****Best Laid Plans ****

Nothing ever works out like we planned, does it? It now looks like I am going to be teaching Bible more-or-less full time this year. Our plan was that Jay, our pastor (and my friend) would teach Wednesday and I would fill in. Jay has a heart murmur and has had to give up something. As the lowest thing on his personal totem, the school lost out. Only fair, I guess.

A Lesson To Be Learned"When I was in the Navy, I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish bar bully and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship.All evening the bully had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the moron sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man's mutilated ear.Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this guy, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handed back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.Each punch opened a cut on the bully's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split andswollen brows.Nobody moved. Not one person.The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this sailor's lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the guy's head. The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of beef in the meat locker.Finally the bully's pleading turned to screams.... a high, almost womanly shriek. And still the punches continued relentlessly.Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight. I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: "Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch] you [punch] were [punch] wrong [punch]".He had been repeating it to the bully almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.This coward stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters.. right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up... or that he was wrong.Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat. I'm sure this strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue on his career as a barroom bully.Finally, in a wail of agony the coward shrieked "I give up", and we gently backed the sailor away from him.I'm sure you can guess why I have shared this story today. I'm not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody spectacle, and the sound of that bully's woman-like shrieks will haunt me to my grave. But I learned something that evening that Israel had betterlearn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat.Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a cease fire for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us today.President Lahoud of Lebanon, a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally ofSyria, has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the pasttwo days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of 'Military Success for Dummies Arab Despots' by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Ever since Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in '56, every subsequent Arab leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success: Instigate a war.Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your ass handed to you... get a few world powers to force your western opponent into a cease fire.Whatever you do, don't surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your enemy. That would ruin everything! All you have to do is wait it out and eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your soldiers and civilian population... and will force a truce.Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory as your opponent leaves the field of battle.This tactic has never failed. Not once.In fact it worked so will for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they celebrate the Yom Kippur War - a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel - as a military victory! No kidding... it's a national holiday over there!President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the UN Security Council to "Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and then after that we'll be ready to discuss all matters."Uh huh. Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow. He allowed Hezbollah to take over his country. He allowed the regular Lebanese army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that struck the Israeli destroyer He has turned a blind eye while Iranianand Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country.And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw.As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen, strong hands need to hold back the weak-hearted and let the fight continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat. Forwarded fromDan Sorkin

**** but I wanna know! **** Prov. 3:5 “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding…”

We touched on this yesterday, a bit. Paul warns us in Romans 9 not to set our selves up to judge the motives and actions of God. What’s the big deal? In our age, especially, logic and reason are king. Have you ever seen a performance of Faust? I didn’t think so. The play has largely dropped out of sight despite its many merits because we no longer understand its central theme. You see, Faust sold his soul to the Devil, not for material gain, but for knowledge. In our society, we no longer understand (or even see) the problem.

Well, what can possibly be wrong with using our intelligence to gain knowledge and insight? To answer that question, take a look at Eve. God said not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did Eve do? Spurred on by Satan, she used her God-given intelligence to examine the problem. She examined the fruit carefully and observed (correctly) that there was nothing wrong with it. It was attractive, tasty, and nutritious. She figured that she was a smart cookie (true) and that she did not have to obey God if His instructions were not backed by reasons she understood (false). She forgot that God, her Creator, had ownership rights to her and was not required to explain any of His actions or motives to her unless He chose to do so. She had no say in the matter at all.

Frankly, I see this lust for knowledge and belief that we have the right to determine what is important in much to today’s Christianity. In fact, I think this explains much of the Church’s current obsession with eschatology (the study of the end times). Jesus, again and again, tells us that the future is not our business. He tells us that our duty is to obey God, not try to predict the future. In our time, the two of those seem reversed. I see a lot more conferences on the End Times than I do on How to be a Godly Employee. If God holds us responsible for even an idle word, I expect a lot of preachers and lay people will have to have to explain away the conferences, the books read, etc. about how “Jesus is coming in the next 3 years! Trust me in this!”

Honestly! Do you have any idea how many of these “end times” experts have been proven wrong since 1820, when this obsession really got going? (if you do, I apologize for the last sentence.) Start with Hal Lindsay, who (in spite of basing his entire theology on the tenet that Jesus would return by 1988 - yes, he named the year- is still going strong, with millions of followers and bazilllions of dollars donated annually to support his TV show. It makes me want to cry (or throw up, depending on the day) I wish he were the only one. Sadly he's not. What's the solution? Simple. If one of these guys comes on the TV or radio, change channels. Read something. Visit with your family. If worst comes to worst, well, silence has its virtues.

**** What the eye sees **** Well, gang, today we're going to cover a lot of territory and (hopefully) end up with something meaningful. Why does an optical illusion work? Let's look at some examples of camouflage. If you see a trumpet fish in an aquarium or a tiger in the zoo, they stand out - are impossible to miss. If you see them in their native habitat, they blend in invisibly. Why? The eye sees what the mind expects to see. Remember this tenet - we'll get back to it later. Have you ever wondered why newborns have such an unfixed gaze? Well, scientists wondered the same thing, and spent lots of federal grant dollars finding out that babies have no pattern into which to fit what they see, and an important part of their early development is correlating sights with concepts, something we spend our lives doing to one extent or another. The camouflage mentioned above is what is called brute fact - that is, data devoid of explanation. What one does with that fact depends upon your paradigm, your view of the world. The creationist sees camouflage as an example of how the Creator(call him "God" for convenience.) has designed creatures to perfectly fit their needs. An evolutionist will see the same data and see an example of Natural Selection,. The God of the evolutionists. Get the point? The eye sees what the mind expects to see. The common Christian symbols illustrate the same principle. If we see a cross, we think of crucifixion, Calvary. In Egypt of the second and third centuries, when Christian thought was largely based in Egypt, the cross was a symbol of Earth Air, Fire, and Water - the source of all reality. Christians adopted the symbol and made it their own. In fact, that's the same place and time that we got the concept of a halo: it was used in Egypt of that period to show those blessed by the Sun God. Does that mean Christians must abandon those symbols? Of course not! A symbol has only the meaning you give it; no more, no less. The eye sees what the mind expects to see. What significance does this have for philosophy and theology? As it happens, quite a lot. In the Old Testament God criticizes the Jews for having hearts of stone, making them incapable of true worship. He then promises that a day will come when He will remove the hearts of stone and implant hearts of flesh, and He will be given true worship by those people. In John 6, Jesus tells the Jews of His day that none can come to Him unless drawn by the Father. In other words, God, not man, must make the first move. What was the result? We re told that most of His followers, unwilling to accept this, abandoned following Him. Further, Paul tells us that unbelievers not only do not, but cannot understand the things of God. Therefore, we see that the emphasis in the Bible is for a change of heart, not the need to accept a series of facts. The Biblical perspective is that all these mental changes are secondary effects brought on by a change of heart, which includes what we now call a paradigm shift, a totally new world/life view. Now a paradigm shift is a very uncomfortable thing, requiring us to re-examine and recategorize everything we know. This is something nobody does for fun. This is why Reformed teachers have always insisted on the necessity of Regeneration, the "new birth", as a necessary prerequisite to Christian belief, The eye sees what the mind expects to see, after all. The Arminian wing of Christianity, unwilling to grant this, must therefore exempt some part of human nature from the damage inflicted by the Fall to explain why some people become Christians and some do not. This debate was really given logical description by the conflict between Augustine of Hippo, later dubbed Saint Augustine by the Catholics, and Pelagius of Britain, a deacon noted for his godly life. Augustine took the position that God is sovereign in His dealings with men. Some people become Christians because God chose them and took action accordingly. Pelagius taught that the Will was unaffected by the Fall, so it was totally free to accept or reject God without influence from God; that is, Man was sovereign in salvation - it was his choice, not God's, that was determinative. Besides, Pelagius taught, if God was sovereign in salvation, Her had no right to damn anybody, since nobody could resist God's will. The Catholics argued this back and forth for centuries, learned teachers in the Church finally coming to the conclusion that the conflict was not resolvable by mere logic and settling on a sort of semi-Augustinianism (or semi-Pelagianism, if that would make you feel better). The Reformation churches went both ways on the issue. By and large, Calvinists and Lutherans went for Augustine, and Anabaptists went for Pelagius. The churches tracing their ancestry to them have pretty much kept the same divisions, but whereas Catholics held unity was important if not critical, kept the debate in-house and hammered out a (sort of) solution, Protestant churches and their descendants have notoriously split over even minor disagreements in doctrine or practice. Each to his own, I guess. Now for the kicker - what's my opinion on the issue? Well, in Romans 9 Paul addresses the issue head on. He lays out both sides of the problem clearly. Then, just when you think he's going to explain it all, he doesn't. Instead. He critiques people for even asking God for an explanation. Paul says that God is God, we are not, and it's presumptuous of us to ask God for an explanation of His action, since He is our judge, not the other way around. Bearing that in mind, I don't try to resolve what the Scripture refuses to resolve. With Job, I trust the Judge of all the earth to do right, and trust that everything will work out in the end. It's arrogance that expects God to be and do this only if I understand them. When people on both sides of the issue demand (they rarely simply ask.) for my position, I try to lay out both sides on the argument using the passages quoted by centuries of theologians on both sides of the issue ans explain that I try to stay out of the argument. Some people are content with this, but I find hard-liners on both sides who try to make me agree with them on the issue. Such relationships then tend to be uncomfortable. If we insist on total agreement on all points as a prerequisite for Christian fellowship, how can any person fellowship with anybody else?

*** Mea Culpa *** Last night, reading The Fourfold Statte of Human Nature by Thomas Boston, I was struck by a comment he made, namely that as people age, their predominant sin will often change. This is certainly true in my case. For much of my life I was, bluntly, covetous. Greedy. I had a tendency to look at things in terms of financial advantage. Now, however, that's changed. Once known for my rocklike honesty, I find that now I have a tendency to shade the truth, and on occasion just plain lie. This is not a good thing! Looking at it, I think I'm kind of doing what my mother did ( and it annoyed me greatly at the time) - say what I think will cause the least unpleasantness. My mother considered that just a way to reduce friction with those around her, especially her family. Am I turning into my mother? NO! I've got to get hold of myself. Turning into my father was bad enough. I've got to get a hold of myself. Pray for me, friends.

**** random thoughts **** Well, gang, for those of you who don't know, I'll be 58 the 13th of August. At this time of life, it's traditional for a man to look back and wonder, especially if he's disabled, which I am Three strokes and a heart attack have pretty much put paid to any career aspirations. At this stahge , I have to wonder, what am I? Used up? Has been? Even worse, never was? Questions, questions. I’ve been up; I’vee been down. At my peak, I made about a penny and a half a second, Not bad by the standards of normal folks. At my worst? Zero. But finances aren’t everything, for sure. I’ve been happily married for 34 years, which seems to be substantially above average for these days. I’ve got kids and grandkids I love. None of them have ever been in any real trouble, again above average, or so it seems. The problem., for me, is all that seems to be past tense. What, actually am I accomplishing now? That seems to be the problem. I’m an analyst by nature, and supported my family that way for a long time. Now that I’m retired for health reasons, what do I do to feel like I’m still accomplishing something? A sculptor can show a statue, a painter a portrait, but an analyst? I can’t ask people to admire a thought. Not only is it pretentious it’s impractical as all get out. I’m about to finish my Master’s (I think) and start on my Doctorate, but that’s pretty much to fulfill a goal I’ve had since I was a teen. In practical terms I don’t know. Maybe I am used up, after all. Actually, though, a Christa\ian should never feel this way. I must have some purpose, even if I don't see it right now.

****movies ***** For those of you who don't know, I like to watch movies. A lot. My main other hobby is reading. Sometimes I read while watching movies. Why? Well, incipient boredom has something to do with it, of course - someting to do with my time. More to the point, books and movies give you a chance to see people and places in situations you would never see in real life. In fact, some of those you're grateful you don't have to see. I've fought dragons, wept as the moonlight shone over the ruins of Imperial Kor - on and on the list goes. Some books and movies you don't dare leave; it's gotten ahold of you and you have to see what happens next. My daughhter seems much the same way - she gets so wrapped up in a good story that she can't quit. Some people don't understand my love of reading. Poor things. They miss so much.

"Immigration Laws"1. If you migrate to this country, you must speak the native language. 2. You have to be a professional or an investor unskilled workers allowed. 3. There will be no special bilingual programmed the schools, no special ballots for elections,all government business will be conducted inure language Foreigners will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here Foreigners will NEVER be able to hold political office Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance Foreigners can invest in this country, but must be an amount equal to 40,000 tamest daily minimum wage If foreigners do come and want to buy land, it will be okay, BUT options will be restricted: are not allowed waterfront property. That's reserved for citizens naturally born into this country Foreigners may not protest: no demonstrations,no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing,no bad-mouthing our president or his policies;if you do you will be sent home If you do come to this country illegally,you will be hunted down and sent straight to jail. you think these laws are harsh? The above laws happen to be the immigration laws of MEXICO!

Hooray! Today the university officially notified me that I can indeed do additional course work plus a 2,000 word paper to fulfill my Master's requirement. The fee for this is $300, $50 of which is required to get the process started.

Yea! To explain a little, I've been working on my Masters in Biblical Studies for quite a while, and finished my course work a couple of years ago, leaving only my thesis. I started work n my thesis, but since have had another stroke and open heart surgery, my wife's mom died, her brother got cancer, my dog died - you get the picture. I talked to a guy at university and made arrangements over the phone to finish my Masters via the means detailed above. The written conformation of this arrived today. Everybody clear? Have a good one, friends.

**** missing Cody **** I was reminded tonight that Cody, my beloved Lab, died about six months ago. I was in the hospital at the time, awaiting heart surgery, so it didn't hit me all at once, but I'm remembering him tonight. He was not supposed to be my dog, but rather my daughter's. That changed, though, when I injured my back and was out of work for months. Cody took on his role as my companion and guardian - one he held until the end of his life. I would walk outside to stengthen my back and sit in the back yard, reading. He would sit beside me and move hand to "petting position" and remind me if I stopped petting him. I was unsteady on my feet, so he kept other critters from tripping me. He reminded me that all a dog really wants of life is food, shelter, and somebody to love and care about. Really, are we so different? We waste large parts of our lives striving for things that won't make us happy. Maybe we all need to learn from Cody, my dog.

It's been a long time, I know. To coin a phase, "I've been sick." To be honest, though, one reason I stopped blogging for so long is that I gave up, convinced nobody was reading the thing. Today, however, somebody asked me why I had quit, so I've decided to give it another try. I've been a Christian for a long time, but I still don't understand what some of them seem to be saying. I keep hearing about something called "the victorious life", but darned if I know what they're talking about. All of us Christians, I assume, want to hear the words "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Some, in fact, seem to think they deserve it. I'm not so sanguine. In my heart of hearts, I expect something like " I paid for your sins, so it's heaven for you, but I really expected more of a return on my investment." In other words, I expect Christ to be disappointed in me. I don't see that I've accomplished all that much. My church isn't big by any means, but I can name you more than a dozen people there who are better than I'll ever be. In fact, 12 would only be a beginning. My best hope is the parable of the sheep and the goats. Both groups look at Christ and say, confused, "Who, me?" I don't seem to talk about my spiritual life as often as other Christian bloggers. It seems as if, whenever I talk about things close to my heart, it gets shot down. Oh, well. Until next time, friends.

** and you thought you knew weird people. **

A 50-year-old Reno man told authorities he castrated himself to lower his libido and learned of the procedure on the Internet, police said

Liar, Liar, Now You're FiredJanuary 12, 2005
QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN ANN
January 17, 2005, 1:56 PM
SCARBOROUGH TONIGHT, JAN 17, 10PM MSNBC -

If CNN doesn't hire them, Dan Rather and his producers can always get a job teaching at the Columbia School of Journalism. The Columbia Journalism Review recently defended the CBS report on George Bush using forged National Guard documents with the Tawana Brawley excuse: The documents might be "fake but accurate." Dan Rather and his crack investigative producer Mary Mapes are still not admitting the documents were fakes. Of course, Dan Rather is still not admitting Kerry lost the election or that a woman named Juanita Broaddrick credibly accused Bill Clinton of rape. Responding to Bill O'Reilly's question in a May 15, 2001, interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" about why CBS News had mentioned crack-pot rumors of George Bush's drug use on air seven times, but the name "Juanita Broaddrick" had never crossed Dan Rather's lips (and was only mentioned twice on all of CBS News), Rather replied: "Juanita Broaddrick, to be perfectly honest, I don't remember all the details of Juanita Broaddrick. But I will say that — and you can castigate me if you like. When the charge has something to do with somebody's private sex life, I would prefer not to run any of it." If only the press had extended that same courtesy to Mike Tyson! Rape has as much to do with "somebody's private sex life" as Bush's National Guard service does. Admittedly, Juanita Broaddrick's charge against Clinton — that Bill Clinton raped her so brutally that her clothing was torn and her lip was swollen and bleeding, hence his parting words of "you'd better put some ice on that" — was not a story on the order of Augusta National Golf Course's exclusion of women members. But, unlike the Bush drug-use charge, which remains unsupported to this day, Broaddrick's allegations had been fully corroborated by NBC News — which then refused to air Lisa Myers' report until after Clinton's acquittal in the Senate. Fortunately for Ms. Mapes, Rather also described Bill Clinton as "honest," explaining to O'Reilly, "I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things." This must have come as great comfort to Mapes, as she based an entire story about Bush's outrageous behavior in the National Guard on one Lt. Col. Bill Burkett. Among the issues that might have raised questions about relying on Burkett as your source before accusing a sitting president of having disobeyed direct military orders are: — Burkett had a long-standing grudge against the National Guard for failing to pay for his medical treatment for a rare tropical disease he claims he contracted during Guard service in Panama. — He blamed Bush, who was governor at the time, for the Guard's denial of medical benefits because, as everyone knows, the Texas governor's main job is processing medical claims from former National Guard members. — After leaving the Guard, Burkett suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for depression. — At the meeting where he was supposed to give Mapes the National Guard documents, Burkett brought "two binders full of depositions and other documents that were apparently from his litigation with the National Guard over health benefits" — apparently he forgot the two shoeboxes full of UFO photos he'd collected over the years. — He had compared Bush to Hitler — which admittedly could have been just his way of establishing his bona fides to Democrats. — He had told a number of stories over the years about Bush's National Guard service, all of which had collapsed under conflicting evidence and even his own contradictory accounts — which is to say the stories were both made up and inaccurate. — In exchange for the National Guard documents, Burkett demanded money, "relocation assistance" if the story put him or his family in danger (perhaps ocean-front property for a quick getaway) and direct contact with the Kerry campaign. Even before the story aired, Burkett's description of his own source for the documents kept changing. He said he received the documents anonymously in the mail. He said he was given the documents by someone who would "know what to do with (the documents) better than" he would. He said his source was Chief Warrant Officer George Conn — amid copious warnings that CBS "should not call Chief Warrant Officer Conn because he would deny it" and further that "Conn was on active duty and could not be reached at his Dallas home." Burkett needn't have worried about crack investigator Mary Mapes getting in touch with his alleged source. Even though a three-second search on Google would have revealed that (1) Burkett was crazy, and (2) he had tried to use Conn as a source before and Conn had vehemently denied Burkett's claims, Mapes told the investigating committee "she did not consider Chief Warrant Officer Conn's denial to be reliable." It seems Burkett had told Mapes that "Conn was still in the military and that his wife threatened to leave him if he spoke out against President Bush." That was good enough for Mapes. She concluded that Conn — the only person who could have corroborated Burkett's story — was not to be trusted. Instead, Mapes placed all her faith in the disgruntled, paranoid nut with a vendetta against Bush, an extensive psychiatric history and an ever-growing enemies list. I'm referring to Bill Burkett here, not Dan Rather. Finally, Burkett claimed a woman named Lucy Ramirez had passed the documents to him at a livestock show in Houston. It is believed that this account marks the exact day that Burkett's lithium prescription ran out. Despite the fact that no one at CBS was able to locate Ramirez, CBS stuck to the story. This isn't a lack of "rigor" in fact-checking, as the CBS report suggests. It's a total absence of fact-checking. CBS found somebody who told the story they wanted told — and they ran with it, wholly disregarding the facts. Curiously, though Mapes trusted Burkett implicitly, she was very careful not to reveal his name to anyone at CBS, probably because she would have been laughed out of the room. Instead, Mapes described Burkett in the abstract as: "solid," "without bias," "credible," "a Texas Republican of a different chromosome," a "John McCain supporter," "reliable" and "a maverick" — leaving out only "Burkett is convinced he can communicate with caterpillars" and "his best friend is a coffee table." His name was not important. It's not as if he was the sole source for a highly damaging story about the president eight weeks before the election or anything. Oh wait ... At a meeting with CBS lawyers the day the story would air, Mapes "did not reveal the source's name or anything negative about the source," but "expressed 'enormous confidence' in her source's reliability and said that he was solid with no bias or credibility issues." She described Burkett as a "moralistic stickler." The subject of UFOs simply never came up. Mapes trusted Burkett on the basis of the following: — "Mapes told the panel that she spoke to a mainstream media reporter, who had known Lt. Col. Burkett since 2001, and she stated that he viewed Lt. Col. Burkett as reliable." At least it wasn't one of those unreliable bloggers throwing anything up on the Net and ruining reputations! — "Mapes told the panel that she informed the Burketts that she was worried the documents might be a 'political dirty trick.' Mapes said that the Burketts appeared 'genuinely shocked' at the suggestion and this reaction gave her comfort." (You could tell they were really shocked because they had the same look on their faces that Condi Rice had when Richard Clarke first told her about al-Qaida.) — Mapes really hated George Bush and would do anything to make him lose the election. Actually, Mapes did not put her last reason in writing, which created a real mystery for the CBS investigating committee. Proving once again how useless "moderate Republicans" are, The CBS Report — co-authored by moderate Republican Dick Thornburgh — found no evidence of political bias at CBS. If Fox News had come out with a defamatory story about Kerry based on forged documents, liberals would be demanding we cut power to the place. (Fortunately, the real documents on Kerry were enough to do the trick). But the outside investigators hired by CBS could find no political agenda at CBS. By contrast, the report did not hesitate to accuse the bloggers who exposed the truth about the documents of having "a conservative agenda." As with liberal attacks on Fox's "fair and balanced" motto, it is now simply taken for granted that "conservative bias" means "the truth."

** first, kill all the lawyers, part 12,674th **

A federal judge Friday rejected a death row inmate's request to halt his upcoming execution on grounds that a chemical used to paralyze condemned prisoners during lethal injections could impair their free speech rights.

Nibras Kazimi

Mr. Kazimi is an Iraqi writer living in Washington D.C. He can be contacted at nibraska@yahoo.com

Let me tell you a thing or two about my good friend George. I like this George fellow. He’s been kicking ass recently, and hardly anyone but the bad guys has noticed. He himself is probably unaware of this turnabout since the diplomatic and intelligence bureaucracies that are tasked with briefing him are themselves more or less clueless. The greatest victory so far in the war on terror occurred last week: The evil-doers have ceded the press and broadcast industry battleground and are now scrambling for legitimacy in fending off democracy. Their rhetoric is no longer riddled with loaded catch-phrases like “Zionism” and “colonial occupation”or even the “new crusades.” No,today’s talking points for the jihadists go something like this: Democracy is a Greek word that means power through the people and not God, which is a heresy that must be eradicated. The Army of the Ansar Al-Sunnah and the Islamic Army,respectively numbers 2 and 3 on the Top 20 terrorist charts, issued a communiqué last week saying that they intend to treat polling booths in the upcoming Iraqi elections on January 31 as military targets,since they consecrate the power of the people and not divine sanction. It is as if Christian Scientists took their prayer-inspired natural therapy to the extreme and began blowing up hospitals and assassinating medical practitioners and patients alike. This is bigger than the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the September 11 mastermind, or the overthrow of the Taliban.With Osama bin Laden reinventing himself as a policy wonk, as some have aptly described him, and interminably chiming in on the same theme to instruct Iraqis not to vote, this recent terrorist press blitz is an indication that they are quickly losing the battle of ideas and visions for the future of the Arab and Islamic world. And to my friend George, the whole thing can be summed up in one word: freedom. George is sometimes unfairly described as the Latter-Day Cowboy,or the “Bring It On”Gangsta. His detractors sought to tag him with these and all sorts of other epithets in an effort to deride his policies. However, George’s political enemies are doing a fine job and their sniping is crucial to winning the war on terror: The stubborn gung-ho image they created for the 43rd president is exactly what terrorizes the terrorists. The message emanating to the rest of the world is that George is serious about kicking the bad-asses in the ass. Al Qaeda got a crash course in Americana-infused wisdom: Don’t go messin’ with a Texan. Especially one armed with cruise missiles. My friend George also has an instinctive understanding of the forces of history. The Central Intelligence Agency, the New York Times editorial board, the Arab governments, the current unpopular Iraqi government, and most of Europe and America’s loony left have launched a press blitz of their own that basically runs in parallel to Al Qaeda’s: Delay the Iraqi elections since Arab Sunni nonparticipation would delegitimize the results. George to all the aforementioned: “No!” See, George is a visionary, and to him, the future instructs current policy rather than the “realist”credo of crises management.In 1864,America had an election during its Civil War,and Abraham Lincoln won a second term through a landslide while most of the secessionist South, understandably,did not participate.Is anyone today going to make the argument that these results were illegitimate? The causes for America’s fratricide were many and complex, but what elementary school children across America are learning is that there was no moral equivalency between slave owners and the unionists. In 20 years time, Iraqi children will also be taught that, during the height of an undeclared civil war that is currently ravishing the country, there was no moral equivalency between the democrats and the beheaders. Yet again, according to my friend George, the whole thing can be summed up in one word: freedom. George understands that the Iraqis need to get on with their future without delay, and that those who have been liberated by the concept of freedom are going to come up with their own means of securing the new post-Saddam era. These matters will no longer be decided by the Baghdad CIA station operating within the embassy compound. It will be decided by Iraq’s newly elected leaders through a succession of corrective steps in what has been tried and failed. On security matters, they will opt for a complete reversal of such poorly thought-out experiments like the Fallujah Brigade formed last April, where ex-Baathists still donning their Republican Guard uniforms were expected to battle the insurgency that stands for bringing the Baath Party and the Arab Sunni minority sect back into absolute power. I have a hunch that a new government will implement De-Baathification Plus, i.e., the complete top-to-bottom cleansing of the ex-regime elements that had been invited back into the government through a failed policy of appeasement. There is no appeasing the bad guys; they will not suddenly undergo a mystical epiphany and swear off driving planes into buildings or decapitating aid workers.They must be destroyed. Being a terrorist must become a job-related hazard even before self-detonation at a chosen target. The new era in Iraq will not flower with the begrudged participation of Saddam’s orphans, or those who had a stake in their past murderous glory.The future of Iraq lies with those who were orphaned by Saddam and whose parents ended up in mass graves.The talent and willpower of these victims and their reflexive loyalty to a new Iraq is the key.And believe me, there are plenty of them since, in case someone out there has forgotten this fact, Saddam and his henchmen killed a lot of people. I’ve never met George, and he would have no clue who I am. But across the politically desolate landscape of the Middle East, young men and women are being emboldened to speak up and demand a better life through the heretical notion of democracy because they feel that they’ve got a friend in the White House. George W. Bush has got the evil-doers and the despots on the run, both physically and ideologically. His hymn for democracy in the Middle East resounds like a death knell for Al Qaeda and the hated dictatorships and accurately projects through a values-oriented foreign policy what America is all about.And with friends like these, pretty soon, there will be fewer enemies.

** yet another hero(ine) **

Marie Alexander of Lecanto admits she doesn't get around like she used to. But when 2 women tried to steal her purse this week, they had no idea what they were in for.
MARIE ALEXANDER: "They saw a gray hair (woman) hobbling with a cane and they figured I was an easy target."Alexander chased after the women, leaving her cane behind.
MARIE ALEXANDER: "I only had $20 in there, but it wasn't the money, it was the other things."Alexander had her husbands social security and V.A. cards inside her purse. Plus photos of the couple she says she couldn't replace. And since Alexander's husband died 7 months ago she says losing her purse would have been like losing her husband all over again.
MARIE ALEXANDER: "So this would have been a chunk of our life together that I would have lost and I never want to lose sight of this man. He was just wonderful, he really was."."Alexander caught up with the women before they drove off. In fact, she shattered the driver's side car window with her bare hands and then hit one of the women. She also got her purse back and the women were arrested. Alexander added. some things like love are worth fighting for.

** we're from the government, and we're here to help **

Gator going to eat your kids or pets? Not to worry, the Florida Fish and Game Commision will be there in seven to 10 days to take care of it

A major difference between Europe and America, important though rarely noted, is the religious difference. America's history has been a series of falling aways, followed by spontaneous religious revival, often at the expense of the organized church. I myself am a product of such a revival, the "Jesus people" movement of the sixties. This brought, as such things usually do, many new Christians into American evalgelicanism who did not have the "baggage" associated with a lifetime of indoctrination, and overall was instrumental in spreading the knowledge of Jesus beyond "religious" enclaves, where not many would go.

Thus, the US is a much more Christian operation than many believe, because the "mainstream" churches. in thrall to humanism, did not benefit from this movement. The Jesus people were not welcome in mainline churches( outre clothing, no bras!, weird shoes!) and went where they were welcome.

Europe's history is very different. Tempting as it is to try to pick a defining moment, the truth is that, over centuries, the Europeans have made a series of decisions that have tended toward the worship of "reason" and the denigration of the supernational. As a result, the churches in Europe are literally dying. From the BBC:

For decades, the Church in France has been living on borrowed time, relying on a body of priests whose average age has steadily increased. That time has suddenly run out. Recent research suggests that French priests have become so old that half of them will die in the next eight years.
At Puy L’Eveque, Michel Cambon is Fr Bouzou’s nearest fellow priest. He is the only one who seems really angry about the crisis. As we walk among the dilapidated tombs in the churchyard with their fallen crosses and mournful statuary, the church bells clang balefully. Fr Cambon - who has more than 30 churches to look after - says his elderly congregation is dying out so rapidly that in 10 years there may be no church in Puy L’Eveque at all.
“People kept saying it would be all right,” says Fr Cambon, “but they’re about to be proved wrong. My fear is that the Roman Catholic Church will disappear altogether in France. That’s the path we’re on.”

** did you know? **

When I was a child, I was taught, from the standard science texts, that diamonds were produced deep in the Earth's crust. Deposits of pure-enough carbon, under the great pressure and heat there, over millions of years turned into diamonds. Oil was supposed to be produced if the pressure or purity was just a little less, but still take millions of years to produce. For all I know, they teach that still. The fact is, however, that once scientists were able to actually duplicate the heat and pressure required in a laboratory, they tried it out, and wadyno? The process did not take years - it took a few hours, less than a day, in fact.

Significance? Some scientists today, almost as sceptical as I, are publically wondering if it does indeed take many years to produce oil. These guys are suggesting that the reason we seem to be constantly discovering new oil deposits (in spite of dire predictions) is that the earth is constantly producing oil from compost and we will simply never run out of the stuff as long as plants die. As you might expect, the enviro-whackos are not pleased.

More thoughts on the tsunami ***

Of all the articles on the tsunami I've read, there's one thread that deserves more comment, certainly more than I'm going to give it in a forum like this. The question, and it's a good one, is Why?

We generally think of life in terms of cause and effect, or of action and consequence. If you live as a drunkard and your liver goes out, you asked for it. Save with promiscuous sex and Aids. If there's no discernable link, we get uneasy. Who's to blame to this? Why did 150,000 people (so far) die?

The answer is simple, but will not satisfy a lot of people. We live in a fallen world. God cursed the ground "for our sake", an early statement of the principle of Headship (the topic of my thesis, which I really need to get back to work on). Adam sinned and the Universe sufers accordingly. In a fallen world, things do not perform at optimum efficiency, and stuff simply go wrong. Life is not a soda machine where you put in a good deed and get a blessing or put in a sin and get trouble. Although relationships exist there, they are much more complex than that.

In the words of the 90's, Shit happens. Life is just like that. Maybe nobody's to blame. It just happens.

** voting irregularities r us **

The Democrats, of course, have made a great fuss about "voting problems" in Ohio thayt should, they say, invalidate the Presidential election. Senator Boxer (D - lalaland) forced a delay in counting the electoral college to "call attention to" voting problems in Ohio. For instance? "Long lines at voting booths. Excuse me?

The Democrats have taken up where they left off in the past - trying to steal elections they can't win. Their true respect for the electoral process is shown in Washington State. There, they lost two recounts, then forced a third "hand" recount, giving them a chance to fudge the numbers, a Democrat tradition of long standing. Remember Daley in Chicago telling Kennedy to tell him how many votes he needed, and Daley would "find" them? Well. it turns out that according to the Democrats, more people voted Democrat in King County, WA than are registered to vote there. Many "deaders" have been found. Their response to the Republicans? Stop whining and take your loss like a man. What loss? The Democrats have decided that they are taking office, and to Hell with the voters. Again.

"At least eight people who died before the November election were credited with voting" in Washington state, "raising new questions about the integrity of the vote" in the gubernatorial race won by Christine Gregoire (D) by just 129 votes, a Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigation found.Gregoire is set to take office on Wednesday and Republicans "are searching for ways to contest the election and force a revote."However, the Seattle Times notes "voting by dead people isn't always a scam."

I love that last line.

** whither the FCC? **

Last year was not a good year for the FCC. A second-and-a half exposure to Janet Jackson's right nipple and a few four letter words on radio caused the FCC to go berserk, issuing fines and censures every which way. Result: many stations were afraid to show Saving Private Ryan on Veteran's Day because the soldiers talked like soldiers actually do. When it was shown that well over 95% over the complaints sent in to the FCC about "decency" were generated by email campaigns by one fundamentalist group, the FCC frankly looked ridiculous. Speaking as a Christian conservative, I certainly don't allow this group of weirdos to speak for me if I can help it, Unfortunately, when a group like that claims to speak for Christians, I don't get a choice.

A good question raised this year is "Who needs the FCC?" Why are we wasting tax money on an outfit to "police" the airwaves, as if they were a public trust held by the government? The airwaves are not owned by the government, and we should abandon the conceit that they are. The FCC constitutes nothing less than censorship, about which I have very strong feelings. (I'm agin it.) The FCC doesn't do much good, anyway. Content the FCC doesan't like is still broadcast, just by satellite or cable, so why spend the money?

** The UN does not want overseas adoptions for orphaned children **

Unicef Australia chief executive Carolyn Hardy says her organisation will not support or encourage inter-country adoptions.
"We believe children are best left where they are in environments that are familiar to them, in a culture that's familiar to them, speaking a language that they know, and in the schools that they're already going to," she said.

"We don't want any round-eyes raising good asian babies", she concluded.

OK, I made that last sentence up.

** just in case you thought they were sane:

These are the ten most popular conspiracy theories in Arab lands right now:

10) U.S. and Zionist Control of Al-Jazeera: Muslim critics of Al-Jazeera frequently charge that it is run by the U.S. and Israel. In the Tehran Times on December 2, Hassan Hanizadeh wrote that "rumors arose suggesting that the network was established by U.S. and Israeli agents in order to present a bad image of Islam to the world… The actions of the network gradually revealed the fact that Al-Jazeera officials, on the orders of Zionist agents, are trying to … tarnish the image of Islam…"
9) Zionists Spreading Diseases Amongst Arabs: Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV broadcast a program in November about "Zionist attempts to transmit dangerous diseases like AIDS through exports to Arab countries." Iran's Mehr News Agency ran a story titled "Israel Exporting Carcinogenic Foodstuff to Arab States" on November 24, writing, "The trend has led to an increase in leukemia and liver and stomach cancer in the Arab countries which have imported Israeli foodstuff."
8) Iran Accuses Al-Zarqawi of Working for Jordan: The Iranian Mehr News Agency alleged on December 26 that "Jordan sent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Iraq to carry out destabilization activities," and that Iraqi President Iyad Allawi is controlled by Jordanian officials. The report also accused Jordan of planning to re-settle five million Palestinians in Iraq.
7) Jews Were Behind the September 1st-3rd Chechen Beslan School Attack: Dozens of religious, political, and media personalities from the Middle East have blamed the Beslan attack on Jews and Israelis. Ali Abdullah, a conservative Bahraini religious scholar, claimed on September 5, 2004 that Israelis - not Muslims - were behind the attack, as part of an effort to "tarnish the image of Muslims."
6) Israel Stealing Body Parts of Palestinian Children: Iran's Sahar 1 TV is currently airing a weekly series that premiered on December 13 called "Zahra's Blue Eyes." The show includes graphic scenes of Palestinian children whose eyes have been surgically removed and stolen by Israel.
5) Jews Tamper with The Koran: The Kuwaiti English daily Arab Times published an article on September 21 titled "New Education Plan 'Enforced'; Jews tamper with Holy Quran." The article reported on the Dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies of Kuwait University, Dr. Mohammad Abdul Razak Al-Tabtabaei, who had "warned citizens and residents of some versions [of the Koran] which have been manipulated by Jews…" Al-Tabtabaei explained, "For long Jews have been plotting against Muslims using various means… They have been damaging the Holy book by the changing and deleting verses with the aim of hiding the truth."
4) U.S. To Invade Pakistan and Annihilate Muslims: Maqdoom Mohiuddin favorably reviewed a book in the Saudi Gazette on October 19, which advances the theory that "there have been rumors about a possible invasion of Pakistan… The U.S. has started implementing its program… The book also reveals that the other possible targets of the U.S. will be Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey…" Mohiuddin claims that President Bush's true goal is the "total annihilation of the Muslims."
3) U.S./Jews Behind the October 7th Taba Attacks in Egypt: Adli Barsum of the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhuriya is one of dozens of Arab columnists who propagated conspiracy theories about the Taba attacks. He asked in Al-Gumhuriya on October 12: "Who planned the bombings in Taba? … Is it the Mossad? …Is it the CIA?" The London Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that a headline in Egypt's weekly Al-Mustaqbal Al-Jadid, the official organ of the National Party's Policies Committee under the leadership of Gamal Mubarak, read "Proof of Mossad Involvement in the Explosions in Taba."
2) Israel Killed Yasser Arafat: Writing in the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, Ghada Karmi claimed on November 11, "… A close confidant of Ariel Sharon has stated that the latter had 'eliminated' Yasser Arafat 'through his cooks'…" On November 11, Khaled al-Batesh, leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told UPI that "during Sharon's last visit to Washington, he told U.S. President George W. Bush, 'We will help G-d to get rid of him.'" An article in the Tehran Times on November 17 stated that "a special Zionist commando group" was responsible.
1) U.S. Soldiers Stealing Organs from Iraqis: In the Saudi daily Al-Watan on December 22, an article by Fakhriya Ahmad alleges that, based on European secret military reports, U.S. personnel in Iraq are stealing human organs: "The reports confirm the finding of tens of thousands of mutilated cadavers missing parts… These teams offer $40 for every usable kidney and $25 for an eye…" The report also appeared in the Syrian daily Teshreen and in Iran's Jomhour-ye Islami.

From Powerline blog:

The issue relates to the shocking photo, recently published by the AP, showing three terrorists in the act of murdering two Iraqi election workers on a street during daylight. The photographer was obviously within a few yards of the scene of the murder, which raises obvious questions, such as 1) what was the photographer doing there; did he have advance knowledge of the crime, or was he even accompanying the terrorists? and 2) why did the photographer apparently have no fear of the terrorists, or conversely, why were the terrorists evidently unconcerned about being photographed in the commission of a murder?

I just finished watching The Final Countdown, a better-than-good-but-not-great movie in which the USS Nimitz is transported via a freak "storm" to the South Pacific on Dec. 6, 1941. At first eveybody is confused, then gradually the truth begins to hit them - they are in a position to block the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and change the course of history. At one point a US Senator of 1941 is brought on board (long story) and is flabbergasted. Who are these people? He's on the Defense Committee and knows darn well nothing like this vessel exists. When told of their intention to destroy the Japanese attack force, he ridicules the Captain. From his perspective, this is a reasonable attitude. How can he possibly imagine the power at the skipper's command?

Even today, people have trouble with this. Take a nuclear carrier group; it doesn't really matter which, since they're all similar in structure. At its center, you have the CVN, or carrier vessel (nuclear). If you knew we still have some non-nuclear carriers (CV), give yourself a cookie, but they're the exception. Around the carrier you have a grup of 20+ vessels assigned the care and feeding of the beast. Cruisers, destroyers, fuel vessels, hospital ships, and submarines for ASW warfare. Take any one of these groups, and you've got the fifth most powerful navy in the world.
The nuclear weapons on each carrier group just make things worse. The only place one of these groups falls short is boots-on-the-ground. They usually carry just enough Marines for security and protection of the nuclear weapons. If real force is needed, a troop carrier will be assigned.

We've got 10+ of these groups.

On the other end, take a Marine division as an example. Over 10,000 men, each one capable of serving as rifleman at need. Add in associated Humvees and such. If it is a heavy division, factor in artillery, tanks, rockets, and other nasties. Taking on a Marine Division is suicide, which is why nobody tries. Even in Iraq, who are the religion-of-peace asshats attacking? School children, trainee police officers, and empty buildings. You hear a lot about how these guys are eager to die for the cause and all that, but reality differs a bit.

How shall I put this? Islam promises virgins and 10,000 year orgasms to their valiant soldiers killed in the victory over infidels (us). It gets a bit vague, however, when you look at the reward they get for dying while losing. There is simply no place in Islam for contemplating losing. Allah is supposed to use his almighty power to bring victory to the godly. Judaism and Christianity have provisions in Scripture about suffering for the Lord and being patient under His mighty hand until God's own time comes. Islam has nothing like this. They must win, or all is lost.

This partially explains some of the backlash against the mullahs issuing fatahs against the West and encouraging young Arabs to go fight the Crusaders. They did by the bunch, and lots of body bags have been going back to Syria and Iran. Parents, wives, and sweethearts are starting to ask awkward questions. I wonder what the answers will be?

Progress in Iraq you may not have heard about
Ray Reynolds, SFC Iowa Army National Guard 234th Signal Battalion, who served in Iraq offers this summary of what's been accomplished there:
Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.An interim constitution has been signed.Girls are allowed to attend school.

The Twelve Days of Christmas revisited

On the 12th day of Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival my significant other in a consenting, adult, monogamous, relationship gave to me:

Twelve males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming.

Eleven pipers piping (plus an 18 member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract, even though they will not be asked to play a note.)

Ten melanin-deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping.

Nine persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression.

Eight economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk products from enslaved bovine Americans.

Seven endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands.

Six enslaved fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products.

Five golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration. (After members ofl the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)

Four hours of recorded whale songs.

Three deconstructionist poets.

Two Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses, and

One Spotted owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.

Via RightWingDuck:

Who you calling Stingy?
When you first heard of this United Nation's Twerp calling us stingy, you probably had one of 3 reactions.
"You’ll take our Buck Fifty and like it."
"Who gives a crap what the United Nations thinks of us?"
"Are we paying your salary to ‘diss’ us, you ungrateful beyotch?"

Now, he's bit more, er, direct than I am, but not by much. Other than for forcing little girls into prostitution, standing by watching massacres, and the like, what exactly has the UN done in the more desperate regions of the planet? That's what I thought.

** somebody promote this guy **

In Milwaukee, police officer Walter Tyshynsky has been tracking down and ticketing people who abuse handicapped placards. As a cripple (2 strokes) this is rather a pet peeve of mine. I vividly remember being unable to get one one the few handicapped saces at Winn Dixie, only to see auburn football players rush out of the store, get in one of those cars and leave.

Appropriate punishments elude me.

Lately, I've been thinking a bit about the relationship between the terms used in debating an issue and the outcome of the debate. It seems to me to be determinative.

The problem of God's sovereinty vs Man's responsibility is usual expressed as God's Sovereignty versus Free Will. This has a couple of problems when looked at closely. Firstly, Free Will is simply not a Biblical term. In fact, the concept itself is not there, except as some people find it to be implicit in the Bible's demand that people are responsible morally to God for what they do. The main chapter on this issue, Romans 9, sets up the seeming contradiction and refuses to answer it. Instead Paul reminds us that God is God and we are not, therefore, we have no right to hold Him to account with our measly ideas about "fairness."

Yet, how can we see God as fair? At least part of the problem, as I see it, is the nature of Aristotelian logic itself, which is based on the proposition "all A is not non-A" and vice versa. In other words, logic is a zero sum game. Viewed from that perspective, to give man a choice is to narrow the scope of God's choices.

The Bible doesn't present the issue in those terms. Maybe we should stop attempting to.

Just a thought.

** More on global warming **

It is snowing in the UAE for the first time in history.

** Thoughts on the tsunami **

Well, sort of. I dabble enough in science to understand the language and follow at least most of the discussions, but that's it. No, I was thinking about the lessons it can teach us. Love life, pain and all. It is a wonderful and terrible thing. Embrace your loved ones in your thoughts. Don't dwell on their faults. The next time they go through the door, even if it's to the next room, may be the last time you see them alive.

A baby's thoughts, by Frank J.

My nerves can't take this anymore; I need to get out of here. It so deceptively warm and comfortable in the womb... like they want me to fall asleep. But I can't sleep... that's when they come for me. I'm sure that a couple of time I felt some poking and prodding was them preparing the vacuum... sure of it! They were just waiting for me to go to sleep… but I was on to them! You won't get me without a fight!
I'm so tired, though. I can't keep alert like this forever. I can't go on with this constant threat of death. Has it been nine months, yet? I want out! It’s felt like years…
Yes! It has been nine months! I can see the light! I'm getting out...
Wait! This could be one of those partial birth abortions! They're going to suck my brains out, those b@stards! Get your dirty hands off me!
No, I'm going out head first. They only do those feet first, I think. There, I'm partially out, but I got to get all out so they can't kill me. Come on feet...
Yes! I'm born! You can't kill me now, you @%$# b@stards! I have legal protections now. I'm a person, you @%$# psychos! And...
No... is that Dutch they're speaking? No, Lord, no. I've been born in the @%$# Netherlands! What does that doctor have in his hands? Is it something to euthanize me with?
When will the Sword of Damocles ever be removed from above my head?!

Mark Steyn nails it again:

It’s already obvious the 43rd Presidency is far more consequential than the 41st: George Bush Sr’s place in history will mainly be as the guy who warmed up the name for George Bush Jr.

I've just been reminded of something I kind of knew, but never appreciated the significance of. That is, the history of Eastern Europe was defined by fighting off successive waves of Muslim invaders. Western Europe, saved from this by Eastern Europe's success, defined itself by wars between various sorts of Christians.

Therefore, today, Western Europe has trouble deciding what to do wih the lastest wave of invasion by the Religion of Peace, and Eastern Europe does not.

** I'm not surprised **

The F22 Raptor fighter aircraft is in trouble. Apparently it's both expensive and unsafe. Rumfeld dumped the Crusader artillery as too expensive and too limited purpose, and I expect the same to happen here. Our success with UAV's, upon which I have blogged before, indicates that the US would be better off spending less money on more unmanned devices. That way, when one gets shot down (amd they always do), nobody dies on our side, at least, and all you have to do is press the self-destruct to keep the darn thing from falling into enemy hands.

** with the purest motives, of course**

Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark (Lyndon Johnson) has joined the team of Jordan-based lawyers defending Saddam Hussein. Mr Clark said his principal concern was protecting the rights of the former Iraqi leader.

** In case you've got money( it ain't cheap) and would like to be able to tell somebody trying to rape your wife "Go to Hell" and mean it**


New Combat Shotgun Succeeds in Iraq
December 29, 2004: Shotguns have been a popular American weapon in Iraq, mainly because there is a new, and much better, military shotgun available. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense adopted the Benelli 12 gauge shotgun as the M1014 “Joint Service Combat Shotgun.” The 40 inch long, 8.5 pound Benelli design had a pistol grip, a collapsible stock and a tube magazine holding up to seven rounds. The new weapon replaced over half a dozen other models used by the different services. The M1014 has an effective range of 40 meters with buckshot, and 125 meters when using a rifled slug. The weapon is modular, allowing use without the pistol grip, and with optical and electronic sights. The urban combat in Iraq has made the shotgun a popular weapon, especially the special round for blowing off locks. The M1014 also turned out to be a very reliable and durable weapon. All the dust and, in season, mud, have failed to shut down the M1014. A civilian version is available for about $1,500.

** Einstein might have been wrong, after all **

After the 30+ years of the Pioneer missions, some intereting anomalies have turned up. For one thing, the spacecraft are not where they're supposed to be. People who have spent decades comparing predicted positions with actual positions for these spacecraft( are these guys devoted, or what?) have found that the positional variation increases over time. It looks as if gravity may behave differently than we have been led to expect. Physicists are frantic. Nobody else much notices. No wisecracks about me, if you please.

The last time something like this happened, Einstein showed that Newton's laws of gravity did not apply under extreme condiions, and physics and cosmology haven't been the same since.

From Natalie Solent, who blogs about everything from religion to politics to sewing (she likes sewing):

The mountains have laboured and given forth a mouse. Via Instapundit I was led to this article in Scientific American. It says that most of the positive effects claimed for high self esteem either are not true, or are correlations with causation not proved. The only ones that really stand up are the links between self esteem and the ability to initiate relationships and between self esteem and general happiness.

Much as I like being a introverted, chronically guilt-ridden, marginally agoraphobic miserable git, I pronounce no general anathema against either being able to talk to people or happiness. Some people like living that way.

The image that sticks in my mind, though, is of all those thousands of studies, books, seminars, courses, programmes, lectures... and it all boils down to something grandma could have told you in 1898.

One weird thing about the great tsunami is that nobody has found any dead animals. Not one.

Doesn't anybody read Tom Clancy?

In today's news:

FBI Probes Laser Beam Directed at Cockpit

Note: In Debt of Honor, two CIA guys down an enemy plane by using a powerful laser to blind the pilot while he was attempting to land. This is well within today's technology. No SF required.

Will wonders never cease?

They are actually FIRING PEOPLE FOR POOR PERFORMANCE at the CIA!

Tragedy !! Tragedy !!

I've been following this all day, and the number just keeps growing. (currently over 60,000 update: noe over 100,000)

There was an 8.9+ earthquake in Thailand, powerful enough to slow the rotation of the Earth. (update: I just read it also moved the island nation of Sumatra more than 100 feet!) As usual in such areas with earthquakes, the following tsunami does the real damage. Pictures are just horrifying. Pray for these people. Help them. Choose your own charity, but I reccomend the one run by Southern Baptist laymen. It's by far the most cost-effective, plus the victims get to hear about Jesus while being helped.

In case you were wondering, the professional doomsayers wasted no time. They've already decided that this massive earthqake was caused by global warming. Huh?

**Comon, lady! I think your kids never gave it a second thought! **

More weirdness from England. What is it over there, anyway?

Police order cover up of naked gnome 22/12/2004 - 17:14:56

Police ordered a naked, large-breasted, festive garden gnome to cover up after a motorist complained it was indecent, it emerged today.The well-endowed, three-foot-tall gnome was sitting in the driver’s seat of a stationary van in a lay-by on the A37 in Dorchester, Dorset.A naked male gnome was sat in the passenger seat and a model cow stood on the van’s roof as a way of attracting business to a nearby furniture shop.Two policemen visited David Lindley, who runs Manor Wood Furniture on Wardon Hill at Evershot, yesterday, after an outraged motorist said his naked female gnome was offensive to her children.The officers told Mr Lindley to cover up the resin gnomes and he obliged by using his girlfriend’s Ann Summers “Mummy Christmas” outfit.Mr Lindley, 42, said: “We have had to cover up the lady gnome because she’s got great big bosoms. We’ve put her in a Ann Summers Mummy Christmas outfit to cover her modesty.”He added: “It’s just a bit of fun to attract people to the shop. The male gnome has been in the van for about a month but then he got lonely so I put his girlfriend in there.”A Dorset Police spokesman said: “Dorset Police acted after receiving a complaint from a mother who said that her children had been upset.“Using their discretion a police officer spoke to the owner who agreed a suitable course of action in dressing the gnomes more appropriately on the grounds of decency.”

From MEMRI, a site which rnanslates Arabic articles into English:

Saudi Government Daily Accuses U.S. Army of Harvesting Organs of Iraqis
In the Saudi government daily Al-Watan, a n article from Brussels written by Fakhriya Ahmad charges that, based on alleged secret European military reports, the U.S. military in Iraq is harvesting and selling human organs. The following day, the story was also published in the Iranian daily Jomhouri-ye Islami, [1] as well as the Syrian daily Teshreen. [2] The following are excerpts from the article: [3]

"Secret European military intelligence reports indicate the transformation of the American humanitarian mission in Iraq into a profitable trade in the American markets through the practice of American physicians extracting human organs from the dead and wounded, before they are put to death, for sale to medical centers in America. A secret team of American physicians follow the troops during their attacks on Iraqi armed men to ensure quick [medical] operations for extracting some organs and transferring them to private operations rooms before they are transferred to America for sale.

"The reports confirm the finding of tens of mutilated cadavers or cadavers missing parts. Some were found without a head. The American military command could not offer reasons to explain the bewilderment about the missing parts, suggesting that this may have been caused by the penetration of bullets to the [missing] parts. But these excuses cannot be medically accepted. The reports also confirmed that the burning of bodies was deliberate in order to conceal the crime of organ extraction. [The reports] further indicate that American medical teams have [made] active and suspicious moves in Iraq to recruit some Iraqis to guide them to dead and critically injured individuals to engage in the extraction of organs. These teams offer $40 for every usable kidney and $25 for an eye. The reports confirm the finding of mutilated bodies in Fallujah. The reports indicate that the cadavers are immunized inside special cars to prevent the spread of the plague until the bodies are buried by their relatives.

"The reports have indicated that a number of those killed in 'Abu Ghraib' and other prisons were subjected to operations for extracting their organs. Following their mutilations, the bodies were discarded far from the prisons to conceal the facts. The reports revealed that that the American forces restricted the media by force to prevent them from getting near the scenes and recording the events. But the relatives of the Iraqis are aware of these facts. The reports have [also] indicated that the military forces of the European allies have noticed the absence of organs from the cadavers that were dealt with by the Americans and have reported to their high command, which instructed them to maintain silence and to avoid the discussion of the subject due to its gravity, while the military and intelligence high command have written secret reports about was observed by their forces and sent them to the European ministries of defense for their information."

[1] Jomhouri-ye Islami (Iran), December 19, 2004. http://www.jomhourieslami.com/1383/13830929/index.html. The article in Jomhouri-ye Islami also included pictures of Iraqis whose organs had allegedly been taken, including a picture of Abu Ghraib.
[2] Teshreen (Syria), December 19, 2004.
[3] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia) December 18, 2004.

** and I thought Montgomery was dumb!! **

Alarmed by glimpses of sweaty citizens in the buff, the city council in the southeastern city of Villahermosa, Mexico, has adopted a law banning indoor nudity, officials confirmed on Wednesday.

** did this ever bother you? It did me. **

Ok, so here we have little Rudolph with an unfortunate deformity. All of the other reindeer laughed and called him names, shunning him from the tightly-knit reindeer community -- right up until they have a use for the little mutant's deformity! Then they suddenly declare they "love" him. Yeah, right. Just so long as his honker lights up the night sky!

Who needs the lousy a$$holes? They never liked Rudolph. They were just kissing Santa's butt, anyway.

** some people have w-a-a-a-y too much fun (and time on their hands) **

Follow this link for hilarious versions of Christmas Carol synopses as told by various people.

http://techcentralstation.com/122304D.html

I wanted to send you a Christmas Card, but my attorney asvised me to send the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, celebration of some sort of holiday on or about the winter solstice, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "America" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of the wishee.

If you choose, please spread the joy, or other emotion of your choice.

** Mr. Language Person again **

Every so often I hear some sincere, over-the-top type Christian freaking about "Merry Xmas", and what an abomination it is, since "everybody knows" that X is the unknown factor in algebra, and Xmas is just another way of getting Jesus out of Christmas. These guys need to stop before they hurt themselves. X is actually the first letter in Christ in the original Greek, and is simply shorthand for the word Christ. It was used extensively in seminary while taking notes, to save time.

Examples: xmas, xian, xianity.

Do a little research, people.

** Doancha just love it? **

Are Red Staters really the uneducated rubes that so many beautiful Blue people make them out to be? Maybe. But Oklahomans, Hoosiers, and Idahoans have at least one thing over their well-educated New York counterparts — they can at least spell their presidential candidate's name correctly.
According to the official documents displayed on the website of the National Archives, the Empire State's 31 electoral votes all went for someone named "John L. Kerry" from Massachusetts. No such person could be found in the phone book, although there is a John T. Kerry in Plymouth.

*** yee-hah!! **

Senate Republican leaders yesterday appointed two of Congress's most outspoken antiabortion members to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is bracing for potentially bruising hearings on nominations to the Supreme Court.

** set phasers on kill **

A new radar system for a Katyusha-killing laser cannon has been brought to Israel to be tested against Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

** heard about Rumsfeld's problems? do you care? **

Apparently Bush doesn't. Everybody from neocons to the MSM has been on Rumsfeld's case for the past couple of weeks over nonsense. Bush reminds everybody that he picked him, the Senate confirmed him, and that's that.

** for those of you who can do something about it **

The military hospital in Landshtull, Germany has requested DVDs and personal DVD players for our Marines who are recovering from battle wounds.
You can send them to:Chaplain Irving Elson, Rabbic/o Commanding OfficerHeadquarters & Headquarters Squadron CHAPLAINP.O. Box 452013San Diego, CA 92145-2013

Just in case you thought this sort of thing is new:

From the New London, CT Day:

‘Women's War' At Wequetequock Made Many A Headline In 1883

By CAROL W. KIMBALLDay Staff ColumnistPublished on 12/20/2004
As Christmas approached in 1883 residents of Stonington village were not dreaming of jolly old Saint Nick nor entertaining visions of sugar plums. All eyes were on Borough Hall and lawsuits involving some of the very proper local residents, the result of bizarre events at the one-room Wequetequock School on Sunday the 25th of November. Dubbed “the women's war,” hostilities had lasted less than an hour, but it was a humdinger. Seven respectable Wequetequock women laid siege to the barricaded schoolhouse, determined to enter and hold Sunday school for neighborhood children.
You hardly notice Wequetequock today, but it once was a thriving hamlet boasting a school and a chapel, located on Route 1 just east of Stonington Borough. The school stood nearly opposite Greenhaven Road at the corner of Farmholme Road until it was destroyed by fire in 1970. Now the site is marked only by a flat rock, but in 1883 the school was the community center. It was built on land given by Wequetequock resident John D. Palmer, and after his death his neighbors learned that his will provided funds for gospel services and also to buy books for a Sunday school. With this money the Olivet Sunday School was organized in 1880 under the direction of local women, meeting in the schoolhouse. A parlor organ accompanied lusty hymn singing and all went well until the organist resigned in the summer of 1883.
Choosing a new organist split the community into two factions, one headed by the Cheseborough and Denison families and the other by the Palmers and Stantons, all descendants of Stonington founding fathers. A newcomer to the village, blond and stylish Mrs. F. Virginia Briggs, endorsed by the Cheseborough/Denison faction, finally secured the position, but in the early fall her opposition had the little organ moved out. Instead of worship services, Sunday school became a time for violent arguments.
Unhappy over the strife, the district school committeeman, Samuel L. Stanton, refused to allow the school to be used for Sunday school. The community was bitterly divided, some claiming this went against John D. Palmer's wishes. Hearing rumors of violence, at dusk on Nov. 24 Stanton and some of his friends barricaded themselves in the school, closing the shutters and barring the door. His supporters included brawny George Chapman and James E. Palmer, who stood 6-feet 2-inches tall. In the morning Stanton posted more guards and continued the vigil.
At one o'clock Sunday afternoon seven women dressed in their Sunday best came marching up to the school. Led by F. Virginia Briggs , they carried a chair, an axe and a crowbar. They approached the front door and asked the guards to step aside and let them in so they could hold Sunday school. Mrs. Briggs and her ally, Mrs. Phoebe Denison, tried to climb the wide stone doorstep but the guards fended them off. The women claimed they were pushed.
Undiscouraged, the women attacked a barricaded window on the west side, prying open the shutter with the crowbar. Then Mrs. Briggs climbed onto the chair and with the axe demolished the window. She dove though the jagged sash into the schoolroom followed by Miss Maria Cheseborough. The two then attacked the front door with the axe from inside while Mrs. Mary Carey wielded a sledge hammer from without to smash the panel. Stanton's army knew defeat when they saw it and quickly withdrew, leaving the women in charge.
The victors then calmly carried in a little parlor organ. Mrs. Briggs sat down and played hymns while others swept up the broken glass and wrote the text on the blackboard. They had come to hold Sunday school and they did. No one knows how many pupils attended that day, but the collection was 82 cents.
Then came the lawsuits. Stanton lodged complaints against his attackers; the seven women were arrested, charged with assault, breach of peace and willful injury. All were released on $200 bail and ordered to appear in court at Borough Hall on Dec. 3. The ladies countered with a suit against Stanton, Palmer and Chapman, charging them with prevention of religious observance, perjury and malicious persecution.
News of the encounter spread quickly. Publicity abounded. Court sessions were crowded and to Stonington's horror the women's war made headlines everywhere, even in the infamous Police Gazette. It was considered a disgrace to read the trashy Gazette, let alone to appear in its pages. More unwelcome stories appeared in the New York Sun and in Rhode Island newspapers as well. The women had put Wequetequock on the map.
Trials dragged on throughout December, attended by nearly everyone in town along with dozens of reporters. Committeeman Stanton and friends were judged guilty of perjury but acquitted on other charges. But in the final session of court, two days before Christmas, the ladies were finally judged not guilty.
Sunday school in Wequetequock eventually shifted to the little chapel and the community regained serenity. Not far away, off Barn Island Road in the Wequetequock Burying Ground, Stonington's four founders, William Cheseborough, Thomas Stanton, Thomas Minor and Walter Palmer slept in peace despite the unseemly behavior of their descendants

** Whither the blogoshere? **

There is an excellent post at http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1103476924.shtml on what's happening with blogs right now, but I feel that he doesn't explore the historical connection enough. We are in a position today roughly analagous to that a generation after the development of the printing press. What happened was that, after centuries of having the flow of information in "official" hands because of the expense and difficulty of access to the means of propagating opinion, anyone who could whittle could build a printing press and publish his thoughts. Thus was born the age of pamphleteering, and the world, especially Europe, was changed. The first pamphelts were the usual: porn and religion, but politics and such swiftly followed.

This age culminated in the public debate between the authors of the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers, which ultimately had much to do with developing our Constitution in its present form. Although the Anti-Federalist Papers are not as widely known, reading them is instructive. Most of their fears about what would happen with a strong central government have been proved correct.

The blog is rapidly coming to serve the same function today. Posting a blog is inexpensive or free, depending on tool used. All that you need to have a blog is the feeling that you have something constructive to say. All you need to survive is for enough people to agree with you. As in the age of pamphleteering, there is usually not a direct financial reward, but society as a whole benefits greatly. Also as in that age, the folks who controlled the flow of information previously are mightily peeved.

Remember how in
Oklahoma City they forbade the singing of Christmas carls and the use of a creche? It seems people noticed: The Dallas Morning News reports on the "simple but pointed Christmas message that voters delivered this week to school officials" in Mustang, OK. "If the fifth-graders couldn't have Baby Jesus in their school play, then the school district couldn't have an $11 million school bond package.""It was the first time in at least a decade that voters didn't rubber stamp the district's bond proposals – and yet another sign that America's so-called values voters are flexing electoral muscle against what they view as an excess of political correctness.

From KFOR, Oklahoma City: The television station of Lebanon's Hezbollah militants has lost its satellite feed to the United States after Washington put it on a list of terror organizations.

Almost without comment from the professional media, we are seeing the most monumental shift of our lifetime. The US administration has recognized that, without the Warsaw Pact on its borders, Europe is becoming globally insignificant, and is moving troops and patronage accordingly. The Korean Demilitarized Zone no longer has US troops; we just removed, with little fanfare, the last US troops in France, and US military is being pulled out of Europe to be used where they're really needed.

Who are the major beneficiaries of all this? The answer is: those countries that have stepped up to the plate both economically and on the WoT. Names: Australia, Great Britain, Japan, and India. India has many people as China, a fact almost universally ignored. and is the world's largest democracy, to boot. The alliances and alignments we grew up with are kaput, and we are entering a new world where those supporting freedom worldwide are telling dictators and their enablers in the UN and Old Europe to piss off. In a world where the US has a world-wide vision instead of a Euro-centric one, look for everything to change.

Germany is in financial trouble. The Bundesbank has been authorized to sell 120 tons of gold to bring in badly needed funds. Tell me again how Europe is going to knock off the US as the world's premier economic power.

I read in today's Boston Globe that some Democrats, including of all people Nancy Pelosi, are saying that the Democratic Party needs to make room for pro-life people without changing the party's stance that a woman should be able to get an abortion "whenever she chooses." How this is to be accomplished seems to me a bit of a mystery. Support for current abortion policy depends on not looking at the medical evidence. This is essential since RoevsWade only allows for abortions if the child (fetus) is "non-viable". With today's technology, this easily extends down to the fifth month after conception, while current policy allows for abortions even during full-term deliveries, also known as partial-birth abortion, or infanticide.

I don't believe the Dems can square this circle, but I've been wrong before. I think allowing pro-life views an audience in the Democratic Party will work as well as allowing a little freedom did in the USSR, and we all know how well that worked.