian Captivity of America now in its 20th year. The Clintons and Obamas are opposite sides of the same counterfeit coin. We all knew that Obama was a Socialist, we didn't all know that he was a Communist, that his future Attorney General would be more of a consigliori than America's chief law enforcement officer, that radical Islam in the Middle-East would thrive on his policies (or lack of them) and that the economy would be ignored and the Constitution trampled upon as has happened. As for the personal reflections on the man, I still retain a few of them, but only a few. I no longer believe that he is compassionate, rather that his type of compassion is more similar to Mao's for the Chinese people or Stalin's for the Russian people. As for Hillary Rodham Clinton....Yes Virginia, there is a Dragon Lady, and your son married her.

You would not have to read very far into this blog to realize that I believe that Barack Obama was unprepared and possibly unqualified to be President of the United States, that his method in taking office was deception, his foreign policy lowers the defense of this nation, his domestic policies are too close to the beginnings of a totalitarian state and that he represents a Socialist takeover of America. Is there not anything good that I can say about him? Actually there are some things. I do not wish ill of this man, our President. I've mentioned before that the optimism I perceive on the faces of the Black community, particularly the children, tempts me at times to overlook some of the serious problems, tempts me greatly but fails to convince. Here are the things that I like about Barack Obama: He came from a dysfunctional family..and survived. One does not have to poor during their youth to be disadvantaged. He was a bright and motivated student that accomplished much in academia. He is a faithful husband and loving father of two beautiful children. His speech is polite and constrained and at times he can be charming. I do not doubt his compassion, rather his wisdom. I want him to utterly fail in instituting his agenda but succeed in dealing with threats to this nation both foreign and domestic. I want him to learn and grow into a job that Saul Alinsky did not prepare him for, and I want him to retire from office in three years with the respect any former President should receive.......... Some day I may want to write about the things that I like about Hillary Clinton, but that will be the day the men in white uniforms come for me and put me into a room with big plexiglass windows and rubber walls which I will surely think is a racquetball court and ask for a paddle and ball to practice with.

Rest Unassured.....Redux

2012-01-02T23:56:00.000-05:00

Well. 2012 is upon us. A lot happened to me this last year and I'm sure to you also, and certainly throughout the world. We like to compartmentalize things in our lives and to a certain extent we do that at the beginning of a new year. We wonder to ourselves, what will 2012 be like? What will the market do this year? What kind of hurricane season will we have? Will I get a new job...will I retire? The real questions to be asked are hidden away in the recesses of our mind, covered by layer upon layer of the mundane and the trivial to the necessities of life and demands of a world that we keep up with it. The questions that won't likely be asked right now have to do with a rapidly deteriorating national security, a disintegrating world economic structure, the threat of world totalitarianism and certainly not the possibility of a returning King of Kings with the fire of judgment in His eyes. We are told by everyone from clergymen (clergywomen,) to government officials...rest assured that 2012 will come and go and life will go on as normal, and then the next year and the year after that... The following is my blog entry from May 8th of last year. It's only when we truly think about the tremors beneath our feet, our nation and the world that we display any concern but all we have to do is think about something else and they dissipate.

May 8, 2011

Somewhere in these past blogs I've mentioned the following thought for it has been a recurring one to me from time to time, as recently as yesterday as I drove through the beautiful, half residential-half country roads of eastern Ohio. Away from the radio, the newspapers, books and television, as I might take a drive like this or walk in a park, the serenity and peace of life in America seems every bit the same as when I was in my teens. Automobiles gently traverse the neighborhood streets with today's modern technology quietly taking us to a shopping mall or home from work. Laughter and talk fill the Starbucks and the sidewalks of our towns, mothers push strollers and at home men reach first for the sports pages. The supermarkets may be much larger with every imaginable taste but we fill up the same buggies with the same essential food stuffs as in the old A&Ps. Appearances and particulars of the above are new and different but the serene concourse of life appears not to have changed nor would I or anyone reading this want it to. It's only when we let in the news of the day that this tranquility is threatened and even then the click of the remote, the ring of the cell phone or the sudden remembrance of an errand that needs done erases a feeling of urgency that might be settling into our minds. My message throughout this blog is that this is a shadow world where the intensity of the sun, that would bake us if we bask it it, is hidden. The blast of heat troubles us only when the clouds break for a minute or two, here or there. This has been my message that was so much more eloquently stated in the Puritan prayer of my last blog O my forgetful soul, awaken from thy wandering dream. Some can audaciously say as Timothy McVeigh did in quoting the Victorian poem Invictus on that gurney before being injected with the serum that would take him to his maker...I am the master of my fate: the captain of my soul, but I would plead with them to consider that as they might recite this ode to autonomy that their children stand alongside with them. What we pay attention to, or fail to pay attention to, affects the children as well. As with a pregnant mother, what you take in feeds more than yourself. Our national security is being compromised for political gain. Osama bin Laden's death could not even be announced without evidence that politics dictates even the most sensitive matters. Even the extraordinary abilities of our military cannot overcome an administration that glues together a mosaic of chaos not order. Our financial stability is gone. The creed that once united us as Americans has faded as the In God We Trust on a well-worn 1909 penny. The very gospel of Jesus Christ has been so watered down that it often bears no taste of salvation or aroma of wisdom and discernment. If we could really see what we so often laugh at on the television or in the theater we would be convulsed with sobs. If we could grasp the true philosophy our children will inherit, all of our hope would collapse as those towers on 9/11. If we could fully realize how the mission of those whose responsibility is to protect America has instead become defending the sensitivities of some who have come to America only to plant a flag of Sharia Law, we might then awaken. In reality, the tranquility has not been there for a long time for it takes decades for a glacier to cover over all forms of life and it has taken decades for us to have rid our minds of discernment, logic and common sense. We have one, and only one, offensive weapon not tainted my man for it was not formed by him, and that is the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). God dispels the clouds through our subsequent prayers, not that we might cover our eyes from a blazing sun, but that we might gaze in adoration at the Son, our only hope. There will indeed be a day when the Son of God appears amidst the clouds and men will then hide. Whether this is near or far no one knows for we do not know what a day brings but....rest unassured....for we, as a nation, are indeed asleep and will will either awaken or perish in that sleep.

Hidden Message?

2012-01-01T22:22:00.000-05:00

I'm writing this from the local laundromat, the most perfect setting for the philosopher/thinker to ply his wares, and even for me. It took me quite a few years to figure out the answer to the following problem....decades really. When I was a new Christian, in the early eighties, I had a Christian fish magnetic logo on my bumper and also a pin on my ball cap. It didn't take long to realize that I could not live up to these proclamations. Often the problem was just one of appearances, for in a normal driving day we all make what are really sound driving decisions that just happen to confound the plans of the driver behind us. The Jesus Loves You bumper sticker then becomes a dart thrown at the already doubting mind in the car behind us. Add to this the genuine mistakes and even discourtesies we make, not to mention the circumventions of the law, and we can do more harm with our bumper stickers than good. I do admit though that there is good, that being the message on our bumper is but a reminder to many, a reminder of what they already know and may even be driving fast and impatient away from only to have it stare at them for three minutes at a stoplight. All things considered, I choose not to use this form of evangelism. I've mentioned many times in previous blogs how always present on the back of my car is the title of my latest blog entry along with the URL. There will always be some, in fact it's probably most, who find the topics and opinions controversial, but I at least have the opportunity here to state my case, something the driver of the car with the "Jesus loves you" bumper sticker is not afforded. With the revving sound of the spin cycle in my right ear and the hypnotizing continuous roll of the bed comforter straight in front of me I can look out the window to my left and very clearly see Specialdogg.blogspot.com...I Do Solemnly Swear on the back panel of my car's trunk. I began this blog saying that I've found the answer to my dilemma. For quite some time now, probably years, I take the opportunity to pray for the driver of the "Jesus loves you" car in front of me who is doing their best to proclaim their love for and faith in Jesus Christ. This, in my mind, is the answer, the main purpose of the "Jesus" bumper sticker. It is primarily imploring of the reader, "Brothers and sisters in Christ...please pray for me." I still don't put the Christian message on my car but I am fully confident, and have been from day one, that some Christians who do come to my blog... pray for me, even if they disagree with my opinions. The reader here might want to try this. It's very fulfilling. When you see those bumper stickers...pray for the owner of the vehicle. Somewhere, somehow, God will lead others to in turn pray for you.

I Do Solemnly Swear

2011-12-31T00:05:00.001-05:00

"I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge my duties with fidelity with no regard to lucre or profit," I heard these words, or words very similar, spoken a number of times recently as I witnessed our county officials take the oath of office. As I heard the words stated then repeated I was...solemnly....affected! More so because our son also took his oath as he became a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The Declaration of Independence ends with these words, "And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Have we strayed as a nation from valuing our honor above our lifestyles, our personal security, even our futures? I do not doubt that these fifty-six men meant what they signed onto in this document. I took an oath when I entered the army in 1969 but was too immature to really understand the solemnity of it. I took wedding vows in 1976 and through God's grace I am still united in this gift. More recently, I took an oath as a juror and by this time in my life I felt the weight of the words I had spoken. Christianity itself is grounded on an oath...an oath taken by God alone. He led men of Old Testament times to know the importance of a covenant in order to covenant with them. Today we often witness the repercussions of a broken oath in a courtroom or before Congress, the result being an indictment of perjury, but even here do we go beyond the legal ramifications to what the signers of the Declaration of Independence referred to as sacred honor? When Mitt Romney took an oath in the Mormon Temple that he understood that if he revealed the secret oaths and vows thereof that he would pay with his life, did he believe it? Or was it something between a game and a life and death oath? Barack Obama took his initial oath of office on the Capitol steps, with his hand on a King James Bible used by Abraham Lincoln. There were some mistakes made by both he and Chief Justice Roberts that were labelled by some The flub heard round the world. Barack Obama began to repeat the words of Chief Justice Roberts a little bit early which in turn threw the Chief Justice off. After considering the situation, the oath was taken again the next day in the White House, with no Bible. The promise still was to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. It was said that the first oath of office was valid.... but just in case. The Bible was obviously not important here but what about the meaning of the words? Or was that just protocol? I don't know how many times that while sitting on the beach on vacation someone would walk up and offer a very nice gift if only we gave a few hours of our time looking at a condo. The answer was always "no thank-you." Most recently, at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach, dinner and a show..for two, was offered. There is no way on God's great and wonderful green earth that I am going to buy a condo. I tried to explain this but the response was that the owners fully understand the situation but make the offer anyway; but I'm the only one that fully understands the situation so the answer still has to be no thank-you. I can't take a quarter left in the change slot of a candy machine. God knows us more than we know ourselves. Therein is the key. To the politician, to the lawyer, to the juror or witness, to the groom...whether it be an oath or just a statement to another person, we should know that God records our words. Herein is but one step in America's recovery, that our elected and appointed leaders take that oath very seriously, and also in the vein that it is meant. How can one consider the Constitution to be a living document and take that oath? For the intent of the writers thereof is not subject to the readers interpretation. In this primary season, it might be very helpful to ask each and every candidate to express their opinion on the solemnity of the oath of office that they would take, and to expound on their opinion for it is not a question that can be answered in only a few sentences.

Red Solo Cup...Let's Have A Party

2011-12-26T21:31:00.000-05:00

Charles Spurgeon wrote these words over a century ago, The yoke of affliction, disappointment, and excessive labor is by no means to be sought; but when the Lord lays it upon us in our youth it frequently develops a character which glorifies God and blesses the church. Come, my soul, bow thy neck; take up thy cross. It was good for thee when young, it will not harm thee now. America is heading at breakneck speed in acquiring such a yoke. We are but a shell of what we were. Where the aroma of our freedom and liberty once wafted throughout the world it is now the stench of our culture that permeates much of the globe. There should be no surprise here for when a civilization becomes so prosperous that its economy is totally dependent on what its malls can sell, its influence for good becomes depleted in proportion to the disgust that is generated. We have become a seller to the world of that which makes it vomit. Given time, all these nations would have generated their own pollution, we just accelerated the situation. It's the nature of man without God. They don't hate us because we are good, they hate us, many of them, because we once gave the appearance of it and have since, in their eyes, let them down. Where did it begin? Hugh Hefner is as good a guess as any but what difference does it make? Our television screens rage against God! Our streets are violent and we as a people have become desensitized to it. Our pulpits preach peace when there is no peace; thinking they are building faith in God, they are concealing His righteous anger. Gone almost, is the statesman, replaced by the pure politician. Government runs our lives, obsessed and drunken with power. I see no way that God will have mercy upon us as we exist today without a radical reformation. It would be ludicrous as evidenced from many examples in Scripture, that God would give us, as a nation, more time to sell our wares while profaning His name, refusing to let our children come to Him (those that we do not abort,) destroying His creation of the family and demanding that we are masters of our own fate. It doesn't matter what I, or anyone so inclined as I, might say. For they are just words. God has blinded us to a world hastening to destruction. We read the news as much as to say "Things are dangerous....over there!" We have become insulated by our entertainments. Our motto has become Red Solo Cup...Let's Have A Party. We cannot see a day past the Super Bowl and when that is over everything will be put on hold until the end of March Madness, and so on. We are to be pitied, but pitied only by those who do not know the majesty of God and His omnipotent power, for His mercy is as abundant as His judgments are strict, but only in response to repentance. There may very well be a yoke of affliction coming upon us for we have made it abundantly clear that only such a yoke can awaken us and even then, will our response be one of rending our garments and seeking God's mercy, to grow once again as a nation and church, or will we then blame God and those who did warn us? Do we really want to hear peace and safety when we are at the edge of the abyss? The same Scripture that recorded God's judgments upon nations recorded his mercies. It would behoove all of us to look into that Word to be informed of our creator, our benefactor, our sustainer up until now, our shepherd and the ruler of all the nations.

1962...Redux

2011-12-22T23:09:00.000-05:00

The following is a short story that I wrote quite a few years ago and used it for my August 22, 2009 blog. I titled it 1962 for that was a time when high school lettered sweaters were a treasured item.

Tommy Wilson walked in, beat and worn out, to the apartment where he and his mother lived. She had been holding dinner off until 7 o'clock every night so that Tommy could go to football practice and then to Spinoza's Market to work for a few hours after practice every day.

Tommy's mother: "Welcome home Johnny U!"
Tommy: "I'm on special teams mom. Johnny Unitas is a quarterback."
Tommy's mother: "Oh. Excuse me! Any new bruises today?"
Tommy: "Yeah. My right shin is really bruised."

Tommy was a senior at Catowaga High School in Buffalo, New York and going out for football for the very first time, for he was on a mission. You see, Tommy was in love with Mary Burns. Mary's family had moved to Buffalo the year before from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father was an airline pilot and this is where the job was. Tommy and his mom did not have a lot of money. He would have wanted to buy a ring or a necklace that he could give to Mary so that everyone would know that Mary was his girl but what he finally decided on was going to take a lot of effort. He wanted to make the football team and earn a varsity letter, put it on a sweater, and give it to Mary. All the guys who had lettered had given the lettered sweaters to their girlfriends. One problem that Tommy had was that he had never played football before. You had to get into ten quarters to earn a varsity letter. After a week of practice the coach had told Tommy that the only way he would ever get into a game would be on the kickoff team, and that... only if he could learn to tackle. Tommy had given more effort than anyone on the team, flying down the field and literally throwing his body at charging players. Working at Spinoza's Market would provide him enough money to give some to his mom and also buy the wool sweater for $37.50. That was the plan anyway.

Mary: "Tommy, I'm really worried about you. You get hurt almost every practice and you work so hard afterwards at Spinoza's. Are you sure that you really want to do this? You know that football doesn't mean anything to me."
Tommy: "Mary, I have to do this. Football will be over in December and then I can slow down."

He had not told Mary about the plan or the importance of others knowing that she was his girl. Mary was a Christian girl from the south who always talked about the Lord. He never talked this way about God and didn't know anyone else who did.

Mary: "Tommy. The Bible says that one has to be born again. You should think about this and try to understand what it means."
Tommy: "Mary. I believe in God. I may not be perfect but who is," and then sheepishly added "except maybe you,"
Mary: "You know that I'm not perfect Tommy. Actually I'm far from it since I know the Lord and still cannot live as I should!"
Tommy: "Well you seem pretty close to perfect...in everything...to me Mary."

Tommy's coach was not particularly happy that He expected to win a letter. This was only his second year with the Chargers and he was going to succeed and make coaching his profession. Catawaga had never had a winning football season. They were 0 and 10 the year before Coach Thomas came and 4 and 6 his first year as coach. "Come hell or high water," as the coach would say, they were going to have a winning season this year and that meant 6 wins. The assistant coach, Coach Offen, was a football coach second and a history teacher first. He admired the spunk of this young light-weight senior who for some reason just had to win a varsity letter. His efforts probably helped influence Coach Thomas from cutting Tommy.

Coach Offen: "Are you alright Wilson?"
Tommy: "Yeah coach. I think I forgot to hit with my shoulder instead of my head."
Coach Offen: "Sit down for a while Tommy."
Tommy: "Do I have to coach? I feel OK."

Coach Thomas came over as Tommy headed for the bench.

Coach Thomas: "That kids going to kill himself and get us all in trouble."
Coach Offen: "I'll keep an eye on him Mike. He'll be alright."

Tommy liked to take Mary to this new hamburger joint called McDonald's. It was only 19 cents for a burger and that was all that he could afford on his budget. Mary carried a little Bible with her at all times and liked to sneak in about ten minutes of scripture reading to him every time they were together. Tommy was glad they didn't live in the South for they took religion all too seriously. The first game was the next day and Tommy didn't know if he would get in for the coach gave no clues. The game started and he wasn't on the field for the opening kickoff, nor for the two others in the first half. Catawaga was winning 21 nothing when they took the field in the second half. Coach Thomas barked out orders and yelled Tommy's name for the kickoff without even looking at him. Tommy's first experience in a football game was not all that encouraging. He ran down the field and was belted by someone twice his size...but he had one quarter in for his letter. He wasn't in the game for the fourth quarter. The next week was one of gruelling practices. Tommy hit every opposite colored practice jersey that he had a chance to. Coach Offen patted him on the back but Coach Thomas never acknowledged him. The Chargers were 1 and 0 going into the second game. Again Tommy didn't play in the first half but his name was called for the kickoff in the second half. He flew down the field and hit the first jersey he came to who fell back into the ball carrier enabling his teammates to reach the runner and bring him down. Tommy had actually contributed! He had another chance in the fourth quarter. The kick was real short, someone in the middle had picked up the ball and Tommy had a chance to hit a ball carrier for the first time. Just as he was about to lower his head for the tackle, he was blocked hard and thought that he heard his finger snap. The trainer wrapped it up and later the doctor told him that it was separated and it would keep him out of football for three weeks at least. Tommy now had three quarters of the ten that he needed but the season would be half over when he would be able to play again. The Chargers were 3 and 2 so Coach Thomas was not on the warpath as he had been in the past. The 6th game saw Tommy only get in once in the fourth quarter but he now had four quarters of game play with four games left.

Mary: "Tommy, you played really well last night. You hit that big number 70 real hard!"
Tommy: "But I didn't move him Mary. I can't expect to earn a letter if I can't help the team ."
Mary: "Is that what this is all about...a letter? Why is it so important?"
Tommy: "Well...uh...I just have to win a varsity letter in high school, that's all."

Tommy had a fairly good week of practice but didn't get into the 7th game at all and the team lost. The team was now 4 and 3 and Coach Thomas hardly even practiced Tommy. Tommy thought that he heard Coach Offen mention Tommy's name to Coach Thomas. He couldn't hear what was being said but neither one of them looked very happy. Game 8 went well from the start and the Chargers were up 30 to 0 at the half. There were 10 quarters left and Tommy needed to get into 6 of them. It seemed impossible but Tommy kept giving everything that he had. He was in on the kickoff beginning the second half and Coach Offen slapped him on the back with encouragement. Tommy ran hard down the field and the runner advanced about 20 yards and found himself running straight at Tommy who lowered his head and dove for his legs. The runner went down and Tommy's teammates were slapping Tommy on the helmet but he hurt his finger again and didn't tell anyone. The Chargers put their third string in for the fourth quarter and did not score at all so their was no chance for Tommy to get in. The next week Tommy got in on the opening kickoff but the team was down 28 to 0 at the half and that was it for Tommy. There was now one game left and Tommy needed to get in all four quarters. His finger hurt all week but Tommy hit everything in sight in practice. He was actually learning the game of football with one game left in his career. The team now had 5 wins and 4 losses and needed to win the last game for Coach Thomas to have his winning season. Tommy thought it impossible to get in for all four quarters but Coach Offen told him just to make the plays and it will turn out. It seemed as if Coach Offen had talked to Coach Thomas or something. Tommy was in on the first kickoff and hit a blocker knocking him down. The runner came next and Tommy latched onto his legs for the tackle. It was a high scoring game for three quarters while Tommy was in on every kickoff and made three tackles. Catawaga was losing 28 to 27 in the last quarter of the season and the Chargers could not move the ball nor could the other team. Time was running out on his plan. Five minutes were left in the game, then 4, 3, 2. Waltersville, their main rival, had the ball on their own 10 yard line with a one point lead and only 15 seconds left in the game. Tommy had tears in his eyes. He looked up in the stands and saw Mary looking down at him. She pointed to the sky and Tommy knew what she meant...the Lord was more important than football. Tommy began to feel guilty because his team was about to lose, his coach was not going to reach his goal, but he only cared about himself. The game was just about over when Coach Thomas yelled out Tommy's name. Tommy jumped up and looked at him. The coach told him to go in for Davis in the defensive backfield. Tommy had only played that position in practice, more of a body needed than anything else. He started running out on the field and everyone was yelling at him that he forgot his helmet. He reached the defensive huddle and now had his ten quarters. Why would Coach Thomas do this, especially as they were about to lose? His teammates were oblivious to this. They only had one more play on their mind. The quarterback took the snap and handed off to the fullback who broke through the line and came right at Tommy. Tommy ran straight at him and hit him as hard as he ever hit anyone. Tommy was knocked on his back but heard shouts. He had caused a fumble and everyone was running after the ball. One guy fell on it only to have it squirt out towards Tommy. There was no time to think about anything. He picked it up and ran towards the goal. He was hit short of it but before he fell was hit from behind by a teammate and then another. He felt his feet hit the ground and pushed one more time in the scrum with players in front but more in back. He fell but held onto the ball and could hear yells. What had happened? The referee was pulling players off until he saw Tommy and raised his arms signalling a touchdown. Everyone was pulling at him, slapping him, yelling at him. He had scored the winning touchdown. The Chargers beat their rival and finished the season at 6 wins and 4 losses. Tommy was in a bit of shock. As he walked back towards the sideline he saw Coaches Thomas and Offen talking. Coach Thomas was smiling and shaking his head up and down.

Mary: "Tommy you were unbelievable. You were the hero...and now you'll get your letter."
Tommy: "Mary. I'll tell you later just why I had to have that letter."

Two weeks later was the football banquet where the varsity letters would be given out. Everyone was given two tickets to the dinner to give to their parents. Friends could buy their own. Tommy's mother and Mary would be at his table. The Chargers colors were white and red so Tommy had bought a white wool sweater at Anderson's Department Store and was ready to sew the red letter on the day after the banquet. Tommy's mom had picked up Mary in their 1957 Ford Fairlane and met Tommy at the banquet, for he had gone early for instructions on the ceremony. Tommy was the only senior to be given a letter for the first time. Coach Thomas said a few words about every player that came up to the podium. When he came to Tommy he had this to say:

"Quite frankly, I never expected Tommy Wilson to earn this letter. It is near impossible to earn a varsity letter as a senior without ever having played a down of organized football. In fact, and I'm ashamed to admit it, I was more than a little bit annoyed by his determination, but Coach Offen had faith in Tommy's abilities...abilities that I did not see. He nearly twisted my arm to get Tommy in all four quarters of that last game. Come on up for your letter Tommy. You deserved it as much as anyone on this team."

Tommy was red faced and looked to Coach Offen and smiled as he returned to his table. He gave his varsity letter to his mom and held Mary's hand tight.

Mary: "Well Tommy, I'm so proud of you and now you have that letter that you wanted so much!"
Tommy: "Mary, I never told you why I wanted this letter so bad. All the other guys have something to give to their girls to show everyone that they are their girlfriends. They can afford nice rings and have cars to drive them around in. They take them to the prom and I can't afford that. I worked for that varsity letter to put on a sweater and ask you if you would wear it for the rest of the year. I would be so proud to see you in it, knowing that you are showing everyone that we love each other."
Mary: "Tommy...I had no idea that you felt this way! I...I'm in shock...and I...I have to tell you what is going through my mind right now. Tommy, everyone will one day stand before God after a lifetime of sin, and He will look at them to see if they belong to His Son Jesus. And do you know how He will know? All of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ...and Him alone to save them...will be dressed in white....the Righteousness of Christ. He will give them white robes to show that they are His! The Father will only see what Jesus has done! That's why Jesus came here...to live the perfect life that we cannot live...and to die for our sins...and be resurrected for our redemption as His children! Tommy. If we trust in anything of ourselves we are pulling back that robe of righteousness revealing our sin. God may have given you this determination to win a varsity letter and put it on a sweater just to show you this! When we are born again we see these things Tommy."

Tommy couldn't say a word. The Mary that he loved so much was the Mary that loved Jesus so much. He sometimes felt jealous over this but how wrong he had been! For the very first time he understood what Mary had been trying to tell him. He felt that God must love him for showing him this. He had doubted this before because he had grown up without a father. Tommy felt tears forming in his eyes and turned his head. His mother was just returning to her seat. She had his sweater in her hand and the red varsity letter "C" was sown on. She had secretly brought the sweater with her and returned to her car to sew on the letter. Tommy looked lovingly into his mother's eyes, took the sweater and turned back to Mary. She had stood up and took off the vest that she was wearing. Tommy offered her the sweater and she carefully put it on and sat down.

Mary: "Thank you Tommy."
Tommy looked at her with wet eyes and said:
"Maybe we can both put on something white tonight with the letter "C" on it?"

They held hands as the principle turned on the microphone again and said:
"Well the Supreme Court recently ruled that God cannot come into our schools anymore. Maybe someday we will have to comply....but not tonight! Heavenly Father. Thank you for this night, and for the food we are about to receive..."

Our Own Dear Leader?

2011-12-21T23:19:00.001-05:00

On a short-term missionary trip to Paraguay many years ago I saw Jimmy Swaggert's Cross and Dove logo placarded on all of the churches we visited, for his ministry had established those churches. He had a television show here at the time where three or four supposed Bible Scholars sat on a panel that he hosted. I vividly remember the day that something new appeared on the set. A very large picture of Swaggert was hanging in the background. His eyes in the huge portrait stared off into the heavens...after all, he was anointed. This past week our local newspaper gave half of its front page to a similar picture of Barack Obama. The topic of the article was supposed to be how he aged gracefully but the intent from the picture was clear. After completeing a first draft of this blog yesterday, Barack Obama's picture once again graced the top part of the front page today. How many times have we seen colossal pictures of dictators hanging in the public square, including those of Mao, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Lenin or Kim Jong Il? Some portion of cognitive ability is lost by those who blindly follow a dictator in a Cult of Personality. Personal desire overcomes common sense. We can see the same phenomenon in the cult worship of celebrities. We are all familiar with the giant Christmas tree that is decorated on the lawn of the White House every year. This year the decoration of the tree made some disturbing news headlines. Not one reference to the Nativity adorns the tree but at least five references to Barack Obama are there. The Wikipedia entry on the cult of personality describes it this way, "A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise." How does a man, Barack Obama in this case, appear on the national scene and rocket to the top with scant publicly documented evidence of his origins, his education, his mentors or that he has any ability at all to govern let alone defend this country? Most everything that he touches fails yet his disciples defend him. The Wikipedia article mentions how schoolchildren are often used in obeisance to a leader by their incorporating his (her) name in a daily ritual. How can we forget "Mm, mmmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama...He said red, yellow, black or white, all are equal in his sight." or "Hello, Mr. President we honor you today! For all your great accomplishments, we doth say 'hooray'!" Without careful and due diligence we are all susceptible to the cult of personality. Certainly I was part of it with Robert F. Kennedy in my teens. The Obama phenomenon...disorder... is far more insidious because of its Marxist philosophy and Communist methodology and that much of our news media and higher education are.... the led.... leading....primarily the youth. In a little follow-up to my December 17 blog titled Go Ahead...Run Third Party, we find ourselves in a situation where our Executive Office has assumed and been granted too much power by way of a cult of personality and the abstencia of our congress in the matter. We can seriously impede denouement of this mass psychological disorder, and restore constitutional powers to our Congress, by voting for those who are also outraged by rule through a cult of personality. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them." This is the primary call of our Congress today!

The Fruit Of Her Hands

2011-12-19T22:46:00.001-05:00

I'd like to write a little bit about my wife here. I'm sure you would agree that it would take a special person to put up with me. The topics of this blog are basically my everyday conversation. Well, it's at least the thoughts while the conversation is going on. This may explain some of the things that I do...this for example: Last week I had an eye doctors appointment after work. Now I always wear a turtle-neck piece, a dickie, under my shirt...winter or summer. I dressed quickly to get to my appointment and pick up my new glasses. I picked a very wide frame and wondered if it might be too wide for as I tried the glasses on everyone seemed to be looking at them. When I got home my wife said "I hope you didn't go to the optometrists like that?" Actually I'm used to this kind of comment from her. I started checking my clothes. The back of the dickie was hanging out. I demonstrated it for the guys at work the next day and one shouted "Superman!." My wife has a profession while I have a job. She has served our community and supervised employees for 35 years now. She is the best at it in my opinion and I think that opinion is shared by many others. Quite a few young women worked for her over the years and went on to the same profession, a testament I think about how she takes pride in her work and that that desire to serve the community is taken up by others because of it. She makes a little bit less than I do in my blue-collar job but has enormous responsibilities. It's a work of love with no union necessary for self-respect or to tempt one to put money before the commitment. She never missed a beat in raising our son. She is always thoughtful to others and is tearful often as elderly friends and patrons, people of the community, pass away. She's the financial manager of the house with one exception for I'm extremely conservative on 401K investments because of my greatly diminished hope for a secure future for this beloved country of ours. We opened a bookstore once and she was there for me 100% even though she didn't think that it was the best idea. I don't even want to imagine what our financial situation would be like if I had to pay the bills every month. The first years were not easy. People want miracles as proof that there is a God but oftentimes the miracle is that God had a shepherds hook pulling us in and often a rod when we act up. He brought two lost people together and I will forever be thankful!

Go Ahead...Run Third Party

2011-12-17T13:04:00.004-05:00

You have to hand it to Newt Gingrich, he has a command of the facts and is quick and confident at the podium. A question that I would have is would he be as tough on Barack Obama, or Hillary, in the general election as he is in wooing conservatives in the primaries for he's also a chameleon that adapts at the drop of a hat. He's not my choice but I would certainly vote for him, or most anyone, as they run against the Marxist in the White House. It's interesting that a number of prominent conservatives have not endorsed anyone as of yet. This makes it a little bit more possible for us to see an entirely new entrant into the race. If you have read this blog for any length of time you would know that I'm alluding to Senator Jim DeMint. The Republican establishment, those people who just keep on letting us down, want this race settled soon for they are OK with the two top dogs. Ditto for the news media, but world events, whether they be of a military or economic nature, may upset the best laid plans of mice and men. Ron Paul has a cult following a la George Wallace, John Anderson and Ross Perot. That's his role. You can easily Google his appearance on Jay Leno last evening. Here's a crowd that would cheer Jerry Springer as they cheered Ron Paul. Congressman's Paul's comments on Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum were truly sad. He is the epitome of consistency but that's not a strength for he is consistently naive on a number of issues. He has common sense strengths mitigated by incredible lapses in logic. His strength was in the Congress where he could present all of his challenging thoughts, good and bad, for others to at least consider. We need a president with wisdom, principle and stature but we need something else, we need a Congress to reel in what we have created in our presidency..the office of the world's biggest celebrity. If Republicans can continue to make gains in the House and if they can take control of the Senate...and if this is indeed a new breed coming in...we can frustrate any president the media throws upon us or we can strengthen the resolve of a president that an informed citizenry elects to that office. If an Obama nominates another Elena Kagan, they won't be confirmed for that seat on the bench, executive orders will be countermanded, and bureaucracies defunded. We need a president to fill only one branch of our government, the executive, and that with stature not celebrity. One last plead in this particular blog to the youth who may find themselves enamored with either Barack Obama or Ron Paul...I have been where you are. It's an exhilarating experience to find yourself a player, albeit only as an individual citizen, in government and philosophy, but it is no game. It is fraught with, not only high drama, but peril...even treachery. I have given this advice before...don't burn your bridges. You are going to continue to learn things that alter your opinion in ways that you would least expect and not desire at this time. You're going to see first hand that conditions in this world are far, far worse than you even rail upon now. You are going to be humbled. It's not a pretty experience. My second piece of advice...stay the course...press on, but only if it be to God's glory and not your own.

Personal Manifesto.....Redux

2011-12-14T01:42:00.000-05:00

The following is a blog from January 4th of this year. I labelled it a "Personal Manifesto." :

The free men of the thirteen colonies chose who, or in this case "what" was to be their king. They made this decision for those who were not free or could not vote, slaves, indentured servants, the native population and women. Indeed, not all that were free made that decision for many wanted no part of independence from England, but the die was cast...they had crossed their Rubicon, and a nation would arise. Their first choice was independence, their second was a representative government and their third was a constitutional republic. That constitution would rule in the affairs of the whole through the administration of those chosen by the majority. Our representatives are bound by that piece of paper and that paper allows for amendments to it which eventually gave freedom and suffrage to all. Our Supreme Court is bound by that same paper and judges are bound by the laws that that constitution permits us to make for ourselves. Man (please allow that generic term) is fallible....more than fallible, even prone for error. Indeed, the Founding Fathers knew his and made every attempt to secure the preeminence of the Constitution against the whims and machinations of man himself, for he may see what he wants to see in the words therein and not what is in effect there, and may sit in the judgment seat fully convinced of his own interpretation. He may even come to despise the words of his own fathers and their intent but keep this to himself as he twists the self-evident truths before him. Others will call him to account on this. If they are successful, the nation will go on as designed. A Proverb of Solomon says "Those who forsake the law, praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them." If those who contend fail, the nation will proceed as an entirely new entity. The Constitution will no longer be the ultimate rule for it will be little more than a handmaiden to the autonomy of man himself, changing as different men ascend to power, changing as the winds of self-indulgence change course, changing as the powers of one group becomes stronger than the powers of another. Another proverb of Solomon says "He who pampers his servant from childhood, will have him as a son in the end." At first glance one might think that this recommends pampering for it will buy a son but in actuality it says that to pamper a servant will cause that servant to demand his rights as a son. A charitable society will receive honor but an entitlement society, built on bribes, will fall from within. Lex Rex...the law is our temporal king. It is to the law that we owe our allegiance. It is to the Constitution that we gave powers over us, not to those who represent us in upholding that Constitution. Our prayer to the King of Kings is not for the Constitution but for those who administer it. They do not have our allegiance but our prayers which is more valuable. Insofar as they do not legislate against the specific laws of God we are subject to those laws. If they do, we are subject to our responsibility to elect those who will not depart from the intentions of those who designed the freedoms and the liberties with reverence for Almighty God, and dependence upon their Creator that this nation was built upon.

The small New Testament epistle of Jude has this to say about the Chrstian faith in verses 3:
Beloved, Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation , I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Some had crept in and were distorting the gospel. There is no comparison in contending for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and contending for the Constitution of the United States of America save for the act of...contending, and that...contending...is what is happening in the public square, at Tea Parties and in conversations and debates throughout this nation today. Some have indeed...crept in to distort the Constitution. That Constitution has secured for us for over two centuries the right to worship our God and proclaim His truths to all who would listen. That constitutional right is fastly eroding. The famous playwright and director David Mamet, who is Jewish, wrote an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal where he likened Western Civilization to returning to human sacrifice, the result of the death of conscience. He was writing specifically about sacrificing Israel to the gods of today in exchange for peace but that same sacrifice can be seen elsewhere. We sacrifice babies through abortion and children by acquiesing to this culture so as not to be inconvenienced. We are attempting to sacrifice the elderly to retain our temporal pleasures. Yet some, even many, still contend. Only with God's grace may we value law and its purposes once again.

Rear-View Mirror

2011-12-12T00:51:00.000-05:00

Essentially, my only advertising for this blog is the bumper sticker on my car. I change the message with each blog in such a way that a driver behind me at a traffic light might just be inquisitive enough to visit the site. I'll often look in the rear-view mirror and see a man alone in the car, or a woman, or a couple, and lift up a prayer for them. I have appealed often in this blog to the concept of a father's love for his children. The average man is willing to take the chance of staying away from God. He has just enough stubborn determination to stay with the crowd for a long time but I want him to realize something, that he is applying this decision of his to his children also. "Oh, they can make up their own mind later on in life," he might say, but they will most likely make the same decision based on the pattern they saw in the father they loved. So, speaking here to these men....How much work have you put into this question of God and man? Might I offer a few possible answers.... You gave it some thought on an occasion or two and were not convinced.... You were dragged to church when you were young so you know what it's all about....or, Carl Sagan didn't buy it...and he was very intelligent. Maybe you are more of a philosopher...if there is a God why is there so much suffering, or... I'm not that bad of a person. I'm not concerned here with trying to answer these questions but rather in saying to you That's it? You are consigning your children to a future of not knowing Jesus because of your own limited experiences or because you stumbled over some questions that multitudes of Christians have trusted God with and thanked Him for ever since? Let me take a real leap here and assume that someone reading this might actually consider my thesis, that although they are not being drawn to Jesus Christ, they love their children more than their own life. What are they to do? The first thing is to pray with your children...before meals and at bedtime. How hard is this guys? They will never...ever...forget this! Second...put a Bible, God's word to us, on the coffee table and pick it up to read on occasion for them to see. Third...humble yourself before God and admit that praying with your children and picking up a Bible are a mere pittance of what a father should do but plead that God might take that morsel and protect them through it. Another Christian reading this might wonder what kind of advice I'm giving? Twenty-five years ago or so, on one of our Pittsburgh rivers, there was a boating accident with a father and small child. The father couldn't swim and struggled as he held his child's head above the water. The child survived but the father drowned. That's what kind of advice this is. Hold your child's head above the water for you love them more than your own life. You might be surprised at what may happen for you indeed may be saying "I am not worthy... but have mercy on my child!" Your response here may turn out not to be your own for many have come to Christ in similar ways as this. We thought that we were making an insignificant step but God had initiated it. We didn't realize this until later. There is an anecdote from film noir that I would like to give here. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien starred in Angels With Dirty Faces. Here's the plot; Cagney was a gangster whose bravado earned the adoration of the young boys in his neighborhood. He eventually killed a police officer and was sentenced to death in the electric chair. Pat O'Brien was a Catholic priest who walked that last mile with him. Cagney was tough. He was going to spit in their faces before they applied the juice. O'Brien talked to him the whole way of how those boys were going to follow in his footsteps...they would end up like him. His defiance, especially in death, would only encourage them more. Cagney struggled...at first with anger, but upon being led into the chair he cried like a baby that he didn't want to die. They had to forcibly strap him into the chair. Only the priest knew the reason why this tough guy turned yellow. The picture ended as the youths lost the image of their hoodlum hero and went back to being young boys. Cagney's character was going to the chair but you can still move about. Take your child by the hand to Christ and see how He may respond...even with you.

Son...I Failed To Try?

2011-12-08T23:42:00.000-05:00

The following blog is from this past July 14th. Yogi Berra once said "Even Napoleon had his Watergate." Lord Acton's most famous quote is "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely," and no where is that more evidenced than in the Obama administration. After his term is over, books will be written by insiders, others will feel free to speak and the media's hedge of protection will wither. All of America will find out what many already know, that the American electorate had been had in 2008, that there was no real concern for the poor, minorities or the immigrant. A prosperous America was never the goal. It was all about ideology and Marxist ideology at that. I understand today more than ever before just how great nations fell, how their defenses vanished and the values that gave them strength eroded. I didn't realize how much I loved our country until I began to see it crumble. I never fully appreciated those who sacrificed for it until I realized just what they worked, strove and fought for.

July 14, 2011
It is my opinion that before this is all over, and by that I mean the Barack Obama era of either a four or eight year period, he may flee this country. Whether indictments will be part of it or not I don't know but after Americans become aware of the full extent of what this president has done to our nation, to our national and domestic security, of his real intent as opposed to the fictitious constitutional scholar on the covers of Time and Newsweek throughout 2008, and without the media protection that is already starting to crack, he will eventually, more likely seek the approval of those outside the country who, although not totally in sync with his anti-colonial spirit of redistribution of wealth, appreciate his larger vision of a...smaller America and his strong case ...for a weak America. If the media does not turn its concern to its own nation and its own families, as opposed to its own liberal reputation in its own mind, then Barack Obama may indeed sneak into another term. He indeed has his strongholds that will continue to give support, those primarily being the special interest groups who have profited well from the liberal entitlement party. There is really no love, either way, between the man and these groups for it is a simple contract where one party promises a remuneration for the other party's support and that second party will essentially sue, by threatening to withhold that support, if the promises are not kept. The motivations are power...and greed. A second support group is more international and involves the many who have great wealth. These elites will support either a Democrat or Republican who permits them to remain the dominant party in setting course for the world's economies. These two forces alone cannot keep Barack Obama in power nor replace him with another choice without either significant support from mainstream America or a division in traditional America that would essentially destroy the power of their block, and that is where the media comes in. They are a secularist faction that does not necessarily receive any monetary remuneration nor does it hold passionately to any particular economic or political philosophy. The only threat to the world that they have created on the pages of their print media and screens of the broadcast media is religion, and even there it is not Islam, liberal Christianity or Judaism but Biblical Christianity. Having said this...having given these purely personal opinions, I need to reiterate as I have done consistently in this blog that any of our schemes and all of our schemes, whether they be noble or ignoble, sound or unsound, cleverly devised and painstakingly developed or simply mob induced, will indeed either fail or succeed but not without God's staying hand or lifted hand. We cannot go one way or the other apart from His permission which will ultimately lead to His glory and the benefit of those who trust in Him. We do have a cause, that being a future for us and our children in a nation that insures freedom and liberty, and acknowledges that God is not only the source of all blessings but the author of all truth. The hard reality is that that may not be what's in store for our children. They may look at us one day and inquire as to what we did in the final days of the constitutional republic of the United States of America. Our answer will have to be either we tried and failed to protect that heritage, or we failed to try. Returning to that first political block in this whole equation, mainstream America, it will either wake up, as there are signs of, or return to a deep sleep, either of which will be as God sees fit to permit, for His ultimate purposes and to His everlasting glory

Merkozy...What Is It?

2011-12-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

I started this blog a day after publishing Lawfare...What Is It, for news out of Europe concerning the economic crises there is very pertinent to John Fonte's book "Sovereignty Or Submission." The front page of many newspapers today (Monday) picked up on the comments of the German Chancellor last Friday.
Most European nations did not want to give up sovereignty as they brought their economies close together but things did not work out quite as well as promised so now they are essentially going to be cajoled and even threatened to give up some political sovereignty or face the collapse of the euro. We are told that German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want to continuously pour money over the fire in the euro zone, at least not without political powers to hold the nations responsible. Quoting Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Merkel "called on the euro zone to accept a strict regimen of legally binding budget discipline." She labels it a "long term" solution but it is really a political one and "she warned that euro members would have to accept a loss of national sovereignty." Both she and French President Nicolas Sarkozy (Merkozy..as they are being called) "aim to push through a tough overhaul of euro zone governance." European authorities would then have authority over the national budgets of euro members. The original treaty between the nations was time consuming in its development and now Merkel and Sarkozy want to rewrite it with broad and expanded powers for those in authority, and there is very little time to do it! The New York Times downplays events as usual in reporting that Europe's leaders "will try to find a politically palatable solution to the crises." and they are " hoping to use the shadow of impending crisis to speed the process." Is it just a coincidence that 15 of the 17 euro zone members, including Germany and France, were today threatened with a mass downgrade by Standard and Poor's if the upcoming conference this week does not produce results. Meanwhile in Britain, some are saying If it's time for a whole new treaty, then let us out of the European Union. An article in the Daily Mail questioned "So why don't we just leave?" The answer..." Because of the bureaucratic vested interests that grow up around whatever happens to be the established system," these being the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) that Fonte wrote about and I relayed to you in Saturday's blog. This is how tyrannies evolve. They start with a promise in difficult times and when that promise cannot be fulfilled, steps have to be taken to protect the work already started. This is the same malady we face in America. Once a foot is in the door, measures have to be taken to protect it from being cut off. How long will it be until we are warned that we have to accept a loss of national sovereignty? In reality we already are. Please try to read Lawfare...what is it if you haven't already, and then the book itself, and determine for yourselves if John Fonte, Vaclav Klaus, John Bolton and many others are not giving a accurate warning of the clandestine attack on our national sovereignty therefore an attack on America itself.

And The Tony Goes To...

2011-12-05T00:18:00.000-05:00

How are we to explain it? At one moment the people were laying palm branches before the approaching colt that carried Jesus into Jerusalem, shouting "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and only a few days later they shouted "Crucify, crucify him!" Or were they the same people? Luke describes the first as his "disciples," and the second as the "chief priests, rulers and the people." Is this not the dichotomy of the people of this world from that day to the present? I remember watching an awards ceremony (probably the Tonys) on television in the mid-eighties where there were two musical performances, one after the other, that effected me enough to recall and relate it many times since. My memory on the specifics is not that clear but I do remember a gospel themed performance from a large choir. Certainly it must have been related to one of the nominees. It was a powerful ensemble performance and the audience was enthusiastic in its response. Then came the second performance. What I remember about it was the very wild theme as if from a Mardi Gras or a Brazilian festival. Again, the power of the music was displayed and the audience responded in kind. I felt that I had witnessed a spiritual battle right before me on the television screen. It astounded me that two themes of such opposite polarity where presented next to each other. Certainly, some cheered only for the gospel ensemble, others cheered only for the wild festival-like performance, while still others cheered for both, oblivious to the clash of messages. Who may have won that battle...I don't know, but it became etched in my own mind. Not all Christians are consumed with passion for knowing Christ, nor awestruck by the majesty and radiance of the Risen Lord nor do they cling to His Word as more valuable than gold and more precious than pearls, but many do. Not all of those that are lost and unredeemed grit their teeth in hate at the mere mention of Jesus Christ, but some do, while the lukewarm in the middle are often confused as to what all the fuss is about. The Israel of the Old Testament either sang praises and danced to its God or they killed the prophets sent by Him. Even today, we are conflicted not only between nations, but within nations, even at times within ourselves. There is no safety in trying to avoid the battle between God and those who oppose Him. The only safety is in shouting salvation and glory and power belong to our God!... to the only righteous king... and the only true God!

"Lawfare"...What Is It?

2011-12-03T02:07:00.000-05:00

Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, in a blurb on the back of John Fonte's new book Sovereignty Or Submission, Will Americans Rule Themselves Or Be Ruled By Others, begins with these words "John Fonte accurately identifies the coalitions of institutions, interests and individuals that are promoting global governance..." John O'Sullivan, Vice President and Executive Editor of Radio Free Europe, had these words to say in his introduction to the book, "Global governance...seeks to take ultimate political power from parliaments and congresses accountable to national electorates in sovereign states, and to invest it in courts, bureaucracies, NGOs and various transnational bodies." This is reality but the threat is concealed in the roar from stadiums and the mesmerizing effect from the Oprah and Facebook mentality that rules the American mind today. I have argued on many occasions in this blog that the elites of this world have grandiose plans for an entirely new world but that those stubborn and religious American people fight them every step of the way. Barack Obama was a major crack in our defense and euphoria reigned in many countries but his utter incompetence and the American people's harsh awakening to it is forcing them to ramp up the flip side of their assault on the sovereign state. What kind of arguments do these elites make? One given in the book is "sovereignty must be redefined as something shared or pooled," a ridiculously illogical, nonsense statement but one that the postmodern mind listens to and says.... whatever. The Transnational according to Fonte, is one who seeks "legal action and authority beyond national laws, constitutions and officials." Does this make your blood boil? It should for they are saying that they will make the rules and we will be submissive. Who are the players? NGOs are a big one. They are the "nongovernmental organizations" who we hear so much about in the news and automatically accept as if they just want to give us advice and nothing more. Fonte lists a number of them throughout the book. Some of which are: Human Rights Watch, the National Council of Churches, the ACLU, La Raza, Amnesty International, the Ford...MacArthur and Rockefeller foundations. The next time you watch a program on PBS promoting international issues that you disagree with, check the credits at the end to see who sponsored it and you will probably find an NGO. How does this statement sound to you, "It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order..." This came from "the most trusted man in America"....Walter Cronkite. John Fonte gives the historical and philosophical background of this argument for a world government along with what our nations founders had to say in response to such suggestions. Those founders used the concept of law as it appears in the Bible and that that respected, proven, concept is today being torn asunder on the international stage. Every one of us is a philosopher but most of us have no idea where that philosophy came from or even that it has existed and was argued over from time immemorial. Fonte's book is a needed introduction into philosophy and the American mind. Alexis de Tocqueville's name comes up often in books of this nature. Yes, our favorable geography helps keep us together as a republic as well as our political institutions but de Tocqueville summarized our strength this way "I would say that physical causes contribute less than laws, and laws less than mores." These last two are being systematically eroded every day in our nation. Fonte states that the Founders "promoted education to help develop the mores required to sustain a free society." He spends a good bit of time on the rule of law and a new concept known as "lawfare" or the "use or misuse of law- litigation for harassment, propaganda, or ideological purposes-to achieve strategic, political, or military objectives." Fonte's book is a primer on Europe and what is going on there. I have dozens of books sitting on my shelves where a blurb on the back might say something like "every American must read this book," and many do but we are losing this battle. How does the saying go...You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink? The 127th Psalm begins. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Ultimately, He will either open our eyes or we will no more be a sovereign nation. This book would certainly be a help to anyone but after reading even the few morsels given here, a simple bowing of the head and asking God to have mercy upon us is what we really need.

"T" Party!

2011-11-28T23:35:00.001-05:00

Three years ago today I sat down and began this blog which has turned out to be more of an online journal. A la carte cable television was the topic, where the bundled or packaged programming forced upon us now would end and we would be given a choice as to what programming we paid for and what programming came into our homes. The following is that first entry:

If only it were just a "vast wasteland!" Unfortunately, television sculpts and molds the American mind. We have become a society that learns from visual sources rather than the written word and we are at the mercy of the cable package. There's a bill in the Senate that would give us the right to chose our stations but the purpose of it was to lessen our cable bill. Some say that it will not even not do that. I don't care. I want to support only stations that have prefigured the (positive) effect on a society into it's programming. Boycotts cannot do the job. Give us a year of "a la carte cable" and some networks will respond. In my mind, this is not a minor thing. I can see a major improvement in how our society forms a consensus on many issues simply by weaning itself from what television throws at us. If you agree with this please talk the issue up and contact your Representatives and Senators.

Boring huh...a la carte cable television? I believed then, and still do, that it has revolutionary potential in our society, a Digital Spring if you will, another T (television) Party. We get thirteen channels with our basic cable and that's about eleven to many for me. There are more than a few cable stations that I would like to have but I will not support the fifty or sixty that would automatically come along with them and here's why: All of the enemies of America, and there are many, rely on an uninformed American public, a public that would much rather watch Dancing With The Stars than read a non-fiction book, and a public that has sports programming available to it 24/7 which will take precedence any day over...say, a C-Span seminar sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. American television is in the lifeblood of the Communist, the anarchist, the atheist and the radical Islamist, not to mention the Democratic Party whose ideology is constantly on display in prime time programming and actually espoused in the news programming. Television is an addiction, not the only addiction that we have, and maybe not the biggest, but the single most destructive to our discernment therefore our future and the future of our children. Canada may be beating us to the punch on this issue and more power to them for it. The Canadian government requested that cable companies make an effort on this a la carte issue and there are some experiments going on right now. They are far from what what is needed but it's a start. In America, a class action suit against the biggest cable companies has at least been cleared to proceed. Here is what my prediction would be if we were given choice in our programming: The big three of NBC, CBS and ABC would be told (by us) that they are no longer welcome in our homes, far too many of them anyway, to even stay afloat let alone be profitable.....and would therefore.... adjust! Fox would be told to clean up its act. Within one year...the television news media (out of concern for fairness, of course!) would actually start to present both sides of issues. It would happen! Americans are already grasping for straws to limit the effect of television on their families. According to A. C. Nielson Co., 79% of Americans believe that "TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem," and it adds that "8,000 murders....are seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school." The moguls know how the American public would react to a la carte and the liberal political strategist knows it also, so it would be fiercely opposed if seriously considered here (for the benefit of the American public, of course!) Any one of the current crop of Republican candidates for President could very easily test the thesis presented here...that Americans would say yes to a choice in their television programming, and become increasingly excited about it! Admittedly our nation is collapsing right before our eyes and there are so many other issues that need addressed, but this one addresses the very eyesight needed on all of those individual issues. So, with the same blog entry ending that I gave three years ago...If you agree with this, please talk the issue up and contact your Representatives and Senators!

Tim Tebow Cannot Help But.....

2011-11-25T21:33:00.001-05:00

Jonathan walked through the door of the town meeting house and smiled at the two old ladies mixing some kind of drink concoction on a table off to the left. "Good evening ladies!" They barely nodded and as he passed and one said to the other. "It would be a good evening if he didn't show up." "Yes. Or at least keeps his mouth shut." responded the other. Jonathan dropped his corn at the kettle for the celebration and the young girl there offered a pert "thank you" and quickly turned away. Jonathan was getting used to the reception he would get when he came into town for supplies or a town meeting but this was supposed to be a celebration on the crowning of their new king. Civil war had raged for two years as the pretenders to the crown battled the returning Crown Prince whose family had been banished from the kingdom after a long drought had brought much starvation and suffering to the village. The drought had been five years and no one in the kingdom or even on the continent had been spared its pain but those in the king's own coterie took advantage of it and rallied the people into revolt. When the aged king had died, the Crown Prince returned to retrieve his crown. Those who knew the honor and the goodness of the real king rallied behind him and the tyrant was overthrown and punished. Jonathan lived amidst all of this, even serving in the victorious army. What he witnessed after the new king had taken his throne had filled him with a passion of love and obedience to his king. The people were no longer robbed of their profits in the field. The ministers could preach the gospel once again. The children were taken out of the fields and away from danger. Dignity was bestowed upon every subject. The villages became alive once again. Highwaymen were rounded up and punished and law and order reigned. Jonathan returned to the village of his birth with not only news of the new king but a testimony of his justice upon the evil doers, compassion upon those who were too afraid to challenge them and the blessing of abundance to all who would serve him. The people in Jonathan's village were curious at first but doubted his claims and wanted to hear no more of this king. Others knew that a righteous king would find out that they themselves had joined into robbing the poor and would face judgement. This day of celebration had passed as an emissary of the king read the proclamation of freedom to all and the people went back to work in the fields the next day. Jonathan continued to be ostracized but the coming year saw justice from the king's castle spread to all the kingdom. The heavy burden of taxes was eliminated and the guilty were punished. Righteousness had returned to Jonathan's village and it became alive once again.

You might be wondering what all this has to do with Tim Tebow? Well, Tebow has been to the castle and has seen the king! He felt the weight of thousands of years of tyranny lifted from his shoulders. He knows the face of the evil one as he roams to and fro just waiting for the king to come in all of his glory, find him in the hinterlands, and banish him forever. Tim Tebow, as every Christian should, has witnessed the glory, the justice, the mercy, the compassion, the goodness and the power of his king...Jesus Christ, and he cannot help but tell others about Him. The people of his village, professional football, are getting tired of hearing about it. What proof of this new king is there, only that which is reported in a book? Others know that if there is a new king then judgement will come to them also. I wrote about Tim Tebow in a previous blog. He's a fine young man and his strength should be an encouragement to all of us. His one miscalculation is that he himself disobeys his king's command to keep the Sabbath day for his king. Even so, he is a remarkable brother in Christ who cannot help but tell everyone of the glories of Jesus Christ.

Thankful For....Weaknesses!

2011-11-24T01:41:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is far and away my favorite day of the year. There's no gift exchanges, blessings though such things are, to divert attention from the day, and no pagan bush to drag into the house to be decorated. There are no myths involved, in fact the historical testimony is so strong that even the revisionists have a hard time trying to distort it. As I write this, today's Wall Street Journal is beside me. Every year since 1961 on this day before Thanksgiving their top editorial has been a reprint of the beginning of a first-hand chronicle of the Plymouth Colony's voyage and arrival in their new land. This is part of the heritage that elements of our society are systematically trying to erase. One particular day has since been set apart for Americans to corporately and individually give thanks to God for blessings bestowed. Taking advantage of this opportunity, here are some of the things that I am thankful for: I'm thankful that God took a twelve year old boy from a broken home and planted him in an apartment on a modest street amidst fine and decent fellows who would become new friends. I'm thankful that he permitted me to attend a very good high school, rich in tradition and academics, where I would at least experience, although hardly partake in, a scholarly atmosphere, and also how He somehow provided tuition. I'm thankful that in my immaturity He gave me the wisdom to join the army and had mercy on me even as I abused the needed maturing process. I'm thankful for a college degree even though my interests were far more social than academic, and that while working at the university I would meet my future wife. I'm thankful for her patience, love and being my best friend. I'm thankful for thirty-two years of employment from one company and the friends and coworkers there. I'm thankful that God instilled in me, somewhat later in life, an insatiable desire to read, to study and to analyze. I'm thankful that in 1982 He had mercy on the lowest of the low, loved the most unlovable and redeemed the least worthy of it. I'm thankful for the gift of a son who I have watched grow far beyond my own intellectual capabilities and do so without the path of rebellion that I chose. I'm thankful for the perfect match of a wonderful young Christian woman to be his wife. I'm thankful for failures.... for they make it impossible for me to think that I am something that I am not. I'm thankful that after I fall down, He gives me strength to get up. I'm thankful for heroes, particularly of the Christian faith but also of our nation, for their lives are blueprints that can be deciphered for at least an attempt to emulate. I'm thankful for faithful pastors and the sweet fellowship of other beneficiaries of God's redemption. I'm thankful for a house and a home for our son as he grew up, with loving family all around. I'm thankful for automobiles and money in the bank to keep them running. I'm thankful for vision to see this beautiful world, for taste to enjoy tomorrow's meal (Lord willing,) for the hearing of the preached Word and of music and voices, for feeling....both physical and emotional, and for discerning aromas of both warnings and pleasure. I'm thankful that there is no sixth sense, that our knowledge of the future comes not from ESP but from such as the ESV (English Standard Version of God's written word to us.) I'm thankful for being born an American, for freedom and liberty, but even moreso for the opportunity to show gratitude for the efforts of those who sacrificed for those freedoms and liberties and, although in an insignificant way, to pick up the banner they once held aloft. I'm thankful for my weaknesses for they give opportunity for God to show His strength. I am thankful most of all that God reached into humanity to adopt a multitude as His family and that He opened my own eyes to see... first myself, and then the cross of Calvary, the empty tomb and the clouds in which Jesus both ascended and will return. I'm thankful for angels all around us. I'm thankful that even though we play no part whatsoever in the salvation of another that we are painted into the picture to the glory of God alone. I'm thankful that, in the same vein, we can pray for the salvation of others and rejoice with them. I'm thankful for many books but especially one, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the last stanza of a song within which reads:

Hobgoblin, nor fowl fiend,
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.

Post Tenebras Lux

2011-11-20T20:18:00.004-05:00

How does one go about getting the attention of the average American on issues such as appear in this blog? Well, let's start to answer that by identifying those issues. On July the 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and so began the Great American Experiment. Two-hundred and thirty five years later a new declaration is being signed onto, one that voids the first. American military superiority has peaked as we are told that only small regional wars might lie ahead. Our American education system is no longer what it was and is too often merely a battleground for an ideological paradigm shift on the lower end and breeding grounds for the globalist and transnationalist on the higher end. The majority of the American church is inflicted with one of three illnesses: total liberal heresy in denial of the gospel, off on tangents and doctrinal fads that at the very least make the true proclamation of the gospel ineffective, or so watered-down in identity and doctrine as to make it a place where almost anyone in this nation can saunter in and have no objections, feel no guilt or have no compulsion to respond to anything coming out of the pulpit. Homosexuality directly challenges God on television, philosophy in film, and greed in business. Should a child survive the pre-born sacrifice of abortion, he or she must navigate a world increasingly at enmity with God. The coup de' gras of the socialist/Marxist/globalist assault on America has been in the concept of "law." That which has kept us from chaos is too often in the hands of those who do not revere it. The Robert Borks are being replaced by the Elena Kagans. These are some of the issues, now how does one go about getting people's attention? Well, there's good and bad news here. Let me start with the bad news; one cannot get their attention. In fairness to them, they would have to sneeze while changing radio stations, and sneeze just as the dial was positioned on talk radio, inadvertently giving them the opportunity to hear some morsel of legitimate news, information and warning; and even then, would they listen? The original condition of every man, women and child on this earth is that of autonomy and self-exaltation, and no one was once more cemented into it than I. The good news? Nations rise and nations fall according to God's will! We are in darkness today in the United States of America but surely the Reformation mottos of Post Tenebras Lux (after darkness, light) and Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory) offer us hope in remembrance of those who have gone before us. If this blog informs anyone in a way which causes them to inquire into their fallen condition and then seek God's mercy it will be entirely His doing, according to His will and to His glory alone. If it wouldn't, then I consider it a hidden blessing not to have been taken seriously.

Over these past three years I have occasionally copied, word for word, prayers out of a book of Puritan prayers called Valley Of Vision which was edited by Arthur Bennett. It's been a blessing to the church especially considering its content, Puritan prayers, in this shallow age. Here is another offering from that book that I hope you will purchase for your own edification, for although it has daily humbled me it has also given me great hope in the One who first moved its authors:

Lord God Almighty,

I asked not to be enrolled amongst the earthly
great and rich,
but to be numbered with the spiritually blessed.
Make it my present, supreme, persevering concern
to obtain those blessings which are
spiritual in their nature,
eternal in their continuance,
satisfying in their possession.
Preserve me from a false estimate of the whole
or a part of my character;
May I pay regard to
my principles as well as my conduct,
my motives as well as my actions.
Help me
Never to mistake the excitement of my passions
for the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
never to judge my religion by occasional
impressions and impulses, but by my
constant and prevailing disposition.
May my heart be right with thee,
and my life as becometh the gospel.
May I maintain a supreme regard to another
and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger
and a pilgrim here.
Afford me all the direction, defense, support,
and consolation my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.
Give me large abundance of the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief
and uncertainties.

Gird Your Loins

2011-11-15T23:10:00.002-05:00

So what gives here? I tuned into the Sean Hannity radio program on the way home from work today and he was in the middle of an interview. I didn't immediately recognize the voice of who he was talking to. The topics were Congress, the economy and Iran and the speaker spoke intelligently with calm assurance. Could this be Rick Perry I wondered, the same man who answered questions in the most recent debate as if every word out of his mouth costs $10,000 so he was going to cram as many talking points in as possible? Some might say that this change that I perceived would be due to a friendly interviewer and I'm sure that there would be truth in that but the opposite of a friendly interviewer is not necessarily a neutral, albeit hard, interviewer, for what these Republican candidates faced were questions from men whose sole intent was to embarrass the candidate in some way, shape or form. How absurd is this whole campaign so far! We have an incumbent president who without the benefit of Marxists and globalists who both mentored and used him his entire adult life would not be qualified to head a company of 100 people let alone the United States of America. None of this is ever remotely researched or questioned by a grotesquely obscurantist liberal media. Stop the presses! As I'm writing this, Rick Perry is being interviewed again, this time by Roger Hedgecock on XM Radio. Again he sounds like a rational, intelligent American! Here is the conundrum. How do you approach an American public whose thinking capacity has been dumbed down to such an extent that it cannot discern good from evil, the genuine from the counterfeit. Can the American man remodel his house? You betcha. Can he work in industry or business? You betcha. Can he listen to a politician and navigate the shoals of spin meant to lead him as if he had a ring in his nose? Not on your life. Can the American woman enter the workplace and perform as well as the men. Absolutely. Can she tune into some daytime television talk show and carry on the conversation on any number of complex topics later on with friends? Yes. Can she watch the CBS Evening News and discern any bias at all in a broadcast that should have the word Democrat in the title? Not on your life. Can the college student earn multiple degrees? Certainly. Can he/she identify the campus predator seeking legions of students solely for his ulterior motives? It's not likely. The political gurus know this. The Axelrods have it very easy for all they have to do is throw money and promises around and the carp will come to the surface with open mouths. The Karl Roves have to follow a different plan. Their intent is to latch on to a relatively small number of hot button issues that the conservative can chant. Giggles, cheers and a few boos were from the audience in the debate that I watched that was more like a Miss America contest than eight candidates vying to take the helm of a ship of state already listing in a tempest in uncharted waters. We are living in a time where the clarion call should be "all hands on deck" and "man your battle stations," but we can't tear ourselves away from the dayroom and watching grown men, making millions of dollars, as they play with balls of various sizes and shapes. The typical liberal American is in far worse shape than the conservative for he has been duped by both Marxists and globalists and therefore doesn't really espouse anything, rather he is identified in what opposes. There is a shakedown in process and everything that the liberal claims to love is being taken away, but to pay attention to the warnings would lead to a humbling before Almighty God and this is not acceptable. The conservative thinks that a republican White House and Congress will solve the problem. It won't. We are too far gone. This blog won't convince enough people to fill a house. The only hope in my efforts or even in the efforts of legitimate columnists such as Thomas Sowell, Michele Malkin, Pat Buchanan and many others would be in retrospect, something to look back upon as chaos envelops us, something to research as to why disaster courted us and we acquiesced so easily. Gird your loins folks for unless we humble ourselves before our Creator, Brunhilde will take the stage with her final aria.....and the fat lady will sing.

Debate Coverage...Sort Of

2011-11-13T02:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I tuned in to the debate tonight, the first time I have done so, and...well the following might not be exactly verbatim but it's kind of how I saw it:

Pelley:       Governor Perry. What would you do if a nuclear weapon came up missing in Pakistan?
Perry:      Let me just say that we are winning in Afghanistan.
Pelley:     That was the previous question to Governor Romney.
Perry:     Oh...I wouldn't give a penny to Red China.
Pelley:     That was two questions ago. Time is up. Thank you Governor.
Garrett:   Congressman Paul. How would you deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Paul:        Have we ever tried sending him flowers?
Santorum: Excuse me. Excuse me! I just want to say that I totally disagree with Congressman Paul.
Garrett:     Governor Huntsman: Would it ever be the right thing to do to bomb Iran?
Huntsman: You know, I sat next to a sailor on the flight in and we have the finest navy in the world.
Garrett:      Oookaaay. And what about Iran?
Huntsman: What about it?
Garrett:      Would it ever be the right thing to do to bomb Iran?
Huntsman: Let me just say that I used to live in a shack in Iran... I know Iran.
Garrett:      And...?
Huntsman: And what?
Pelley:        Speaker Gingrich. Would you ever use the fiendish, horrid, un-American torture of waterboarding?
Gingrich:     Waterboarding isn't torture.
Pelley:         Yes it is! Yes it is! Yes it is!!!
Garrett:       Governor Romney. You're really a handsome man.
Romney:     Thank you and I sincerely hope that Putin doesn't think that I'm just another pretty face.
Pelley:         Mr. Cain. What hands-on experience do you have with nuclear weaponry?
Cain:           Hands-on.....as the CEO of Godfather's Pizza? None.
Pelley:         Thank-you sir.
Pelley:        Congresswoman Bachmann: I notice that you have your hair pinned back tonight. Have you ever
                   used a washer board while doing your laundry?
Bachmann:   Excuse me!
Pelley:         Thank you Congresswoman.
Bachmann:  Excuse me again. I have sixty seconds to talk!
Pelley:         That was sixty seconds.
Bachmann: Two words? Sixty seconds?
Pelley:         We're playing by the rules tonight shorty!
Garrett:        Speaker Gingrich. Some people say that you will say anything conservatives want to hear?
Gingrich:      I'd bomb Iran, stop abortion, nominate Joe the Plumber for the Supreme Court and add Ronald
                   Reagan's name to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Garrett:       Thank-you sir.
Santorum:    Hey, Hey, Hey. What about me over here?
Pelley:         Senator Santorum. How would you handle the situation in Syria?
Santorum:   Well, I would..
Pelley:         Thank you Senator. Times up. Governor Romney. Who is going to be your Vice President?
Cain:           What kind of question is that?
Pelley:        I'll rephrase it. Governor Romney. Is your Vice President on the stage tonight?
Romney:      Let me just say that I'd be honored to have any of the 300 millions Americans as my V.P..
Huntsman:   Hey! I'm down here in Siberia you know!
Perry:          Did I ever tell you the one about the elephant who forgot where he put his trunk?
Pelley:         That's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you gentleman, shorty...and the black guy to the left of
                   Presi...I mean Governor Romney.

The most difficult thing about watching this was in seeing South Carolina Senator Jim Demint watching from the audience.

On The Playing Fields Of Happy Valley

2011-11-12T02:01:00.002-05:00

It had been reported by one contemporary of the Duke of Wellington that these words were spoken by him, The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Whether he actually uttered these words or not, it is obvious that the quality and character of colleges and universities directly effect the character of that nation. Our own institutions, from Harvard on, produced Founding Fathers, generals, college presidents and ministers at a time when ministers were authority figures. The post Civil War period produced a change in our colleges. Disappearing was the system of rote learning, or memorization, in favor of more modern and appealing methods of learning. In many disciplines we no longer valued teaching truth, rather teaching one to find his own truth. We began to specialize. It served industry well but added little to the fabric of America and eventually ate away at it. The Progressives of the early twentieth century knew that their ideas would never take hold unless they could capture the minds of American youth and then build on that until their graduates assimilated into society, assuming the reigns of power in various professions. No matter what the slogan etched in stone on the portico of Old Main, most universities today are no longer about building character. Not that they are against ethics but that ethics and character make indoctrination more difficult. John Nelson Black, in his book Freefall of the American University, How Our Colleges are Corrupting the Minds and Morals of the Next Generation writes "within every faculty in every college and university in this country there is a cadre of militant activists who have an aggressive agenda of social change and a revolutionary zeal to undermine the traditional foundations of Western culture. And they are doing it without resistance." In this postmodern society, one needs to view what is right and what is wrong from a perspective of advanced tolerance for everything except those things that implicitly state that there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong. "Truth" writes Thomas Sowell in Intellectuals And Society, "is an enemy of dogmas, and dealt with as an enemy by small but growing numbers of modern intellectuals." Students are indeed taught how to respect their fellow man, fellow citizens of the world, and respect their cultures to such an extent that an open invitation is always there to come here and feel free to transform our, obviously inferior, culture into theirs. Programmed diversity, as opposed to the benefits of natural diversity, is simply the installing of a philosophy that, by its very nature, accepts and exalts everyone's god, thereby demoting the only true God while attempting to remove Him from His throne. George Marsden's entire book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship argues for a true diversity that involves the ability to include faith in academic discourse but such a true diversity is not welcome. Toleration, in the postmodern interpretation, is the breakdown of law, mores, tradition and borders. It is no wonder that they want free university tuition for everyone for that would be, in effect, free indoctrination for everyone. Both the tenure system for professors and the unassailable powers of those who extend that tenure insure a closed system where free inquiry is allowed only in the disciplines that pose no threat to the Progressive system already in place. Academia in America is entrenched in the corner of the transnationalist who John Fonte so succinctly describes in his new book Sovereignty or Submission, Will America Rule Themselves Or Be Ruled By Others as one who promotes "legal action and authority beyond national laws, constitutions, and officials." Fonte writes "The purpose of 'transnationalizing' the curriculum is to diminish the emotional attachment of American students to an American national identity and an American way of life." Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University, took the American university system to task in a September 16, 2011 op-ed piece, a synopsis of which is too many students, more than have the abilities to do college work. Williams quoted Ohio University professor of economics Richard Vedder in "This leads colleges to alter their mission, watering down the intellectual content of what they do." American collegiate football is the religion that has replaced Christianity in our higher education, all the mid-field prayer meetings notwithstanding, and is a factor in our universities attempt to increase the number of applications. Aside from being a cash-cow for the institutions, it is a diversion for the future citizens of the world as they are being programmed. National championships are not the goal of the highest echelon of administrators, rather transnational victories otherwise known as agreements, treaties, global governance initiatives, international court verdicts and such, where American academia plays the position of left guard on the globalist teams. Penn State University's football program violated the rules that both the globalist and the sovereign nationalist had set, the welfare and protection of children. Excommunication is the punishment chosen for its head coach and a few administrators. In 1987 the N.C.A.A. tagged Southern Methodist University with the harshest punishment, even up to today, for its recurring recruiting violations. It has become known as the Death Penalty. The football program was shut down for one entire year and most of another. Fifty-five scholarships were lost. Revenues disappeared because of no television appearances or bowl games. According to most accounts, it took twenty years for the football program to come back into prominence. In the meantime their academic structure and achievements flourished and today they have a sound, conservative if you will, student body. They are so gun-shy against repeating the mistakes of the 1980s that they have one of the highest academic requirements for a football scholarship in the nation. Southern Methodist University survived the tribulation of no football for a year and are a better university because of it. Not only the Penn State football program but America itself is in the throes of a survival mode. If recruiting violations demanded such harsh punishment, how can the N.C.A.A. not consider the same for Penn State University for what has transpired there? No, the N.C.A.A will go very slow on this but ultimately Penn State University may have to go without its revered football for a while, and will most likely be far better for it.

The Occupied American

2011-11-08T01:33:00.001-05:00

My travels a few days ago took me on a circular route around the metropolitan Pittsburgh area and the back of my CRV had the ever-present bumper sticker with this blog's URL, but along with that was another sticker that reads Jim DeMint 4 President. The hardhat on my job has the same political slogan on it. This is no normal election cycle, in my estimation anyway. President Obama's foreign and domestic policies have set us up as a ripe target for our enemies. They will never have the opportunity again where the President of the United States is actively seeking to lower our military capabilities, our influence and our ability to defend ourselves while the majority party in the Senate is concerned only with retaining its majority status and the majority party in the House focuses solely on the economy at the expense of warning the public of the full-orbed problem. Combine this situation with a news media that will leave no stoned unturned in pursuit of republicans but will defend, to the death of America, the right of Barack Obama to remain a mystery and enigma to the American public and we are more vulnerable as a nation than anytime in our history. The economies of this world could collapse any day from either the more common means of incompetent leaders or from a purposed systematic attack from enemies who may deal with us financially to a great extent while at the same time planning our economic destruction and preparing to ascend alone in the aftermath. All of a sudden the United Nations, Condoleezza Rice and others are showing concerns over Iran's nuclear capabilities, something conservatives and this blog have shouted from the rooftops for years. Methinks something is rotten in the state of Denmark. This is how the elites of the world and the establishment politicians in this country work. They devise plans that are too unsettling for our genteel dispositions to deal with. Part of those plans are in how to coax and manipulate the unwashed masses (you and me) in unquestioningly following their lead. The American political landscape is an important part of the architectural plans of these elites for they have to retain power and they have to insure that real independent, honest thinkers with integrity do not enter their enclaves as had happened in 2010. We have eight names officially entered in the 2012 presidential campaign of which the top name, Mitt Romney, is acceptable to them and a couple of others can probably be worked with. None of the remaining pose a major problem to them a this time except Herman Cain whose election might very well open the plantation gates. Sarah Palin is out of the picture. I suspect that they have a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A is doing everything they can, incognito of course, to help the former governor of Massachusetts. Should that fail, Plan B would have to be a brokered convention, something that we have not seen since 1952. Should no one arrive in Tampa in August with enough delegates for the nomination the back-room bargaining shenanigans will go into full force and names such as Jeb Bush and Chris Christie will be offered up in a deal we can't refuse. Once again, this is how they work. We are to be manipulated and if that is not possible, we are to be overcome with political force. It's my belief that there is one name that they fear and even though he is not a candidate at this time, they cringe at the possibility. That name is Jim DeMint, Senator from South Carolina, Tea Party favorite and thorn in the side of establishment republicans. They do not want to have to deal with this man and if there is a Plan C it will activate if his name comes back into the picture, for there are a number of well-known conservatives who have tried to convince Senator DeMint to run. The sooner the primaries begin and one or another candidate, or candidates, emerge at or near the top, the easier these architects can breath. As I have written often before, there is no political solution to our problems, no one man or one party that can undo what has already been done. It is every bit as serious as that! Every diversion in American culture works to the benefit of the grand architects on both sides of the ideological plane. Every sport, every scandal, every television phenomenon, every natural disaster, every new technological toy works to their advantage in keeping the American public occupied and out of the way. Without a Reformation in the church they will succeed. By Reformation I mean an upheaval in our worship services to being Christ-centered instead of man-centered, a Renaissance in our Bible study where doctrine replaces appearances of piety, a Revival of humility in our prayers and a rehearsal for God's judgements likely to come, for we cannot deny that we deserve that He tear down the hedge of protection around us. Our prayer has to be for God, should it be His will and to His glory alone, to awaken us as a people. A people who until recently were a monkey wrench in the gears of Communism, of radical Islam and of a one-world government. Are the American people a special breed? No. What we are is a people who God guided and blessed in a very special way. Our diversity, once a thing of beauty, is now a cause of our impending demise. Our work ethic has given way to an entitlement mentality. Freedom has been swallowed up by personal rights, liberty by greed. Law, once a security, is now a tool of tyranny. We have lost the ability to think through complex matters and political correctness is our straight jacket. Our political leaders who wield power in the halls of Congress are perilously close to being ashamed of God, the very One who alone can renew a mind. They acknowledge Him modestly and only in ways that can be described as perfunctory and as protocol, certainly not in academic or international circles. George Washington warned of abandoning God, Lincoln implored of Him for mercy and Reagan acknowledged where our blessings originated. Here is the only political link for our survival, leaders who recognize that they lead only at the behest of Almighty God and would have it no other way. We will not have those leaders if we do not first put away our own idols and we will not do that until we recognize the extreme peril to our very existence as a nation.

What Seest In Me Lord?

2011-11-04T02:17:00.000-04:00

What seest in me Lord,
what makest Thou stay thy hand,
why dost thou give Thy ear to a clanging symbol,
why give light to a worm?

My years pass ere so quickly
and I will never be able to pay,
for even a day in the joy in knowing you,
for a moment of the touch of your hand.

Your blessings have covered me as a flood
and I drown in your mercy,
seeing my life before me
only to be told to turn my gaze towards Thee.

"All of grace" he said
and I understood,
and the first days...wonderful as they were,
are eclipsed.

You made me meek
when I desired power,
and humbled me,
wherein is Thy given strength.

Wisdom is thy breath
and fellowship thy gift,
for souls regenerated
is our meat and drink.

Those gone before,
the memory of whom I treasure,
call out to me
"press on."

Those coming alongside, youthful and budding,
are but reflections of my beginning.
Nurture them through my failings and clip the wings
that were made, not to fly, but cover their faces in your presence.

This world waits for your return,
your creatures for your rule.
Surely you look to that day also.
Come Lord Jesus!

Place Your Bets?

2011-10-30T22:48:00.001-04:00

Merriam-Webster defines the verb gamble, in its alternative definition anyway, as "to stake something on a contingency, a wager." No one really needs a definition for we all know the meaning of the word, what we don't know or realize anyway is how much we ourselves are, in fact, gamblers. One simple example of where I'm going on this is in taking a ride on a jetliner. One is staking their life on the contingency that the pilots, the mechanics and the air traffic controllers will properly do what they have been trained to do. It's not a big gamble, actually it's infinitesimal, but it does fit the category of a gamble. Nothing that I'm going to write here is new and there's no profundity in my thoughts. It's just something that I'd like you to think about. You have a well developed theology, you know that right? It doesn't matter if this theology of yours makes sense or is systematized in any specific way. It doesn't have to be anything but an opinion in order to qualify as a theology. You also have a soteriology which is the doctrine of whether you will (I prefer to use the two-word phrase) be saved, or not. Once again, having a soteriology means nothing more than to have considered the question and I don't know anyone who can truthfully deny that they have ever done that. What you are wagering here is your eternal soul. That's what I'm wagering. Neither of us thinks about it as a wager and from my position, it is anything but chance, but it fits the category for my purposes here. Stay with me on this just a little bit longer...please. You may think that the actual contingency is in the veracity of the theorem that you hold. I believe that the contingency is rather in you and the determination that you made....not the actual theorem itself. In other words, you may think that you placed your bet on a formula validated by the many others who have taken the same wager but in reality you placed your bet on your decision! To me, there is a striking difference in these two possibilities. The first is the widely accepted view. You are merely tagging along on this one. You are happily seated with many others, some very wonderful people! The second view is that the responsibilty rests entirely upon your shoulders, you alone are responsible for the contingency in this wager of your soul. Now certainly this is not going to bother a whole lot of people in the slightest way but I'm talking to you. Let me give you a very specific example: you (may) feel that God knows that you are basically good and you are confident (fairly anyway) that he will not eternally punish someone like you, of whom there are very similar multitudes upon multitudes.... this, you believe, is the contingency. It is not. The contingency is in your decision. Should this not worry you even a little bit? This is not a class action suit...only yours! You alone are at the table making the bet. Are there answers to this question of eternal importance? Obviously I think that there is but that is not even the point...the point is that considering the "stake" one's eternal destiny, the effort, the discipline, the determination, the integrity of introspection in finding that answer and the utter refusal to let this issue become a gamble has to be what any sane individual would do!!! Why do I write this? I write this because the vast majority of people that I consider and am proud to have as friends....choose to gamble.....and they do not know that they are gambling! They haven't given any time in consideration of what being Born Again means. They are passengers along with multitudes of good, even noble people. Surely God would not permit......? But this is but another wager! This is why I bring up sports and entertainments so often. They are merely monitors above the gaming table that you have wagered your eternal soul upon. Please answer this question first... honestly... in your own mind. You will find that it not a gamble in any way. Its a promise...from the only true promisekeeper.

Karl Marx 101

2011-10-29T22:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it should be apparent to anyone with enough interest to look into it that Communism is back with a vengeance and the prime target is the United States of America. We knew all along that Barack Obama was a Socialist, this was never in doubt, it was what we didn't know about him that was so mystifying. Karl Marx was the world's foremost critic of Capitalism and hence a giant influence on both economic theory and world history in the last century. A few years ago I picked up a small book titled Why Read Marx Today by a British academic Jonathan Wolff. In this 2002 book the author's admiration for the brilliance of Marx was dimmed only a little by the unpleasant fact that Communism had failed everywhere it was tried. The author admitted frustration a few times in Marx's limited explanation of how this world takeover by the proletariat was going to take place. The reason given for it's failure in the Soviet Union was that the Bolsheviks jumped the gun, for as Feudalism came to the point where it could no longer sustain itself and gave way to Capitalism, so would Capitalism give way to Communism when it can no longer sustain itself but both inheriting economic philosophies need a foundation to begin upon and Russia provided none. Or so we are told is the reason for the failure. Reasons for other failures are not given, instead profound disappointment in how the revolutionaries handled their sudden power. In Marxist theory the classes were to become so alienated that revolutions would follow...must follow...and that that alienation, if need be, would have to be agitated upon, something we are seeing today, astonishingly, in our own country. Marx hated religion, the "opium of the people" as we have heard mentioned so often. God was a "barrier" for man to realize his "species-essence" according to Marx, and a "sham" according to Wolff who wrote: "it is a constant source of wonder yet to me that intelligent, educated people can bring themselves to believe any of this." Marx's philosophy was that if the concept of "labour" is freed from the oppression of the ruling class then it will eventually sprout up in forms of sharing, fairness and peace towards all, another problem for the author and another failed prediction laid at the feet of Marx whose rambunctious followers often did not wait for the proper time for their revolutions, but it doesn't appear to me that Marx would be as anxious as the author of the book recommending reading him, for Marx's philosophy was built upon historical progress being "dialectical" in nature, changing time and again but always in the direction of the revolution of the proletariat. The fall of the Soviet Union would merely have been seen as an opportunity to tact wider to reach the same goal. Marx would view the chorus of calls today for freedom and liberty in America as the proletariat simply demanding more protection from government to oppress others. Looking at this from the viewpoint of the non-communist; the revolutionary seizes power and then will kill as many as it takes, tens of millions if necessary, to eventually demonstrate his great compassion towards mankind. It wasn't the lack of an economic foundation in the Soviet Union that brought on the gulag or the lack of a strong economy that brought Mao to butcher his millions but rather an unsound foundation in it's opinion of man himself, for given the opportunity to rule, man will rule with tyranny if there are no laws. Marx admitted that a new form of law had to be implemented but beyond the taking of power he gave little advice on what came next, once again frustrating the author of Why Read Marx Today. There's another book, released only this week,that I'll put before you. It's a difficult read at first but comes together as the pattern from one profession to the next is recognized. Aaron Klein (with Brenda J. Elliot) wrote Red Army, a mapping of a network in America that may, at times, admit to being Socialist but up until recently did not even have to deal with the word Communist. You will read here how progressives in Congress form caucuses and how these caucuses, with the media's help, appear mainstream to the public but are anything but. You will read of the sad state of our education system and who influences its direction. Or then again, maybe you won't read it for its much easier that way, to just pretend it doesn't exist. It's a spider's web seen only if you choose to go down that hallway that has the web. The book doesn't have to make a specific charge for after reading how organizations in areas from education to science, from media to the halls of Congress and in political policy venues of all types you cannot help but notice that the method of networking was carefully crafted and utilizes naming its organizations in what Klein labels "calculated misdirection." It's unpleasant to read this information and most disturbing in the realization that our media has essentially been rendered impotent in discerning any of this. I suspect that reaction to this book that gives names of caucus members, tying them very neatly into a network of deceit, will be charges of wild conspiracies, but read the book yourself and those words will not come from your own mind. The generations represented in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twelve will be made known to either be of vintage American stock that may make more mistakes than it should be allotted but ultimately humbles itself before it's Creator and is given strength and wisdom to persevere and overcome..... or..... it will be the last generations of this grand "American Experiment." There are two past threads from this blog that I want to point out here that Republicans should have, and still should follow. The first is that President Obama's administration is to be held in abeyance at every turn with no cooperation at all and challenged ad nauseam right up to the November 2012 election. Certainly we can see even clearer now, how he intends to, and already is, by-passing our Congress at unprecedented levels for he knows his tenure is to be one term. Yes, the media will howl but we have no choice and have to hope that God will give the American public, one that polls show a high opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton, an increased level of discernment. The second is that the entire Progressive, Alinsky movement from Bill Clinton to the present has to be taken on for what it is, a Leftist movement now showing itself to pure Communist in it's DNA. The threat to America goes well beyond the current state of the economy and tying this election solely to that economy could be a mistake of monumental proportions for any one of a number of international events can take the focus away from the economy but none could take the focus away from what has already transpired in our nation's capital for the last two decades, a Leftist-even Communist movement, should we put that focus there right now. Essentially, my only advertising for this blog has been my bumper stickers which I can change daily with the topic of the blog. These last two are probably seen as over-dramatization, and that may even be an extreme understatement, but you may want to keep the URL for even a frog slowly being boiled in a pot eventually knows that he is in trouble and we in America are that proverbial frog watching the World Series and every other offering cable can give us as our nation is being handed over to this sharing, fair-minded and peace loving group that has a prod & whip in one hand and branding iron in the other.

Another excellent book on this topic is Dupes by Paul Kengor reviewed this past September 19th.

America Expiring?

2011-10-24T20:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, throughout much of America and possibly even most of it's churches, ordained ministers either climb into pulpits or stand behind lecterns to lead congregations in "worship" services. The original Hebrew and Greek will be deployed in some as well as pastoral helps of various kinds but mostly it will be a Christian variation of Oprah presented to the worshippers. Expensive sound systems will enliven the atmosphere and the results of lessens in elocution will be on display. The name of Jesus will be heard a few to a number of times , mostly as part of the message where the congregation can apply WWJD to their own life. Songs will be sung and either the choir or soloists will be given polite applause. It may be "pot luck" Sunday where little if any of the Christian faith will be discussed at the meal. If not, after services, each person will shake the hands of the minister before they leave the church building, dutifully fulfilling the "rite of worship" leaving them free to enjoy the football game or gather with family, confident that God's generous blessings of such has been earned for at least another week.

Meanwhile, the nation gasps for breath, wounded and bleeding, while wolves slowly pace back and forth looking for the right moment of total defenselessness to move in on their prey.

When a church has grown through invitations such as or similar to these: "A friendly, loving congregation" or "Come grow with us" the ensuing sermons must therefore fit the invitation or charges of "bait and switch" will follow and the sanctuary will need a swinging door. Neither these ministers, nor their congregations, know the folly they are engaged in for they either have nothing to compare it to or their one experience with a church that actually preached Christ crucified showed them exactly where they do not want to be. As de Tocqueville strongly implied, the strength of America was in it's pulpits and conversely today our weakness emanates from there too. God has given us foolish leaders; He is purposely allowing our defenses to decay and our prosperity to whither. He is giving us what we want and may not let us realize that it was "fool's gold" that we mined for until it is too late. Our one hope is in Him extending mercy to us one more time but imagine that as a Republican platform! There indeed was a great fish that swallowed a man only to vomit him alive on a shore, and that man went on to give a warning to Nineveh, the America of it's day. That nation heeded the warning but years later another man was sent to Nineveh and this time not with a warning but a proclamation of impending judgment. Our prayer today, in America, should be "God let us hear from Jonah and not Nahum but if it be Nahum, give us strength to go on." I doubt that most Christians would accept my message here for they have found a loving God who coincidentally requires of them exactly what they have provisioned to give, and folks like myself, and the many others who have been warning that a Trojan Horse of easy-believism has come into the church are to be pitied for missing the blessing that God is so desirous to give. My response to this is that the real blessing is knowing the extent of His mercy and the real pity is in the Christian church that adamantly refuses to even consider that it may be a Laodicean church. It was that word "Laodicean" that in May of 2009 a young American of Indian descent, Kavya Shivashankar, won the National Spelling Bee with. The definition she was given was "lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics." Its descriptive of American Christianity and politics, at least as far as anything beyond basics and beyond personal desires. Sit back and be satisfied with the state of the church and the church of state if you want but if you listen, there is a crescendo in a dirge rising over this land that we once loved, once protected and once attributed to the blessings of Almighty God.

The March/April issue of Modern Reformation (http://www.modernreformation.org/) included an article by a Christian leader in Africa, Rev. Fletcher Matandika titled An Open Letter To North American Churches. In it he describes American Christianity as "shallow, subjective and sentimental" and writes that as it is "incredibly harmful" as it is exported around the world. This article can be viewed by going to the website and putting the authors name in the Archives link and I encourage you to read it.

The Un-Occupied Mind

2011-10-18T00:47:00.000-04:00

Kids have a lot of energy and they need to have time to just go outside and run, and run they do even if it's just for the sake of running. If they don't get that opportunity they can sit there with a toy in their hand and arms swinging so wildly that you have to calm them down before they hurt themselves. Teens can do the dumbest things and even get into trouble if they haven't learned to expend their energy in ways that have a rhyme and reason to it. The college student's energy is different. It's an intellectual energy. Their minds need challenges of some sort. Unfortunately this is the unchallenged generation. It's a lot like mine was in the early 1970s. Matriculating to college had already told us that we were smarter than our parents who never went to college for they were too busy fighting Fascism and then working hard to build a prosperous life for us. What better way to expend this intellectual energy than carry a Communist flag and sit on a statue as we shut down one of the university buildings! It's not a whole lot different today. The iPhone that they can speak commands to is proof that they are smarter than their parents who are too busy watching Dancing With The Stars to notice anything anyway. So some of today's future leaders try to shut down Wall Street on the commands of the offspring of those Fascists that our grandparents opposed in order that we could eventually produce and purchase an iPhone. As the early 1970s commercial stated A mind is a terrible thing to waste. If they really wanted to protest for something worthwhile there are many ways that they could do it. They could protest at the university for using every trick in the book to get them to enroll only to feed them a diet of diversity. They could protest at their congressman's local office for taking an oath of office followed by an oath of loyalty to the most senior politicians who squeeze every ounce of independence out of them. They could protest at their local newspaper for grossly failing their profession of journalism. They could protest at a union hall whose international leadership looks absolutely no further than the name on the monthly dues check. They could protest at the church that has long since quit preaching on such unseemly subjects as blood, sin, judgement and redemption through Jesus Christ. They could protest at the EPA that has as much common sense as PETA, or at a politicized/racialist Justice Department, or the United States Senate that will not take up term limits, or the Treasury Department that mortgaged their future, or Google or Facebook that cares nothing about who they are and everything about where they spend their money. I would like to see one of the Republican candidates take up the issue of energy; not oil, coal, gas, nuclear and wind but the intellectual energy of the American people and how it is used. Students need dedicated teachers more than computers, for the "substitute" computers expend the most energy in that deal . Diversity breeds energy but breeding diversity aborts energy. A congressman's energy must begin upon inauguration instead of ending with it. A newspaper's energy is in the debate it spawns, a union's energy is in the independence it breeds and the church's energy emanates from an empty grave. The very people that the "occupier" claims to be protesting against are pulling their strings as puppet masters, and pulling the strings of the media who gently guides the protesters whereas with the Tea Party they searched with a fine tooth comb to find anything negative to report. Energy without discernment can lead to chaos, and remarkably, even for the cabal in the White House, this chaotic energy fueled by the greatest oppressors of the human intellect of all is egged on. We Christians in conservatism have often shown a lack of discernment. At times we have let emotion rule, or forgot where we came from, or we have been judgmental beyond what scripture allows and demands of us to be, or we have looked only to our own interests, and most importantly we walked away from bullworks in defense of the gospel to defend the freedoms and liberties that the very Benefactor of that gospel permitted. If there is a scripture verse to speak to us in our condition today, one of near collapse and subjection to tyranny, it might be in the word's of Paul in Philippians 3: 13,14 "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead! I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." If we fight these political and ideological forces with only our wits and even the law, we can succeed, but that victory would only bring a lesser form, albeit far lesser form, of pride and greed. On the other hand, if we as a people seek first to acknowledge God on His throne, He may grant us a return to our constitutional roots designed to protect against power, pride and greed. The Occupy movement is only one cog in the gears of a machine that is intent upon giving this world's elites control of what it considers the festering sore of God, honor and country. This blog is visited, stumbled upon is more accurate, from many countries around the world. Let them know that America is the last bastion for freedom and liberty and we may be torn apart from within but George Soros with all his money, radical Islam with all its hate, globalism with all its powerful influence, the deceit and false hope in Marxism and even that segment of our populace who cannibalizes its own strengths will shrink as the five petals of a violet in the gaze of the Creator of this Universe should He turn our minds back to Him with an energy totally generated by the "Sola" power of Christ "alone!"

Mitt Romney And The Evangelicals

2011-10-10T23:44:00.001-04:00

In response to the Mormonism controversy that surrounds Mitt Romney he made this statement in a speech. "I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind." That sounds, and indeed is, orthodox but orthodox only so far as the fifteen words go. Any additional information from Mormonism given to this statement would show that the Jesus Christ mentioned is a fictitious personage in total contradiction to who Jesus Christ is. The average American knows Mormonism through the television commercials of attractive, normal, successful people who complete the commercial with "My name is........and I am a Mormon. The young Mormon who comes to your door will give an equally insufficient description of the Mormon faith as he/she proselytizes. You can research Mormonism easily through either the Internet or any major bookstore. What you will find is a new religion, founded by a man who exalted himself, and grown through others who took him at his false word. The liberal Christian (not necessarily the Christian who is politically liberal) knows little or nothing of the faith he proclaims and considers Mormonism perfectly acceptable. The average Evangelical considers Mormonism a cult and is fairly knowledgeable of the numerous, egregiously errant and patently absurd teachings of Mormonism that rarely, if ever, see the light of day in the news media or from the door-to-door missionary. The Christian who has spent his time continuously learning the Christian faith knows Mormonism first and foremost as the proclamation of another Jesus for he knows the Jesus Christ of Scripture. This third group will not vote for Mitt Romney, for his election to the most powerful and influential position in the world would, in effect, be a free pass for every Mormon missionary in this world into the homes they visit on their rounds. Michele Bachmann said the issue is "inconsequential" and in this general election it probably would be. It would take the loss of almost every Evangelical vote in America to give Barack Obama a chance at reelection. Where Mitt Romney's Mormonism is not politically inconsequential is in the primaries. Surely Mr. Romney knows the issues involved, surely Glenn Beck does. What they do not know is the unbridgeable gulf between Christianity and Mormonism for they have no idea what Christianity is or anything of who the Son of God is and why He came to live amongst us nor what His death, resurrection and ascension to the Father accomplished. I have written a few times on Mitt Romney. He is a likable and decent individual, as are the many Mormons that I know, but he, and they, do not realize the enormity of what is asked of the Christian. The Republican establishment cannot fathom this issue and consequently is highly critical of anyone who would not vote for a Mormon, as are a number of those who I highly respect. The media loves the issue for obvious reasons. It would be good if it had not presented itself, but it has. If Mormonism were just another religion it would be somewhat of a different story but Mormonism claims to be Christian, uses the name of Jesus Christ and has incorporated enough similar language and biblical concepts to effectively deceive multitudes. It does not openly deny Jesus Christ, rather it presents a stand-in, a counterfeit, which is worse than denial. Mitt Romney may indeed become our next President and if he does I'll give him all the respect due the office. On the surface it may appear that this whole issue may hurt the Republican party but the consequences may reach much farther than elections and governments. Much of the contemporary Christian church terribly needs meat in its Sunday pre-game meal. If the ensuing church discussion on Mitt Romney can go further than the tangential doctrines, serious and absurd as they are, then the church may be introduced anew to the Saviour it proclaims, in all His glory, majesty and power. It, the controversy, is not a recipe one would order up, and may even on the surface seem detrimental to our hopes for this nation, but it may be one that God might have brought forth to wake us up on the eternally more important issues than even freedom and liberty. The following is a portion of a blog that I wrote on November 15th of 2009. The ultimate answer to America's ills is not in the right answers from a candidate, nor is it in understanding the counterfeit gospels, but rather in hearing the genuine, having Christ and Him crucified preached every Lord's Day, yet we continue to seek our sustenance from a political platform without going to the pulpit and saying.....

More Food Sir!

The following is a paragraph from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist where the boys who lived at the workhouse were issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and a half a roll on Sundays. The boys cast lots and Oliver was chosen to ask for a second portion of food. Here are Dickens' words: "The evening arrived; the boys took their place. the master, in his cook's uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered themselves, and winked at Oliver; while his neighbors nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at this own temerity; 'Please sir, I want some more food.' There have been times, in the past, when I have gone up to a pastor after the sermon and essentially said the same thing, 'more food sir!' There are many throughout Christian churches in this country who are malnourished....the problem becomes even more pronounced in that the vast majority of those who do not hear the gospel, do not even know it.

Pelosi Math?

2011-10-08T01:42:00.002-04:00

The following is a dramatization of the many talks that I have had with friends who are part of the "28%" of Americans who would vote for Barack Obama again even if he went to Moscow and prayed before the sarcophagus of V. I. Lenin:

Earl and I go way back. We met in college and wound up working for the same company. I saw him become more and more successful over the years, buying a new and bigger house twice, and he saw me become "religious" and then "conservative." We still get together socially a few times a year, we see each other every day at work, and we also have been on the same 50 & Over company basketball team for a few years. There was a time, maybe twenty or so years ago, when we could discuss the issues of the day but things have slowly deteriorated. He says it's because I started listening to conservative talk radio and I respond that it's because he reads nothing but the sports pages. So I try not to talk politics but that disconnect seems to be spreading into other areas. Take today for example; it was our first league game. It's good exercise and a lot of fun. After showering, Earl and I were headed to our vehicles when we ran into another friend. He and Earl swapped stories on their investments and Earl was asked how the basketball was going. He gave a rundown on our team and commented "My free throw percentage is 80 percent." I pondered this in the few steps to our cars and here is how the following conversation went, which is very similar to most of our political talks:

Me:     Uh, hey Earl. I was wondering....what did you mean when you told Fred that your free throw shooting
           percentage was 80 percent?

Earl:    What do you mean? It is 80 percent.

Me:     Earl, today was our first game. You shot two free throws, and missed them both!

Earl:    That's right...80 percent.

We were parked next to each other and as I unlocked my car, half considering just leaving it at that but I couldn't do it and continued:

Me:     Earl, zero for two is zero percent.

Earl:    Maybe in your world Tom but most people figure their percentages in multiples of ten rather than gettin'
          into decimal points.

I now had the door open and was so close to escaping Earl's logic...but no...

Me:     Earl, I'm just a farm boy who come to the big city. Explain your math to me.

Earl:    Look, if I take two more free throws and miss them both...what would my percentage be?

Me:     Ah....zero percent.

Earl:    You know you listen to talk radio too much. It would be 60 percent.

Me:     60 percent?

Earl:     Right, and if I take two more and miss them it would be 20 percent.

Me:      20 percent?

Earl:     Follow me on this Tom. I know that you conservatives don't like to think about anything that Rush
           Limbaugh didn't talk about that day but give it a try. If I then take two more free throws.... and miss
           them...what would my percentage be?

I was beyond frustrated

Me:      Oh let's see. Zero for ten...carry the two...minus two.....

Earl:      Come on Tom answer me!

I took a deep breath.

Me:      Zero percent Earl.

His hands shot up in the air and he shouted:

Earl:      Did you hear what you just said? Zee..roo percent! I would have to miss eight more free throws to get
             to zero percent!

This is the logic used in all of our talks about Barack Obama, the world, the economy etc... If I thought that he was doing it on purpose it would be one thing, but this is the way his mind works. I opened the car door, shrugged and asked one more question.

Me:       Earl....you are o for ten and your free throw percentage is zero...right?

Earl:      Right....won't ever happen though.

Me:       OK. You shoot two more free throws and are now 2 for 12. What's your percentage?

Earl:      90 percent!

I thought about it and saw where he was coming from, in Fannie Mae kind of way.

Me:       See ya at work tomorrow Earl.

Earl, shouting as I closed the car door:

Earl:      You conservatives don't like it when your proven wrong do you!

As an afterthought, If he was questioned after praying at the sarcophagus of Lenin, he would probably respond:

             What of it? He was my favorite Beatle!

Happy Valley

2011-10-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

I spent today walking around the Penn State campus, tagging along with my wife to State College while she was attending a conference. I'm a people person, interested in talking to a homeless person as much as a doctor or a bank president and although I didn't have any conversations it was interesting enough just to observe the students. Campuses haven't changed much since the early 70s when I was at Pitt. Students are in constant motion on their way to or from class. There's not a whole lot of smiles unless they are on the cell phone or walking with a friend. I found myself wondering what the few who met my eyes might have thought, "Is he a professor, with his pipe and book bag, or a 60 year old trying to finally get his degree?" There's not much difference in the clothes they wear, jeans and a sweatshirt with any one of a variety of Penn State logos on them and a book bag strapped on their back. No, there's not a whole lot changed in the appearance of the students, only the world around them, for this is not the 1970s. They still must feel that exhilaration of freedom, not the constitutional kind but the personal freedom of being away from parental guidance. I would guess that their biggest worry, beyond excelling at their courses, would be the availability of jobs when they graduate. They hear the headlines which can be summed up with "recession to continue, or a possible depression ahead," but the essence of the challenges they will face is not in the newspaper or on the television but in the history books that some of them have read in those courses. The Communist of today does not have the burden of Stalin to lug around and the Fascist actually attacks the comically mustachioed Hitler and claims Thomas Jefferson as a hero. It's going to take a lot of discernment to navigate the shoals today in something simple as reading a newspaper. Our son and daughter-in-law are in this situation also. It's not an easy thing to write about and doesn't exactly get me new friends. I won't let it go because I know the possible remedy, and I know the reason that we are where we are, and have written about it throughout this blog. To the typical college student, it would probably be somewhat incomprehensible. This culture is all that they have known and they have been assured that it is really no more rebellious than previous ones, but that assurance is false. There is indeed something new in that we no longer hide our disbelief, or our ungratefulness to God who has blessed this nation with its very existence, given it every necessary ability, protected it from powerful evil forces, had patience with its national sins and provided it with every opportunity to hear the Gospel. Many of our institutions mock belief in God today. Our news media seems to take glee in reporting anything that bolsters man's sovereignty and not God's. Our education system bars its doors and our higher education system is on a mission to destroy belief in Him. Whole denominations challenge His Word and reject His authority. Our government now aggressively and openly legislates against His laws. So, given my opinions on this, what is a college student to do? I did the college scene myself. Please consider what I have to say. Every experience, every piece of knowledge gained, every new friend acquired, every building block set for a financially secure future and every bit of laughter and fun, pleasant as they are, are not equal to one glimpse of the majesty of Jesus Christ. All the knowledge in the world is not as valuable as that contained in that book that refuses to go away, or be shoved aside, or watered down. There is a mentor for you whose wisdom is perfect, a guidance counselor who never errs, a friend who will be there in the most difficult of situations. Take Him with you into the classrooms, on the intramural fields and at your residence. The easier way is to ignore him. In more normal times one might expect many years, even decades, of blissful ignorance but what is happening around the world will most likely preclude the option of blissful ignorance. It is not an easy path but it will not take long before you know that it is the only path, and you will sing, along with the rest of us:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me...
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first bellieved.

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come,
was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun

America Unravelling

2011-10-01T01:17:00.000-04:00

In 1952 Vice President Harry Truman announced that he would not seek another term after losing the New Hampshire primary to Senator Estes Kefauver. Early primaries have often taken on more importance than the size of the states would indicate. It was March 31st, 1968 and I was standing at the counter of Ted's Dairy and Variety store, watching the small portable television as President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek the nomination for another term. It had been less than three weeks since Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy came within seven percentage points to the incumbent President in the New Hampshire primary and two weeks since New York Senator Robert Kennedy announced that he was in the race also. Things have changed in choosing our candidates for President. In 2010 the Republican Party made some changes to the 2012 primary season. The first few primaries will split up and distribute delegates in proportion to the vote. The later primaries will be winner take all. Today, Florida changed its primary date to January 31st. Four other states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina will move their primaries or caucuses much earlier into January, possibly as early as January 2nd. If this happens, the Iowa caucuses will take place during the fervour of the college football bowl games and weeks before the Super Bowl. A report today states that Iowa may even move their caucuses as far back as December. This movement of primaries, aside from the inanity of it and the unravelling of common sense, puts additional pressure on potential candidates who have not entered the race as of yet. Grand plans are being made in the strategy rooms of Republican politics at this time. Some are trying to insure that an acceptable establishment candidate wins the nomination. Others are making chess moves hoping to propel their dark horse candidate. The Tea Party took a bishop and a rook in the 2010 elections and the Republican ecclesia are merely countering with a gambit. It's said that an established and experienced organization is necessary to win a nomination along with plenty of financial backing. Until it is statistically impossible for South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint to enter this race I will continue to support him but I don't blame him a bit for hesitating and maybe deciding not to run, for our next President will have challenges not even Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt faced. Most Americans have no clue as to the hammer being raised against us at this time. The reality show, the dance competition, the sporting event and others in a myriad of diversions have lulled us to sleep. We have succumbed to whatever it was that other empires succumbed to before their fall, the Facebook culture possibly being the final nail in the coffin, and the Twitter phenomenon leading the future of this generation into oblivion. As the story is told, one version of it anyway, Confederate General Bernard Bee's third brigade was in retreat at the first battle of Bull Run or Manassas when he yelled to his men Look, there stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians! Jackson was Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson. If Jim DeMint decides to run for President he would be determined and solid as a stone wall and I'll rally behind him, for that is what we need in leadership right now, but we seriously err if we exalt the heroics of either side in the Civil War and do not realize that it was a plague brought upon us because we forgot Him who established us, blessed us and sustained us. We paid in blood for the chaos in our society, both north and south. Today we are not only far more rebellious of a society but have added blasphemy to that charge and offered our children up on the altar of convenience. No election will help, no candidate will be a savior, and no nation will succeed or even survive without Jesus Christ as its King. These should be days of trepidation but we are much too sophisticated for that. Our Sundays should be times of worship or at least humble meditation but the NFL has long since pushed God to pre-game entertainment. And we wonder why America is unravelling.

Absurdly Lenient

2011-09-26T21:51:00.001-04:00

An article in today's New York Times by Mathew Avery Sutton titled "Why The Antichrist Matters In Politics," warns its readers about that small but influential segment of Christianity that believes this is the End Times. He is correct in some of his assumptions. "End-times prophesy," as it is most often referred to, did enter mainstream Christianity with a roar around a hundred years ago and that among the causes were "Biblical criticism, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, evolutionary science and World War I." He also is correct in describing biblical concerns about "the consolidation of independent nations into one superstate led by a seemingly benevolent leader promising world peace" but he takes these two oak beams and proceeds to build a house around them constructed of balsa wood. Politics is the topic of this Op-Ed piece, not Christian doctrine. It is implied that the Conservative Christian's concern with Barack Obama is similar to the Fundamentalist's concern with Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. Anti-statist Christians are once again lining up with Libertarians against the good guys! Mr. Sutton concludes his piece with "Barring the rapture, Mrs. Bachmann or Mr. Perry could well ride the apocalyptic anti-statism of conservatism into the oval office. Indeed, the tribulation may be upon us." (emphasis mine) It's the "politics" aspect of the piece that I would like to respond to. Mr. Sutton writes, "For some evangelicals, President Obama is troubling. The specious theories about his place of birth, his internationalist tendencies, his measured support for Israel and his Nobel Prize fit the long-held expectations about the Antichrist. So does his commitment to expanding the reach of government in areas like health care." Whether the author realizes it or not the concerns from Christians (and many others) on these issues are primarily on the secular subject of tyranny, and in my case, rehashed, renamed Communism. The word "troubling" does not near adequately describe the concerns. "Impeachable offenses" is closer. The theories about his birth, or least his real birth certificate, are not specious. It may take years but we will one day know why he went to such extremes and expensive measures to obfuscate this issue. George Bush had "internationalist tendencies, "Barack Obama is well beyond this and it is his desire to bring America's capabilities, both economic and military, down where other pernicious ideologies can dominate that is the issue. "Measured support" for Israel is simply an absurdly lenient description, for he has placed our ally in greater peril than it has ever been. As for his Nobel Prize, it is as absurd today as the day they gave it to him, and this to the conservative Christian, the Libertarian and the Tea Partier as any rational thinking academic. As for "expanding reach of government," his ever expanding group of Czars that circumvents our Congress, his executive orders that do the same, his politicized Justice Department, campaign promise fulfilling stimulus monies, golf addiction while other nations burn the midnight oil to overtake us and rampant corruption in his dealings with political cronies are just some of the things that the conservative Christian the Libertarian and the Tea Party are so vehemently opposed to. It has been my contention, and I have written about it before, that Christianity is the despised foe of Progressivism, Radical Liberalism and Marxism. Those on the periphery, the subjects of this article, are opposed so ferociously to divert attention from their own needs of a Savior. As for the "last days" no amount of ridicule can stop or even delay them and it is not Israel or any world government that makes the Christian say "maranatha" but the visible evidence of a world in chaos and one that has the ability to bring about what the Bible prophesied.

Hot Buttons...Redux

2011-09-22T23:02:00.006-04:00

According to the "statistics" on this website, a blog that I wrote on July 10th of last year has been the most often visited. I thought that I would republish it for it's even more pertinent and prescient today than it was then!

Viewing on an iPhone is a little better on "web version."

Hot Buttons:

Joey:              Hey Gramps!
Gramps:         Hi Joey. And for what reason do I have for this pleasure?
Joey:              I was wondering if you would do me a favor and help with a school project?
Gramps:         Sure. What is it?
Joey:              Well, it's for my Civics class. Mr. Horton's assignment is to ask three people their opinions on
                       who was America's best President and who was the worst. They have to be from three
                       different age groups, for instance I can have one young, one middle age and one elderly.
Gramps:          I'm in. Who are you getting for the young person and the elderly person?
Joey:               Uh....Well I asked Uncle Tim...and I asked Jimmy Jones who graduated a few years ago.
Gramps:        Hmmmmm. So that makes me...the...uh...el..derly?
Joey:               Well, yeah...elderly or senior citizen I guess.
Gramps:         Joey. I'm 59 and 3/4 years old. Did you know that Gordie Howe played professional hockey
                       until he was 51 years old?
Joey:              Gordie who?
Gramps:        Not "who," Howe.
Joey:               How what?
Gramps:        Never mind.
Joey:             Wow! you knew a lot about sports when you were young.
Gramps:        So do you just want me to name the Presidents?
Joey:               Well, you're supposed to give your thoughts on why you chose them.
Gramps:       That's a cinch....what do you mean "when I was young?" Did you know that Tom Watson, he's
                       five months older than me by the way, led most of the way in last year's U. S. Open?
Joey:              Was that the "Senior" league?
Gramps:         No that wasn't the Seeenior league! Well, hey anyway, if there there's things I got to give, it's
                       opinions, opinions and opinions.
Joey:               Great. I've got a recorder here so you can just talk and I'll write down your answers later.
Gramps:         OK, here we go. By the way. Did you know that Grandma Moses didn't start painting until
                       she was in her 70s? That's 7...zero...70s!
Joey:               Was she my great-grandma?
Gramps:          No. Never mind. You know, I was thinking. The name "Gramps" makes one sound old....
                      now you can't really call me Wilbur?
Joey:             Did you have a nickname when you were...uh...real... real young?
Gramps:          Well, yeah. They called me "bolthead" because I liked to fix cars so much.
Joey:              Bolt......head?
Gramps           Not, bolt......head, Bolthead. The girls loved it!
Joey:               So you want me to call you Grandpa Bolthead?
Gramps:        Let's just forget it. Back to this assignment...take a seat and fasten your seat belt for you
                       hit on two hot buttons today.
Joey:               Hey, you got a lot of "hot buttons." How about if I call you "Hot Buttons?"
Gramps:          Hot Buttons huh? Yeah, that'll work.
Joey:               Did my dad have a nickname when he was young?
Hot Buttons:   Yes he did but I think that he should be the one who tells you...if he wants to. OK, here we
                      go...cough, cough...ah-hem! I've actually thought about this before. My vote for the greatest
                      President was the Gipper.
Joey:              The what?
Hot buttons:   The Gipper!. You mean that you didn't know that Ronald Reagan's nickname was "the Gipper?"
                      Well let me tell you something else that you may not know. Reagan was a couple of weeks
                      short of 70 years old, that's 7...zero...70, when he was inaugurated our 40th president. Anyway
                      I look at three areas when trying to make a choice like this. How did the economy do during his
                      his presidency, how about our foreign policy and national defense...and was the American public
                      changed in any way while he was in office? On the economy...America prospered, primarily due
                      to tax cuts for the American people, after the malaise of the Carter Administration. Do you know
                      what "malaise" means?
Joey:              No!
Hot Buttons: Neither do I but put it in anyway...it sounds good. Anyway, Reagan strengthened our military,
                      that and our growth was a death knell for the Soviet Union. As for the "spirit" of Americans...
                     his words, always beautiful and profound... inspired, they motivated, they instilled a confidence in
                    in the people, they melted even his strongest detractors. He was the quintessential example of
                    leadership. Do you know what "quintessential" means?
Joey:              Yeah.
Hot Buttons:   Good. Tell me later. So that's my choice for our greatest President. As for the worst? Joey... this is
                      sad in talking about for it's our current President. I knew from the beginning that I disagreed with
                      his policies but I wasn't prepared for what transpired, and it continues almost every day. The
                      bailouts, admittedly started by his predecessor, and the stimulus packages that put us so deeply
                      in debt that we will never overcome this burden, the attack on "business" in general that appears
                      to come from deep inward hostility towards America's worldwide economic prowess, and
                      the taxation that will make "all" Americans totally dependent on what their government allows,
                      these things, and others, make him America's worst President on our economy. The national
                      defense and foreign policy is even worse, if possible. Our longstanding advantage in military
                      capabilities is being eroded. Aircraft and navies of governments who are not friends of ours, are
                      catching up and may surpass us. Our allies are on "pins and needles" as they try to determine
                      what we will do in an emergency. Lastly, the American public has become two peoples in one
                      nation, one still resembling America's heritage and the other being cast in the European mold, and
                      even the worst of that mold! This President plays to our weaknesses instead of challenging us
                      to analyse. He's undoing all that Martin Luther King accomplished. He lumps honest dissenters
                      in with terrorists and lumps terrorists in with honest Muslims. And we are only 18 months into his
                      term! Well...that's about it.
Joey:              Thanks a lot Hot Buttons. I'll tell my dad how much you helped me. He's the one that
                      recommended you for the el...der...ly person.
Hot Buttons:   Squiggy!
Joey:              Squiggy?
Hot Buttons:   Yeah...Squiggy. That was your dad's nick-name. Tell Squiggy that Hot Buttons says "You're
                      welcome!"

What Will It Take?

2011-09-20T23:41:00.000-04:00

A little explanation is necessary on yesterday's blog. I would never belong to a Tic-Tac-Toe team that plays on Wednesdays for I am always sitting in front of the television watching Middle at 8 o'clock on that evening. Tic-Tac-Toe (I hope that's the last time I have to type that) is more of an exercise for children than a game and that is precisely what establishment politics has relegated our electoral process to. I haven't watched one minute of any of the Republican debates thus far. For one thing, it's way to early for any campaign to be in full swing, for another, these candidates are in primary mode where they play to various factions and will moderate in the general election and then pragmatize if and when they take office. The latest farce cast upon the American public is the President's job bill which has to be passed right now even though there is no bill as of yet and one probably won't even be discussed in Congress until next month. If ever there is a bill passed, the reality of it will be nothing like how it was advertised. Spending cuts will either never happen or the monies will be taken from one pocket and slipped into another. It's been a number of years since I first had the opportunity to watch C-Span but the images of that particular vote on the Senate floor stays with me like the smell of skunk on an overly adventurous dog. Senators who had played to the television interviewer the previous day in somber and serious tones were laughing and yucking it up on the Senate floor as the tedious process of a vote took place. With few exceptions, it seems like a game to these folks but a game where no one wants to win anything of real value. It's too often an exercise for the benefit of a watching constituency but there was a breath of fresh air that waffed through Capitol Hill last year and the senior members of Congress are not exactly thrilled that the stench of musty backrooms is not the atmosphere where all the decisions are being made. If these Senators and Congresspersons truly understood the severity of the situation our nation finds itself in (some surely do) they would throw pragmatism to the wind and fight to save what is left of our chances but the Old Guard holds the keys as it now stands. There is no bill that could possibly be concocted that could undue the damage that George Bush ill-conceivably purchased the ground for and Barack Obama built a monstrosity upon. Our national defense is suffering from a lack of leadership at he worst possible time in our history. Corruption is rampant in the Executive Branch and a pernicious ideology still deleteriously invades the thinking processes of many Americans who are bereft of where this ideology originates. I will reiterate what I said quite a while ago that being that Barack Obama knows very well that he is a one-term president. What is new since then is that not even a third party candidate could siphon off enough votes to reelect him. With all due respect to most of the current Republican candidates trying to unseat him, unless they throw away accepted campaign theories and lay the dire prognosis before the American people, they will quite simply be the person in the White House upon America's demise. Another sight that I try not to see but the newspapers always provide us with is the line-up of candidates on the platform after the debate, all smiling and waving to who knows what. I want to see a candidate who finds a clock on the wall somewhere to stare at until that nonsense photo-op is over, or one who immediately departs the stage to carry on with the business of awakening America. What will it take for the American people to wake up? Well I'll answer that. It will take an act of God which should behoove every one of us to prostrate ourselves, rend our garments and plead for mercy.

Politic-Tac-Toe

2011-09-19T21:50:00.000-04:00

I belong to a Tic-Tac-Toe team that meets and competes every Wednesday evening at Poppy's Bar and Grill. We are sponsored by our Republican Party and our game shirts are purple. Poppy's Bar and Grill has a 48" Tic-Tac-Toe screen hanging on the wall...reserved for us every Wednesday. This is our 23rd year in the league. We've come in 1st place every one of those years. Well, tied for 1st place that is. Actually, we have also come in tied for last place every one of those years for no one has ever won a game and consequently no one has ever lost a game. You might think that this is boring but the tension is palpable and the stress lingers well after the match. The more conservative players start with the X in the center square but there are those rogues who place that X on one of the side squares. I was fortunate to get a spot on this team when I did for nowadays members are very particular in who they let play with them. There are Tic-Tac-Toe leagues in every state of the union and they are regulated by the Tic-Tac-Toe Association located on First Street SE in Washington D. C., which is itself regulated by the International Tic-Tac-Toe Organization in the Netherlands. You might be surprised by the number of famous people whose passion was Tic-Tac-Toe. Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the founding members and it is said that the rigor of the game drove him mad. Sigmund Freud is known to have sat in on many matches to observe but never played. The only famous personality known to ever lose a game was Franklin Roosevelt at a tournament in the Ukranian city of Yalta. In more recent times former President Jimmy Carter was a national champion, well...tied for it anyway with everyone else, and actually teaches a weakly bible study on correlating faith to Tic-Tac-Toe. Former Vice-President Al Gore laid claim to "once winning 57 straight games-one more than Joe DiMaggio"...I think that he's a little bit confused here and no one has ever witnessed a victory anyway. Strangely, in his film An Inconvenient Truth he claims that he invented the game. David Axelrod was a formidable player but has been barred since caught cheating. He placed two X's on the board before his opponent had a chance to put on an O. It's rumored that Barack Obama played in his early years before Bill Ayers advised him to quit, for all international players are identified by their nationality and for some reason his was listed as Kenyan. Karl Rove never played the game but is a fearsome coach who hounds his own players out of the game if they don't, according to him, "Tic-Tac-Toe the line." There are numerous books written on Tic-Tac-Toe strategies of which I'll recommend two: Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman's The Only Gambit where he is so confident of his hypothesis that he recommends "mortgage your house, quit your job, close out your 401K and bet it all that you will win," and Saul Alynsky's Rules For Politic-Tac-Toers." Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that "Tic-Tac-Toe is not for girly-men." Personally, I have to admit, I'm tired of playing Tic-Tac-Toe. All I seem to do is send in my monthly membership fees and wonder where the money is going. I may go back to Chess...or pool... where there is at least a chance of winning a game.

Dupes!

2011-09-15T20:08:00.001-04:00

The relationship between the American Progressive and Communism has always been a dysfunctional one, the Progressive longing for someone to look to as a hero and the Communist not only abusing that adulation but sneering at those so gullible as to think that there is anything compassionate or caring about them. The Communist knew the extraordinary weaknesses of the liberal American mind and has taken advantage of it from the beginning, for a century now! It has a new face today, hiding behind a semi-capitalist veil, for it retreated and reinvented its outward appearance. This generation will never be able to say that they were not told, not warned, for the evidence is everywhere if only we would look. I've reported on more than a dozen outstanding books on the deteriorating condition of our nation and its causes in this blog of almost three years but none of secular content more needed than the one I put before you today. I do not believe that any liberal can read this book and not be concerned that they may have been duped. One might very well read a chapter and then throw the book away, or skim it and not accept its message but if one reads this book through they will view our political landscape differently. The title of the book is Dupes, How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives For A Century. I'm very familiar with the author for I had read a few of his previous books and although I admired him as a Professor of Political Science at Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania, one of America's finest colleges, I did not know that he had it in him to produce such a monumentally important work, with such clarity, and systematized in such a way to take the reader on a trip through American history and awaken him in the process. Professor Kengor filleted the meat of Communist propaganda so expertly as to expose the rotten flesh and release the stench that permeates liberal politics, higher education and the mainstream media. You have to read this book...if you care about America. A blurb from Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute says the same thing: "Face it. You are going to have to read this book." Why...so that you can show your knowledge of Communism in some future conversation? No, rather that you can read it and weep and hopefully sound your own alarm in that future conversation. In another blurb, Fred Barnes wrote that it left him "amazed and a bit frightened." The Weekly Standard's Barnes has been sounding an alarm for decades yet it still made him a bit frightened! Reading the book was a culmination of research that I had already been doing, that the Communist has reappeared in America in a new guise, and yet I was dumbfounded by the volume of evidence and not a little disappointed in being reminded of my own history of being duped in the late 1970s. Kengor is going to take you back to September of 1919 in Chicago where Communism first began its assault on the American mind. You will see the essence of class hatred in it from its beginnings and recognize the tactic from the Left today. You will see one celebrity or person of note after another taken in by the lies, many waking up later, angry and indignant. Even the most ardent admirer of Franklin Roosevelt will have to reassess that admiration as Roosevelt was taken in by Uncle Joe Stalin thanks to the leftists all around him. Read and weep at how much of our media was not only taken in but even today ridicules those who are not duped. Will they have the character to admit they were wrong, if and when they also awaken, as many of their predecessors did? You will see heroes and you will see buffoons who were, and are, very useful idiots for Communism, and too many who were out-and-out traitors. You will see how Hollywood was used, many of the biggest names duped. Compare this to the stars of today while you read. And you will see Ronald Reagan as a liberal Democrat and head of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, admittedly himself duped for a time, and recognize his courage and greatness on display even then! No one made this man and he was no late bloomer. Communism has a new face but the essence remains the same, for God is still banished and revolutions are still started, as despicably as ever, through hatred and propaganda. Lying is as common as breathing. One class is pitted against another. Educators are still sought for their influence on the youth. Unions are still infiltrated as are the arts. College students are intellectually brutalized and the news media is still wooed with dreams that they might actually be more important than the news they report. The SDS mentality (Students for a Democratic Society) that the Communist so effectively used against our military's efforts in Vietnam is alive in many of its former leaders who have grown up, quite naturally to become college and university professors, and in the case of Bill Ayers, prepare their comrades, and those they mentor, to run for elective office, even the presidency. Communism is alive but not well because it can only remain beneath the surface for so long until the rains of tyranny expose the caskets of dead ideas, tyrants and false promises. Paul Kengor lays it out very clearly for the reader how lies told about George Bush's intentions is Iraq and how accusations of a warmongering, racist, America that has lured the college student, the idle and the malcontent over the past thirty years, are just reheated deceptions dusted off from older Communist scripts where only the names have changed. Who is Frank Marshall Davis and why was the media silent on this Communist mentor to our current President? Why is Jimmy Carter still a dupe? How was Edward Kennedy, who I had volunteered for, one of the biggest dupes of all? One need not be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party to be a Communist as Kengor points out, and one can think of themselves as a patriot and yet be a prize dupe. Kengor says that they will continue to call us scare mongers and McCarthyite fanatics but this is just another tried and true tactic from the bowels of Moscow's Comintern. He concludes his book with these thoughts: "The most mordant irony for the liberals who lend cover is that while they laugh at the anti-Communists, they seem to have no idea that the loudest howls have always emanated from the Communists who take them as dupes: gullible fools to be used to advance the Communist cause."

Before Whom Angels Bow !!!

2011-09-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

The Puritan had a way of praying that either makes a hearer today sit in humble introspection at the content of our own prayers or dismiss them as reflection of a people in need of some kind of assurance. The latter being somewhat of irony for the Puritans prayed that way because of their extreme assurance in the sovereignty of an Almighty God who has made a way of salvation so miraculous, so marvelous, so merciful that it can defy explanation to even the Christian mind. Thirty-five years ago Arthur Bennett edited a book of Puritan prayers that has moved many, many Christians, I being just one. I have included some of these prayers throughout the almost three years of this blog and want to give you another today. I encourage you to invest in this book if only to read one prayer a day to hold our feet to what is humility, reverance and joy in prayer. The title is The Valley Of Vision and can be ordered from Amazon or any bookstore:

Lord of Immortality,

Before whom angels bow and archangels veil their faces,
enable me to serve thee with reverence and godly fear.
Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts,
help me to worship thee in spirit and in truth.
Thou who art righteous,
let me not harbour sin in my heart,
or indulge in a worldly temper,
or seek satisfaction in things that perish.
I hasten towards an hour
when earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain,
when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor,
successful or disappointed,
admired or despised.
But it will be of eternal moment that I have
mourned for sin,
hungered and thristed after righteousness,
gloried in his cross.
May these objects engross my chief solicitude!
Produce in me those principles and dispositions
that make thy service perfect freedom.
Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame,
so that with firmness and courage I may
confess the Redeemer before men,
go forth with him bearing his reproach,
be zealous with his knowledge,
be filled with his wisdom,
walk with his circumspection,
ask counsel of him in all things,
repair to the Scriptures for his orders,
stay my mind on his peace,
knowing that nothing can befall me
without his permission, appointment
and administration.

Flight 93 National Memorial

2011-09-10T23:35:00.000-04:00

Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton were gone by the time my wife and I arrived at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania today. The ceremonies were concluding and the families of the heroes from Flight 93 individually walked from the memorial wall, down the path where Flight 93 made impact. As they were departing they walked through the midst of the crowd of roughly 4,000 to gentle, sustained, respectful and heartfelt applause. Part of the crowd spontaneously, and softly, broke out into America The Beautiful. Flight 93 National Memorial Park is roughly 15-20 minutes off of the Somerset exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I'm sure that many will add this stop to their travel agenda. I didn't need to hear the words from the speakers on the dais, moving as I'm sure they were, for I just wanted to be in the spot, or as close to it, to where this remarkable group of people struck back at terrorism before the terrorist's day of infamy was even over, very similar to those pilots who got off of the ground at Pearl Harbor before Tojo's planes could leave the islands. What happened on that flight, and the aftermath of it, could never have been envisioned by the terrorist minds involved. As the crowds were waiting for buses to take them back to the parking areas, I had the grand idea of walking up and over the field, meeting up to the road and then back to Route 30 where our car was parked on the berm of the road. A couple miles into the forced march back I had regretted subjecting my wife to this trek and we still had a couple of miles to go. The line-up of departing automobiles was long and slow and at times we walked faster than they inched along, As one vehicle with two men inside passed, the driver asked if we wanted a ride. I'm the type that if I was stranded on a deserted island and a cruise ship spotted me and tried to rescue me I would say, "Only if I can work for my fare," but I looked over at my wife and then said "thank-you very much." The driver offered us a fruit drink as it was bumper to bumper out of the park but a great relief to us and we asked these two men a few questions on where they were from and why they had come. They were two of the four children of Flight 93 passenger Joseph Driscoll whose widow and many other family members were in other vehicles. I realized that they were probably emotionally spent and tired themselves but I did ask some questions about that fateful day and they very politely replied. One of the sons had been working in the World Trade Center only the day before the attacks and vividly described the scene on the New York City streets. His father would have been in the air on Flight 93 at that time. How typical of what I had heard of these families of the Flight 93 heroes, that they reached out to help others after they themselves were hurt and here they were doing it again on this special day.

Troublemaker !!!

2011-09-07T23:52:00.002-04:00

Feudal lords in the upper echelons of the Republican Party treated Delaware Republicans as vassals as they worked against the candidacy of Christine O'Donnell while labelling her a troublemaker. How dare her challenge their dictates and not only run for the United States Senate from Delaware but beat their handpicked candidate in the primary! O'Donnell titled her newly released book Troublemaker and I highly recommend it to you. She is not only the essence of the Tea Party but also of the overall resurgence of conservative America. America's political transformation is in full swing now and it was jump-started by women.... mothers who were not going to turn their children over to the state, and the Christine O'Donnells who showed the feminists what real womanhood was. I don't have the exact quote before me for I quickly passed her book on, but it was essentially this: Mike Castle, her primary opponent in Delaware, brushed off her challenge to him this way "She has no money, no organization...all she has is her principles." South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has a seat amongst these same feudal lords and they don't particularly like it. A recent CNN report quoted him in "I don't have the support inside Washington or even inside my own party." The report continued "DeMint took hits from leaders in his own party when Republican incumbents and establishment-favored candidates were brought down by his tea party favorites. This summer, he proved to be one of the most intransigent members of Congress, refusing any compromise with the Obama administration in debt-ceiling negotiations." DeMint is quoted again in, "I was lectured in front of the whole Republican Conference saying, 'DeMint, you don't understand how this place works. It's not about principle, it's about the numbers.' " Thomas Jefferson wrote "In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current." Principle is when the corporate executive resigns rather than swim with the current. It's when the incumbent says "If I lose, then I'll go out and get a real job once again." It's when the teacher says "My primary pension is the responsible citizens who were taught in my classroom." It's the minister who says "I preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." It's the editor who says "My job is to inform not instruct." Abraham Lincoln wrote: "Important principles may, and must, be inflexible," and that thought is an anathema to the professional political strategist of today. O'Donnell's book is a quick read and an enjoyable read as she is personable, humble and honest. Read it and you too may become a troublemaker to the fiefdoms whose Mike Castles' continue to crumble.

Christ's Return

2011-09-04T23:27:00.004-04:00

I presume that I am entitled to an interpretive view of biblical prophesy as all Christians are. In other words we all have an opinion. Even if one's view is that of total obfuscation as to coming events, that we will have no clue at all, that in itself is an opinion. This particular blog is structured as if we were just sitting around a table and talking. My views are always subject to both change and to your scrutiny. I do believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ may be near, in our generation, and also that it should be the hope of every Christian that it is near. I have a difficult time with the everyday newspaper headlines. The violence, the suffering and pain throughout humanity is overwhelming, especially in this information age where it is constantly before us. How can the Christian not both proclaim (maranatha) and desire the Lord's return! But it is also the obligation of every Christian from every age to be prepared to live their life to the full should the Lord tarry and to follow Martin Luther's declaration to plant a tree even if he knew for sure that the Lord was to return the next day. It appears certain to me that those of that generation, whether it be ours or another, will live through a tribulation that will shake both the unbeliever and the most devout believer in what will happen and we should know that in advance. The rapture doctrine will have been no help at that time and possibly be very destructive on how Christians handle the events. What are those events? All the talk of liberty and freedom that we hear of today, none more so than in this blog, would be for naught, for one power will indeed govern this planet at that time. If it be our generation, are we ready for it? The Christian will not only be persecuted by the anti-believer but even be totally rejected by that which calls itself the church. If it be us on earth as Christ returns are we aware in advance of what to expect? Some grand delusion is in store for that generation. It could, just for example, be the appearing of what the world will believe to be a visitation of alien life forms. If so it will be anything but, but are we prepared to stand firm in the face of this or some such other delusion? I have been inclined to believe for some time now that should a nuclear holocaust envelop the earth, or a similar catastrophe, that this would not be the time of Christ's return but rather only an event that will lead to a world government and only a prelude to what is actually in store. The conversation on prophesy needs to be extended throughout the church, not in dogmatic scenarios but possible scenarios to exercise our minds in the eventuality of imminent events as opposed to predicting future events. If you have sampled any of this blog then it surely must be apparent that these beliefs have not stopped my efforts, minuscule though they may be, to seek God's mercy on America one more time, for one more period where at least one nation exalts Christ albeit in the hearts of its people if not on paper. I hope that nowhere in these essays have I shown anything but full confidence that our God controls every action and every consequence in this entire universe. There is no question whatsoever as to the final result. To every unbeliever, the day will indeed come when you will want to be back at this very moment once again for you will then see not only the omnipotence of God in His power and might but the omniscience of Him who knows our innermost thoughts and is willing to clarify to us the rebellion in them and provide a way of salvation that begins with a humble acceptance of that omnipotence. What comes close to making this conversation a moot point in the life of the individual is that none of us can number our days on earth and that therefore this... is the day for that humbling. Revelation 1:3 lays it out for us in "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." I trust that throughout this blog my occasional touching on the topic of prophesy has been in line with the essence of scripture in that we are to be well aware of where man is headed and that the joy of Christ's sure coming is only sobered but a little because of what humanity must first go through.

Oh Look, There Goes A Bunny

2011-08-29T23:09:00.001-04:00

I have blogged a few times in the past on my choice to be the Republican nominee for President in 2012 and it has been, and still is, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint. In the long list of candidates and potential candidates there are only two, in my opinion of course, who have the stature for this position. One obviously is Senator DeMint but let me first describe what I mean by stature. Stature does not necessarily mean that he/she would be good for the job. Bill Clinton had it in his campaign for re-election through the experience of his first term but had lost it before that second term ended through his disastrous personal life. George W. Bush had the stature from the beginning primarily because his family was one of the most experienced in Washington and W. was well prepared. Al Gore had stature while he was the V.P. (he once told the president during his troubles to "get with the program") but has long since lost it in what are very near to psychological problems. Hillary is certainly not deserving of it but is perceived of having it and I expect that we will hear from her before this is all over. So stature, as I see it anyway, is the perception of someone that can handle the job of leader of the almost-free world, who is perceived to have the tools to govern effectively on the world's stage and who is perceived to be wise and able. As for Barack Obama, he never had stature, was not perceived to have it, and has, by his actions, eliminated himself from ever having it. His election was pure celebrity worship. John Kennedy reeked of stature but Bobby was more of a celebrity and I was his biggest fan. Teddy proved in his famous interview with Roger Mudd that even the Kennedy family was not a guarantee of stature. Ronald Reagan's picture should be in Webster's under stature. Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon had it from the beginning. Jimmy Carter never attained it. Back to the Republican candidates: Mitt Romney is very close but will never fully achieve it. Newt Gingrich had it but wasted it away. Michele Bachmann would have to work for four long years as president, as Bill Clinton did, to attain it. Sarah Palin had the stature to be a great Vice-President but her day is past. Rick Santorum would be a fine president but faces almost insurmountable odds. Herman Cain would be wonderful for a number of cabinet positions but all of his stature is on the business end. Ron Paul would have the stature to be the chief executive if it were not for his clinging to radical initiatives that would imperil the nation he loves. Chris Christie works every day to insure that he doesn't attain it. Marco Rubio will have it some day and some want General Petraeus to be perceived as having it as a statesman along with his legitimate military stature. Congressman Mike Pence is a prime candidate for showing it but chooses not to. Rick Perry panders to Evangelicals instead of speaking to Americans who happen to be Christians and we do not know, at this time, who he really is. The other Republican with stature to fill the position of President of the United States would be Jeb Bush and I fully expect for him to heard from. He is a carbon copy of W. and the eighteenth child of Karl Rove and Barbara Walters. Senator DeMint continues to back away from a candidacy even though powerful conservatives continue to urge him to do so. He has proven that he is a leader and not a follower! He has legitimate humility, certainly patience and there is an aura about him that staunch conservatives recognize from Reagan. He is the real deal in stature plus character. So much can and probably will happen in our nation before the primaries begin. Predictions cannot be made in a culture that... oh look, there goes a bunny.... has political ADHD. Michele Bachmann was right yesterday in mentioning God's displeasure with America but showed a lack of stature as she quickly retreated upon criticism for actually bringing God into our destiny. My expectation at this time is that Hillary will be the Democratic nominee and that Jeb Bush and Jim DeMint will eventually rise to the top of the Republican list but any one of a number of fault lines in the world's crust, permitted by God to rupture, can make all the best laid plans go astray. What are my credentials for making these comments? Nothing really, except 40+ years of observation.

Messages In An Earthquake?

2011-08-25T22:10:00.001-04:00

It's my opinion that the memory of George Washington has been co-opted by Freemasons over the years with the overwhelming Masonic design of Washington D. C. and particularly the immense obelisk bearing our first president's name. ( Please see my blog of November 15, 2010 on George Washington) According to David Ovason in his book The Secret Architecture Of Our Nation's Capitol, the Masons and the Building of Washington D. C., "Construction of the obelisk began July 4th, 1848 with a ceremonial laying of the enormous cornerstone which had been donated by Mason Thomas Symington....the ceremony was conducted by Benjamin French wearing the Masonic apron and sash George Washington had worn when he had laid the cornerstone of the Capitol building in 1793. The author also believes that the dedication of the monument on February 21st 1885, a day after Washington's birthday, was chosen because "Jupiter had just entered Virgo." The author gives much space and many additional details on astrology and Egyptian deity involved in the architecture. I wrote a blog back in February of 2009 titled Memorials and in it I began "I visit Washington D. C. occasionally, even though it is a giant Masonic symbol complete with an obelisk in the middle." After ruminating a little bit on the various memorials I brought the blog around to Paul's experiences in Athens, "The Apostle Paul walked among the temples of Athens and came upon an altar to an unknown god. He (then) proceeded to tell of whom they did not know." Our temple to the unknown god is the Washington National Cathedral, the site of state funerals for President's Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford. Congress had designated it the "National House of Prayer." It once housed a modern art exhibition of photographer Andres Serrano, complete with his photograph of a crucifix in a glass of urine. The earthquake of this past Tuesday damaged both that Washington Memorial and National Cathedral as cracks were found at the top of the obelisk and the top of the cathedral sustained significant damage. Is God speaking here to America? It's my belief that God speaks in a similar way in the lives of everyday believers so what would be so unusual about an earthquake that rattles and damages two of the most significant usurpations of the giver of blessings to this nation? I have wondered before about the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic concerning Britain and also the visual horror of the Challenger disaster in 1986 with us as if these disasters contained messages that we were not indestructible. Laugh this off or shrug it off if you wish but you might want to direct the laughter at me and not God for He will not be mocked. This advancing hurricane has already caused an indefinite delay in the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial pictured above. My first glimpse of the figure chipped out of granite was favorable from photos on the Internet but the more photos I came across the more disconcerting it became. There are three pieces of granite in this memorial. The middle piece bears the likeness of Dr. King and it is a very handsome piece of sculpture but additional photos that I saw gave an unsettling illusion for as the camera moves back to contain all three pieces of granite in the photo, with the middle piece designed to be in the forefront as if to say Dr. King came out of the mountain, the illusion of the Great Sphinx of Giza appears and viewing the above picture, you might agree. I would still like to see this created memorial of a great American but all of these monuments, including the ones in Arlington National Cemetery where my father is buried, push the envelope in ignoring the difference between remembering the deeds of those no longer with us and remembering these people for more than what they were, men and women of note and great accomplishments but fallible, sinful, rebellous men and women, as we all are, in need of a Saviour, who have since stood before the Creator of everything that exists, many of whom would gladly trade a granite memorial for a robe of Christ's righteousness to cover their unrighteousness.

Shoulder To Shoulder

2011-08-21T00:57:00.000-04:00

Rush Limbaugh put it this way, that Barack Obama "Doesn't want to govern; he wants to rule." Fellow radio talk show host Jim Quinn (Sirius XM 166-weekday mornings) added that he treats Americans more like subjects than citizens. These are two important statements that should be seriously considered by those who, in 2008, voted in a new form of government in the United States of America, for a pattern has long since emerged of censorship, subterfuge and arrogance that reeks of third world dictators and Soviet block Comintern initiatives. The latest circumvention of Congress by this White House was to effectively stop deportation of illegal immigrants by essentially, through a maze of requirements, ordering its immigration lawyers to bypass the illegals in order to concentrate on, what they cleverly described as, real criminals. In effect it was amnesty by fiat; this change of heart only weeks after Barack Obama told the national Council of La Raza "Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own...". Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said that "We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law." Texas Congressman Michael McCaul added "It's just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way." I personally do not know a whole lot of people who still support the Manchurian President in this White House. I do know many who hold to a strict change of venue in the debate in that they continue to defend their original decision to vote for Barack Obama but can no longer actually defend the man who they voted for. This particular blog is addressed to that person. Partisan politics is one thing but we, differing on many issues though we do, are in the same boat in that our nation is under assualt from both within and without and our children's futures have been downgraded to "D". This not because of the differences between liberal and conservative philosophies but between truth and lies, federalism and communism....between liberty and tyranny. Barack Obama is anything but a liberal in the traditional sense and much less a democrat in its historical context. He is a Progressive but he is more. He and David Axelrod, Bill Ayers, Eric Holder, Valerie Jarrett and select others have duped those like Janet Napolitano, Joe Biden....and much of his cabinet, while even they themselves are merely pawns of others who have long hated what America stood for. There is a cohort now in charge that has no intention of instituting change through the Constitution but rather eliminating the pertinence of that constitution. Today Facebook apologized for deleting Arizona Governor Jan Brewer''s Facebook comments that were critical of Barack Obama's taking the law into his own hands, for they "apparently"... "violated Facebook community standards." This slip should alone wake many up to the dangers of huge information-oriented corporations that not only have access to our personal information but the ability to design the information we receive in ways amenable to their cause. They also are merely recruited pawns. Surely there are a few reading this, who are not conservatives, who know that there is indeed an insidious agenda being acted out, not only in boardrooms, dachas and mountaintop retreats, but in our very capitol. You may not agree with my politics or my religion, you may not like me from what you read, but we are alike in that we want America to survive, we want the same opportunity for our children that we ourselves had. This cohort that I mentioned is not interested in the well-being of minorities, women or immigrants for these groups are also being used. Their only concern for you is that you continue to oppose us to the extent that you do not focus your gaze on them. The information is out there in abundance. Should you decide to go there it will not be a pleasant journey but satisfying in that you will see that many of the differences between us have been fabricated, stoked and fueled. Two weeks ago today, our family was travelling south along I-77 at Charlotte the same time that flash floods there took three lives. Yesterday, in Pittsburgh, flash floods took four lives. The roar of an approaching flash flood throughout America can be heard right now, for a storm has moved over us and stalled, the rains of tyranny raising streams from all quarters as they converge on the National Archives that houses our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. We need to be shoulder to shoulder and not face to face, for the sake of our children.

The Only Job Creator

2011-08-17T23:17:00.000-04:00

Republicans tend to care for the poorer elements of society through promoting economic policies that, if enacted and allowed to run their course, would strengthen the economic fabric of the nation thereby giving opportunity to most, if not all, of those willing to take advantage of it. Democrats tended, at one time, to push for safety nets where all of those who cannot find that opportunity will at least be taken care of in the essentials needed. Conservatives tend to work as guardians of the free market, fully confidant that if there are no restrictions, growth and prosperity will naturally take place. Democrats now tend to don the chef's hat and apron, take up utensils and cut and stir while they add seasonings with one hand then the other as they attempt to be caterers to the disadvantaged, their wages being political support from those catered to. Republicans tend to defend the Constitution at all costs in order for freedom and liberty to flourish. Democrats tend to labor more for the rights of the underprivileged, at the expense of the constitution if necessary, who they perceive to be discriminated against, if in nothing else, a disadvantaged starting position in the quest for prosperity. Republicans tend to exalt Capitalism as an essential organ in the body politic, and are satisfied with the results even if, as it is today, it has been shown that many cannot play this game. Democrats tend to take full advantage of that Capitalism while denying it to others who are more valuable being dependent on entitlements. In either scheme, the plight of the poor is not on the front burner. Theoretically the Republicans are correct but that theory has been greatly weakened by events in the course of human nature. The Democrat loses in the battle of theory, for theirs (socialism) has proven, time and time again, ineffective at best and disastrous at worst. Compounding the problem for the Democrat, they have proven to be ethically challenged as the entitlements originally meant to benefit the poor, with the advent of the radical progressive, now benefit themselves through their reelection coffers. The Capitalist model failed to take into consideration the dark elements of human nature, the machinations of the globalist (a prime example being George Soros,) the nefarious inventiveness of Wall Street and the corporate executive married to the stockholder after divorcing their employees and the public well-being. The Founding Fathers, on the other hand, most certainly did take human nature seriously in their formula of checks and balances. So, our freedoms and liberty have a fighting chance in the Constitution but our economies do not have a fighting chance for Capitalism relies on the DNA of the free market and is oblivious to the DNA of man for it has no checks and balances other than recessions and depressions. Normally this works but in this globalist economy, and in this particular economy that is built upon the continual need to purchase-purchase-purchase, not essentials but non-essentials-often entertainments. We have put ourselves into the unenviable position of needing to curtail this personal spending, knowing full well that in doing so, our economy will sink even further into the abyss. Primarily because of the fallen nature of man, albeit for differing reasons and in different applications, both the Republican and Democratic answers to poverty cannot succeed. The former because it places compassion at the doorstep of the free market formula, acceptable in a mostly agrarian society and somewhat beyond but woefully lacking in the age of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nike and Abercrombie & Fitch. The latter because, the safety net now is used to insure that everyone has the funds to purchase these products. We cannot avoid the plight of the poor and disadvantaged, in fact it should be an all-consuming passion to address these needs. We cannot relegate them to the hope of a functioning economic model nor throw entitlements at them for dubious reasons. God gave words to one particular prophet (Isaiah) in advising a king of Judah (Ahaz) who was seeking to buy redemption from Judah's enemies. Among those words were these "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." Our poor will not receive compassion, our enemies will not be turned away and we ourselves will languish in misery and instability, if we are not firm in faith of whom Isaiah described this way, "and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Who Is The Evangelical?

2011-08-14T23:37:00.000-04:00

So just who, and what, is the Evangelical that we hear about so often in the mainstream media? The term, today, is used as a pejorative and if it were possible to do, would flash red to alert the reader to pay particular attention to what they are up to. Evangelicalism is a very big tent, a revival tent of sorts, with room enough for many diverse church goers. At times, most recently at the Iowa straw poll, it's more like a huge tailgate party. I was an Evangelical for the better part of the 1980s, my highwater mark when I went to $100 a plate fundraiser for Pat Robertson's 1988 bid for the presidency. We needed a Christian president, I thought, who was also informed and intelligent and Pat filled that bill. Contrary to the accepted opinion on the Left, Evangelicals do not merely march in lock-step to to the commands of their favorite televangelist. They all hold to the same social issues because those issues are very clear in God's Word. They tend to back candidates that openly admit to going first to the Bible. They are generally, model citizens. They pay their taxes, give generously to charities and proudly send their sons and daughters off to the military making our armed forces America's most distinguished and honorable group! The Evangelical has been a blessing to this nation who ushered in Ronald Reagan and kept Al Gore and John Kerry out of the White House. It obviously failed with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and with Barack Hussein Obama. Evangelicals are red state, or would it be more apropos to say red states are evangelical? Without the resurgence of the fear of God within the evangelical community from the 1970s to today, America would be already past tense as I write this. As if at a state fair, they can easily move from the Evangelical tent to the Tea Party tent and mingle without any questions. When they enter the Libertarian tent, they can be viewed suspiciously even though they tend to feel at home. They fill Ohio Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Bryant-Denny Stadium and Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. They fly the Stars and Stripes (as I do) in front of their homes. They often have blended, interracial families. They coach youth athletics and swarm to coastal beaches (when they're not repairing homes in Appalachia) without littering the sand with bear cans. They read, read, read and are more at home, in politics anyway, listening to the spoken word rather than watching carefully crafted television news reports. They hunt, they fish and they vote. Their children tend to be polite and respectful of their elders. For all of this, they are feared and ridiculed. The other day, while watering the flowers, my cell phone rang. I rarely get phone calls on my cell phone for to me it is more of a constant conduit of news with a quaint app that lets you make phone calls in an emergency. It was a Gallop/USA Today pollster and I was as excited as a Democrat chief-of-elections finding a box of votes under the ice cream maker in the back of the hall. One question asked of me was if I were an Evangelical. Futilely, I attempted to explain the problem with the concept of Evangelical but had no other choice than to answer...yes. Such is it with much of America. All who are part of "Christianity," who apply Biblical truth to social issues, are labelled...Evangelicals. As an aside here...as has happened so often, I left the computer to go downstairs to listen to the radio program the White Horse Inn, which we have done faithfully at 8:30 Sunday evenings (101.5 FM in Pittsburgh) for almost two decades, and returned to the computer with a quote. By the way, I highly recommend that you go to their web site (http://www.whitehorseinn.org/). C. S. Lewis once said "The problem is not so much the de-Christianization of England, as the de-Christianization of the church." This is the problem with much of Evangelicalism today. The American pulpit, to a great degree, has failed the church. Christianity and Christendom have been united. The cross of Calvary is not preached, rather the felt needs of the congregation. The name of Jesus is ever-present but the person of Jesus Christ is unknown, the blood shed on Calvary for our sins ignored. One glaring example of our lack of discernment is Glenn Beck. Here is a man who saturates his broadcasts with Biblical terminology and a near worship of the state of Israel but exalts a false christ of Mormonism. This doesn't seem very important to the Evangelical. In fairness, if they were properly discipled in their churches they might not be so enamored with the patriot Glenn Beck. The Evangelical is weak on doctrine and without doctrinal truth there is no Christianity. The Evangelical comes too close to thinking of America as God's nation thus failing to separate the declaration of our redemption in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ from the Declaration of Independence. Politically the Evangelical can be naive, as I was with Pat Robertson. The media often points to the belief in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture where the Christians are taken away, leaving the unbeliever to face the Antichrist. This false doctrine permits the Christian to adopt the attitude written on a t-shirt I saw in a Christian bookstore where a pair of sneakers was all that was left as the basketball fan was taken up, out and off of his seat at a basketball game. The Evangelical voter can all too easily be taken in by the evangelical rhetoric of a run-of-the-mill establishment politician whose evangelical words are so strong that vetting of their history is not necessary. Still, the Evangelical has been a blessing to America but only insofar as they are citizens who still have their heads above water in a culture that is drowning. Unfortunately, because of the confusion enhanced by the media, the unbeliever thinks that he must necessarily come under that Evangelical tent if he were ever to consider his fallen condition before God. Should God have mercy on us as a nation and should His Spirit move over this land with His convicting power of irresistible grace, that Evangelical tent will not even be noticeable in the mass of humanity, at least not in the definition it has assumed in the last 40 years.

Comments....Redux...The Blob That Came From Pittsburgh

2011-08-13T01:18:00.008-04:00

Comments Redux from April 14, 2009 and August 12, 2011

There are a number of reasons why I do not have a "comment link" on this blog but the first one alone is enough. I barely have enough time to write each blog and could not possibly take on comments. But...there is a good point to be made that a "comment link" would fulfill healthy, honest, dialogue that uplifts in this enlightened, multicultural age filled with hope of diversity for everything except conservative thought. So, although I still don't have the time for responding to comments, I may be able to fulfill the need that is out there. I've written two comments similar to what I might receieve and then given my response. The first is from April 14, 2009 and penned after getting some ideas from the ladies on The View.

Special Dog....or can I just call you Dog? I am daily transfixed by this blog because of the constant seepage of stupidity, arrogance, trivial boredom and jokes that are about as funny as George Bush in the Oval Office. So you fancy yourself an expert in foreign policy, economics, religion and motivational techniques? In actuality, Charles Manson was probably a better influence on his group. You could have been one of Il Duce's "Red Shirts" from what I've seen of your regurgitating all of Bush's lies. He couldn't get bin Laden so he went after the guy who tried to hurt his Poppy. He's just an American sheik and will be wearing pinstripes when the international courts get a hold of him. As for "economics" you probably can't even balance your own checkbook? Religion? Apparently you have condemned everyone that does not agree with you to hell. God is a loving God, my friend, and he knows my heart and I am fully confident that he will accept me into his kingdom, should he really exist. And as for the "advice" that you seem to relish in giving, I can make a good case for "guns" not being the number one thing that needs banned. Trust me, you are no psychologist. Had you lived a century earlier, Freud would have written of the id (idiot), the ego and the superego. Dale from Elmira.

Dale, Please excuse me for delaying in this response. I was quite taken aback by some of your comments. As for "bad jokes" you are probably alluding to my question, "How do you tell a male fish from a female fish? You throw it in the bottom of the boat and if it flops this way and that, trying to get out, it is a male fish. If it looks up at you and says "Excuse me, could you give me directions on how to get out of this boat?" it is probably a female fish." Unfortunately, I have to admit that this was not a joke. I had heard this and just assumed it was true. I got to thinking later and realized...fish can't talk. I don't mean to be picky, but Mussolini had his "Black Shirts," Hitler had "Brown Shirts," Al Gore has his "Green Shirts" and I believe that it is Hillary that is planning on "Red Shirts." I have no idea how you know that I can't balance my own checkbook. I assume it was a lucky guess. I'll have you know that I studied psychology under Dr. Robert Hartley for eight seasons..er..years. Special Dogg (two Gs)

The ideas for this most recent comment came after watching the recent Democrat calls for civility:

Dogface...You are a conceited blowhard, a pipsqueak fabricator of lies, a bourgeoisie barnacle on the (deleted) of the Koch brothers, a textbook example of a fool, a dimwitted-moronic-imbecilic monkey who happens to type. Your brain is half the size of the iPhone you write about. You are probably a pig at the dinner table. The monitor on your computer is probably pitted from the noxious fumes coming from your bloated head. The monitors of those who happen, by pure chance, to come across your drivel are probably covered with vomit. You can't spell, you can't write, you can't even think. You give the alphabet a bad name. Spellcheck can't even figure out your hoof-pecked random assortment of letters vaguely resembling English words. I have read every blog you have fouled cyberspace with and now have nightmares of a blob coming out of Pittsburgh that sucks the air out of all footballs. Sincerely, Harry

Dear Harry, I am not a pipsqueak. As for the nightmares...that's weird...can't help you there.

Rioters.. All Of Us

2011-08-12T12:17:00.000-04:00

The British Daily Mail had an article by Max Hastings, linked on the Drudge Report, that begins Years of liberal dogma have spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent brutalised youngsters. Hastings brings a hard message on the riots that England is experiencing but a vastly incomplete one. He writes that the normal rioter lives a "life of absolute futility....illiterate beyond maybe some dexterity with computer games and Blackberries." He continued, "Nobody has ever dared suggest to them that they need feel any allegiance to anything, least of all Britain or their community...the welfare state has relieved them from hunger and real want." He lays the blame in Britain of the "breakdown of families...the social engineering industry (and) the judiciary (that sides with it) in that the law appears to be there to protect the rights of the perpetrator, and does not support the victim." "How do you persuade children to renounce bad language when they hear little else from stars on the BBC?" he challenges. His stated answer to this is "Unless or until those who run Britain introduce incentives for decency and impose penalties for bestiality which are today lacking, there will never be a shortage of young rioters and looters such as those of the past four nights..." One of those rioters arrested was an 18 year old girl, a possible future Olympian runner, and Olympic ambassador from Britain! This, as an American possible future Olympian skier was involved in a similarly hideous incident here. This problem transcends economics into our spiritual beings. Aside from a minority, strong and faithful as they are, Britain has long since forsaken the one who enabled them to rise in stature in this world. Their great preacher of the 19th century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, warned of what was to come as he saw the watering-down of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his country. The Victorian Age became the culprit and Britain has since descended into the quagmire of misplaced empathy that enslaves it. Yes, liberal dogma destroyed the foundation of Britain and is doing so here in the name of American Progressivism. In both cases it deemed itself so much more intelligent than its creator and so more savvy than the Word given to us by that creator. It attempted to assuage its own guilt in rejecting God by applying to itself the mantle of administrators of compassion on everything that runs contrary to God's commands, and also to man's law. It proclaimed that "we are here for the minority" but have only hurt and impoverished them more, that "we are going to advance women's rights" but have hardened the God given blessedness of woman and have in reality demanded for women the overbearing arrogance and hedonist character that we men have made an art form of, it has said "we will advance the cause of the immigrant" but has eaten away at the opportunity even the illegal immigrant comes here for while disparaging the blessings the legal immigrant had already given us, it has boasted that "we will protect the children" but has left them scavenging amongst the many predators who profit from their lack of guidance. Our best efforts, mine included, are tinged with self-preservation. Our gated-communities are not an answer, even for those who live in them, for they give only a temporary relief, a small geographic safe-haven from a world run amok. The toys of smart phones, computer games and Facebook hurt more than they help but we have elevated them, and the many other trivialities of life, to evidence of success and happiness. We have become experts in promoting health, building buff bodies and beautiful appearances to the detriment of our souls, any real peace of mind, and any true joy. Social programs and entitlements are not the answer and even law and order cannot contain a spirit of rebellion that wants no part of God. Max Hastings quoted another in using the term "feral humans" in describing the rioters, and that would be an apt description of us all if there were not a truer one, for it is man's fallen nature that every one of us deals with. So many in the history of Liberalism and Progressivism deny this. We are basically good they say, in need of only a sound mind that can be engineered, but we are basically bad, in need of a sound mind that comes only by grace. We all riot every time when we rebel against God. We all loot when we fashion a gospel of our own making, a god of our own liking and a christ of our own creative imaginings. There will never be a shortage of rioters until Christ comes again. Only God's grace can insure that the rioter is isolated where he does not feed on the ambivalence of the majority, nor is egged on by others of like minds, nor planted in total darkness where the light of the gospel cannot point the way. Both Britain and America teeter on the edge where riots will be the least of our worries. As bleak as the situation is, and it has never been bleaker, not during the Civil War, nor on December 7th, 1941, and not as Rebellion became our middle name as our visible collapse began in the 1960s, our only hope is in the omniscience and omnipotence and mercy of Almighty God. One way or the other America and Britain will prostrate itself before Him, either in fear as He comes in judgement or in thankfulness as His Spirit melts our collective hearts.

Pulpit...Not The Podium

2011-08-07T23:24:00.000-04:00

One of the running themes in this blog is the need for America to humble itself before God, before God humbles us before our numerous enemies. Yesterday (August 6th,) Texas Governor Rick Perry hosted a major prayer event in Houston of upwards of 25,000 people with that very message. One might therefore expect the writer of this blog to wholeheartedly rejoice in this but that's not the case. I agree with the diagnosis, but not prescription of a media event. We are falling apart in every way imaginable. Our Congress is clueless which is a description far too generous to use on our White House. Our culture is in chaos. Our media is in denial while our enemies are certain of our collapse. Pep rallies are not the answer especially when politics is part of it. I'm not questioning the intent of the organizers or Governor Perry for I know what it is like to finally figure out that America is collapsing because its reliance upon God has vanished, because we have gone our own way and God is permitting us to reap what we have sown. I have probably written a dozen times in this blog on the need for America to humble itself before God and I hope in those blogs that I made it known that I was talking about myself as much as anyone who might read it. Ultimately, we do not have to see America's sins clearer...we have to see more clearly the one sinned against (God.) A deficient view of the holiness of God can result in feelings of a satisfactory repentance and the consequent projection upon others of the need to do so also. A heightened view of the holiness of God will hardly get one off the hook so easily. The Puritan mind could see clearer... God and His character, hence repentance was an everyday occurrence as they humbly approached God for all their needs. The secular mind of today sees the Puritan mind as a lifelong quest to quench joy in anyone and everyone and the evangelical mind is a product of these times, on display in Christian bookstores, Christian music concerts and events, and fundraising telethons, and is much more susceptible to a good gimmick than what is really needed. The podium, the bookstore and the blogosphere can indeed address our inflated view of our minds and ourselves and the turmoil that lies ahead but only the pulpit can effectively deflate that view, soften the heart and ease the burdened soul through the proclamation of redemption through the blood of Christ as written in God's Word. The speaker on the dais and the soapbox tends to point out every culprit except the one standing on it and those gathered together to listen. We attended a Lutheran church (Missouri Synod) this past week while traveling. I scoured the local church websites looking for a Lord's Day sermon topic on Christ and, as I had done in the past, wound up choosing the Lutheran church, for the atonement is at least always present in the liturgy if not the sermon. As it happened, a "retired" minister was filling the pulpit for the regular pastor. In essence, his sermon was "Christ is the only answer." A worshipper came up to my wife and recommended that we should come back next week when the regular pastor is in the pulpit but I think that we were blessed with the right day, the right minister and the right message. In our storied past, calls for national days of prayer and fasting have been corporate, where the composer of the call was in need of repentance as any of the represented, but ultimately the pulpit is what God utilizes in calling individuals and nations to repentance. Unfortunately for today, our pulpits are in need of awakening. Such is our extreme dilemma.

Tea Party In A Perfect Storm

2011-08-02T21:14:00.077-04:00

Should we make it intact to November of 2012, there should essentially be two elections in this country. Before I address this let me explain the "should we make it to November 2012" comment for I have prefaced sentences with this type of comment a number of times in this blog. A recent entry into our expanding collection of American phrases and idioms is "the perfect storm," alluding to a storm so complete, so surrounding, whose potential is so devastating that the worst possible scenario has to be considered. America is in the path of that "perfect storm." International issues are tearing apart the fabric of order everywhere. Europe is holding on by a thread, the Middle-East is in chaos, Russia is a hungry bear coming out of hibernation, China faces internal problems as it is finding out that it has created a monster that has to be fed continuously or that monster will turn on it, terrorism has one ability...to cause havoc, and one dream...bringing about that havoc in the world while favorable conditions for this have never been so ripe. All of these things are happening at the same time and some will be resolved, one way or the other in my estimation, in the fifteen months leading up to this election. So arriving at the November 2012 date without first having been thrown into a tailspin that endangers not only our national security but our Constitutional Republic form of government itself is anything but guaranteed. But we must press on and as for the "two elections," one should revolve solely around Barack Hussein Obama. Here is a man who by all appearances has been a Manchurian Candidate" prepared by those who merely used him. Yes, he has utterly failed in the most basic duties of a president but even his failures advance their agenda. The mistake that we are making at this time is putting forth the economy as the sole issue to challenge him with, whereas Barack Obama's subverting of our Constitution, his failure to pay any attention to our national defense or national debt, the intense division he is bringing to this nation, the deceit and subterfuge his administration displays daily that no previous administration, not even Nixon's, had come close to, and his concealment of his academic and travel records along with who his closest associates were in his formative political years should be the primary focus of this election. It's the second election, or rather set of elections, that should revolve around the economy and that would be for seats in the Congress. One can see how close the new "Tea Party" members in Congress came to giving our nation a sound budget that would at least have stemmed the tide of financial collapse. They failed to stem the debt problem but succeeded in exposing a vacuum of wisdom in our Congress and absence of integrity in many who sit there. If we place the economy solely on the White House and fail to highlight the more weightier issues that lead to it, outside influences about to erupt may transcend that economy. If we fail to place the onus of this economy where it belongs, on the socialist, profane, nanny state that brings only poverty and tyranny, then we let the professional politicians responsible, who would prove to be very adept at shifting the blame and refusing that responsibility, off of the hook. Important as choosing wise leadership is, we need wisdom for ourselves for we also share in that responsibility for the perfect storm fast approaching. I originally added some book recommendations to the bottom of this blog but was convicted of writing about a perfect storm that threatens all of humanity without seeking the wisdom of humanity's Creator.

Psalm 111
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord.,
studied by all who delight in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy;
they are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!

Why Stand We Here Idle

2011-07-31T00:25:00.000-04:00

This divide today amongst Americans is not simply one of issues. Previous to the last few decades our differences were issues oriented. The debates surrounding the ratification of our Constitution and the addition of the Bill Of Rights were legitimate issues. The Civil War was fought over issues that could be debated as was the Senate's rejection of Wilson's League of Nations. As recently as the two terms of Ronald Reagan we dealt with issues in this nation but things have changed. This administration and the radicals who have taken over America's Democrat party since 1992 travel a different road than their predecessors. They are salesman not statesmen and the wares they peddle are elixirs that do nothing. They have to push for a fast sale every time. They came into America as Johann Tetzel did in Germany in the early sixteenth century, selling indulgences from the purgatory of reality, his ditty could be translated today into As soon as the vote in the ballet box rings...the soul from poverty springs. In this most recent attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the voting public, the Tea Party is being hauled into the Diet of Worms with a charge of heresy against the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Patrick Henry, previous to uttering his most famous words Give me liberty or give me death said this Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? That very special temptation of NFL football is upon us, promising to sooth our aching for manly inspiration but if it takes our minds and our efforts away from the needs of our nation and the future of our children it will be the most sissified of pastimes. The following blog is from June 11, 2009 and tells of comments that I made to a group of fellow students ten years ago. Comments that unfortunately proved prescient.

At the age of fifty-one I had gone back to college to work on a Master's Degree in Higher Education, and not for the typical reasons. My son was beginning his quest to find a college to attend and I was, much I am today, spending time on issues concerning the nation that we live in and the people within it. Choosing a college is much more of an important decision than is commonly ascribed to. The young person will be under the tutelage of 21st century professors. If you cannot see a problem here, try reading anything by David Horowitz. They (the students) will initially live in a dorm and we're not talking about Ricky Nelson's fraternity house. So I went back to school, partly to learn about the history of Higher Education in America and its modern counterpart, and partly to help my son in his decision. I completed the core curriculum, had a few seminar classes and a thesis left, but I had what I wanted. So, here I was in my early fifties, in a cohort of students who were mostly in their twenties. It was a terrific time for me but the topic of this blog revolves around a comment I made in one of the classes. I mentioned my extreme concern that there was a divide occurring in America that was far more serious than acknowledged to be. I could see the trend developing of two distinct peoples living within the same country. This concern has come to fruition and it threatens the stability of the nation. One people wants the Constitution to determine the laws of our nation, as it always had. The other wants the Constitution to conform to the desires of the people. Thus, the judiciary would become the new legislature. One wants to hear news reporting and make determinations for themselves. The other considers decision making to be unnecessary for they, the news media, have already completed that task for everyone, so the verity of the news we receive is a moot point. The split is so serious that if it were a demographic issue we would have two nations by now. And it is going to get worse for when one party in power in a division like this has gained that power by circumventing debate by way of a "cult of celebrity," and has already began wielding that sword as if it were forged for them, and begins to stifle opposing opinion, then indications are that it is very possible that liberty will decrease, and tyranny arise. The speed with which this transformation in our nation is being attempted is for a reason. Congress needs to slow this onslaught down and give many Americans time to reassess if this is what they bargained for.

Wise Leaders...Or...Wise Politicians?

2011-07-29T00:02:00.000-04:00

You may be familiar with this portion of Scripture in the book of Genesis and you may not. Joseph was in prison, falsely accused of assaulting the wife of his master who had put Joseph in charge of his house, for Potiphar had recognized Joseph's great abilities and wisdom in making decisions. These abilities shown through even in prison as he was put in charge of certain responsibilities there as well as we read in Chapter 39 verse 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. God will either choose to give us wise leaders or He will not. He has given us wise leaders in the past and He has given us buffoons and worse. Acknowledging that God, and God alone, determines which nations will rise and which nations will fall should be our first step. Joseph was not only restored by Pharaoh but restored to lead Egypt itself. God accomplished this by giving Pharaoh a dream that greatly unsettled him and then provided Joseph with the interpretation that would rescue Egypt from the coming famine, for Joseph could see seven years of prosperity to be followed by seven years of extreme famine. Egypt was given time to prepare. That successful preparation would lead to Joseph's family, having been estranged through his brothers selling him into slavery, to seek food from Egypt, unaware that Joseph and his wisdom would be their temporal savior. God had given Joseph wisdom in order that Jacob's family would be fully restored and later the Hebrews would be returned to Canaan, empowered and sustained, blessed and rebuked, exiled and returned, in order that Christ Jesus would be born in Bethlehem and through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension redeem all those from every family and every nation that were given to Him by the Father. It is far past the time that we should have started preparing in America. We have had a famine of the Word in this nation in both warnings that our individual souls are in peril and that there is famine coming against our prosperity. What will we do? Will we repent and humbly seek God's mercy? Will we seek and listen to wise leaders..... or wise politicians? Only God knows.

Fort Dix...B-3-2

2011-07-26T00:45:00.001-04:00

I might be able to spare you the time in reading this for it is pure reminiscing on my part as I recently found myself thinking about one particular day, almost 42 years ago, that changed my life, and here is my recollection of it and the following eight weeks:

It was September 19th, 1969. My aunt had driven me to the Federal Building in Pittsburgh and my mother was also in the car. I said my good-byes as I got out in front of the main entrance. The light was just breaking from the east and I followed the directions given to me and got on the elevator to go up to the floor where enlistments were taking place. There might have been thirty or forty of us there that day. We were given meal tickets for lunch and spent the morning filling out paperwork. At lunch I strolled around the floor that the cafeteria was on for I was not, as of yet, in this man's army. After lunch we took our physicals, the standard turn your head and cough variety, in a line of men standing around in their briefs. We filled out some additional paperwork including signing the enlistment papers and finally were ushered into a small room with the Stars and Stripes proudly hanging at the front. We were told to raise our right hands and repeat the oath of enlistment. Finally in the army? Most of the guys were directed to buses with a final destination of Fort Jackson, South Carolina but Harry W. and I were on another bus headed to Pittsburgh International Airport to catch a flight to Philly. Walking around the airport, I still did not feel like I was in the Army. Harry W. was a wonderful guy who resembled Drew Carey only not as good looking, was only a little taller than Danny DeVito and had a bad case of acne. The stewardesses were very pretty and Harry W. was really putting on the moves. The ladies were literally falling all over him...and ignoring me. Now what was wrong with this picture? I figured that personality must have something to do with this girl thing and that maybe I should try to get one...never did though. We arrived in Philly and followed directions once again to a limousine that would take us to Fort Dix, New Jersey... one long haired hippy type and a short, balding one who had a way with the girls. It was about midnight when we finally arrived at the wooden framed hut. Once again we were filling out paperwork with others who were arriving one by one. We were given mattresses and a couple of sheets and told to find a bunk....the end of a very long day. Finally in the Army? Morning came with loud shouts to hustle across the street for some breakfast and then report back. We were not marched because we had not yet been told which was our left foot and which our right. Next came a longer wooden building where we were issued the standard gear of fatigues, boots, socks, green underwear, a hat and duffle bag to put them all in. One better have the sizes ready for there were no questions taken and no words accepted except small, medium or large. I looked at myself in the mirror. Finally in the army? Nah. After lunch it was another cattle drive over to the barber's hut which had six long pew like benches and a long line of guys sliding down one place at a time as the one in front had his head shaved. To this day I wonder if these were actual barbers or if this was a second job after running a backhoe at night for it took less than a minute to run those clippers up and down the scalp. I put my hat back on and now it came down over my eyebrows. There I was, outfitted and bald. Finally in the army? We were introduced, if I can use that phrase, to a Drill Sergeant who was cordial and related stories from Vietnam for it seemed that all of them had just returned. This wasn't so bad after all. We spent two days being led around to various stations including the dentist where we established records to be kept until the day we would leave the army. Then came a surprise. We were bused over to another section of Fort Dix where the buildings were all brick. Off the bus we were herded and told to go into the barracks, find a cot to dump our duffle bags on and come right back out. We did this and casually formed some semblance of a line. Then Drill Sergeant Carter appeared out of no where. We were told exactly what we looked like and as I remember it had something to do with goats, Gilligan and Bullwinkle J. Moose. This guys jaw definitely jutted out farther than his nose. He was built solid and stood firm as a rock and we were later told that he still had plenty of metal in his back from Vietnam. Back to the barracks and the lights were out at nine. The next thing that I knew I was flying off the bunk into the air simultaneously as the lights came on. I was the unlucky one to pick the first bunk from the door. It was 5 AM and we had five minutes to be outside in formation. I still didn't know what a formation was. Left Face was the command and I was face to face with another guy. Panic had set in for one of us turned the wrong way. Fortunately the other guy was wrong and he was questioned as to what grade in elementary he ended his schooling in. We then started out in the darkness on my first actual march which soon became a quick time as we were then repeating, rather yelling, after Drill Sergeant Carter, that we wanted to be airborne rangers...go to Vietnam and kill those Viet Cong. Finally in the army? Reaching the mess hall we entered in a rather strange way. One line was released at a time and was to charge the mess hall yelling like banshees. I guessed there was a reason for that. One week followed another of pushing, shoving, marching, running, push-ups, climbing, shouting, singing and lunging with a bayonet. Six weeks into basic we were finally allowed to go to the PX. Most guys bought stationary, candy, cigarettes and paperback books. I bought Goldfinger. Finally came our week on the rifle range. I had never held a rifle in my life. When a recruit had a rifle in his hands he also had a Drill Sergeant two inches from his ear. They must think that we might turn the wrong way. No one complained. I was firing at targets I could not see and had no idea if I was hitting them but I must have because I did not have to go back. If someone had to urinate...silly comment...there was a large vat buried in the ground. No problem here...until it got filled up and had to be emptied. A small crane was brought in and four unlucky guys had to stand around it, shoveling and shaking it back and forth to get it free all the while standing in four to six inched of urine. Guess who one of those unlucky guys was? Finally in the army? We were bonding heavily as the fourth platoon and even more so to Drill Sergeant Carter. We were on a mission to win that PT award and we didn't particularly have any feelings of camaraderie towards the other three platoons, one of which occupied the other half of the floor we were on and one night we wound up in a big scrum, fighting over who got the mops and buckets first. Graduation came. It had been eight long, hard weeks. We, the fourth platoon, were psyched as we waited for the announcement of the PT award for we desperately wanted Drill Sergeant Carter to be acknowledged for it. And he was! Our squad leader was to march us back to the barracks and we had a fine idea to form the number four and march in it. The breaks on a car squealed and a Colonel got out who did not appreciate the meaning. He was up one side of that squad leader and down the other with words that one might expect out of the mouth of Hillary Clinton but not an officer in the United States Army. We were given the last night off and headed over to the EM Club for our first beers in two months. Walking, if you can call it that, back to the barracks, one of us fell out of a tree in front of us. Now how one could be with us one moment and then fall out of a tree in front of us the next, I never did find out. Finally in the army? When morning came we all waited around a slew of buses to take us to our advanced training with most going in different directions. We were given our platoon picture that morning and passed them around to be signed. I still have this picture with about forty signatures on the back. I alone got on the bus that was to take me to Fort Devins, Massachusetts and waved to the guys that I would never see again the rest of my life. Finally in the army!

Have They Already Begun?

2011-07-23T14:35:00.001-04:00

If we were asked, how would Americans view God's opinion of us and our nation and what would they rate the possibility of impending terrible judgments upon us? It's a difficult question for the average American to even contemplate upon for we are generally certain of one thing only, that being that America will indeed continue to plug on, either in good times or possibly bad times but far removed from utter devastation that other countries, and empires, had experienced. It's not a trait peculiar only to Americans for every empire has felt itself somewhat invincible for a long time after its influence and power had peaked. This is our particular malady at this time for we perceive today as simply our turn to live while enjoying the fruit of our productivity and liberty while oblivious to predators of that productivity and liberty. I worry about our youth. It's often said that the same concerns were present in every generation but I lived in those infamous 60s and even with the ascendancy of the drug and rock culture it was tame compared to the diversions that our youth of today have thrown at them. I had a Radio Shack Flavor Radio, a black and white television, a few balls of various shapes and sizes and a 110 pound set of weights to occupy my time. Television is far worse today, far more enticing with many many more channels and an accompanying philosophy of life, society and politics that does anything but convey the belief systems that originally encouraged productivity and liberty. Even so, television is not even the biggest culprit in our decaying society for the Internet, with all of its information, dumbs us down to such a degree that we can ingest but not digest and we can take in vast amounts of that information but cannot analyse it or even categorize it for future use. Throw Facebook into the mix and we have more than one generation involved who, as Narcissus of Greek mythology looked at his reflection in a pool until he died, we continually update and gaze at our own reflection on our Facebook page as that day of judgment nears. It is unlikely to us that judgment, should it materialize, would be anything more than economic decline, political bickering that divides and occasional, prolonged far off wars. We accepted Darwin's flawed concept of the origin of man but this was not enough for God's mercy upon us to end. We forbade our public schools to offer simple prayers to God in 1962 but that was not enough either unless one takes into consideration the half century of chaos and violence our society has endured since then. We legalized the taking of life in the womb in 1973 which is estimated now to be 50 million lives but we still exist as a nation. Our latest offense may be our last in that, in our haste to accommodate the gay agenda through same-sex marriage we would be, in effect, offering up the minds of our children in just about every area of their lives, in what God very clearly calls an abomination. Personal opinion here, it is one thing to permit others in a free society to make choices that effects only themselves but an entirely different matter to permit an agenda to validate those choices to impressionable minds to whom God gave express warnings not to lead astray. Having said this, it is not the gay agenda, or the liberal agenda or even the radical, progressive Marxist agenda that should be our primary concern for all of those only emanate from the consensus of a people. It is our own individual failures that led to such a consensus that we need to deal with. We should indeed struggle within ourselves as to whether we have any right at all to speak against America's profane dealings with God for we ourselves have added to that but that is not an excuse not to stand for what is right. The reality is that we indeed are a sinful people...dealing with our own individual sin as we struggle to lessen the temptations all around us that exacerbate that sin in ourselves and further decay our culture, all the while pleading for God's mercy but knowing that we may have presumed upon that mercy for too long. The violence and imminent collapse of our own nation and the entire world is evident yet we continue to call what is good evil and what is evil good. As I have written often in this blog, no political or military solutions will cure us. They need to be addressed but only a sincere, individual and corporate, humbling before our Creator can give us hope for renewed mercy, and we are without excuse for the evidence is all around us, if only we would look, that God's judgments have already begun.

Da 'Gang a Six'

2011-07-20T22:00:00.019-04:00

Bam...bam...bam!
"Hey Rocky..ain't you supposed to knock po..litely!"
"Dis is my po..lite knock kid."
The door opened and there stood the Senator himself.
"Ah...Rocky...isn't it"
"You got a good memory Senator, dat tarp bill was a long time ago." Rocky began to giggle, an odd sight for a pudgy, stout, bowling ball of man.
"Heh heh, sorry bout dat but I put a few "Bills" in a tarp in my day but never a tarp in a Bill. Dis is my friend T-bone. I'm learning him da trade."
"Well, Rocky...and... T-bone...what can I help you with? I have to be present for a roll call in ten minutes."
"Heh heh" Rocky giggled again as he lifted his fat hand to his mouth..
"Something funny in dat...er...that... Rocky?"
"No...Well yeah. It reminds me of da roll calls I used to have to show up at in da pen. Dem was good times."
The Senator's eyes rolled and he looked around to see if his secretary was in earshot. She wasn't.
"Once again Rocky, what can I help you with?"
"Well, da gang a six sent me over here with a gift." He giggled again and apologized. "Sorry bout dat again, but I bin in a lotta gangs in my tirty-tre years on da street, and even a few in my tirty years of being incarcerated for crimes I never admitted ta doin, but I mean deez guys are more like dos' hucksters dat roust ya up to see da bearded lady at da circus. Know what I mean....but I guess dey are pretty good at scarin old ladies." He stretched out his hand with the envelope. "Its tickets to da opra."
"The Opera?"
"Yeah, its Rigoletto. Dats my favorite."
"You're...you're a fan of the opera?"
"Yeah. Well just dis one. I like da part where the guy stuffs the body in da sack. I been dere...know what I mean?."
The senator looked around again and said hurriedly. "Thank you Rocky and If I can, I'll try to make the opera but we have been awful busy lately with budget talks."
"Oh, I don't tink you'll be busy dat day." He pulled a large handful of envelopes out a bag that T-bone was carrying. "I got free tickets here for all da Democrat Senators, and even a few for dose udder ones. Da 'gang a six'...heh heh...says dere's a good message in dis opera and dey wants to make sure everyone gets dat message."
"Well thank you again. Good-bye."
He started to close the door but Rocky stuck his foot in it for one more comment.
"You know. I bin tinkin about runnin to be a Senator."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm gettin too old for dis business. Such is why I am learning T-bone here. Da next time I gotta deliver tickets or a dead fish or sump'm, it'll probably be T-bone here. I figger if Al Franken can make it, den I can"
The Senator nodded, said " You may have a point there," and was about to close the door but could not help but asking. "Ah, Rocky. And what state would you be ...runnin...in?"
"Ya mean ya get to pick one? I tink I might like to be da Senator from Las Vegas?"
With this the Senator did close the door.

A few hours before the Cut, Cap and Balance bill would come to a vote in the House of Representatives, the 'gang of six' offered an alternative.....to common sense. President Obama jumped on it quicker than a reporter on a Michele Bachmann rumor; anything but give airtime to a balanced budget amendment that might just get a heartbeat out of this economy. So what is the bill from the 'gang of six'? Well, they can't really tell us that now for its really only written in principle but trust them it'll be every bit as good as the principle after the back room negotiations.. How many times can you drag the same bucket with a hole in it to the well? This may be one trip too far for in the sweltering summer heat, with the citizenry in vacation mode until football starts for it may prove to be a big mistake to unintentionally invite the opinion of the Tea Party. The EPA might want to look into this for we have an endangered species...Rinos. If this nonsense does succeed, it might just lead Senator Jim DeMint closer to seeking the nomination from the Republican Party for President and as that old song goes "You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jim."

"Son...I did not try"...?

2011-07-14T21:13:00.000-04:00

It is my opinion that before this is all over, and by that I mean the Barack Obama era of either a four or eight year period, he may flee this country. Whether indictments will be part of it or not I don't know but after Americans become aware of the full extent of what this President has done to our nation, to our national and domestic security, of his real intent as opposed to the fictitious constitutional scholar on the covers of Time and Newsweek throughout 2008, and without the media protection that is already starting to crack, he will eventually, more likely seek the approval of those outside this country who, although not totally in sync with his anti-colonial spirit of redistribution of wealth, appreciate his larger vision of a... smaller America and his strong case...for a weak America. If the media does not turn its concern towards its own nation and its own families, as opposed to its own liberal reputation in its own mind, then Barack Obama may indeed sneak into another term. He indeed has his strongholds that will continue to give support, those primarily being the special interest groups who have profited well from the liberal entitlement party. There is really no love, either way, between the man and these groups for it is a simple contract where one party promises a remuneration for the other party's support and that second party will essentially sue, by threatening to withhold that support, if the promises are not kept. The motivations are power...and greed. A second support group is more international and involves the many who have great wealth. These elites will support either a Democrat or Republican who permits them to remain the dominant party in setting course for the world's economies. These two forces alone cannot keep Barack Obama in power nor replace him with another choice without either significant support from mainstream America or a division in traditional America that would essentially destroy the power of their block, and that is where the media comes in. They are a secularist faction that does not necessarily receive any monetary remuneration nor does it hold passionately to any particular economic or political philosophy. The only threat to their world that they have created on the pages of their print media and screens of the broadcast media is religion, and even there it is not Islam, liberal Christianity or Judaism but Biblical Christianity. Having said this...having given these purely personal opinions, I need to reiterate as I have done consistently in this blog that any of our schemes and all of our schemes, whether they be noble or ignoble, sound or unsound, cleverly devised and painstakingly developed or simply mob induced, will indeed either fail or succeed but not without God's staying hand or lifted hand. We cannot go one way or the other apart from His permission which will ultimately lead to His glory and the benefit of those who trust in Him. We do have a cause, that being a future for us and our children in a nation that insures freedom and liberty, and acknowledges that God is not only the source of all blessings but the author of all truth. The hard reality is that that may not be what's in store for our children. They may look at us one day and inquire as to what we did in the final days of the constitutional republic of the United States of America. Our answer will have to be either we tried and failed to protect that heritage, or we failed to try. Returning to that first political block in this whole equation, mainstream America, it will either wake up, as there are signs of, or return to a deep sleep, either of which will be as God sees fit to permit, for His ultimate purposes and to His everlasting glory.

The Faculty Lounge

2011-07-11T23:05:00.001-04:00

In her new book The Faculty Lounge, and Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For, Naomi Schaefer Riley, in her investigation of tenure in Higher Education writes that she is met with the argument of "tenure is the best protector of a professor's right to teach and research freely" and that every professor "needed such a shield." The author's opinion is that "the tenure process, which to a greater extent than ever rests on a professor's research rather than his teaching qualifications, is what is eroding American higher education from the inside out." She touches on a problem that most conservatives are all too familiar with as she implies that once tenured, professors tend to follow their own intellectual pursuits thus ultimately taking the entire college with them. Schaefer Riley takes the argument back to the beginning of the twentieth century when tenure was not an issue of academic freedom. There was a time, the author writes, when most colleges were religious institutions. Denominations provided the monies needed, but the source of funding moved to the business community. This new "Research University" was to "pursue knowledge free from any 'proprietary' strictures." Their goal was no longer to make students better citizens but to use their expertise to improve society itself. The sacred calf became the professors' "own scientific conscience." Schaefer Riley appeals to common sense in that , yes, some faculty positions do need a certain amount of academic freedom to challenge accepted thought but applying that to every class, particularly in an age of many mindless class subjects, enters an entirely different arena of thought. She writes that this is why there's no such thing as 'corporate-manager freedom' or 'shoe-salesman freedom' or "dermatologist freedom... ' " She also opines that high schools do not teach with the effectiveness that they once did and it now requires a college education to receive what was once a basic high school education. The individual may prosper in this system but civilization does not. Whereas once the institutions were guided by religious denominations, we now have the same proprietary guidance, only now it comes from whoever, or whatever funds the institutions, the liberal Ford Foundation, which the author describes as "the Ford gravy train,' being one of the most notable. She describes how it is not unusual for, for example drug companies, to prohibit the publishing of raw research data. Generally those funding the institutions want their philosophies espoused at the lectern. The author comments on the growing list of disciplines such as ethnic, cultural and gender studies" and concludes that "projects that are not strictly academic are not deserving of academic protections." She quotes here another who says that "political correctness represented the return of proprietary universities." She concludes on the topic of abolishing tenure that "When professors are engaged in imparting basic literary skills, or even classes on how to cook or how to start a business, there is no reason why their academic freedom must be protected." The author believes that "there is no question" that "tenure encourages an overabundance of publishing, and this publishing does little for the undergraduate student who is competing for a professor's time." She brings up an interesting point that may influence the debate on the quality of teaching: If education is constantly changing, why concentrate on traditional learning when it may be so different in the future? Are professors today therefore always trying to expound on something novel and does this help or hurt the undergraduate? Schaefer Riley points out that some schools are indeed trying to focus on the teaching ability of professors they are hiring but this is anything but a trend. She takes on the obsession with College and University rankings. Hers is not the first criticisms that rankings have had for it has been recognized for some time that there are serious problems with the criteria used selecting the top schools. I have a little personal history to share on this topic for I was very involved in our son's college choice, to the point of going through the core curriculum of a masters degree program in Higher Education. I won't name the school but there is a small college that is simply outstanding in everything a college should be. It demands rigorous study in a curriculum that has not been tainted by the politically correct, diversity driven courses of study that have plagued our higher education system. There is a strong Christian atmosphere on campus and it is consequently extremely hard to get into. U. S. News rankings acknowledged the college's excellence. Seems like this might be an argument against the criticisms of the college rankings, doesn't it? Well, as I saw these results framed over glass and hanging all over the administrative offices, I simply shook my head for they should have known that this media does not like the content of what is being taught there, nor the pursuit of truth and that these glowing reports may not last. Sure enough the college was put into a different category where the same statistics did not measure up as well. This, one of the finest colleges in this nation, is now merely a "best buy." The author spends a good bit of time on the tenured life as compared to that of the adjunct professor and we hear from both sides of this issue but the essence of the debate is that the tenured system does not provide a sufficiently improved education to counter the problems it creates and the inequality of opportunity it presents. The author adds her opinion here : "Aside from the hypocrisy of academics who claim concern for society's marginalized while ignoring the lower classes in their midst in what many would deem the unfair treatment of their labor force, is there any compelling reason that universities-as self-interested as any institution-should reconsider their employment policies? Why not staff classes entirely with adjunct labor? Why not give customers the same product essentially at lower cost?" The author then takes on the issue of unions in higher education. They are smaller than the typical auto workers union and therefore get less economic headlines but "their effects are growing." She gives a history of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP.) The adjuncts sought help with their plight against the tenured through unionization while the unions in turn were looking for growth in professional fields. Most professors are state employees and in 2010, for the first time state employees became the majority in American unions. The author delves in the many diverse problems and different situations that this issue has evolved into from state to state and region to region. She also describes the Supreme Court ruling where unionization was barred from private colleges. Ultimately, according to the author, the tenure system discriminates against the economic power of the adjunct community which in turn, turns to unions. The author believes that higher education could even get worse if the tenured system is replaced by the union system and writes that sensible answers must be found. Schaefer Riley moves then into politics and it's no surprise that the university system is solidly in the Obama corner. She concludes her book with the issue of the book's subtitle And Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For, what most people would have bought the book for, but its her final words before the Afterward that should resonate with the reader of a blog such as mine: "In order for schools to experiment with new models, to institute the real changes that need to take place, the faculty will have to get on board. Administrators-to the extent they want to-cannot make these changes happen. It's not because they are spineless bureaucrats. It's because they have no power. The boards of trustees-which are supposed to be backing the administration-are not paying attention. And the cries of parents and students will be heeded only so much. The balance of power at universities needs to be restored. The most certain way of doing that is by eliminating tenure." This is a microcosm of the problem we have in America. The desires of the people, and the power of their representatives, have been usurped by those elites who pad their own wagon while claiming to be laboring for the disadvantaged who are anything but helped by their schemes.

I Know Whom I Have Believed.....Redux

2011-07-10T23:30:00.000-04:00

Almost every day of my life I meet a friend or someone who may remember when I became "religious" back in 1982. They have seen me change my theology and churches and they may have seen me in my worst moments for surely I have given enough ammunition to cast aspersions on my profession of faith in Jesus Christ. I don't pretend to harbor the belief that they will see my ever-present wonderful disposition, courage and strength of character and then capitulate to the calling of God's Holy Spirit, for that is God's prerogative to call. What I do hope that they might see is a God who holds onto His own. I hope that in one of their more introspective moments they might see themselves in need of such a God who has mercy on the least and gives graces to persevere to the weakest. I hope that the joy that fills me to ecstacy might be seen through this personality that is still very much my own. The following blog was written August 30th 2009. It describe that time when God took a veil off of my eyes. I could rightly say then, and even moreso now, I know whom I have believed

I walked in a Christian book store for the very first time early in 1982, browsed the shelves for a little while and wound up buying a book that peeked my interest. It was Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. God had already been working upon my heart and my mind. I believe that I mentioned previously that I had just finished reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book (general non-fiction 1974) Denial Of Death by Ernest Becker, that made a good case against religion, and Eric Hoffer's small classic The True Believer that was a powerful work against anyone that believed anything passionately. I tore the Denial Of Death in half so that I could carry some of it with me. Then came Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It wasn't McDowell's intellect that effected me, nor even the truths in the book for many could have read it and not been affected. It certainly was not my decision to believe, for I probably would have fallen for any powerful philosophy at the time. I was a man with a void in my life. Were there any true purposes in this life? I was altruistic, or so I thought. It hadn't been that long since I volunteered and phoned an entire community of Democrats in support of Edward Kennedy's Pennsylvania primary campaign. God took a layer of veil off of my eyes. I had a glimpse of His majesty and I saw my purpose in life to become one more person to bathe in the sin cleansing blood of Calvary. Had I known the long path that I would have to take to even understand the gospel, I would have been severely discouraged. If I knew now my specific limitations and errors in my thinking I might be very saddened but not discouraged for I more fully understand that we indeed are pilgrims. His promises are true or I would not have made it this far. This may sound naive but when I see an elderly person, feeble and wrinkled, a person who was young and attractive at one time, it consoles me greatly for I see the reality of a quickly passing life but I also see and agree with, as Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy, "I know whom I have believed!" Take a peek at your watch. You cannot stop what that second hand, moving before your eyes, represents. Do you have arguments against God or even His existence? There is hope, and that hope is in a veil over your eyes that can be lifted, and in Him who can do so. He turns no one away who has desired this!

Evidence

2011-07-06T23:48:00.001-04:00

Even some conservative commentators were heralding the acquittal verdict in the highly publicized Florida murder trial rendered the day after our Independence Day. One of them posited that it was better to set free 100 of the guilty than for one innocent person to be unjustly convicted. I think that it's safe to say that millions of Americans receive a measure of injustice every day. Innocent people are killed by drunk drivers. Others are murdered, raped and tortured every day of the year. People's futures are destroyed by the greed of others. Marriages are broken up as a consequence of a liberal cultural that equates the concepts that our Founding Fathers put forth with every urge today that needs satisfied. Thousand of men and women in uniform have lost their lives in defense of our country and a certain percentage of those because politicians considered the power of special interest groups over the welfare of our troops. The worst injustice of all is the ongoing mass murder of babies in the womb. Yet some celebrate the acquittal of one who is the epitome of an uncivilized, barbarian culture, and they do so on Constitutional grounds. Common sense is crushed at every level of our society by the need to keep up appearances which trump content, intellect and wisdom. We are systematically deconstructing our heritage, some do it purposely and others because, quite frankly, they are too busy padding their own nests to worry about a little thing like the axe laid at the base of the tree. The public wanted this circus side-show, the media was more than happy to comply and the White House counted every minute a reprieve from its own problems. It's not that we consider ourselves beyond reproach for we are more than willing to accept, on behalf of America, responsibility for the ills of the entire world. It's individual responsibility that we want no part of and when we lavish a self-serving compassion by bestowing constitutional rights on enemy combatants we are merely attempting to assuage our own guilt for failing to rigorously study our Constitution and the meanings of freedom and liberty. We, as a people, are not absolutely certain that there is a God, but should there be one, we are supremely confident that he is a loving, slightly befuddled, easily maneuverable, guidance counselor/bail bondsman/social worker. Our biggest mistake of all is in ignoring God's righteous anger. We have accepted the mantle of invincibility with great humility. We can experience recessions, depressions and war but never will we see our nation grovel for food and mercy at the feet of our enemies. Never will we be ruled by a Stalin, not because of our vigilance, but because those type of tyrannies happen to other nations. We utterly refuse to take warnings of tyranny seriously but God will not be mocked and we are making mockery of Him a national pastime. We are blinded to the peril that this entire world is in at this moment, needing only one spark to ignite a a chaos of cosmic proportions, one excuse to unleash a reign of terror in the name of a one world government. We are in a state of slumber but we will eventually wake up and then the nightmare would begin; but there is still time for God may yet relent in His judgements upon this world...for a time...if we resolve to use that time wisely. For should God move mightily upon this nation, as He has done in times past, there is no force that can contain the spread of a grace, a majesty, a power so infused with His righteousness that hearts full of rebellion will melt, eyes closed will open and praises stifled by contempt will be released in the knowledge that God's love is indeed real, and far greater than the worldly mind can conjure up, but that love is first evidenced in the changing of hearts, opening of eyes and renewing of minds.

July 4, 1776 Was No Holiday

2011-07-04T20:04:00.001-04:00

A few hours ago my wife and I returned from a short trip. We had travelled the Pennsylvania Turnpike again going east on Friday and returned on it today. I've been driving this road for the last 39 years and travelling it as a passenger for least a decade more. I got out of the army in 1972, packed up my MG, canvas top down, at Fort Bragg, N.C. and drove home in the hot sun, so weighted down that I could motor no faster than 50 miles and hour. By the time I reached Breezewood I was dog-tired, semi-delusional and sun-burnt. To this day I don't know the exact sequence of events... I found myself on the turnpike but not sure if I was headed to Pittsburgh or Philly. I turned around on one of the medial strips meant for government vehicles and then thought that I may have been headed in the right direction to begin with! I switched directions again...and maybe even again. This wouldn't happen today for I know just about every mile of that road, and besides all I would have to do is look at the compass point on the dashboard. On this recent trip east, it seemed as if most of the vehicles were headed to the shore for their summer vacation. I could see the neatly packed SUVs, the hyperactive kids in the back seats and the smiles and laughs on the faces of Mom and Pop. The return trip was a little bit different. Many of the back windows were obscured by boogie boards, towels and beach chairs. The kids were either left at the beach or slouched so low in their seats that they couldn't be seen. The ones I could see looked anything but peppy, particularly one who looked at me with a scowl and gave this hand sign with his pointer finger and pinky raised. I haven't the slightest idea what that meant. I smiled back as if to say Yeah, hook'm horns. The big summer vacation was over and to make matters worse they were now headed into the glare of a hot setting sun. As I write this there are families who have just unloaded their SUVs at the beach condo and are heading straight for the sand and water, their vacations just starting; and others who had returned home, strewn all the contents of their vehicle inside the front door, separated the clean clothes from the dirty and are worn out, disheveled and not particularly desiring to converse with any other human being. A week from now, that first family will also be in retreat from the shore and the second will, by then, have long forgotten the vacation, both the fun of going and and tedious drive home. We look forward to vacations. They come...and then they're quickly gone. Time passes the same for the rich, the successful and the beautiful as for the poor, the defeated and the average looking. There's only one group that seems to depart from this rule. Time is no factor to them.....the lazy. The passage of time does not matter to the lazy for, to them, everything revolves around the present. Others seek to return to or at least consult the past to insure a future, but the lazy glorifies the future...right now, before it can arrive and disappoint. There is no need to get there, one need only envision it...it's a perpetual escape from reality, the film Groundhog Day redux where one is always arriving on vacation...never leaving. Sports is the ideal perpetual vacation but one can also use children, under the guise of providing a loving nurture for them, to ignore all societal responsibilities. What is ironic here is that there will be little of value left in a society where its citizens claimed so much love for their children that they had no time to pay respect to either God or Country. The lazy... Google God...the more earnest read His book. The lazy erase the written word while the more earnest memorize it. The lazy do not particularly like America for it demands a perpetual vigilance. The more earnest tires only of liberties and freedoms being discarded. The lazy calls everything a right, the more earnest sees them more as privileges and are thus more thankful. The lazy only wants to oil the squeaky wheel, the more earnest wants to fix it. The vacation is over in America. It began the day William Jefferson Clinton became our president and ended violently on 9/11. We, the American public, went back to work in our responsibilities for a few days...a week, a few months maybe and then promptly headed back to the shore leaving our military to do the work and even then criticizing them if they interrupted our vacation. When Barack Hussein Obama took office we finally severed all ties with our home and bought the cutest little beach house unaware that it is, in fact, a retirement community where our work and our opinion is no longer required, only a large monthly stipend of taxes to the government to employ enough people who will tell us how high the grass can grow, what kind of garden we can have, what color we must keep the house, how many cars we can have, what doctor to go to, when to speak up and what to say and when to shut up, who we can listen to and who we can talk to and who alone can educate our children. Winston Churchill once said that "America will always do the right thing, but only after exhausting all the other options." Well, all our options are up at this time. We, as a whole, have tried everything except the right thing, although there is the aroma of a rebellious fervor in the wind as the book below exhibits (released just today...Independence Day.) As a high school freshman in Brother Michael's typing class (1964), we utilized a sentence, typing it over and over and over, to improve our skills. Little did I know that it would one day be a requisite for survival. I will now speed time myself in typing this sentence.....nwo si the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Four seconds! Well...you get the message anyway.

From Russia..... With Love

2011-06-27T23:39:00.001-04:00

I've related this story at least once in the past but not with nearly as much information, for this last attempt to research this young man I'm about to tell you about finally found results. I couldn't remember his name, or the title of the book that he wrote, only a description of how he went from being a persecutor of Christians in the former Soviet Union to a new Christian speaking in North America of his past deeds. It turns out that the title of the book was The Persecutor and his name was Sergei Kourdakov. It was 1973 when I first read this book. I was 23 and this young Russian would have been a year younger. I had just got out of the army and was attending Pitt, while this young man's body had been laid to rest in a Washington D. C. cemetery, his funeral conducted by Richard Halverson who would later become the chaplain of the United States Senate. I would have been up for a lot of things in those days. I flirted with Transcendental Meditation and Zen while Christianity flirted with me and Sergei Kourdakov's book was one of the ways it did so. My recent research filled in a lot of the gaps in my memory and here is the synopsis of Sergei Kourdakov's story: a young Russian orphan works his way up to the Konsomol, a young communists league, and then the KGB primarily because of his athletic, intellectual and leadership abilities. His primary mission is to violently break up Bible studies among Russian believers. He does not like it for it appears to him that God is with these believers which would make him against God, should there be one. He tries to run away... like Jonah. While a naval officer, he jumps ship in the cold North Pacific and barely reaches the Canadian shore. He has become one of the Evangelicals that he formerly persecuted. Some say that he became a prize for some in the West with his testimony of persecuting Christians in the USSR and then his subsequent conversion. Indeed, he may have been thrust into a ministry too soon but none of this takes away from a strength used for evil turned to a courage used for the proclamation of the Gospel. He puts his story into book form and in it tells of warnings from the KGB to stop what he was doing or he would meet with a final accident. The book is published posthumously for he is found dead in what was eventually ruled a gun accident. Something stayed with me from that book but this blog isn't really about Sergei Kourdakov. It's about you (hopefully) and me. There is nothing in this world, in this existence, that compares with our Creator and what He has done for us. Are there questions? Certainly. I could write a book and you could also, on the things that we do not understand. What is infinitely more important is that He has written a book on the things that we can understand, not in our worldly minds but our regenerated minds renewed as often as we go to His Word. Many in America, and I'm one, dwell often on stories about our military heroes, about the ultimate sacrifice of some and the continued suffering of others. It's a very hard pill to take and we must do it, but there are also heroes of the Christian faith that are suffering extreme persecutions at the very moment that I write and that you read this. They are the ones that young Sergei Kourdakovs persecute today throughout the world and the ones whose persecution I am an accomplice to when I fail, as I often do, to remember in fervent prayer. My prayer at this time would be something like this: God have mercy on me for I know who you are. I know your glories and majesty and have all the freedoms to proclaim your name yet I fail to live up to that knowledge and utilize that freedom. I know that I am the least, the most unworthy yet you chose to have mercy upon me. Let me now lift up to you those who do not live in a country where they can freely worship you and tell others of the grace you so freely offer without severe persecution. The day may be coming when we here in America will be in their situation. Maybe it is the coward in me that says God have mercy on America...maybe it isn't, but as sure as the warning that KGB agents gave to that brave young Russian, there is a warning to us, stand up for Christ in America today or there will be no America to stand up for tomorrow.

Carnival Royale

2011-06-25T00:19:00.001-04:00

When you write a blog like this you need some time for relaxation...a little escape, but sometimes it can feel like incarceration.

Walking into the dark trailer from the bright sunlight temporarily blinded me. The man in the sport jacket over a turtle neck in 85 degree weather, who had his hand firmly clasped around my wrist, had no problem for the dark sunglasses helped him make the transition easily. The character of Oddjob flashed through my mind as he fit the description complete with a bowler hat on top of his head. I was a little bit disoriented and tried to focus on where I was. There were small television monitors across the one wall and a man sitting in front of them who motioned for me to sit down on a wooden chair directly below the glare of a floor lamp with a flexible goose neck. At least it was cool in the trailer so I took a couple of deep breaths before complaining, "Whats all this about?" He ignored my question and said "Tell me, are you a very good gambler...or just a very lucky one. Or is it maybe something else?" "I hardly call it gambling" I said, and he responded "Well, I guess that I shouldn't either for you seem to win all the time, not much gambling in that." "So that's why you brought me here. I win a lot?" "That's right," he glanced over at my winnings which the apparent security detective laid on the table in front of me and continued. "Is it mathematical equations? Nah, it can't be that, or are you some sort of magician?" "Look" I said brusquely, getting increasingly angry, "My wife must be out there looking for me." I paused to catch my breath and continued, "I pulled five bucks out of my pocket and if I had lost that I would be home by now." "Five bucks? You expect me to believe that you raked in that haul from five bucks?" "Yeah! I'm not going to waste more than five bucks in a dump like this!" With this Oddjob pushed me back into my seat and his friend said "We take a lot of pride in our work. We run a first class operation. A lot of people have a good time, we make a small profit, that is until someone like you comes around." "I have to find my wife." I said. "She must be getting worried by now." My interrogator was heavy set and bald. He began scanning the monitors on the wall. "Look at these screens. do you see her anywhere?" I pulled up closer to the monitors. She wasn't by the merry-go-round, or the caterpillar....or the french fry stand. "There she is. Look...she's looking all around....by the cotton candy booth" Curly, for lack of a better name, looked at Oddjob and said "Go get her. Tell her that we just have few questions for her husband." He looked at me "OK now?" I settled down "Make it fast." He got up from the desk and walked over and picked up Snoopy. It was a good three feet tall, white and fluffy, with a perfect likeness of Charlie Brown's dog. I fidgeted, for the tips of his fingers had nicotine stains. "Please keep your hands of my Snoopy." He set it down and pointed to each one of the stuffed Snoopys "One, two, three, four, five...and six...six huggable, squeezable Snoopys...all won on a game that, mathematically speaking, shouldn't give a winner more than once every other day..." I was getting more irritated and stood up "Look...I tossed the ball and it rolled into the red cup..." He met me face to face "Six Snoopys on five bucks... three balls a buck, that's 16 balls." Oddjob, who had returned, interrupted, "15 balls boss." "Fifteen balls... do you think I was born yesterday?" I didn't back down and shouted myself, in spite of the aroma of sauerkraut...very bad sauerkraut, coming from his flaming nostrils. "Look, there's 576 cups on that board...thirty of them are yellow, 16 are blue and one, in the center, is red! I just happened to toss fifteen wiffle balls and six of them rolled into the red cup!" He backed away "And I suppose you think that a jury will believe that?" "A jury?" I gasped. "This is a travelling street fair...and I won six Snoopy dolls....are you crazy?" "Crazy? Each one of those Snoopy dolls are worth thirty bucks! You walk off with a hundred and fifty bucks of my merchandise and..." Oddjob interrupted "A hundred and eighty bucks boss" "I don't care, a hundred and fifty bucks, a hundred and eighty bucks. I want to know how you did it?" "I told you....I rolled the little white wiffle balls and..." He interrupted again and grabbed a cellphone from his shirt pocket...putting it right into my face "You want me to call homicide?" Oddjob looked at him "Homicide...boss?" "Homicide, Vice, Immigration...whatever. You come into my house and rattle off how may blue and yellow cups.... I don't even know those numbers! You cased this place and I want answers!" I grabbed the phone out of his hand "I'll call the police! You can't pull me in here and give me the fifth degree because I rolled six little white wiffle balls into a red cup!" "One red cup" he shouted "out of six hundred and fifty two cups." Oddjob corrected him "576 boss" "I don't care how many cups are out there. What did you do...guide that wiffle ball into the red cup with some kind of remote control or satellite?" He stopped abruptly and his eyes widened. "Do you have an iPhone? You do, you have an iPhone!" he demanded. "Its an app...isn't it? You guided those balls with an iPhone app!" "Yes I do have an iPhone. Oh Look! Here it is" I said as I took it off my belt. " Lets see.... nine...one...one..." He grabbed the phone out of my hand and began jabbing on the screen all over with his finger, hoping to stop the phone call. Oddjob took it and tapped once to end the call. Curly ran his fingers over his scalp as if expecting to find hair and paced around for a minute or two. "Look. OK. You got me on this one. Tell you what...I'll give you three hundred smackers just to tell me how you did it." "I told you already. I just rolled the little wiffle..." He had had enough of my explanation and pushed me aside as he opened the door of the trailer. The bright sunlight invaded our space and I covered my eyes but not before I could see that he had no hair at all...absolutely none, and a very reddish complexion. "You can leave now...mister. But I'm warning you. By dawn I'll have your picture spread to every carnival...five counties wide... each direction! You stay away from Roll The Ball!" I didn't say anything. I just grabbed my Snoopys one by one and walked out. My wife threw her arms around me and helped me by carrying three Snoopys. As we were walking out of the street carnival, I turned and walked back over to the Roll A Ball. There were half a dozen kids and their parents standing by the rail, waiting to buy balls. I hoped Curly, or should I call him Goldfinger, was watching on his monitors. I started giving away the Snoopys to the kids. They were excited beyond belief and they and their families walked away, holding their prize for the night. I looked up and saw a camera pointing at me from a pole. I saluted into it and my wife and I walked off hand in hand.

There is only a grain of truth in this story. I did go to our local street carnival and bought a peanut covered caramel apple and spent a little bit of time at the Roll A Ball. Watching the kids faces is the real joy, especially since it seems that it was not that long ago that our son was rolling the ball. Today he's a lawyer who could have been called if this scenario had taken place. I did count the colored cups and spent some time trying to figure out just how to land that wiffle ball in the center cup.

Focus On The White House

2011-06-21T23:05:00.000-04:00

In normal times they might be right...the political strategists on the Republican side. The economy is so bad that it might be wise... in normal times... to highlight it in national elections, but these are not normal times. Focusing too much on the economy is doing exactly what the White House wants for two reasons; first, it takes the focus away from the most egregious developments of the last two and a half years and, second, statistics can be manipulated and last minute recoveries fabricated to lessen the impact of the economy at the time of the election. Right now Americans can see for themselves that this administration is lost in the eye of an economic hurricane. The anchor of our national debt will ultimately overshadow gas prices and homes sales important as they are. What needs addressed in every speech by republican candidates is the assault being waged on our Constitution. Just as Bill Ayers was photographed standing on the Stars And Stripes, Barack Obama is standing on the document that not only defines our form of government but holds it together. This is the issue that this campaign need to address and no amount of juxtaposing or airbrushing can lessen the impact if put in front of the American people.

-Czars: The federal government has certain powers that are enumerated in our constitution. The
            separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government
            was instituted as such to protect the citizenry from the tendency of man to seek more and more
            power that can evolve into tyranny. This doctrine of the separation of powers has been a hindrance
            to Barack Obama and he circumvents it in a number of ways, one of which is by utilizing czars. This
            is legislation through regulation. Our Congress has no opportunity to vet these appointees,
            nor approve them in the capacities they are given. It also cannot call them in to scrutinize the
             decisions being made. It is a serious affront to our federal system of government and needs to be on
             the front burner of this election period. The media willfully ignores it. Republicans need to do
            their work for them.
-Executive Orders: The purpose of the Executive Order from the Take Care Clause of the Constitution
            (Article II, Section 3) is to give the president the power to insure that laws that are already in
            existence are carried out. On February 12, 2010 the New York Times gave this report, "With
             much of his legislation agenda stalled in Congress President Obama and his team are preparing
             an array of actions using his executive powers to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other
             domestic policy priorities." It went on to say "Any president has vast authority to influence policy
            even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat."
             The Times went on to point out that President's Clinton and Bush issued executive orders in such
             situations. The battle lines are drawn on this issue and it is time that the American people are brought
             into the equation, not in simple he did it also arguments but sound and extensive instruction on
             constitutional law. If republicans can do this, the Alinskyites will fail.
-Government takeover of industry: It is not in the American tradition for the government to control our
             corporations and Ayn Rand expertly foresaw the abuse of this in her novel Atlas Shrugged.
             General Motors, for one, has effectively been taken over by the government which has dictated
             who the CEO will be, given preferential treatment to its employees concerning Obamacare (on April
             11th of this year a Washington Times article was title UAW and GM Get Covert Bailout
            Through Obamacare) and already used nefarious schemes to sell its Volt. The Obama
            Administration will simply call GM and others... success stories. Challenge these statements,
            challenge the constitutionality, challenge the bureaucracies legislating through the various agencies.
            Republican candidates for President need to focus on Barack Obama. The media will cry "foul." Let
            the American people determine what is foul and what is fair..
-Justice Department: Barack Obama's Justice Department under Eric Holder has shown a proclivity to show
            bias in its prosecutions and also what it chooses not to prosecute. The ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and
            Firearms) operation called Fast And Furious, which has been in the news and may continue for
            a long time, is an example of politics running law enforcement resulting in chaos and death. They had
           devised a plan to permit weapons to be sold to Mexican cartels ostensibly to catch bigger fish but in
           reality to provide evidence for Barack Obama's political assault on the Second Amendment. One
            bright spot in this fiasco is the courageous, voluntary testimony of concerned ATF agents.
-Recreation habits while a nation is in trouble: The last report is that Barack Obama hit the golf course over
            70 times in less than two and a half years. As I write this the Drudge Report headline is Playtime as
           once again he is on the links. There are tens of thousands of small business owners, corporate
           CEOs and heads of individual households who suffer exhaustion as they are fixated upon solving
           problems that would not even be on the same radar screen with the impending catastrophes we face
           as a nation yet White House galas are the norm. Barack Obama is serious in one thing only, his
            socialist and radical agenda, and is ambivalent towards American exceptionalism, dismissive of our
           American Creed and spiteful of what our Founding Fathers designed.
-Refusal to release records on his past: We do not know who this man is. He won't release education,
            medical or travel records. We don't know what kind of student he was. He himself admitted that
            Affirmative Action gave him a place on Harvard's Law Review. Has he ever written an article on
            the law or anything of note on anything other than himself? The controversy on his birth
            certificate is increasing in spite of the media's stonewalling. We do know that his past is adorned
            with friendships of socialists and even anarchists and that he has brought many of these disciples
            along with him to Washington.
-Courts: Barack Obama will have the opportunity to put hundreds of judges on America's benches. These
            judges will interpret laws, not from the philosophical tradition that you and I, and all of our American
            heritage, has viewed the Constitution from, but from a hybrid of postmodernism and elitism. The
           radical leftist thrives in direct proportion to an uninformed citizenry. Every tangent away from
           focusing on Obama is relief, every major sporting event is time gained, every emergency is an
            opportunity for a change of venue in the debate, every celebrity scandal is a blessed relief.
           and every day that republicans focus only on any single issue is revived hope for reelection.
-Fairness Doctrine: First of all these words do not reflect the intent. I have numerous conversations with
            friends who seem to have absolutely no information that is not given in their local newspaper or from
            the mainstream media. I have long since ceased being amazed. Unless they take the time away from
            busy schedules to actually buy a book they will remain useless in helping America at this time. The
            groundswell of revolt that has Barack Obama on the ropes comes from talk radio and the written
            word. The radical liberal knows this very well and seeks to limit the availability of opposing opinion.
            There is no plainer assault on our freedoms than this doctrine yet the media, whose lifeblood is a free
           press, chooses to tag along. To the liberal who actually enjoys this effort to establish some form of
           fairness doctrine, take notice, you may be next, for this form of Totalitarian censorship will surely
           stop your speech if it runs afoul of their agenda.
-Redistribution of wealth: Barack Obama believes that compared to the rest of the world America is a
            little bit too well off and within America there are those who are also a little bit too
            well off. I'm talking here about people who might make sixty to seventy thousand dollars a year. He
            wants us to be wards of the state, totally dependent on it and subject to fines and various
           punishments if we fail to comply. He wants to direct our children's eduction, for left to the liberty and
           freedoms that we have always enjoyed, they would also reject his agenda. Tennessee, to this elitist
           mentality, is no more important than Greece, in fact less so right now for the socialist dream must not
           fall with the European Union. There is no problem with the ultra-rich, in fact many of them need a
           world of serfs to provide and retain their riches and Obama himself will be rich throughout his life.
           No, it is not concern for the poor, for Socialism only increases poverty, it is concern over personal
           power and one's own agendas.
-Amnesty for illegal aliens: Amnesty means increased voter registration for Democrats... period.
            These illegal aliens believe they are coming into the America they have heard of and dreamed of.
            They are not and the man who is attempting to give them amnesty is the man who is altering that
           America. I have stated many times that Latino immigration is a blessing to America. You want to
           spend some stimulus money wisely? Accelerate the process for legal immigration and greatly increase
           the personnel who can accomplish this. Flood us with these folks for they can only be a blessing to
           our already diverse citizenry but it has to be done legally. What is truly ironic here is that it is assumed
           that Latinos will automatically vote liberal. I for one, do not believe this. In fact I believe that the
            traditional background of the Latino will ultimately reject today's radical liberalism.
-The Middle East: Barack Obama has shown a complete lack of wisdom in dealing with the upheavals in that
            region. He has undone many of the efforts of former presidents. He has found out that Saul Alinsky is
           of no use in foreign policy and has proven that his history of anti-war protest was a sham. He has
           believed the adoring press lavished upon him. His decisions concerning our military and national
           defense are, too often, politically motivated. He is in way over his head and has precious few wise
            and accomplished advisers and too many political strategists posing as experts in foreign and
           domestic policy.

Everyone should want issues oriented political campaigns. We need at least two political parties to spur innovation, to keep each other honest and to provide debate for the American people but our system has been hustled by those birthed by the Bolshevik Revolution, weaned on Saul Alinsky and burped by George Soros. No one has a handle on all truth and no one is totally immune from political machinations but we face something today that is more than disingenuous for it is devious, it seeks more than a supportive public, it seeks ownership of it. It has no humility, can experience no guilt and cannot admit error. And it demands of us...civility! Well, civility is what we must give but not the civility of surrender but of order and that order should be a systematic description of every failure to uphold our constitution, every attempt to distort the original intent, every political bribe, every misuse of power, and every intent with which to deceive.

Take The Grapefruit Test

2011-06-19T01:11:00.001-04:00

I'm a person of habits....to an alarming degree. I would never put my right boot on first! What kind of crazy lunatic would do that? I was in a quandary the other day after work. My routine is to take my seat behind the wheel and peel an orange while offering some thoughts of thanksgiving after the days work. I enjoy an orange every day on my ride home. This particular day, Wednesday I believe it was, I reached in my bag only to find a grapefruit! I had mistaken the orange...orange, for the orange grapefruit in the fridge. What to do? Do I drive for twenty minutes in disarray having no orange slices to put in my mouth.....or do I peel the grapefruit and put the grapefruit slices in my mouth? I opt for the latter for both oranges and grapefruits are citrus fruits. Technically I was in keeping with my habit but my face was contorted, and eyes watering the entire trip home. Are you a person of habits also. You may have gone to this particular church you belong to for so long that every hymnbook in the sanctuary must have your DNA on it. You sit in this certain pew and say hello to these six people and give a thirteen word statement about the weather to the pastor on the way out every week. What kind of lunatic would, short of excommunication, go to another church when everything is so.....non-threatening? What I am insinuating here is that you MAY need to look for another church. Try this test. Take a Tupperware container of grapefruit slices to church with you and eat one every time our redemption through the blood of Christ is mentioned. If you leave with a full container it may be time to reassess your church membership. If someone calls for the EMTs during the service....well, as Roseanne Rosannadanna would say..."Never Mind."

Steve Forbes On The IMF (International Monetary Fund

2011-06-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

Steve Forbes is one of the few of the ultra-rich in our society that I feel a camaraderie with. He ran for President twice (1996 and 2000) and is a Conservative. I have the latest Fortune and Forbes magazines before me. I open the former with a healthy dose of caution but look forward to the latter knowing that it actually encourages responsibility to society in fiscal decisions. It's Forbes' editorial in this latest issue that I want to write about. Titled Immolate The IMF, Forbes writes as if addressing Everyman of whom I am a part of. He begins with "What is the IMF.....and do we need it?", and proceeds to give a summary of the organization which most recently made headlines with the arrest of its then chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. I'd like to pass his summary on to you. He writes, "It possesses some $375 billion in assets, including 90 million ounces of gold. Most of the money came from you, the American taxpayer." Beginning his story with "Once upon a time" he describes the International Monetary Fund as having a purpose when it was created "in the waning days of World War II." It was to "undergird the new postwar international monetary system" where "the dollar was fixed to gold" and "other countries tied their currencies to the greenback at a fixed rate." It was created to give "emergency short term loans...to give them (struggling countries) breathing space." According to Forbes, it worked very well for a time, then in the early 70s, the United States was "beguiled by false economic nostrums" and nixed the fixed exchange rates. "Did the IMF close shop" asked Forbes, now that it wasn't needed. No, it "reinvented itself as a "global economic doctor." that would "cure all the (world's) country's economic woes." It could now "impose draconian measures on wayward borrowers" while the banks profited while avoiding blame for those measures. It was "Keynesianism on steroids" and "perpetuated poverty for its patients." Fortunately for us, Ronald Reagan came along and the U.S. economy "boomed" and other nations of the world "started to engage in more free-market economics." The result was that the IMF "had nothing to do." and "fewer and fewer countries on which to ply its poisons." Alas, "then came the economic crisis and the IMF was back in business" and is "peddling austerity without the necessary companion policies that engender growth." Steve Forbes' conclusion is to "shut it down" and "distribute the booty back to those who put it in in the first place" of which "Uncle Sam would ultimately collect more than $70 billion." South Carolina Senator Jim Demint, who is my choice to become our next President in January of 2013 (should God permit us to last that long as a Constitutional Republic) locked horns with Barack Obama on this last year and wrote "The International Monetary Fund board has approved a $40 billion bailout for Greece, almost one year after the Senate rejected my amendment to prohibit the IMF from using taxpayer money to bailout foreign countries." He continued in describing how various accounting methods were going to be used to "hide the bailout from Americans already angry with the $700 billion bank bailout," and also wrote "America can't afford to bail out foreign countries with borrowed dollars from China and certainly shouldn't allow state sponsors of terror a hand in that process." Thomas Sowell wrote as early as 2003 "More and more economists and others have begun to complain that the policies which the international donor agencies like the IMF have imposed on various poor countries around the world, using the leverage of foreign aid money, have made matters worse instead of better." This issue is still simmering and back on the front burner as President Obama, earlier this month, said in a speech concerning Greece, "We have pledged to cooperate fully in working through issues both on a bilateral basis but also through international and financial instituions like the IMF."

http://www.conservatives4demint.com/
http://www.tsowell.com/