A Sharp Tool Wrongly Implemented

I like the cut of this guy's jib, even if he doesn't know where the caps button is on his keyboard and he speaks in the Royal WE. He's still nailing it by calling Jon Stewart for what he is:

jon stewart is a tool. he's your standard east coast-bred, son of a college professor, limousine liberal with an ego the size of all outdoors who thinks he's smarter than everyone. his modus operandi has been to mock the right at all opportunities and attack anyone with whom he disagrees. he's a hypocrite who castigates others for shoddy journalism while engaging in the same methods himself. we don't buy the excuse that his show is a satire because he has repeatedly stepped out of that role to directly take aim at his opposition. sure, his monlogues are winking and sarcastic, but his interviews are full of the shortcuts, red herrings, and shouting matches he decries in others. we wish he would just shut up and stick to his show to we can go back to ignoring him.

we're done now. please forget that we ever got this riled up over something so minor, but also do us a favor and think for yourself. jon stewart might not think you're capable, but we do.

If this doesn't remind of someone you've seen and heard, WELL

This may well be the sickest thing I know and if it doesn't turn your stomach, you have a problem.


Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

I know some of these guys. They need to be run out of town.

Man Fishing - or a Church without Balls

A friend of mine sent me a link to a site that is dedicated to bringing men back into the church.

It's pretty good. Particularly this video of 2 minutes that defines the problem we have in the church with men.

Do we want a church to reach all men or just women and children?

What Religious Bigotry Looks Like

No one will come out directly against Christianity. Oh a few. But not mainstream. The focus will be to come out against things they are taught in the family and in particular by home schoolers.

This persecution comes in the form of anti creationism or consideration for the events of creation as outlined in the Bible. You can't teach that because we don't believe it. So, we are going to deal with your kids. Take them away from you in this parental imperative.

One mom after a divorce has been forced to put her kids in Public School so they can be indoctrinated with evolution theory like everyone else.

This is celebrated by right and left political alike. Like this is a good thing. I mean we don't want those poor kids taught THAT do we?

We want kids taught that they are no better than a bear or a spider. Just another animal. Certainly not marvelously and wondrously made by a gracious creator God. You wouldn't want them to believe God cares about them because he made them like the writer of Psalm 8:

⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

⁵Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and splendour.

⁶Thou hast made him to rule over the works of thy hands; thou hast put everything under his feet:

⁷Sheep and oxen, all of them, and also the beasts of the field;

⁸The fowl of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, [whatever] passeth through the paths of the seas.

While it seems right and good even to many who are on the political right that such "False" teaching of children must be controlled or even abolished, let's slide down that slippery slope a bit further. IF THEN: If it's OK to use thought control in this case, what about:

• Teaching young people to handle firearms
• Instructing young people about the value of Human Life and being Pro Life
• Teaching young people about the birds and the bees and Homosexuality as an aberration.

Sure, those are conventional right wing values and left winger are all up in arms saying, yeah, that should be regulated along with teaching kids about creation over evolution.

If a RIGHT WING regime should come to power, should impose thought control at the same level, what precious free thought would you be controlled in. This is truly a goose and gander issue. If we allow the imposition of the thought police to stand we will have them at the back of every church, political meeting and board meeting making sure no one utters a name or idea not acceptable to the state.

Is that what you want? I don't think right wing anti creationists want that. I think they haven't thought it thru. Do we want to start engaging in thought control in America?

Seems like we haven't thought this one thru. Be careful, the beast could get loose and come back to devour YOU.

Living Free in an Unfree world

I live in Illinois. Soon to be land of double taxes. It has been a relative tax haven compared to North Dakota up till now. Guess that's about to end.

Some professor type have conducted research to determine the relative freedom of every state in the union. Very interesting. In every measure North Dakota beats Illinois.

You can find the whole study here. And the introductory overview here.

This map shows the relative freedom measurement.

I guess moving to Alaska is out.

An important correction - Misled without intention to be misleading

I earlier posted a story posted on World Net Daily that had to do with David Wilkerson's Church making sandwiches the day before 9-11.

Turns out that is false. In checking this story out it appears it's wrong.

That doesn't mean that Wilkerson's reputation or prophetic utterances are false. He's willing to go out in the open with what the Lord has given him.

That I respect.

So, I wish the story had been true. It was a good story. It just wasn't so.

I make no apologies for posting the story. God moves in wonderful ways even if he has this habit of telling us just enough and no more. Let's see what happens.

That's what faith is all about.

UPDATE UNRELATED
In a post I told the story of a little boy from Africa that died of Malaria. I have received condolence. The story is not my own. It is from a writer from Iowa. Iowahawk. It's clearly linked. But, missed. I will pass your condolences on to him.

A Pastor's Response to the Wilkerson Warning

The Warning by David Wilkerson that has rumbled across the Christian Community is causing Pastor's to ask, what am I supposed to do with this.

The answer is pretty clear. David Wilkerson's own son gave an outline.

If we do this, we will have done what we are called to.

Have Faith in God.

Self Righteous Buffoon V Smarter Buffoon

I don't watch Jon Stewart. I find him to be a terrible bore. Not funny. Condescending. Arrogant. Worse than all Jon Stewart is School Marmishly Ignorant.

I do watch Jim Cramer. It's a circus. A circus for people interested in the market. I find him wrong a lot. I don't agree with him much of the time. He is very short term in his thinking. He gets fooled by twists and turns. But every one in the market is allowed to have an opinion and take a position. There must be an equal number of longs and shorts, two opinions, at all times.

That's what makes a horse race. So,when Cramer is wrong it's OK. Those that follow his opinion and bet his way provide for the other side of the market the one thing we all need.....Liquidity. I hope he doesn't change a thing. He's very entertaining.

I don't think Jon Stewart has a clue about any of this. Particularly when I read his "Pounding" of Jim Cramer.

Jon Stewart is sickening in his down the nose attitude he has towards people smarter than him.

The show on CNBC I really like is Fast Money. Those are sharp people with real positions in the market and they get it. And, the reporters they have of the female persuasion during the day, hmmmm. Let's just say, it makes hearing about a down market easier to take.

Maybe after the economic collapse we can once more say, Rise up and Walk

Thomas Aquinas once called on Pope Innocent II when the later was counting out a large sum of money.

"You see, Thomas," said the Pope, "the church can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none.'"

"True, holy father," was the reply, "neither can she now say, 'Rise and walk.'"

[Quoted in F.F. Bruce "Acts"]

What Earth lovers who love Earth more than Man bring you.. This boy is dead thanks to them

This Post Brought to You By the Green Movement

This is Bakouma Kpatekatola, a young man from the West African nation of Togo. In 2003, when Bakouma was 9 years old, my family became his sponsor through the Childreach-Plan USA organization. In the years since we became occasional pen pals; a few times a year we'd get a letter from him, in his native French, along with an English translation from his caseworker. Sometimes he spoke of coming to America. At Christmas the letters would contain a photo, which we ritually magnetted up on the fridge to chronicle his growth. We reciprocated with our family pictures. I sometimes wondered if he wondered about us like we wondered about him. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't really notice when we didn't receive his annual Christmas letter last year. Yesterday we received a letter from his caseworker explaining why: Bakouma died in December of malaria. He was 14 years old.

Bakouma was one of approximately one million people who died of malaria last year. Almost all of them were like him: poor, young, and African. And almost all of those deaths could have been prevented through vaccines, insecticide-treated netting, and (gasp) DDT spraying. Empirical research supports the indoor residual spraying (IRS) of DDT as not only safe, but the most economical and effective method for malaria prevention. For example, a 1996 DDT ban in South Africa, pushed by environmental groups, led to a malaria epidemic with over 60,000 cases reported in 2000. After DDT spraying resumed in 2001, infections dropped 80% in one year. Facing a mounting death toll across Africa the World Heath Organization and USAID have recently lent support to IRS using DDT, but its adoption continues to be opposed by environmental extremists relying on shoddy science and fearmongering.

Togo, incidentally, is one of the countries where IRS/DDT is not yet implemented. Would it have saved Bakouma Kpatekatola? Maybe, possibly, probably. The grim calculus involved in that what-if is, at this point, strictly academic. But it's not too late to tip the odds in favor of the millions of other kids in Africa at risk. In memory of Bakouma, please join me in supporting Africa Fighting Malaria which advocates the use of all tools for malaria eradication, including DDT. Sponsor a kid through Childreach-Plan USA. Write your congressmen and President Obama and encourage them to continue the USAID policy of support for IRS/DDT. Finally, if you're so inclined, please remember Bakouma tonight in your prayers. Thanks.

Heed Wilkerson's warning

Exclusive: Janet Porter notes pastor made sandwiches for 9/11 workers – before attack

---

Posted: March 10, 2009
3:02 pm Eastern

By Janet Porter

---

When I was a kid, I read about David Wilkerson who took to Gospel to the gangs of New York. I even saw the movie "The Cross and the Switchblade" that was made about him. Many know about that, but most don't know what happened in his church just eight years ago.

In the fall of 2001, Pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church in New York City, was warned by God that a calamity was coming. For six weeks they felt an intense burden and enormous heaviness. A critical need for intercession was so profound that Pastor Wilkerson canceled everything on the church calendar – mission's conferences, youth events and every guest speaker.

For six weeks, there wasn't a sermon. Instead, there was intercession for our nation with weeping and repentance. They knew something was coming and that something was bad. And that something was soon. So they prayed. And prayed … and prayed.

Then Wilkerson felt God telling him something that seemed rather bizarre. He felt God telling him to make sandwiches – lots of sandwiches. What were they for? Who would eat them? That part wasn't clear, but his church did what they believed God was telling them anyway.

And on the 10th of September they stayed up all night making hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By morning they had about 2,000 sandwiches. At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center and Times Square Church was ready to feed and minister to rescue workers and victims of our nation's worst attack.

Making sandwiches all night is a strange thing to do. If someone told me to stay up all night making sandwiches, I'd probably tell them they were crazy. But if David Wilkerson says he's heard something from God today, I think we'd be crazy not to listen.

He now says he feels the same thing he felt leading up to the attack by radical Islam. In an "URGENT MESSAGE" dated March 7, 2009, Wilkerson said:

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE – EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God's wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written:

… God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.

The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, "God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

In Psalm 11:6, David warns, "Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire) … fire … burning wind … will be the portion of their cup." Why? David answered, "Because the Lord is righteous" (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment – just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah's generation.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD'S PEOPLE?

First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a 30-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.

… I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take – trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.

Warren Buffett has said that our economy has "fallen off a cliff." With the election of the most pro-abortion president (and Congress) in history, there's no question that we deserve God's judgment.

Just yesterday, Barack Obama signed an executive order to use children for spare parts. So much for defending the "least of these," as he so often quoted during his campaign. Cannibalizing the weak to help the strong. And by the way, don't believe everything you hear in the news – Obama didn't say he was against cloning. He said he was against "reproductive" cloning. Killing a new life after cloning one is another matter entirely: the cowardice of Obama's "Brave New World."

The bottom line is that we are economically and morally bankrupt. And it's reported that Iran now has all they need to build nukes.

So, when the guy who made the 2,000 sandwiches on Sept. 10 warns us: "AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN," I think we would do well to heed it. And follow the words Wilkerson quotes from the prophet Jeremiah and "turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds."

Barry and Timmy get an F in Economics (guess they don't teach that in Community Organizing School)

People who know anal openings from earth depressions have now officially declared the economic policies of Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner to be failures. The problem is when they fail we all fail. But never fear, there is a Nigerian Exiled Prince who will save our sorry butts. This video from Saturday Night Live explains the whole thing. It’s a hoot.



And YES, I now officially think I could do better than either of them. Where's my $420 Billion?

I Resemble this

Because I'm A Man . . .

• Because I'm a man, when I lock my keys in the car I will fiddle with a wire clothes hanger and ignore your suggestions that we call a road service until long after hypothermia has set in.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, when the car isn't running very well, I will pop the bonnet and stare at the engine as if I know what I'm looking at. If another man shows up, one of us will say to the other, "I used to be able to fix these things, but now with all these computers and everything, I wouldn't know where to start." We will then drink beer.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, when I catch a cold I need someone to bring me soup and take care of me while I lie in bed and moan. You never get as sick as I do, so for you this isn't an issue.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I can be relied upon to purchase basic groceries at the store, like milk or bread. I cannot be expected to find exotic items like "Cumin" or "Tofu" For all I know these are the same thing. And never, under any circumstances, expect me to pick up anything for which "feminine hygiene product" is a euphemism.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, when one of our appliances stops working I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that this will just cost me twice as much once the repair person gets here and has to put it back together.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I must hold the television remote control in my hand while I watch TV. If the thing has been misplaced, I may miss a whole show looking for it (though one time I was able to survive by holding a calculator).
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I don't think we're all that lost, and no, I don't think we should stop and ask someone. Why would you listen to a complete stranger. I mean, how the hell could he know where we're going?
  
  
• Because I'm a man, there is no need to ask me what I'm thinking about. The answer is always either sex or beer, though I have to make up something else when you ask, so don't.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I do not want to visit your mother, or have your mother come visit us, or talk to her when she calls, or think about her anymore than I have to. Whatever you got her for mother's day is okay, I don't need to see it. And don't forget to pick up something for my Mom, too!
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I am capable of announcing, "One more beer and I really have to go", and mean it every single time I say it, even when it gets to the point that the one bar closes and my buddies and I have to go hunt down another. I will find it increasingly hilarious to have my pals call you to tell you I'll be home soon, and no, I don't understand why you threw all my clothes into the front yard. Like, what's the connection?
  
  
• Because I'm a man, you don't have to ask me if I liked the movie. Chances are, if you're crying at the end of it, I didn't.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, yes, I have to turn up the radio when Bruce Springsteen or The Doors comes on, and then, yes, I have to tell you every single time about how Bruce had his picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek the same day, or how Jim Morrison is buried in Paris and everyone visits his grave. Please do not behave as if you do not find this fascinating.
  
  
• Because I'm a man, I think what you're wearing is fine. I thought what you were wearing five minutes ago was fine, too. Either pair of shoes is fine. With the belt or without it looks fine. Your hair is fine. You look fine. Can we just go now?
  
  
• Because I'm a man, and this is, after all, the 90's, I will share equally in the housework. You just do the laundry, the cooking, the gardening, the cleaning, and the dishes. I'll do the rest.

---

Wombat

Chicago Style Gangsters and Thugs - Friends of Obama Threaten Businessmen

You know what a protection racket is, "It would be a crime if a fire started in a nice place like this". But for a fee, I'll see to it nothing bad happens to you. Gangsters.

Park your car and some kid comes up to you and says, "I'll watch your car for ya, twenty bucks". If you don't pay your tires are flat and the paint is keyed when you get back. That's how it is in Chicago some places. Extortionists.

The most ominous is you speak up and some thug shows up at the door. "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut".

That's what the administration's gangster friends are doing. Threatening Banks speaking up about Card Check Union Thuggery that TARP funds will be withheld.
I told you before the election that if Obama was elected the USA would look like the South Side of Chicago.

Welcome to Obama's United States of Corruption Chicago Style.

“It is what it is.” - That's the devil trying to get you to accept defeat

“It is what it is.”

Ever heard that one? You haven’t sinned if you have said it or thought it; but it's a mentality that needs to be eliminated. “You just have to accept IT the way IT is.” NO, NO, NO.

Let’s Change It Today:

1. Remember the scripture promise: Ezekiel 21:26 AMP - “Things will not remain, as they have been.”

2. Embrace “IT” as God’s Word says it is. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith IS the substance of things hoped for...”

3. Prophesy to “IT.” When the mother’s child died in Elisha’s day, she DEFINED what ‘it’ is. When the prophet asked her, “Is it well with the lad?”, she responded, “IT IS WELL.” Notice she said, "IT IS WELL", when it wasn’t quite well. But “IT” took on flesh and bone, when she spoke “IT” as she believed.

4. Think like a mountain mover. That’s what you are! “Whosoever will say to this mountain ‘be uprooted and cast into the sea’, IT will obey you.” (Mark 11:23) Expect IT to obey you.

5. Expect it to get BETTER than you can imagine! Ephesians 3:20 says, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond what we can ask or imagine."

THINK IT & SAY IT:
It is what God says it is! I declare that things will not remain as they have been. I prophesy to “IT” in my life and declare that IT IS WELL—no matter what. I am a mountain mover, and I expect the mountains to obey me. IT will get better than what I can imagine, in Jesus’ Name.

From Gregory Dickow by email

What a multi-cultural Society Gets you. It's not pretty

I'll just allow you to see what awaits a country that doesn't know who it is.

Great Britain (not so great any more) doesn't. In the name of tolerance and freedom the country has been stolen from them. IS THIS what we want here??

If I move to Nigeria and immigrate, I will become Nigerian. Not here I guess.

When Oprah Becomes the Pope-ette

From the Anchoress:

I have no doubt that there will be a “schism” within the next few decades that will find an “American Catholic Church” formed (Cardinal Mahoney will probably be its titular head) which will look quite a lot like the Church of England or the Anglican church - rites, rituals, “sacraments” etc, and it will even have the imprimatur of the government insofar as it may - and it will be a church that the majority flock to; it will be seen by many as the “victory” over that stuffy old, stubborn Church of Rome. People will go on Oprah and say “I always loved God but I never felt accepted, but this enlightened American Catholic Church tells me what I need to hear, that God loves me and that divorce, abortion and all that stuff doesn’t matter as long as I am a good person, and I AM a good person, Oprah, I AM, and now I am accepted, and (weep, weep) I feel like God finally makes sense in the world!”

“That’s right,” Oprah will declare, “there is no sin, except the sinfulness of not loving the self! God doesn’t make junk!”

Applause, applause. The only ideal that matters is the one that makes you happy and doesn’t challenge the status quo.

This Lines up exactly with the Internet Monk's article Barry Kolb posted today.

People think that folks want the traditions and the liturgical expressions of the Catholic church and that's why people are moving that direction from evangelicalism to Catholicism. NO, they want FAITH. They want to believe.

We have stripped all the Faith out of Most Denominational Churches

We have become prisoners of Reason. Luther said Reason is the Enemy of Faith. It still is.

Future Past

How Come I have a sinking feeling we are entering into a future past? There was a seedy decay that came over America in the period 1973-1985. Back then, the great cities of the American Northeast had collapsed economically and socially due to the accumulation of decades of socialist policies.

Are we headed there once more?

I’m afraid we are in for a long decade and a quarter. Welcome back Carter.


If I knew how to do that morphing thing I would take Obama’s poster and….well you know.

Help Wanted from a Homeless Chicagoan Down on her Luck

Barack Obama get's letters asking for help. This one is posted by Iowahawk. The letter asks for Gift Giving advice since Barry has done such a good job as is evidenced by his gifting in Great Britain and so has his secretary of State in Russia.

Here's the letter:

Dear Barry:

I’ve had a bit of a bad luck patch over the last month (losing my job, watching my 401k completely disintegrate, etc., etc.) and ended up relocating from a high rise in Lincoln Park to a new neighborhood along the Fullerton underpass on the Kennedy Expressway. I was a bit worried about the move at first, but my new neighbors have been great. In fact on move-in day they greeted me with a grocery cart “welcome wagon” containing some lovely and practical gifts like cans of Sterno, cardboard, fortified wine, and a hypo-allergenic harmonica. I would like to show my appreciation with thoughtful “thank you” gifts. Can you recommend something nice that won’t break my budget ($3.00 total for 6 gifts)? Please help!

Barbara in Chicago

You will want to know what the Gift Giver in Chief has to say.

A Plebescite on the "Great Job" Junior not in charge is doing

This is a poll conducted by the all Obama Channel, the home of Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman and Mr Tingle up the Pants himself.

MSNBC

I haven't looked but since MSM engages in censorship when it doesn't go as they had hoped, they pull these things down.

Note, 84,0000 MSNBC watchers (which wouldn't include me) voted on this.

Not good for Obama - He's doing a lousy job and deserves the ridicule. I can honestly say that I had higher hopes for him. They are now dashed. He's just another dummy politician from the south side of Chicago. We have lots of them running the state of Illinois. How's that going so far?

Update, the poll is still up on MSNBC. If you still believe in Obama maybe you can save his sorry behind.

The "Good" Impression the Junior Acheiver occupying the White House made on the British

WOW.

They are not amused.

I guess inexperience has it's rewards.

This from a British observer of the Obama Visit. He says this in part: You made GW Bush look like a God of the spoken word on his worse day.

Yowsers.

If you are suffering because of the Depression (it's not an economic downturn) it's not YOUR FAULT!

The twin towers were bombed on September 11, 2001. Thousands were killed.

What sin did those people who died that day commit? What Righteousness did those who survived exhibit? Why were some people even in Manhattan spared completely? Many lost their jobs. Some even went bankrupt. I almost did. It was a very hard time.

So, tell me, who's fault is it that my friend Steve is out of a Job. That in the last week 3 very dear christian friends have told me that they are on the edge of Bankruptcy. Many are in fear. Who sinned?

A bomb just went off in Baghdad. Car bomb. At least 33 are dead. What did those that are now dead do? How could they have avoided it? They were living their lives, doing business, and suddenly BOOM things changed even for those near, injured and still alive.

So, tell me, who's fault was it? The injured? Or was it an event, external, caused by others.

I tell you, no one sinned. If a bomb goes off there is going to be collateral damage. That's why they bomb. It's indiscriminate.

A bomb has gone off in the Global Economy. Who caused it? I'm not here to point fingers. It's just a bomb, a huge bomb has gone off. I don't agree with the statement I heard from a minister the other night on TBN. He said, "In our congregation we are not participating in the depression". That's foolish. It's like saying when a bomb goes off next to us we will be uafffected, live life like nothing happened. That's like Spirit shirts. Magical thinking. In ancient Israel when famine came, everyone suffered. This is no different.

If you are going thru hard times, if you can't pay your bills, if your job is gone, if you are in debt and can't get out, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT. Get past the guilt. Start picking up the pieces and start fixing the problem the best way you know how. Trust Jesus and tell that accuser of you, my brother and sister, to shut up.

We have all just been subject to a huge global economic bomb, now it's time to pick up whatever pieces you can and try to get back to living once more.

It's wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything to cause this, you didn't deserve this. Sure, you could have stayed home in a bomb shelter wearing a flack jacket hiding from the world. A lot of Good you would have been there. Yet some who have lived overcautious lives and not suffered from the bomb blast would tisk tisk you about your injuries.

Jesus wants you out among them and if you get blown away by a Bomb, SO BE IT. Be bold, be Strong, for the Lord Thy God is with thee!

Our Hobby is Church - Christianity in America

It's True, most Christians treat Church attendance and so called Christianity as a hobby, not something they practice every day, just on weekends. Once in a while at night. But nothing more or less than a hobby and they gather at the hobby clubhouse weekly (weakly). This article says much:

Looking at data taken from a massive survey taken in 1990, Barry Kosmin argued that many Americans saw religious beliefs as "a personal hobby." Now, with fresh data in hand, he asserts that contemporary Americans increasingly see religious faith as "more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment."

Barry Kosmin is director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His study, known as the American Religious Identification Study [ARIS], is one of the largest and most significant surveys of the American religious scene ever conducted. The bottom line? "The American population still self-identifies as predominantly Christian but Americans are slowly becoming less Christian."

By any measure, the study reveals an increasing secularization of the society. The percentage of Americans identifying as unaffiliated with any religious group or denomination has risen sharply (from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2008). In fact, the unaffiliated now outnumber all but Catholics and Baptists.

WCWJJ (Would Jesus BE a Christian?)

What Church Would Jesus Join?

Suppose Jesus came back to earth as a man somewhat incognito to accomplish his mission here. He's fully Jesus the Man incarnate. Once again on earth. I know this isn't biblical. It's out of the realm. But, go with it for a minute. If Jesus once again walked among men as a man what church would he join.

Baptist, Lutheran (which Synod?), Assembly of God, Methodist, Pentecostal...............Which.

And, how would he Vote? Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, Communist or would Jesus even vote?

And where would he live? Washington? New York? Chicago? London? Jerusalem? Mumbai? Shanghai?

I have a more difficult question:
If Jesus once again walked among men would he even be a Christian? Like we see the Church in America? If you asked Jesus, (remember he's incognito) are you a Christian? what would He say?

If Jesus walked among us incognito I'm not convinced he would even be a Christian as we know and express it. He certainly wouldn't be a Church Member. He would say to us,

"This isn't it. This isn't the dream I had for the Church. This isn't what I hoped it would look like. It's all wrong".

"I wanted You, the Church, to look like ME. You don't".

You see, Jesus does walk the earth incognito. He's all around us in flesh. Flawed human flesh. You, me, flawed, human.

Then we develop these institutions, traditions and structures that don't look a bit like HIM. I know I don't look like Him. I want to. I don't. Jesus probably wouldn't be a rock hard Conservative. I don't think he would be a liberal either. I don't know for sure.

I know this, he would love irrationally. I don't. He does. He would do radical and unusual things. I'm pretty conventional. He would be far more accepting than I am.

So, the net question, when you look at what we have as a cultural church made to be "Christian" in America, would Jesus even BE a Christian?

I don't think so.

Graham Cooke asked this question of the Women at Aglow. It's on at 10AM Central Time on God TV. Check Your Schedule.

How to get out of a Financial Crisis

This guy has it all figured out. Who knew it could be so simple.

An Open Offer to Those "Christians" Who Believe I am in Deep Error

I get reports. I'm mostly prone to ignore them. I'm pretty thick skinned and maybe thick headed.

I get comments that tell me that among some "Christians" who read my blog, they find what I say offensive or a problem for them.

I would like to put this to bed once and for all. I offer to meet face to face with all you accusers. We will do this in the presence of anyone who you might want as a witness to the discussion. I will bring a few myself if you choose to accept this challenge.

Bring your whole notebook of terrible things I have said. We can talk about it.

This is not about politics. My politics are not in question here. That's a different bunch. It's my Spiritual Positions that seem to cause anger. If you have the courage to face me, I'm willing.

I think it's waste of time. You won't change your mind. I'm not going to change mine. But if it would make you feel better I'm ready to meet.

Let me know. My Email address is posted on this blog. Feel free to use but not abuse it. If you abuse it I know how to put a stop to it. Just like I know how to delete bitter comments as I do and will when I get them.

I won't hold my breath. Most accusers are cowards and just like to snipe from the sidelines, so I expect no response. But if you choose to, I'm ready.

I'll wait right here.

A Dire Warning - A Reason to Pray

I don't know what to make of this. But I have a sense that it's time for the Body of Christ to intercede with all it's might for the safety of Barack Obama. Something is amiss in the spirit.

Read what David Wilkerson says and consider what could trigger this to come to pass.

Pray for America and Pray for Safety for the President.

One Year and Success at Lord of Life

Last Night Peggy and I with some friends attended the Lord of Life Silent Auction dinner dance. It was a huge success. I was staggered.

The Church has had some pretty successful events in the past few months. It seems like these events have taken on a life of their own. An energy and unity I don't know that I have seen anywhere. I have been part of some very big churches, Churches with thousands of people. A couple of these events have eclipsed anything I had seen in quality and execution at any of those churches.

This doesn't happen without good planning and well thought out oversight. Pastor Phil after a solo year at the Helm has become a first class Helmsman and steers the ship better than I think anyone could have. It's astounding. I tip my hat to him.

The events have been:

A conference on the reality of the book of Genesis and creation. Several hundred people came out and it was a consequential gathering of people from the area who normally do not come to these things. I was amazed people came in this magnitude to see the speakers argument.

A Movie and Marriage event around Valentines week showing the Movie Fireproof. I had no confidence in this. Was I ever wrong. A couple hundred people, many of them first time in the door at Lord of Life came out. It was a huge success.

Last night's event which I have already mentioned. A first class dinner served on fine china, with real silverware, with tablecloths and I know many thousands of dollars were raised by the silent auction. I had such a sense of unity.

The event that was the first of this four part trifecta was the Anniversary Celebration. That really worked. And, it led us to find our new worship Leader who played that night. Billy Croft.

All these events have happened in the less than the last 60 days. They have been huge. It has infected the whole place. I think of the good turnout we had at Men of God. And so many other things. Seeing the Meeting Hall full on Sunday mornings.

WOW.

One thing that is most interesting in all this, Pastor Phil seems to always be in the background. He gives plenty of sunshine to those doing what they do. He never hogs the spotlight nor dominates the scene. He truly allows others to serve and receive the approbation they deserve. He just watches to see that it works. Maybe that's the secret. When he began listing the names of everyone who is serving at anything every Sunday it began to demonstrate to the Congregation that you have a place. It's not about him. In fact other than the fact that he prayed a prayer, had a few welcoming remarks and took some pictures last night you would not have known he was there.

All in all it's working. A year of seasoning has made him grow and the church.

I suppose we will have to wait for his book on Church Growth Strategies next. I'm kidding. But he seems to have captured a secret I don't know many have figured out. I didn't.

Good on you Sir. Lead on.

End Time Deception will begin in the Evangelical and Mainline Churches

It grieves me to see it. I watch, read, follow and investigate church movements, church trends.

Some of them are very disturbing. Some Churches are solid as a rock theologically. They are founded on the word of God. They are without repentance regarding the Truths of the word.

Then there are churches where segments of the Church denominationally are solid. One such would be the dividing Anglican Church in America. Another would be the Catholic Churches. For those who trust the Word of God they are on solid ground. There may be others.

Sadly that is not the case with many liberal and mainline evangelical groups.

Most Pentecostal churches would be on solid ground, but even there deception can exist. I think it is good if they as a church are accountable to someone.

Conservative Reformed fellowships, Lutheran Churches Mo Synod and Wisconsin Synod would be hard to deceive. Seventh Day Adventists. Some Baptist, not all. Nazarenes.

Those are good solid well grounded fellowships.

Then there are others who wear other titles who are adrift.

I believe the difference is the spiritual gift of discernment and the esteem for the infallible word of the Living God in the Bible.

Without those two elements deception will come.

The enemy of faith is reason leading to relativism. That's why many Christians in the last election voted for people who are not Godly leaders. They are proving to be people who may even name the name of Jesus but without submission.

If these people do not repent the judgement on them will be double. It's coming. Watch out for the wolves in Sheep's Clothing standing up and leading people to perdition in churches. Get your spiritual gift of Discernment sharpened up. Study the word to be approved. If it doesn't pass thru the screen of God's word, it's bogus.

One other thing, I am NOT quick to condemn new expressions of radical Christianity. Some of the Emergent Church movement is of God. I am NOT ready to pillory Rick Warren or Willow Creek.

It's not them.

It's so called theologians and people with PhD's (Piled higher and deeper) who have become deceived by the books and classes they attend. The devil loves to mislead leaders. Then they do the work for him. Many Christian Colleges are filled with misleaders who have been misled.

Watch out, Mark them well, look carefully. Paul told us that:
Romans 16:

17Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

18For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

19For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

20And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

I pray the God of Peace will Crush these misleaders from Satan under his feet shortly.

Did you know it ONLY costs 6 Billion Dollars to build a Nuclear Power Plant?

That would be 4 plants in Auto Bailouts.

That would be 10 plants in AIG ratholes.

That would be 8 plants in Citybank / BOA toilet flushes

That would be a hundred plants in porkulus stimulus projects.

Instead we have squandered it all away and have nothing to show for it.

Does anyone anywhere get this?? Do they even care?

We have elected INSANE LITTLE CHILDREN

That's what my friend Keith posted today. He's absolutely right. We have fools in government now.

This can't end well.

Oh, and this is all part of a power grab strategy. How can we fool them today. That's the mantra. This is nearly evil.

"Raise Your Voice and Prophesy HOPE"

Garris Elkins:

"But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel's stump will be a holy seed."
Isaiah 6:13

This verse hung in the air as I read it and contemplated the current financial environment that is creating fear in the hearts of people. As I read this verse, the Lord spoke to me:

"I am raising up a host of prophets who will prophesy hope to the seed that remains in the stump. I never leave a stump without a seed. This seed contains the DNA of My life. It is activated and brought to life by hope. Raise your voice and speak hope to the seed that remains. The seed is waiting for the sound of hope. Do not focus on the stump. The stump only carries the seed.

"This present devastation is temporary. Words of hope are anchored in eternity. Rise up and stand before the stump just as My servant Noah did when I asked him to build the Ark. You will look foolish to those who only see the stump, but I will grow the seed and the tree will stand again. Prophesy to My seed."

Something Must Fill the Void

This word from the Lord has a cultural context that we need to understand. We are in a time when the word of hope will have a new level of power and anointing.

In my years of ministry, I have been able to travel to many nations. I have seen the Church in a western affluent setting and I have seen the Church in jungles and worshipped in open-walled huts sitting on split-rail pews that were tree logs in their former lives.

In our western cultures we have discretionary time. This time is that extra part of our day that is not devoted to simply surviving—getting water, finding food and avoiding disease. In this extra space we have the opportunity to read, play sports, watch TV, go on vacation, buy things, and develop the skills required for a hobby. Entire portions of our culture supports itself from the existence of this core of time.

The shrinking of this discretionary core of a culture affects everything. A consumer culture survives on the financial well-being of people who live and recreate within this core. If you don't believe it, talk to car dealers today who used to bank on people buying new cars every few years, or the clothing manufacturer who hasn't seen the volume in sales of casual attire he used to see, or the small town business owner whose profit margin is gone along with the shoppers who used to shop as a form of recreation.

People in many developing countries have only one set of work clothes to wear in the field during the week and then an old suit or a hand-me-down dress that was given to them from some western missionary clothes bin. They wear their "good clothes" to go to church on Sunday. For these people there is no discretionary middle. Today, some of these people are not only found in third world nations—they live among us as the working poor in our communities.

The cultural shift in which most of the western world now finds itself is a time of great opportunity for the Church. As the core of leisure time shrinks and the ability to fund that time also diminishes, many people will come face to face with a growing emptiness that can lead to fear and panic. Something must fill that void. This is the time for the Church to speak into the emptiness and prophesy hope.

Hope Activates the Seed Within

Just as there remains a natural DNA in the stump of a felled tree, there remains in each life, felled by crisis, the DNA of God that is waiting to bring resurrection life to what appears to be dead.

As Isaiah was receiving his call as a prophet, the majority of the people in his world did not fully understand God and did not live for Him. That did not stop God. He was waiting to bring His love to His people if they would turn back to Him. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. He always works with the willing remnant seed. That is why He ended Isaiah 6 with the words of verse 13, "But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel's stump will be a holy seed."

As you walk in your city today, God will bring you face to face with people whose lives resemble tree stumps. We live in a culture of fallen trees. God has sent His Church into the streets to prophesy hope to the seed that is housed in a decaying stump of human brokenness.

As the old tree stump rots away, a new season of growth will emerge because words of hope activated the seed within.

Garris Elkins
Living Waters Church

Heather Clark is one of my favorite Worship Leaders

If you google her name and just play lot's of you tube stuff she does, you will be able to dwell in the Secret Place for a while.

Oh, that all people of God could worship like this in response to the anointing like this. That's my hope and Prayer.

Al Gore comes out from under his rock and clucks like a chicken

Al Gore wants no one to disagree with him. If you do he has no intention of discussing it. He is a demagogue of the first order.

Those who believe this man are foolish indeed.

You can read what caused me to have this opinion of him, AGAIN.

He is a dangerous man.

Indoctrination of upcoming voters

HISTORICAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Now it's time to expand the myth of the Great Leader. North Korea got nothing on us.

This will make you nauseous, so be careful. They are showing to your children. They have NO SHAME.

Keith Olberman is a Phony - but you knew that

I always appreciate Ann Coulter's fine balanced appraisal of the situation. OK, I'm Kidding a little. But, Keith Olbermaniac's rants are so over the top that when he is shown up for the phony he really is, it's a pleasure. This from ANN really puts dummy Olbermaniac in his place. He's a toad.

Olbermann's Plastic Ivy

by Ann Coulter

03/04/2009

Fortunately, we have Keith Olbermann to point out that Rush Limbaugh did not accurately quote the preamble to the Constitution in his CPAC speech last weekend. I'm not sure what scam Olbermann imagined Rush was trying to put over on the American people by saying conservatives believed in the "preamble to the Constitution" and then quoting words from the Declaration of Independence -- but Olbermann put an end to that cruel deception!

These small-time opportunities to show off by correcting someone else's teeny-tiny mistakes are the lifeblood of Olbermann's MSNBC show, "Countdown." Olbermann is no more capable of not correcting Rep. Charlie Rangel when he said "inferred," but meant "implied," than an obsessive compulsive could pass a sink without washing his hands.

There is utterly no purpose to these lame "gotchas," except that Olbermann is so desperately insecure that he is willing to waste valuable airtime in order to convince other status-conscious idiots that he is, like, scary-smart.

Olbermann relentlessly attacked low-level Bush administration employee Monica Goodling for not going to a name-dropping college, saying -- approximately 1 million times -- that she got her law degree "by sending 100 box tops to Religious Lunatic University."

I would venture to say that the students at Goodling's law school at Regent University are far more impressive than those at the Cornell agriculture school -- the land-grant, non-Ivy League school Keith attended.

I wouldn't mention it, except that Olbermann savages anyone who didn't go to an impressive college. As it happens, he didn't go to an impressive college, either.

If you've ever watched any three nights of his show, you know that Olbermann went to Cornell. But he always forgets to mention that he went to the school that offers classes in milking and bovine management.

Indeed, Keith is constantly lying about his nonexistent "Ivy League" education, boasting to Playboy magazine, for example: "My Ivy League education taught me how to cut corners, skim books and take an idea and write 15 pages on it, and also how to work all day at the Cornell radio station and never actually go to class."

Except Keith didn't go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell.

The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants).

Olbermann's incessant lying about having an "Ivy League education" when he went to the non-Ivy League ag school at Cornell would be like a graduate of the Yale locksmithing school boasting about being a "Yale man."

Among the graduates of the Ivy League Cornell are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Thomas Pynchon, Paul Wolfowitz, E.B. White, Sanford I. Weill, Floyd Abrams, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Ginsburg, Janet Reno, Henry Heimlich and Harold Bloom.

Graduates of the ag school include David LeNeveu of the Anaheim Ducks, Mitch Carefoot of the Phoenix RoadRunners, Darren Eliot, former professional hockey player, and Joe Nieuwendyk, multiple Stanley Cup winner.

One begins to understand why Harvard students threw a chicken on the ice during Cornell's famous rout of Harvard at a 1973 hockey game.

If you actually want to pursue a career related to agriculture, there is no better school than the Cornell ag school. I have nothing but admiration for the farmers and aspiring veterinarians at the ag school. They didn't go there just to have "Cornell" on their resumes.

In addition to the farmers, there are some smart kids who go to the ag school -- as there are at all state universities. But most people who majored in "communications" at an ag school don't act like Marshall Scholars or go around mocking graduates of Regent University Law School.

The sort of insecurity that would force you to always say "trebled" instead of "tripled" could only come from a communications major with massive status anxiety, like Keith. Without even looking it up, I am confident that Harvard, Yale and Princeton do not offer degrees in "communications." I know there is no "communications" major at the Ivy League Cornell.

"Communications" is a major, along with "recreation science," most commonly associated with linemen at USC. But at least the linemen can throw a football, which Keith cannot because his mother decided he was not physically robust enough to play outdoors as a child.

It may seem cruel to reveal the true college of someone who already wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worried that he's a fraud. But I believe that by pointing out that Olbermann actually is a fraud, I am liberating him.

You may not realize it now, Keith, but you will look back on this day and say, "That was the best thing that ever happened to me!"

Finally, you can stop pretending that you went to the hard-to-get-into Cornell.

Now you won't have to quickly change the subject whenever people idly remark that they didn't know it was possible to major in "communications" at an Ivy League school.

No longer will you have to aggressively bring up Cornell when it has nothing to do with the conversation.

Relax, Keith. Now you can let people like you for you.

God will Forgive You but you MUST REPENT

A lot of Christians voted for Barack Obama for President. I have hopes God will use him mightily. My concern is he is influenced and controlled by evil forces determined to take our nation into a dark hole of socialism, government control and the embracing of all forms of evil like Same Sex marriage, Rampant Abortion as evidenced by the appointment of Kathleen Sibelius to HHS and corruption by Union Thugs intent on controlling the economy to enrich themselves at the expense of others.

I know many who read this blog voted for Obama. Some of you are Christians. If you are a Christian and Read This Blog you can still repent of your error and God will forgive you.

Of course he forgives a drunk driver too, but the drunk driver still goes to jail, still loses his licence, still pays a fine. There are consequences to rebellion and sin.

The vote for Obama in light of his obvious and daily revealed agenda for our country can now be accurately described as rebellion against the spirit of God. Sin.

God will forgive IF YOU REPENT. If you do not.....

Either way you and I together will now suffer the consequence of our national rebellion. God help us all.

One commentator in a joking way asked if God would forgive him if he voted for Obama. Another was incensed that I questioned the Christianity of people who in the full light of day and without intentional ignorance voted for him and still named the name of Jesus.

Now, with the Sibelius nomination, I want to ask simply this.

Are YOU in need of repentance? Did you vote for MORE abortion freedom in the country you are part of?

Baal 7-7-07 = Dow -777

Watch this and think about the fact that on the first of The Jewish New Year, in the year of 9 which is a number of Judgment, September 29 2008 first day of the Jewish new year. 440 days exactly from this proclamation. 7 years from September 11, 2001, The Dow Jones Average dropped 777 points exactly in ONE DAY, the NEW YEAR OF 9. Like God saying, you asked for BAAL to be brought down on 7-7-07, I have done it.

Baal is being judged. Our world is entering a new age. The old passes away. If you have spiritual eyes and ears to hear you will see exactly why I know for certain that the God of the Universe is putting things back in Order. Evenso Come Lord Jesus.

Magical Thinking

You may not know the term. It's the idea that one event is related to something as an indicator. A rabbit's foot considered lucky, lucky penny, wearing the same socks you wore the last time your team won, icons, symbols. All magical thinking.

Sometimes in Christian circles we engage in magical thinking. Rather than having Faith in Jesus and his love and purpose for us we use symbolic things. I don't wear a cross around my neck, not that I'm against it, but sometimes christian symbols can be talismans.

These two articles are really good. If you read both of them you will grasp the idea of what happens when people believe in magical thinking.

It happens when people believe in myths and rumors too. The carburetor that gets 200 miles per gallon. The car that runs on pure water. The magnet that goes around a grain elevator and makes the grain germinate better. I saw this one in Saskatchewan some years ago. Magical thinking. Many health food stores would never survive without magical thinking. Most supplements sold are magical thinking supplements.

Much foolish policy comes from magical thinking. Some of our economic policies are caused by it to our detriment.

Some of the energy schemes that the government has supported and endorsed are nothing different from holding up a crucifix to ward off evil spirits. Wind power for energy is one such. It doesn't work and never will except as a localized supplemental power source. Someone is going to get make a great deal of money someday digging up and removing all these stupid magical thinking wind farms. Solar power has hope, but there are magical thinkers there too.

There are people who so believe in magic that they think a little credit card sized solar cell will attach to the top of your car and you will drive for free. Or that a fuel pellet will be dropped in the gas tank and you will drive a million miles for nothing.

Our current occupant of the white house was elected by people that believed in magical thinking rather than common sense. I remember asking supporters of Obama what it is that he had ever done that made him qualified to be the President. They couldn't tell me. They just knew that if we elected this icon, this human talisman that all our problems would be solved. So we did. And the man is so far out of his league and underwater that I don't know if he will EVER surface.

Irrational or Magical Thinking can lead a person to behave and respond to events with all kinds of anxiety. The global warming cooling or something balderdash alive in the world today is just Magical Thinking. That human activity causes the climate change is the kind of unrelated event association that creates magical thinking error.

My advice today if I have some, is stay away from myths and rumors. Paul advised his son in the Lord, Timothy to beware of Magical Thinking:

1 Timothy 1:4 Do not pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. AND 4:7 Refuse profane and old wives' fables. The foolish myths and legends of the heathen, and also the marvelous additions which Jewish rabbis had made to the Old Testament. Reject all these

It's still good advice. If Paul were writing to us today he might say, "Don't be seduced by magical thinking"..

Macy Gray sings a great Love Song

Somehow I think this is more than a song about love. I identify with all this.

Let's let Florida, Minnesota and Illinois run all the elections from now on

We have an amazing election system. All the votes you can buy alive or dead.

The Al Franken Norm Coleman Fiasco has firmly placed Minnesota, land of 10,000 fraudulent votes, right up there along side Florida and Illinois (Vote Early Vote Often).

Isn't this fun?

A Great Love Song

When I lived in Germany, before Peggy came to live there too, I was lonesome. This song didn't help much. I would listen to it and choke up. Then listen again.

I would translate but without the translation it is more beautiful. Let it speak to you.

Peter Maffay is a big star in Germany. I have several of his CDs. He's getting older and despite the great love songs he's on his 4th marriage. The song says: I love you Deeper and Deeper, Deeper with you. English is a poor love language. It's far more beautiful in German. There are many things you can say in German that do NOT translate at all. Anyway, if by chance you speak German, this is a wonderful love song.

This is not the New Deal - This is an inside invasion

Not the Spirit of the New Deal
Maimon Schwarzschild

It's already a cliche, among supporters and opponents alike, that Obama and the Democrats are modeling themselves on FDR's New Deal. There are some similarities (mostly worrisome ones) but there are big differences too. A crucial difference is that the New Dealers - and liberals and leftists generally in the first half of the twentieth century - really believed that greatly increased government power would be good for growth and would usher in a bigger, stronger, more prosperous economy. The key word was "planning", and the idea that the "anarchy" of free markets was inefficient and held back prosperity.

Almost no serious person, I think, believes these things today. It's not that everyone has actually read Hayek - though everyone should - but the fundamental perception has penetrated that millions of minds and entrepreneurs will do better over time than a command and control economy. And most people have at least some realization of the "public choice" idea: that the political class will tend to exercise power in its own interest, corruptly in the long run if it can get away with it, and no more disinterestedly or altruistically than anyone else or any other interest group would do.

There are different streams of ideas on today's political left than there were in the 1930s. There is the idea that prosperity and growth are bad: bad for the "planet", hostile to the environment, vulgar, and linked to immoral individualism. There is the idea that a humbler, poorer, less powerful America would be a good thing. These are fundamentally pessimistic ideas, pessimistic about America at least: very different from the buoyant and self-confident (if sometimes, or often, misguided) outlook of FDR and the liberals and leftists who made the New Deal (and who went on to fight the Second World War.)

The spirit of the Obama-Pelosi "stimulus", and the conscious atmosphere of corruption and payoff that surrounds it, is consistent with today's negative, if not sour, leftist worldview. The New Dealers believed they were building a more "scientific" and much more prosperous world. There was a great deal of genuine idealism among them. Today's triumphant political class does not seriously imagine that it will promote economic growth and prosperity. The political class is, at best, ambivalent about whether it even wants such things. What today's political class wants is a massive transfer of power and money to itself. This is what the "stimulus", and much else that will follow, is openly intended to do. If there were a spirit of optimism and generosity and idealism about it, as there was among the New Dealers, there would at least be reason to hope that things wouldn't quickly degenerate into corruption. It seems to me that there is little such spirit, or none at all, today.

What will be the consequences for America and the rest of the world? Claudia Rosett puts it well:

Europe — sclerotic, bureaucratized and social-democratized – has for decades enjoyed the protection, inventions and security afforded by its more laissez-faire, strapping, and exuberant cousin across the Pond, the United States. America, with its free markets, its market incentives, and its relatively large private sector, has been the engine of global growth. America’s system, based fundamentally on individual risk and responsibility, has been the great incubator of innovations that have become the staples of the modern age — from medical advances, to computers, to the Internet and beyond. Around the world, people have benefited in ways beyond measure.

All that energy poured into progress is likely to fade, as America devolves into a nation of carbon-capped civil servants, tending to a much-shrunken private sector, and a growing line of people on the dole. However high-flying President Obama’s rhetoric, he can’t re-engineer human nature. If you tax and subsidize Americans more, they will — like anyone else – produce and create less. In many realms, there will be fewer gains from trade. In the middle of every transaction will be the taxman, or the government regulator. For the dramatic reshaping on which Obama has embarked, the cost will be paid not only in taxes, but in a pervasive souring of climate (and I am not talking about hocus-pocus with the weather).

In short, where there was America the superpower – with its almost bottomless pockets and limitless drive — there will be a shabbier America, quite likely more self-absorbed. There will be a growing vacuum on the world scene. If, a generation into the post-Soviet New World Order, that shift is already underway, we can now expect it to accelerate. Since World War II, America’s capitalist system has allowed it to stand as a bulwark of democracy, provider of security and font of commerce and creativity for the world. Europe has had America at its back. There is no candidate right now to replace America in that role.

But as Rosett says, there are violent and undemocratic forces around the world eager to replace a poorer, humbler America.

TO WHICH THESE COMMENTS:

March 2nd, 2009 at 7:01 am

The biggest sea change in the history of leftism happened in the 1960’s when leftist stopped being technological and social optimist and switched to being overall pessimist. Prior to the 60’s, leftist viewed western culture and as the bleeding edge of human civilization and the pattern towards which all other cultures would evolve to. Now they view as a lurching horror that needs to emulate preindustrial cultures.

Prior to the 60’s, leftist staked their claim to power on the idea that they could better provide the bounty of modern technology to the masses. After the 60’s, leftist staked their claim to power on the idea that they would protect people from evil technology.

The vision put forward by leftist is a pessimistic one. You listen to leftist and you realize that they’re selling a vision in which our children will live in rabbit warrens without cars and who will dream not of starting their own business but of getting a really good government job.


March 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 am

Is it politically incorrect to suggest that the Left is controlled by countries and guerrillas and terrorists that want to destroy the US? They champion free speech - but only for their own message. They champion freedom of assemble - but only for their own cadres. As Clausewitz points out - the arena of public opinion was a legitimate battlefield in his day and perhaps it is today.

Perhaps the Vietnam War has never ended. Perhaps the Left are still at war, a bloody real war, but they haven’t declared it. Perhaps they see themselves as guerrillas - home grown Che Guevaras. Perhaps this is why the Left proactively argues that it is patriotic. Perhaps it isn’t loyal to our constitution - just loyal to the Land (whatever that means). Perhaps the fog of war has clouded our perception of reality.

Perhaps that is why they attack opposition blogs, radio shows, leaders and supporters with such military precision.

“What if there was a war and they didn’t invite us?” ?” (anti-war bumper sticker, 1969)

We are in for a very tough slog....But I believe in the Spirit of American Ideal and that so many still believe. It's time to take back our country from the enemies of freedom at home and abroad. Wherever we find them. Even when the name on their shirt says Republican... If they are enemies of freedom, we must restore the fallen flag no matter the cost.

Suddenly it's 1980 ABBA

I like ABBA. There I said it. Back in the 80s I used to play it in my living room on the RECORD PLAYER and dance around the room wildly with the volume turned up to 11. Ah Yes....

I was googling the Google Videos and just searched ABBA. Hundreds. I have wasted most of a couple hours watching old songs I loved so much.

Super Trouper is still one of the best.

And so is FRIDA. The brunette. I have a thing for Brunettes. That's why I married one.

If any man doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord!

First Corinthians 16:22

I didn't write this, Paul the Apostle did.

How does this relate to some present day godless people in office, in congress, in the executive branch, and in State Government. Do we pray for them to succeed? Do we pray for them to win? Do we pray for them to be successful?

It doesn't sound like the Apostle Paul thinks so. Neither does Keith.

What do you think this means?