Things are a heating up, and the elite media are getting a little worried. Based on how this article, and some of the others I've seen from the left look, they still feel more comfortable with Trump winning the nomination -- at least he "wants to be liked". They understand that -- plus Trump has given money to Democrats, always been Pro-Abortion before, he is a New Yorker ... Trump makes sense to them.
Besides, they are still sure that either Bernie or Hillary beats him, so it really doesn't matter. Just win baby win!
But Cruz ...
"I knew before seeing Cruz on the stump that he is smart — dangerously so from my ideological perspective. I knew from watching him operate in Washington that he is ruthlessly ambitious. Seeing him in action, it’s clear he’s adept at retail politics as well."
That guy might actually have a shot, AND even the Republican establishment hates him and is worried about him.
The guy isn't willing to pander to IA farmers on ethanol! Holy Crap!
Not very long and worth reading if you ever liked Palin at all.
If it was Palin vs Hillary today, I wouldn't even blink an eye voting for Sarah. She isn't being investigated by the FBI, she has a human personality, she actually was a Governor, her marriage is like "Love Story" in comparison to Hildebeast's, and she knows how to shoot. AFAIK, her husband hasn't raped anyone, and of things that you can be metaphysically certain of, I think we can of that! If they could even find a girl from Jr High that said he "he kissed her too hard" we WOULD have heard about it -- IN DETAIL!!!
Yes, Palin has tried to make some money from her fame and we are supposed to be angry about that -- and completely unconcerned by the Clinton's greater than $100M acquired after they were "flat broke" leaving the White House.
Yes, Sarah has said some incoherent things in speeches and once said that "she could see Russia from her house" -- but Hillary stated she is named after Sir Edmund Hillary who was unknown when she was born, and she has assured us that there was "nothing classified on her private server", even though we now know that was massively either an "error" or a "lie".
The MSM did all they could to turn Sarah Palin into a laughing stock, just as each day they do all they can to cover for Hillary. The MSM hates Palin and loves Hillary -- that is enough for me to at least have significant respect for Palin.
Does her endorsement of Trump affect me? No. But neither am I going to see it as some sort of new reason to jeer and cat-call at her. There is no shortage of negative media attention to Sarah even though she is largely irrelevant at this point -- for the vast percentage of the public, the MSM accomplished their task with her.
We could use just a wisp of MSM concern for the Hildebeast -- for they are certainly intent to "accomplish their task" with her as well, and see her in the White House!
I was questioned in a discussion last night if Al Sharpton REALLY owed $4.5 M in back taxes ... and that if he did, "it was old news". This is Forbes, Feb of 2015
With about $4.5 million in tax liens, most taxpayers know they would be pushed and prodded to pay. Mr. Sharpton, however, seems graced by a kind of Teflon liturgical outfit.
The latest I could find online was something from Snopes last Sept ATTEMPTING to debunk a rumor that BO had forgiven the Sharpton tax bill ... they said "it is likely Sharpton is working with the IRS".
The bottom line here is that he has at least had MILLIONS of back taxes on the books for a LONG time, and it involves a lot of questionable things like "my tax records burned in a fire".
We have seen a goodly number of Democrats pop up from time to time with many 10's, 100's of thousands and millions of dollars of back taxes, but they are still walking around, where most of us know somebody that has owed a few thousand and ended up with their wages garnished, heavy fines, etc
It APPEARS that we have a situation where the IRS is now an arm of "The Party" (D), where people of the "wrong" political persuasion (eg. Tea Party, Lois Lerner) can get in trouble, while "members in good standing" can walk around with millions of taxes outstanding.
That DOES tend to be how things work when one party takes over the entire government as TP has all the bureaucracy of our Federal government -- with 99% of them both D and Union!
Well, my "soul" is against Trump as well. I guess I'm a Cuz guy, but this is REALLY getting nasty!
As you know, there are few people I respect more than Sowell. I will likely vote in the MN caucuses, but they probably won't matter anyway, so this is a horserace that I pretty much just watch.
Worth reading, but the last paragraph tells the story ...
Is that the emotional release that Republican voters will be seeking when they begin voting in the primaries? If so, Donald Trump will be their man. But if the sobering realities of life and the need for mature and wise leadership in dangerous times is uppermost in their minds, they will have to look elsewhere.
It really doesn't take any courage to be for bigger government in America today, but it takes A LOT to be for smaller government!
The uneasy alliance between Republicans and Gasohol subsidies has been questionable for a long time -- and no doubt, the fact that Iowa has the caucuses has played a big part in calculations related to that.
Well, Ted Cruz has come out and said NO to Gasohol subsidies! Trump is all for them ... as are the other Republican candidates, and no surprise, Hillary and Bernie. Let's be honest, bigger government has been significantly bi-partisan for a long time -- sure, Democrats want MORE, but Republicans have definitely been pandering away with a "more as well".
Gasohol never made environmental or oil supply sense -- it takes about 1.3 gal of oil in fertilizer, diesel, electricity, etc to produce a gallon of ethanol.
What it DID make HUGE sense for was to help the price of corn go up and to build a lot of ethanol plants in MN, IA, IL, etc. It DID help the farm economy.
However, the farmers adjusted. The price of corn went up, so they planted more -- MUCH MORE, so the price has now fallen and the as with other "farm programs", removing this one now is going to be PAINFUL, just like the Reagan removal of some of the programs back in the '80s.
I love farming. I have loved ones farming. I love BIG TRACTORS! ... but the ethanol government program is just like all the other farm programs in the past. It is a lie. Gasohol isn't saving anybody anything, but it no doubt IS propping up the price of corn somewhat even at this low price level.
Government programs are like drugs or alcohol ... they may give a "boost" in SOME situations, but EVENTUALLY they ALWAYS cause despair. For some of them ... like FICA, that may take many decades, or even a century, but we can certainly see the end from here on that as well.
With a heavy heart, I support the Cruz position. It may well kill him in IA, but having the government create the winners and losers in the market simply doesn't work -- for anyone! It builds overcapacity and ends up causing oversupply, and then the government eventually decides or is forced by economic pressure to remove or modify the program anyway.
Politics SUCKS! ... that is why we need SMALLER GOVERNMENT!
I look at something like this and the fact we are still here and at least assured by BO and the MSM that we are "doing OK" after seven years of BO disaster makes me realize we may drop off this cliff as well. $14T in new taxes and or deficit spending, and these are the ROSY projections -- that include cuts in pay for everyone in medicine and "some rationing".
We used to hear about "debt and deficit" all the time. Gone. Military deaths -- even those of the 12 missing Marines after the loss of the helicopter in Hawaii would have caused some soul searching about "sacrifice, loss, and the incompetence of the W military" 8 years ago. That kind of reporting would actually be REFRESHING now!
The IA governor wanting to defeat Ted Cruz, Glenn Frey dying, and Dolly Parton's 70th B-day are on top of CNN right now.
Yes, there is a really angry set of people dedicated to Trump, but as I look around, it looks to me like we have settled in to the concept that "there is PLENTY of money around"! We can print it, borrow it, take if from the "1%" or certainly SOMEBODY.
Can you REALLY see anybody that doesn't have a "D" next to their name winning this next election? The nation has "gone for the stuff" twice now, but thrown R's in the Congress and a lot of state seats in hopes that they can find SOME way to at least pay for a little of it and pass it all out with some tiny level of competence.
We have killed any idea of consistency or reason. Liberty and Equality OF RESULT are TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE!!!! Is that not obvious to all?
The idea was EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW -- as in you could not have a "progressive" income tax because it treated people differently! **LAW** was to be applied equally. There was NO CONCEPT of "equality of result". What the hell would "equality of result" even BE? We all make the same amount of money? We all live in the same cinder block USSR style flat? We all drive the same socialist "Dumb Car"?
Out nation was NOT a nation of ethnicity nor territory, it was a nation of IDEAS.
We don't even have a CLUE as to the ideas that created the once great nation we see falling apart all around us!
A little stale BO from 2012 ... he was of course "deriding Republicans", he does at least do that well :
At the Republican debate in Arizona on Wednesday night, Gingrich introduced himself by saying he had "developed a program for American energy so no future president will ever bow to a Saudi king again and so every American can look forward to $2.50 a gallon gasoline."
Without naming Gingrich, Obama appeared to target that remark Thursday, saying to cheers that "anyone who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn't know what they're talking about -- or just isn't telling you the truth."
"It's the easiest thing in the world to make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices," Obama said. "What's harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem. And it won't be solved in one year, it won't be solved in one term, it may not be solved in one decade. But that's the kind of commitment we need right now."
The truth is never likely to get close enough to BO to bite him in the ass, but if it did, he sure wouldn't recognize it! BO is the master at BOTH lying and "not knowing what he is talking about"!
But being loudly and arrogantly WRONG isn't enough for BO. No, he can BOTH call the other side names and then take CREDIT when what he called "not telling the truth" comes to pass!! Naturally the MSM is going to let him get away with it, and apparently the American electorate has a memory shorter than a late stage Alzheimer's patient! (from this link):
But virtually all of the increased oil and natural gas production has come from private and state lands, where Obama has no jurisdiction over approving drilling permits. Meanwhile, oil production on federal lands has floundered under Obama. From 2009 to 2013 oil production on federal lands fell by 11 percent and natural gas production fell by 28 percent.
He proudly held off the Keystone Pipeline and then cancelled it as well. BO has done all he could do to stop US and Canadian delivery of cheaper energy to Americans, but he shamelessly takes credit for it at the same time!
Our founders were right, we REALLY DO need an ADVERSARIAL MEDIA ... it is just too damned bad we don't have one when a D is in office! Just wait and see a completely insanely obnoxious completely adversarial media return if an R is ever elected president in BOistan!
One can't expect a lefty leaning person to really learn from experience, but if a corporation provided service this bad the Star Trib would almost certainly be demanding lawsuits, government action, etc.
Of course MinnesoataCare **IS** the government, and "they are here to help" ... but you would never know it from the phone exchange below (there is more in the top linked article):
I called often but the result was always the same: “We’re experiencing a high rate of calls. Please call again later.” **Click**.
I was foiled online as well, my MNsure account disabled by the usual cyberscape bouncer, System Administrator. On rare occasions I pierced the cones of silence that hung over their help desks. “Wait! I’m here!” I croaked. My throat dusty, forming words like a Bedouin straggling in from the Sahara. “I have copies of checks … Tax info …“They don’t match our records,” said the voice.
“How can you have records if you don’t send us invoices?”
“Mail in your payments anyway, without the invoice,” said the voice.
“I tried that, you guys applied them to the wrong account.”
“Mail them anyway.”
“You want me to mail money blindly, with no paperwork, to an agency I can’t call or contact?”
“Just put your ID number on the check,” said the voice.
“You mean this one?” I read the number.
“That’s not your number.”
“That’s my ID number from the last invoice you sent me. It says right here: ID number.”
I've heard a full crowd of lefties on MPR try to sort out why we have MinnesotaCare + MNsure, and how that all relates to BOcare, and it was obvious they were very confused, some of THEM even wanted to get rid of MNsure ... but naturally, since they were all lefties, there were a couple that were CERTAIN that MinnesotaCare's many problems (that they all agreed it had) would be worked out "soon". I believe I heard that last spring.
But who really cares? It is ONLY $44 Million, I mean it isn't like some CEO got that for a salary or the Koch brothers gave it to some campaign or something!
"As a result of the weak data, JP Morgan slashed its fourth-quarter GDP growth estimates from a 1.0 percent annual rate to only a 0.1 percent pace. Goldman Sachs cut its forecast by three-tenths of a percentage point to a 1.1 percent rate. The economy grew at a 2 percent pace in the third quarter."
I know that in the age of BO, we are all supposed to listen in rapture while he pisses down our backs and tells us he made it rain, but I guess I just don't enjoy it that much!
DOES ANYONE IN THE US CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMY ANYMORE!!!!
So if the economy "grew" at 2% in 3Q, that may actually be a 1% DECLINE under the old measure.
Now 4Q is estimated to be a 2-3% DECLINE under the old measure.
I reported on the first two quarters here -- they originally reported 1Q as -.2 and then bumped it up when they reported 2Q with 2.3% "growth" with the new measure. So, if we take THEIR "adjusted measures" and apply the "new GDP math", we get +.6, -.7, -1, to a -1-2% 4Q! That
That folks is supposed to be a "good economy" in the age of BO!
Does ANYONE believe the inflation figures from the government anymore? Sure, gas is down, but food? medical? internet? TV? property taxes? any sort of "service" like car repair, tires, etc? anyone look at the price of a car lately???
I realize what a complete dupe I am holding some money in "inflation protected US Bonds" -- and WHO is it that I thought was going to calculate the inflation number? Talk about the Fox guarding the hen house!
The linked article makes a case that Mike McCarthy cost Aaron Rodgers yet another Lombardi last night. (I know, we only would have had to get by Carolina and then win the big one! Would have been NO PROBLEM! ) I especially liked this part of the argument ...
It's almost always better for the underdog to try to turn the game into a shorter contest. Taken to an extreme, if you're playing Steph Curry one-on-one and you start with the ball, it's better to play to one than 11, because you might fire off a jumper and get lucky, but you're not going to hit 11 shots over Steph without giving him the ball.
It's a good article on aggressive vs conservative coaching. McCarthy is pretty conservative coach at heart, and like everything, that has it's plusses and minuses. Oh yes, and "Monday morning QB" is ALWAYS a great place to be smug! Football is however a GAME, so if there is enjoyment in 2nd guessing, why not? Besides, there IS some worth worth to a post-mortem, and given my head, I'll be thinking SOMETHING about the Pack headed to next season.
I was surprised they didn't roll the dice on going for two after the big Hail Mary. We had the momentum, the birds were stunned, I think it was our best shot and a good one ... I think even a better one than what the article leans toward.
The best news of last night was Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis ... we have been waiting to see more of both of them since the O went south even before the break, and last night they both looked good. I'm certainly hoping we return to being loaded with good receivers next year!
I found this one to be WAY easier to take than the over conservative 2nd half with the surrealistic final minutes at Seattle last year. I was thinking of that kick today as Carolina did successfully field the onside!
I'm the kind of guy that likes to watch my team methodically run up 3+ touchdown leads and then do long grinding drives to leave the margin at that level! Last years mid-season Pack was PERFECT! Note, I don't like that in general -- I like to see everyone else play CLOSE! I almost turned off the Carolina - Seattle game in the fist quarter.
We're WAYYYYY DUE! Our season had huge issues, but we came back to life last week and ended up on the wrong side of one of the better playoff games one is likely to ever see.
This year has taught me to throw expectations completely out the window when it comes to football. I ALWAYS firmly held that relative to injuries, but this year I learned that at least the O can just suddenly "go to pot" and nobody can put their finger solidly on why?
Naturally, come September my hopes will be sky high again. I'm thinking Carolina beats the birds and goes to the big dance.
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"! As I've noted before, we also certainly aren't in anything that would have been called "America" or USA prior to 2008 anymore. WTFistan? It was "Changed", and it seems Hopeless ... but I think I could even take THAT a little better if I could even begin to understand how I might even imagine walking a few miles in the ruling elite's moccasins -- or perhaps wearing their tinfoil hats? What is going on????
In the linked article we find that a lot of strange people are running in and out of the remote wildlife refuge that has been "occupied", including somebody dressed like a Declaration of Independence Signer, some kids, reporters and ladies baking brownies. and a horse named "Hellboy".
Deeper inside, down an icy, tree-lined road, the group has seized about a dozen buildings, and the Bundy brothers have commandeered the cluttered office of Linda Sue Beck, a government biologist who had been leading a war on invasive carp before the occupiers took over.
The heart of the protest, however, is a quarter-mile from the biologist’s office, at a bunkhouse with bedrooms and a large kitchen where women marinate chicken, grill salmon, bake brownies and organize a stockroom that swelling with donations from around the nation. To slip in, a reporter just has to ask.
I know I'm pretty concerned that the LEADER of the "war on invasive carp" has been sidetracked! Thank God we are still able to combat "Global Warming", the "challenge of our generation", as well as the other biggie "Income Inequality" ... I wasn't even aware we had declared war on carp.
So WTF? The NY Times clearly cares about this "occupation", although the federal government either completely doesn't care, is totally incompetent, or ??? I mean, 3rd grade snow fort occupation management 101 would be to RESTRICT ACCESS! In the event they have ANY future plans to take the government property back ... perhaps in a hurry because the carp have maybe captured a couple of our navy craft and we want our sailors back!
Or perhaps our leadership is looking to get a bunch of people in there so they can burn it up like Waco and make a bigger "statement"? Isn't there SOME limit on how much incompetence a sane person can buy into? I know that is "black helicopter stuff", but I simply can't figure out what the Feds are up to here at ALL, and I don't think the NY Times can either.
I WILL say however that watching Facebook, one sees how quickly the left goes to VIOLENT HATRED! There can be all manner of black riots, police killings, blacks blocking freeways, Islamic beheading, rapes, planes bombed, etc, and your average lefty is "keep calm, don't stereotype, be "proportional" etc.
Let a few cranks take over a remote wayside rest and the lefties want BLOOD and they want it NOW!!! TERRORIST is a word they are no shy about using at all in THIS case!
So on to the Iranians and the boats. We are expected to buy that our navy is SO incompetent that they "drifted into Iranian waters". This makes no sense. The boats were stopped on the high seas for a great show of force over the US, especially the obviously false cover story plus BO and Kerry bowing and scraping.
I understand why Iran would like the show of force and slap in the face on the day of the SOTU and a couple days before sanctions are lifted, but why would BO and company play along? Even MORE surprising is that it seems that NOBODY is concerned at all about how completely off the wall this incident is. There are at least 10 sailors that know at least a lot of the story, and nearly certainly double, triple that or more on this side and who knows how many on the Iranian side. It would seem like the truth eventually will come out, but OTOH, the gigantic lack of curiosity is AMAZING!
Was the propaganda photo op something that Iran demanded to release the three hostages they have been holding forever? I could see BO going for something like that for sure. Oddly, although the linked WaPo headline is ; "Plane with freed Americans leaves Iran; U.S. imposes new sanctions", the sanctions are not on Iran, but on the companies that helped them prepare their ballistic missiles that they have tested in violation of the agreement that the sanctions have been lifted as a result of them agreeing to ... and violating!
Again, What???? I have no idea what is going on -- the "ship of state" seems to just be completely drifting domestically and abroad, and it seems everyone is just watching the playoffs, TV and movies and surfing the net like cud chewing cattle.
You can go off and read the reasons if you like ... I have a few in the same vein that if I cease to be reality based, I could proffer as my platform ...
1) I believe that white teens should be able to walk through black neighborhoods late at night, drunk, carrying large amounts of cash in complete safety.
2). I have the death sentence on 12 systems
3). I've shook NRA members hands.
4). I believe police forces should be disarmed, carry rainbow flags and dispense GMO free granola.
5). I believe that everyone should vote early and often with no identification required.
6). I think we should pay students to attend free universities for as long as they like with no grades and pay for it with money -- prettier money, printed on colorful paper with a lot of unicorns on it!
7), I support mandatory voting for EVERYONE! If you don't vote, you go to a special camp where they convince you to vote! Coupled with #5, we should have turnouts in the 300-700% range!
8). I think everything should be free. Healthcare, nursing home care, housecleaning, lawn mowing, booze, drugs, Internet, Cable TV, movies, sports, masonry ... It should ALL be FREE!
9). I'd filibuster FOREVER for having no taxes paid by anyone in the 99% ... have the 1% pay it ALL and just print the rest! Now that I think of it, this seems like a BASIC RIGHT! Oh, and make the money more colorful and prettier -- with unicorns.
10). Why are we talking chump change like $15 hr? Anyone that wants to work deserves at least $100 bucks an hour -- heck, why not $1,000? This also seems like a BASIC RIGHT!
11). A Trillion? Why so little? I raise him double and add $30 Trillion! oh, and I would demand that we get most of the work done by disabled ex-con MINORITY veterans that are addicted to at least alcohol and one other substance and are unsure of their gender! Take THAT BS!
12). Everyone is entitled to EVERYTHING! If they want to work -- ENTITLED! If they don't want to work ENTITLED! If they want to be CEO? ENTITLED! Everyone is entitled to everything. It's ... you guessed it, A BASIC RIGHT!
13). EVERYONE should be paid equally! Men, women, children, pets, undocumented Democrats ... EVERYONE IS EQUAL! ... It's a BASIC RIGHT!
14). Why limit funding for any great idea? Planned Parenthood? UNLIMITED FUNDING! When people have ideas of things that they want, those are the things they want!
15). Why would anyone limit family leave, vacation days, sick leave, etc? Everyone gets UNLIMITED PAID LEAVE! ... for whatever they want! Can't Bill Gates or Warren Buffet take time off whenever they want for whatever reason they want? Why the hell should they have an advantage over anyone else? See 13 ... being off work tends to cost more. Everyone gets unlimited leave AND double salary while on leave!
16). Why have any campaign grovel for donations? All campaigns are FULLY FUNDED! No more grubby "donations"!
17). Coach? Why should ANYONE fly coach? Anyone that wants to fly anywhere flies on the best private jets! Why limit ourselves? See 13.
18). Banks? Why bother with banks? In my administration everything is free and everyone makes gigantic salaries. Sure, we can have a lot of "regulators" as an excuse for paying more gigantic salaries, but you don't really expect them to waste time looking at boring records full of columns of figures in a nation where everything is free and everyone is RICH do you? I didn't think so.
19). Gay rights? Hey, there are over 50 genders on Facebook and incalculable sexual preferences -- every one of them is to be "special, protected, subsidized, celebrated, honored, etc" in my administration. We will have special days for all of them with big parades pretty much every day of the year! Imagine the joy of "National uncertain genders attracted to imaginary species day"! A great excuse to produce a bunch of free T-shirts and party favors!
20). I got into politics because I was sick of everything not being PERFECT!
21). There was an invasion in 2003? Bummer! I oppose all war back to Sumer vs Elam in 2700 BC (first documented war)! My first act as President would be to outlaw War for all of time ... retroactively!
22). While I oppose war, I love veterans. In my administration anything to do with Veterans will have UNLIMITED FUNDING!
23). Oh, I love the Iran deal. I propose we "DECLARE PEACE"! ... with everyone! On second thought, this is redundant since I have already declared war illegal -- SO, I "DECLARE LOVE!" ... all people everywhere will LOVE EVERYONE! Why didn't we do this before?
24). Here today I declare that the CLIMATE WILL NOT CHANGE if I am elected! Not now, not EVER! This is it! ... unless you want it turned down a few tenths or something. I declare that all energy will henceforth be free, completely non-polluting and like my budgets, UNLIMITED! I'm forming a task force so that everyone can have the weather they want every day!
25). "Immigrants"? Isn't that kind of exclusive? Executive orders? I'm sick of all this -- on my first day in office I will send Congress home! It will be dissolved! Our borders will be COMPLETELY OPEN ! No more politics! What we will have is PERFECTION -- I came to abolish politics.
I guess I really like politics after all. In a world free of want and war where everyone not only has everything, but loves everyone, we will all live happily ever after. For CERTAIN!
It is always a mystery to me why intelligent guys like BS with obviously intelligent supporters stop so far short of getting to what they and we all REALLY WANT!
Longish but worth the read if you have any theological bent -- what could be better than a discourse on Hell before a weekend which promises that there is a hope to see zero tomorrow, but the near certainty of a sub-zero high on Sunday! In the north, it is hard not to feel that God proved his mercy when he made Hell hot rather than cold!
It is a serious topic -- and a serious article. Considering that these doctrines are thousands of years old, and the idea of a "place of suffering" for the damned, crosses multiple religions and even non-religions, it is worthy of being aware of what such doctrines are, even (or maybe especially) for those who reject them. If you assume "it's all made up" ... as it MUST be if you are atheist -- somebody has been thinking these thoughts as "right" for a lot longer than whatever the latest thoughts are.
Consider Emerson on this topic ...
"All writers must submit their performance to the wise ear of Time, who sits and weighs, and ten years hence out of a million pages prints one. Again, it is judged, it is winnowed by all the winds of opinion, and what terrific selection has not past on it before it can be reprinted after 20 years, and reprinted after a century!"
The "progressive mind" tells you that old is bad, new is good. Is Eternity old or new?
Is clearly understanding "the worst that can happen" if you go without insurance of most import to those that are insured, or those that are uninsured? That is not a bad joke about "fire insurance", it is a serious question.
Having been raised a Baptist, I was especially struck by this:
There has also been a healthy reaction against the type of preaching that revels in depicting the sufferings of the damned in the most lurid possible light. An example would be the fictional sermon on hell that James Joyce recounts in his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This kind of preaching fosters an image of God as an unloving and cruel tyrant, and in some cases leads to a complete denial of hell or even to atheism.
It is absolutely certain that each of us will die -- the specifics of "how" can vary a lot. Each of us has likely been exposed to, conjured ourselves, or otherwise arrived at "the worst that could happen" -- usually a LONG, PAINFUL, and LONELY exit. For some reason on my long motorcycle trip I imagined running off a curve in the middle of nowhere, falling next to a stream with massively painful and immobilizing wounds, yet being able to get water so thus survive in great pain until infection from my wounds or starvation finally took me. Naturally, as a very svelte Moose, I would probably starve in less than a couple days, so I'm not sure why the water was even a consideration.
In any case, that might have slowed me down on some of the curves a bit, so maybe that WAS warranted ... if it had made me pull off the road and call for the psych medics, it would have to be judged too graphic.
The point (such as it is) is that a firm idea of "the bad" has an obvious place in molding human behavior, as well as the idea that no matter how bad somebody else has been, the thought of "ultimate justice" of a nasty sort can help us decide that we don't need to exact immediate punishment on them. Hell has it's purpose -- like death and all else in creation. Don't focus on Hell, but don't forget it is there.
I had never been exposed to the argument put forward by Hans Balthasar ... although I'm pretty darned certain the name has showed up in fiction ... "Balthazar" ?
The most sophisticated theological argument against the conviction that some human beings in fact go to hell has been proposed by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his book Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved?” He rejects the ideas that hell will be emptied at the end of time and that the damned souls and demons will be reconciled with God. He also avoids asserting as a fact that everyone will be saved. But he does say that we have a right and even a duty to hope for the salvation of all, because it is not impossible that even the worst sinners may be moved by God’s grace to repent before they die. He concedes, however, that the opposite is also possible. Since we are able to resist the grace of God, none of us is safe. We must therefore leave the question speculatively open, thinking primarily of the danger in which we ourselves stand.
"Dare We Hope" sounds interesting -- my reading list is a little long right now.
A summary -- if you are Christian, then Hell is real. God fervently desires that all be saved to the extent that he allowed himself in the form of Christ Jesus to be crucified, die, and descend to Hell to pay for our sins. He is a God of Love that allows or acceptance or rejection of this divine sacrifice.
