Forgiveness, WWYD, Merry Christmas

Lutheran Hour Ministries :: Daily Devotions:

The fad of the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets has receded a lot, but the real question is often What Would YOU Do?

The linked is an excellent devotion based on a possibly apocryphal, but never the less very gripping story of a concentration camp Jewish Survivor hearing the confession of a German Soldier, and being asked to forgive him.  The story and the devotion are both very worthy of being added to your life memory.

A number of things hit me hard (again) relative to the tale:

1. When Christ forgives those that crucified him, he forgives ME. Humans see sin as having a "scope". Burning down a house full of Jews is much greater in our minds than lusting after a woman in the mall, having too much to drink, or enjoying the misfortune of someone we consider an "enemy", or just "too big for their britches". It isn't -- sin is sin.
   
2. This column soft-pedals what I find to be one of the most chilling parts of the Bible: 14"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15"But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
   
   I don't find those verses comforting at all. In fact, in those fortunately rare late night times when thoughts of the personal final exit intrude unpleasantly, this is way up there are on my "are you ready?" list. I have no doubts I deserve Hell, I have very little doubt in Christ's ability to save me, I still retain significant doubt in the adequacy of my ability to forgive!
   
   
3. The "device" I use to calm and drift back off to slumber, besides a prayer to grant me the ability to forgive as I have been told to do, is to "let God judge". I don't have any theological background for this to really be acceptable, so take it with a grain of salt.
   
   The idea is that God is sovereign, and do **I** really want "person x" to burn in hell for eternity? No, that seems excessive to me, so, I pray to leave judgement up to God, and to trust in him to do what is right, up to and including eternal punishment. I find it also cures my "how COULD God send someone to eternal punishment"? It lets me reflect on my weak human willingness to somehow even conceive that **I** could somehow "judge" the action of an infinite and sovereign God! He can judge and punish absolutely any way he wants, and my opinion as to such is beyond irrelevancy! 
   
   My role is to have faith in his goodness and grace, which OUGHT to be supremely easy given that God was willing to take human form and humble himself to ultimate suffering on the Cross  for the chief of sinners, ME -- but in my most human condition of frailty and hubris combined, what ought, sometimes is not! 

A somewhat short end of the year sermon. All of us die, and none of us KNOW what lies beyond, it is ALWAYS a "leap of faith". For the largely Godless West, it is primarily a faith of one of the following:

1. There is no God, so there is NOTHING beyond
2. There is some power, but it is benevolent, so I'm OK
3. There is a God, but since there are so many religions, as long as I believe what I believe "sincerely", I'm OK 
4. I don't think about it much, but I'm definitely better than most people, so either I'll have a lot of company in Hell, or I'm going to do pretty well 

... or some variation of the above.

I spent a lot of time and study in consideration. Raised a Baptist, a stint as an agnostic by education,  Lutheran by compromise (would probably be a Catholic if it was only me choosing).

1. The easiest and the hardest choice is the God or no God.
   
   I gave the no God a good try ... for me the problems came down to the Goldilocks Universe and the absolute unprovability of our origin / existence. We have no idea what the base of "matter" is ... once we got to quantum, we started LITERALLY "grasping at strings", as in "String Theory". Right now we are chasing our tail, and our current science is based on what we see in what we believe to be the "current SpaceTime", but to be a true scientist / atheist means accepting that there are something akin to 10 to the 500th UNIVERSES, ALL that has happened, is happening, or could be happening has ALWAYS been happening, is currently happening and ALWAYS WILL be happening.
   
   Next to that, I find the idea that either everything we think we see **IS** the infinite and all powerful God, or was created by him for some purpose, to be infinitely easier to have faith in. The Jewish and Christian teachings that we walk by FAITH are most certainly true. We have no choice whatsoever in the faith part, the only question is "IN WHAT"? Do you want to have a positive belief or a negative (NOT GOD!) belief?
   
   You DO have faith, the question is just "In what?".
   
   
2. Once #1 is out of the way, you are either "done" relative to God, or you need to decide HOW?
   
   To me, that is a much easier path given the history of mankind. I look at existing cultures, and up to the 20th Century, Western Judeo Christianity was such a big winner that there isn't even any real competition.
   
   Muslim? Not hard to decide if I want to follow a branch off the Bible tree whose favorite wife was a 9 year old girl and believes that people that refuse to join their religion on earth ought to be killed.
   
   Buddhist, Hindu, etc? They don't look very successful in THIS WORLD, I'm having a hard time thinking that they will do well in the next. Worshiping cows, figuring that there really is no need to help anyone unless you want to work on your "karma", etc.

So Christianity seems like a no-brainer once #1 is decided. Then we also have the fact that all the Disciples save John died martyrs for a risen savior that they would have KNOWN to not having been risen if it was a hoax.

Don't be confused here ... that is COMPLETELY different from current Muslims flying planes into buildings with "Allah" on their lips. They believe in Allah by FAITH ... which we ALL live by, and which we are ALL going to die by a very short period and accept the eternal results.

However the terrorists didn't found a new religion on what we would have known to be a lie as the Disciples did,  accept horrible deaths, usually on crosses, because they would not admit to what they  knew to be a lie, and had complete confidence that none of the other Disciples that would have had to be involved in the hoax would either!

The deaths of the disciples are profound evidence for the resurrection of Christ!

Next to the Resurrection of Christ being a hoax, 9-11 being an "Inside Job" is very very easy to believe.  I find the "Truther" perspective to be almost as much a sign of cluelessness as the multi symbolic "Coexist" bumper stickers! (if they JUST had a crescent with a star, they would make a LITTLE sense)! 

I have rambled beyond my usual blogging limits. Perhaps it is the fact of my Mom's first Christmas in Heaven just past. Perhaps it is the recent Duck Dynasty flap and Phil Robertson sharing his faith (much more concisely). Most likely it is just wanting to avoid moving around this AM!

In any case, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Removing the Life From Life

Mark Steyn: Inequality far worse than economic | work, one, health - Opinion - The Orange County Register:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/12/millennial_narcissism_helicopter_parents_are_college_students_bigger_problem.html

The one area of the Steyn column I wish he would have addressed a bit more is that nobody on either side of the political spectrum has any handle at all on what it is that is going to provide people with work, let alone meaning in their lives in the future.

Which is my answer to the "helicopter parent" article. Maybe parents being TOO involved is some SMALL part of the problem, but I'd argue that "having no THERE there" relative to life in the US is the BIG problem.

So why is it again that "children" ought to finally get out of school by say 26, 30 or so? Certainly not to make money! Money after all is BAAAD!  Have kids? Are you crazy? Didn't you know that "the planet has a fever"? It can't sustain the people we have, and the tempratures are getting crazy hot. We have 5 days of single digit highs predicted here, including one negative high ... oh wait, strike that, this is WEATHER not CLIMATE! It is high temps that are climate, I get so confused.

It seems odd that when one takes the idea of children and a better life for their children away, there seems to be a reduction in life purpose? Oh, you could go join the monastery / convent ... oh wait, God died, this is ALL there is ... so better have as much fun as you can! So why is this guys patient crying?

Well, maybe because our children are going to have to pay off a gigantic debt, they were tax slaves before they were conceived. We are the first generation in a long time who did our best to ENSURE that our kids would NOT be better off, so we could have a cushier retirement and not pay for it! The lamest generation followed the greatest.

Deciding not to reproduce may be good for the planet, but from an evolutionary standpoint I think it is at least questionable. Well, at least there will be Muslims, Mormons, and lots of people in 3rd world hell holes to enjoy our passing.

In case you didn't pick it up, my idea is "faith, family, economic expansion including fusion and space travel". I'm just a Neanderthal!


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Gender Neutral Bathrooms, Flies of Summer

Gender-neutral bathrooms: All bathrooms should be open to all users.:

I've been wondering what the next frontier after "gay marriage" would be. We know there has to be one, since there can't be a "progressive" movement unless "progress" is being made.

One of my picks has always been just the further sorting out of "bi-sexual marriage" as in exactly how DOES one deal with "transgender / gender free / androgynous  / queer".  BTW, Slate uses the term "queer" in the first sentence, so if that is decided to be a terrible slur in 30 years and I'm a famous food network personality, it really WAS an approved word when I used it here!

Of course, so was the "N-word" when Paula Deen last used it, but little details like that make no difference to the PC police. The only choice if you want to be "safe" is to ALWAYS agree with the "progressives" or remain COMPLETELY silent ... and with the current level of surveillance, I'd say you better just "get your mind right".

The logic in this article gives a good insight into the minds of "progressives'.

A minority that "feels uncomfortable" is identified. It is verified that they have no current cultural norms or any transcendent religious thought basis for their group identification. As a group they are identified purely by a physical or behavioral choice. Science may or may not be able to identify if there is actually a physical (eg genetic) origin of their identification, but as in the case of proving there are not space aliens,  (or pretty much ANY negative), "it can't be ruled out"!

If you are a "progressive", since people feel strongly about this and it "can't be ruled out", ergo it must exist!  Therefore it is a FACT that "these people were MADE THIS WAY" ... apparently by randomness, since there is no God. "Randomness is good, randomness is great, we honor it's "logic". Consider how "foolish" believing in an actual multiple millennium old religion is compared to this "logic".

Certainly pedophiles could be chosen as well (and might be next). The test is, "Can anyone say anything of this group that could NOT be said of gays"?  So, the big comeback: "Do you REALLY think that ANYONE would CHOOSE to  have sex with children given the legal and cultural taboos? You would have to be CRAZY to believe that!! They MUST have an inherent "desire/drive" that they CAN'T change (or even control)!!!!" (we don't really want to follow the way this logic works, retching could ensue ... animals? rape? cannibalism? "That cannibal had to know people would be offended, he MUST have been "made that way"!"

Note, this is NOT like being black. It is obvious that you don't "choose to be black", nature has already exposed the genetic links quite clearly. Note also the difference with alcoholism. There seems to be very clear genetic markers, but nobody is saying that we need to recognize the alcoholic lifestyle as being "equal or superior to the sober lifestyle".

Human kind as all sorts of innate drives and desires that are at least extremely difficult to control. So for 10's of thousands of years religions and cultures developed to encourage the drives deemed to be adaptive, and inhibit the ones which are not. Monogamy makes for a nice time tested way of both procreating and socializing the young. Gay, not so much. Moderate drinking or abstaining, pretty adaptive, alcoholic, not so much.

Of course, there is a lot of diversity. Winston Churchill was at least borderline alcoholic as have been many great authors and other artists. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of examples of other unusual appetites in great leaders, artists, entertainers and such. If you are of superior intellect, stamina, fortitude, musical ability, or some other positive, you MAY be able to do quite well going against the grain of society and be extremely successful. The list is WAY too long to even start when you talk drugs, alcohol, sexuality, etc, but everyone knows it to be true. FOR EXCEPTIONAL CASES ... which may, BTW be also related to them being exceptional -- where there are great abilities, there are great deficits.

But guess what. There aren't a lot of Churchills, Hemmingways, or even Elton Johns. The structures of morality and culture are for the MASSES ... the average, and especially the below average, which naturally doesn't sit well with the "we are all the same" folks. Yup, you and Jeffery Dahmer can be "the same" all you want. As for me, Viva La Difference!

"Progressives" can't stand this, because they want absolute equality, and if human nature itself is flawed and not infinitely malleable, then their whole project is doomed. Things like making "gay good" and then making it "equal or better with heterosexual" are projects that they MUST be able to carry out. They have to crank up the sanctions to a level where essentially nobody dare open their mouth to say anything other than what their progrom demands. If it causes the need for repression of the folks that aren't "getting their mind right", that is just a price to be paid. They KNOW that what they are doing is RIGHT, so people that don't agree have to be "handled".

"Progressivism" is wonderful because "progress" NEVER stops! You may be thinking to yourself that gender neutral bathrooms will never become law". Well, in CA schools,  they already have ! http://calwatchdog.com/2013/08/13/gov-brown-signs-gender-bathroom-bill/

As they say, as CA goes, so goes the nation. I didn't even know the meaning of "gay" until I was out of HS, and then I pretty much couldn't believe it. Of course by the late '70s, it was running wild in CA, and then they were dying like flies from AIDs. One would have STILL thought -- "OK, this was a short term blip, and while it may continue on in whacked out CA, the rest of the country has seen where this easily leads". That was just "gay", I would have never imagined anything like gay "marriage".

I dropped my subscription to Time in the early '90s when they had a sympathetic report on the plight of a poor teacher that was a member of NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) and it was likely going to cost him his job. Hey, it's not like he declared himself a Christian or quoted the Bible or anything! THAT would be a legitimate cause for dismissal!

The basis of human culture and development is the idea of social norms that are largely passed on to the next generation so we feel that we are part of a meaningful chain of creation with a purpose. Keep changing up the culture so that one generation can no longer hardly identify if the next is even human, and man becomes as Burke said, "Like the flies of summer".

Only it is worse than that! We are NOT flies! Flies need no meaning, they procreate with a vengeance as long as there is food. Not so man. As we see in Europe and the European origin population of the US, man ceases to continue the species when there is no longer any vision of the next generation following a religious and cultural order. We need more than to just pass on our genes. We seek to propagate the hopes, dreams, morals and soul of our civilization!

When that is destroyed, then we perish. Why even have a higher brain that engenders a religion for the hope of eternal life and a culture that is more than a continuation of mere gene pool?

The point is, there is no reason to do so. There is GOOD reason that he Chinese are still thinking expansion, and we are focused on transfer of wealth to the elderly as we pass into the ash heap of history.

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Utopia Past

Surviving Life in a ‘70s Sex Commune - The Daily Beast:

It isn't like pretty much every "progressive" idea hasn't been tried in the past. "free love", "communal sharing / no property", "legal drugs", "no work", "gay marriage" and on and on forever.

It is a lot like how many species have been tried on the planet and have gone extinct. The religious / cultural structures that survived the test of time were the ones that had advantages.

No reason that one would expect people that don't understand history and believe that having more data somehow makes them more wise to understand what that means though.

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Lack of Media Advice for Democrats

How the Democrats React When They Are In Trouble | Power Line:

One of the hard things for us humans is to notice the absence of something. It may be why I'm always hunting for the "inorganic" isle at the grocery store, we Mooses are oppositely abled.

When the Republicans had bad poll numbers for attempting to head off the disaster of BOcare with the shutdown, the media was afire with great  pronouncements and advice: "The End of the Republican Party"?", "Pass BO's programs or cease to exist, "Support gay marriage", "Support Abortion" ... in other words, when Republican polls are down, they clearly need to be more like Democrats! If we could FINALLY just all be of one political party, then this HORRID "partisanship" would finally be put to rest.

But oh, the silence and lack of focus when the shoe is on the other foot.

The "progressive" movement, like Communism and Fascism, really has only two choices:
1). Repeal Reality
2). Kill the Opposition

The REAL problem as the USSR found out is that it has to be world wide. As long as SOME country is willing to do what it takes to compete ... which means a level of economic freedom greater than what "progressives" will allow, even if you kill or incarcerate all your own people that refuse to bow to your progroms, competitive reality will eventually make you toast.

China is very scary ... politically repressive, but allowing personal/business wealth creation, and allowing at least significant religious freedom. I need to take time to study the nuts and bolts of their model more. I have a deep and abiding unease in their level of state control, but when faced with Mob Rule, which I ALSO have a HUGE concern over.

What is the "lesser of two weevils"?

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Pleasant Seasonal Speech, Author, NPR Contributor!

Good Grief and Great Tits by Dan Savage - Seattle Features - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper:

I'm guessing that there won't be any outcry over this speech. The title might be offensive to some women, but this is about Sarah Palin, so deserving of any hatred that can be heaped on her.

Here we have some seasonal respect for the birth of Emanuel, "God with us" the Holy Savior of the Christian world:

Okay, I have to put the book down. I'm five pages into Good Tidings and Great Joy  and... Jesus Fucking Christ... I have got to put down this toxic little shitstain of a book. I'm going to go wash my eyes out with hydrogen peroxide. Be right back.

What extreme act did Sarah comment on in the book to bring on this diatribe?

She bought a gun for her husband! After Sandy Hook! How callous!!! My wife actually bought me one last year as well. We even drove in a car to our 17 year old nieces funeral after she had been killed in another car. We actually don't see inanimate objects as somehow "causal", and we believe in a religion that has been around for over 2000 years and has billions of adherents. Like Sarah. But we tend to turn the other cheek, so there will be no outcry here.

At least he is consistent, he also called HS kids that that got up and walked  out of him talking about "bullshit in the bible",

After many students walked out of the speech, one of whom appeared to be crying, Savage said, “It’s funny, as someone who’s on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the bible, how pansy-assed some people react when you push back.”

We live in a country where BO can have this guy as a leader of an anti-bullying campaign no less, but he is bullying Christian teens from the podium. I guess it works for someone that makes disparaging remarks about the SCOTUS while they are right in front of him doing him the courtesy of attending his "Imaginary State of the Union".

Dan has this erudite and cultured holiday imagery to help us see how loving the world would be if we only abandoned the "bullshit bible" and followed Dan's wisdom instead:

Sarah Palin is a shit-talking pimp who makes money playing to the carefully cultivated persecution complexes of conservative Christian rubes who wouldn't know what religious persecution was if it sat on their faces and shit in their mouths. (Maybe that's not an either/or.)

Christians are obviously "rubes" to not see the light of Dan's wisdom.  He closes with this wonderful seasons greeting for Sarah. Why is it again that our society has gotten so "coarse and uncivil"? Oh, right, it is the Christians and Duck Dynastayt sorts!

"So happy fucking holidays to you, Sarah. I hope you choke on a cinnamon bun."

Isn't that cheery? Isn't that "civil"? Naturally Dan only uses such speech against the people  that DESERVE to have it used against them! Which is why there is no outcry about him showing up on NPR, major magazines, tv shows or the President's anti-bullying crusade! 

Got that? "Gay Marriage", legal nowhere until April Fools Day 2001 in the NETHERlands unless you count Roman emperor Nero, is now completely "mainstream " ... and you will be MADE to agree! 

Nero to April Fools Day 2001 in the NETHERlands! One really and truly can't make this stuff up! 

Speech like Dan's is speech that our country embraces. Speech like Phil Robertson quoting the Bible needs to be curtailed!

I'm so thankful Christ is Lord and Judge!! 

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Fusing Wealth

George F. Will: The fusion in our future - The Washington Post:

An excellent article in the potential for fusion energy.

Unlike controlling planetary climate, eliminating "income inequality", or making big government an efficient friend of the people, fusion energy is likely within our grasp. The sun is doing it all the time, the problem is "just a small matter of scale".  Can energy producing fusion be done at a VERY reduced scale.

The sun is the size of 1 million earths (10**6),  the earth's volume is  10 ** 12 cubic meters, and a rail tank car is like 100 cubic meters.

So it is like a 10 to the 16th miniaturization problem, so not hard to see why it is difficult.

Will makes the point of potentially $30B to do it so it "MUST" be done by government. Interesting. I'm not saying that there is anything "wrong" at all with Gates and Buffet spending their $100B or so on medical advances for the poor (that is the beauty of private wealth, it is THEIRS), but it makes one wonder.

Cheap, clean unlimited energy for everyone on earth for maybe 1/3 of their combined fortunes? Who would you rather have overseeing the project? Gates and Buffet or the guys that brought you Healthcare.gov??



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BO Executive Order Crushes Gravity

Crush GOP obstruction, and reduce inequality now! - Salon.com:

First, the Shakespeare quote that we all need to constantly remember:
Glendower: I can summon spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, So can I or so can any man;
                         But will they come when you do summon them?

"Progressiveism" is a fundamental fallacy. It is built on the incorrect idea that "change = progress = better". It confuses ends with means, so has the unfortunate effect of often creating the opposite of what it's stated objectives are. Anti-poverty plans create more of it, "jobs" plans cause greater unemployment, attempts to improve healthcare make it worse, more expensive, and less available.

As the Shakespeare quote would indicate, the knowledge of this very human of failings has been well covered since antiquity ... the Bible, Greek Mythology, standard children s tales for ages have warned us that it is oh so human in our hubris for our reach to exceed our grasp ... and then we fall.

"Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs" is the standard lefty response to "inequality". Better to have all the masses in cinder block mausoleums and only the goodhearted Politburo running around in the high quality Zil limos (GM Suburbans here). At least it "reduces inequality".  Beside, everyone is so happy after they stand in line for three hours and get a bar of soap ... they feel like they always imagined Bill Gates felt as they look at the poor fools still in line when the soap ran out.

Our human ability to "crush" is so petty. Hitler did a fine job of it for awhile, Stalin and the USSR in general certainly did a tremendous job on the Russian spirit, and then the US had our day. We once thought that "freedom" was a great idea for most of the planet, now we have a hard time letting our own people quote scripture.

Now China and likely based on population and the Arab world, will do their share of "crushing". I'd say that BO has already done a hell of a job of crushing the "colonial powers", but it is sort of cheating when the major one is so stupid they elect you to be their "leader".  Oh, the joy of the "crush". It is a lefty approximation of what used to be the "Christmas Spirit". Before that became offensive.

But they won't crush Christianity, since Jesus has declared that his church will stand. They won't actually crush any of the laws of physics nor human nature either in the end. Certainly such foolishness as the idea that just raising a minimum wage is helpful will do a lot of harm, but there is no way to convince people that are that far gone other than by horrible destructive results.  So be it. This planet needs a new ice age to freshen things up, and I'm guessing it is coming a lot sooner than expected.

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Putting Christianity In the Closet

The Age of Intolerance | National Review Online:

I hadn't thought of it, but it is very true. In the modern US you are forced to celebrate homosexuality, but increasingly Christianity must be put in the closet!

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There is no Excuse for Your Life

‘Duck Dynasty’ and Quackery - NYTimes.com:

It’s impossible to know if Robertson recognizes the historical resonance and logical improbability of his comments. But that’s not an excuse.

It may be impossible to know in the case of Robertson, but we can be absolutely certain that Blow has no clue. I think we are all ignorant, so I give him an excuse there. Eternally though, he doesn't have one, so I hope he is right on that front.

He provides a great example of the totalitarian viewpoint. You have no right to see things from your own perspective and life experience. Your life is invalid.  You MUST take the perspective that the State pounds into your head ... on gays, on race, on the environment, on guns, on religion, on EVERYTHING. What the hell part of "totalitarian" is that you are missing???  We are going to try VERY hard to get people to only think what they are told, but if we fail with the "kind way", it is clear that "other measures" will be needed.

Robertson’s comments conjure the insidious mythology of historical Southern fiction, that of contented slave and benevolent master, of the oppressed and the oppressors gleefully abiding the oppression, happily accepting their wildly variant social stations. This mythology posits that there were two waves of ruination for Southern culture, the Civil War and the civil rights movement, that made blacks get upset and things go downhill.

The world indeed is host to a number of "insidious mythologies". We are just scratching the surface on the fiction of the recent  "if you like your policy you can keep it" mythology. Our soaring debt shows the mythology of FICA and Medicare. It is a long list. Something like 90% of our country at least mostly believes in the "benevolent federal master", with the "contented ever nearer to slaves" willingly giving up more of their freedoms day by day for "security".

Humans live in myth ... the myth that we have control of our lives, that our loved ones will be there tomorrow, that we will get up in the morning, that we are somehow "secure" in this life. Our myths are always erased sooner or later, often only for us to attempt to reinstate a new myth to replace the old.

So we find some religion that we cling to, that we believe to be true by faith. In my case, it is Christianity, in other cases it is "social justice", or even the abiding faith that this is only a big random crap shoot with no meaning beyond pleasure. Christianity has the distinct advantage of not being disprovable until after death. "Social justice" is not happening in this mortal coil, and even the most excited adherent will eventually figure that out ... or as they lay dying, they will realize that their pursuit doesn't provide them much comfort. Likewise pleasure ... it gets tougher to get your "kicks" with a walker.  and on it goes.

Our world views, our "myths" are usually pretty easy to spot. Blow is certain that the current US tumble to totalitarian control of everything including our thoughts, to the exclusion of our personal life story is "reality", and having a personal viewpoint that might even include Christ, like Phil Robertson is "staggering ignorance", that "conjures insidious mythology".

The 2nd amendment is all that really remains to block Blow's myth coming true and guys like Phil and I being "re-educated" to think as he does -- or get an early entrance to eternity to find out the REAL big picture.




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You Will Be Made to Care!

A&E fowls up 'Duck' flap: Column:

Excellent column, well worth the read.

I am reminded of "Cool Hand Luke" and the "What we have here is a failure to communicate". DD has apparently messed with the "man with no eyes".

The ratchet of totalitarianism tightens slowly but inexorably once the restriction of LIMITED government has been lifted.

It is true that DD is not a 1st amendment issue. YET.  However the action of A&E and the broad set of "liberal" groups that would never watch the show, but now demand one of it's key guys be removed for quoting from the Bible shows that our culture has become very willing to censor free speech and thought to the degree possible.  When the Rule of Law has been replaced by Rule of Mob as it has been here, the heavy hand of the state is not far behind the mob.

Christians are told to "turn the channel if you don't like it" ... but of course the popular culture is oppressive, inculcated in the public and advanced education and entertainment / "news". We are soaking in it ... and have as much choice to "turn it off" as we do to stop breathing. We could withdraw like the Amish, but otherwise our options are few to none.

Consider the opposite case. How likely is it that a gay will forced to read GQ or watch DD?? Turning the channel is a totally easy option there, but not good enough in this case. People must be forced to see it the gay way.

The term "liberal" is such a classic example of Orwellian double speak. One would believe that a "liberal" would be defending the speech wherever, ESPECIALLY "unpopular speech". At one time the ACLU would even defend Nazis ... although, Nazis are a lot closer to current "liberals" than DD!

"NOT liberal", or "controlling" or "fascist" is a much more accurate term for today's "liberals" and "progressives". You will be made to get your mind right ... even lip service is not sufficient. You MUST see the world their way!



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BOCare: Less is More

Utter Chaos: White House Exempts Millions From Obamacare's Insurance Mandate, 'Unaffordable' Exchanges - Forbes:

Great column.

No surprise here, more people lost their insurance than have gotten insurance so far under BOcare.

Here’s how we got to where we are. As many as six million Americans who purchase health coverage on their own have seen their plans canceled, because they don’t comply with Obamacare’s newly-imposed regulations. On the other hand, the bungled rollout of the law’s healthcare.gov website has meant that only tens of thousands of Americans have been able to enroll in new coverage under the law. This means that by January 1, 2014, less people will have health coverage under Obamacare than before.

Now we have The Great and Powerful BO admitting that BOcare policies are "unaffordable".  Sooo, we have the exemptions that Republicans wanted, but BO considered to be non-negotiable so shut down the government.

Last night, in a stunning reversal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that Americans who have had their plans canceled will be exempt from enrolling in the exchanges, “because some consumers were finding other coverage options to be more expensive than their cancelled plans or policies.”

We have a president that shut down the government rather than do an extension LEGALLY under the Constitution, **BUT ... AMAZINGLY*** he now does it ILLEGALLY on his own. I guess he really is King BO since 90% of the media could care less.



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The Myth of Reagan's "Welfare Queen"

The Welfare Queen: Reagan Vindicated Again | Power Line:

As the link points out, she WAS of course factual, but that isn't what the narrative of the myth says, so it will live on rather than the truth.

It is like Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.he left hated Nixon, Chambers and of course McCarthy for convicting an "innocent man". The evidence was pretty irrefutable even then, but with the fall of the USSR, the KGB files were opened and we got to see the verification of his status from that side.

The myth of Hiss being innocent is still what lives on for the left.

I would be completely unsurprised to see the planet slip into the next ice age in the next few hundred years with the GW rebranded as "Climate Change" folks watching the plants die and the snow pile up into continental glaciers while billions die, lamenting it was "human caused". Snow covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines will be a fitting monument to human hubris.

Myth, belief and faith are marvelous ways for humans to deal with the ultimate questions of meaning and eternity which are unanswerable scientifically. They have drawn man together in working social units for millennia, and in the case of Western Civilization, created a Judaeo Christian motivated culture that once conquered the "world" .. the human part at least, and went a long way toward blunting the harshness of the "natural" life for a couple hundred years.

Our brains only work on stories/myth. If we give up transcendent myth, then we become slaves to earthly myth with predictable disastrous results.

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An Inconvenient Shooting

The highly inconvenient Arapahoe High School shooter | Human Events:

I was pleasantly surprised Sunday to see this as the banner headline on CNN:

I was  very glad to see CNN request prayer for this young woman clinging to life in a coma, I'm afraid I have more imagination of the horror for her family than I would like, but the depth of the anguish gives new meaning to tragedy for those that love her.

But why? Don't they usually demand further gun control? Don't they usually delve deeply into the potential motivations of the shooter?

The linked Human Events article covers the details, but essentially the MSM is at a loss to know what to say:

1. It happened in Colorado. They just passed hugely draconian gun control laws. Why did they not work? Clearly not a question that the MSM thinks you need to even think about.
2. The shooter used a shotgun ... the "good gun", endorsed by no less than VP Joe Biden. Nuff said. 
3. There only being a single victim is most probably because the school had an armed deputized officer on site who correctly and courageously  ran to the gunfire and forced the shooters hand. Likely to see any thanks for a job well done? NOPE ... this is what the NRA suggested after Sandy Hook last year and was duly castigated for being "insane, unreasonable, ridiculous, etc".
   
    "We learned from this" is something that never happens to the MSM nor the left in general! Let's face it, when you lack the humility to acknowledge there is a God that is WAY superior to your intelligence, "I screwed up" isn't really in your vocabulary. Their agenda is absolutely fixed and it makes no difference how many die until they get the Power and CONTROL that they want! 
4. It appears that the shooter was a very argumentative left leaning sort. Certainly NOT the kind of thing that one wants splashed all over the media. Now if on the other hand the student had been RIGHT leaning? 

So a shooting that provides evidence very much in line with what the "Gun Nuts" have been saying forever goes by with the general public, MSM and left elite learning not a single thing!


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Hating Jesus in Cammo

Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson Gives Drew Magary a Tour:

The link is the infamous  GQ article. As amazing as this may seem given my fashion propensity, I believe this to be the only GQ article I've ever read! It is very innocuous, has a goodly number of F-bombs (by the columnist), but it of course has the couple "offending comments" that are now exploding the real haters heads.

Phil goes WAY out there in terms of the modern thought police and earthily declares his sexual preference for female vs male anatomy, then paraphrases the bible on a NUMBER of sins that include homosexual sex.

“Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

I await the outcry from the idolaters, the greedy, the drunkards, the swindlers ... but never mind. 

Let's be clear, this isn't about DD and Gays AT ALL! 

Keith Ellison is considered a MN national treasure because he is the first Muslim in the US House. NOBODY is going to have an interview with Keith quoting the Quran and get him to either declare he doesn't agree with his own Holy Scripture on homosexuality, role of women, how to deal with Christians, Sharia Law, and on and on. Why? Because it isn't RELIGION that Satan and the left hates, it it is JESUS! 

Go look around for an actual Muslim religious authority that condemns 9-11. You can't find one since they would no longer be a Muslim religious authority! But nobody cares because there isn't a lefty organization in the US that even cares at all about the facts on the Muslim views on terrorism, women, gays, etc!

You can't get the media elite as worked up about attempts to apply Sharia Law in areas of US cities AT ALL, but they will now go COMPLETELY NUTS over a beard duck hunter from the LA backwoods that prefers women to men for sex and quotes the bible!

Again, the reason is simple. Once one leaves JESUS behind, all sorts of zealotry is completely allowable and even encouraged  ... from Sharia to Veganism to Greenism to Black Supremicy, etc.

As Phil points out, Christ provides ETERNAL and REAL freedom ... but that isn't what man wants. Once Christ is rejected, man will seek his own bondage -- in Satism, Political Correctness, Environmentalism, greed, lust, addictions, etc

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation: that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.




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