Brutally Honest

"He is my soldier, and always will be"

ProtoCatholic has a post up that should move you:

A few days before Christmas, the reporter had a very vivid dream. She dreamt that her sergeant friend was in a jungle. He wore a helmet and sported face paint. He was writing a letter to her. In the dream she could see the letter. It was black and white newsprint, and he had written to her in red ink on the newsprint. He told her that he was fighting, but that he was safe. When she woke up an inexplicable feeling of peace and goodwill had infused her heart.

After Christmas she received a letter from the sergeant. The white stationary letter started out in black ink, but as the words went on the ink began to fade. Finally the writing picked back up in red ink. The sergeant explained to her that he and fellow soldiers had been sent down to Panama to oust Noriega. He described gunfights but said he was safe. He explained that they were not allowed to tell family and friends about the imminent deployment, but now that things were settling down he could be in touch.

Well worth your time to read the whole thing.  Well worth your time to bookmark her blog.

Absolute rubbish (UPDATED)

This is beyond stupid and yet is the inevitable result of weak kneed policies:

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.

I'd like to see Obama weigh in on this idiocy and quick... but what's the chance of that happening?

Hell, he's probably bowing to the terrorist's lawyers as I write this.

UPDATE: Locutisprime has weighed in at his place:

Absolutely beyond the pale of incredulity! And you bet your backside, this is the result of a cowardly regime in both the white house and the Pentagon.

What a total load of politically correct BS insanity!

This guy is responsible for the death of four Americans and one of the most horrendous displays of behavior by an animal ever witnessed and he is afforded victim status after having supposedly being punched in the mouth by a Navy Seal during his capture?

This is what our society and our government has come to.

Read it all.

Those who receive are truly free to give.

By guest blogger, BroKen.

As we moved toward Thanksgiving Day last Sunday, Erin Coley, who does the children’s sermon at our church, gave us contrasting illustrations of gratitude by telling of two children she had witnessed recently at Target.

The first was a little boy in the toy department who asked his grandmother to buy him something. When the grandmother explained that she would not because he had mistreated and destroyed the last toy she had given him (I had the image of Sid from the movie Toy Story), the boy turned belligerent. “So what!” he exclaimed. “Buy me another one!”  The grandmother held her ground until the boy threatened to scream and make a scene. Then the lady relented and the little brat got his toy.


Erin didn’t call it child abuse, but I couldn’t help thinking, “How miserable that little boy is being trained to be!” Of course, the way he treated his long-suffering grandmother was miserable. But he is also going to continue to feel miserable himself as he tries to extract what he wants from those around him. Some who “love” him will give in as his requests turn into demands. The rest of us will shun him until perhaps he grows out of his infantile tantrums. What a wretched, lonely existence! He is literally being taught to make those close to him unhappy while driving the rest of us away.

The second tale was of a little girl in the store who was given a piece of bubble gum. Her effervescent joy captured Erin’s imagination. The little girl cried out, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” It was no great thing she received. But her grateful response was a delight to herself and to those around her.  Even a stranger, Erin, was moved to remember and share her joy. We don’t know anything about her, except her gratitude and joy. But last Sunday morning in church we were blessed by her example. It is a small thing, but her ripples of joy continue to radiate… even to you.

Most of us learn pretty early that the universe doesn’t owe us a blessed thing. The only thing we have ultimate control over is our attitude, our response. Do we believe we have enough to give? Or do we always need some more?

Who is the taker? Who is the giver? Who is the receiver? I can’t imagine that the little brat was happy or even satisfied with the gift of his toy. He’s still hollow and empty, wanting… More! The giving lady is sad and tired, knowing her gift is insufficient and unappreciated. Perhaps one day the boy will learn. Only those who receive a gift are free to truly give.

Ah, the little girl knows. And because she knows, she teaches. She taught Erin. Through Erin she taught me, and now perhaps, you, too. Gratitude for a gift received, from a piece of gum, to life itself, is joy.

 Thank the Giver, then give joy.

The American Dream is un-Christian

Mike, our go to Religious Leftist, explains:

For the most part the western church finds itself defending a Christianized version of what we'll call The American Dream. It goes something like this: Go to a good school, find your life's partner, get a good job, buy a nice house, and gradually work your way up the food chain to acquire more (and bigger) stuff. We then 'sanctify' this story by adding, "And, oh yes, be a Christian." (Of course we never stop to consider if this addendum to the story is compatible with the story itself.) Perhaps we then self-identify by placing a Jesus fish on the trunk of our car.

The People of God are to be something wholly different. An alternative community, as Walter Brueggemann would put it. However it goes without saying that we can't be an alternative to the status quo when we are the status quo. And let's face it, the status quo, by it's very definition, is not interested in hearing about alternatives to itself.

Ultimately this renders us completely ineffective, as far as our primary purpose is concerned. That purpose? To assist in God's grand plan to redeem all of creation. To redeem is to transform, which is to change. The Body of Christ is here to change the world, just as Jesus himself did when he walked the earth.

Let's not kid ourselves... Mike's premise is grounded in some truth... that we, as Christians, are too many times focused on 'things'... too often distracted from what some would label our higher calling... too quick to diminish our responsibility to care for the down-trodden, and this is the proclaimed core of Mike's, and other Religious Leftist's, theology.

But, and you knew there'd be a but, clearly, Mike's means has become the end. 

To suggest that we, you and I, or Mike and his like-minded cohorts, can redeem anything, is to suggest that there is no need for Christ. 

Mike's attempt to redefine the word redemption, to give it some contemporary feel and/or justification for his ideology, is fine absent the idea that it's also theologically much less than doctrinally sound.

And it gives me the opportunity to delve into Catholic teaching on the subject. 

Clearly a key component to Catholicism is its devotion to caring for the poor... and in that sense, Mike, to his credit, shares common ground.  But Catholic teaching is also replete with some warnings, warnings I think would be good to heed, for both conservatives and liberals:

Jesus says: “You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me” (Mt 26:11; cf. Mk 14:7; Jn 12:8). He makes this statement not to contrast the attention due to him with service of the poor. Christian realism, while appreciating on the one hand the praiseworthy efforts being made to defeat poverty, is cautious on the other hand regarding ideological positions and Messianistic beliefs that sustain the illusion that it is possible to eliminate the problem of poverty completely from this world. This will happen only upon Christ's return, when he will be with us once more, for ever. In the meantime, the poor remain entrusted to us and it is this responsibility upon which we shall be judged at the end of time (cf. Mt 25:31-46): “Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren”[388].

Mike, and his co-idelogues, too often diminish the power of God while exalting the power of man... and to that end, negate the impact of their mission.

In the zeal that today's Christ-followers have to diminish traditional doctrine, they step on the wisdom that has been gained since Christ walked the earth.  It's past time to point this out... and to do so with vigor.

As to the American Dream, and Mike's proposition:

It seems to me that a key issue with the Christian faith is this: For a long time--probably back to Constantine--we have been living in the wrong story. Furthermore, we've located ourselves in this wrong story for so long that we've forgotten that there is any other. It's difficult to find the place where you should be when you don't realize you're someplace else.

I think it'd be good for Mike to speak to the mirror... and especially think through that last sentence.

Again I go to Catholic teaching:

185. Subsidiarity is among the most constant and characteristic directives of the Church's social doctrine and has been present since the first great social encyclical[395]. It is impossible to promote the dignity of the person without showing concern for the family, groups, associations, local territorial realities; in short, for that aggregate of economic, social, cultural, sports-oriented, recreational, professional and political expressions to which people spontaneously give life and which make it possible for them to achieve effective social growth[396]. This is the realm of civil society, understood as the sum of the relationships between individuals and intermediate social groupings, which are the first relationships to arise and which come about thanks to “the creative subjectivity of the citizen”[397]. This network of relationships strengthens the social fabric and constitutes the basis of a true community of persons, making possible the recognition of higher forms of social activity[398].

...

187. The principle of subsidiarity protects people from abuses by higher-level social authority and calls on these same authorities to help individuals and intermediate groups to fulfil their duties. This principle is imperative because every person, family and intermediate group has something original to offer to the community. Experience shows that the denial of subsidiarity, or its limitation in the name of an alleged democratization or equality of all members of society, limits and sometimes even destroys the spirit of freedom and initiative.

The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to certain forms of centralization, bureaucratization, and welfare assistance and to the unjustified and excessive presence of the State in public mechanisms. “By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending”[400]. An absent or insufficient recognition of private initiative — in economic matters also — and the failure to recognize its public function, contribute to the undermining of the principle of subsidiarity, as monopolies do as well.

In order for the principle of subsidiarity to be put into practice there is a corresponding need for: respect and effective promotion of the human person and the family; ever greater appreciation of associations and intermediate organizations in their fundamental choices and in those that cannot be delegated to or exercised by others; the encouragement of private initiative so that every social entity remains at the service of the common good, each with its own distinctive characteristics; the presence of pluralism in society and due representation of its vital components; safeguarding human rights and the rights of minorities; bringing about bureaucratic and administrative decentralization; striking a balance between the public and private spheres, with the resulting recognition of the social function of the private sphere; appropriate methods for making citizens more responsible in actively “being a part” of the political and social reality of their country.

That, in my view, is an intellectualized depiction, certainly in part, of the American Dream, that which Mike is disparaging.  And again, I think he does so in ignorance and in his quest to stay aligned less with sound doctrine and more with un-sound ideology.

It's really pretty telling that the wisdom of the ages is all too frequently set aside by those who today think they're so damned smart while also thinking that those who came before us are so damned stupid.

What's up is down... what's down is up...  and don't you dare question those redefinitions or you'll not be redeemed... simply ask today's progressive Christian.

Dithering to come to an end

Apparently:

Barack Obama is expected to send 34,000 more US troops to Afghanistan when he unveils his long-awaited strategy for the Afghan conflict next Tuesday, US media reports said today.

The Politico website said the US president would make a prime time address to the American people to announce his plans for what he has described as "a war of necessity".

Just as significant as the number of troops, however, will be pointers to a US exit strategy – something that will be closely watched by the British government, which is under public pressure to withdraw 9,000 UK troops from Afghanistan.

The McClatchy news service reported that the White House plan contained "off-ramps" – points, starting as early as next June, at which Obama could decide to continue to increase troop numbers, halt deployments and adopt a more limited strategy or "begin looking very quickly at exiting", depending on political and military progress.

The US currently has 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, along with 42,000 from other countries, as the conflict there enters its ninth year.

Jules Crittenden speaks for me on this:

In the three months he’s been mulling his options, nearly 200 Americans have been killed in action in Afghanistan, their families left to wonder whether they died for something other than their comrades and their duty, or if they would be relegated to join John Kerry’s famous “last man to die for a mistake” … that hapless grunt whose sacrifice was rendered meaningless the last time politicans took counsel of their fears and precipitously undermined a war effort, with disastrous, genocidal results.

There is some reason for optimism he will give those dead and their families hope for something better this time. His recent Fort Hood speech suggests he may be beginning to get that it is bigger than him, that there are actually some players, the pawns in this game, who are more important than him. The regular Americans who step up, who are, in the end, what it is all about. But those were words that still want deeds.

Now is the time and this is the opportunity for him to become what, the tests of this first year notwithstanding, he has managed to dodge, as he’s variously palmed off tough choices and bowed to the will and whims of others.

An American leader. A wartime president. Standing on his own feet, making no excuses, as he sends soldiers into harm’s way to do this dirty job that someone has to do.

Will he deliver?  Will he give substance to those who think he's all that?

I seriously doubt it, history being the best gauge for future performance.  But for the sake of this country and our troops, let's hope like hell I'm wrong.

The inebriated 12 days of Christmas

If you’re trying to keep up, that’s Fay McKay, and she’s singing about 12 dry Martinis,11 Bloody Marys, 10 dry Manhattans, 9 Margaritas, 8 sweet Old Fashioneds, 7 Johnnie Walkers, 6 Cuba Libres, 5 dry Rob Roys, 4 Old Fitzgeralds, 3 Old Crows, 2 Cutty Sarks…

Brought our way by, of all people, The Anchoress, who also has a related tequila cookie recipe worth your time... trust me.

Crossposted(*).

And yet they'll continue to shove it down our throats

Rasmussen:

Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.

Half the survey was conducted before the Senate voted late Saturday to begin debate on its version of the legislation. Support for the plan was slightly lower in the half of the survey conducted after the Senate vote.

Prior to this, support for the plan had never fallen below 41%. Last week, support for the plan was at 47%. Two weeks ago, the effort was supported by 45% of voters.

Intensity remains stronger among those who oppose the push to change the nation’s health care system: 21% Strongly Favor the plan while 43% are Strongly Opposed.

How might the Left be reacting if a Republican President and a Republican Congress were attempting to foist a policy on America that was as unpopular as this one?

Can you imagine the fallout?  Can you imagine the press the Republicans would be garnering?

And yet Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their like-minded cohorts and compadres keep shoveling this shish kabob at America as if there were throngs waiting in line for it.

If the elections in 2010 aren't the harbingers of doom for the Democrats that I expect them to be, then understand that it'll be this once great country that is doomed.

Crossposted(*).

Might this explain the dithering? (UPDATED)

Is Obama really looking to surrender provinces to the Taliban in exchange for a cessation of attacks on our troops? 

Steve Schippert has details:

It comes to our attention that the MEMRI Blog highlights an article from the Saudi _al-Watan_ in Arabic that - according to an Afghan source - the United States is talking to the Taliban seeking to trade control of 5 provinces in exchange for the cessation of attacks on US bases. MEMRI summarizes:

An Afghan source in Kabul reports that U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry is holding secret talks with Taliban elements headed by the movement's foreign minister, Ahmad Mutawakil, at a secret location in Kabul. According to the source, the U.S. has offered the Taliban control of the Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Kunar and Nuristan provinces in return for a halt to the Taliban missile attacks on U.S. bases.

Kunar province borders the Khyber Pass region where the majority of US and NATO supplies pass enroute from Pakistan. And the4 remaining four provinces constitute fully the southern 25% of Afghanistan's territory.

This, if true, is a disturbing development.

I have tried to come up with scenarios of why someone would lie about it in a leak. What would be to gain? Who would gain, and what would they gain? Without sleeping on it, the options for such appear narrow at best.

What does seem logical is that an Afghan privy to the negotiations could have become (rightly) spooked that they might just pull it off, and leaked word in hopes that it might so anger American public opinion that the entire endeavor might be scrapped. That's the most logical explanation for motivation I see at the moment.

It would also fit in consistently with Ambassador Eikenberry's leaked cables recently railing against a 'surge' in forces in Afghanistan. He wouldn't voice such without thinking he has his hands on something else. Could this be it? The surrender of 25% of Afghan territory in exchange for some form of ceasefire?

One would hope not.

Indeed... but it wouldn't be out of character for this Administration.  If true, we're watching yet another deep bow to a foreign power... this time, a bow to enemies sworn to kill us all.

Your hope and change.

Crossposted(*).

UPDATE: Steve has an addendum to his original post:

Early Tuesday morning, US Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden denied the veracity of the Sunday Saudi report.

"There is no truth to reports that the U.S. Embassy is engaging in secret talks with elements of the Taliban. Our position on the inclusion of Taliban and other fighters into Afghan society remains unchanged: we support the efforts of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghan to reintegrate fighters and other disaffected individuals into society, under the Afghan constitution. This process must be Afghan-led."

We take the US embassy in Kabul at its word. The Tuesday morning denial is the first we have seen in response to the anonymously Afghan-sourced al-Watan report.

Do read the whole thing.

China more concerned about U.S. deficits than Obama and his minions

A week ago, in The New York Times:

In a July meeting, Chinese officials asked their American counterparts detailed questions about the health care legislation making its way through Congress. The president’s budget director, Peter R. Orszag, answered most of their questions. But the Chinese were not particularly interested in the public option or universal care for all Americans.

“They wanted to know, in painstaking detail, how the health care plan would affect the deficit,” one participant in the conversation recalled. Chinese officials expect that they will help finance whatever Congress and the White House settle on, mostly through buying Treasury debt, and like any banker, they wanted evidence that the United States had a plan to pay them back.

Last night, on Saturday Night Live, the cast brought the point home:

Evidence that Obama's running out of Kool-Aid.

Crossposted(*).

A Dad's prayer for his children

Tony Woodlief, as he does so often, speaks for me:

I suppose Christ is no more mine to give than He is yours, or even His own. Instead He watches over all creation, ignored by the urbane and the overly educated, espied by the weeping toddler, making fools of kings and princes of paupers, poured out for all and yet eluding many.

I pray the eyes of my sons, like Isaiah’s that morning, go to Him. Not to me. Not, please God, to me. Would I give them Christ, if I could? Will I, if I can?

Take this icon. Take this cross. Listen to these words. Bow beside me now, child, and quiet your spirit, and listen past the mumbled prayer, not with your ears but with the center of your soul. Look with the eye of your heart, not at me, not at me. I cannot give Him to you, son, but I can point you down this path, and perhaps you will tread farther than I, and as you go, don’t look back, not for anything, but press on past reason, past logic, past fear, past hurt, past the sins of your father and his fathers before him. I cannot give Him, child, but it is He Who gives Himself to you. As soon as you cry I want Jesus, He is there, and your small heart knows this, which is why you clutch a fragile piece of wood covered in paint, not because this is Christ but because you don’t know better than to clutch it, because you were crafted a physical being and not knowing better, you still believe you can hug Him to you. I pray to God you never lose this yearning, that instead it stays in you like a hunger, hurtling you along that path to a place your heart knows as Home.

I want Jesus, you said. May your prayers, child, come always back to this.

Amen this... then go read the whole thing.

Martha Stewart: Sarah Palin is boring and dangerous

Someone will have to help me with how anybody can be both dangerous and boring but... whatever:

Based on the back and forth between the Hollywood talking heads in the piece, clearly the only person more hated than Sarah Palin is Martha Stewart.

H/T to the folks at NewsBusters.

Crossposted(*).

The KSM trial: Are we led by incompetents or by the ill-intentioned?

Charles Krauthammer leads the analysis:

So why is Attorney General Eric Holder doing this? Ostensibly, to demonstrate to the world the superiority of our system where the rule of law and the fair trial reign.

Really? What happens if KSM (and his co-defendants) "do not get convicted," asked Senate Judiciary Committee member Herb Kohl. "Failure is not an option," replied Holder. Not an option? Doesn't the presumption of innocence, er, presume that prosecutorial failure -- acquittal, hung jury -- is an option? By undermining that presumption, Holder is undermining the fairness of the trial, the demonstration of which is the alleged rationale for putting on this show in the first place.

Moreover, everyone knows that whatever the outcome of the trial, KSM will never walk free. He will spend the rest of his natural life in U.S. custody. Which makes the proceedings a farcical show trial from the very beginning.

Apart from the fact that any such trial will be a security nightmare and a terror threat to New York -- what better propaganda-by-deed than blowing up the entire courtroom, making KSM a martyr and making the judge, jury and spectators into fresh victims? -- it will endanger U.S. security. Civilian courts with broad rights of cross-examination and discovery give terrorists access to crucial information about intelligence sources and methods.

That's precisely what happened during the civilian New York trial of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. The prosecution was forced to turn over to the defense a list of two hundred unindicted co-conspirators, including the name Osama bin Laden. "Within ten days, a copy of that list reached bin Laden in Khartoum," wrote former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the presiding judge at that trial, "letting him know that his connection to that case had been discovered."

Finally, there's the moral logic. It's not as if Holder opposes military commissions on principle. On the same day he sent KSM to a civilian trial in New York, Holder announced he was sending Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole, to a military tribunal.

By what logic? In his congressional testimony Wednesday, Holder was utterly incoherent in trying to explain. In his Nov. 13 news conference, he seemed to be saying that if you attack a civilian target, as in 9/11, you get a civilian trial; a military target like the Cole, and you get a military tribunal.

What a perverse moral calculus. Which is the war crime -- an attack on defenseless civilians or an attack on a military target such as a warship, an accepted act of war which the U.S. itself has engaged in countless times?

...

Alternatively, Holder tried to make the case that he chose a civilian New York trial as a more likely venue for securing a conviction. An absurdity: By the time Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice.

Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance and declaim at the scene of his crime.

Holder himself told The Washington Post that the coming New York trial will be "the trial of the century." The last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson.

The Anchoress 'speaks' to the possibilities of an alternative conclusion:

I am rendered very nervous when I hear our Attorney General and our President talk about trials with pre-determined outcomes. Aside from the showtrial that is meant to once-and-for-all defeat Bush and Cheney (and that will backfire on Obama and Holder) or the propaganda and security measures, this mindset -if it is allowed to proceed- will create a very unhealthy precedent in the minds of many who will be “just glad to see KSM” dealt with, and unconcerned about methods. No one should be “glad” about a president and AG -an entire DOJ- willing to tell you what is going to happen in the case of a now presumed innocent defendant, regardless of verdict.

It’s so very, very…statist of them. And I suppose, it’s part of “remaking” America.

Sadly, neither scenario speaks well of America's future.

The Lord Our Righteousness

Posted by guest blogger Fr. D.

Sunday Next Before Advent

Jeremiah 23:5–8
St. John 6:5–14

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

It is now late in the natural year, and today is the last Sunday of the sacred year, the Sunday next before Advent. The natural year is particularly marked by summer time and the autumn harvest, and they are both at an end now. In the same fashion. another season of grace is come to an end, with all of the opportunities for coming to salvation,  for growth in prayer and personal holiness, for growing the Body of Christ, all of these things are now laid by in the storehouse of eternity. As our Gospel lesson emphasizes, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

The search for personal holiness inevitably leads us to seek righteousness, the Righteous One. So the Epistle lesson for the day, taken from the prophet Jeremiah writing at a time before the Babylonian exile, points us toward our source of righteousness, the Saviour we have from God, and thus leads us toward Advent. The prophet says, Jeremiah 23:5   5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. The image of the Branch had been used previously by the prophet Isaiah 4:2   2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. It is used again after the Babylonian exile by the prophet Zechariah 3:8   8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. The idea of the Branch is that it is the essential nature, the root from which everything else springs. This is most certainly a reference to our Lord Jesus since from the time before the Babylonian exile until the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there was no king who reigned in earthly prosperity over the Jews. But He has taken our nature upon Himself, to be made man of the family of David, to be “the Son of Man.” As He has taken on our poverty, He has given us His spiritual riches and transformed us with the name Christian, that we might be “branches” also, even as described by John 15:5   5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. In Him, we become partakers of the Divine nature, becoming sons of God.

Jeremiah 23:6-8   6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.   7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;  8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. Here is Jeremiah, preaching before the Babylonian destruction of the Jews, saying (1) that Judah will be rescued, (2) that the children of Israel will no longer have as their primary recollection of deliverance the exodus from Egypt under the protecting hand of God, but rather (3) they will recall a new deliverance from Babylon and other countries to which they have been dispersed, so that they are now recalled to live in their own land. We know that the Jews did return from the Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the Temple is recorded in the Book of Ezra. We know that they have customarily greeted each other with a reminder of God’s deliverance in the exodus. What we don’t know about is the third item of which the prophet speaks, the gathering of the Jews to live in their own land. This appears to be an event yet to come. More likely, this will happen when the Great Shepherd will feed all of His flock, including us, on the hillsides of Israel, at the end of the world. This takes us right into the Gospel lesson for the day in which we find Jesus on the mountainside feeding His people. He is the Prophet that was to come, and the connection is fully apparent.

Before the Reformation, the Epistle lesson for the day was the same as what we have now, but the Gospel lesson was taken from Revelation 20:11-12   11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.  12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. This is fully fitting for the final Sunday of the Kalendar, a point in our lives when so many aspects of the books of our lives are closed, only to be opened again at the Last Day when our Lord Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. This is precisely the scene described in this passage from Revelation.

But at the time of the Reformation, the Gospel lesson was changed to our present reading, the account of the feeding of the five thousand on the mountainside, beginning with the five barley loaves and two small fishes. This is the same Gospel lesson that we have for the fourth Sunday of Lent; but here we see it in a different light. This account could have been taken from one of the other Gospels, but it is significant that it is St. John’s account of the miracle that we have before us. We need to remember that, in reading St. John, every word is significant, if we can only fathom what it means.

Just before the Gospel lesson begins, Jesus has crossed over the Sea of Galilee to the east side  and is sitting on the mountainside with His disciples. A large crowd has followed Him to the place where He sits on the mountainside. Jesus sees the crowd, and he says to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? Jesus is raising the question as to how are all of these people to be fed, a question that still concerns us today, particularly in spiritual terms. How are all of these people to receive spiritual food? You know the rest of the story of the miracle of the five barley loaves and two fishes, how the five thousand were fed and twelve baskets were filled with the fragments that remained. Where did all of that food come from? Remember that there were only five barley loaves and two small fishes to begin, but it is Jesus Himself who feeds the five thousand, who gives Himself to feed them. This becomes more clear in what follows.

Why did St. John relate this miracle story at this point? I submit that it was to point to a later event in Capernaum, described a few verses on: John 6:26-35   26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.  27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.   (28...30) 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.  34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.  35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. In this astounding discourse, Jesus spells out rather plainly the spiritual meaning and intent of the miraculous Bread, His own Body and Blood, with which He intends to feed His people until the end of the world. No one present to hear the words spoken understood what they were hearing, but we can see clearly now what our Lord was saying. Even while He lived, He was telling us that the Holy Communion which He would institute on Maundy Thursday would be the means for His people to feed on Him until the end of time. Lord, evermore give us this bread.     

Our Lord Jesus has given Himself for our salvation, that we might be saved. He has provided the Lord’s Table that we may be able to feed on him, to the nourishment of our souls and our growth in holiness through out our lives. He feeds us today, just as He fed the five thousand on the hillside above the Sea of Galilee so long ago by giving us the Bread of Life, His own Body and Blood. He wills that none would be lost, and that none of the means of grace that He has provided should be wasted. It is He that has made us righteous before God, something we are totally unable to do for ourselves. It is He who continues to feed us through out this life and on into the next as we progress in holiness toward our eternal home in Heaven. The Lord is our Righteousness.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Growing signs of Hasan terror conspiracy?

Ynetnews has the common sense details:

A massacre at a Texas army base that left 13 people dead is increasingly looking like part of a terror conspiracy rather than an act of a lone gunman.

The growing suspicious are related, among other things, to shooter Nidal Malik Hasan's connection to September 11 terrorists, the funds he is suspected of transferring to Pakistan, and his ties with radical Yemenite cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, associated with al-Qaeda.

By now, officials estimate that these ties were not confined to Hasan's participation in prayer sessions at Al-Awlaki's Virginia mosque and "spiritual advice". While emails exchanges between the two initially focused on religious matters, they later shifted to discussion of financial transfers for operational aims, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

'Significant evidence'

The paper based its report on FBI sources who estimate that the email exchanges point to a terror conspiracy. According to the sources, the ties between Hasan and Awlaki grew closer in recent months and involved discussions regarding the secret transfer of money and other means in order to translate plans into actions.

According to the report, Hasan asked for deliveries of less than $10,000, so he would not be obligated to report them to the army.

Interesting that the piece references the FBI as the source for the terror conspiracy angle.  My perusal of news outlets seems to contradict those sources though admittedly, much of what I'm seeing as to what the FBI is saying is somewhat dated:

Hasan came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in December 2008 as part of an investigation being conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which include agencies such as the FBI, Defense Department and state and local law enforcement, according to the FBI.

The task forces are supposed to “bring investigators and analysts into a collaborative, information-sharing environment in order to maximize the collective impact of the respective agencies,” according to an FBI statement.

Information can only be distributed outside a task force with approval of the group’s FBI supervisor.

“In this case, following the review and analysis conducted by investigators, there was a conclusion made by the investigator and the supervisor that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or planning,” according to the Nov. 11 FBI statement. “Further dissemination of the information regarding Major Hasan was neither sought nor authorized.”

In related news, Hasan has been reclassified as a 'pretrial detainee':

In a hearing in a San Antonio military hospital room Saturday, the Army obtained a judicial order that places more restrictions on Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and makes it easier for the military to move him from Brooke Army Medical Center pending trial, his lead lawyer said.

But where Hasan might be moved — or when — remained unknown after the closed-door, 90-minute hearing in the intensive care unit, where Hasan is recuperating, retired Army Col. John Galligan said.

Military judge Lt. Col. William Hintze granted the Army's request to change Hasan's status to “pretrial detainee” and also found enough probable cause for the 13 charges of premeditated murder to remain against Hasan, Galligan said.

Hasan was charged Nov. 12 in connection with the shootings that left 13 people dead and several others injured at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood.

“A couple of days ago, he was a restricted patient,” Galligan said. “He is now a confined patient. When the status changes to pretrial confinee, there are consequences.”

Army bars reporters

Galligan said there might be limits on Hasan's visitations, for example, or that it might lead to the movement of Hasan to a location farther away, making it more difficult for him to be advised by his lawyers.

Galligan said it was unclear when Hasan might leave Brooke.

“I've asked that the prosecutors delineate those things,” Galligan said.

“There were no immediate clear answers.”

No immediate clear answers largely because clarity is being obfuscated by political correctness and dhimmitude-ness.

Crossposted(*).

Patrick Kennedy banned from Communion? (UPDATED)

Associated Press:

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.

"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion.

He declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's injunction.

The paper said the bishop's spokesman declined to address the question of whether he had told Kennedy not to receive Communion. But the bishop's office cast doubt on Kennedy's related assertion about instructions to state priests.

"Bishop Tobin has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese," spokesman Michael K. Guilfoyle told the paper in an e-mailed statement.

Kennedy did not return messages left on his cell phone by The Associated Press, and his staff refused to make the congressman available for comment. Tobin's spokesman told the AP that the bishop would not comment on the issue.

Church law permits Tobin to ban Kennedy from receiving Communion within the Diocese of Providence, which covers Rhode Island, but he cannot stop Kennedy from receiving Communion elsewhere. It was unclear whether bishops overseeing Washington and Massachusetts, where Kennedy's family has a seaside compound, would issue similar bans.

Thoughts?

Crossposted(*).

UPDATE: Bishop Tobin has issued a public response:

I am disappointed and really surprised that Congressman Patrick Kennedy has chosen to reopen the public discussion about his practice of the faith and his reception of Holy Communion. This comes almost two weeks after the Congressman indicated to local media that he would no longer comment publicly on his faith or his relationship with the Catholic Church. The Congressman's public comments require me to reply.

...

I am disappointed that the Congressman would make public my pastoral and confidential request of nearly three years ago that sought to provide solely for his spiritual well-being.

I have no desire to continue the discussion of Congressman Kennedy's spiritual life in public. At the same time, I will absolutely respond publicly and strongly whenever he attacks the Catholic Church, misrepresents the teachings of the Church, or issues inaccurate statements about my pastoral ministry.

As I wrote to the Congressman in February of 2007, and repeated in my public letter earlier this month, I am willing and even anxious to meet with him, to discuss these matters. My door remains open. However, it should be absolutely clear the Congressman himself has once again chosen to make this discussion a matter of public record.

In the meantime, I will continue to pray - sincerely and fervently - for his conversion and repentance, and for his personal and spiritual well-being. I wish him well.

Weird is good!

by guest blogger, BroKen.

Teaching children at home has had amazing results for centuries. Here is a short list of some home schooled students; Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Mozart, Edison. Still today, in spite of the rapid growth of homeschooling, there are some people who think we who homeschool our children are a little weird. But let me share with you a secret. Not many people know this, but it is very important. Here is the secret…. “Weird is good!”

Every home is different and has different reasons for their decision. Here are some of our reasons which might help you understand why this phenomenon of homeschooling continues to grow.

First, I do NOT think public schools are evil. Everywhere we’ve lived with our children we’ve found the teachers and administrators in public schools to be dedicated professionals with deep compassion for the children in their care. I know that many of them see their vocation as a calling from God. The fact that they cannot explicitly share their faith, does not prevent the implicit expression of that faith. We would not be concerned placing our children with them.

So, why homeschool? Maybe these stories will help you understand. The first story isn’t mine but it turned on a light in my head when I heard it.

A Baptist minister and his family came to serve a church which had a Christian School and so naturally his children attended that school. After they had been there several months, the mother was carrying their toddler one Sunday after church and passed by their thirteen year old son who was talking with his school buddies. The toddler instinctively reached out to the big brother. But the teenager, realizing the toddler would “blow his cool”, turned away to be with his school friends. Because of that incident, the minister took his children out of that school.

Unfortunately, school encourages identification with a student’s age group as opposed to their family group. That “peer pressure” is actually unnatural and certainly unnecessary for education. But since most of us went to schools like this, it is all we know. Anything else seems weird.

Now here’s another incident. About six years ago, we were watching the movie, “A Christmas Story,” at home together. Remember the scene where Ralphie gets to help his Old Man change the tire. As Ralphie holds the lug nuts, the Old Man accidentally knocks them in the air with the tire tool and Ralphie says, “Oh, Fudge!” The narrator explains, “Only I didn’t say ‘Fudge.’ I said the other word. The queen mother of all curse words.”

My first born was about ten at the time. It was fascinating to hear my children discuss together what that other word might be. Does anyone doubt that if they had been in public school, my children would have known that other word?

By homeschooling, we let our children keep their innocence a bit longer than most. I know. It’s weird. And it’s good.

Scientific consensus collusion on global warming

You won't be seeing this much in the MSM:

It’s a story that broke first in Europe, but is making its way here.  (I heard about it on NewsFifty, which is constantly adding links.)  Here’s the story, briefly:  Hadley GRU is one of the major climate change advocacy organizations.  Hackers broke into its database and discovered more than a thousand emails and documents indicating that scientists were colluding with the organization to push the “man made global warming” mantra — irrespective of the actual data.  Indeed, in many cases, it appears that the organization, sometimes working with the scientists, was falsifying the data to push the agenda.  This stuff pre-dates Al Gore’s “frog in the blender” (or do I mean “frog in the boiling water”?) campaign, but it surely informs the campaign, which started shortly after and continued during this information creation period.

Bookworm posts two of the emails at her place and concludes with these wise words:

Horrifyingly,these confessions of the evidence of absence and the absence of honest evidence go on and on and on.

This is a huge story, and you would be doing yourself and world a big favor if you would make sure to broadcast it.  It’s only if we keep the pressure on that the MSM will ever so reluctantly acknowledge the existence of this data.

The American Express of Racism. Don't leave home without it. (UPDATED)

Posted by guest blogger Locutisprime.

Jesse Jackson: 'You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man'.

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Which begs the question....."can you vote for the health care reform bill and still call yourself a white man or white woman?"

I am so sick of this race pimp appearing regularly in the media, hustling his own brand of racism, while the media turns a ubiquitous blind eye and pretends it never happened.

Had a white man made a statement even remotely similar in racial context as to what The revered Jesse Jackson said? His career and his life would have immediately been ruined and ridiculed and he would have been drummed into oblivion by a more than eager to please liberal leftist media.

But the reverend Jesse Jackson or the reverend Al Sharpton, or the reverend Joseph Lowery or others? Well they can say anything they damn well please and they can make the most outlandish and brazenly racist statements possible. And the media simply stands and stares and moves on to something else as if to say "What?"

Jesse Jackson and his ilk have turned racism into a multimillion dollar industry in America and they absolutely refuse to ever allow the cash cow of race baiting to die. Dating back decades to thier escapades of years gone by, where they blackmailed corporate America at every turn, to their continued murmurs concerning "slave reparations," the mantra never ceases and it never ends. And it never will. Fear and guilt are their tools of trade and they have perfected the use of each to a science.

And here we have yet another example. Jackson's remark is relatively plain and easily simple to understand, even for a media moron. It is up front and straight forward. A cut to the chase moment IMO. "How could a black man (congressman) from the great state of Alabama? Vote against a bill that promises to provide more entitlement for the racially deprived?

Therefore, I have a question. How could any reasonably sane human being of any color, sit and listen to the racist rhetoric of Jesse Jackson and not immediate recognize this race pimp for precisely what he is.

That is absolutely disgusting to my sensibilities America, yet the people of this country continue to allow it to go on, while they continue to ignore the reality. Why? Because they suffer from the same disease that our friends and fellow countrymen in the military have demonstrated of late.

America is collectively terrified of being called a racist on any issue. And thus? Americans will march willingly into the ovens and the killing fields of the future if it save them from their greatest fear and real life phobia.

Just don't call them a racist. Please! It's more than they can bear!

UPDATE (By Rick):

What saddens me is how effective the race pimps have been in marginalizing conservative voices and influencing the ignorant.  Case in point, this exchange in Facebook I was a part of this morning:

Friend: If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed, and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.---George Aiken

Me: Which makes me wonder what card Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would then play?

1st Friend of Friend: don't forget Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Rush Limbaugh.

2nd Friend of Friend: Sad but true, [Friend's name]...interesting how everyone wants to point their finger elsewhere when we should all be pointing it at ourselves!!!! Crummy nature of man without the worship of a Holy God!!

1st Friend of Friend: Amen, [2nd Friend of Friend's name]

Me: To suggest that Rush, Sean, and Neil, in the context of a comment centered and focused on race and prejudice, are the mirror images of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson is to blur the demarcation separating common sense from ignorance.

Then again, prejudice is synonymous with ignorance... and so I'm thinking it'd not be wise to be surprised.

I just think the whole thing substantiates Locutisprime's post.

The cooling Global Warming meme

I believe the poll referenced is this one mentioned by the AP:

Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.

In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.

The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change — from melting ice caps to the world's oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.

...

Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities — such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles — are behind a temperature increase. That's down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year's poll.

"The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things," suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. "When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave."

Andrew Weaver, a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said politics could be drowning out scientific awareness.

"It's a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public," he said.

I think Mr. Weaver is a kool-aid drinker who loves to blame everything about the decline in the number of kool-aid drinkers except the truth.

Now that's funny right there

Morgan brings us the laugh of the day:

Tandem Writing Assignment

The following is a true story received from an English professor.

You know that book “Men are from Mars, Women from Venus”? Well, here’s a prime example of that. This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary (last name deleted).

First, the Assignment:

English 44A
SMU
Creative Writing
Prof. Miller

In-Class Assignment for Wednesday:

Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

And now, the Assignment as submitted by Rebecca & Gary:

Rebecca starts:

At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question.

Gary:

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geostation 17,” he said into his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far…”. But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

Rebecca:

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel.” Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth — when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.

Gary:

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu’udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu’udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. “We can’t allow this! I’m going to veto that treaty! Let’s blow ‘em out of the sky!”

Rebecca:

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

Gary:

Yeah? Well, you’re a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

Rebecca:

A**hole.

Gary:

B**ch.

Obama butt-kissing Nora O'Donnell goes after 17 year old Palin supporter

This goes beyond the Palin:

Turns out that the young lady being accosted by MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell is 17 (which would've made her 16 during the Presidential election), an important factoid given this bit of information passed along by Newsbusters:

... after O'Donnell began catching heat for her stunt, she went back on the air to defend herself.  Among other things, responding to charges she had confronted a young girl, O'Donnell twice claimed that her interview subject "voted in the last election."

O'Donnell is a liar.  A liar that works for MSNBC.

Imagine that.

There's a sucker born every minute

Yesterday, I linked to this piece published at The Atlantic and more particularly to Dr. Bob's well thought out rebuffing of the ludicrous claim that Christianity is responsible for our current economic climate.

A key excerpt from the good Doctor follows:

Seriously, there’s really not much more to the “evidence” in this article than that. Sure, they mention that some of the banks were marketing to prosperity Gospel churches, and some pastors were a bit cozy with the banks as well, and seemed to be encouraging debt. But really, that’s about it. Perhaps some numbers would be nice: how many of these churches’ members actually ended up foreclosed or financially destitute? What percentage of foreclosed homes were purchased by these church members? If you’re going to make the claim that the prosperity churches are a major factor in the housing meltdown, wouldn’t some hard facts and numbers be, you know, reasonable to provide?

Sigh. From a once-great magazine to garbage journalism, chasing Newsweek to the bottom of the literary barrel. What drivel. This is their cover story? Jeez.

Where to begin? The prosperity Gospel churches and their televangelists have always been favorite targets of the mainstream media and pundits who want to get a handle on “Christians” and what they think. They are easy targets because they have such high media visibility, and their preachers often have an ostentatious lifestyle which almost begs the accusation of greed and hypocrisy. And sometimes, as happened with Jim and Tammy Baker and Jimmy Swaggert, they hit paydirt.

What seems to go unnoticed is the the “health and wealth” churches, although culturally highly visible, are very much a fringe movement in Christianity, bordering on cultic at times, and are regarded by most mainstream evangelical and Catholic theologians and scholars as being heterodox at best, if not outright heretical — the antithesis of the core Christian doctrines about concern for the poor, the spiritual benefits of suffering, the dangers and bondage of debt, excessive materialism, and an unhealthy focus on wealth. They are widely ridiculed and little respected among most Christians in my experience, and I suspect their stated numbers of followers is inflated more than Obama’s “jobs created or saved” stats.

True, there will always be an appeal for a message that promises you wealth in the now and joy in the hereafter, and so it is no surprise that their congregations are often large. But neither is the teaching of these prosperity preachers solely devoted to wealth acquisition; there is a strong emphasis by most on morally upright living, self-discipline and spiritual development, and they often have ministries to the divorced, victims of domestic abuse, the homeless, and drug and alcohol recovery. Not everyone in the pew on Sunday is looking to cash in on God.

No, the real motivation behind this article has nothing at all to do with any serious attempt at understanding the housing crisis and its causes; it is a gratuitous slap at conservative Christians, and the nefarious politicians and preachers who supposedly exploit them.

So who, predictably, jumps on the gratuitous-slap-at-conservative-Christians bandwagon?

None other than our go to Religious Leftist, the most godly and most pious Mike from Waving or Drowning:

I was already planning to do some more thinking and writing on the Rich Young Guy this morning, so it's a little ironic that I ran across this article first:

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?
by Hanna Rosin
The Atlantic, December 2009

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.

Sell everything you own and give it to the poor, and apparently you'll get back ten times as much. I must have a bad translation. I felt a little sick as I read through the piece this morning. And as Anne Lamott likes to say, I have a feeling this is the kind of thing that makes Jesus want to drink gin out of the cat dish.

God help us.

God help us not to fall for unsubstantiated stupidity.

God help us not to be taken in by a dubious piece of crap riddled journalism.

God help us not to succumb to shallowness.

God help us to think more and emote less.

God help us not be so damned ignorant.

God help us indeed.

He just couldn't help himself

By way of NeverYetMelted.

Crossposted(*).
 

Obama dismisses errors on Recovery.Gov

Jobs created in non-existent Congressional districts are merely a "side issue":

President Obama brushed off criticism over his administration's inaccurate reporting on job creation Wednesday, telling Fox News the accounting is an "inexact science" and that any errors are a "side issue" when compared with the goal of turning the economy around. He said job growth is his No.1 responsibility. 

The president was responding to criticism from Republicans, as well as Democratic Rep. David Obey, who drew attention to embarrassing errors on the Recovery.gov Web site that tracks stimulus funding. The site is under fire for claiming a number of jobs were created from the stimulus in congressional districts that don't exist and accepting unrealistic and inflated jobs data from various sources. 

Obama said he understood the "frustration" but said his focus has to be on accelerating job growth. 

"I think this is an inexact science. We're talking about a multitrillion-dollar economy that went through the worst economic crisis since 1933. The first measure of success of the economic recovery is, did we pull ourselves back from the brink? We did," Obama said. "The question now is, can we make sure we're accelerating job growth? That's my No. 1 job. Nobody's been more disappointed than I have to see how high the unemployment rate has gotten. And I spend every waking hour, when I'm talking to my economic team, about how we are going to put people back to work." 

Meanwhile locally:

Alcoa Howmet is laying off nearly a quarter of its workers at its Hampton manufacturing plant to adjust for an unforeseen sharp drop in orders for industrial gas turbines, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The company, one of Hampton's largest private employers, informed 250 workers this week that they would lose their jobs by the end of the week.

About 90 percent of the workers who will lose their jobs worked in production; the remaining 10 percent were salaried employees, said Jean Moorman, director of communications for Alcoa Power and Propulsion, a business unit of Alcoa Inc.

The layoffs come just five months after the company announced a $25 million expansion of the plant to increase its production capacity for components of industrial gas turbines, which are used primarily by utilities and large industrial complexes to generate power.

And in nearby Franklin, less than a month ago:

International Paper Co. is preparing to close its Franklin paper mill, leaving in its ashes a city that was built on its fortune and 1,100 workers who will lose their jobs.

When the plant produces its final rolls of paper next spring, it will end more than a century of operation at Franklin's hulking, iconic mill and leave the city without its identity.

International Paper's main plant, which sits on about 1,400 acres on the southernmost fringe of Isle of Wight County near the Franklin border, will begin closing portions of its operations within weeks and shutter the entire operation by spring, the company announced Thursday.

The plant's closure will deal a sharp blow to Isle of Wight, which will lose its second-largest employer and more than a quarter of its tax base. The company is by far the county's largest taxpayer, doling out $5.7 million in property and equipment taxes in 2009, more than double the $2.3 million paid by Isle of Wight's second-largest taxpayer, Smithfield Foods Inc., said Commissioner of Revenue Gerald Gwaltney.

Rest easy however my local brethren... Obama spends every waking hour, when he's with his economic team, talking about how to put people back to work.

Would he lie to you? 

Crossposted(*).

Eric Holder tortured by Lindsey Graham

I think the Attorney General might've preferred waterboarding:

Them dang-blasted Christians are at the root of our economic woes

I kid you not:

Let the confusion end: The Atlantic has hit the news stands with a breaking revelation: It’s the Christians! To wit: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

… recently, critics have begun to argue that the prosperity gospel, echoed in churches across the country, might have played a part in the economic collapse. In 2008, in the online magazine Religion Dispatches, Jonathan Walton, a professor of religious studies at the University of California at Riverside, warned:

Narratives of how “God blessed me with my first house despite my credit” were common … Sermons declaring “It’s your season of overflow” supplanted messages of economic sobriety and disinterested sacrifice. Yet as folks were testifying about “what God can do,” little attention was paid to a predatory subprime-mortgage industry, relaxed credit standards, or the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM.

In 2004, Walton was researching a book about black televangelists. “I would hear consistent testimonies about how ‘once I was renting and now God let me own my own home,’ or ‘I was afraid of the loan officer, but God directed him to ignore my bad credit and blessed me with my first home,’” he says. “This trope was so common in these churches that I just became immune to it. Only later did I connect it to this disaster.”

Whew! That was easy! Who knew? But is it really that simple? What are the facts on which this startling conclusion is based?

…Kate Bowler found that most new prosperity-gospel churches were built along the Sun Belt, particularly in California, Florida, and Arizona—all areas that were hard-hit by the mortgage crisis.

Makes sense: these were rapidly growing areas of the country; with rapid growth and cheap credit, lots of homes were getting sold. And lots of new churches and churchgoers would be expected. So, these Sun Belt areas grew quickly, had a lot of new churches (some of which were the “prosperity” variety) and ended up with a lot of foreclosures. But surely there has to be more evidence than that…

Nationally, the prosperity gospel has spread exponentially among African American and Latino congregations. This is also the other distinct pattern of foreclosures. “Hyper-segregated” urban communities were the worst off, says Halperin. Reliable data on foreclosures by race are not publicly available, but mortgages are tracked by both race and loan type, and subprime loans have tended to correspond to foreclosures. During the boom, roughly 40 percent of all loans going to Latinos nationwide were subprime loans; Latinos and African Americans were 28 percent and 37 percent more likely, respectively, to receive a higher-rate subprime loan than whites.

So, a lot of foreclosures occurred in the Hispanic and black communities — and the prosperity gospel was increasingly popular among these groups as well. Pretty damning, I’d have to say. Pretty much nails it down, don’t ya think?

Or not.

Doctor Bob goes on to skewer the logic used to draw the conclusion and quite effectively I might add... do read the whole thing and see for yourself but what he doesn't cover is the blatant hypocrisy.

In the Atlantic piece, you have the straw man argument that Christianity's prosperity gosepl is to blame for the economic crisis, this despite the fact that the prosperity gospel represents not Christianity nor that the prosperity gospel's proponents even make up a large population of Christendom.

Juxtapose that with the media's ignorance of Islam and its tenets (as documented in the Koran and as practiced by a ton of Muslims) and its refusal to in anyway blame Islam for terrorism.

Its truly a marvel to behold... assuming you find rank hypocrisy and bias marvel-ous.

Crossposted(*).

Dick Cheney: Obama advertising weakness

And you know it's true:

Greeting the Japanese emperor at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace last weekend, President Barack Obama bowed so low that he was looking straight at the stone floor. The next day, Obama shook hands with the prime minister of repressive Myanmar during a group meeting. The day after that, the president held a “town hall” with Chinese university students who had been selected by the regime.

The images from the president's journey through Asia carried a potent symbolism that has riled critics back home. One conservative website called the episodes “Obamateurism.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney told POLITICO that Obama was advertising “weakness.”

But White House aides say the approach is deliberate — part of Obama’s determination to deliver on his campaign promise of directly engaging friends and enemies alike, giving America a less belligerent posture abroad.

“I think it's very important for the United States not to assume that what is good for us is automatically good for somebody else,” Obama told the students at the town hall, in Shanghai. “And we have to have some modesty about our attitudes towards other countries.”

...

White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who is accompanying the president on his four-nation, nine-day trip, told POLITICO that Obama is “governing in just the way that he said he would” during his campaign.

“He believes in vigorous engagement around the world — in strong alliances, in confronting our adversaries and standing up for human rights by making these points in a very public way,” Axelrod said. “He is confident. He’s someone who’s leading from strength and a deep belief in who America is and what we stand for. That confidence is reflected in the way he conducts himself on the world stage.”

But critics call Obama’s outstretched hand a miscalculation. Cheney said: "There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone. Our friends and allies don't expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness."

Dick Cheney, speaking truth to weakness.

Crossposted(*).

A medical plea - part 2

Part 1 to this story is here... I hope you'll read it, if only to join us in prayer for my cousin. 

We've heard back from Cheguy and I'm deciding to post it here in full.  It appears that he's used a Spanish to English translator of sorts so please keep that in mind as you read through it:

Dear Rick, I am sending this letter to let you see firsthand what is my personal situació, your mother told me that your blok was wearing something on my situation. I think this letter is a potted history of my life. And I would like the hang on your blok, maybe someone else in one way or another interested, many thanks to all, god bless you.

I'm waiting to go into hospital again for further testing me a kiss
------------------------------

I am José Luis Merino, the purpose of this letter very simple, I tell you what my current situation first hand.

First I want to wholeheartedly thank my family in the U.S., which from the first minute they hear of my situation turned in seeking a solution to my problem. Thank you.

My birth date is April 20, 1969 in Barcelona, a few days of life, I found a very serious congenital heart disease and complex. The truth no one thought they could never get ahead, well actually only my mother. God bless.

In 1969, children like me who were born with a different heart practically settlement and we were often the testing ground for techniques that are practiced today in congenital heart disease. Thanks to a group of medical pioneers, innovative surgical techniques, and why not, ahead of their time, plus the new pharmacopoeia. People like me keep going. About 90% of cardiac go ahead after the first interventions in ten years we will be an epidemic.

To understand my situation need to know how I am, who I am as a person as a human being. Since my birth, I have struggled to move forward, grow, build and be a human being who I am today, despite all the situations and obstacles that life had prepared me.

A restless, feisty, hardworking, perfectionist, with a touch particularly positive, pragmatic and sarcastic toward life, "Life is now, I write these letters, within fifteen minutes an uncertain future. Survivor of a thousand battles and war, but not a victim, my illness is only an accident in my life and my family. Where normal for it takes nothing more than hollow for me to leave, and that lately she occupies my whole being. It is not easy to fight when mind and body go together.

Since my main aim has always been to stay alive stay alive in order to appreciate and enjoy the different situations that life has offered me, my childhood, my youth, my youth, my relationships, my friends, my marriage and as not more important and wonderful could happen to me my two children. "Just because these two moments in my whole life has been worthwhile, so much struggle, so much effort, so many tears, night in the ER, ICU, hospital nights, loneliness, grief and tears." On behalf of my family and my wife, who always have been unqualified and will be in the worst moments of my life, thanks to them all.

I grew up with many other shortcomings. After my experiences and experiences, there were many wounds, not only physical but also emotional. Are the traces of a life marked by limitations, loneliness, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety, lack of information, uncertainty of death or a life expectancy cut a decent quality of life, rejection of a society that sees me and does not understand us. Everything is not absent.

That I am part of the living history of medicine and the first survivors of congenital heart diseases intercepted in Spain, some 50 years ago. I have come to adulthood thanks to the expertise of a professional who once held a Bandig to the lung.

I always thought that my heart made me special, a different child, a freak of nature or accident, cardiac unique in its complexity. And it is well confirmed by the doctors themselves, may live in the world 30 people around the world like me, like little special and make us worthy to know or inquire about us. In Spain I am informed that the ministry of health there are two or three people (transposition of great vessels, single ventricle, inter-atrial communication and pulmonary stenosis).

For the first time I feel physically and mentally helpless, many doctors who say they do not know how I'm alive, my heart is incompatible with life, others say they do not know how to deal with this heart disease, and the most cruel are those say that when the time comes, they know they will do, but I'll be your guinea pig. . I think I deserve all medical, surgical, psychological, you may receive, deserve my case is unique, "the team of inborn and transplantation of our country knows.

It seems that day comes, are increasingly congenital cardiologists, pointing to a heart transplant.

And I need all the help you can give me god, people, hospitals, doctors, organizations, media. For I am ordinary people, anonymous calls as little advice and help. And a second chance to proceed. If anything the American people is reflected in the rest of the world, is proud of their generosity for their sensitivity and support in social and personal worst.

My philosophy of life has always been the day to day, without casualties, or complexes. As I say, or knees, or behind, above all, to anyone. I'm a survivor, a fighter who tries to move forward. And I need all the help and luck in the world. Thank you all for reading these letters.

Note. Help Help Please call me thanks for your time.
 
José Luis Merino Mendez aka Cheguy

I wrote him back with the following:

Cheguy,

I am going to put this on the blog tonight... only now have I had the time to read it fully...

I continue to pray for you... and to hope that in some way, someone will be able to help.

May God's presence be made real to you, even as I type these words...

Hugs to you cousin.

-Rick

Again, if anyone's able to help in some tangible way, I'm hoping you'll contact me at my email address.

I'm also hoping however that you'll pray.

Thanks much.

"Unfriend" - 2009's word of the year

I've also heard it called "defriend" and understand there are families, self-described Christian families no less, that have "defriended" their blood relatives.  No lie. 

Reuters brings us the poop... and I think poop is an appropriate word:

"Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook.

"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, in a statement.

"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

H/T to The Deacon's Bench, who opines with wisdom:

I'll leave it to others to parse the spiritual and sociological ramifications of "unfriendship."

And just to be helpful, ramification is defined thusly:

A development or consequence growing out of and sometimes complicating a problem, plan, or statement.

If you confess to be a Christian... and you're "unfriending" family members, I believe Deacon Greg is suggesting that this is cause for spiritual pause.

Any pausers out there?

Mooner-in-chief (UPDATED)

On a related note:

UPDATE: Gerard passes on a pic of the bow that is... well... nearly cheeky but fully telling: