Friday.....America.....A Mirror Helps Answer Questions

I was born in 1950. The grade school that I attended was close to the Buffalo International Airport. In the 1961 school year we were herded out to Genesee Street and looked on adoringly as then candidate for president John Kennedy drove by on a visit to Buffalo. All of the history classes that I had were respectful of the people who settled here and who piece by piece, built this great country. Were there exaggerations? Probably, but no more than one would expect from those who wrote those textbooks who fully realized every benefit and every freedom that set this land apart. On into high school here in Pittsburgh, the teaching was more realistic but still instilled a love for this country for the mind was now capable to compare our failures, our sins, with the rest of the world. I was never ordered to honor our flag for it has always effected me as it was portrayed to have effected the Jewish prisoners at the end of the film Life Is Beautiful as the stars and stripes adorned an American tank pulling into the concentration camp. I never felt better than people in our countries but I did feel advantaged . When I traveled, I felt honored to be with the South Vietnamese and the Paraguayan. I always felt that the Canadian was a brother and the English were forefathers. I respected all the Europeans and when I meet people today from other lands, I'm excited to ask them questions. The vast majority of people my age would feel the same way. Is this just a natural response for baby boomers that grew up in a Pax Americana? I don't think so. I think that many in every generation felt blessed to be pilgrims, colonists and citizens of this land. Having given these thoughts, I am often mystified at how Americans can so blithely sweep away this history and opt for the proven failure of socialism and bondage of an all-powerful state? Was it postmodernism that garbled the definition of words such as freedom, liberty and patriotism? What makes an established American actor praise Hugo Chavez and what makes us flock to see films of those who paint us as warmongers for the world to jeer at? I don't know the specifics of these questions but I know the source. We are human. American or not we are going to eventually reject the benefactor of these blessings, we are going to view ourselves as more intelligent, more progressive than those who came before us, totally oblivious to the fact that those we dishonor gave us the right to even question their sacrifices, their laws and their traditions. My questions are cleared up even more as I think about my own daily moments of rebellion, flattering lips and praiseless praise to the one who snatched me out of the fire and clothed me with His garments. So, It's really no mystery but sad nonetheless. I know this also. We're to go one step at a time, forward, humble, remorseful but filled with joy, for this human condition will not last forever and it is His faithfulness that will trump our unfaithfulness, His strength that will overcome our weakness and His righteousness that will conquer our rebellion.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Intellectuals And Society (6)

If one meditates on what had transpired in the halls of Congress over this past weekend, it should be evident that the warnings of the past year were accurate. We are heading like a locomotive towards a totalitarian state. The group of people who have commandeered seats of power in America had forced legislation down the throats of the American people. They had absolutely no qualms about their actions for they are convinced that ethics do not enter into the mandate given to the elite, the anointed, by the Fates. If you listen closely, you can hear from the celebratory comments, their true intentions. Nancy Pelosi admitted this legislation is the foot in the door necessary to greater (Socialist) ambitions. Vice President Biden admitted that this was the beginning of controlling the insurance companies. Representative John Dingell admitted that the goal was to control the people. Another official nonchalantly admitted that they make up the rules as they go along. I implore you to question their tactics and their accusations towards those who oppose them for it is their modus operandi to make outlandish statements and simply rely on the gullibility of the American public to believe the accusations and then click the remote to American Idol or NCAA basketball. Thomas Sowell's book Intellectuals and Society (978-0-465-01948-9) is so very important for it describes in detail how the intellectual wing of the radical left has developed its destructive beliefs and systems and then commissioned their political wing to institute them, and hold onto your hats for the enforcement part. I have previously reviewed the first five chapters of Sowell's book. Chapter six is Intellectuals and the Law. Sowell starts off with just as a free market economy puts severe limits on the role to be played by the vision of the intellectuals, so too does strict adherence to the rule of law, especially Constitutional law. If the law does not come from words on paper, then it must come from the minds of the anointed. Sowell refers to comments from a previous chapter in that when someone has expertise in one area (engineering or chess for example) it does not guarantee that this same capability applies to other areas of life, yet this is the garland that the intellectual bestows upon himself. Numerous academics and judges are quoted in the chapter. Professor Ronald Dworkin of Oxford dismissed the systematic evolution of the law as a "silly faith" based on the "chaotic and unprincipled development of history." Sowell continued, law-in the full sense of rules known in advance and applied as written-is a major restriction on surrogate decision-making, especially when it is a Constitutional law, not readily changed by a simple majority of the moment. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are mentioned as part of the early 20th century Progressive movement and Roscoe Pound (Dean of Harvard Law School) referred to the desirability of a "living constitution by judicial interpretation," called for an "awakening of juristic activity," and condemned mechanical jurisprudence for "its failure to respond to vital needs of present-day life." Louis Brandeis wrote an article titled The Living Law where he asserted that there had been "a shifting of our longing from legal justice to social justice." Sowell spends a good bit of time on how the Left then casts accusations of judicial activism on those who simply interpret the law as it is written. A number of historical cases are mentioned in this chapter including a description of original intent, "property rights" being one example given of present day attacks on that original intent. Another focus is crime and how here also the intellectual departs from common sense. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as one who exemplified the legal philosophy on the way out in that the role of the judge is to see that the game is played according to the rules whether I like them or not. It is difficult, not exciting, living in a time like this. Will we even learn anything if we right this ship of state? Regardless, we have a responsibility and that responsibility begins with rejecting this sound-bite culture and accepting the task and challenge at hand.

Tuesday.....International.....The Skies of November Turn Gloomy

This blog is written to those who may come across it from outside of America. The BBC news and a couple of other news sites from outside the United States are what I read on a daily basis and if this is any indication of news sources from other nations, you are not even being given a glimpse of what is going on in America. Our media has failed its profession. This is one problem we face, and the single most important reason that Barack Obama was elected President last year. The agenda that he had pursued his entire adult life was kept from the American public. His power grabs and the thuggery of his party in Congress since his inauguration have been ignored. We are an entertainment driven culture and our powers to reason, analyse and discern have been steadily declining for quite some time. Where we once saturated the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and with the prospect of freedom and liberty, we now specialize in sending the world our latest Hollywood films. Many throughout the world, no doubt, celebrate this new American consciousness but that celebration may be short lived for behind the news that you see is an America that has witnessed usurpers come in and while surreptitiously at first, they now boldly discard, piecemeal, our traditions, our laws, our constitution and have placed our republic in jeopardy. The skies of November will turn gloomy for the Democratic party, to paraphrase a popular song from our history, but the gales of November may come early in a world whose economies are teetering and where terrorist minds know our present situation and may wish to challenge our rhetoric, probe the limitations that this administration may have applied to itself and test our general will to defend ourselves and our way of life. There is no beating the chest and no declarations of prowess in the intent of this blog. Our strength has always been and will continue to be directly related to our humbling ourselves before Almighty God. We are not His special nation, nor are we His gift to the world. We are a secular nation whose foundations had acknowledged a creator, whose people proclaimed Jesus Christ as their Savior and whose pulpits proclaimed our weaknesses and His strength, our shame and His glory, our unstable ways and His immutability in His goodness, justice and love. We have strayed from this faith and if there is reason for our enemies to celebrate, it is this, but let them also know that the glory that is due Him and Him alone is what is certain and not that of our future. This also is true, the gospel is offered to all, and to those reading this from outside America, who have redemption through the finished work of Jesus Christ, though we be citizens of different nations, we are brothers and sisters in Christ who is our only hope.

*The Wake of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Social Networking

Most people have heard of the social networking site Facebook. Tabletalk is a monthly devotional from R. C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries (http://www.ligonier.org/) It contains a daily bible study each month, and also has a number of articles inside written on the topic of the month. For example, this month's topic is called A Brave New World and it revolves around cultural issues, one of which is Facebook. It's written by John R. Muether who is a professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He identified a number of issues with Facebook that are similar to those that have been floating around in my mind and I would like to share them with you. The author writes that we have lost the art of deep and thoughtful reading. Among other things, he points to blogging as one of the culprits and I'm sure I have contributed to this. As for Facebook, he says it trivializes the notion of friendship and is eroding our sense of community. Friendship demands real contact he says and he uses his 400 friends on his own Facebook page as evidence for he had, a few times, made friends of people who he thought were someone else. I found the following statement profound, the paradox is that it links us to folks far away while it separates those from whom we are closest. According to Professor Meuther it has transformed friendship into a commodity where we collect friends in our desire to build status. The time we spend talking about ourselves, he laments, is time that we could be spending in thoughtful correspondence with genuine friends. In another thought provoking concept he likens Facebook with today's modern church whose craving for members mirrors the individual's tally for friends. The other day I was talking to a young man who, for whatever reason, has forsaken attending any church. His response to my request for an update on his condition was I feel that whenever two or three are gathered together, that that is church. As misguided as that is when put in the context he meant it, it might be more meaningful on relationships than Facebook's cyberspace friendships. The author quotes another author, Shane Hipps in, Digital social networking inoculates people against the desire to be physically present with others in real "social networks." The author continues virtual communities have the advantage of allowing one to leave as easily as one joined, just don't respond to an email! The article concluded with an encouragement in an age of short attention spans; to read the next article in Tabletalk since reading one article has already been completed, and also to write a letter to a friend, adding texting or blogging is cheating. He mentions the good that can come from Facebook and hopefully there is good in blogging also. My reasoning for this blog? We are literally on the brink of seeing the end of the American Experiment as it has been called. Internationalists have, for quite some time, wanted America to follow in lock-step, the Socialist agenda they pursue. They have known that the American people are the cog in the works...too religious...too traditional....too....American. They have the administration in place they have wanted and it was their pressuring of this administration to get tough that partially precipitated the attack on our republic that we experienced over the weekend. As for the church, it is thoroughly modern. By and large, it is therapeutic. When it isn't, it enters politics for the wrong reason seeking the mind of the Founding Fathers. I have tried, perhaps unsuccessfully, to present a strong opinion of love for this country, but that love based only on God's blessing of others by having mercy on us and being long suffering towards us. Indeed, it is a line that is easy to cross over but the pilgrim's path must be travelled even though their are dangers to the left and to the right.

Wednesday....Culture.....The Alamo? More so...Remember "Amazing Grace"

There is a metamorphosis occurring to a large segment of America. The pomo (postmodernism) that sedated our minds for so long is now wilting under the current siege of the U. S. Constitution. Many are forgetting everything they learned in college and actually resembling patriots. In short, this coup now being waged upon our Congress has awoken many, but it may be too late. Messrs Axelrod and Emanuel will likely go down as architects of the worst run government in our history and preside over an unprecedented calamity to its own political party and maybe to the country. Most every young boy in America was glued to the television set in the mid 1950s as Fess Parker walked tall in that coonskin cap as Davy Crockett. Fess Parker died today. The characters he played personified the frontier spirit of America. There's more than a little irony in that Davy had his a fill a those ornery critters in Congress and was a happy as a pig in mud when his Congressafyin was done. In the Disney version, Davy sang a song on that last night of defense at the Alamo that has eerily stayed with me (most of it) over the past 55 years. As I remember it, Davy strum his a gittar as he en George Russell (Buddy Ebsen) sang these a words that begun Farewell to the mountains whose mazes to me were more beautiful far than Eden could be and concluded Farewell to ye all. In the land of the stranger, I rise, or I fall. America's enemies could never defeat it. As wayward as we have been, God gave us a strength to carry on for His ultimate purposes alone and His ultimate glory alone. Defeat could only come from within, not only enemies within, but from within each and every one of us. Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al are conducting a pogrom upon the Founding Fathers and their ideas, constructs and intentions while the media fiddles a cacophony of notes that are no more musical than their reporting is journalism, but the enemy is also, and more importantly, within ourselves!! If they fail to usurp the powers of the Constitution with this legislation, we will celebrate as if we had conquered evil when all we did was stomp the first rat of many to run at us from under the woodwork. If we do not prostrate ourselves before God and acknowledge to Him that we have failed miserably, as a government that is ashamed of Him, as a church that is ashamed of His gospel and as individuals, no more than I, just ashamed, then we will be overwhelmed every bit as much as the Tennesseans and Texicans were at the Alamo.

Tuesday.....International.....Existential or Territorial

Reiterating a thought from past blogs, the primary failure in Middle-East peace negotiations has been in not identifying "that element" in mankind that hates peace, has no use for negotiations and cares not for the safety of even its own people in its loathing for Israel. In the past, Israel had offered bold initiatives towards peace and at other times positively responded to bold initiatives. They have negotiated with people who want peace; both sides have given, there was hope for a time, until that element within mankind reared its ugly head and the peace ended and war followed. Anwar Sadat was bold in his quest for peace, but that element, once again sought only to destroy efforts for peace. Hillary Clinton, who should never have ascended to the position of Secretary of State, proclaimed that Israel must prove (its) peace commitment. What this does is embolden those who wait, in delirious hatred, for their opportunity to push Israel into the sea. It hurts the peace process and literally brings the prospect of intifadas and war nearer. The only peace initiative with any chance of success, would be the one that also addresses the problem with this question; What do we (the two parties) do when "those" who only want war, terrorize to destroy the peace... for they surely will? The Palestinian negotiators and people, and other Arab states involved in the process, must openly acknowledge this element. They have to not only make peace with Israel, they must unite with Israel against those who have had no honorable intentions at all as they spread their terror. At such a time as this, a comment like Israel must prove (its) peace commitment would be appropriate for they (Israel) would also be called upon to unite with those who up until then were viewed as enemies. It is fatally naive to think that only two parties, Israel and Palestinians, are involved, for those perpetual destroyers of peace and of hope must be acknowledged, and dealt with in unity by everyone who wants peace. Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal addressed this concept in today's issue as he described the hatred of some towards Israel as being an existential one and not a territorial one, for Israel's "existence" is the problem with them. I would argue that those who truly want peace, do have territorial concerns. Stephens castigated Israel's so called friends who piously said that they supported Israel's right to defend itself but ignored rocket attacks from Gaza. It is easy to simply criticize Israel and one has to wonder if this one-sided criticism is an attempt to avoid involvement in a conflict and thus seek their own prosperity; but this is an impossibility, it actually increases not only the probability of war but the scope and intensity of it, and ensures worldwide financial tremors. It would be wise for our administration to consider this and keep its most critical gaze on those who do not even want peace.

Sunday.....Christianity.....I Analyze Therefore I Am?

When our son was studying for his LSAT tests for admission into law school, I would try to help out by timing him on the practice questions. If I remember correctly, he had an average of three minutes on each question. He gave me one example of the type of questions he would have on the test. I worked on it for many days! He wanted to give me the answer after a few minutes but I have this thing about me where I enjoy a challenge. So I enjoyed working on it for it was a good mind exercise. I wasn't thrilled when I found out that there really wasn't one correct answer to the question but that the test was to give some insight on where the student's thinking process was going. Mine was going to infinity...and beyond! I enjoy a difficult crossword where I might only get a dozen answers, more than those that I could complete. I'm still studying the JFK assassination and if I lose something, it becomes CSI Western Pennsylvania as I scour the scene, go over the evidence and develop theories. I'm an expert at finding things because I'm an expert at losing things. I have analyzed the fact that I am an analyst many times, and I have even analyzed why I analyze that I analyze. Enough said! So I write this blog hoping that there are some out there who take my thoughts and go from there. Today's blog is simply one of those thoughts. The church today has many differences. We differ on baptism, the Lord's Supper, evangelizing, worship, the meaning and interpretation of prophesy and on and on. There are people who recognize this army of differences and therefore reject any attempt to find truth. This is so unfortunate. How can anyone expect anything but differences in a church formed in a world a seven plus billion people. The differences go further than the above into much more serious divisions, and this also is all too predictable. The church in America (and the world) differs in teaching how one is redeemed. There is no room for error here. Scripture is very clear on this. We have differences on how a Christian fits into this world and each nation they belong to. We differ on how we hear from God, and logic and common sense would say that one had better be on the side of wisdom here. I'm asking you not to become discouraged with this; to on the one hand, be above the fray of factions and on the other hand, humble yourself and realize that you will have to be taught, and to make matters more strenuous, you have to work hard at first just to find out who should be the primary teaching source. This is not a typical Christian blog for I'm not spouting dogma, rather trying to encourage you to stay the course for truths will become evident in time. I take this course in this blog because I have met so many people who demand an answer right now and at the first sign of difficulties in defending what they have come to believe, they cease and desist in dealing with the endeavor at all and end their pilgrimage. I have always felt confident in recommending Christian teachers, R. C. Sproul (http://www.ligonier.org/) and John MacArthur (http://www.gracetoyou.org/), two who have differences amongst themselves but none on the essentials of the gospel. One is a Presbyterian and the other a Baptist. The folks at the White Horse Inn (http://www.whitehorseinn.org/) are another organization I encourage you to visit. If you are Lutheran, Issues etc. (http://www.issuesetc.org/) is a wonderful ministry. Obviously, this blog is aimed at those who are currently being overwhelmed by a desire to cling to Christ. I have been there and know what it is like to need answers as I needed oxygen.

Thursday.....Politics.....Answers Needed Under Oath

Pennsylvania's primary is coming up in May. Arlen Specter is being opposed in the primary by Joe Sestak, a former admiral and now a United States Congressman. In answer to a question posed to him, Sestak stated that he was offered a high ranking job by someone in the administration if he would abandon his run for the Senate from Pennsylvania. Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff is challenging Senator Michael Bennet in their primary. It has been reported that Romanoff was also offered a job in the administration if he did not challenge the Senator from Colorado. Yesterday, President Obama named Scott Matheson Jr. to a federal appeals court. A few hours after that announcement, he met with Utah Congressman Jim Matheson (Brother to Scott) to encourage him to change his negative November vote on the health care bill. Scott Matheson Jr. is a respected law professor and normally his appointment would not be questioned but these are not normal circumstances. Richard Nixon's reelection campaign against Senator George McGovern was not even in dire straits in 1972, but human nature and the desire for power trumped ethics and the law. The cost of Watergate was great to Nixon and many around him. These, along with many other issues concerning this administration, will have to be investigated in the coming months. Buying votes would be a crime. The Matheson situation may have been unintended but even if it was it would have been incredibly stupid to meet with an appointee's brother the same day as announcing the appointment, and this on an issue as important as health care and the unethical method being used to bring about a vote.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Divided Society?

We are fast heading towards being a divided society. President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress tried to overhaul the current health care in America with socialized medicine. The public overwhelmingly said no! This was not a minor bill, it was a watershed piece of legislation in America. Though what is talked about now is much smaller in scope than the original, it is a foot in the door and would be subject to additions from here on out. The reconciliation measure would be back door and deception. It is so blatantly ethically corrupt that if it is used it may alter the description of the inhabitants of this country. Right now we polarized, we have differing worldviews. It is a difficult situation that breeds gridlock. A divided society is a much deteriorated condition. There would be two peoples within this one nation. There would eventually be two distinct enclaves, with two distinct educational systems. We would work together, hopefully politely, and then retreat to our people. Race would not delineate these peoples but be represented within both. We would have different diets, shop in different areas, vacation at different resorts and worship at different churches. As in the recently completed Olympics, we would cheer our own. If we were fortunate, we would peacefully coexist but the nature of this progressive mindset does not lend to accepting election defeats with humility. I have said it before and will reiterate it once again; Barack Obama knows he is a one term president and he also knows that he will lose the Congress at the end of the year. He is going to force his ideology on us and this is only the beginning. Executive powers will be used and if we experience a national trauma of some sort, exigencies will dictate. If this reconciliation passes, it should be a litmus test for Republicans. If they back off one iota from deploring this maneuver, they may as well move to the other party. Reconciliation would not merely be a tendentious decision, it would be a warped decision, changing society without the consent of the people-in fact against their wishes, done for political reasons without the best interests of the people in mind but the furtherance of an ideology that has reared its ugly head often and failed to produce what it promises every time. This is an opportunity for Democrats to not only take back their party, but to restore a healthy competitive political discourse to America.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Intellectuals and Society (5)

The BBC reported that U.S. President Barack Obama is planning "dramatic reductions" in the country's nuclear arsenal. According to the article, this will be done to prevent the spread of atomic weapons. Also according to the article, the world needs powerful evidence that the US is taking its disarmament responsibilities seriously. Medvedev is pleased! This is lunacy of the intellectual. I have been reviewing, chapter by chapter, Thomas Sowell's new book Intellectuals And Society and today's offering is Optional Reality in the Media and Academia. The vision of the anointed is how Sowell describes the ambitions of these people. He quotes J. A. Schumpeter in that the first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie. This is what we saw in the global warming fiasco but Sowell points out that filtering does just as good a job. He takes on the media in this chapter but in fact there are many books that have recently taken the media to task. Check out Bernie Goldberg's books on this as they are written through the eyes of an insider. Sowell points out various methods that might be used; they (the media) often simply feature the stories they want to feature. They report only what they want to report. They compare only groups in ways that further their cause. They sanitize when necessary. They suppress facts when necessary. They omit data if they find it helpful to do so. For instance, we have all heard how Britain has gun laws and lower gun crimes but we are never told that countries like Russia or Brazil have even tougher gun laws and higher murder rates. They filter things like this out. Sowell then zooms in on what he calls the creation of fictitious people and gives Herbert Hoover as an example of a generous and caring individual whose character was distorted during his presidency and that maligned reputation as a do-nothing president lasted for decades and persists even today. The concept of a non-nuclear world is utterly ridiculous and the failure to see how those who do not like us, beat this drum solely to get us to lower our defenses, is suicidal. Only the intellectual elite who are so enamored with their own personal achievements that they have long since let common sense drift away in the fog of relativity, could calmly and confidently come up with such peace initiatives. Previous to this book I thought that Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny was the most important political science book to be read but Sowell tackles a topic that has to be brought out in the open, that being a class of intellectuals in America who take short cuts in stead of doing hard work and even fudge those statistics and yet stand before us with no humility claiming to be of such advanced thinking that their ruling of us should be welcomed. I want to repeat a few sentences of Sowell in the last part of this chapter for they are profound; A sense of superiority is not an incidental happenstance, for superiority has been essential to getting intellectuals where they are. They are in fact often very superior within the narrow band of human concerns with which they deal. But so too are not only chess grandmasters and musical prodigies but also computer software engineers, professional athletes and people in many mundane occupations whose complexities can only be appreciated by those who have had to master to master them. (Here is the key to this discourse) The fatal misstep of many among the intelligentsia is in generalizing from their mastery of a certain kind of knowledge to a general wisdom in the affairs of the world. And again a few sentences later; Many intellectuals are so preoccupied with the notion that their own special knowledge exceeds the average special knowledge of millions of other people that they overlook the often far more consequential fact that their mundane knowledge is not even one-tenth of the total mundane knowledge of those millions.