Obama, Less than expected

Mark Steyn on Obama.....YIKES

The Economist is the latest of the smart guys to notice that President Obama is proving strangely unlike the guy they told us he was back in late October:

His performance has been weaker than those who endorsed his candidacy, including this newspaper, had hoped. Many of his strongest supporters—liberal columnists, prominent donors, Democratic Party stalwarts—have started to question him. As for those not so beholden, polls show that independent voters again prefer Republicans to Democrats, a startling reversal of fortune in just a few weeks. Mr Obama’s once-celestial approval ratings are about where George Bush’s were at this stage in his awful presidency. Despite his resounding electoral victory, his solid majorities in both chambers of Congress and the obvious goodwill of the bulk of the electorate, Mr Obama has seemed curiously feeble.

The geniuses then go on to explain why this is: first, he hasn't "grappled" with the economy as singlemindedly as he should; second, he hasn't managed his relations with Congress very well. Jennifer Rubin gently explains what the smart guys have missed:

The Economist had Obama pegged wrong. Yes, there is an element of managerial incompetence, but the real issue is that the Right was correct about Obama: he’s an ultra-liberal at least on domestic policy, not a pragmatic centrist either on policy or in style. His mode of governance — denigrate the opposition, engage in ad hominem attacks, refuse to compromise on substantive policy, disguise radical policy intentions with a haze of meaningless rhetoric — bespeaks someone supremely confident in his ideological views...

This is the point: The nuancey boys were wrong on Obama, and the knuckledragging morons were right. There is no post-partisan centrist "grappling" with the economy, only a transformative radical willing to make Americans poorer in the cause of massive government expansion. At some point, The Economist, Messrs Brooks, Buckley & Co are going to have to acknowledge this. If they're planning on spending the rest of his term tutting that his management style is obstructing the effective implementation of his centrist agenda, it's going to be a long four years.

And how about this?

In an accomplished press conference this week, Mr Obama reminded the world what an impressive politician he can be. He has a capacity to inspire that is unmatched abroad or at home.

Oh, dear. That's so January 20th it makes these toffee-nosed Brits sound like straw-sucking hayseeds. Here's Gail Collins in The New York Times:

National Consensus Update...

Barack Obama — Kinda boring. Did you see the news conference? Same thing over and over again. Not that we mind. In these troubled times, we like stability. Thank God we didn’t elect somebody who was all charisma and exciting speeches...

This One Hurt

If you suffer from too much YOU don't read this. I am too much ME. Weightwise.

But, if you have the guts and if you are willing to do something about it perhaps, this might be a word to the wise. I'm sort of convicted by all this to be honest about it.

From Peter Beck:

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Negative Church Growth

There’s a lot of issues facing the church. Baptisms are down in many denominations. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80% of all Protestant churches have plateaued or are in decline. The average age in many congregations hovers around 70. Those things don’t bode well for the immediate future of the church.

Those issues and a myriad of others just like them, and all probably closely related, have been the subject of untold books and conversations. Another problem, just as big, goes largely overlooked: gluttony.

Look around many churches and this is a huge problem. We’ve got overweight members. We’ve got rotund children. We’ve got pastors in the pulpit who are wider than the pulpit. Many have gotten so large that the can no longer button their coats. Clearly gluttony and the baggage that accompanies it is a big deal.

Obesity often comes to church hand-in-hand with another big issue: hypocrisy. Like so many other matters that strike so close to home, the topic of obesity/gluttony is painfully personal. We can talk about the biker culture with little reservation because we’re not of it. We can lambast the liberal media for their godless reporting because they don’t come to our church. But, we don’t talk about divorce because the person sitting next to us in the pew has been divorced. And, we never talk about overeating because that one hits far too many of us where it hurts, just below the belt (or maybe I should say over the belt since a lot of us who are carrying too much weight wear our belts lower every year).

My point is this: as Christians we are quick to point out the problems and moral failures of others. We rightly preach against drugs, sex, and … well, not rock and roll, I still like it. But, you get my gist. We have a host of sins that we expect our pastors to roast from the pulpit. Yet, we rarely hear a sermon on the sin of gluttony because many of our pastors (and even more of our members) like roasts. To preach against that one would require the pastor to say, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

We’re all aware of the physical dangers of obesity but let’s consider the spiritual ones. Once considered one of the seven deadly sins, this sin is silently killing our churches, one member at a time. Moreover, the hypocrisy of the obese criticizing others who struggle with another physical sin is staggering. We are hurting ourselves and we are hurting the church when we preach the new birth and ignore our fleshly girth.

I’m not saying that obesity and gluttony are sins that are unforgivable. Nor am I saying that overeating is on par with mass murder. I would be foolish to suggest that and you would be foolish to caricature my argument in that way. I am saying, however, that gluttony is a sin that the church has too long tried to overlook.

The proverbs are always good for a zinger or two (no, I’m talking talking about Little Debbie snack cakes). Consider Proverbs 23:20-21. “Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaterss of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty … .” Or, 28:7, “But he who is a companion of gluttons humiliates his father.” Okay, neither are direct condemnations of overeating but they paint a pretty unflattering picture.

The Bible addresses this issue in other places and ways as well. In Deuteronomy, Moses connected heavy drinking and gluttony as well (Dt 21:20). The old priest Eli died when he fell over and broke his neck because he was obese (1 Sam 4:18). Paul told Titus that the spiritual leaders of the church are to be self-controlled (Titus 1:8). The lack of which was grounds for passing over a would-be overseer. Surely that applies to food as well as the other vices we expect our pastors to avoid religiously.

One last text that we must consider is one we quickly bandy about when we want to outlaw certain behaviors that we deem unacceptable — 1 Corinthians 6:19 (12-20 actually). Consider the things often condemned with this text. Don’t commit adultery, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t drink, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t get tattoos, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Body piercings? Forget it.

According to 1 Corinthians 6:19, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, should we assume the physical abuse we heap upon our bodies with our second and third servings of grandma’s gravy have no bearing on the temple of the Holy Spirit? No! Obesity and the damage it does weigh heavily on the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Everything that we do with and to our bodies, Paul says, has spiritual ramifications. If I overeat and then complain of another’s physical sins, I am hypocrite. If I gain weight precipitously, I shorten my lifespan and limit my effectiveness for the Kingdom of God. We cannot divorce the physical from the spiritual as the gnostics tried to do. My body is part of who I am and who I am is part of the body of Christ here on earth.

Our churches are suffering under the weight of many burdens. Let’s make every effort that our own weight does not add to that burden. Let’s do all things to the glory of God, including eating.

Please note, I readily acknowledge weight control is a serious problem for many people. Many suffer from ailments and medical issues beyond their control. To them, I say, you're in my prayers. However, many others are like myself capable of changing, if only they truly desired to do so. To them, I say, join me in guarding jealously the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's a cycle and we are about to enter into a new phase

In 1787 when the United States drafted its constitution for a democratic government of the people, for the people and by the people, Professor Alexander Tyler (University of Edinborough –circa 1787) wrote about the stages of birth and death of democracy. According Alexander Tyler it takes an average of two hundred years for a democracy to mature, reach its crescendo and then revert back to bondage.

There are eight stages of democracy he observed:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage. (where I think we are headed right NOW)
   

But, number ONE is coming again.

The Time of Great Spiritual Faith is returning as we will indeed come out of bondage. Be ready. Get ready. Stay ready. Jesus Reigns.

Cycles Don't Lie - We are in for some HARD TIMES

Bill Clinton famously said that under his administration the Business Cycle had been Repealed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. He was a pawn in the business cycle, taking credit for something over which he had no credit due. In fact if you have an open mind, the Clinton Administration is in large part responsible for much of the economic mess we have today. I know you won't read this, but this article clearly documents and supports my thesis.

So, I'm no drinker of liberal Kool Aid. Nor do I believe in the tooth fairy. I do believe this.

There is a business cycle. It is inexorable. It can be expanded or contracted by economic policy at governmental levels. It can be taken advantage of to enslave a people as Stalin did and Obama is. The fact is there are certain things that will happen in the economy in the future that are going to nearly impossible to stop, delay, perhaps, but stop NO. It's the cycle.

Now, you think I made this up? NO, I'm a student of Economics and one of my heroes is Freidrich Hayek. You can watch power points of his analysis at this web site. It's worth looking over.


An economist I rely on even more is The Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev. The Kondratiev wave is and has been proven accurate for two centuries. In fact in long waves he provides evidence that this cycle has been going steady since the times of King David in Israel.


That is why I speak with confidence about the things that will happen in our economy. Another economist who uses the long wave and demographic overlay to predict the movement of the market and economies is Harry S Dent. I have read his books since the early 90s. So when I say with confidence what the market and our economy will do in the future, I do so because I did my homework. I have paid a price to know what I'm talking about.

I don't mean to be combative, but when you too have studied the schools of economics above including the failed John Maynard Keynes theories that Obama is following, you are welcome to argue with me. Otherwise your opinion has little reputation comparing to the anvil of proven historical experience.

We are in for a bumpy ride.

Scientific Skeptics of Darwin's Thesis

This is interesting. An 18 minute exposition raising sound questions on Darwin's Theory. Not that solid. If you consider yourself open minded you will want to look at this and then in the light of day, ask yourself. Do I believe beyond a reasonable doubt?

If you have a question, if you can get beyond the indoctrination you had from public education, can you deal with potential truth?

I have been to England, and I get this

From the Times of London

The world's most beautiful female politicians revealed (and surprise, surprise, there's not a British woman among them)

By Tom Worden
Last updated at 1:06 PM on 25th March 2009

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Britain's women MPs have taken a battering in a poll to find the world's most beautiful female politician.

Blonde Peruvian congresswoman Luciana Leon, 30, tops the light-hearted list - which also features Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and Segolene Royal.

Beauties from 30 countries from Israel to Afghanistan and Angola to New Zealand have won votes in the online poll. But not a single UK politician has made the grade.

Peruvian lawyer Luciana Leon was voted the world's most beautiful female politician followed by fellow countrywoman Mercedes Araoz

Home secretary Jacqui Smith and former transport secretary Ruth Kelly may have been among Blair's Babes when the former prime minister took power in 1997.

But they fail to register in the internet survey for Spain's popular 20 Minutos newspaper.

A journalist on the paper said: 'I'm afraid Britain's female politicians do not have a great reputation for their beauty.

'But when you look at women politicians worldwide some of them really are very attractive.'

Hundreds of readers have emailed their opinions to the website - but not a single one has asked for a Brit to be added to the list.

U.S vice president elect Sarah Palin was voted 24th sexiest female politician while Former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal ranked 36th

First placed Ms Leon, a lawyer by profession, is Peru's youngest member of parliament.

This morning she was top of the list with 24,094 votes.

One reader described her as 'a beauty with the face of an angel,' and another as 'the eighth wonder of the world.'

In second place is fellow Peruvian Mercedes Araoz, 47, with 15,109 votes.

Former U.S vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, 44, is in 24th place with 3,173 votes.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton, 61, is the oldest on the list. She is in 34th place with 2485 votes.

Former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal, 55, is in 36th place with 2377 votes.

Former Blair babes Jaqui Smith and Ruth Kelly failed to even get a mention in the online poll

German Julia Bonk, 22, is the youngest woman on the list. She was elected to the state parliament of Saxony aged just 18.

Afghan Malalai Joya, 30, is in 54th place with 1053 votes.

She was once described as the 'bravest woman in Afghanistan' for denouncing what she called warlords and war criminals in her country's parliament.

Spain has the most candidates with five women, while the USA and Mexico both have four.

U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the oldest woman on the list while Afghan Malalai Joya came in at 54th place

The most beautiful female politicians are:

1 - Luciana Leon, 30, Peru

2 - Mercedes Aráoz 47, Peru

3 - Sara Latife Ruiz Chavez, 32, Mexico

4 - Mara Carfagna, 32, Italy

5 - Yuri Fujikawa, 27, Japan

6 - Anna-Maria Galojan, 26, Estonia

7 - Toireasa Ferris, 29, Ireland

8 - Yuliya Tymoshenko, 48, Ukraine

9 - Eunice Olsen, 31, Singapore

10 - Cayetana Álvarez, 34, Spain

11 - Vera Lischka, 31, Austria

12 - Alina Kabaev, 26, Russia

13 - Gabriela Cueva, 29, Mexico

14 - Orly Levy, 35, Israel

15 - Cristina Dia, 50, Mexico

16 - Tsepeli Nikolet, 28, Greece

17 - Marianne Thiem, 36, The Netherlands

18 - Carme Chacó, 37, Spain

19 - Pnina Rosenblum, 53, Israel

20 - Bibiana Aíd, 31, Spain

21 - Tanja Karpel, 38, Finland

22 - Julia Anastasia Bon, 23, Germany

23 - Ruhama Avraha, 44, Israel

24 - Sarah Palin, 44, United States

25 - Stefania Prestigiacom, 43, Italy

26 - Sofia Larse, 36, Sweden

27 - Angelina Sondak, 32, Indonesia

28 - Cristina Fernández de Kirchne, 56, Argentina

29 - Katrín Gunnarsdótti, 43, Iceland

30 - Soraya Sáen, 37, Spain

31 - Anastasia Michael, 33, Israel

32 - Stephanie Herseth, 38, United States

33 - Mónica Lorente Ramó, 38, Spain

34 - Hillary Clinton, 61, United States

35 - Melissa Park, 42, Australia

36 - Ségolène Roya, 55, France

37 - Jiang Y, 44, China

38 - Freya Van den Bossch, 34, Belgium

39 - Nebahat Albayra, 40, The Netherlands

40 - Kirsten Gillibran, 43, United States

41 - Eva Glawischni, 39, Austria

42 - Sabine Herol, 27, France

43 - Hillevi Larsso, 34, Sweden

44 - Hillevi Larsso, 46, Iceland

45 - Piia-Noora Kaupp, 33, Finland

46 - Sabine Bätzin, 34, German

47 - Isabel dos Santo, Angola

48 - Penny Won, 40, Australia

49 - Kate Elli, 32, Australia

50 - Melissa Lee, New Zealand

51 - Marcela Guerra Castill, Mexico

52 - Delsa Solórzano, Venezuela

53 - Natalie Rickl, 33, Sweden

54 - Malalai Joy, 31, Afghanistan

What About God Flood by Reality Based Bob

Bob is a friend and a great writer. I don't know how he does it. But in response to my tounge in cheek "Wrath of God" post below, Bob responds. I'm still laughing. Well done my Friend:

But but but I thought you said beefor that whoever was elected was God’s will.

Did that God set us up again!

Oh That God is a real hooligan ain’t he. Why he so busy drowning NoDakers and he lets guys like Imadinnerjaket over in I ran off Scott free. And how come it’s the Scotts that we need to be free from. What did they ever do to us?

Woodnt it been ezear for This God Fella to drown Obama?

I’ll tell you what…God needs an fishancy expert, because He’s just a wasting time, money and good will.

Just think of the God fearing NoDaker peoples who voted for the other guy, what’s his name, ya know….the guy that r180 voted for…McCain! That it, McCain…so all those people are gonna drown too? Doesn’t seem that fair. Ima gessing thats why they are going an fearing Him. He’s got no sents of the fair and balanced. I guess its safe to say the God don’t watch no Fox news TV shows. That Meegan is ez on the eyes if ya no what I meen.

And God’s got a purrdy mixed repataion fer doin teh gud. Least so Ive herd. Well God does have a repataion fer drowning peoples he don’t like. I read that in a book somewheres. Faro’s army, No-a’s animul round up boat lift, teh Titanik!…and there were purdy wimens on that boat!

But the next day He goes an makes old dead Lazerest git up and walk around which made Laz’s Mom real happy Im shure. An then He goes to a wedding an make the water go into wine. He’s a gud guy ta bring to a wedding that’s forshure to.

God needs a time out.

Nope, I don’t no what this God Feller is up to, his ways are kinda misterious, like him letting his picture be taken on French toast and tortillyas, but if he done wants Obama ta be our Presdent and makes him get more of the votes than the guy r180 voted for, who are we to dowt his ways?

Now unles you can pruve they got the queers up thare in that Red River Valley (aint the commies red?)…cause God likes ta flud the queers the most of all…Im gonna say its just plumb bad luck fer them what gets drown and not how they voted. What about the busses?

If bush wasn’t such a failure, those counties would still be red…I blame bush

And thats all thare is to it.

Flooding in North Dakota is the Wrath of God for Voting Obama

Never before did the Red River Valley of North Dakota vote as democrat as it did for Obama. Look at the map here. You can slide the timeline and see how over the last several elections it was solidly republican until NOW.

Now the floods have started. They are threatening to inundate Fargo and Moorhead. Evacuation plans are underway. The worst in history.

God saw how they voted and sent locusts and fiery hailstones down upon them. Or a bad flood.

Next time vote God's will folks.

(written tongue firmly implanted in cheek)

Hat Tip, my son TIM.

This IS AN ALERT - OBAMA YOUTH prohibited from Church Participation

From The VOICE magazine. This is what having voted in a man with secular values and a fascist agenda gets you. I made note of this problem when I posted this. Read the article, check it out, show me where it's wrong. I hope you can. I don't want to believe this is true:

Is this the change you really voted for? President Obama has only been in office for two months. Now we have HR 1388. The Bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) with 37 others. The Bill was introduced to the floor of the House of Representatives where both Republicans and Democrats voted 321-105 in favor. Next it goes to the Senate for a vote and then on to President Obama.

This bill’s title is called “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education” (GIVE). It forms what some are calling “Obama’s Youth Brigade.” Obama’s plan is require anyone receiving school loans and others to serve at least three months as part of the brigade. His goal is one million youth! This has serious Nazi Germany overtones to it.

The Bill would forbid any student in the brigade to participate in “engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytizing.” That means no church attendance or witnessing.

Again, is this what America voted for? Here is part of the HR1388 Bill’s wording:

SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows:

SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:

(1) Attempting to influence legislation.

(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
…

(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytizing.

Ben Stein was wrong ,,,,We Should have let the Banks and AIG fail

Since I do speaking and some writing on economic theory and the future I was recently asked, "what if we had done NOTHING at all last fall" Should we have let banks, insurance companies and auto companies fail.

The answer is actually yes. It would have been catastrophic. Bad thing would have happened:

• The stock market would have collapsed to 3000
• Millions and millions would have been out of work
• Our economy would have looked weak and we would have been vulnerable as a result
• Life savings for most Americans would have been wiped out.
• Our currency would have become worthless.
• Credit would have stopped and our banking system would have been in disarray
  
• Social security would consist of checks that have no value
• All international trust in our soundness as a nation would be lost.
• People would despair.
• Anger and uprising would be just below the surface.

The depths of that would be about NOW. The pain would have been short, deep, painful and over.

We would now be on the road to recovery.

Instead we are going to prolong the pain. Everything outlined above will happen anyway. If you knew you had to have all fingernails pulled off, all of them, do you want one a month for ten months or do you want it done and over and by now your fingernails would be healing up.

We chose the long version. The pain is just begun.

I would have rather taken our lumps and got this thing over with.

Instead, its a fingernail today, then one next month, then one the month after that......

I wasn't Bored

President Obama had a Press Conference last night. I skipped it. Instead I listened to a Program I'm enjoying very much at seven PM on WFMT radio. Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. He is cramming all 15 hours of the Ring series by Wagner into 5 hours. He is very good at making it come alive. So, I sat enthralled with music and commentary on this complex opera.

Others watched President Obama. I understand it was very boring. He was flat.

I would rather hear Siegmund and Sieglinde sing.

I made the right choice.

Shouldn't Literacy at Least be a Pre-Req for Congress?

This is Maxine Waters. Dumb Person in Congress. Democrat.

The Weimar Solution

by Patrick J. Buchanan (more by this author)

Posted 03/24/2009 ET
Updated 03/24/2009 ET

“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency,” said Lord Keynes.

Ben Bernanke disagrees. A student of the Depression, the Fed chair appears far more fearful of deflation — a vicious cycle of falling prices, debt defaults, home foreclosures and rising unemployment.

Deflation is what America underwent in the 1930s. A Fed-created bubble burst, causing margin calls to go out to stockholders, who ran to their banks that, besieged, collapsed, wiping out a third of our money. As Milton Friedman, who won a Nobel for his thesis that the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression, told PBS in 2000:

“For every $100 in paper money, in deposits, in cash, in currency, in existence in 1929, by the time you got to 1933 there was only about $65, $66 left. And that extraordinary collapse in the banking system, with about a third of the banks failing … with millions of people having their savings essentially washed out, that decline was utterly unnecessary.

“(T)he Federal Reserve had the power and the knowledge to have stopped that. And there were people at the time who were … urging them to do that. So it was … clearly a mistake of policy that led to the Great Depression.”

Is Bernanke fighting the war of 1929 in 2009? Surely, today, with the explosion in M1, the basic money supply, there is no shortage of dollars out there, even if they are not circulating fast enough.

To end our recession, Bernanke may be running an even greater risk: hyper-inflation. This has destroyed more nations than deflation or even depression.

Recall: It was French military intervention in the Ruhr in 1923, to force payment of war reparations, and Weimar’s decision to let the currency fall and pay the French in cheap marks that led to the wipeout of the German middle class, the discrediting of that democratic republic and the Munich beer-hall putsch of Adolf Hitler.

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation,” said Ernest Hemingway, “is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

Which brings us to last week’s shocker.

The Fed will buy up $300 billion in long-term Treasury bonds and spend $750 billion more buying sub-prime mortgages to remove them from the balance sheets of ailing big banks, to get the banks lending again.

Bernanke is printing money to buy U.S. bonds.

This new gusher from the Fed, after the $700 billion TARP bailout, comes on top of a Congressional Budget Office estimate that this year’s deficit will be $1.85 trillion, 13.1 percent of gross domestic product, more than twice the share of the U.S. economy of the largest previous postwar deficit.

Concluding the dollar is being abandoned in a frantic Fed effort to stop the recession, markets reacted instantly. The dollar plunge was the steepest since the Plaza Agreement of 1985. Gold shot up to $950 an ounce. Silver had a 12 percent run-up, the sharpest ever. Oil prices surged above $50 a barrel. Commodity markets advanced.

The Fed seems to have confirmed the fears of Premier Wen Jiabao, who said that China is “definitely a little worried” about the value of the U.S. bonds Beijing has purchased with the dollars piled up from her trade surpluses with the United States.

Can one blame the Chinese? They have already been burned on their U.S. investments. And if the defense of the dollar against its ancient enemy inflation is being abandoned, and protecting the dollar is to take a back seat to the Fed’s fight to avoid deflation, than it is indeed time to get out of the dollar and dollar-denominated assets.

For inflation is theft. It make liars and cheats of governments. By eroding the value of a currency, inflation punishes savers and creditors and rewards debtors. And what nation is the biggest debtor of them all? The United States of America.

Insidiously, inflation consumes the value of cash, savings, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, Treasury bonds and T-bills. Friends who lent America money, who bought our debt in good faith, are robbed and made fools of, while speculators who bet against America by shorting the dollar in the currency markets are vastly rewarded.

Given the $3.6 trillion budget Obama plans, the $1.8 trillion in red ink he will run by Oct. 1 and the trillions the Fed is pumping into the economy, gross domestic product should spike, as it did after the far smaller stimulus package of 2008.

We will feel a healthy glow, and folks will begin to sing, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Yet, one senses that we are doing again exactly what we have done before in this generation. Rather than endure the pain and accept the sacrifices to cure us of our addiction, we are going back to the heroin. And this time, with Dr. Bernanke handling the needle, we may just overdose.

Mr. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, "The Death of the West,", "The Great Betrayal," "A Republic, Not an Empire" and "Where the Right Went Wrong."

My Friend the Socialist

I have a dear friend, a man I used to go to Church with in Fargo. We have some business dealings.

BUT.

He has been captured by the socialists. I hope to free him.

It's such a siren call. Don't drink the Kool Aid. It'll kill ya.

Should the Church and its Ministers be Controversial?

Bill Ellis

ASSIST News Service

The message of the church is controversial, depending on which side of the morality fence you may be standing. If preachers are deemed to be controversial it will depend on whose gospel they are preaching.

Franklin Graham recently said, speaking of Dr. Jerry Falwell, “Jerry was portrayed by the media as a controversial figure, but I knew him as a friend. Any man of God who holds to the truth of Scripture will be considered controversial by the world. As Jesus said, ‘All men will hate you because of Me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:22, NIV)’.”

No matter what you say or write, there is no controversy until someone does not agree with you. To that person, what you are saying or doing becomes controversial. You can often get some idea of whether you are right or wrong simply by who agrees and disagrees with you. When a person, by what he believes, speaks or writes, leads others to debate, argument, disputation and disagreement we quickly label him as being controversial.

Do you know of any person who is not controversial to some degree? When I was a college freshman I took a class in Bible history. Unless you know something about your ancestry and what has preceded you, you may never know where you are going.

In those two semesters I realized that many people who have done anything worthwhile have been embroiled in controversy. Ambrose Bierce called controversy, “A battle in which spittle and ink replace the... cannon ball.” The Bible is full of revered and sainted characters who were as controversial as anybody is in the world today. Their names were Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Isaiah, Elijah, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, David, Solomon, Amos, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Stephen, James, Paul and the most controversial of all of them was Jesus. These men still stir up controversy, disagreement and debate wherever their message is presented.

The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Falwell, who has succeeded his father as pastor of the 27,000 member Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, was asked in a television interview, “Are you going to be as controversial as your father?” Jonathan replied, “If your definition of controversial is that we are going to continue to speak to the issues of the day, speak out against abortion, speak out in favor of traditional marriage, speak out in favor of the family, then I can assure you we will be.”

You could also add such evils as gambling, alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, adultery, pornography and other wicked things and every evil influence. Few politicians will ever take a strong stand against evil and if you insist that they should you will hear them whine, “We cannot legislate morality.” So they continue on legislating immorality and apparently feel smug and comfortable in doing so.

If we do not stand strongly for what is right, our nation may one day be taking its final gasps of freedom’s air. What made this nation strong and free is the only thing that will keep it that way.

A brilliant first century writer asked two controversial questions: “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?” Then he nailed them with these two controversial answers, “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar" (Romans 3:3-4 NKJV).

When the church and its preachers declare God’s eternal truth all in the world who do not believe in truth will cry out, “You are too controversial.” But that does not alter truth one iota. We are not the judge of truth. Truth will judge us.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission

Tone Deaf Conservatives about to Lose in Illinois Again

In a year we have a gubernatorial election in IL. Blago country. The Poster for a state of corruption.

This should be a lay up for Republicans. In a state totally controlled by corrupt democrats and humiliated nationally you would think the Republicans would come up with a good strategy for winning back governance.

NOPE.

I heard a man I hoped to support who was a guest this morning on Radio. He has announced, Brady. Guess what his platform to run on was: Lower taxes and less government spending.

WHAT?

I’m FOR lower taxes and less government spending but that won’t get votes. You can’t win elections with fiscal appeals anymore. Particularly since all politicians are considered evil by the populace at large. No one believes any more. They think we are all big spenders.

So, we will end up with another corrupt democrat at the helm in the governors office.

If we do that again in trying to take back congress and the Presidency we will lose there too.

Just like in the last election, Republicans thought it was about taxes and government spending. It’s not. It’s about a government that’s corrupt and out of control trying to direct your life. It’s about codification of evil in abortion and homosexuality. It’s about people lining their pockets and robbing the poor. It’s about union control. It’s about gangsters in charge. It’s about failed systems that don’t work because of graft. The system no longer works.

When we spend all that time talking about spending and taxes it’s too abstract and it doesn’t appeal to anyone except the choir. You already have the choir, Mr Brady. Start talking to the seekers.

Say what you will about Palin and Huckabee, they might not be your type of candidates but they do understand how to talk to the things that matter to people who vote. MOST PEOPLE DON’T PAY TAXES ANYMORE. You need their votes to win. Talk about what matters to THEM. The life they lead and what’s wrong with it.

I want conservatives back in power but we seem to have a bad habit of being tone deaf.

Who you allow to speak into your life will form you

Pastor Barry Kolb posted an article today. It's here.

In it the writer, Steve May, talks about mentors and mentoring. The last statement in the article is the most important. I have highlighted it in RED.

One thing successful people have in common is the custom of consulting mentors. It's one reason why they're successful. According to Ellen Eshner, a professor in the business school at Loyola Marymount, research indicates that people who use mentors are more successful than those who don't. They get more promotions, they earn more money, and they enjoy their jobs more, she says.

There are examples of the mentoring relationship in Scripture: Elijah and Elisha, for one. Paul and Timothy, for another. God's plan is that we learn to master the basics of the Christian life by following good examples ... until we become examples, too. This is why Paul said...You became imitators of us and of the Lord ... and so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

WHO DO YOU IMITATE? The answer to the biggest problems you face is out there, stored in the wisdom bank of someone you know. Or someone you need to make it a point to know. Give some thought this week to whose advice you're taking and whose example you're following. God's plan is that we learn from one another. Dare to choose the best people possible to give you leadership.

If you currently don't have a mentor, here are some steps you can take each day this week to get started.

Monday. Make a list of one to three people who excel in areas in which you wish to excel.

Tuesday. Contact them – send an email or make a phone call – asking if they are willing to invest in your life. If they agree, set an appointment.

Wednesday. Make a list of five questions your mentor can answer to help you get started on the track to personal and spiritual growth.

Thursday. Decide today what you are willing to put into the mentoring relationship. We are called to serve one another; give some thought to what you can do to benefit your mentor.

Friday. Memorize Hebrews 13:7 and meditate on it: "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

Identify the most accomplished, happy, spiritually vibrant people you know, and decide to follow their example. If you will do what they did when they were in your place, eventually you'll find yourself in their place.

I think that people, particularly Christians, don't understand how critical this is. We MUST be careful who we allow to speak into our lives. If you hang out with the chickens you'll never become an Eagle. Position, job titles and hierarchy doesn't impress me much. Some who wear eagle badges are chickens at heart. One of the men I like to hang around is a man who is unemployed and has had huge trouble in his life with addictions. He's a eagle most people think is a chicken. Pick your associates carefully and don't ever be impressed with position. It's irrelevant.

What do we need to do to get real productivity back in the economy?

Victor David Hansen has written a wonderful piece that says what I am thinking exactly. If you go to the original and read the comments you will see profoundly intelligent rational literate comments on this.

VDH says about productivity toward the end:

We sense we are trimmers and redistributors, and wouldn’t dare build a new dam a transcontinental railroad, a new 8 -lane freeway.

Instead we would sue, file reports, argue, quit, delay—anything other than conceive a majestic idea and finish it, sighing, “It is not perfect, but damn good enough and will do.” Instead, here in California we are simply destroying agriculture by drying up its sources of water-giving life—a once brilliant farming that was the sum total of millions of brave lives from 1880 to 2000 who took a desert and fed the world.

Instead, ensconced in the Berkeley Hills or Woodside, our elites demand of better others to save for them not people, but a smelt, a minnow, or a newt-like creature that must have the entire Kings or San Joaquin River as it dumps its precious cargo out to sea.

So as scare snow melts, it goes out to the ocean, gratifying a lawyer or professor in Palo Alto that rivers flow as they did in the 19th-century, as millions of acres go fallow, hundreds of thousands lose jobs, and we feel so morally superior to those of the past who really were our moral superiors.

It is easy to dismiss our ancestors as illiberal, or with the caveat “Oh, but if we were as poor as they were, we’d have to prove just as tough”, but we still sense they were different in the sense of far better. When I drive up to see those Sierra dams poured in the 1920s, one wonders how they made such things with only primitive machines, and in contrast, are amazed with our sophisticated tools, we do so much less.

This self-congratulatory generation can hardly, as we are learning, build a Bay Bridge again. Yet when we see on the Internet pictures of a new aircraft carrier we are stunned in amazement—we did that? We built such a powerful, sophisticated ship? We—at least someone— can actually still do things on rare occasion like that?

The American people are, to be frank, nauseated by the archetype of a John Edwards, who never created anything other than a legacy of bankrupting doctors in order to enrich himself. I’d prefer one gall bladder surgeon to fifty Botox experts, a good Perkins engine mechanic to 1,000 deconstructionists at the MLA, one competent chemist to fifty government attorneys.

For the present I think that we have enough social service bureaucrats, enough consultants, enough PhDs that will lecture how race/class/gender has made us, our air, our dogs even, so unfair. We simply are thirsty for the unapologetic doer, who never says he’s sorry for himself or his country or his ancestors, but instead thinks and plans how he can build something better and leave it for others–the age old agrarian commandment “make sure you leave a better farm than you inherit.” Where are they all, in the grave?

We all seem to stare at the rare genius under a semi, working on the transmission, or someone on a catwalk riveting a girder, or a teacher who can wade into an unruly class and say “damn it, we are going to learn calculus one way or another”.

My complaint against Hollywood actors is not that they are talentless, though many are; or that they talk in the same tones as women did sixty years ago, but that they have no imprint, no trademark of individuality. In short, to paraphrase Orwell, “If it paid better, they’d be fascists.”

I think we responded to Mickey Rourke’s brief renaissance, not because he survived while being drug-addled, or was punched out, or reckless, but because he showed, as a torn-cat, a certain dignity, a certain courage of being so very different from the norm. Yes, at this point we are so desperate for talent and singularity we will take eccentricity bordering on nihilism.

I love the crazy left - they make me smile

Coming soon to a lefty rag near you

By Bill O’Reilly | Sunday, March 22, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed

The other day, left-wing muckraker Seymour Hersh went on MSNBC and said he had information, provided by the usual anonymous sources, that Dick Cheney was running an assassination squad out of the White House.

I have but one simple observation: If Cheney really had such a crew, Hersh would have been dead a long time ago, and so would most everybody at MSNBC.

Would they not?

In the months to come, we can expect all kinds of horror stories from the left about alleged Bush-Cheney atrocities. These will deflect attention from present-day problems and provide liberal thinkers with the intense indignation they so desperately need. In addition, the bevy of Bush-Cheney sins will supply the media and individual opportunists with “product.” So, in order to get ahead of this inevitable situation, I will now predict some future headlines:

Newsweek will report that Bernard Madoff has told unidentified friends that it was George W. Bush who actually forced him to develop the $65 billion Ponzi scheme that ruined thousands of people. Friends of Bernie say he was ready to be an honest broker until Bush came to him in a dream and urged him to commit massive financial fraud.

In his new book, “Squealing,” Jose Canseco writes that he injected George W. Bush with steroids when W was owner of the Texas Rangers and again in the Oval Office immediately before the president met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Canseco dismisses claims that W’s mountain bike regimen kept him toned and says the Iraq invasion was actually caused by “roid rage.”

The New York Times [NYT] will run a Page One story saying that after the Iraqi shoe guy embarrassed Bush in Baghdad, the president himself waterboarded the man and kept him tied up in a cold room while looping excerpts from Wolf Blitzer’s program at high sound levels. The Times, citing unidentified sources close to the footwear industry, will allege the shoe guy gave up bad information because torture never works.

Vanity Fair magazine, in between pictures of Lindsay Lohan partying in Baja, will present a most startling scenario: It was Cheney who contaminated peanut butter with salmonella because, according to anonymous sources speaking only to VF, the VP had “had it” with the kids.

Finally, Will Ferrell will star in a new movie called “Crawford Nights: The Ballad of Dickie/Georgie.” In this film directed by Oliver Stone, it will be purported that the real head of the Cali drug cartel was Bush, with Cheney as consigliere. The screenplay, written by Sean Penn and Jessica Alba, is being closely guarded, but word is it will portray Cheney as the guy who provided Michael Phelps with the substance-filled bong.

So it will likely be a busy 2009 for the Bush-Cheney team. No doubt they are the perfect stimulus package for the far left.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1160180

Where have you heard THIS before??

Rob Port wrote this, but as an American German it gave me a shiver:

That’s right. The voluntary service of qualifying youths will be mandatory under this plan.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new “volunteer corps” and consider whether “a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people” should be developed.

The legislation also refers to “uniforms” that would be worn by the “volunteers” and the “need” for a “public service academy, a 4-year institution” to “focus on training” future “public sector leaders.” The training, apparently, would occur at “campuses.”

The vote yesterday came on H.R. 1388, which reauthorizes through 2014 the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, acts that originally, among other programs, funded the AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps.

Leave it to the dim bulbs in Congress to come up with something that’s voluntarily mandatory. You’ll do it, or they’ll make you do it.

But that laughable bit of stupidity aside, this is actually rather scary. Government-run campuses aimed at “training” future bureaucrats and politicians? A place where attendance will be mandatory?

This sounds suspiciously like indoctrination camps aimed at producing a new generation of “citizens” who will be much easier for the government to manage without all this foolish dissent and debate. And why not. It’s not like we’re living in a free country or anything.

Obama is America’s Trophy Wife.

From Wing Chung:

Most reasonable people can agree that Barack Obama is an empty suit. After all, here’s a man who managed to get elected president despite never actually accomplishing anything in his pre-presidential life.

But it goes even further. Obama managed to get elected to the senate after having skillfully avoiding legitimate employment for his entire life.

Then he gets elected president based on his attractiveness as a candidate, his glibness, and his ability of his handlers to market him as “hope” and “change.”.

Now America is struck with a president who has no skills beyond his attractiveness and his ability to spend other people’s money.

In effect, Obama is America’s trophy wife.

This is NOT a politcal comment - just observable incompetence

I live in Chicagoland, in Illinois, in the USA and the UN supposedly in charge of providing good government. I can now say with sadness, at all levels, we now have the worst governance at every level we have ever had. And in my case in Illinois, all liberal, all democrats, all stupid.

It used to be that the state was OK , or the City, or the County, or the Feds. They would insulate one from stupidity at another level. NOPE. They are all incompetent doofuses, the worst governance in my whole life. Carter was terrible, but at least we had Tip O'Neil. Like that.

Even this guy thinks so after the AIG response from congress:

By week’s end, I was more depressed about the financial crisis than I’ve been since last September. Back then, the issue was the disintegration of the financial system, as the Lehman bankruptcy set off a terrible chain reaction. Now I’m worried that the political response is making the crisis worse. The Obama administration appears to have lost its grip on Congress, while the Treasury Department always seems caught off guard by bad news.

And Congress, with its howls of rage, its chaotic, episodic reaction to the crisis, and its shameless playing to the crowds, is out of control. This week, the body politic ran off the rails.

There are times when anger is cathartic. There are other times when anger makes a bad situation worse. “We need to stop committing economic arson,” Bert Ely, a banking consultant, said to me this week. That is what Congress committed: economic arson.

WHO ELECTED THESE IDIOTS??

A fragment of sanity from the left

John Conyers D Michigan wants to investigate ACORN, you know ACORN, the brown shirt thugs who cheat and steal under the wink of a President they cheated and lied to help elect.

Now, Conyers is saying, wait, maybe we need to ask a question or two. YA THINK?

I hope the left wakes up before we go completely down the toilet. We are in deep trouble in this country.

I wrote this earlier today over at SAB. I hope this is an indication we have a shot at saving our country from ruin.

How will be ever unring this bell - It’s time for a new American Revolution

Count me among the seriously concerned. Congress and the Executive Branch have gone so far off the communist deep end I don’t know if we will ever get back.

They have in less than 3 years for the Pelosi Congress and 55 days for Obamanation virtually gutted anything this country stood for.

How will we ever reverse the insanity.

I am concerned because if this goes too far we will find anarchy and revolution in the streets. I am not one of the Right Wing Militia nuts, but I’m starting to get a twitch.

I’m having a hard time swallowing this. I didn’t want to lose my country.

If someone doesn’t stop this insanity of the kleptocrats we will have nothing left.

I know we are in an economic crisis but this makes less sense every day. I mean, look at who’s in charge Thieves, crooks, nutcases, cheats, crazy people, power hungry dictators.

• Pelosi
• Read
• Rangle
• Dodd
• Franks
• Conrad
• Geithner
• Holder

and a host of crackpots in the House of Representatives.

I don’t know if the country can stand to wait until 2010 or 2012. I’m afraid we will go too far. This bell will be unable to be unrung.

We have people voting in benefits for themselves from money that doesn’t exist.

Everyone is on the dole, particularly congress.

I’m ready to Lock and Load. It’s time for a new American revolution. I’m signing up. Even Old Guy can still fight a little.

A Real Flying Car. I want one of these

From Popular Mechanics

Understanding what has happened to your money

I know this is creepy to some, but this is a great picture

There's just something about a fine looking woman with a gun that makes my heart go all aflutter.

OH, and I didn't get this for my birthday from anyone, I was hoping that the Palin calender was on the wish list.

Obama did OK

I, like you probably, watched the tonite show. Jay Leno. The President was on with Jay.

Sat where Brittany Spears once sat.

He was funny, handsome, guylike, glib, unrehearsed, teleprompterless and entertaining.

Good TV.

I wish he was Presidential. More.

He connected with the people. He seems to have understood what was possible by his appearance. He's good at this TV looking good thing. 24 year olds loved him. They screamed for him like a rock star. He is.

I just wish he was Presidential. More.

I wanted to see him say good things to me, to America about the future and consequence of actions he is taking. Make me feel good about some of the things he is doing that upsets me.

He didn't do that. He could have used this to be Presidential. More.

As President of the USA Barack Obama makes a Great Guest on a TV Show. He can read a cue card. He can make a joke. He probably could even host Saturday Night Live.

OH, NO..... There I've done it again.... Stay Tuned.

Balanced look at the Economy, Wilkerson, Pessimism and Fear

For a very well balanced view of the economy and your future you will be encouraged by this by Ray Pritchart.

He says:

We need to hear what God is saying to us because we do indeed live in difficult times. The worldwide global economic crisis has cost trillions of dollars in lost wealth. People who only a year ago had reasonable prospects for the future have seen a lifetime of hard work wiped out. And with the loss comes rising uncertainty.

A week ago New York pastor David Wilkerson (author of “The Cross and the Switchblade") issued a message predicting imminent catastrophe for America. He spoke of cities burning because of rioting and looting. This, he said, would be the judgment of God on our nation. I happened to read about his prophecy (if that’s what you want to call it) a day or so after he gave it. But I was struck hard when Peggy Noonan mentioned it in her weekly column in the Wall Street Journal. Under the title There’s No Pill for This Kind of Depression, Noonan begins by noting that the problem is not just the economic crisis. There is, she says, something much deeper.

I asked a friend, a perceptive writer, if he is seeing what I’m seeing. Yes, he said, there is “a pervasive sense of anxiety, as though everyone feels they’re on thin ice.” He wonders if it’s “maybe a sense that we’ve had it too easy in the years since 9/11 and that the bad guys are about to appear on the horizon.” An attorney in a Park Avenue firm said, “Things look like they have changed and may not come back.”

This is worth reading in full. He's making good sense.

CNBC looses Viewers among guppies and sheep

Jim Cramer was on TV this morning. He called Jon Stewart and his viewers naive.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I would go farther. But, among Stewart viewers between 24-35 Cramer is off a bit. Older than than not so much. His boss talks about it. And he talks about it here.

Stewart is back to his normal posse of woolly and fishy followers.

This has been a sad example of intentional ignorance. Not capable of sorting out news chaff from wheat they get upset when they are misled by anyone. Read that Madoff.

I guess there is a danger in believing everything you hear. WAIT. I made that up. Let's see, "Don't believe everything you hear". I'll call it Gene's maxim. Oh, darn it's been taken. So much for those big royalty payments.

Now that I think about it, it's believing everything they hear is what got us into this mess with this administration, and even got us this administration.

I AGREE WITH TONY BLAIR

Tony Blair Speaks Out About Christianity
By Adrienne Gaines

March 6, 2009—Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned this week that Christianity is at risk of being sidelined in England's secularist society, the Daily Telegraph reported.

In an interview published in the Church of England newspaper, Blair said he agreed with church leaders that Christianity is in danger of being viewed as a "personal eccentricity" rather than a significant influence on the nation.

He also criticized "ludicrous" decisions that have penalized Christians for expressing their faith in public. Among recent examples are Caroline Petrie, a nurse who was suspended for two months after offering to pray for a patient, and Jennie Cain, a school receptionist who still faces firing after seeking prayer support from church friends when her 5-year-old daughter was scolded for talking about hell in the playground.

"My view is that people should be proud of their Christianity and able to express it as they wish," Blair said, while admitting that conflict between religion and contemporary understandings of human rights are "inevitable."

"The real test of a religion is whether in an age of aggressive secularism it has the confidence to go out and make its case by persuasion," Blair added.

Blair, who converted to Roman Catholicism, was not outspoken about his faith while serving as prime minister, fearing he would be labeled a "nutter."

"Sometimes I think we as Christians are more sensitive than we should be, although I say that as someone who when I was in office, although I was perfectly open about my Christianity, nonetheless kept it within certain boundaries that were restricted in terms of what I said publicly," Blair told the Church of England newspaper.

"The position of prime minister puts you in a unique category. But in general terms in British society there is a risk that people see faith as a personal eccentricity."

Blair, however, said that while serving as prime minister he believed equality and diversity trumped religion in the case of Catholic adoption agencies that were denied exemption from laws requiring them to consider placing children with gay couples.

"I happen to take the gay rights position," Blair said. "But at the time of the Catholic adoption society dispute I was also concerned that these people who were doing a fantastic job were not put out of business. You have got to try to work your way through these issues."

In May, Blair launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which has a mission to promote understanding among the major religions and increase awareness of the role of faith in the modern world, according to its Web site.

Blair's comments came days after his wife commented in a documentary titled Christianity: A History that the religion seemed to be on a "terminal decline."

"Everywhere you look today churches are being closed," she said, "Christians are often being marginalized, and faith is something few people like to discuss openly.

THREE THINGS TO PONDER

THREE THINGS TO PONDER

1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

THE CONSTITUTION

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we’re not using it anymore.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,” and “Thou Shall Not Lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.

Shocking WaPo Column: 'Don't Blame Jim Cramer'

Shocking WaPo Column: 'Don't Blame Jim Cramer'

By Noel Sheppard

Created 2009-03-17 18:07

Here's a headline I bet you didn't expect to see at one of America's leading newspapers:

Don't Blame Jim Cramer

To be perfectly honest, I rarely agree with Richard Cohen, but on St. Patrick's Day 2009, the Washington Post columnist wrote truths [1] virtually no mainstream media member has dared utter since the "Mad Money" host first left the Obama reservation:

What Jon Stewart needs is Jon Stewart. He could use a droll comedian to temper his ferocity and correct [2] him when he's wrong, as he was about the financial media, particularly CNBC and its excitable analyst Jim Cramer. They didn't cover up the story of financial shenanigans. They didn't even know it existed.

For proof, I can offer some names. Let's start with Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who was instrumental in building what is now probably the world's most reviled corporation, AIG. He resigned as chairman and CEO in 2005, but still it is logical to assume that few people knew more about the company than Greenberg. He kept much of his net worth in AIG stock. He's now lost [3] much of that worth.

Or take Richard Fuld. He is the former chairman of Lehman Brothers, which, as we all know, is no more. He lost about $1 billion.

Or take Citigroup's former chairman, Sanford Weill. He lost about $500 million.

Or take all the good people at Bear Stearns, the company Cramer adored almost to the bitter end. They went down with their stock.

If these people kept their money in these companies -- financial and insurance giants they had built and knew from the inside -- how was even Jim Cramer to know these firms were essentially hollow?

Exactly. And, as I wrote [3] Sunday, some of the leading investors in the country didn't get out of stocks before September's collapse. As such, pointing fingers at people like Cramer is absurd.

Yet, Cohen went one better, and really personalized this issue:

I give you one other name: Richard Cohen. He who writes this column had some of his (extremely) hard-earned retirement funds in AIG stock. This was because I was a cautious investor, and what could be safer than an insurance behemoth? Who knew that in faraway London, a division of AIG was fooling around in stuff that virtually cratered the whole company? Not my broker. Not me. Not even Greenberg.

Marvelously stated, and something that has been lost in all the scapegoating. In fact, much like AIG, many of the companies taken down by this crisis were Wall Street stalwarts NOBODY believed would ever disappear from America's financial landscape.

As a stockbroker friend of mine I've known for more than 20 years said to me last week, who would have ever thought owning Apple and Google would have been a safer play than investing in the preferred shares of conservative companies like Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch?

Cohen's almost indisputable conclusion:

It would be one thing if Wall Street titans by the score were selling their company stock and the media were failing to report it, but when someone puts his money where his mouth is, you have to pay attention. The big shots believed.

Stewart plays a valuable role. He mocks authority, which is good, and he mocks those, such as the media, who take the word of authority as if, well, it's authoritative. But given the outsize reception to his cheap shot at business media, he ought to turn his wit inward: Mocker, mock thyself.

Bravo, Richard. I'm glad someone on your side of the aisle had the nerve to speak the truth about this matter.

Another Opinion on the Coming Evangelical

From this article:

QUOTE: "[Michael Spencer] lumps all megachurches together and describes them as being more interested in relevance than doctrine. He says of megachurches that they are ‘compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.' The author concludes that he expects the ‘landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time.' How awful. What could be worse than a bunch of churches across America that are so effective at lifting up the name of Jesus that huge crowds gather? What could be worse than having so many people meeting Jesus and having their lives transformed by Jesus, that they just can't stop telling their friends? I'm determined to celebrate what God is doing wherever it is happening. Whether it is in a gathering of three people or 3,000 or 3 million. I don't have enough brains or time to figure out the motives of the hearts of the leaders in another church. I'll just celebrate what they are doing and let God sort it out later." -Tim Stevens, executive pastor of Granger Community Church (a megachurch) in Granger, Ind., taking issue with blogger Michael Spencer's widely circulated predictions of "The Coming Evangelical Collapse"-which included an unflattering take on "pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches" as part of a movement that made "buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century." [leadingsmart.com, 3/16/09]

My Comment:

Pastor Dan said to me once that a Big Church can, is able, to do things a small church can't imagine doing:

• We had a large bus ministry.
• Well equipped Sunday School
• World class dramatic presentations
• Worship out of this world excellent
• Staff for teens, young adults, singles and full staff to do what needed to be done

I want every church to be big. Very big.

They can do things small churches never can do.

There are reasons for scale.

St Patrick, We'll claim him

The Irish Apostle

Kevin Sambrook Features - Christian History

Most people don’t know St. Patrick had a vibrant charismatic faith that blazed across Ireland in the fifth century.

Hidden within a small cemetery adjacent to Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, is the final resting place of Ireland's patron saint. At first glance it is quite unremarkable, identifiable only by the large granite rock atop it with the single inscription: "Patrick." Here in quiet simplicity lie the earthly remains of the slave boy who rose from the ruins of captivity to become the apostle to the Irish. He shaped the destiny of a nation that would change the entire European continent.

Like grass growing over a long-unused path, time has concealed the trace of his footsteps, and little is remembered of this remarkable man of God even though the date of his death, March 17, is celebrated worldwide as St. Patrick's Day.

Much of what happens at the celebrations has little to do with Patrick himself. Green beer and parades, no matter how well-intentioned, do not reflect his life and legacy. However, his writings—particularly his Confession and his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus—provide us with an accurate picture of his life.

Patrick was born into the volatile world of the late fourth century. The Roman Empire was beginning to collapse, and there was great upheaval.

Trouble began in A.D. 376 when the Huns forced huge numbers of Goths across the Danube River into Roman territory. In A.D. 406 and 407, the Vandals spilled across the Rhine, plundering Gaul and Spain, and in A.D. 409, they forced the last Roman legions to leave Britain. In the following year, Rome itself was sacked.

Convulsions continued until A.D. 476, when the Western Empire disappeared and Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages.

Beyond the dying empire lay Ireland. The inhabitants were, to the Roman mind, as dangerous and unpredictable as the terrain. But it was this land of menacing beauty that God chose to ignite and to spread the flame of renewal across the ravaged lands of Europe, using Patrick as His vessel.

Born of Roman nobility, Patrick lived on an estate at Bannavem Taburniae—possibly in the Severn Estuary near Bristol. With the gradual departure of the Roman legions, the unprotected coastal regions were targeted by the Irish, who plundered and kidnapped at will, and around A.D. 400 Patrick was taken. He wrote in his Confessions: "When I was aged about 16, I knew not the One True God. I was captured and brought to Ireland with many thousands of people."

His comment suggests that there was an invasion. It was a brutal experience. People were caught, beaten, chained and brought back as slaves.

Patrick's last memory of his homeland may have been of burning, smoke and the anguished cries of those wrenched from home and loved ones. His privileged upbringing left him unprepared for a hard life as a slave.

Celtic Ireland was thoroughly pagan at that time, controlled by superstition and omens. Its gods and goddesses were the material of horror stories. This tribal society was ruled by warriors in a place of forests and bogs, far removed from the cultured life Patrick had known.

Differences in language added to his loneliness and isolation. A slave's existence was so austere that life expectancy was little more than 30 years. A fitted iron collar made runaways easy to identify, and those recaptured faced certain death.

Many became bitter and full of self-pity. But Patrick responded differently. He acknowledged that God had allowed his trial for a higher good, and tiny shafts of light began to pierce the darkness.

He wrote: "We had turned from God, not keeping His laws nor heeding His servants who declared to us His salvation. It was the Lord's doing that He might reveal to me my unbelief that I should turn from my sins and be converted."

Patrick was sold to Miliuc, a chieftain of the region of Mount Slemish, County Antrim, where for six years he tended sheep and pigs. On the unforgiving mountain slopes and foothills God began working in the young slave.

He recalled: "Praying throughout each day, the love and fear of God increased within me and my faith was strengthened. And being moved in Spirit upon the mountains and in the woods, I prayed up to one hundred times in the day and as much at night. Arising to pray a great while before day, whether in snow or frost or rain, I experienced no ill effects or laziness as the Spirit was strong within me then."

Slemish became the anvil upon which this man of God was fashioned. Hidden in the Irish hills, strengthened in suffering, praying almost half a million prayers by the end of his captivity, Patrick was molded by God.

In captivity, Patrick developed inner strength and intimacy with God. After six years, he heard a voice in his sleep, "Your ship is ready." He journeyed 200 miles to Wexford and found a ship sailing to Gaul. As a fugitive he was in mortal danger but testified, "I was afraid of nothing." At first he was refused passage aboard the ship, but after praying he was suddenly summoned and invited to board.

Three days later the ship and passengers reached Amorica (Brittany). An invasion by the Vandals on New Year's night A.D. 407 had left the area desolate. With no food, the group journeyed inland for 28 days in danger of starvation.

The ship's captain challenged Patrick: "Answer me this, Christian, you tell us your God is great and all powerful, why will you not pray for us? We perish from hunger and may see no living soul again."

This was a public test of his faith. Would the God he claimed to serve show Himself and answer prayer?

Well done is better than well said. Patrick responded, "Boldly I told them, 'Turn to the Lord my God with your whole heart, for with Him nothing is impossible, that today He may supply you with more than enough food for your journey for He has ample store everywhere.' And so with God's aid it came to pass; at once a herd of swine appeared before us right in front of our eyes. Killing many, they camped two nights regaining their strength. Even their dogs which had become weak and lifeless were satisfied."

Pursuing God's Plan

When Patrick returned to Britain, his family pleaded with him not to leave them again. But he received a night vision of a man who seemed to be calling him back to Ireland.

"His name was Victoricus as if he were coming from Ireland with innumerable letters," Patrick wrote. "He passed one to me, and I read the beginning of the letter, which said: 'The voice of the Irish.' As I read those words, I perceived that I heard their words at the same time—they were of those beside the Wood of Voclut, beside the Western Sea.

"Their cry was with one voice, 'Holy Boy, we ask you to come and walk among us again.' Thank God after many years He granted their request."

This was Patrick's Macedonian call. Two similar experiences followed, leaving Him with a difficult choice: to obey God and return to the land of his captivity, never to see his family again, or to remain in Britain and forsake the call of God.

Remembering that disobedience in his youth had cost him his freedom, Patrick decided to leave. He traveled to the continent and trained for holy orders. Several sites have been suggested as the place he studied—Gaul, Italy, Lerins (now St. Honorat, just off Cannes and Monaco) and Auxierre, 100 miles east of Orleans, from which he departed for his Irish mission.

In A.D. 431 Bishop Germanus, Patrick's superior at Auxierre, planned to send a bishop to Ireland. Patrick hoped he would be chosen—but he was rejected for two reasons: First, he was considered too rustic (his captivity at 16 had affected his education and social skills), and second, he had confessed to a friend a serious sin he committed at 15 (possibly that of killing someone).

The news of his rejection was devastating. More than 20 years had passed since Patrick had left Ireland, and nothing had dimmed his passion to return as God's messenger.

It seemed a mortal blow. Had he not had the divine visitations? Had he not left his family for this? He wrote, "On that day I was struck so that I might have fallen, now and for eternity."

But Patrick submitted, and a man named Palladius was sent instead. Not long afterward, Palladius died, and Germanus reluctantly sent Patrick to replace him. His arrival in Ireland opened the door to one of the finest chapters in Christian history.

In A.D. 432 Patrick landed at Strangford Lough, near Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, and began to target influential people. His first convert was a chieftain named Dichu who gave Patrick a barn as his first church in Saul. Today a beautiful stone church stands on the site, and those who visit tell of the deep peace and presence of God that abides there.

Patrick faced perils daily. "Every day I anticipate the prospect of being killed, cheated, or enslavement, but I am not afraid of any of these things because of His promises," he wrote.

Tempted to return to Britain, he continued to persevere: "Even if it were my wish to depart and return to Britain, for how much I have desired to see my country and my parents ... the Spirit binds me and testifies ... that I would be wrong to leave, for I fear losing the fruits of my labour, or rather Christ's, who beckoned me come and remain with them to the end of my days."

Love for his flock, obedience to the call and a sense of eternal reward were guiding principles for Patrick, who was convinced that greater riches than the treasures of earth awaited him. He remained faithful until death parted him from his harvest field on March 17, A.D. 461.

Biographers from the seventh to the 12th century embellished Patrick's story with fantastic tales of supernatural encounters. Much of what they wrote is exaggerated, but we should not altogether reject the idea that manifestations of divine power attended Patrick's ministry. Ireland was dominated by the Druids, who influenced the population through occultic power, superstition and fear, and it is unlikely that the Irish would have forsaken the old ways in favor of their new faith unless the power of it could be proved.

By the time of his death, Patrick had laid the foundation of Christianity in pagan Ireland with the conversion and baptism of many thousands of men and women, in a land of only a half-million people. In the following centuries, Irish missionaries swarmed like bees over the European continent, spreading the gospel and establishing monasteries as centers of worship and learning during the "golden age" of Celtic Christianity. From the seed of Patrick's life sprang forests of Christianity in the barren soils of Europe.

Kevin Sambrook and his wife, Rosemary, are pastors of Covenant Love Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and directors of Rhema Restoration Ministries (rrm-usa .org). Kevin recently released Chosen, an intercessory prayer CD based on the life of St. Patrick.