Wednesday.....Culture.....On The Plains Of Marathon?

In 1981, Greece became the tenth nation to join, what is now, the European Union and changed their currency to the euro in 2001. They have since dished out entitlements and high wages, their government grew into a monstrous bureaucracy and corruption increased proportionally. They are now in deep trouble. If they go down, they may take the euro with them, and some say we will follow...as if we need any additional threats for that to occur. Strikes are beginning to consume the evening news in Greece and tourism is suffering. Pensions and state wages are on the chopping block. Greece is only the worst of a group of EU nations breaking under the weight of their debt and none of this has anything to do with terrorism which lurks in the shadows looking for an opportune time. Meanwhile in the United States a rebellion is brewing. The government is in the midst of a full-scale takeover, the people are up in....signs, and the states are beginning to say we gave you the power, you are abusing it, and we are taking it back. Folks, these are not run of the mill problems. We are in a period every bit as tense as the years prior to World War II. The prophet Jonah proclaimed that God would destroy Nineveh in 40 days. Nineveh responded with repentance and God showed His great mercy, but 120 or so years later, the prophet Nahum, preaching to the same city, came only with an announcement of doom. I have often wondered whether we are in a similar situation to the first Nineveh or the second, for surely it is one of the two. Our pulpits need to return to preaching Christ every single Lord's Day. I think that I related this story before. A number of years ago I came across a women's Bible study series by Carol J. Ruvolo. It was impressive for it engaged the readers mind in doctrine which was a rarity. I took the book with me on vacation to Hilton Head and laid it out by my chair at the pool solely that someone might notice it (this is the type of thing that I do.) I got more than I hoped for.  A pastor of a large Presbyterian (PCA) church noticed it and asked to look at it. He took it to his wife so she could incorporate it in the women's bible study at their church.  Today, a Pittsburgh newspaper ran a story of four ministers who were going to run a marathon to bring attention to help still needed in Haiti. Unless they plan on either dying on the course or finishing in ten hours they must be putting in an enormous amount of time training. As important as extending help is, our churches are starving. Our Bible studies have been consumed only with topics such as forgiveness for as long as I have known. If the congregations find out that they have not been fed, Christ has not been preached...they will need that desirous ability to forgive. Abraham Lincoln once said I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. Truly, there is no where else to go. 1942 was not a year for trivial pursuits, 1941 should not have been, nor should this year.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....N...E...W...P...A...R...A...D...I...G...M

Rummaging through an old file cabinet, a few sheets of paper fell out, an essay I had written some years ago about a futuristic society. I thought that I might use it as one of my blogs:

The following is a futuristic essay on the demise of the "word" in favor of the "image." My contention is that Postmodernism is a "trojan horse". Outwardly, it defends the rights of the "marginalized" and the "other." Inwardly, it is rebellion against truth and anything that proclaims or relays it.

     The police cruiser pulled up to the curb. There were no markings on it as it was only identifiable by its colo,s as were the uniforms of the officers. The license plates were holograms that could only be discerned by the hand held scanners carried by most citizens. Immediately, two officers emerged from the car and spray painted over the obsolete and illegal, five-foot graffiti letter "R." scrawled on the wall of the city newspaper, the Image.  The "R" did not stand for anything in particular for "words" were no longer in existence in written form. The year is 2040. Ten years had passed since alphabets, words, and any symbolism other than images, were banned. Anarchists were active but dwindling in number and would occasionally paint a letter or a number on walls to show disdain for the new society of the "image."
     The cataclysmic cultural change came under the headline of "evolving paradigm." The beginning of the 21st century had seen a religious awakening of immense proportions. Traditionalists battled New Classers in the political arena and lost. The "written word" of the religious was deemed the culprit in slowing the evolution of the new paradigm. Had the battle been relegated to words, the Traditionalists would have won. The New Classers, with the help of the media and Higher Education, forced the venue of argument to images. In what may have been the biggest mistake of any ideological conflict, the religionists acquiesced and entered the arena of the image. Television and film captured the sparring between the two sides. The religionists were no match for a debate of images, whether actual film footage or dramatized productions, for the human mind could only go so far in analysis of images. Their most powerful weapon, the written word, sat impotent and useless. The"Image Party," as they were now called, controlled the Congress. The most powerful cabinet position in the Executive Branch became the newly formed Department of the Academy.
     There was a celebration of power going on among academics who were widely viewed as liberators of the mind. It took years, but books were gradually replaced by instruction players of all kinds. New technologies made it possible for instruments the size of a pack of gum, to not only voice instruct, but send a beam of instructive film footage on any blank wall. There was no evening newspaper, rather a slide that fit into any inexpensive player and gave all the news with pictures and commentary on the living room wall. One would choose a certain spaghetti sauce by the picture of either ingredients or a graphic chosen for the taste. They would press the red "instruction dot" on the package to hear directions for preparations. Traveling upon the highway, one might see the image for Pittsburgh or Buffalo on signs. They would travel at a speed indicated by the color of signs. If stopped for a violation, they would produce a drivers license that spoke to the officer.
     That transition had not come easily. Multitudes rebelled at first but the power of Higher Education relegated those who clung to the written word to servile jobs. Even the most staunch Traditionalists encouraged the children to seek the "best" in life. Children ten years old and younger had no idea what the alphabet was. Teens would watch their favorite football team and discern who the players were by the personalized images on the jerseys.  A request to turn on CBS would fall on deaf ears for it was simply Columbia. They no longer associated a "letter" with anything. Numbers existed but as sounds. How did one add or subtract? They simply spoke into a "cypher recorder" and it spoke back. America led the way and the world followed, happy that this former bastion of patriotism and religion had transformed itself.
     Problems with the "new image" paradigm first occurred in the courts. To the unindoctrinated observer, a jury trial would seem normal as it progressed, save for the lack of paper in anyone's hand. The problem was in the mind of the juror. For ten years, the power to analyze remained dormant. They would initially beam with interest as the trial proceeded but when the time for deliberations came, they would sit befuddled. Their inability to analyze could not scratch the surface of intricate problems. they could not easily come to any decisions whether guilty or innocent. Such decisions were becoming rare. Mistrials were flooding the courts and crime was practically impossible to punish. The Image Party countered by doing away with jury trials in many states and letting judges decide the matter. Judges experienced the same problem as juries and convictions increased only because quotas were imposed on judges and they arbitrarily met those quotas.
     Academia squirmed in their chairs over this problem. they were already beset with "grading" problems since no letters remained. Diplomas had to resort to waxen images of the institution. The "great advances" of the New Class had returned society to the imprimatur of the Roman Caesar. The sciences fared no better, The first generation of scientists under the new paradigm took technology to heights not even previously imagined. The second generation could use the new technology but expand upon it not one iota.
     The family suffered the most. There came to be no distinction between father and mother. To begin with, same sex marriages had increased to half of what traditional marriages were. No one could explain adequately to children why they should be obedient. Even the former president of Harvard, now the Secretary of the Academy, wept openly as one  of his students received a Rhodes Scholarship for his work on "the Future Possibility of the Eradication Of Human Conception In Favor Of Satellite Wombs."
     The officers returned their spray paint cans to their sacks when a man emerged from the shadows and began to shout "A...B...C" The officers immediately pounced upon him and dragged him to the car. "D...E...F" he continued. They threw him down before the magistrate who said "You are being charged with speaking letters." How do you plead?  "G...U...I...L...T...Y" he answered. He was held for trial but acquitted for the judges quota had already been reached. The government did not stop at this and he was incarcerated anyway. He appealed. The Supreme court had one more case to fill their docket and he was the last petitioner. The case, "The Government vs the Letter" made nightly news. Television cameras surrounded the justices as both parties squared off. The petitioner chose to represent himself and spelled out every word of his defense. The Government objected but the court, whose average age was 37, could not agree as to if the defense procedure was admissible. The petitioner continued. Americans watched on their screens as letters were brought fresh to their memories. the court received millions of pieces of mail in the ensuing week. Most of these were not made with oral messaages of the day but deliberately scrawled letters forming words. The judges sat in their chambers reviewing the case but could not block out the sound of thousands of people outside shouting "A...B...C...D."
    The whole nation awaited the court's decision. Where had the New Class gone wrong? They had successfully obliterated letters and books. How could such an immense groundswell of support for  a return to this archaic paradigm exist? The man who had initiated this furor sat in a pew. His was one head in hundreds looking to the man in a pulpit wearing a black robe who preached from the Bible. Not from a book but from God's computer chip of the mind, the memory. He would recite verses and the people would complete the verses from memory. The church was packed with journalists standing around the back in order to see the petitioner when the Supreme Court came down with the decision. A snippet of the service was played on the national news. Academics from across America sat and watched and nearly to a man and woman, it became clear to them that they had failed to silence the most powerful conduit for Traditionalist thinking of all. They originally thought "Go ahead...preach. what good will it do without the antiquated corresponding symbols?" They had miscalculated. The power was obviously in the preached word, not the symbols. Fear enveloped the New Class as they watched this demonstration.
     Letters were being shouted across the land. Automobile drivers would stop at red lights and yell out their windows "S...T...O...P" and then "G...O..." when the light changed. Cashiers at grocery stores would say "S...E...V...E...N...D...O...L...L...A...R...S...P...L...E...A...S...E" and customers would reply "T...H...A...N...K...Y...O...U."  The populace was revolting. Word was in that a decision had been returned from the Supreme Court. It seemed that the whole world was tuning in. Supreme Court Chief Justice Katlyn Jones stood and glared at the media present. She then said "In the case of "The Government vs the Letter".....we find in favor of the.....P...E...T...I...S...I...O...N...E...R." Celebrations took place in every city and small town in America. Masses of people rushed their municipal buildings and state houses. not with guns, but with books long since secretly stored in dusty attics. Thus was the fall of the New Class and beginnings of a new hope.

Sunday.....Christianity.....The Christian And Politics

Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson were both part of Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority who not only left the organization but used their journalistic skills to work against it. The result was their 1999 book Blinded By Might, Can the Religious Right Save America. I pulled the book off of the shelf to reread it for it was the time of its publication that I began to seriously question a Christian's place in politics. I have written time and time again, and emphasized to the best of my ability, how it is futility to depend on politics and the government it produces to save America against enemies without and within. We continue to, not only cross that line, but build on the other side and fail to even return for short visits of reflection. The warnings given in the book are all well founded but the authors warn only against the snakes off of the road being traveled and ignore the highwaymen and murderers who wait in prey for the overconfident traveler. The critics always proffer the advice that a Christian still has responsibilities to perform in civic matters but the advice given, by the authors and others who concentrate on this problem, is as helpful as George Carlin's sportscaster who gives the scores...8 to 5, 4 to 1, 7 nothing, 10 to 8 and 6 to 5. Just as the Saul Alinsky clones have duped their followers with illogical and downright false sound-bites that propel them on their Progressive journey, the Republiican leadership all too often leads their patriots with a handfull of issues that fit nicely on cardboard signs but also serve to keep them from thinking through the issues in order to adequately defend them. I agree with the authors of Blinded By Might in that when the church involves itself in politics, it accomplishes little and nearly ruins itself. The grand failure of today's pulpits is twofold, first they are too often a proxy for politicians, but secondly and infinitely more important, they fail to see that preaching the Bible (as they like to bill themselves) can even be done by cults and that to truly preach the Bible is to preach Christ. The authors rebelled against what they saw in the Moral Majority as the ultimate aphrodisiac...power and also its failure to see that America needs change from the inside-out.  Dobson's reasoning seemed to be on the concept of loving your enemies while Cal Thomas concentrated on the parable of the landowner who said to wait until the harvest to pull the weeds and burn them. Thomas quotes Harry Blamires in a book that I also highly recommend, The Christian Mind, in as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion-its morality, its worship; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal. Another worthy quote comes from C. S. Lewis I didn't go to religion to make me happy, I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to  make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity. Thomas says our challenge is not to bring pressure through new strategies of the Republican party, rather it is to bring reflection, a respect for history, and standards of faith to the whirl of information and the advance of technology...this is the gift we offer to culture. Interestingly, since since the publication, Ed Dobson voted for Barack Obama in 2008 while Cal Thomas continues with his syndicated column sounding a lot like the politically aware person he always was. I'm as concerned as the authors were on the mix of politics and Christianity in the strategies of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed but Bill Clinton was treated sympathetically in the book while Dr. James Dobson was severely taken to task. The proclamation of the Gospel is the truth that should motivate us and the only answer to the evils and tyrannies of this world. It would be wiser to look at Dr. Dobson as someone in the same boat as we are, engage him in areas we disagree but rejoice in the contributions he made while not letting our own follies stray too far from our minds. One answer to this problem, in my opinion, is separation of politics from the pulpit and not expulsion of politics from the Christian mind for as John Bunyan so beautifully described in Pilgrim's Progress, we are on a path, and as Christian encountered two lions on his journey, they were tethered. All the tyrannies we face are also tethered as they might destroy our salvation but they are not tethered as they affect our lives and the futures of our families. We cannot abdicate our responsiblliilties nor can we accept voting once every two years as fulfilling that obligation. As a church, we are as illiterate in the doctrines behind the parables as we are in the reasoning behind the issues of the day and motives behind the rhetoric of the politicans. We need a sound Christian mind even more than any constitution. I made an infrequent visit to a nationally known Christian bookstore today. Christian bookstores were always weak in doctrinally strong Christian literature and always plentiful in the latest fads in Christian circles but this particular bookstore had gone well beyond the term weak. On the shelves, face out, were books by Van Jones, William Sloane Coffin Jr. and Richard Dawkins. Also highlighted was a new book called God Is Not One which is no mere apologetic book on the world's religions but a legitimization of them. On a special table at the entrance were environmental books including The Green Bible complete with a forward by Desmond Tutu. To the Christians who are not willing to enter the realm of politics, there is a pacifist option available, even more important, thus more needed than retaking the Congress, and that is defending the Gospel but I warn you, it is equally difficult and attracts the same kind of charges, anger and vitriolics. 

Friday.....America.....Arizona

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today signed into law a bill that is the strongest effort yet against illegal immigration to America. It's even a front page story on the BBC's internet news site. Some conservative commentators have shown concern over aspects of the bill. Arizona shares its southern border with Mexico. It experiences drugs and crime due to illegal immigration more than most, thus it responded with defensive measures more than other states. NBC News described this as the nation's busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico which is reeling from violence within its own borders. One change is that the bill makes immigrating illegally a crime but the most criticized part is that it requires law enforcement to question immigration status when there is a reason to suspect such a situation. One side says that the bill will lead to a spiral of pervasive fear while the other says that it takes the handcuffs off of law enforcement. President Obama ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to see if the bill is legal, which is an interesting proposition in itself. The Mexican government is more than grumbling about it and warns of harm to diplomatic relations between the two countries.. One Arizona Congressman called for conventions to boycott his state. The law itself will not take effect for a few  months. I have written on illegal immigration a few times in this blog. Legal immigration of Latinos is a great blessing to this nation. These folks are a welcome and needed addition to our citizenry and I am for celebrating their arrival, and once a citizen, they are every bit as much an American as I am, but illegal immigration is a political issue. To some, this is a massive influx of Democratic voters. Arizona is well aware of the criticisms of the bill. Training programs are planned and the actions of law enforcement will surely be scrutinized to a great degree. Legal immigrants who have come to this country and become fellow citizens suffer because of the machinations of those who use immigration as a pawn. A local Mexican restaurant is one of our favorite places to dine out. The same six or eight young Mexicans are always there and it's a pleasure to experience the food, the ambiance and the polite service. They may be here legally, and they may not but I look at them as fine, hard working, young men who have come here to experience the American Dream; such is the respect I have for millions of Latinos who have come here, just as the millions of Irish, Polish, German, Italian and any others of whom my ancestry touches upon four. President Obama plans on using this issue in the 2010 election campaign. If Congress falls for the schemes of those who would show little empathy for any group of immigrants that came here to escape Socialism and Totalitarianism but rally over this particular voting bloc, they would being setting a precedent that would effectively destroy one column of the foundation of law itself. Just as in  the heath care debate, it is imperative to look beyond the speeches that are merely lullabies meant only to somnambulize those who might see the logic from those protesting the disintegration of society, one means of which is amnesty for those who break the law, and this for political gain. The Arizona House of Representatives also voted to bar presidential candidates from the ballot if they do not produce a birth certificate. Laughable and lunacy are two words I have seen in description of this but I don't think the administration is amused.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Intellectuals And War

Thomas Sowell's articles can be found at www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell . The fundamental difference in the Intellectual's view of war, according to Sowell in his chapter Intellectuals and War is that they eschew the value of military strength for international negotiations/or disarmaments to avoid wars. Sometimes they are for a particular war, he writes, this varies due to the conditions of the times and Woodrow Wilson, and others were for forced intervention in various areas of the globe. Prior to the First World War many believed that the world, after a long lull of major war on the continent, had left war behind, as a thing of the past. This lack of concern and preparation led to totalitarianism...spawned in the chaotic aftermath of that war. Wilson, according to Sowell, saw the autocratic nature of the German government as the culprit and viewed the Czar's overthrow in Russia this way; heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia. Sowell writes of Wilson, Wilson depicted actions taken without material motives to be somehow on a higher moral plane than actions taken to advance economic interests of individuals or the territorial interests of nations. Sowell points to the ease that Hitler had in picking off the smaller states that resulted from the demise of the Habsburg Empire and says that Wilson undermined the Kerensky regime that followed the czars which in turn led to the takeover by the Bolsheviks. Pacifism was worn as a badge of honor after the devastation of World War I. Sowell relays a bit of repartee at a British Labor Party election. One candidate proclaimed that Britain ought to disarm as an example to the others. Roy Harrod, an economist questioned this in you think our example will cause Hitler and Mussolini to disarm, to which he was met with Oh Roy...have you lost all your idealism? War had become the enemy rather than any prospective nations. Aldous Huxley called a battleship repulsive...squating there on the water, all its poinsonous armory enlarged into instruments of destruction. They were not seen as deterrents but as malign influences. The teachers unions in France led the way objecting to postwar textbooks favorably depicting the French soldiers who had defended their country against German invaders. This was moral disarmament and Hitler later remarked that France was no longer the same France that had fought doggedly through four years of the First World War. Ignorance was viewed as the cause of war, and not wickedness. The European politicians knew of Hitler's illegal rearming but that did not matter, only the next election did. Sound familiar? According to the author, neither the press nor the politicians wanted to tell the French pubic what they did not want to hear. Many in Britain considered Hitler a clown and The Times called him a moderate. When World War II started, Britain did not see its first victory untill the battle of El Alamein, the United States until Midway. Sowell concludes this chapter with neglect of history has allowed us today to forget how narrowly the Western democracies as a whole escaped the ultimate catastrophe of a victory by Hitler and his allies.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....The Foundation Of Protest

There's is an outcry against the strong rhetoric of conservatives, Tea Partiers and grandmas.  This is not spontaneous, it's the typical talking point memos right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook. What they are demanding is that a wholesale takeover of the government should proceed without criticism and description of it as such. The malcontent, the violent anarchist and the equally violent seperatists wholed up in a mountain fortress are more in line with the "Progressive" who rips out the pages of history, and reads the Constitution with a vivid imagination, than those, liberal or conservative, who have wrangled over the issues for decades. Those who buy this nonsense they have been had and are being led around by a ring in the nose.  It does not matter that Al Gore screamed into his microphone of President Bush, He betrayed this country!!!. One national commentator excoriates those who are using the word regime when he himself used it numerous times against the Bush Administration. Facts and truth are worth less that marks during the crisis years of the Weimar Republic. The word sedition is being sounded, but this is acceptible. Is there a serious situation here? Yes there is and I have written over the last year, with great concern, how the unconstitutional and unauthorized actions being implemented would lead to what we are experiencing. Democrats in Congress have allowed this to happen by not challenging their own party leaderships' methods. The silencing of Conservative Talk radio is the ring the elite continually reach for as they ride the carousel of media manipulation. Hillary Clinton shouted in her screed:

I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you are not patriotic. We need to stand up and say "we are Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any adminstration!!

The forced policies, the methods used and the upheaval in the processes of government today are the very lack of debate Hillary demanded, while the response is charges of sedition. I have said this before, I cannot bring myself to believe that the mainstream media with its numerous corporate boards, employees and advertizers, will continue to support and cover for such an extreme element of American politics. Do they not know that their own future revolves around liberties, freedoms, freedom of the press and toleration of dissent? Sooner or later they must say "Enough is enough. We will not be lapdogs for a movement that would turn on us as soon as look at us."  If they do not, they may find themselves in the position of the British colonel played by Alec Guinness in The Bridge On The River Kwai who could only utter what have I done as he realized what he had aided. This protest movement needs to be grounded in humility first and foremost. Our own failures contributed to the breakdown of the traditional family, higher education, constitutional government and thus the ascendance of those who would move in on such a chaotic atmosphere. If we do not cry out to God, we need not cry out at all, for as I quoted Rowland Taylor in the previous blog He trieth and correcteth us, and not without just cause.

Sunday.....Christianity....."Five English Reformers"

John Hooper was a bishop in the Anglican church during the reign of Henry VIII and the glorious reign of Edward VI. He lived through the beginnings of the English Reformation and struggled, preaching often three and four times a day, against the forces that worked against the Gospel. He was burned at the state for his faithfulness in 1555 during the reign of Queen Mary. He is attributed with writing this poetry with a piece of coal on the wall of his jail cell:
Content thyself with patience
With Christ to bear the cross of pain;
Who can or will recompense
a thousand-fold, with joys again.
Let nothing cause thy heart to fail:
Launch out thy boat, hoist up thy sail,
Put from the shore;
And be thou sure thou shall remain
For evermore.

Fear not death, pass not for bonds,
Only in God put thy whole trust;
For He will require thy blood at their hands,
And thou dost know that once die thou must,
Only for that thy life if thou give,
Death is no death, but amens for to live.
Do not despair;
Of no worldly tyrant be thou dread;
Thy compass, which is God's Word, shall thee lead,
And the wind is fair.

Rowland Taylor was a pastor during the same period and was called to account as a villian for preaching the Gospel. When friends advised him not to report his response was: What will ye have me do? I am now old, and have already lived too long, to see these terrible and most wicked days. Fly you, and do as your conscience leadeth you. I am fully determined, with God's grace, to go to the Bishop, and to  tell him, to his beard, that he doth naught. God shall hereafter raise up teachers of His people, which shall, with much more diligence and fruit, teach them than I have done. For God will not forsake, His church, though now for a time He trieth and correcteth us, and not without just cause.  Rowland Taylor was also burned at the stake.
Bishop Hugh Latimer wrote: My wish is, that men may write on their hearts that the well-being of England depends not on commerce, or clever politicans, or steam, or armies, or navies, or gold, or iron, or coal, or corn, but on the maintenance of the principles of the English Reformation. Before being burned at the stake he turned to another martyr and famously said: Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.
In 1552 John Bradford wrote of those days as those is the days of Noah, often forwarning the people of the plagues which would be brought to pass. He also was martyred and wrote: When I consider the cause of my condemnation, I cannot but lament that I do no more rejoice than I do, for it is God's verity and truth.
Nickolas Ridley was a chaplain to Henry VIII and later the Bishop of London and also ran afoul of Queen Mary for preaching the Gospel. In a farewell letter to prisoners he wrote: Farewell, dear brethren, farewell! And let us comfort our hearts in all troubles, and in death, with the Word of God: for heaven and earth shall perish, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
I write these things as encouragement to myself as well as anyone else.  These stories come from a small paperback book titled Five English Reformers written by the great 19th century English Anglican preacher J. C. Ryle.  The book can be purchased at http://www.cvbbs.com/. We have to know what transpired in the past that secured our blessings today. We ignore the sacrifices of others to our own peril. How trivial are the entertainments of today when compared to the blood, sweat and tears and most of all the faithfulness of those who came before us.

Saturday.....War On Terror..... The Best Laid Plans Of.....

If it were only an issue of the Palestinian people, there would have been peace in the Middle East a long time ago. Monies have been expended and more minds that one would need have explored every issue time and time again.  If it were only for Israel's decisions within their own nation and for the people living within it, peace would have come a long time ago for they have shown the ability to compromise and even go beyond. But this isn't the situation. It isn't the reality of the Middle East, for there is a third  major party present that has the ability to crush all peace efforts and they have the bloodthirsty desire to do so. They are called by different names and supported by various nations around the globe who are more than willing to sacrifice Palestinian and Israeli lives and futures for their own ends. Barack Obama has chosen the path of least resistance, or so he so incorrectly believes. By loosening the moorings to Israel he apparently is attempting to force Israel into a peace treaty that would substantially weaken their security, as he has weakened ours. He is courting disaster for two reasons; The terrorist mind wants Israel's death, the death of other Muslims who oppose their rule and much more destruction to America than a mere redistribution of its wealth and power. The second reason concerns Israel. We may have largely forgotten the Holocaust but they have not. This is not a regional dispute, nor even a religious or political one as much as it is a personal hatred of the Jew. They, more than us, realize this and have vowed not to let another Holocaust occur.  Events of the past week are even more discouraging. Syria has allegedly transferred long range scud missiles to Hezbollah.  These missiles could reach any part of Israel.  Israel, in return, warned Syria that if such is the case and Israel is attacked, Syria will be devastated by an Israeli attack on them. Israel should be taken seriously in this warning. In addition to the Scud issue, Jordanian King Abdullah showed signs of intense and immediate concern as he made comments that seemed to positively acknowledge the backing off of the United States support for Israel but warned of violence as early as this summer if Israel did not respond in kind, a response Israel would consider suicidal  Today's BBC headlined an annual poll taken of 28,000 people around the world on how they view (negatively or positively) various nations of the world.  The big news was that public opinion on the United States is going up since Barack Obama became President. The poll is taken by GlobeScan (formerly Environics International). The Program for International Policy Attitudes of the University of Maryland also was involved and their director was quoted as saying After a year, it appears the "Obama effect" is real. This same organization conducted a poll a little over a year ago and found 66%  believed that climate change was very serious. So, the BBC highlights a poll taken by an environmental organization telling us how well liked our President is? I wonder how those polled would feel if they are drawn into a global emergency over our failure, not only of confronting Iran, but letting this situation get out of hand and essentially emboldening madmen with the will and the means to cause havoc? Israel was only viewed positively by 19%, so one might reasonably expect that they would be the culprit in any situation. It should be said that anti-Americanism was not unanimous prior to President Obama. Jean-Francois Revel was a French intellectual who bucked the trends of other intellectuals in Europe and wrote of those who forget that the United States, acting in her own self-interest, is also acting in the interest of us Europeans and in the interest of many other countries, threatened, or already subverted or ruined, by terrorism. The back of Revel's book of 2002 Anti-Americanism commented on the unlikelihood of the book changing the minds of those without an open mind and quoted Jonathon Swift in it is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

Friday.....America.....Admiration But Not Dependency

I've mentioned tea parties a few times in recent blogs and it may sound as if I'm not enthused about them, but I am. This is democracy as it should be, not simply taking a poll and legislating the results, but adding every individual voice that desires so to a growing outcry of perceived grievances. More power to them and the audacious stalwarts who organize them. My concern in this area is in developing a dependency on the tea parties or failing to see their limitations and this same principle goes for Rush Limbaugh or any statesman that carries the banner of freedom and liberty. It applies also to Christian leaders who are direct blessings given to us by an omniscient God. George W. Bush did not perfectly act out his calling of noblesse oblige but he was the man of the hour when we needed him and if history retains its obeisance to truth, he will be acknowledged in such a way. Martin Luther had foibles but he started a fire of reformation that opened the gospel up to the common people of which I am a lifetime member. Winston Churchill made numerous mistakes but was the driving force against Totalitarianism in the 20th century and Ronald Reagan was limited in his administering but had a discerning vision and profound oratory that still uplifts the American spirit. As much as we admire them we cannot rest on their laurels nor ignore their humanity. When Oliver Cromwell died, England essentially collapsed, for a time. Our only dependency should be upon God and I would think that the prayers for our leaders would be for their dependency upon Him also. If the leaders or movements that we admire should pass from the scene or fail, we have to be there to pick up the banner. Indeed, we are looking for some who can lead America with wisdom but we need a wise citizenry even more.

Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Mood Swings

Robert J. Samuelson writes on business and economics issues for Newsweek and the Washington Post.  In a recent article that was mostly positive on the economy, Samuelson's main point was that there has to be a fundamental change in America's economy. Where we once borrowed and built, we must now find a new way to acquire the money to grow and the most realistic way would be in exports, but Samuelson poses problems in that area also. He concluded his article with some thoughts that I think need our consideration. The first was public mood swings move the economy and the second was that once we get over our pessimism of the past year, the economy should move forward once again. Indeed, one of the major divisions in our soicety is in mood swings. One side generally thinks that the economy may struggle for a while but it must eventually get better.  The other thinks that catastrophe is ahead or at least teetering as a rock on a cliff.  The mainstream media does everything it can to encourage the former and the alternative news media lays out facts that point to the latter. The DOW has been creeping up and it reached 11,000 today for the first time since 2008. The mood swings on the economy determined the presidential election results of 1992 and those swings also played a big part in 2008. As influential as they are, they have absolutely no power over world events. A mood swing cannot stop a bubble from bursting, nor can it affect hatred in the Middle-East. The government attempts to employ the power of positive thinking, indeed the Newsweek article used the term, to encourage to public to spend as normal, invest and add to growth or at the very least to avoid hoarding. This pop philosophy may help the car salesman but can be destructive if it goes against the facts and can be lethal when foreign policy is built upon it. Kermit the Frog's line was it's not easy being green, well it's also not easy being a purveyor of gloomy tidings. Everyone wants a bright future for their children but there are times when one has to throw everything they have into stopping that which is destined to destroy their futures. This is one of those times an to ignore it, to turn the other way or to just refuse to believe it is to let down the ones we love We definitely  need a mood swing but it's a swing from being nonplussed to determined, from detached to engaged and from gullible to discerning. If your mood these days is one of concern, I encourage you to get Mark R. Levin's book Liberty And Tyranny who quotes C. S. Lewis in Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Read it, underline it for future reference and seriously consider what it is saying, for it pertains to to this nation's future and that of everyone in it.

Sunday.....Christianity.....Valley Of Vision

It seems that every few months I return to this book on this blog. That is how much this book means to me. It was quite a number of years ago that I was listening to John MacArthur's radio ministry Grace To You (http://www.gracetoyou.org/) and he offered to send this book free to anyone who requested it. Now this title alone might be enough to run people out of a Christian bookstore but to those familiar with the Puritans, it is different. I was new to them and did not take John MacArthur up on his offer, but after thinking about it purchased the book on my own. It has been read every evening at our dinner table since. As unlikely as it seems, I have seen it referred to in a number of articles since then. I'm not sure of other's reasons but as for me these prayers and devotions guarantee to me that at least once every day I view myself in the pore opening high magnification of a make-up mirror. I am then reminded of the grace that God extends and the exhileration of the Gospel flows over me anew. So here is another one of those prayers that Arthur Bennett has chosen for The Valley Of Vision:
O Lord,
When the world's unbelievers reject thee,
and are so foresaken by thee
that thou callest them no more,
it is to thine own thou dost turn,
for in such seasons of general apostasy
they in some measure backslide with the world.
O how free is thy grace
that reminds them of the danger that
confronts them
and urges then to persevere in adherence
to thyself!
I bless thee that those who turn aside
may return to thee immediately,
and be welcomed without anything
to commend them.
noltwithstanding all their former backslidings.
I confess that this is suited to my case, for of late
I have found great want,
and lack of apprehension of divine grace;
I have been greatly distressed of soul
because I did not suitably come to the fountain
that purges away all sin;
I have labored too much for spiritual life,
peace of conscience, progressive holiness,
in my own strength.
I beg thee, show me the arm of all might;
Give me to believe
that thou canst do for me more than
I ask or think,
and that, though I backslide, thy love will never
let me go.
but will draw me back to thee with everlasting
cords;
that thou dost provide grace in the wilderness,
and canst bring me out, leaning on the arm
of my Beloved;
that thou canst cause me to walk with him
by the rivers of waters in a straight way,
wherein I shall not stumble.
Keep me solemn, devout, faithful, resting
on free grace for assistance, acceptance,
and peace of conscience. 

Friday.....America.....Abe's Best Friend

I don't know the word to choose, heartbreaking....discouraging, to have not only witnessed America's decline but been a part of it?  Indeed I did my part for that decline that probably started in the 1960s. We were too interested in our music, our hair and a good time. My drug of choice in my early 20s was alcohol and I still wince when I think of those days. A few of my extracurricular exploits could only be described as hair raising and it is only the grace of God that I wasn't called to account at that time. My college days were not directed very well. The mercy shown to me and blessings given to the poster boy of wretches overcomes me time and again. The 1980s was a remarkable decade.  It started earlier but Americans became increasingly religious and God-fearing. It wasn't Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell that started it for they themselves were part of it.  It wasn't Ronald Reagan that paved the way, for it paved the way for him as well as Jimmy Carter and Charles Colson.  It was a decade of respite from the secular onslaught that was assaulting America in the form of abortion and court decisions that found God guilty of impersonating Himself.  We all went the other way in the 90s and Jerry Falwell never lived down his remark that 9/11 might have something to do with God's judgement. The result of it all is that we split as a nation, in many ways. The attacks of that September morning ignited embers of patriotism and love of country that were all but dead. We were the final holdout in the Western World that would blame national borders for war, and we would have fully given in to the global village mentality by now if it were not for those constant reminders of America's past that show up from time to time in movies, older textbooks, reminiscences of older Americans and the discovery from younger ones that have not drunk the cool aid as of yet and publish.  Another division surfaced when postmodernism literally ravaged common sense, reality, reason and even Christianity while those untouched struggled against arguments that had no use of common sense and actually barred logic, facts and truth.  So here we are at the very edge of the precipace and yet so consumed with sports, entertainments and ourselves that we have one leg lifted and stretched out over that abyss.  There is though, the beam of a lighthouse warning us that shoals and rocks are ahead but only God knows if this nation will be brought to its knees and its children made wards of the state, or will be given more time.  Barbarians have come in amongst us and we have given them chairs in our universities, the best seats in our churches and synagogues and placed  gavels in their hands. We live in a time that calls for extreme soberness but summer is almost here and even churches alter their ministries for the congregation to enjoy a wide range of activities that keeps the family busy until school starts again. It has been documented many times that books publiched today use shorter sentences and far less punctuation.  Newpaper and magazine articles have been drastically shortened to keep the readers interest and even that is not working. Yet the new houses are beautiful, the new automobiles almost park themselves and the hand-held electronic devices threaten to relegate Gutenberg's invention to the same trivia museum as the 8 track tape deck. By far the worst change is in how we process information...how we think. I came across a quote from Abraham Lincoln the other day, My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read. I cannot give books through this blog but I can recommend them and here are three that deal with the culture, the church and the
university.

Thursday.....Politics.....Hold In Abeyance

The present relationship (or lack of it) of the government of the United States to a majority of its citizens makes one possible response of those citizens being, to hold in abeyance, the legislative authority of that government and its very legitimacy to institute change. I want to be clear that I'm not talking about civil disobedience or any willful disobeying of laws and/or regulations. I'm referring to a state of mind on the part of the people and period of filibuster from the Republican Party. Here are some reasons for such drastic action:
* The "Czaring" of America which is a subtle usurping of the duties of the Congress.
* The debt given too our children, that can never be repaid, and the European style taxes that
will be presented to us as necessary, when these taxes were plotted all along to pay for a
Socialist makeover of our society.
* The decisions currently being made that weakens nuclear deterrence and national security.
* The back door, single party, deceptive, strong arm passage of health care
reform that is such a magnitude of change that it demands the support of a large majority of
the American people, yet goes, to an equal degree, against the will of the people. It represents
rule by an elite few and is diametrically opposed to the individualism and
personal responsibility of our heritage.
* The encroachment of government into the ownership of corporations, personal ownership of
property and wages and attempts to stifle free speech.
* Homeland Security's dangerous forays into profiling people who brought attention to
themselves by their concern of a government that has its Homeland Security profile people
who have concerns for abuse of the powers of said government.
* A dangerous Middle-East policy that gives more respect to our enemies than to our friends,
believes the promises of those who have made a mockery of the word trust, and jettisons
the policies of generations of American administrations for the proven failure of appeasement.
* The numerous appointments of outspoken extremists should long ago have been brought to
the attention of the American public and scrutinized by the mainstream media.
* The enormous sums of money and job offers used to garner Congressional votes is an assault
on our representative form of government.

By holding in abeyance the government's ability for socialist change and balancing of the world's economic and military power primarily through weakening ours, the opposition party in Congress, and Democrats who have not succumbed to the pressures, would be putting a moratorium on the legislation, executive orders, Supreme Court appointments and dictates of the Czars for the next seven months, in effect buying time for a referendum from the people to either verify the mandate that is claimed or soundly reject the Democratic Party that has, by its cow towing to the pressure of its leadership, become representative of this agenda . This administration knows that its window of opportunity to transform 234 years of the American Creed, free market economy and a strict reliance on the Constitution into a socialist global village free of the strictures of words written on paper, is growing smaller every day. It would be prudent to use every delaying tactic available to impinge upon this aggressive agenda that is antithetical to our republican form of government. Precisely because this is not a typical Democrat/Republican issue, nor a Conservative/Liberal issue but a revolution under the radar through complicity of the media, we need this moratorium. Here are some further reasons that the order of the day must be delay, obstruct, inform, rally and challenge:
* Barack Obama ran his campaign ridiculing the charges that he was a socialist, now that we
know that he is, the American public deserves a new polling of their desires.
* Considering the tactics used, the absence of any bipartisan support and the magnitude of
changes being legislated, the American public should have an opportunity to reject.
* The personality traits the President has displayed give concern of a messianic complex,
the rude treatment he at times gives established allies and honorable statesman around the
world and the apparent strict adherence to Saul Alinsky's Rules For Radicals should, at the
very least, call for a scrutinized examination of any use of Executive Order
* The recent announcement that the President of the United States will appear on American
Idol shows that the same condescending maneuvers of a cult of celebrity that procured his
election are going to be pursued again in opposing the recent vocal outrage of the other
American public.

There is a very real potential for economic catastrophe and warnings of terrorist attacks have been regularly given from both sides of the Atlantic. This is no time to wage a major assault, a political and societal revolution, but that is precisely what the political advisers in this administration consider the most beneficial time. The next few months will be a true litmus test on Republicans in Congress. The Executive Branch has often been a bully pulpit to one degree or another but it is taking on the appearances of a throne. Even the most Federalist of the Founders would call for a suspension of reform until the public was fully informed of what is transpiring and Jefferson himself would be shouting the loudest.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Tea Parties...And Beyond

Twenty-five years ago I would attend a couple of Christian conferences a year and I'm thankful for them. I learned a lot, bought a lot of books and met new people and gained new friends. I haven't attended such a conference in years because they are primarily designed to encourage Christians to read more, the seminars tend to dwell upon the basics of the topic and they rarely enter into areas not already covered by the speakers in their books. So they proved very useful to me but I don't see them as providing the same function throughout life for they should send us off on our own studies. Another potential problem is that, although they tend to encourage and motivate, we have to move beyond the need for external sources to keep that motivation. Enter the Tea Parties. They are unlike what the media portrays them as for they are everyday people who would most likely get nauseated watching American Idol for they probably spend their free time fulfilling their civic duties. They are mostly spontaneous and quickly organized by non-professionals. They certainly motivate but this motivation must eventually generate its own steam or the people will be so dependent upon external sources that they will eventually become board with the excitement and thus the end of usefulness. Like a child whose parent has a hand on the bicycle seat as they run along, the Tea Party must eventually let go. My encouragement to you is that we must fly on our own someday. This radical progressive liberal of today does not rely on truth, argument, logic or reason. They are dependent on sound-bite memorization. They rarely go off on their own, rarely come up with a new idea and thus rarely question their own teachers. Their great achievements are shouting down Ann Coulter on campus. There are exceptions. A case in point is Saul Alinsky. He did not rely on sound-bites, he gave methods, ingeniously dishonest and very effective but even Alinsky's methods have an Achilles Heel, that being impotence from prolonged exposure to truth, thus we should know what is set out before us to do.

Tuesday.....International.....Nuclear Weapons and Autism

The flood continues from the worst rains ever pummeling the flame of liberty in the United States of America. The latest is our announcement that we (the United States) will not use nuclear weapons in response to biological, chemical or conventional weapons attacks on us. The caveat, as reported in a BBC news story, is that the offender must be complying with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Additionally, this new policy does not include Iran or North Korea. The absurdity of the announcement is twofold: Any government is now free to look the other way or even covertly subsidize terrorist groups to operate within their borders for the purpose of planning and launching attacks on our country. We are now bound to endless Congressional hearings seeking absolute proof, beyond mitigating circumstances, before responding in kind and by that time our animus towards the attack would have been assuaged just as the horror of 9/11 has dissipated into the narcissistic never-neverland of postmodern America. We would be forced into building armies through conscription for even the unlikely event that public opinion would, led on by the media, wholeheartedly sanction retribution of any sort. Our eventual response would most likely be severe self-recrimination on why we brought this upon ourselves. We are essentially apologizing to our enemies and those who hold no admiration for the nation that secured their present status. The second absurdity in this announcement and the philosophy that it emanated from is that we are saying to every enemy around the world that our one and only goal is to do anything and everything within our power to stay out of their way as they seek to dominate their people and any other people whose domination would satisfy their goals. We are encouraging them to cause havoc wherever they wish and do so without concern for the response of the United States of America.

I want to make a radical departure here from the topic of this blog. I left the computer for 30 minutes to see Joni Earickson Tada's television program Joni and Friends. The topic this week was autism and it featured families of children with autism and a church that seeks to be such a part of the Body of Christ that it reached out to these children and their families. As every single program of Joni's, it was moving to an almost incapacitating degree. The departure in the blog is this; how do we deal with our responsibility to show Christian love in everyday life and also deal with matters of governments, war, peace, liberty and freedom? Indeed, this question is related to the purpose of this blog. After years of debating this issue in my own mind, I came to my own conclusion that the two are separated but also one. To whatever degree we live the Christian life, we do so with a complete liberty. As a nation, we reach out into the world in many ways, securing peace, giving economic help, providing agricultural education, medical help and on and on. The Christian love that we once again to whatever degree, work towards, is done free of a life of serfdom, concentration camps even slavery. If we choose to ignore our responsibility to defend this life that permits us the opportunity to help others, we must, logically speaking, admit that we accept and enjoy the privileges at the expense of the sacrifices of others! We put ourselves on a pedestal and give ourselves a higher position than those who meet this challenge and who may fail often but never give up. It is not Christian love to watch as others are exploited, enslaved and murdered. Does not the Body of Christ include those who stand watch at the door? There need not be a conflict in lovingly holding a child with autism while wiping away their tears or praying encouragement with the parent and elsewhere, another time-another place, seeking their safety and security in a world that does not discriminate in its violence.

Sunday.....Christianity.....Another Anthropological Book On Lynchburg

I can imagine this scene in the spring of 2007 at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. A young transfer student from Brown University to Liberty University named Kevin is sitting in a pew next to a Yale University educated young lady named Gina. They exchange pleasantries before the sermon and comment on the friendliness of the congregation and blessings of attending Reverend Jerry Falwell's church all the while sizing each other up for future reference in a story they will write about their experiences in infiltrating the hub of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. In a blog from April 19th of last year, I reviewed Kevin Rouse's book A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (isbn 978044617426). He registered as a student at Liberty University and became one of the guys as he jotted down notes as Margaret Mead might have done on Samoa. Gina Welsh, an ultra-liberal and atheist, had already graduated college and was doing her research within the famous congregation as someone simply seeking a church. Ms. Welch's book In The Land Of Believers, An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of The Evangelical Church (isbn 9780805083378) should be read by pastors and any Christian that better wants to understand why secular folk look at Evangelicals as they do. Both sets of parents warned their child not to be taken in while in the midst of the religious right while Gina's parents referred to the church as a cult. Both authors liked and respected the Christians they came to know, they enjoyed their experience, came out with a favorable opinion of Jerry Falwell and both were in the midst of their research when he died. They participated in evangelistic ministries, Kevin on the beach and Gina on a short term mission trip to Alaska. They both sat in on many sermons, sang the hymns, took the classes and, alas, left as unbelieving as they came. Kevin's book concentrated on the Liberty students and Gina's book even more on church members and staff. Both of these secular observers described the sermons at Thomas Road Baptist Church as primarily politically motivated. Gina Welsh went into great detail on her confusion as to how the "sinners prayer, sign the card" (my words) method of saving souls did any real good. She saw what many of us cannot. We attended a church in Washington D. C. this past week and the service was wonderful. the sermon had strong application surrounding the glorious core message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It would have fit in well in many Christian churches around America only it lacked the altar call at the end, the opportunity for those who were convicted and given hope to act on that hope and become believers. It was this omission that secured real strength for those who would get up from their pews and enter, once again, the world they live in. I had been to Liberty University as our son was looking at law schools and the people, the students and the schools are truly wonderful but the impact Christians can make in this nation will not come from substituting from the pulpit, even the most admirable ideals for the gospel; and it will not come from evangelizing that records its progress on accumulation of signed response cards. We can learn from both of these books. The authors may have set out to describe Fundamentalists and Evangelicals to the secular community but if we read their work, they may see results that they surely did not intend.

Friday.....America.....Street Preachers

I related this story somewhere in a past blog. a former pastor was excited about a new movie that came out, The Winslow Boy, a British produced David Mamet film. My wife and I travelled quite a ways to the only theater showing the film. It was definitely my kind of film and every bit as wonderful as described to me. About half-way into the showing, the film broke. After about a twenty minute delay the projectionist announced that the film strip could not be repaired that night. Someone in the theater yelled out well tell us how it ends anyway. I immediately jumped up and returned with the shout don't anybody say anything! Well that's just me. I had a similar situation this evening. Williamsburg, Pennsylvania was the location. A young man had brought a step stool and rose slightly higher than the shoppers as he proclaimed the gospel...a street preacher. We've all seen them at one time or another. My main disagreement with this method is that it is so impersonal. One might as well just carry signs. My wife and I watched for a while and walked off. When ready to leave the shopping district we passed the young street preacher again and this time two other young men had positioned themselves, on stools also, about twenty yards in front of him. They were hecklers, or maybe just challengers....no, they were heckling! I jumped in and shouted something in support of the street preacher. After a little bit, we walked on a ways but it occurred to me that these hecklers had given the street preacher a voice beyond the shouting of Bible verses. There were many more people watching this exchange than when we previously stopped to watch. The street preacher was forced out of his script and people were listening to what he had to say. My theology would certainly be very different from this young man and also my method of evangelism but there is a similarity in that we both attempt to proclaim something in our own way and I am very willing to give him credit for having more gumption. Unlike the Glen Beck situation of the March 29th blog, one is more likely to err in softening the message than turning off listeners in a world that already either seethes with a passion against the gospel or actually applauds a "gospel" with no fallen condition therefore no need of a Saviour.

Tuesday....International.....Red Flags

There is a theme arising among a number of commentators that the Obama administration has essentially accepted a nuclear Iran. This should not be a surprise, all of Hillary's rhetoric aside, for we have indeed temporarily turned a corner from being an ally of Israel to simply a mediator in the Middle-East. Everything in this administration is appearances. It's a movie being made in a make-believe world, an exhibit at the World's Fair that one travels in air-conditioning on a tram, viewing visual wonders of a new world only to depart the ride to steamy humidity and another exhibit. I read French President Nicolas Sarkozy's comment on Barack Obama after a meeting of the two presidents, President Obama, when he says something, keeps his word. His word is his bond, and that is so important. Is it possible that Sarkozy knows nothing that has transpired in American politics over the last few years? Word is filtering out that China and Russia may be on board with new United Nations sanctions on Iran. I see two possibilities here; one is that they will be even more time consuming, ineffective and the bomb issue may be a moot point by now anyway. The second is a question of what did we give to get China and Russia to get on board? This administration, this ascending political philosophy, has a plethora of gifts to offer that they consider useless anyway but of which America had previously considered essential to our well-being if not our survival. I've mentioned a number of times previous that if we make it to November (actually next January is the installation of a new Congress) without a major world conflagration, Obama's executive and legislative power will be derailed. Making it there is the difficult part. This administration's treatment of Israel will embolden their enemies. It is not a risky venture for even risk requires an intelligent plan and we are currently dealing with policy not written in white papers but as a script. Putin may choose to be one of the actors but as he found out again recently in the Moscow subway bombings, many not only call out fire in the theater but start them. This much seems apparent to me, we are in the midst of a government over extending its boundaries to the point of extreme alarm, and to exacerbate the situation, we may be dealing with symptoms of megalomania.