Circum Spective

2010-04-20T21:29:00.000-04:00

April 20 2010

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) --
[Commentary in white bracketed font:]

Landing a man on the moon was a towering achievement. Now the president has given NASA an even harder job, one with a certain Hollywood quality: sending astronauts to an asteroid, a giant speeding rock, just 15 years from now.

Space experts say such a voyage could take several months longer than a journey to the moon and entail far greater dangers. "It is really the hardest [and most useless] thing we can do," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Going to an asteroid could provide vital training for an eventual mission to Mars [which, of course, would be equally useless]. It might help unlock the secrets of how our solar system formed. And it could give mankind the know-how to do something that has been accomplished only in the movies by a few square-jawed, squinty-eyed heroes: saving the Earth from a collision with a killer asteroid [...or God will simply devastate the planet with a monster earthquake, like the Bible says].

"You could be saving humankind. That's worthy, isn't it?" said Bill Nye, TV's Science Guy and vice president of the Planetary Society.

President Barack Obama outlined NASA's new path during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. "By 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space," he said. "We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. [...And then we'll save the X-3-Goober galaxy from the Klingons!" the president excitedly exclaimed.]

On the day the president announced the goal, a NASA task force of scientists, engineers and ex-astronauts was meeting in Boston to work on a plan to protect Earth from a cataclysmic collision with an asteroid or a comet.

NASA has tracked nearly 7,000 near-Earth objects that are bigger than several feet across. Of those, 1,111 are "potentially hazardous asteroids." Objects bigger than two-thirds of a mile are major killers and hit Earth every several hundred thousand years. Scientists believe it was a 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. [And they know these things because people have found lots of tiny bone fragments in archaeological digs that could not be readily identified, so they invented this interesting myth about "dinosaurs" and, lo and behold, everyone eventually began to actually swallow it, hook, line and sinker! Now, no one even questions the credibility of such a myth or the lack of credible evidence to support it. Not even professing Christians who claim to have the Holy Spirit leading them into all truth question these popular modern fantasies any more.]

Landing on an asteroid and giving it a well-timed nudge "would demonstrate once and for all that we're smarter than the dinosaurs and can avoid what they didn't," said White House science adviser John Holdren. [To prove that we're smarter than "dinosaurs"? I think the fact that you just said that out loud tends to prove that maybe we're (and by "we", I mean you, of course) not smarter than Fred Flintstone's house pet.]

Experts don't have a particular asteroid in mind for the deep-space voyage [any old asteroid will do, because its really all very pointless anyway], but there are a few dozen top candidates, most of which pass within about 5 million miles of Earth. That is 20 times more distant than the moon, which is about 239,000 miles from Earth on average.

Most of the top asteroid candidates are less than a quarter-mile across. The moon is about 2,160 miles in diameter.

Going to an asteroid could [but probably won't] provide clues about the solar system's formation, because asteroids are essentially fossils from 4.6 billion years ago, when planets first formed, said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program at the Jet Propulsion Lab. [And they know that planets were formed 4.6 billion years ago because ... the tooth fairy told them so.]

And an asteroid mission would be a Mars training ground, given the distance and alien locale.
"If humans can't make it to near-Earth objects, they can't make it to Mars," said MIT astronautics professor Ed Crawley. So, asteroids contain such substances as hydrogen, carbon, iron and platinum, which could be used by astronauts to make fuel and equipment - skills that would also be necessary on a visit to Mars.

While Apollo 11 took eight days to go to the moon and back in 1969, a typical round-trip mission to a near-Earth asteroid would last about 200 days, Crawley said. That would demand new propulsion and life-support technology. And it would be riskier. Aborting a mission in an emergency would still leave people stuck in space for several weeks.

The space agency may need to develop special living quarters, radiation shields or other new technology [like much cooler looking space suits] to allow astronauts to live in deep space so long, said NASA chief technology officer Bobby Braun. [They will also make it possible for many more animated children's movies with lots of spin-off products!]

Even though an asteroid would be farther than the moon, the voyage would use less fuel and be cheaper because an asteroid has no gravity. The rocket that carries the astronauts home would not have to expend fuel to escape the asteroid's pull. [In other words, don't worry about the cost, because the spacecraft will get better mileage: .00001 miles per gallon as opposed to .000005 miles per gallon!]

On the other hand, because of the lack of gravity, a spaceship could not safely land on an asteroid; it would bounce off the surface. Instead, it would have to hover next to the asteroid, and the astronauts would have to spacewalk down to the ground, Yeomans said. Once there, they would need some combination of jet packs, spikes or nets to enable them to walk without skittering off the asteroid and floating away, he said. "You would need some way to hold yourself down," Yeomans said. "You'd launch yourself into space every time you took a step."

Just being there could be extremely disorienting, said planetary scientist Tom Jones, co-chairman of the NASA task force on protecting Earth from dangerous objects. The rock would be so small that the sun would spin across the sky and the horizon would only be a few yards long. At 5 million miles away, the Earth would look like a mere BB in the sky.

"It's going to be a strange alien environment being on an asteroid," Jones said.

But Jones, a former astronaut, said that wouldn't stop astronauts from angling to be a part of such a mission: "You'll have plenty of people excited about exploring an ancient and alien world[, because there are plenty of very smart and very talented people who are totally clueless about what would be a practical and useful way to spend their lives]."

2009-12-31T01:38:00.002-05:00

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Barack Hussein said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources. Obama says some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change ..." For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers oppose reducing emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute, a system known as cap and trade. [This "cap & trade" thing is a whole other fiasco for separate discussion in another post.]

___________________________________________

Below I have included excerpts from another "cynical claim" that contradicts the myth that human industry is causing "global warming" ... and the accompanying myth that humans can affect any significant change in the world's average temperature. I think this author and his colleagues know a little something about the subject (review his credentials at the end).

Twin Ice Cores from Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More

Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms.

Locked within two cores of ancient ice is evidence of unprecedented swings in Earth's climate throughout the ages. These icy archives tell us that large, rapid, global change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is stasis.

Two projects conducted from 1989 to 1993 collected parallel ice cores just 30 kilometers apart from the central part of the Greenland ice sheet. Each core is more than 3 kilometers deep and extends back 110,000 years. Scientists who have studied the cores agree that the Earth experienced large, rapid, regional-to-global climate oscillations through most of the last 110,000 years, of a scale that agricultural- and industrial-age humans did not face. Though a few of the stadial/interstadial oscillations such as the Younger Dryas event were known for decades, many more were found in the first Greenland deep ice cores, but most of the oscillations occurred in ice from close to bedrock where flow may have disturbed the climatic record. In the new cores, these events are recorded far enough above the bed that ice flow is unlikely to have altered the early section of the 110,000-year climatic record. The almost perfect match back to this date between records from the two cores should dispel any lingering doubt about the climatic origin of the events.

These millennial-scale events represent large climate deviations that probably include change in temperature of many degrees Celsius, twofold changes in snow accumulation, large changes in how much wind-blown dust and sea salt were carried by the atmosphere, and large changes in methane concentration. Changes during these events commonly occur over decades or less. Shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation could explain the rapidity and magnitude of these events. Most recently, subtle versions of these rapid climate change events were identified through the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns in the Holocene portion of the Greenland ice record. Major climatic change events are also recorded in the isotopic temperature record of the Vostok core from central East Antarctica, but not as clearly as in cores from Greenland.

Ice Cores Challenge Standing Theories

Measurements of gas-bubble compositions from Antarctic cores provide the best paleorecords of CO₂₂ in the Greenland ice is more complex than interpreting it in the Antarctic ice. However, the results do not question earlier findings about the increase of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration at the end of the last glaciation and a steady increase since the beginning of the industrial age. concentrations. Greenlandic records indicate some unexplained "noise"—data that may be added by random processes not related to the true environmental record or just plain high-frequency unexplained data—possibly related to chemical reactions with the more abundant carbonate dust in Greenland ice. Scientists agree that interpreting the record of CO

Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research

Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change. Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail. Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability.

Source: Eos, May 28, 1996, p. 209.

the Author of this article (Paul Mayewski)...

Today his research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. As Director of Climate Change Research Center, which he founded, he has led more than 25 expeditions to the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Himalayas. His early research in the Antarctic was honored by the naming of an Antarctic mountain, Mayewski Peak. Many of these expeditions entered uncharted regions and resulted in the ascent of several previously unclimbed peaks in the Antarctic. His expeditions to the Arctic as chief scientist of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two from 1987 to 1993 resulted in the recovery of a more than 110,000-year long record of climate change that is now recognized as vitally important to the understanding of climate change. [Recognized by, apparently, everyone except Al Gore and Barack Obama.]

2009-12-28T01:05:00.012-05:00

What Next? .. Invade Somalia?

Did anyone even know the U.S. has commandos fighting in Somalia?

While the U.S. military is busy chasing its tail in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorists are re-locating their "headquarters" to Africa.

So what's our next brilliant move? Invade and occupy Somalia? How about Sudan?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Somalia is being hijacked by al-Qaida-linked terrorists who are better organized and more highly motivated than the ineffectual government in Mogadishu, and Sudan could be the next nation to fall under their influence, Ethiopia warned Saturday.

"It is time that we abandon the fiction that this is a war just among Somalis. It is not," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Ato Seyoum Mesfin said in a pessimistic speech before the General Assembly.

"Somalia is being hijacked by foreign fighters who have no inhibition in proclaiming that their agenda has nothing to do with Somalia. Theirs is an ambition that goes well beyond Somalia, and they say it out loud and clear," said Mesfin.

Last week, two stolen U.N. vehicles packed with explosives blew up at an African Union peacekeeping base in Somalia, killing 21 people, including 17 Burundian and Ugandan peacekeepers. Markings on the cars meant they were not subject to the usual security checks. Al-Shabab, a local Islamic militia with foreign fighters in its ranks, said the Sept. 17 bombing was in retaliation for a U.S. commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia. It has released a video pledging allegiance to al-Qaida and showing foreign trainers moving among its fighters.

"As the latest horrific suicide attack ... has shown, those destroying Somalia are being emboldened, and their supporters rewarded," Mesfin said. On the other hand, "The international community is being stingy even with symbolic steps to show resolve against extremists and spoilers in Somalia," he said.
[Interesting how Mr. Obama, the first African-American president -- and whose father was actually born there -- seems to give Africa the same attention everyone else has over the years: little to none.]

"It is critical that the international community wakes up before the hijacking of Somalia by extremism is fully consummated," Mesfin said. Mesfin warned Sudan could be the next domino.
"The Horn of Africa cannot afford the consequence of failure in the Sudan peace process."

2009-12-27T22:46:00.007-05:00

sTOP oBJECTING tO oUR uNGODLIY bEHAVIOR ... oR dIE!

What did I just finish saying about people being punished
for asserting that homosexuality is wrong?

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the names of people who signed referendum petitions asking voters to approve or reject the so-called "everything but marriage" law, which grants registered domestic partners the same legal rights as married couples.

Last Thursday, the appeals court reversed a previous decision by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma to block release of the petitions. Settle held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers. In its brief order, the 9th Circuit panel said Settle used the wrong legal standard in granting the preliminary injunction that barred release of the petitions, and that the injunction therefore must be reversed.

Conservative Christian groups that sponsored R-71 want to keep the signed petitions out of public view because they fear harassment from ~~gay-rights supporters~~ [people who engage in, and who encourage other people to engage in, homosexual acts], some of whom have allegedly destroyed the personal property of petition signers and even issued death threats.

2009-12-27T20:20:00.036-05:00

Can You Hear Me Now?

They move from cell phone conversation to text message to tweet to website to i-tune ... and then start all over again. This generation seems incapable of contemplation. And that is a very bad thing. Because if one is incapable of quiet contemplation, then one is equally incapable of hearing “God’s voice” on a consistent basis.

We are raising a generation of rude, anti-social, easily distracted exhibitionists who are terrified of silence and completely incapable of quiet contemplation and prayer. And I’m not even talking about unbelievers here. Of course, they won’t be able to recognize God’s voice. I am referring to the generations being raised by professing Christians.>

Raising God-fearing children (who will become God-fearing adults) is about so much more than just dragging them to church and “saying prayers” at bedtime. It begins with things as fundamental as teaching them how to think. Not what to think, but how to think.

A child — a person — must practice being quiet and still with his own thoughts. A child must be encouraged to be contemplative. A child must have role models who are comfortable with quietness, stillness and silence, role models who pray (and not just the talking kind of prayer, but also the waiting and listening kind).

Children must be taught to hear and to recognize God’s still, small voice.

It appears to me, however, that we are raising a generation of people who are incapable of that.

From Christianity Today.com:

Feb. 27, 2007

Crowded Loneliness

& Quiet Contemplation

By Sam O’Neal

Last week, I had the privilege of representing Building Small Groups at the first-ever Purpose Driven Small Groups conference, hosted by Saddleback Church in sunny Lake Forest, California. Because the Purpose Driven folks were running the show, I’ve returned home with a great deal of useful information, almost all of it nicely packaged into acronyms and “pathways.”

But I was most impressed by two presentations that drifted outside the Purpose Driven model. Both of them picked up the gauntlet thrown down by noted church consultant Lyle E. Schaller, who said: “The biggest challenge facing the church is to address the fragmentation and discontinuity of the American lifestyle.”

[One was] a workshop I spotted on Wednesday afternoon. It was called “Be Still.” The presenters for the workshop were Judge Reinhold and his wife, Amy. You may be familiar with Judge from his roles in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop. He was also Aaron, the “close-talker” from Seinfeld. I just had to check out what he was going to say.

It turns out that he and his wife have produced a documentary on contemplative prayer with Scripture, otherwise known as lectio divina. The DVD, also called Be Still, features some of the most prominent Christian thinkers of our time - Dallas Willard, Calvin Miller, Beth Moore, Max Lucado, and Jerry Root, among others.

And yet, as much as I appreciated what each of those people had to say, what I found most valuable was taking the final 10 minutes to practice the discipline of lectio divina myself. The experience was very, very cool.

I alternated between listening to [scriptures read aloud on CD] and sitting quietly for several minutes at a time, allowing the Holy Spirit to seep through the tangled clutter of my thoughts and nurture me with his Word. I was surprised at how natural the experience was - at how easily the words of Jesus settled into a place of prominence once I pushed everything else out of the way.

2009-11-07T01:09:00.000-05:00

the myth about
global warming

Notice I did not write: the myth of global warming, but rather the myth "about" global warming.
It is getting a little warmer lately. But if you believe the scientists whose work led to the conclusions in this article, it simply has nothing to do with human activity, and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Barack Hussein said Friday that opponents of his energy bill are disputing the evidence of global warming in a cynical ploy to undermine efforts to curb pollution and steer the nation to greener energy sources. Obama says some opponents "make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change ..." For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers oppose reducing emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute, a system known as cap and trade. [This "cap & trade" thing is a whole other fiasco for separate discussion in another post.]

___________________________________________

Twin Ice Cores From Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change, More

Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. Permission is hereby granted to journalists to use this material so long as credit is given, and to teachers to use this material in classrooms.

by R. Alley, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; P. Mayewski, University of New Hampshire, Durham; D. Peel, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England; and B. Stauffer, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Two projects conducted from 1989 to 1993 collected parallel ice cores just 30 kilometers apart from the central part of the Greenland ice sheet. Each core is more than 3 kilometers deep and extends back 110,000 years. Scientists who have studied the cores agree that the Earth experienced large, rapid, regional-to-global climate oscillations through most of the last 110,000 years, of a scale that agricultural- and industrial-age humans did not face. Though a few of the stadial/interstadial oscillations such as the Younger Dryas event were known for decades, many more were found in the first Greenland deep ice cores, but most of the oscillations occurred in ice from close to bedrock where flow may have disturbed the climatic record. In the new cores, these events are recorded far enough above the bed that ice flow is unlikely to have altered the early section of the 110,000-year climatic record. The almost perfect match back to this date between records from the two cores should dispel any lingering doubt about the climatic origin of the events.

These millennial-scale events represent large climate deviations that probably include change in temperature of many degrees Celsius, twofold changes in snow accumulation, large changes in how much wind-blown dust and sea salt were carried by the atmosphere, and large changes in methane concentration. Changes during these events commonly occur over decades or less. Shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation could explain the rapidity and magnitude of these events. Most recently, subtle versions of these rapid climate change events were identified through the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns in the Holocene portion of the Greenland ice record. Major climatic change events are also recorded in the isotopic temperature record of the Vostok core from central East Antarctica, but not as clearly as in cores from Greenland.

Ice Cores Challenge Standing Theories

Initial interpretation of the ice cores indicated that the large, rapid climate oscillations that dominate the record of the last 110,000 years also persisted through the previous warm period, the Eemian, which took place about 120,000–130,000 years ago. Both cores also show rapid oscillations in climate during that time period, but with different timing and character. In both cores, there is evidence of ice flow beginning at or slightly above the depth at which difference in their climate records appears—roughly 2800 m, or approximately 110,000 years ago. Ice flow disturbs the climate record by allowing ice from different layers to mix. The amounts of gases in both cores differ from those of the Vostok, Antarctica core, where the Eemian era ice is undisturbed by ice flow. Much remains to be learned about Eemian climate from these cores. Just as they were needed to confirm the rapid oscillations observed in older cores, a core from a site where the Eemian is farther above the bed and thus is less subject to flow disturbance will provide the best information. Scientists are already looking at sites in North Greenland and Antarctica capable of delivering such records.
Measurements of gas-bubble compositions from Antarctic cores provide the best paleorecords of CO₂₂ in the Greenland ice is more complex than interpreting it in the Antarctic ice. However, the results do not question earlier findings about the increase of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration at the end of the last glaciation and a steady increase since the beginning of the industrial age. concentrations. Greenlandic records indicate some unexplained "noise"—data that may be added by random processes not related to the true environmental record or just plain high-frequency unexplained data—possibly related to chemical reactions with the more abundant carbonate dust in Greenland ice. Scientists agree that interpreting the record of CO

Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research

Great progress is being made on more basic science as well. The ability to count annual layers in the cores well into the glacial period and probably through 110,000 years will help to answer questions about the timing of the glacial periods and the usefulness of radiocarbon calibrations. The use of volcanic markers (such as dust and certain gases) and atmospheric-oxygen isotopic ratios to determine the ages of ice cores and ocean records greatly extends scientists' ability to map climate changes and understand their causes.
Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change. Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail. Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability.
Source: Eos, May 28, 1996, p. 209.

the Author of this article (Paul Mayewski)...

was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 5, 1946. He received a B.A. with Honors from the Department of Geological Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1968, a Ph.D. from the Institute of Polar Studies and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at the Ohio State University in 1973, and from 1973–1975 was a postdoctoral student in the Institute for Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine at Orono. He joined the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in 1975 and was appointed full professor in 1985.
Today his research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. As Director of Climate Change Research Center, which he founded, he has led more than 25 expeditions to the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Himalayas. His early research in the Antarctic was honored by the naming of an Antarctic mountain, Mayewski Peak. Many of these expeditions entered uncharted regions and resulted in the ascent of several previously unclimbed peaks in the Antarctic. His expeditions to the Arctic as chief scientist of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two from 1987 to 1993 resulted in the recovery of a more than 110,000-year long record of climate change that is now recognized as vitally important to the understanding of climate change. [Recognized by, apparently, everyone except Al Gore and Barack Obama.]

2009-11-07T01:05:00.002-05:00

Brother Baa-aa-rock is serving Kool-Aid, if you'd like to join him in a drink.
Washington (DC) AP -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday dangled $5 billion in federal grants to states willing to undertake a top-to-bottom overhaul of their schools in support of White House priorities.

Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill included the education grants - more money than any president has ever had for overhauling schools - for which states can compete. Only Education Secretary Arne Duncan - not Congress - has control over who gets it. And only some states, perhaps 10 to 20, will actually get the money.

The administration can't really tell states and schools what to do, since education has been largely a state and local responsibility throughout the history of the U.S. But the grants give Obama considerable leverage. He sees the test score data and charter schools, which are publicly funded but independent of local school boards, as solutions to the problems that plague public education.

[Of course, Barack has also been seeing fairies and unicorns flying around the Oval Office, so ... ?]

The national teachers unions disagree. They say student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test and say it's a mistake to rely so heavily on charter schools.

_______________________________________________________________

The national teachers unions disagrees because they don't want to be held accountable for their laziness and failures. Period. That's why teachers' unions exists: to prevent public school teachers from being held accountable. My experience is: if the pay of public school teachers was actually tied to performance (real performance), then only about one in every twenty would earn enough to pay his or her rent.

The public school system should be abolished for all but the poorest of the poor. Every other parent should have to either pay for their children's education ... or teach them personally.
Yes. It would be a huge sacrifice. The parents' "standard of living" might even drop a level or two (if you measure standard of living by how many "toys" and much junk you can purchase and accumulate over the course of your lifetime). So what? Our real standard of living would collectively improve. The standard that is measured by integrity, sacrifice, building strong relationships with one's children, and passing on lessons of character.

The law? Providing your own children with an education would be mandatory, and one would have to show a case of true hardship to be permitted to send one's child to a "public school". Otherwise, the free market (and parents' willingness to sacrifice for their children) would determine quality of education. If Bob down the street would rather spend his money on a new car or a gigantic television than on getting his child a better education ... fine. My kids will govern his when they all grow up.
As it should be.

Besides ... the public school system has become the enemy of Jesus Christ. I do not now understand, nor have I ever understood) why any true believer -- any devout Christian -- would send his or her child to a public school. It is an abomination, and shirking of one's duty as a Christian parent. Why not just skip all the pretense and send them to a school that openly teaches them to worship Satan? The people who run the public school systems, who set their policies and approve or disapprove their curricula, hate the God of the Bible.

Now, don't get all offended yet. I'm not referring to every individual teacher or principal or administrator or lunch lady. I am referring to the ones who govern the schools. No, not local school boards. The federal bureaucrats who populate the Education Department, and the lawyers who populate the offices of the ACLU. That's who sets policy and approves or disapproves curricula.

2009-11-07T01:00:00.000-05:00

the homosexual homeland

It started in 1994 with the lesbian bride of Frankenstein, Janet Reno, and is about to become very commonplace. Homosexuals from around the world are beginning to immigrate to the United States of Gomorrah.

STOP! Don't delete this before you read it!
Please read this article all the way through ... if you can do it without throwing up or smashing your computer in disgust.

You know how Israel is the "homeland" for the "ingathering" of Jews?
Well, homosexuals are making the United States the homeland for the ingathering of homosexuals and other freaks (i.e. "transgender").

Do you want to understand why God's blessing and protection is being removed from this country?
You need not look any further than this single issue. About this subject, God's attitude has not changed from the Old Testament to the New.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- For weeks, Nathaniel Cunningham and his boyfriend secretly lived together in rural Jamaica. [I CAN ALREADY TELL THIS IS GOING TO BE A SWEET STORY ... and not slanted at all to portray homosexuality in a favorable or sympathetic light.]
They showed no affection in public and rarely spoke to neighbors.
Then one morning, Cunningham picked up a local newspaper with a front-page story under the headline, "Homosexuals Move into Residential Neighborhood." His address was listed below.
For days afterward, Cunningham said an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling them "batty boys" - a Jamaican slang term for gay. Eventually, the pair grabbed what they could and fled on foot.

The story was one of many that Cunningham, now 32 and living in Worcester, recently shared with a federal immigration judge in his successful bid to win asylum in the United States. And it's similar to other stories cited by a small but growing number of other gay, lesbian and transgender asylum seekers who are using U.S. immigration courts to argue that their sexual orientation makes it too dangerous for them to return home.

"I had no choice," said Andre Azevedo, 39, a transgender man from Brazil who recently won asylum and now lives in New York. "Where I'm from, heterosexual men practice hate crimes against us like a sport, and the police do nothing to stop it."

Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States. That's when former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno [Frankenstein's lesbian bride] ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be potential grounds for asylum.

Until recently, those grounds have been rarely used and such cases represent only a fraction of all asylum cases. But now immigrant and gay activists say more asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are citing sexual orientation as reasons for seeking asylum. Activists say the asylum seekers are escaping rape, persecution, violence, and threats of death from places where homosexuality is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned.

Federal immigration law allows individuals asylum if they can prove a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin based upon race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Those applying for asylum are already in the United States, legally or illegally.

No one knows for sure just how many have sought asylum on sexual orientation grounds. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services doesn't keep data on asylum cases won on that basis.

Still, last year Immigration Equality, a New York-based nonprofit group that helps gay clients with immigration cases, successfully won 55 asylum cases using sexual orientation as grounds, a record for the organization, said the group's legal director Victoria Neilson. That's up from 30 wins in 2007 and 27 in 2006, Neilson said.

And a Worcester, Mass.-based nonprofit group, Lutheran Social Services [God is holy ... and angry about this people], has recently won five cases and is looking to help others. "I think more people are finding out that this is an option," said Lisa Laurel Weinberg, an attorney with the group.

However, not all cases for asylum based on sexual orientation have been successful. For example, a gay Brazilian man who was married in Massachusetts and whose American husband remains in the state was recently denied asylum by the Obama administration on humanitarian grounds, despite pleas from Sen. John Kerry. Genesio "Junior" Januario Oliveira had originally requested asylum because he was raped as a teenager, but an immigration judge denied the application, saying Oliveira repeatedly said in the hearing that he "was never physically harmed" by anyone in Brazil.
He was forced to return to Brazil in 2007.

Cunningham said he decided to file for asylum after working for a few years in the United States on a work visa. Cunningham said he conducted research online but couldn't find an immigration group to help him with the case. "One group said my case clashed with their Christian values."
[Oh, how "non-diverse" that group must be! What horribly unenlightened people.]

Many gay rights groups, he said, also had limited services for immigrants.
It wasn't until Cunningham connected with Jozefina Lantz, the director of immigrant services at Lutheran Social Services [these are the people with "itching ears" to whom Paul refers in 2 Timothy 4:3], that Cunningham gained support.

To win, however, Cunningham had to revisit painful moments of running from mobs in Jamaica. Even the police would point him out for persecution, he said. In successfully arguing Cunningham's case for asylum, Weinberg also said Jamaica's sodomy laws banning sex between men and "dancehall" music - whose lyrics often advocate violence against gays - made life for Cunningham unbearable.

Cunningham won asylum in January 2008.
During his asylum hearing, Azevedo had to recall violent episodes in Brazil when he and a group of transsexuals were attacked in bars. He recalled a transgender woman set on fire. Each time Azevedo said he went to police about an attack or a threat, the officers didn't even bother to file a report.
"I had such a horrific experience," said Azevedo, who was granted asylum in July. "I was always in fear of being raped, maybe even killed."

After winning their cases, both Cunningham and Azevedo have become advocates for other asylum-seekers by giving them counseling and directing them toward legal help.
In Worcester, for example, Cunningham has helped a Lebanese and three others Jamaicans win asylum with the legal help provided by the Lutheran Social Services' "LGBT Human Rights Protection Project." Another case, involving an Ugandan woman, is pending in the courts.

...I'm thinking that maybe child molesters should start seeking asylum from other countries where sexually assaulting children is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned. What do you think?

Hey. I have an idea! Instead of wasting money and troops in Afghanistan, let's invade Massachussetts and kick somebody's ass (starting with John Kerry and Lutheran Social Services).

2009-11-07T00:54:00.000-05:00

a justified stigma

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.

In 1987, the Department of Health and Human Services added the disease to the list of communicable diseases that disqualified a person from entering the U.S.

More than 56,000 new infections are reported every year in the United States.

Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality (an organization that promotes immigration for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people). "Now, those families can be reunited, and the United States can put its mouth where its money is: ending the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission, supporting science and welcoming those who seek to build a life in this country."

[How touching, Rachel. I think I'm gonna cry.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gee. That's just swell. Thanks Barack Hussein for yet another brilliant decision.

ONE little clarification though: It is not the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission. It is, in the vast majority of cases, perverted, impenitent and reckless sexual behavior that perpetuates THE transmission of HIV.

There should be a stigma attached to it. It is a completely justified stigma. Unless you are among the miniscule percentage of infected people who got that way from a blood transfusion or from your mother at birth, you've earned your suffering. You've certainly been warned enough times.

How shocking for a Christian to say such harsh things!
That's what you're being tempted to think ... right?
Oh, grow up -- SPIRITUALLY. Jesus said many things just as "harsh". It's just not culturally or "politically" correct to emphasize (or even to mention) those kinds of statements anymore in this watered down, God-is-like-Santa-Claus western brand of Christianity.

Of course God will forgive you if you repent ... but that doesn't mean you won't have to suffer the natural (as opposed to eternal) consequences of your sin.
I follow the same reasoning here as someone who has been convicted of a heinous murder and is sitting in prison for the remainder of his (or her) life, with no possibility of parole. If he (or she) repents, then he (or she) will be forgiven by God and spared from hell -- granted eternal life, but he (or she) will still have to suffer the "natural" consequences (punishment) for the crime committed.

Another applicable analogy: If you insist on playing with fire after being warned over and over again, then don't cry foul when you get burned. And if you make a habit or lifestyle of starting fires (in other words, become a practicing arsonist), then don't expect to live free of "stigma" ... and don't expect to be welcomed into our communities with open arms ... or even more absurdly, to insist that you have the right to be welcomed with open arms.

2009-10-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

If you can't change the law honestly, playing by the rules ...
well, then just change it anyway, in the obscure gray recesses of government bureaucracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal housing officials [bureaucrats who do not have the legal authority to do this] said Wednesday they're developing regulations to ensure that gays and lesbians aren't denied access to federally subsidized housing based on their sexual orientation. The department announced that the regulations concerning HUD's housing and voucher programs would clarify that the term "family" also applies to lesbian and gay couples.

The Housing and Urban Development Department will also commission a first-ever nationwide study to determine the extent of discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing sales and rental programs.

Officials said the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of homes, doesn't specifically cite gays and lesbians when it comes to the groups protected. The department wants to make sure that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are treated the same as everyone else when it comes to eligibility for housing programs.

The extent of such discrimination is unknown [but we intend to spend millions of taxpayer dollars fabricating "evidence" and inventing "studies" to prove that] "it undoubtedly exists", said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end," said Donovan. Department officials pointed to a [single, unverified] study from Michigan's Fair Housing Centers that found nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when trying to buy or rent a home.

2009-10-18T02:34:00.001-04:00

a CAMEL through the EYE of the NEEDLE

Howard Buffett.
Ever heard of him?
Son of Susie and Warren Buffett.
Photographer. Philanthropist. Billionaire.
No?
I hadn't either, until seeing Charlie Rose interview him the other night.
What a wonderful man.
He proves that, although it is exceedingly rare, one can be super-rich and still sincerely serve Jesus Christ.

Howard Buffett farming in Burandi, Africa (photo: WSJ)

Howard Buffett, son of famed Wall Street guru and billionaire Warren Buffett, is spending not just his finances but also his life fighting hunger in Africa.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

It was ordained that Howard and his two siblings would see the family fortune given away rather than have it to spend on themselves.

His father, who lives far below his means in a modest Omaha house, has argued publicly that it does little good for society when children inherit great wealth by virtue of an ‘ovarian lottery’…Of his middle child, he says, ‘he’s got my money and his mother’s heart’…

It’s hard to measure the impact of Howard Buffett’s foundation, something Mr. Buffett himself acknowledges. He does most of the work finding and visiting projects…. He employs eight people, mostly in administrative roles. One man is based in South Africa overseeing research on Mr. Buffett’s 6,000 acres of farmland outside Johannesburg. It was there on a wildlife preserve that he set up that a cheetah bit him.

Mr. Buffett figures his foundation’s projects have helped about 1.5 million Africans so far. He hopes that the crop-breeding work he is supporting will eventually help millions more African farmers feed their families.

P.S.
A thoughtful post from Jill Carattini of Ravi Zacharias Ministries.
Here’s the nut of it:

In our impervious boxes and minimalist depictions of the Christian story, we comfortably live as if in our own world, blind and unconcerned with the world of suffering around us, intent to tell our feel-good stories while withdrawing from the harder scenes of life…

In reality, the stories Jesus left us with are so much more than wishful thinking and his proclamations of the kingdom among us are far from declarations of escapism.

The story of Rachel weeping for her slaughtered children and Lazarus waiting in agony at the gate of someone who could make a difference are two stories among many that refuse to let us sweep the suffering of the world under the rug of unimportance. The fact that they are included in the gospel that brings us the hope of Christ …

For Christ brings the kind of hope that can reach even the most hopeless among us. And Jesus hasn’t overlooked the suffering of the world anymore than he has invited his followers to do so; it is a part of the very story we tell.

Thus, precisely because the faith we proclaim is not a drug that anesthetizes or a dream that deludes, we must tell the whole story and not merely the parts that lessen our own pain. We must also live as people watchful and ready to be near those who weep and wait–the poor, the demoralized, and the suffering.
There are far too many Rachels who are still weeping and Lazaruses who are still waiting, waiting for men and women of faith to be the good news they proclaim.

2009-10-13T03:07:00.000-04:00

HATE WHAT IS EVIL

Do headlines and stories like these offend you?

They should.

Federal official says time is right for gay rights

ORLANDO (AP) -- The climate for passing gay civil rights laws has never been better... “and shame on us if we don't succeed," said John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. His speech at the Orlando conference came a day before President Barack Obama was set to address the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.

Gay rights advocates march on DC

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.

Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights. "For all I know, she's gay or he's gay," he added, pointing to his children.

Excuse me while I throw up.

These poor, pathetic, deluded people have exchanged the truth for a lie. In Romans 1:26-28, the apostle Paul describes a very similar culture: "Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."

I hate what John Berry and Jason Yanowitz represent (not the men, themselves, but what they are promoting and advocating).

Romans 12:9 commands us to "hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

Have you been so desensitized over the years that you simply accept this as the status quo?

But is homosexuality "evil"?
"Do not be deceived: ... neither homosexuals nor the greedy ...nor slanderers ...will inherit the kingdom of God. --1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Open your Bible. Read it for yourself.
If it is bad enough to keep a person out of heaven, to prevent a person from obtaining eternal life, is that bad enough to qualify as evil?

Now let me ask you again: Do you hate what this man represents -- the evil that he advocates and promotes?

Or are you afraid of being called "intolerant"?
The sinners' favorite attack word.

Many people, including Christians, are so afraid of being "called names" (like "bigoted" or "homophobic" or "intolerant") that they are unwilling to speak up against even the most vile sin.

Romans 12:2 urges you to "not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The rest of the world interprets your silence on issues like this as tacit approval. At the very least, you are tolerating the official promotion of evil. Why do you think homosexuals have made so much "progress" in this country recently? Because they have been doing all the public speaking, while Christians attend their church meetings and Bible studies and spend all their time talking to each other.

Preface to the good news: Hell and the Lake of Fire are real and many souls will burn.
The Good News: We can be spared from it, rescued ... saved.

"Do not be surprised if the world hates you." --1 John 3:13
Are you willing to be hated by "the world" (by unbelievers), or will you remain silent in order to secure its approval?

Would you call homosexuality evil, wrong, perverted or sinful if your employer, or your neighbors or the government threatened to publish what you said for all the world to read?

What if they threatened to alienate you socially?

What if they threatened to fire you from your job?

And what if they threatened to prosecute you for a "hate crime"?

These may be more than just hypothetical questions in the very near future.
This society is moving toward officially punishing people for asserting that homosexual behavior is sin. We already unofficially punish people for it.

By the way, I refuse to use the ridiculous euphemism "gay", because there is NOTHING gay about burning in a lake of fire.

Me?

I admit it.

I announce it.

I agree with God.

I am INTOLERANT of homosexuality.

It's wrong ... and, yes, it does hurt other people. When someone gets shut out of heaven, that hurts ... in the most extreme sense.

To be perfectly clear about this: While I denounce homosexual behavior, and denounce the promotion of such behavior and lifestyles, I do not condemn homosexuals themselves.
There's a significant difference.

2009-10-08T01:11:00.000-04:00

SELF-PROMOTING HOT DOGS
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- The rule was put in place in the mid-1990s when then-Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley was head of the NCAA rules committee. Fourteen years later, the now-retired Dooley still believes it's a much-needed roadblock to some of the antics that go on in the NFL - even though he was at Saturday night's game cheering on the Bulldogs.

"A player such as T.O. has no place in college football," he said, referring to flamboyant receiver Terrell Owens, who took end zone celebrations to new levels. "It's a good rule for college football. I think it has really helped us from going down the path we were going. There's no telling what we would have today if we didn't have that rule."

The rule, which falls under the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, basically covers any actions that are directed at the fans, draw attention to an individual player or taunt an opponent.

"These guys are watching the pros. That's what they're imitating. And they're thinking, 'If the pros can do it and get away with it, they think it's cute and it draws attention to themselves, why shouldn't we be able to do it?'" the former coach said. "But I don't think that's what college football ought to be."

Well, guess what? ... I don't think that's what pro football ought to be either.
I rarely watch a professional football game any more for that very reason: because I can't stand to see all those guys drawing attention to themselves every time they do nothing more than make a tackle or catch a pass. Big deal. Isn't that your job? Isn't that why they pay you so much money? So you made a tackle. Get over yourself and realize that its a team game. There were ten other teammates involved in that play, you immature, self-centered punk.

It didn't bother me as much when I was playing, because I could just make a mental note of who was doing all the "hot-dogging" and then do my best to "punish" him for it later in the game by putting my helmet right in his ear hole at bone-jarring velocity. And I usually succeeded. But to just sit there and watch those muscle-headed idiots jump around the field and jerk off in front of 50,000 people (people who are dumb enough to get excited and cheer for them when they act that way) ... no thanks.

2009-09-26T21:33:00.003-04:00

verbal exhibitionism

They move from cell phone conversation to text message to tweet to website to i-tune to ... and then start all over again. This generation seems incapable of contemplation. And that is a very bad thing. Because if one is incapable of quiet contemplation, then one is equally incapable of hearing God's voice on a consistent basis.

I understand that the endless stream of gadgets and technology have prevented the latest generation from learning how to think, how to focus, how to concentrate and how to be comfortable with quietness. I even understand people wanting to be constantly distracted from their own self-doubt and self-loathing. But what I do not understand is the pandemic of verbal exhibitionism.

What I do not understand is why this generation has decided that the rest of us must be forced to listen to their endless, empty drivel.

Why must the rest of us be forced to overhear all their inappropriately public cell phone conversations? Without saying it in so many words, they all seem to be screaming: "Hey everybody, look at me! Look at me! Listen to what I think. Hey everybody, I'm cool, too. Pay attention to me.
Hey everybody, I know how to talk very loudly on a cell phone. Do you wanna listen?!"

... NO. As a matter of fact, we don't.

This new pandemic of verbal exhibitionism is downright infantile.
Apparently, somebody's mommy or daddy didn't pay enough attention to him or her.

We are raising a generation of insecure, immature, easily distracted exhibitionists who are terrified of silence and completely incapable of quiet contemplation and prayer.
And I'm not talking about unbelievers here. Of course, they won't be able to recognize God's voice.
I am referring to the generations being raised by professing Christians.

Raising God-fearing children (who will become God-fearing adults) is about so much more than just dragging them to church and "saying prayers" at bedtime. It begins with things as fundamental as teaching them how to think. Not what to think, but how to think. A child -- a person -- must practice being quiet and still with his own thoughts. A child must be encouraged to be contemplative. A child must have role models who are comfortable with quietness, stillness and silence, role models who pray (and not just the talking kind of prayer, but also the waiting and listening kind).

Children must be taught to hear and to recognize God's still, small voice.

It appears to me, however, that we are raising a generation of people who are incapable of that.

2009-09-26T03:20:00.001-04:00

it has begun

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- World leaders on Friday issued sweeping promises to fix a malfunctioning global economic system in hopes of heading off future financial meltdowns. President Barack Obama said actions taken so far "brought the global economy back from the brink. We leave here today confident and united".

The leaders agreed to keep stimulus plans, which include government spending and low interest rates, generally in place in their respective countries for now to avoid derailing still-fragile recoveries. Obama had pressed for just such a course and praised the decision.

"Our coordinated stimulus plans played an indispensable role in averting catastrophe. Now we must make sure that when growth returns, jobs do, too," he said at a wrap-up news conference. "That's why we will continue our stimulus efforts until our people are back to work and phase them out when our recovery is strong."

In a statement, all the G-20 leaders declared major progress from what they called their coordinated efforts and "forceful response. It worked," they said. [What a load of self-congratulatory b...]

Although many of the pronouncements and actions taken by the leaders lacked specifics or details on follow-through [Gee ... I wonder why], leaders were bold in pronouncing the gathering - the third G-20 summit in a year - as a big success.

"There was unanimity around the table that the errors of the past won't happen again," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
[Here's the problem with that statement: The errors "of the past" are already happening again, you ridiculous liar.]

"The old system of international economic cooperation is over. The new system, as of today, has begun," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, referring to a decision to enhance the status for the Group of 20 to make it the lead group for dealing with future international economic issues, eclipsing the older, Western-dominated Group of Eight. [A new world economic system. Hmmm? Any of this starting to sound familiar yet?]

2009-09-26T03:14:00.001-04:00

gives new meaning to the term "MYSTERY MEAT"

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Southern California meatpacking plant that supplied beef to the nation's school lunch program slaughtered stumbling, potentially contaminated cows for four years before undercover video of animal abuse prompted a massive beef recall, federal court filings say.

2009-09-26T03:11:00.003-04:00

THIS IS WHERE OBAMA SHINES
AND WILL IN THE FUTURE:
Presiding Over International Meetings

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- With President Barack Obama presiding, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously endorsed a sweeping strategy aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminating them, to usher in a world with "undiminished security for all."

"That can be our destiny," Obama declared after the 15-nation body adopted the historic, U.S.-initiated resolution at an unprecedented summit session. "We will leave this meeting with a renewed determination to achieve this shared goal."

"This is a historic moment, a moment offering a fresh start toward a new future," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, saluting the first such Security Council gathering of presidents and premiers to deal with nuclear nonproliferation.

Oh, it'll be a new future, all right, Mr. Monkey-Moon. It just won't be the one most of us wanted or expected.

2009-09-26T03:10:00.002-04:00

Liver Damage

I just read the warning label on a bottle of generic Acetaminophen tablets. It warns: "If you consume three or more alcoholic drinks every day, ask your doctor whether you should take Acetaminophen or other pain relievers ... blah, blah, blah ... liver damage.

O.K. Whatever else it says is irrelevant, because if you consume at least three alcoholic drinks every day, choosing the right pain reliever is the least of your problems.
What you need ask your doctor is whether he can get you into a good rehab program, because you're an alcoholic.

2009-09-23T03:40:00.001-04:00

BARACK AND BILL
STILL ENJOY RUBBING HER NOSE IN IT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Obama on Tuesday spoke in New York to the Clinton Global Initiative, the former president's philanthropic organization. The president said former President Bill Clinton should be credited with saving millions of lives around the world since leaving the White House. Obama said Bill Clinton has made an extraordinary difference for those in need. Barack Hussein thanked donors who helped make the work possible, especially during tough economic times. He said such private groups can bring about change in ways government cannot.

In a light moment, Obama joked about making it difficult for Bill to keep in touch with his wife.
[I bet Hillary just laughed and laughed...]

2009-09-23T03:34:00.000-04:00

obama-mania dying down as reality sets in

CHICAGO (AP) -- Young Americans [mostly college students who hadn't experienced REAL life yet] showed their collective power when they helped vote President Obama into office. Inspired by his message of "change," they knocked on doors, spread flyers, voted for him by a 2-1 margin, and partied like rock-the-vote stars when he won.

Since the election, though, that fervor has died down - noticeably. And while young people remain the president's most loyal supporters in opinion polls, a lot of people are wondering why that age group isn't doing more to build upon their newfound reputation as political influencers.
"It's one thing to get excited about a presidential candidate. It's another thing to become a responsible citizen," says Jennifer Donahue, political director for the New Hampshire Institute Of Politics. She and other political analysts thinks they have yet to prove themselves.

Erin Carroll, a 19-year-old sophomore at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, blames the lack of engagement on her generation's short attention span. They want change - right now, she says - and haven't gotten it. "I feel like everybody walks around with their cell phone and their laptops. We feel like we need everything immediately. "We're the 'me-me-me' generation."

2009-09-19T23:49:00.000-04:00

doomed to repeat it

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it ... and American political leaders seem to have already forgotten something that happened as recently as 1979: the Soviet Union gave up trying to conquer/occupy Afghanistan.

KABUL (AP) -- The Taliban's reclusive leader said in a Muslim holiday message Saturday that the U.S. and NATO should study Afghanistan's long history of war, in a pointed reminder that foreign forces have had limited military success in the country.

If I'm not mistaken, I expressed this very point recently to my wife.

2009-09-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

DUMPSTER TIME, BABY!

WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- A tender moment in a trash bin went all wrong for a couple who found themselves being held up at pocket knifepoint. Police said two 44-year-olds had climbed into a dumpster to be alone just after 6 p.m. Saturday when two men interrupted them and demanded their belongings. Officers said the man and woman were engaged in "an intimate moment" when they were robbed of their shoes, jewelry and the man's wallet.

Gross.

I have a feeling there is more to this story than what the AP wire reported here.

Question: How does someone (or two people) reach the conclusion that doing it in a dumpster would be a good idea?

2009-09-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

HYPOCRISY AT ITS APEX

If something is "bad" for kids, then it is EQUALLY as "bad" for adults.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ads for erectile dysfunction drugs, beer and "soft-porn" films abound on pro football and baseball telecasts, upsetting parents worried about having to either mute the television or explain the side effects of a life enhancement drug to their kids.

In May, Rep. Jim Moran introduced a bill that would limit TV ads for erectile dysfunction drugs to between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. - not expecting it to pass any time soon but hoping it would send a warning to the drug makers. The Virginia Democrat had withdrawn a similar bill in 2005 after the companies offered to change their ad policies, but said the ads now "appear to have become even more pervasive and explicit."

There's no comparable move to legislate changes in beer advertising, which constitutes a huge portion of broadcast revenue for many professional sports. Nonetheless, many parents and health experts worry that children are adversely influenced by the drinking-is-fun message implicit in beer commercials. After the latest Super Bowl, the Drug-Free Action Alliance in Columbus, Ohio, surveyed 8,400 teens, and found that three of their five favorite ads during the telecast were for beer. The alliance said the result is an added inducement for young people to start drinking at an early age and an increased risk of problems with alcohol later in life.

The NFL has detailed rules about types of ads it prohibits on its telecasts - taboo products include hard liquor, condoms, strip clubs, firearms and casinos, as well as movies, video games and other media that contain "objectionable material or subject matter." Wine, beer, oral contraceptives and erectile dysfunction drugs are on the acceptable list.

"All the while, I have to explain terms like 'erectile dysfunction' to my kids, remind them that drinking beer isn't as cool as all the ads make it seem, and distract them from Go Daddy commercials that border on soft porn," one concerned mother wrote last month on her blog.

There is an embarrassingly simple solution for parents worried about the effects of TV commercials on their children: Turn off the television! ... and get a life. Read a book. Go for an exercise walk. Play a musical instrument. Paint a picture. Write a song. Look through a telescope. Build a birdhouse. Do anything else. If you don't like the advertisements shown during football and baseball games, then stop watching football and baseball games.
Its very, very simple.
There's a button on the remote ...

Last thing: If you don't have more influence over your kids than TV commercials have over them, the content of the commercials is the least of your worries. Taking the time to develop and maintain a real relationship with your children might be a better place to start than lobbying TV networks and advertisers to change the content of their ads.

NASCAR MAY JUSTIFY ELITISM

Watching fast cars drive around a big oval ... over and over and over ... and over and over and over again. How fascinating?! Evidence that this country is populated by a very large plurality of mouth-breathing imbeciles is THE POPULATITY OF NASCAR. In fact, it may tend to prove that Obama's style of governance (elitism) is justified: because most of "us" are too unsophisticated, and too uninformed, and too lazy and too poorly educated -- and too busy watching a bunch of cars drive around and around an oval -- to make wise decisions about important things for ourselves.

2009-09-18T22:15:00.005-04:00

A REAL ROLE MODEL

Now here is a man whose life and death should be celebrated the way the media and others celebrated Michael Jackson's life and death.

DALLAS (AP) -- Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug rose from his childhood on an Iowa farm to develop a type of wheat that helped feed the world, fostering a movement that is credited with saving up to 1 billion people from starvation.

Borlaug, 95, died Saturday from complications of cancer at his Dallas home, said Kathleen Phillips, a spokesman for Texas A&M University where Borlaug was a distinguished professor.

"Norman E. Borlaug saved more lives than any man in human history," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. "His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world."

He was known as the father of the "green revolution," which transformed agriculture through high-yield crop varieties and other innovations, helping to more than double world food production between 1960 and 1990. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

"He has probably done more and is known by fewer people than anybody that has done that much," said Dr. Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who persuaded Borlaug teach at the school. "He made the world a better place - a much better place."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called Borlaug "simply one of the world's best. A determined, dedicated, but humble man who believed we had the collective duty and knowledge to eradicate hunger worldwide."

Borlaug began the work that led to his Nobel in Mexico at the end of World War II. There he developed disease-resistant varieties of wheat that produced much more grain than traditional strains.

He and others later took those varieties and similarly improved strains of rice and corn to Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled.

His successes in the 1960s came just as experts warned that mass starvation was inevitable as the world's population boomed.

"More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world," Nobel Peace Prize committee chairman Aase Lionaes said in presenting the award to Borlaug in 1970. "We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace."

But Borlaug and the Green Revolution were also criticized in later decades for promoting practices that used fertilizer and pesticides, and focusing on a few high-yield crops that benefited large landowners.

Borlaug often said wheat was only a vehicle for his real interest, which was to improve people's lives.

"We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life," he said in his Nobel acceptance speech. "For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing and effective and compassionate medical care."

Borlaug also pressed governments for farmer-friendly economic policies and improved infrastructure to make markets accessible. A 2006 book about Borlaug is titled "The Man Who Fed the World."

Norman Ernest Borlaug was born March 25, 1914, on a farm near Cresco, Iowa, and educated through the eighth grade in a one-room schoolhouse.

He left home during the Great Depression to study forestry at the University of Minnesota. While there he earned himself a place in the university's wrestling hall of fame and met his future wife, whom he married in 1937. Margaret Borlaug died in 2007 at the age of 95.

After a brief stint with the U.S. Forest Service, Norman Borlaug returned to the University of Minnesota for a doctoral degree in plant pathology. He then worked as a microbiologist for DuPont, but soon left for a job with the Rockefeller Foundation. Between 1944 and 1960, Borlaug dedicated himself to increasing Mexico's wheat production.

In 1963, Borlaug was named head of the newly formed International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, where he trained thousands of young scientists.

Borlaug retired as head of the center in 1979 and turned to university teaching, first at Cornell University and then at Texas A&M, which presented him with an honorary doctorate in December 2007.

He remained active well into his 90s, campaigning for the use of biotechnology to fight hunger. He also helped found and served as president of the Sasakawa Africa Foundation, an organization funded by Japanese billionaire Ryoichi Sasakawa to introduce the green revolution to sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1986, Borlaug established the Des Moines, Iowa-based World Food Prize, a $250,000 award given each year to a person whose work improves the world's food supply.

He received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, in 2007.

2009-09-10T23:51:00.001-04:00

JUST ANOTHER TROJAN HORSE

Everybody still debating "health care"? ... another one of Barack Hussein's
Trojan horses. Hidden inside that gift horse: gray, dreary, socialism.
Here is the real story today:

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Benjamin Netanyahu dropped out of sight for most of a day this week, a mysterious absence that has set off feverish speculation about what the Israeli leader was up to - and accusations he lied to cover up a clandestine trip to Moscow. After initially issuing a vague statement about visiting a top-secret Mossad installation inside Israel, Netanyahu kept silent Thursday as reports emerged that he flew to Moscow aboard a private jet for urgent talks on Iran.

The Israeli reports said Netanyahu was joined by his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Meir Kalifi, and national security adviser Uzi Arad. Arad, a former Mossad spymaster, favors a tough line against Tehran and would almost certainly be involved in any preparations to attack Iran. Israel has strongly hinted it is prepared to attack the country's nuclear sites if international sanctions fail to persuade Tehran to curb its atomic program.

As the rumors swirled of clandestine talks, Russian officials remained silent. "We have seen these reports in various media, and you know that not all the details add up, but there is nothing more I can tell you," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying Thursday. The Russian daily Kommersant, citing a "highly placed source in the Kremlin," confirmed the visit and speculated the talks had been on an extremely urgent matter, "like Israel updating Russia on its intention to attack Iran."

2009-09-09T01:29:00.000-04:00

SUCKS TO BE OLD IN OBAMA-LAND

Have you heard the good news:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans would be fined up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance under a plan that circulated in Congress on Tuesday. Just as auto coverage is now mandatory in nearly all states, Baucus would require that all Americans get health insurance once the system is overhauled. Penalties for failing to do so would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level - about $66,000 for a family of four - would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.

But that's not even the part I want to talk about. This is: The Baucus plan would require insurers to take all applicants, regardless of age or health. However, smokers could be charged higher premiums. And 60-year-olds could be charged five times as much for a policy as 20-year-olds.

What?! Five times as much for being old? How is that right?

And what about obese people? Will they be required to pay five times as much? They better be. Or is the "fat lobby" in congress too powerful?

What about old and obese? Ten times as much?

How about users of crack and meth? Fifty times as much?

What about caffeine abusers? And people who intentionally deprive themselves of enough sleep (by watching television and surfing the internet for porn all night -- for example)? Seven and a half times as much?

Why is Obama so down on elderly people?

I guess it sucks to be old in China or Russia, huh?

I never realized until now that Socialists and Marxists and Communists were so hard on older people.

2009-09-08T00:59:00.001-04:00

Tennis Questions

In the spirit of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, let me ask some "tennis questions":

Why do the female tennis players waste energy hopping up and down in between points, as if their muscles are going to freeze up on them in fifteen or twenty seconds? And have you ever noticed that male players don't engage in this pointless hopping behavior?
Also - and even more importantly -- why do female players stuff a tennis ball in their panties when it is their turn to serve? Do they not realize that they are playing in the U.S. Open and that they can get as many balls as they want from one of the seventy-five or so ball boys (and girls) standing around the court?
Moreover, why do so many players "check" the balls that are tossed to them and then throw out the one or two that don't seem to meet their standards (whatever those are). I have assumed they are looking for the newer looking, and therefore, more lively balls. So why stuff one in your sweaty panties? Isn't that ball now automatically not one of the more lively balls?
And another point to make about stuffing balls in your panties: they never seem to take that ball out and use it anyway. They just play the entire service game with that ball stuck in there. Hello-o-oo!
And last but not least ... it looks ridiculous.

P.S.
I'm not even going to mention the useless, energy-sapping grunting that goes on. It doesn't help them hit the ball harder. It just uses energy they should be saving for the third (or fifth) set. It has gotten so bad that I have to watch the womens' matches with the sound turned down!

Someone make them stop! ...please!!

2009-09-03T03:37:00.002-04:00

C'mon! Don't Kid Yourself

We've all wished we could do this at one time or another.

I recommend hiring a guy like this to walk the floor at every Walmart store and do this full-time.

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) -- Police say a 61-year-old man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a suburban Atlanta Walmart slapped the child several times after warning the toddler's mother to keep her quiet. A police report says after the stranger hit the girl at least four times, he said: "See, I told you I would shut her up."

Authorities say the girl and her mother were shopping Monday when the toddler began crying. The police report says Stephens approached the mother and said, "If you don't shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you." Authorities say a short time later Stephens slapped the child, who then began screaming [so he slapped her a few more times and she, apparently, shut up]. Police say an examination showed the girl's face was slightly red.

A call to the girl's mother was answered by a woman who identified herself as Sabrina Mathis, the victim's aunt. [Her mother was out on the front porch sitting in the detached front seat of an '83 Chevy drinking a 40oz. malt liquor -- just to "calm her nerves" after the incident at Walmart]. Mathis said that the girl is doing fine. "As of today, she has really forgotten about it," Mathis said. "She's been playing."

2009-09-02T22:38:00.002-04:00

McDonnell Needs To
Grow Some Cohunes

Of course Bob McDonnell believed what he wrote in his law school thesis paper about cohabitators, homosexuals, and fornicators, and he almost certainly still believes those same things today. I've read his thesis paper, entitled "The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of the Decade", and although it is not one of the more persuasive or well written arguments I've ever read, the general premises are correct, and he should have the cohunes to stand by what he believes. ...Then again, I guess that's a little too much to ask of a politician.

I would be more specific than Bob "let-me-start-kissing-up-to-the-homosexual-lobby" McDonnell was in his 1989 paper and assert that this culture brings tremendous pressure to bear on mothers of young children to work outside the home. But that is more about economics, greed and difficult personal choices than it is about government policy. Hard-core "feminists" (a obsolete term, but useful in the 70's and 80's) and homosexuals are, without question, making this country a hostile environment for married couples who seek to live according to traditional Judeo-Christian family values.

And so, by the way, are spineless politicians who claim to be Christians, but who suddenly don't act like it when they fear losing votes or campaign contributions.

Mr. McDonnell concludes his 1989 paper with fifteen "standards that keep men free". Among those fifteen are these four: 1) be honest 2) have convictions 3) have courage and 4) stand for truth. These can be found in his Appendix B on page 84. However, it sounds to me like Bob has abandoned all four of those standards. I guess that means Bob won't be free any more.

You should be very proud of yourself Bob. You just did the backstroke more quickly than any other professed Christian politician in modern times. Well done ... coward.

P.S. Your law school thesis does, in fact, suggest you would support workplace discrimination against women. I don't think you would actually do that, and neither does your opponent. However, you have not adequately responded to that implication by merely pointing out that your daughters have master's degrees and that one of them served in the military. What the heck does that have to do with anything? That’s about as effective as asserting as proof that you have no racial prejudice that some of your best friends are negroes.

You may want to consider hiring a better damage control person for your campaign, if that’s the best you can do.

2009-08-30T02:35:00.001-04:00

Greed & Stupidity Don't Mix Well

MIAMI (AP) -- Police in Florida are using the promise of a stimulus check to make some arrests.

Authorities in Fort Lauderdale say they sent letters to fugitives offering them stimulus money. The suspects were asked to call a hot line and set up an appointment to pickup a check from an auditorium where "South Florida Stimulus Coalition" banners hung.

When the fugitives arrived, they were identified and about 75 were arrested on offenses ranging from grand theft to fraud to attempted murder.

Police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa says the two-day sting was dubbed "Operation Show Me The Money." Sousa says the sting saved man hours and allowed police to make arrests in a controlled environment.

Sousa said Thursday the department may try something similar in the future.

2009-08-29T02:47:00.003-04:00

Coming Soon

Remember my blog post predicting that Israel will bomb Iran some time soon?

http://circumspective.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-won-t-be-long-now-t-ry-not-to-get.html

Well ... read the [condensed] Associated Press report below and then tell me:
Who wants to bet against that happening before the end of this calendar year?

VIENNA (AP) -- Iran is stonewalling the U.N. nuclear watchdog on "possible military dimensions" to its suspect nuclear program, officials said Friday, urging the regime to clarify the mysterious role of a foreign explosives expert and shed light on other issues.

A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as "fabrication," insisting his country has gone out of its way to be transparent and cooperative.

In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency delivered a blunt assessment: "Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities. There remain a number of outstanding issues which give rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," said the text, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The report contained a reference to a "foreign national with explosives expertise" who apparently assisted the Iranian nuclear program. It did not identify the expert by name or nationality, and officials - pressed by the AP for details - would not elaborate.

"We are very concerned that they are not addressing the concerns of the international community," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Friday in Washington.

Since August 12th, Iran has installed roughly 1,000 more centrifuges...

Link to previous ("Israel will soon bomb Iran") blog post: http://circumspective.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-won-t-be-long-now-t-ry-not-to-get.html

2009-08-26T22:15:00.004-04:00

Feeding the Hungry ...
Why Do I Keep Harping On This Subject?

Please let me explain ... and please don't stop reading this message until you finish it.
Yes. It's a hard message. I don't bother trying to candy-coat the truth, because I don't have to worry about congregation members being "offended" [by the truth] and leaving my church.
So, here is the hard truth:

Who are the sheep and who are the goats? Matthew 25:31-46: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ... So who are these sheep and goats? Have you always assumed that because you profess to be a Christian and attend church [and occasionally read the Bible and occasionally pray, etc., etc.], that you will be counted among the sheep? Why have you assumed that? The scriptures seem to indicate just the opposite in many instances.

Jesus himself said, "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

[Do people not claiming to be Christians "prophesy" in Jesus' name? Do people not professing to be Christians drive out demons and perform miracles in Jesus' name? It sounds to me like these goats thought for all the world that they were going to be counted among the sheep.] "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." --Matthew 7:21-27 But what words must we put into practice? What is God's will for us? Well, I don't presume to know what God speaks to each of you individually, but I do know at least one thing that he expects and requires all of us to do. Let's finish reading the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 25:

Matthew 25:31-46 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

And what about the scriptures in the books of James and 1st John? They seem to say the same thing:

I John 3:17-18: If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

JAS 1:22-25: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

JAS 2:14-20: What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

JAS 5:1-5: Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

Are you consuming the resources God has given to you ... that He intended for you to use to help feed hungry (starving to death) people? What did you do this month instead of helping to save a few lives -- or a few dozen, or a few hundred? Go to church? Say a prayer for the hungry? Prophesy? Cast out demons in Jesus' name? Sing a song? Lead yet another Bible study? Profess your faith? Go on vacation to the beach? Play a round of golf? Buy another useless gadget? There's still time to repent (be sorry, ask forgiveness and start acting/living differently). Life is too short and eternity too long to even risk the possibility that we may be counted among the "goats". Can we feed everyone? No. Can we feed some? Yes. But which ones? How many? How much money does God want you or I to give to feed the hungry? How can we know? By asking Him and then waiting and listening for an answer. Have you even asked lately? So what did He say? Are you doing what he said? Are you giving what he told you to give? It is estimated that about forty-one thousand children die of starvation every day. Do you know what it feels like to die of starvation? I don't either. So I looked it up. I read about it. It takes a long time. It is slow and painful.

And totally unnecessary for anyone on this earth to die that way.

Yes. God's grace is sufficient. Unless we spend our lives being "hearers" who merely give God lipservice by doing all kinds of super-religious stuff, but never doing the simplest and most obvious act of love and sacrifice: keeping God's children from starving to death.

If you spend your life ignoring those children, pretending they don't exist, that it's not your problem, that God hasn't "called" you to help, letting them die, day after day after day, while you consume the resources God meant for them ...
then, frankly, you deserve to hear the words, "Depart from me...".

That is the plain, hard truth that you probably won't hear from your local church pulpit.

2009-08-24T00:26:00.004-04:00

THE WEED-EATER HAIR-DO

What's the deal with the popular new hair-do for guys (you know the one that looks like a mockingbird having a bad feather day)? If I'm not mistaken, it started with homosexuals on television and spread from there. Is that where our heterosexual young men get their "fashion" trends now? From "please notice me" perverts?
By the way, guys ... it looks idiotic. I mean, how much time do you waste every day standing in front of a mirror trying to make your hair look like you haven't combed it in a week and had it cut by a barber wielding a weed-eater? Idiotic ... and transparently narcissistic.
Did I mention idiotic?

2009-08-21T00:25:00.000-04:00

WHAT HAPPENED?
I thought they said the recession was over.

A quarterly report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association found that more than 13 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage have fallen behind on their payments or are in foreclosure.
That's another new record, and an indication that the foreclosure crisis is still getting worse as layoffs continue to soar.

The record-high numbers released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association are being driven by borrowers with traditional fixed-rate mortgages, rather than the shady subprime loans with adjustable rates that kicked off the mortgage crisis. Past experience indicates that foreclosures probably won't stop rising until about six months after layoffs peak. And economists don't expect unemployment, now at 9.4 percent, to crest until this winter at the earliest. New jobless claims rose for the second straight week, disappointing "analysts" (financial weasels, like stock brokers, mortgage brokers and bankers, who make money whenever you spend yours).

But hey, there is some good news. One of those companies that got bail-out money (Morgan Stanley) will add as many as 400 professionals in trading and sales this year, said an anonymous person familiar with the hiring, who did not wish to be identified because the job additions were not formally announced.

Now, doesn't that make you feel better?

My prediction: The real recession is just getting started. False hopes and declarations of blue skies ahead will continue for a few months, and then ... even the more entrenched liars will have to admit what is happening. Once they do, the free fall of our economy will begin in earnest.

2009-08-18T22:39:00.009-04:00

DYING TO SELF
and Following Christ Is Such A Difficult Thing To Do ...
Frankly, I Don't Believe Anyone Can Do All He Commmanded.
So Where Does That Leave Us?

Repenting.

Asking For Forgiveness.

And Being Thankful For The Unmerited Favor Of God.

LUKE 6:27-46:
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' lend to `sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

"Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

Repent.

Ask for forgiveness.

And be thankful.

Very thankful.

2009-08-16T20:42:00.010-04:00

Obesity: Our National Disgrace

Everyone wants to join the debate about health care, so here's my two cents worth. People who choose obesity over self-control should be made responsible for a greater portion of the cost of health care. If you want to let your appetite be your god, then you may choose to do so in a rich, free society. But, by God, you should have to pay for it ... and not just figuratively, but also literally. Why should I have to work to pay for the consequences of your unbridled appetite?

I am so sick of tip-toeing around the subject of obesity. It is not a disease! Its not a "diability". Its not a "condition". It is, in fact, something you have chosen to become (in 99.99% of cases). Yes, this is a "free society" -- for the time being -- but if you are going to keep choosing, day after day, to disdain exercise and eat like a self-destructive glutton, then you should be required to pay four or five times as much for your health care as people who choose to live a reasonably healthy lifestyle. That's what they do with smokers. They penalize them for their unhealthy choice. So ... why is this same principle not applied to gluttons? Obesity "costs" our society more than cigarette smoking.

I just came back from running a few errands (to the grocery store, gas station, etc.). Two out of every three people I saw were obese. This is a national disgrace. It is disgusting and pathetic and ... disgraceful. Motorized shopping carts for fat people?! When you are so fat and so lazy that you don't even have the will to walk around the store to buy the crap that is making you fat ...
God forbid you might get a few minutes of exercise by walking and actually burn a calorie!

In the vast majority of cases, obesity is not the result of any "disease" or medical condition, as some would have us believe. It is simply the result, in most cases, not all, of a lack of self-discipline. It is the result of unbridled self-indulgence. And if you want to claim that you are "addicted" to food, go ahead. So what? I've been addicted to a few things in my life, too. I'm not addicted to them any more. Do you know why? Because I made a choice (actually many choices over a long period of time) to stop feeding my addictions. It is a matter of choice.

The Bible refers to the kind of self-indulgence that leads to obesity as "gluttony", but gluttony has become so prevalent that even pastors of fundamentalist churches are afraid to speak or preach against it any more. Why? Because they would probably lose more than half their congregation, all people ready to run away to a different church if anyone so much as suggests that maybe they need to think about developing a little more self-discipline.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think people who are dealing with obvious and uncontrolled drug abuse or alcohol abuse problems are usually installed into "ministry" or leadership positions in the church. So why do we allow obese people to serve in those same positions. Obesity (gluttony) is evidence of the very same character flaws that produce all kinds of other sin. Why is everyone afraid to say, "Hey, Pastor, go sit down and be quiet until you lose about 75 pounds. You don't have much credibility because you are obviously a self-indulgent glutton.Try skipping one of your five meals or ten snacks tomorrow. Have you ever heard of 'fasting'? ... I didn't think so."

Its all about self-indulgence versus self-denial.
It really is that simple folks.

We just try to make it complicated so we can hide behind all the speculative theories and fancy rationalizations, behind all the ridiculous excuses and psychological jargon that substitutes for the plain, simple truth:
You're FAT. You need to control your appetite. Period.

Many people who are obese don't even realize that they are, by definition, "obese". "Oh ... yeah ... I'm over weight, they think to themselves." NO. You are obese! It's just that when you only compare yourself to the other overweight and obese people around you, you seem almost average. And now, with 60% of our population obese, that's an easy distortion of reality to adopt. It also feels better to all our sensitive little psyches to delude ourselves than it does to accept reality.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this national disgrace is the prevalence of obesity among children. There are many types of abuse, but one that is being overlooked is the abuse of making food so constantly accessible to your children that they become obese before they even get through puberty. That is more than lazy parenting. It is child abuse. Obesity, as I'm sure you already know is a major contributing factor to numerous medical problems, not to mention the poor self-esteem and related psychological and social adjustment problems that usually accompany child obesity.

The main point of this rant once more, so you'll get it: if you are going to keep choosing, day after day, to disdain exercise and eat like a gluttonous, self-destructive glutton, then ...
you should be required to pay four or five times as much for your health care as people who choose to live a reasonably healthy lifestyle.

All right. I'm done ... for the moment. Now you can go get into your motorized shopping cart and buy yourself another five gallons of ice cream. Be careful not to accidentally throw a fresh vegetable or a piece of fruit into your cart. Wouldn't wanna waste good money on something like that! Oh, and don't forget to stop by that fast-food drive-through on your way home and get a couple of those giant, grease-dripping piles of fat that you all so affectionately refer to as "burgers".

Was this blog post written to you?
Gee, I hope I didn't hurt your big fat feelings.

2009-08-16T20:42:00.006-04:00

What have they ever done to us?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win. With 62,000 U.S. troops already in Afghanistan ...

"The administration has raised the stakes by transforming the Afghan war from a limited intervention into a more ambitious and potentially risky counterinsurgency," the Senate report concluded. "These core questions about commitment and sacrifice can be answered only through a rigorous and informed national debate."

Appearing alongside Gates, the nation's second-highest ranking military officer agreed there is no date certain for an exit. Military officials [who know better than politicians, of course] believe the Afghanistan mission can only succeed if troops are there far longer - anywhere from five years to 12 years.

_______________________________________________________________

I will ask this question until American troops are no longer there, or until I die, whichever comes first:
Why are we killing people (including non-combatant civilians) in Afghanistan?
What have they ever done to us?!
Osama Bin Laden isn't even there any more.

This country must be populated and governed by some of the most arrogant, imperialistic bunch of bigoted yahoos in the history of the world. How much revenge is enough? Do you think maybe we've overreacted just a tad? The twin towers was nine years ago. Between 13,000 and 17,000 people (depending on what source you consult) are killed each year by drunk drivers! Are we going to declare war on drunk drivers? Invade their front yards with tanks? Kill their families? Killed by firearms in this country: more than 28,000 a year.
About 41,000 children die of starvation in the world every day!
Maybe you need to read that statistic again.
Forty-one thousand every day.
Who is angry about that? Why haven't we declared war on starvation and hunger and malnutrition?
Why are we still obsessed, nine years later, with 3,000 lives?

Here is the answer to the question I keep asking (the question for which no one has offered an answer): We are still killing people in Afghanistan because we are afraid, and fear makes people do bad things. We are bullies beating up on the scrawniest kid in school -- because we are compelled by our collective insecurities to keep "proving" that we are the toughest kid on the playground. We are there because they are the poor step-child of Islamic countries and none of their siblings has the guts to step in and try to stop us.
Well, we may have proved once again that we're the toughest, but we are also proving that we are no longer the smartest or the most Christian. We are international bullies -- arrogant, blood-thirsty bullies. This "war" (military oppression of another culture) is obscene. The amazing part is that we have 62,000 troops in that country for no good reason and very few Americans seem to even notice or care.

I know ... Americans have more pressing issues to contemplate and pray about, like whether or not they will refinance their mortgages for the third time so they can go out and buy that 52" plasma TV before football season starts.

Yes. God bless America. Forgive me for interrupting your prayer-filled lives.

Like I've explained before, I'm not against the troops. I disagree with the decision-makers. I hope all our sons and daughters come home safely ... tomorrow.

2009-08-16T20:42:00.002-04:00

CHINA DEAD SERIOUS ABOUT FRAUD

BEIJING (AP) -- China executed two business people for defrauding hundreds of investors out of more than $127 million, calling the scam a serious blow to social stability, state media said Thursday.

Though usually reserved for violent crimes, death sentences are also applied for nonviolent offenses that involve large sums of money or are seen to threaten social order.

The two were executed Wednesday.

And we're still housing Charles Manson in a California prison forty years after he committed his mass murders.

HOW LONG DO YOU THINK OBAMA'S FRIENDS WOULD LAST IN CHINA?
Maybe we could institute the death penalty for politicians who forget to pay their taxes. I bet almost no one would "forget" anymore. ... Just thinkin' out loud here. Stop me if you hear something you like.

2009-08-16T20:39:00.002-04:00

It Won't Be Long Now

Try not to get too distracted by all these silly (relatively speaking) political issues. If you are not truly ready to meet your Maker, I recommend you take care of that very soon.

On May 28th, I wrote about the one real issue facing all of us:

"... In Iran, on the other hand, Mahmood I'm-a-dinner-jacket seems to have evil principles giving structure to his grandiose thought processes. He seems to have darkness as his guide and death to Israeli and American societies as the primary objectives in his life. ...He just keeps moving forward toward his stated goals, while the rest of us do nothing to stop him from reaching those goals. And he will probably reach them in the very near future (within a year or two).

So let's do the difficult thing now, because what is difficult now may be impossible later ... Let's act NOW to reduce [Iran's] ability to "bring America to its knees". Later might be a little too late. All we have to do is keep our mouths shut except to express full support for the Isrealis, and then either help them or stay out of their way when the time comes. ... [W]e will all be quietly relieved and grateful when the Isreali Air Force effectively relieves Iran of its nuclear capabilities. All of us. Including the most vehement and far left critics. They just won't be honest enough to admit it."

Today, there was this story:

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel hardened its insistence Monday that it would do anything it felt necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, just the ultimatum the United States hoped not to hear as it tried to nudge Iran to the bargaining table.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak used a brief news conference with Gates to insist three times that Israel would not rule out any response - an implied warning that it would consider a pre-emptive strike to thwart Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table," Barak said. "This is our policy. We mean it. We recommend to others to take the same position, but we cannot dictate it to anyone."

Israel considers itself the prime target of any eventual Iranian bomb. Iran says it is merely trying to develop nuclear reactors for domestic power generation. Israeli leaders fear the U.S. prizes its outreach to Iran over its historic ties to Israel and appears resigned to the idea that Iran will soon be able to build a nuclear weapon.

Obama says he has accepted no such thing. Still, the United States argues that an Israeli attack against Iran would upset the fragile security balance in the Middle East, perhaps triggering a new nuclear arms race and leaving everyone, including Israel and Iran, worse off.

All this comes at a time when Washington's policy of dialogue with Iran itself has hit an impasse because of that country's election turmoil.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "reiterated the seriousness (with) which Israel views Iran's nuclear ambitions and the need to utilize all available means to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability," Netanyahu's office said following his meeting with Gates.

Both Barak and Gates said time is short. Other officials have said Iran is perhaps one to three years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon.

It won't be long now.

2009-08-16T20:36:00.003-04:00

Gee ... I Wonder Why They Don't Like Us Over There?

Here's a cute story about
American troops routinely murdering Iraqi civilians:

... a story that compels me to once again revisit the question:
Why do we still have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Soldiers from an Army unit that had ten infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Some Fort Carson, Colo.-based soldiers have had trouble adjusting to life back in the United States, saying they refused to seek help, or were belittled or punished for seeking help. Others say they were ignored by their commanders, or coped through drug and alcohol abuse before they allegedly committed crimes, The Gazette of Colorado Springs said.

The Gazette based its report on months of interviews with soldiers and their families, medical and military records, court documents and photographs.

Several soldiers said unit discipline deteriorated while in Iraq.

"Toward the end, we were so mad and tired and frustrated," said Daniel Freeman. "You came too close, we lit you up. You didn't stop, we ran your car over with the Bradley," an armored fighting vehicle.

With each roadside bombing, soldiers would fire in all directions "and just light the whole area up," said Anthony Marquez, a friend of Freeman in the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. "If anyone was around, that was their fault. We smoked 'em."

Taxi drivers got shot for no reason, and others were dropped off bridges after interrogations, said Marcus Mifflin, who was eventually discharged with post traumatic stress syndrome.

"You didn't get blamed unless someone could be absolutely sure you did something wrong," he said

Soldiers interviewed by The Gazette cited lengthy deployments, being sent back into battle after surviving war injuries that would have been fatal in previous conflicts, and engaging in some of the bloodiest combat in Iraq. The soldiers describing those experiences were part of the 3,500-soldier unit now called the 4th Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team.

Since 2005, some brigade soldiers also have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides.

The unit was deployed for a year to Iraq's Sunni Triangle in September 2004. Sixty-four unit soldiers were killed and more than 400 wounded - about double the average for Army brigades in Iraq, according to Fort Carson. In 2007, the unit served a bloody 15-month mission in Baghdad. It's currently deployed to the Khyber Pass region in Afghanistan.

Marquez was the first in his brigade to kill someone after an Iraq tour. In 2006, he used a stun gun to shock a drug dealer in Widefield, Colo., in a dispute over a marijuana sale, then shot and killed him.

Marquez's mother, Teresa Hernandez, warned Marquez's sergeant at Fort Carson her son was showing signs of violent behavior, abusing alcohol and pain pills and carrying a gun. "I told them he was a walking time bomb," she said.

Hernandez said the sergeant later taunted Marquez about her phone call.

"If I was just a guy off the street, I might have hesitated to shoot," Marquez told The Gazette in the Bent County Correctional Facility, where he is serving a 30-year prison term. "But after Iraq, it was just natural."

The Army trains soldiers to be that way, said Kenneth Eastridge, an infantry specialist serving 10 years for accessory to murder.

"The Army pounds it into your head until it is instinct: Kill everybody, kill everybody," he said. "And you do. Then they just think you can just come home and turn it off."

Both soldiers were wounded, sent back into action and saw friends and officers killed in their first deployment. On numerous occasions, explosions shredded the bodies of civilians, others were slain in sectarian violence - and the unit had to bag the bodies.

"Guys with drill bits in their eyes," Eastridge said. "Guys with nails in their heads."

Last week, the Army released a study of soldiers at Fort Carson that found that the trauma of fierce combat and soldier refusals or obstacles to seeking mental health care may have helped drive some to violence at home. It said more study is needed.

While most unit soldiers coped post-deployment, a handful went on to kill back home in Colorado.

Many returning soldiers did seek counseling.

"We're used to seeing people who are depressed and want to hurt themselves. We're trained to deal with that," said Davida Hoffman, director of the privately operated First Choice Counseling Center in Colorado Springs. "But these soldiers were depressed and saying, 'I've got this anger, I want to hurt somebody.' We weren't accustomed to that."

At Fort Carson, Eastridge and other soldiers said they lied during an army screening about their deployment that was designed to detect potential behavioral problems.

Sergeants sometimes refused to let soldiers get PTSD help or taunted them, said Andrew Pogany, a former Fort Carson special forces sergeant who investigates complaints for the advocacy group Veterans for America.

Soldier John Needham described a number of alleged crimes in a December 2007 letter to the Inspector General's Office of Fort Carson. In the letter, obtained by The Gazette, Needham said that a sergeant shot a boy riding a bicycle down the street for no reason.

Another sergeant shot a man in the head while questioning him, lashed the man's body to his Humvee and drove around the neighborhood. Needham also claimed sergeants removed victims' brains.

The Army's criminal investigation division interviewed unit soldiers and said it couldn't substantiate the allegations.

The Army has declared soldiers' mental health a top priority.

"When we see a problem, we try to identify it and really learn what we can do about it. That is what we are trying to do here," said Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, Fort Carson's commander. "There is a culture and a stigma that needs to change."

Fort Carson officers are trained to help troops showing stress signs, and the base has doubled its number of behavioral-health counselors. Soldiers seeing an Army doctor for any reason undergo a mental health evaluation.

Nice, huh?

2009-08-16T20:33:00.001-04:00

there's something fishy about that old lady

CHICAGO (AP) -- Authorities said a 86-year-old woman charged with shoplifting wrinkle cream and other items from a Chicago grocery store has been arrested 61 times since 1956. Ella Orko was arrested Sunday afternoon on the North Side after she allegedly stuffed $252 worth of groceries into her pants, including cosmetics, salmon, batteries and instant coffee.

She was charged with felony shoplifting. Police said Orko has gone by as many as 20 aliases in the past. Court records indicate that she has now been arrested 61 times and has 13 convictions for shoplifting. She was arrested the first time in 1956 in Chicago for petty larceny.

[Prior to a strip search, Ms. Orko was asked by a female seargent: "Are you just having a really bad hygiene day, ma'am, or are you actually hiding unrefrigerated salmon in your underpants?"]

2009-08-14T00:30:00.003-04:00

ARE WE ACTUALLY DEBATING THIS?

Why is there even a debate about whether or not the government should become heavily involved in (or even control) health care in this country?

The people who are not opposed to more government involvement just need to visit the average Veteran's Administration (VA) hospital and/or have a conversation about government-provided health care with a few veterans who have been receiving it for a while. I am fairly certain that would end the debate.

Veteran's Hospitals are the worst hospitals in the country by almost any standard of measure, and the "care" provided through the Veteran's Administration is the worst in the country, hands down.
That is not even debatable.

This is the banking system all over again. This is the auto industry all over again. Why are 50% of the citizens in this country so slow to learn?
The only people who will benefit from Obama's proposed health care reform are the drug company executives and the friends of government officials.

So, if you think you want government-run health care system, go hang out at a VA hospital for a while and ask some veterans how well things are going.

What we ought to be debating is how to make other options (private options) available to veterans, not how to force the rest of us into a system as pathetic as the Veteran's Administration. How about more choices for them, not fewer for us.

2009-08-13T03:34:00.013-04:00

Don't Be Naive.
Be Prepared.

Have you heard? The "recession" is over. The economy is "leveling off".

Don't be naive.

The number of foreclosures rose 7 percent from June to July. Banks repossessed more than 87,000 homes in July, up from about 79,000 homes a month earlier.
The federal government has "monetized" more than 1.2 trillion dollars of its own debt since Obama took office, including hundreds of billions more just last week.

If you don't know what that means, I'll tell you: Hyper-inflation is inevitable now. The result of that ... probably economic chaos, the big crash. Reality is about to smack down the once great United States of America. The mass delusion will finally be revealed: the church in America (Christian believers in this country) are in the same position as was the church in Laodicea:

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
--Revelation 3:14-22

On February 5th, I wrote: "A wise person once observed that people (populations, cultures, societies) usually end up getting the government they deserve. I also believe that, which means the freedoms we have been abusing and taking for granted in the United States, and the ever-increasing level of collective greed and self-interest that motivates our decisions and actions will have (and is already having) the effect of an ever-decreasing level of freedom and prosperity."

That "ever-decreasing level of prosperity" will suddenly plummet in coming years. Be prepared for it. At least think it through. How will you respond when it happens? How will you live?
Remember: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon [money]."

-- Matthew 6:24

2009-08-10T02:44:00.012-04:00

SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

Definition from Wikipedia: A broad class of theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order.

Definition from an episode of House: Collaborative lies. Giving someone a hand who maybe needs to deceive himself. For example you tell me that my nose suits my face and, in return, I don't mention that the pants you're wearing make you look even fatter than you look in your other clothes.

Thus, in a sense, they are very much the same theory. In the first, people give up rights to a government in order to maintain social order (or so they are led to believe), and in the second, people give up the ability to know and tell the truth in exchange for not hurting each other's feelings.
Gosh, that second one sounds sooo worth it! What a great contract ... exclaimed the Father of Lies with utmost glee.

[For those who would like to read more about Social Contract Theory: Thomas Hobbes (1651), John Locke (1689) and Jean-Jaques Rousseau (1762) are the most famous philosophers of contractarianism, which formed the theoretical groundwork of democracy and republicanism. Just Google those names and you'll have more to read than you ever really wanted to read on the subject.]

Speaking of lies, let's talk about lies for a few minutes ... shall we?

To lie is to state something that one knows to be false or that one has not reasonably ascertained to be true with the intention that it be taken for the truth. One may lie to oneself as well as to others. In fact, lying to oneself may be even more undesirable and destructive than lying to others. At least when you lie intentionally to another, you know that what you have said is a lie. But to be self-deceived -- that is, to tell oneself a lie and believe it to be the truth -- is a dangerous position in which to be.

Types of lies

Lies come in all shapes and sizes. For example, one of the more common lies is told when someone submits a statement as truth, without knowing for certain whether or not it actually is true. Although the statement may be possible or plausible, it is not based on fact. Rather, it is based on a certain amount of speculation and could be more accurately described as an educated guess. However, the person boldly asserting it conveniently fails to qualify the statement by using words such as, "I believe ... " or "I read somewhere that ..." or "I am fairly certain that ...".

Lying by omission: One lies by omission by omitting an important fact, deliberately leaving another person with a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions.

White lie: A white lie would cause only relatively minor discord if it were uncovered, and typically offers some benefit to the hearer. White lies are often used to avoid offense, such as complimenting something one finds unattractive. In this case, the lie is told to avoid the harmful realistic implications of the truth. As a concept, it is largely defined by local custom and cannot be clearly separated from other lies with any authority.

Noble lie: A noble lie is one which would normally cause discord if it were uncovered, but which offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore potentially beneficial to others. It is often told to maintain law, order and safety.

Emergency lie: An emergency lie is a strategic lie told when the truth may not be told because, for example, harm to a third party would result. For example, a neighbor might lie to an enraged wife about the whereabouts of her unfaithful husband, because said wife might reasonably be expected to inflict physical injury should she encounter her husband in person.

Perjury: The act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.

Bluffing: To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention which one does not actually possess.

Misleading/Dissembling: A misleading statement is one where there is no outright lie, but still retains the purpose of getting someone to believe in an untruth. "Dissembling" likewise describes the presentation of facts in a way that is literally true, but intentionally misleading.

Exaggeration
I think we're all familiar with this one.

Jocose lies: Jocose lies are those which are meant in jest, and are usually understood as such by all present parties. Teasing and sarcasm are examples.

Contextual lies: One can state part of the truth out of context, knowing that without complete information, it gives a false impression. Likewise, one can actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them. To say "yeah, that's right, I slept with your best friend" utilizing a sarcastic, offended tone, may cause the listener to assume the speaker did not mean what he said, when in fact he did.

Puffery: An exaggerated claim typically found in advertising and publicity announcements, such as "the highest quality at the lowest price," or "always votes in the best interest of all the people," or "even a jeweler cannot tell it from a genuine diamond."

Lying in Trade: The seller of a product or service may advertise untrue facts about the product or service in order to gain sales, especially by competitive advantage. Many countries have enacted laws that hold sellers liable for omission of any material fact that the buyer relies upon.

Lie by obsolete signage: Examples are the continued use of old stationery that has printed information such as a previous telephone number, or advertising that remains painted on a wall after an enterprise has ceased business.

Psychology of lying

Young children learn from experience that stating an untruth can avoid punishment for misdeeds, before they develop the theory of mind necessary to understand why it works. In this stage of development, children will sometimes tell outrageous and unbelievable lies, because they lack the conceptual framework to judge whether a statement is believable, or even to understand the concept of believability. When children first learn how lying works, they lack the moral understanding of when to refrain from doing it. It takes years of watching people tell lies, and the results of these lies, to develop the ability to lie convincingly.

Morality of lying

The philosophers Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Emmanuel Kant, condemned all lying. According to all three, there are no circumstances in which one may lie. One must be murdered, suffer torture, or endure any other hardship, rather than lie, even if the only way to protect oneself is to lie. Each of these philosophers gave several arguments against lying, all compatible with each other.

Telling one, or even a few lies does not make one a "liar". However, habitual or compulsive lying or an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating does qualify one as a "liar". Jesus refers to Satan as the father of lies (John 8:44) and Paul commands Christians "Do not lie to one another" (Colossians 3:9, Cf.Leviticus 19:11). God says "..all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." [Rev 21:8]

What do you think about that "social contract" (agreement to lie or to not speak the truth to each other) now?

A liar is a person who tends to lie repeatedly. The more one lies (big, small, white, by omission, or whatever), the easier it becomes to tell more lies ... and the more difficult it becomes to stop lying.

Self-deception is the most dangerous form of lie. How can your conscience, or a friend ... or God pull you back from the edge of that Lake if you have been telling yourself lies for so long that you can no longer even recognize the truth ... for so long that your own conscience is no longer even a part of the equation, having been deadened by repeated rejections? That is a dangerous place to live, folks.

Because it is a matter of life and death (literally and eternally), I recommend we all ask God to help us see where we are habitually or repeatedly deceiving ourselves or others.

Are you a Christian? Or do you just claim to be one? Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe that all liars will have their part in the lake that burns? Are you so smug or so arrogant or so self-deceived that you don't even think you need to pray about this one? I hope not. For your sake.

2009-08-09T01:40:00.004-04:00

AFRICAN SPIRITS STAND
IN THE WAY OF PROGRESS

Below is an AP story about Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritea and their various feuds with each other and alleged links to terrorism. It is a long story. It contains a lot of words. It says NOTHING. Don't waste your time reading stories like these. I was there in some of the worst parts of Africa. I experienced the people, the culture, the governments, the churches and the spirits first hand.

The spirits in Africa are in control of that continent. They have been there since the continent was born. They dominate every aspect of life there. Don't expect Africa to change. And don't expect anything good to originate from there. It won't. The old spirits won't allow it. For that continent to begin to change, there would have to be at least two generations of universally accepted education (K-12). That would provide the people with a framework with which to start thinking differently -- and with the ability to have more sophisticated thoughts. Spirits of intimidation, confusion and fear seem to be better able to keep people oppressed if the people are uneducated or poorly educated.

Also, in my opinion, the spirit of religion must be "disinvited" from African schools. It is super-powerful there. And that is why so much confusion arises: the spirit of religion is not interested in educating people, but rather in deceiving them and obtaining (or maintaining) power over them. African schools would be better off staying completely separate from any influence of organized religion, at least until they successfully break free from the control of that spirit.

Africa (AP) -- As it boosts aid to Somalia's weak interim government to fight an al-Qaida-linked Islamist militia, the Obama administration is grasping for ways to cut off what it says is one of the militant group's main supply lines: the tiny Red Sea state of Eritrea.

The enigmatic and authorization nation has emerged as a principle player in the conflict in lawless Somalia, where the enfeebled government is struggling for survival against the extremist al-Shabab faction.

U.S., U.N. and other investigators say the Eritrean government is funneling money, weapons and other supplies to al-Shabab, which Western intelligence agencies regard as a growing regional and international threat bent on using Somalia as a base to export terrorism abroad. Eritrea emerged out of internicine conflict, seceding from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.

Eritrea, a Somalia neighbor about the size of Pennsylvania with a population of only 3.6 million, has consistently denied the charges. Its accusers are equally adamant. The United States, in particular, has been warning the country that it will face sanctions if it doesn't stop supporting the extremists. The African Union has also called for sanctions to be imposed.

After pledging last week to expand U.S. support, including military aid, to the beleaguered Somali government and an undermanned and underequipped African peacekeeping force protecting it, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a stern new warning to Eritrea.

"It is long past time for Eritrea to cease and desist its support for al-Shabab," she said at a news conference with Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. "We are making it very clear that their actions are unacceptable. We intend to take action if they do not cease."

Yet despite similar tough talk dating back to the administration of President George W. Bush, the U.S. has rarely followed up on its warnings to Eritrea. In 2008, the Bush administration found that Eritrea was not fully cooperating in the war on terrorism and slapped an arms embargo on Eritrea.

But the United States has stopped short of more punitive steps, including designating Eritrea a "state sponsor of terrorism," a move that would impose a wide range of additional sanctions.

A senior U.S. official said an Obama administration review of whether Eritrea's activities in Somalia meet the legal requirements for such a designation is still underway and could be completed soon.

Washington's seeming reluctance thus far to take more than token measures against Eritrea is unclear but appears partly rooted in a desire to woo the country away from supporting al-Shabab.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told Congress last month that Eritrea's backing for al-Shabab is "unacceptable and we will not tolerate it." At the same time, she said the United States wants to engage Eritrea and was hopeful the isolated African nation would respond to American entreaties.

But so far, Eritrea has flatly rejected U.S. allegations of support for extremists and has ignored the administration's offers of better relations.

"That's totally untrue, baseless," Eritrea's information minister, Ali Abdu, said when asked about Clinton's assertion that his country is arming al-Shabab. Abdu also denounced the U.S. involvement with the Somali government and said Somalis should "decide their own destiny and future."

Although it denies helping the extremists, Eritrea sheltered one hardline Somali Islamist leader, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, for months in self-exile before he returned to Mogadishu in April. Aweys is on U.S. and U.N. lists of individuals with links to al-Qaida.

Aweys denies ties with al-Qaida but said in June he is working to unite his Islamic Party with al-Shabab, which the U.S. says is harboring at least two al-Qaida operatives involved in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In her comments in Kenya, Clinton maintained that al-Shabab wants to expand and sees "Somalia as a future haven for global terrorism." She noted the recent arrests of four men allegedly linked to the group who are suspected of plotting attacks in Australia.

While it refutes allegations of supporting the militia, Eritrea ridiculed the arrests in Australia, calling them an invention of the CIA intended to confuse "the gullible and naive."

"The objective: to justify the prevailing acts of intervention and domination in the Horn of Africa as well as link the Somali people's popular resistance with 'global terrorism'," ahead of Clinton's visit, Eritrea's foreign ministry said in a commentary posted to its Web site on Aug 5.

Eritrea has also made clear its disdain for the Somali government, which is not only backed by the United Nations, the United States and the African Union but by Eritrea's longtime enemy - Ethiopia.

Many believe that Eritrea and Ethiopia - who have been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia - are fighting a proxy war in Somalia. Ethiopia invaded Eritrea in 2005 to dislodge al-Shabab's predecessor, the Islamic Courts Union, from power.

"We think that solving a problem with another problem is not right, and this is what Eritrea is doing," Ahmed, the Somali president, said in Nairobi with Clinton. "Because Eritrea is having problems with one of its neighbors, it is not right to solve this problem through Somalia."

2009-08-06T03:06:00.003-04:00

CHINA DEAD SERIOUS ABOUT FRAUD

BEIJING (AP) -- China executed two business people for defrauding hundreds of investors out of more than $127 million, calling the scam a serious blow to social stability, state media said Thursday.

Though usually reserved for violent crimes, death sentences are also applied for nonviolent offenses that involve large sums of money or are seen to threaten social order.

The two were executed Wednesday.

And we're still housing Charles Manson in a California prison forty years after he committed his mass murders.

Maybe we could be a little more like China and institute the death penalty for politicians who forget to pay their taxes. I bet almost no one would "forget" anymore. ... Just thinkin' out loud here. Stop me if you hear something you like.

2009-08-05T23:35:00.009-04:00

THIS IS NOT A VIDEO GAME ... BOYS
THESE ARE REAL CHILDREN YOU'RE KILLING

Why do we continue to make the hatred for America worse and worse? Are our leaders just stupid? Can they not understand that this war is fostering and creating many more future terrorists than it is eliminating?!

KABUL (AP) -- NATO's new secretary-general pledged Wednesday that the alliance would remain in Afghanistan despite flagging support in many nations.

Some 65,000 troops from 42 nations serve in a NATO-led force hobbled by disagreements over the need for more troops, and widely divergent national restrictions on when troops can fight. Recent polls show majorities in Britain, Germany and Canada oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, even as President Barack Obama moves more U.S. forces into the country. [Isn't this the same guy who criticized Bush so vehemently for staying in Iraq?]

July was the bloodiest month for the U.S. and NATO in the nearly eight-year war, and the U.N. says civilian deaths soared by 24 percent in the first half of 2009.

Civilian deaths in Western airstrikes and ground operations aimed at Taliban forces are causing deep resentment among Afghans. Outraged villagers near the southern city of Kandahar said a Western airstrike before dawn Wednesday had killed three children and a man in their village of Kowuk.

Fogh Rasmussen did not address the charges but said, without providing figures, that there had been "a drastic decline in the number of civilian casualties" because of restrictions imposed by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who took command of NATO and U.S. forces last month. McChrystal ordered troops to limit the use of airstrikes and avoid clashes that could lead to civilian deaths. "It is our clear intention to do everything possible to reduce the number of civilian casualties to an absolute minimum," Fogh Rasmussen said. [Hey, I know how they could do that (keep civilian casualties to an absolute minimum): Bring our troops home and leave the Afghani people alone! ]

The U.S. military said helicopters had opened fire with guns and rockets and killed four insurgents [there they go again, using that ridiculous word; anyone they happen to kill automatically becomes an "insurgent"] near Kandahar after spotting them carrying jugs on motorcycles through a field away from a populated area. Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the jugs had exploded when hit.

Residents of Kowuk village said three children and a man had been slain. An Associated Press reporter and photographer saw villagers bring the bodies of three boys and a man to the guesthouse of the Kandahar governor, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Kowuk. The angry villagers shouted "Death to America! Death to infidels!" as they displayed the corpses in the back of a pickup truck.

The U.S. said it could not confirm any civilian fatalities, although it was investigating. [Yeah, right.]

Abdur Rahim, the father of the boys and uncle of the slain man from the Kowuk incident, told the AP that he heard a pair of helicopters circling over his compound at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday before they fired two missiles that hit his home. His brother and another son were wounded, he said.

"What was the fault of my innocent children? They were not Taliban," Rahim said. "Did they come here to build our country or kill our innocent children?"

One more time: Why do we continue to make the hatred for America worse and worse? Are our leaders just stupid? Can they not understand that this war is fostering and creating many more future terrorists than it is eliminating?!

2009-08-04T03:14:00.007-04:00

WHEN YOU SEE THESE THINGS HAPPENNING . . .

I read economic news. I read U.S. political news. I read off-beat stuff. I read business, technology, science ... but whenever I read stories about the middle-east, everything else seems trivial by comparison. I may not be a prophet, but I know how to read a sign.

Do you?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jordan on Monday mirrored Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting U.S. appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on the Obama administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations.

After talks here with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said confidence-building measures that the U.S. wants Arab states to take will not produce a resolution to the conflict.

Judeh and Clinton both criticized Israel for its weekend eviction of Palestinian families from an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem. But as Clinton looked on at a joint news conference at the State Department, Judeh rebuffed calls for Arabs to take incremental steps in normalizing relations with Israel ... Instead he criticized Israel for its refusal to halt construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and said the Israelis should respond to a 2002 Arab peace offer.

Judeh's comments marked the second time in three days that an Arab foreign minister bluntly refused U.S. calls to improve ties with Israel [nice job, Hillary] with measures such as opening trade offices, allowing academic exchanges and permitting civilian Israeli aircraft to overfly their airspace as a way of demonstrating their commitment to peace.

On Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal expressed similar sentiments, also at a news conference with Clinton. Unlike Jordan, though, which has signed a peace deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel.

Despite the statements, Clinton maintained that U.S. special Mideast Peace envoy George Mitchell was making progress [yeah, yeah, we know, Hillary ... black is white, wrong is right, and your efforts have been successful] and praised Jordan for its playing "a strong and vital role" in the region and expressed hope that negotiations could soon resume.

At the same time, she criticized Israel for the eviction of the Palestinian families in east Jerusalem to enforce a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said later that the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, had spoken to Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Sunday to "express our concern about this step."

Just a secondary question: Why does the United States or any other country think that its any of their business what Israel does to enforce its own Supreme Court rulings?

LUKE 21:20-31

"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know ... When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." ... He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

2009-08-03T23:03:00.016-04:00

KISS MY ROBE
I'm-A-Dinner-Jacket Gets Cold Shoulder From Big Hairy Religious Guy

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader bestowed his formal endorsement on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's second term as president on Monday but withheld a powerful symbolic gesture - the kisses and close embrace that portrayed their bond four years ago.

The awkward and halting moment came when Ahmadinejad leaned forward to kiss Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the supreme leader raised his left hand and momentarily stopped Ahmadinejad, who spoke a few words and then kissed Khamenei's robe.

The uneasy body language reflected much of the political tension and collateral damage since the disputed June 12 election sent Iran into its worst internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Ahmadinejad limps toward his next four-year term as a hugely polarizing figure: backed by the Islamic system but scorned by millions of opponents who claim the vote was rigged. Khamenei, meanwhile, has been rattled for the first time by protesters questioning the near limitless power of the theocracy he controls.

Ahmadinejad opened a brief - but potentially disruptive - confrontation with Khamenei's ruling theocracy in July by refusing to drop his top deputy, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who angered conservatives last year when he made friendly comments toward Israelis. [sacrilege! ... blasphemy!] But Ahmadinejad relented and dropped Mashai.

After Ahmadinejad's surprise election in 2005, Khamenei allowed him to kiss his hand in a show of profound loyalty. Then Khamenei drew him close and kissed him on both cheeks with a benevolent smile. This time, Ahmadinejad moved toward Khamenei but was offered only the chance to kiss the leader's robe - a gesture of respect but far more restrained than four years ago.

AT THE RISK OF STATING THE OBVIOUS: ONLY BEING PERMITTED TO KISS THE SUPREME LEADER'S ROBE IS IRANIAN POLITICAL SPEAK FOR "KISS MY ISLAMIC ASS".

2009-08-01T23:47:00.006-04:00

Who's your daddy?

Is the king (the government) our father or is God our father?

Can we serve both simultaneously? What about in this case:

Wausau, WIS. (AP) -- A central Wisconsin man accused of killing his 11-year-old daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care was found guilty Saturday of second-degree reckless homicide.

This AP story presents a very difficult dilemna to think through. Who is right? The prosecuter and jury or the defense lawyer and the parents? Or is there some "rightness" in both sides views?

The real question may be: Where does our society draw the line and say the power of parens patriae be damned, the government may not cross this line. This is none of the government's business. Parens Patriae is the power of the state to act toward its citizens in a parental or condescending manner, as a parent does toward a young child.

Well, I think that line has been moving, just like so many other lines in recent decades (and especially in this current decade). People in the United States seem to be not only allowing, but asking for more and more government intervention into areas that used to be considered none of the government's business.
My theory is that this trend is the result of the same rotting root at the bottom of all recent trends: Americans are increasingly lazy. Their laziness extends even to the effort it takes to think through problems and reach difficult decisions. We can't have any "gray area". We need mommy and daddy to draw a bright line on the ground and say: "There's the line, junior. If you stay on this side of the line you'll be safe and you won't risk being criticized -- or punished. Now, go play with your satellite television, computer and ipod and stop bothering mommy and daddy. We have to make decisions for 300 million other children today."

Should this kind of case should be dismissed preliminarily and never allowed to reach a jury?

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted in the March 23, 2008, death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes. Prosecutors contended he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she couldn't walk, talk, eat or drink. Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing.

Sitting straight in his chair, Neumann stared at the jury as the verdict in a nearly empty courtroom was read. He declined comment as he left the courthouse.

Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter said the verdict would be appealed. He declined further comment.

Prosecutors also declined comment, citing a gag order.

Leilani Neumann, 41, was convicted on the same charge in the spring. Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard set Oct. 6 for sentencing for both parents, who face up to 25 years in prison.

Their case is believed to be the first in Wisconsin involving faith healing in which someone died and another person was charged with a homicide.

Last month, an Oregon jury convicted a man of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment for relying on prayer instead of seeking medical care for his 15-month-old daughter who died of pneumonia and a blood infection in March 2008. Both of the girl's parents were acquitted of a more serious manslaughter charge.

Neumann's jury - six men and six women - deliberated about 15 hours over two days before convicting him. At one point, jurors asked the judge whether Neumann's belief in faith healing made him "not liable" for not taking his daughter to the hospital even if he knew she wasn't feeling well.

Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.

"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."

The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was.

Assistant District Attorney LaMont Jacobson told jurors in closing arguments Friday that Neumann was "overwhelmed by pride" in his interpretation of the Bible and selfishly let Madeline die as a test of faith.

Neumann knew he should have taken his daughter to a doctor and minimized her illness when speaking with investigators, Jacobson said, calling Neumann no different than a drunken driver who remarks he only had a couple of beers.

Doctors testified that Madeline would have had a good chance of survival if she had received medical care, including insulin and fluids, before she stopped breathing.

Kronenwetter told the jury that Neumann sincerely believed praying would heal his daughter and he did nothing criminally wrong.

"Dale Neumann was doing what he thought would work for his daughter," Kronenwetter said. "He was administering faith healing. He thought it was working."

Parens Patriae: A doctrine that grants the inherent power and authority of the state to protect persons who are legally unable to act on their own behalf.

The parens patriae doctrine has its roots in English common law. In feudal times various obligations and powers, collectively referred to as the "royal prerogative," were reserved to the king. The king exercised these functions in his role of father of the country.

In the United States, the parens patriae doctrine has had its greatest application in the treatment of children, mentally ill persons, and other individuals who are legally incompetent to manage their affairs. The state is the supreme guardian of all children within its jurisdiction, and state courts have the inherent power to intervene to protect the best interests of children whose welfare is jeopardized by controversies between parents. This inherent power is generally supplemented by legislative acts that define the scope of child protection in a state.

The state, acting as parens patriae, can make decisions regarding mental health treatment on behalf of one who is mentally incompetent to make the decision on his or her own behalf, but the extent of the state's intrusion is limited to reasonable and necessary treatment.

The sad truth is simply this: fewer and fewer people consider it necessary to preserve from invasion by federal officials the right of the parent to the custody and care of his child and the sanctity of his home.

2009-07-30T04:01:00.011-04:00

News Flash: Kicking Someone's Butt Can Be An Effective Deterrent

SDEROT, Israel (AP) -- Six months after Israel ended its bruising offensive against Gaza Strip militants, the people of this rocket-scarred border town are enjoying their calmest stretch in recent memory.

The rocket attacks that made life unbearable have all but stopped. Playgrounds are filled with children on summer vacation, stores are bustling and the town's public swimming pool is open for the first time in five years.

"People are out more. There is movement. There is a different atmosphere," said Avigail Hazan, a 42-year-old storekeeper. "It was worth going through the war for this. It's fun now; I'm calm."

"Life before the war - it wasn't life," agreed the town's deputy mayor, Rafik Agaronov. "Now, thank God, there is quiet. Hopefully it will stay like this forever. If our children are calm, we are calm."

Israel's anger and frustration over the incessant rocket fire on this working-class town less than a mile from Gaza's border was the loudly proclaimed reason for its invasion of Gaza. The fact that the attacks have all but ended has improved the atmosphere and set the stage for possible talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The heavy rocket fire brought life in Sderot to a virtual standstill as hundreds fled to get out of range. Those who stayed behind kept close to home and to their fortified shelters.

Israel's massive air and ground assault, which began last December, killed more than 1,100 Palestinians, wounded thousands more and caused massive destruction.

Despite a backlash of international criticism and war crimes allegations, Israel says the assault achieved its primary goal of stopping the rocket fire. Israeli officials believe the offensive proved to be a powerful deterrent, though they also say Gaza's Hamas rulers are using the lull to rearm.

Perhaps the most visible change in town is the reopening of the Olympic-size pool, providing a welcome place to cool off from the sweltering Israeli summer. In recent years, the rocket attacks made the pool too dangerous to enter.

"The kids missed this, they needed this," said Zion Peretz, the pool manager, as campers jumped into the water behind him. "It's given us a joy for life again."

But not everyone has been able to erase old memories that quickly.

Experts have warned of long-lasting psychological damage inflicted on Sderot's 24,000 residents, particularly children, who suffer from exceptionally high rates of anxiety and bed-wetting compared to other Israeli children, according to local psychologists.

Yaeli Biton says she is still under psychological care and takes daily anxiety medication.

"I hear a car screech, a refrigerator door slam, the air conditioner make noise, and I panic," said the 50-year-old Biton. "It's been like this for eight years. The feeling doesn't go away in one day."

Many in Sderot said they believe the current calm won't last, and that Hamas was using the tranquil period to prepare for another round of fighting. That looming possibility is evident in the barricaded shelters scattered throughout town. Even the pool has a safe room for bathers to scamper to in case of emergency.

Still, residents say they can't remember a better time for their hard-hit town. On cooler evenings, it's not unusual to see people drinking a beer with their neighbors outside their homes, or playing backgammon or chess in the park.

Dina Keinan, who owns a bike store, said her sales have increased in recent months.

"People didn't buy bicycles because they were afraid to ride them for long periods," she said. "It's different now."

Atara Orenbouch, a 37-year-old mother of six, said life in Sderot was "almost a normal life." Her children can now walk around freely like all other Israeli children.

2009-07-30T03:36:00.005-04:00

fear equals profit

Don't listen to all the ridiculous hype about the swine flu, and don't waste any energy worrying about it. I don't know who starts this kind of silly hysteria, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say... probably the companies who stand to make a profit from the vaccine.

Anyway, here's a little-known (and almost never published) fact about the swine flu: it is no more virulent (no stronger and no more dangerous) than the usual, annually occurring version of influenza.

If you don't believe me, research it yourself.

2009-07-29T02:52:00.011-04:00

Put your hand
back in your pocket

"Put your hand back in your pocket ass-kiss. And tell your Messiah, Mr. Obama, that if he wants to make nicey-nicey with Mahmood, he better hurry up, because we're about to piss him off real bad," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu muttered to Defense Secretary Robert Gates as he leaves Gates hangin' in a recent photo op after the two met to discuss how to deal with Iran's soon-to-be-realized nuclear threat.

"You wanna be a coward, then be one, but don't try to shake my hand like we agreed on anything," Netanyahu told Gates privately.

"We are here to announce that our "friends" in America have decided to be cowards rather than allies when it comes to the heavy lifting", Netanyahu remarked to reporters.

Defense Secretary gates seemed a little embarrassed:
Oh well. Embarrassed is better than incinerated.

2009-07-26T02:17:00.003-04:00

EIGHT YEARS AGO

Not surprisingly, nobody ever answered the question I asked on June 4th: Why are we still in Afghanistan? Bush sent troops there eight years ago to capture Osama Bin Laden ... and he failed to accomplish that. Its time to admit he failed and bring our sons and daughters home. Let me repeat that: we went there EIGHT YEARS AGO.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan may hire a private contractor to provide around-the-clock security at dozens of bases and protect vehicle convoys moving throughout the country.

The possibility of awarding a security contract comes as the Obama administration is sending thousands of more troops into Afghanistan to quell rising violence fueled by a resurgent Taliban. [And the "Taliban" will continue to be "resurgent" as long as the United States keeps occupying their country and killing their friends and relatives.] As the number of American forces grow over the next several months, so too does the demand to guard their outposts.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he wants to cut back on the use of contractors that now provide a wide range services to American troops in war zones, including transportation, communications, food service, construction, and maintenance. As recently as February, however, Gates called the use of private security contractors in certain parts of Afghanistan "vital" to supporting U.S. bases. A contract for the work also creates job opportunities for Afghans, he said.

But the use of private contractors in Iraq has been highly contentious. Since a September 2007 shooting of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad by guards employed by Blackwater (now Xe Services), critics have urged U.S. officials to maintain much tighter controls over hired guards.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Army published a notice July 10 informing interested contractors it was contemplating a contract for "theater-wide" armed security.

"The contract would provide for a variety of security services, to include the static security of compounds on which U.S. and coalition forces reside, and for the protection of mission essential convoys in and around forward operating bases located throughout Afghanistan," the notice states.

2009-07-23T22:58:00.011-04:00

Not Even His Racism Is Sincere

What Did I Just Say?

What a coincidence. In one of yesterday's posts ("the ring-kissing cowards of the news media"), I stated that after reading yesterday's AP headline stories, it "sounds to me like racial conflict is being highlighted, and thereby encouraged, more so now under an African-American president than it was before he took office."

And now today's headline story:

Obama remark on black scholar's arrest angers cops

BOSTON (AP) -- Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama: Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.

It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.

"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president [has] alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."

Gates was arrested July 16 by Sgt. James Crowley, who was first to respond to the home the renowned black scholar rents from Harvard, after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Gates said he had to shove the door open because it was jammed. He was charged with disorderly conduct after police said he yelled at the white officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after Crowley demanded Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home. The charge was dropped Tuesday, but Gates has demanded an apology, calling his arrest a case of racial profiling.

Obama was asked about Gates' arrest at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

On Thursday, the White House tried to calm the hubbub over Obama's comments by saying Obama was not calling the officer stupid. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama felt that "at a certain point the situation got far out of hand" at Gates' home.

Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said Obama's comments hurt the agency.

Fellow law enforcement officers across the country sided with Crowley.

Obama's comments could diminish work done by law enforcement to address racial issues, said James Preston, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Florida State Lodge.

You may not remember this one, or perhaps you didn't read it, but on January 31st of this year I wrote the following:

Pat yourselves on the back. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can now feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. Good for you. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but an articulate black man who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. You have also foolishly traded your economic freedom -- and mine – what little there was left – for the chance to feel good about yourselves. Forgive me if I don’t share your happy obliviousness.

By the way … it is just as unacceptable for blacks to “play the race card”, as it is repulsive, immoral and politically suicidal for any other ethnic group to play that card (an incredible 94% of the 12 million black voters in America voted for the black candidate in 2008).

Now … when you have finished judging and disdaining me for expressing such prehistoric and racist views, realize this: The ideas expressed above are not even my own. I borrowed them from an open letter written on November 6, 2008 by Anne Wortham, an individualist liberal who happens to be black. Dr. Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association. She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in higher education. In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals whose ideas and opinions are featured in Bill Moyer’s book, A World of Ideas.

Dr. Wortham is author of The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues. She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality. Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness.

Are you brave enough to allow yourself to be viewed as politically incorrect for the sake of rescuing a little intellectual honesty from the hysteria of recent political events? Anne Wortham is, and I, for one, admire her for it.

I don't know about you, but I am getting tired of hearing racists accuse other people of being a racist. A negro can be just as much a "racist" as any caucasian can be, and Obama is a example of it. That's right. I think there is more than enough evidence to conclude that our president is a racist. The really sinister part, though, is that not even his racism is sincere. He doesn't care if someone is black or white or Hispanic or Asian. He only cares how he can exploit that person's blackness or whiteness to his own political advantage.

2009-07-22T01:58:00.003-04:00

Was Jesus A Communist?

I bet that title got your attention, didn't it? But seriously, as a Christian, I am not so sure that leveling the playing field economically is a bad thing, as so many on the political right would have us believe.
Jesus may not have been a Communist, but I am fairly certain he was not a "capitalist" either.

What I write in this blog post may shock some people, but please think long and hard about it before you dismiss my views out of hand.
The body of teachings about money in the scriptures do sound more to me like communist theory than capitalism to me. Read them again. Sell all you have; give to the poor; share all things in common. Of course, they are not communist teachings, but they are certainly not supportive of capitalist theory either, nor of an American economic system that fosters greed and is ruled by the Prince of the Air. Humor me and read the following four excerpts from the scriptures:

ACTS 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

MATTHEW 19:16-24
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
"Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " `Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and `love your neighbor as yourself.' "
"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

1JOHN 3:16-20
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

LUKE 12:32-34
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

These are just a few of the many scriptures that teach this way, but of course rich people like American Christians (and we are all "rich" people compared to most of the world's population) don't want to give up our material riches, so we rationalize and cleverly explain away these teachings. We construct entire theological doctrines to avoid the plain and simple truth. And the truth is that we are all in the same position as that of the young man "with great wealth" in the teaching recorded in the 19th chapter of Matthew.

Maybe the government shouldn't force us to share our wealth. Its an arguable point. But is forcing us to share worse than maintaining a system that fosters greed?

2009-07-22T01:33:00.007-04:00

the ring-kissing cowards of the news media

What do you notice about what the Associated Press calls the "Top U.S. News" Stories of the day?

Report: NY, NJ immigration raids violated rights
NEW YORK (AP) -- Immigration agents raiding homes for suspected illegal immigrants violated the U.S. Constitution by entering without proper consent and may have used racial profiling, a report analyzing arrest records found....

Analysis: Gates arrest a signpost on racial road
It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America's most prominent black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it's not just another episode of profiling - it's a signpost on the nation's bumpy road to equality....

Charge dropped against black Harvard scholar
BOSTON (AP) -- Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested after forcing his way into his own house in what he and other blacks say was an outrageous but all-too-common example of how police treat them....

Investigator rules against Palin in ethics probe
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by trading on her position as she sought money for lawyer fees, in the latest legal distraction for the former vice presidential candidate as she prepares to leave office this week....

Black, white protesters rally over dragging death
PARIS, Texas (AP) -- State police in riot gear rushed a downtown street to break up a standoff Tuesday between hundreds of black and white extremists who exchanged screams of "Black power!" and "White power!" during a protest over the state's handling of the case of a black man who was run over and dragged by a vehicle....

Sounds to me like racial conflict is being highlighted, and thereby encouraged, more so now under an African-American president than it was before he took office.

Let me put it in less diplomatic terms: The pandering little caucasians of the news media are afraid of the big black man who has taken over the government, so they are trying to kiss up to him and "his people". But guess what dummies? Black Americans are not "his people". Rich, power-hungry, corrupt politicians are "his people", whether they happen to be Negro or Caucasian doesn't really matter to him, so long as he can use and exploit them to further his own personal agenda and lust for ever-increasing power.

2009-07-20T03:49:00.008-04:00

Have You Heard That Black Is White,
Wrong Is Right and That God's First Name Is Baa-aa-rock?

I want to write in my blogs, but I have temporarily run out of interesting things about which to write. The news being written these days bores me. Apparently, the editors of the Associated Press have, like all the other major media outlets, stopped thinking for themselves. Every other story is either about Baa-aa-rock Obama Bin Laden or about some homosexual agenda item.

It should be obvious by now (to any thinking person with an ounce of wisdom or understanding) that this guy is the worst president this country has ever elected. This man's lust for power is his god. The spirits that drives this man are not the Spirit of the one, true living God. They are other spirits --of greed and lust -- a lust for power.

And when the news media outlets are not promoting Obama's agenda for him, they are busy pandering to homosexuals by writing a ridiculously disproportionate number of "articles" and "stories" about homosexual issues, always trying to cast them in a favorable light, as the homosexuals themselves try desperately to justify themselves and their perversion.

It is stunning to me just how many people have begun to believe that black is white, up is down and wrong is right. Apparently, if one lacks moral training based on the Bible, and one hears other people assert enough times that a particular lie is actually the truth, then one will eventually begin to believe those people (and that lie).

It is sad. Truly sad.

2009-07-15T23:54:00.002-04:00

Have you ever wondered...

What is the purpose of that little button on the top of baseball caps?
I removed mine and ... surprise ... the hat did not fall apart, nor did the civilized world come to an end. The hat just looks better without it.
So why do they all (almost all) have that dumb button on top?

2009-07-06T00:03:00.007-04:00

Some Things (and some people) Never Change

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police say former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman. The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released.

Barry's spokeswoman, Natalie Williams, said Sunday that the accusation was "baseless." She says Barry plans to fight the charge and said the accuser is a 40-year-old woman Barry had helped financially. [She is probably a prostitute with whom Barry became obsessed -- "had helped financially" in the past!]

Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third (in 1990), he was videotaped in an FBI sting in a hotel smoking crack cocaine with prostitutes. He served six months in prison and [here's the kicker]...

...wait for it ...

wait for it ...

... in 1994 he was re-elected to the mayor's office.

Oh ...
my ...
God!
What does that say about the average D.C. resident?
You draw your own conclusions, folks.

I remember being completely dismayed and disgusted when I first heard that news in 1994, and now, fifteen years later, I am just as repulsed and nauseated again upon being reminded of it.

2009-07-04T01:43:00.012-04:00

What Causes Traffic Jams!?

I, like you, have wondered for many years why we all just suddenly stop in the middle of an interstate highway without any triggering event like an accident up ahead. So I did a fairly thorough search and came up with an explanation that seems to identify all the main factors, all the main reasons for the formation of traffic jams. However, I sandwiched the one I like between two that are more typically found when searching this subject. I recommend reading as much or as little of the first and third article or excerpt as you like, but read the Freakonomics article, followed by Aaron S.'s comment. It is that comment that so succinctly identifies all the primary culprits and causes of traffic jams. He even offers solutions after identifying the causes.

You could try to read something like this mathematical explanation of traffic flow and of the dynamical phenomenon of the jam:

Taken from the ... New Journal of Physics

Vol. 10 (2008) 033001:

Mathematical models of traffic flow are constructed focusing on this simple property of the motion of vehicles. In short, traffic flow is a non-equilibrium physical system consisting of moving particles with asymmetric interaction of exclusive effect. The models have basically two kinds of solutions: a free flow solution and jam flow solutions. In a free flow solution, all vehicles move at nearly the same large velocity with a safe distance between two successive vehicles. In contrast, a jam flow solution shows traveling clusters in a flow. Vehicles almost stop in a cluster, which is identified with a traffic jam. Such models have succeeded in forming a jam on a circuit in the absence of a bottleneck, when a free flow is initially set and the average vehicle density is a little bit larger than a certain critical value, which corresponds to the critical density of fundamental diagrams.

The physical mechanism of forming a jam is summarized as follows. Small fluctuations always exist in the movement of vehicles in a traffic flow. If the vehicle density is low, such a fluctuation disappears and the free flow is maintained. On the other hand, if the density exceeds the critical value, the fluctuation cannot disappear but instead grows steadily and eventually breaks the free flow. After relaxation, a jam is created and travels along the circuit without decaying. Mathematically, the free flow solution is unstable and the jam flow solutions become stable. The stability change at the critical density caused by the enhancement of fluctuations in a free flow is understood as a phase transition of non-equilibrium systems. The phenomenon originates from the dynamical effect of the collective motion in a many-body system. It does not require the existence of a bottleneck.

Traffic flow can be investigated as a dynamical phenomenon of a many-particle system. In general, such a system drastically changes its macroscopic aspect owing to the effect of the collective motion of interacting particles. Such phenomena are observed in several fields in physics. The characteristic features of collective phenomena are phase transition, bifurcation of a dynamical system, pattern formation, etc. It is not unexpected that the same physical mechanism appears in socio-dynamical objects. Traffic jams are just the subject for investigation along this line. We have succeeded in simulating a traffic jam by mathematical models without a bottleneck, whenever the average vehicle density on the road exceeds a certain critical value. The crucial point is the effect of collective motion caused by the interaction among vehicles, which is originated by drivers seeing other vehicles. The effect makes the free flow unstable and generates a traffic jam similar to phase transitions and pattern formation in non-equilibrium many-particle systems.

Can our mathematical prediction be tested? In this paper, we report the first experimental verification that a jam can be generated in the absence of a bottleneck. Our experimental result is consistent with our simulations, and provides clear evidence that the emergence of a jam is a collective phenomenon.

In real data, the relationship between vehicle density and flow rate (fundamental diagram) has a universal property in highway traffic. The data points of traffic flow are sharply divided into two parts at the critical value of the vehicle density, labelled as free flow and congested traffic flow. In the congested flow part, it is easily supposed that a traffic jam appears just beyond the critical density. Fundamental diagrams show similar shapes at any point on any highway, and the critical density is almost the same value. Such common properties indicate that the phenomenon of traffic jams can be studied from the physical point of view as a dynamical phase transition.

Or you could read this one (much more clear and easy to understand):

Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything

What Causes Traffic Jams? ...You!

The next time a traffic jam materializes in front of you for no apparent reason, think about Japan. That’s where scientists have, for the first time, recreated “shockwave” traffic jams, in which one driver’s slowing down creates a ripple effect that moves backwards through traffic, grinding everything to a halt for miles. They say recreating the phenomenon successfully is the key to finding ways to defeat it.

Their experiment found that human error is a major cause of these most frustrating kinds of traffic jams (there are, of course, other causes). But if driver error is the source of the problem, don’t drivers also have the solution? Clive Thompson points to one idea, the classic “slow down and keep a constant speed” method, which seems to be effective in breaking these shockwaves. Any other solutions?

Comment by Aaron S. on March 10, 2008:

I used to be quite amused when scientists would run traffic tests and just could not figure out why there were traffic jams! Everyone who drove could!

I even figured out how to figure it all out. Create a computer program with a highways, roads, exits, on-ramps, redlights, and the such like.

Then, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, is make a bunch of “cars” with different parameters. ABC Cars take off like a rabbit at a green light…DEF cars take off a bit slower…and XYZ cars take off like molasses.

Then, on the interstate, you have people who exceed the speed limit, go the speed limit, and then those people who ought to be sent to prison.

Further, you permit some of the slow pokes to get in the left lane every now and then.

Also, people have different braking prowess…this means there will be wreaks at times…which causes rubbernecking until its cleaned up.

Then there’s my personal pet peeve: People who don’t know how to merge. The traffic is doing 70…and they get on doing 45…slowing everyone down.

How to fix it?

Imprison anyone who does not know how to merge correctly (or even death penalty if they’re over 40, which means they’ve been doing it for years!).

I would also add that if an accident could be gotten COMPLETELY out of view (including all the flashing lights, etc.), traffic wouldn’t slow down! So, if you have a fender bender, don’t stop in the lane…get off to the side…miles to the side, if possible.

Lastly, police ticket drivers in the left lane going under the speed limit (assuming normal conditions). This alone would reduce the national blood pressure by at least 20%.

In this instance, I am all for profiling, whether it be racial, gender, age, or whatever. If we find that a particular group of people are the worst offenders, they must be send to the penitentiary and given “Driver Sensitivity Training” until they actually know how to drive.

You might also be able to interpret relevant excerpts from the...
"Emergent Phenomenon in Congested Traffic Flow"
(Daniel Vandervelde's final physics term paper submitted on 5-6-04) --Good Luck. :o)

Their process involves setting up the lattice or highway and then, “A domain of
size k is then associated with a site of the CM occupied by k particles. One then proceeds
by examining the evolution of the domains, and identifying their dynamical processes. As will be demonstrated, in many cases these processes are closely related to the diffusion and the chipping processes of the asymmetric CM.” The density of the automobiles tells the story of the movement of the vehicles. First they consider what they call the “cruise control limit”. This is where the probability of braking occurring is zero, in other words all cars are maintaining a constant velocity. There, as long as the density stays below some density max, free flowing traffic persists. Here all cars are moving deterministically, and one can express the current as J(  )= max v  . As density increases, local jams form and current reduces. This leads to the conclusion that a phase transition, if one exists, must occur at some 0
less than or equal to f  .

This study also had some revealing results regarding the flow of vehicles out from
a jam. It was found that the outflow of traffic from a jam will self organize, creating a
critical state of maximum throughput. This state was achieved when the emergent traffic
jams were just able to survive indefinitely. “This implies that the intrinsic flow rate for
vehicles leaving a jam equals maximum throughput.” Results of this study show that
maximum throughput is actually achieved when the left boundary condition is that of an
infinitely large jam, and the right boundary condition is left open. This is explained by,
“An intuitive explanation is that maximum throughput cannot be any higher than the
intrinsic flow rate out of a jam. Otherwise the flow rate into a jam would be higher than
the flow rate out, and the jam would be stable in the long time limit, thus reducing the
overall current. By definition, of course, the maximum throughput cannot be lower than
this intrinsic flow rate.” It is true that the maximum throughput selection is something which is intrinsic in driven diffusive systems. This model differs though in that the left boundary condition is that of the front of the infinite jam drifting backward in time. “If the left boundary is fixed in space and vehicles are inserted at velocities less than max v , then the outflow from a jam cannot reach maximum throughput”. This is
particular notable since real world situations where one has a disturbance which cannot
move, like onramps or reductions in lanes, lead to lower throughput downstream than the theory would predict.

Has anyone found a simpler explanation for traffic jams on open highways having no bottleneck and no traffic accident? If so, please share it with me. Please!

God Bless America, Show Tune Style

2009-06-26T02:49:00.002-04:00

Two comments:

1) Is there ANY powerful or high-profile republican politician out there who has NOT had an affair recently?

and ...

2) How long do you think it will be before this perverse society elects an openly homosexual president?

Then what? We all sing God bless America show tune style at the inaugural ball?

This is not going to turn around and go back in the other direction, you know.

2009-06-20T01:11:00.011-04:00

God Bless America?

Below are a few key words from each of today's headlines as presented on
"AP Top U.S. News At 9:47 p.m. EDT":

indicted billionaire;

gay couples;

porno movie;

texting while driving;

school principal ...cheating ...arrested;

gunned down ...Holocaust Museum;

Senator... perjury charge

God bless America?

Why should He? Why would He ... any longer?
Not every individual, of course, but as a nation, collectively, we have turned our backs on Him.