Miserable cities

Forbes Magazine puts out a list upon which no city wants to find its name. How would you like to be living in one of "America's Most Miserable Cities?" You may have thought it was the color you painted your house. No, the problem goes deeper than that.

The things examined by Forbes to come up with this inglorious list include "the serious" and "the less weighty." Things like unemployment and inflation, violent crime, foreclosures, taxes, and home prices appear alongside quality of life downers like weather and commute times.

Below I have listed Forbes' top 20. As you examine the list, notice which states show up again and again. Consider what these places have in common.

1. Detroit, Michigan. Home prices tanking. Violent crime through the roof
2. Flint, Michigan. People are leaving the city faster than sponsors are leaving Lance Armstrong.
3. Rockford, Illinois. Illinois. Need I say more?
4. Chicago, Illinois. Another feather in the cap of Rahm Immanuel.
5. Modesto, California. Third highest unemployment in the U.S.
6. Vallejo, California. Hmmm...Michigan, Illinois, California...hmmm...
7. Warren, Michigan. We have Michigan by a nose.
8. Stockton, California. Largest city to file for bankruptcy in 2012. Top 5 in crime and unemployment.
9. Lake County, Illinois. Okay, this started out kind of funny. It's turning tragic.
10. New York, New York. You knew this had to break the top 10.

There's the top 10. Have you noticed the similarities? On with the show.

11. Toledo, Ohio. Another state heard from. Apologies to Cpl. Klinger.
12. St. Louis, Missouri. I'm not surprised. I've been to their bus depot. Sounds like mis-er-y.
13. Camden, New Jersey. 42% of residents living below the poverty line. How can that be?
14. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Interesting choice. Forbes didn't like their winters nor their property tax.
15. Atlantic City, New Jersey. I guess casinos aren't the solution to the world's ills.
16. Atlanta, Georgia. Breaking out of the mold. Housing collapse and heinous traffic.
17. Cleveland, Ohio. Forbes said, "Only Flint and Detroit have a faster exodus rate."
18. Poughkeepsie, New York. Cutest name in the top 20. Lousy weather and commute.
19. Gary, Indiana. Sandwiched amidst Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, what did you expect. Kentuckians are thankful for the Ohio River!
20. Youngstown, Ohio. Nothing left to say.

Three from Michigan. Three from Ohio. Three from Illinois. Three from California. Two each from New York and New Jersey. These are places steeped in government and social law. There are other common factors, too (union thuggery, broken families, and out-of-wedlock births), that I'll not address here.

So how's the state as savior working out for them?

If big government is crushing cities on the local level, what makes us think big government will cure all ills on the national level? Freedom constrained breeds blight and sucks the life from the organism.

The nanny state is unsustainable. We must jettison it soon by choice and pick up the heavy and productive yoke of personal responsibility. If we do not, it will come crashing down all around us, and great will be the fall.

Just another day: Frozen

I haven't jotted an installment of "Just another day" in quite awhile.  History coupled with current events has us hurtling toward some destination.  Do we know?  Do we care?

Here's some cud to chew:

• The muddled Middle East:  Lebanon fell.  Tunisia turned over.  Egypt's in a tizzy.  Jordan's next in line.  Everything from Iraq east remains a cauldron of chaos.  Israel tries to deal with its inflation while trying to keep a Marty Feldman focus on the nations along its borders.  What's going down?  Here's Jay Nordlinger's take:
  

  "Those who know the most about the Middle East are saying the least, when it comes to the turmoil in Egypt. Or they are speaking most cautiously. They’re quickest to say, “I really don’t know. I don’t know the exact nature of this, or how it will turn out”... Those who know less speak in far more confident tones. They are even cocksure. I’m not sure we should trust anyone who speaks in those tones, just now."

  An interesting take, for sure. Jesus Christ himself gave a "no man knows" warning to his followers.  At the same time, he told them that they would know the seasons.  Day and hour, no.  Seasons, yes (Matthew 24:29-39).
  
  
• The Muslim Brotherhood.  Since the MB wants to destroy Israel, shouldn't it be illegal to use such a Kumbaya sentiment in their name?  Unless of course it merely means brotherhood amongst Muslims.  If that is the case, let us not be deceived.
  
  
• The King's Speech.  I stuck my thou-shalt-not finger into the eye of Hollywood last month (here, if you must).  I lamented the use of profanity in movies today.  My lament still stands.  Far too many movies use far too much profanity and they lose far too much money because far too many people will not take their families to see such.  While television and film can't bear all of the blame, the prevalence of profanity in day-to-day life can be attributed to its normalization in our entertainment.
  
  But my earlier diatribe indicted The King's Speech, a film raking awards left and right from those deemed worthy to dispense awards.  I began to hear great things about the movie from those whose opinion I held dear, so I took my bride and off we went to the movie-plex.  Great movie.  Great movie.  And the language, in two scenes, was not gratuitous nor unnecessary.  While I don't think foul language was common in that milieu, neither do the characters in the film.  And it led to one of the many laughs the film had to offer.
  
  A great love story, too.  What this has to do with "Just another day," I'm not certain.  Had to recant my previous glance down the nose.
  
  
• Ice.  Hurricanes battering Australia.  Critters dying in localized, plague-like proportions.  And snow.  And cold.  Over the last few months, the groanings of the earth seem as chronic as the aches in my back.  No respite.  Here in north Texas, our local Air Force Base has been closed for three consecutive days due to a snow and icing received on Monday night.  While the country lamented the fading and quieting of Joe DiMaggio, I don't think too many miss Al Gore.  It does seem that the earth is trying to tell us something, but I don't believe that it's that we caused it to toasty up a bit (Matthew 24:7-8)
  
  
• Persecution.  Penn State hates Chick-fil-A.  Sweet.  Let's see, if the nation's most elite universities roundly loathe a particular institution, then there must be a lot to love about that institution.  ROTC.  The Church.  Chick-fil-A.  Really, though, it's a tip of the iceberg thing.  Seems more and more that large entities have little tolerance for things of Christ. In the past as Christians faced persecution, they often ended up going to their death for their convictions.  In recent days, the Muslim response to persecution has also been to die for their convictions--but in their case it is self-inflicted and designed to take as many infidels with them as possible.  A bit of a difference.
  

  "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake."  ~ Jesus (Matthew 24:9)

Until next time, it's not just another day.

"They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.""

~ Peter (2 Peter 3:4)

Three needful (and short) reads

Some days I feel like Chicken Little. Some would suggest an even stronger resemblance.

The little red light on the dashboard of our country flickers with far greater regularity than it once did.  So steady is it now days that most folks ignore it thinking it's merely a problem with the light and not with the nation as a whole.

The God who is there weighs nations in his perfect balance (Jeremiah 18:1-10).  Based upon God's word, we have been tipping the scales.  The warning light is full on at all times.  Here are three prominent issues rattling under America's hood.

• Islam:  A Christian America is not incompatible with other religions, irreligion, or even atheism.  In fact when you look around the world and through history, the nations that have proven themselves most friendly toward the free exercise of one's convictions have been those with a strong biblical foundation.  If we take a look at those nations founded upon the Koran, those that hold most fervently to it have proven the most hostile toward other religions within their borders.
  
  So how does a free America deal with a group of people that shows itself increasingly antagonistic to who we are and our way of life?  It's a question our government is ignoring.  Read Andrew McCarthy's, Islam and the State of the Union.
• Christianity.  The least tolerated philosophy in the public arena today is anything associated with Judaism or Christianity.  Television, film, universities, and courtrooms across the country demean, dissect, insult, and dismiss them as though they birthed all things evil and as though they have manacled American progress.  Ironic because it is the source of our freedoms in America.  Don't think so?  Read Dennis Prager's, God and Congress.
• Life.  Amidst Sanctity of Human Life Month, Congressman Rick Santorum had the audacity (harumph!) to compare abortion to slavery.  Considering we have nobody around who has experienced either, the harumphing should be kept to a minimum.  Does the analogy fit?  Is he comparing the level and quantity of atrocity or is he comparing how one group of humans can consider another group of humans non-persons?  Read his own words in Life is a Civil Right.

Maybe the sky isn't falling, but it sure appears that the curtain is.  Stay informed.

An afternoon at CNN.com

What follows are actual CNN.com headlines from 4 p.m. May 3, 2010.  Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.  Headline #1:

Betty White draws the line at nudity

That one alone sent me screaming down the hall.  You know the heebie-jeebies you get when you believe some despised critter has found its way down the back of your shirt and the wild, flailing dance you do to try and extract it?  Yeah, you get the idea.

Anyway, I, for one, would like to express my deepest appreciation to Ms. White for her courageous stand.  Yikes.

Next head-scratcher:

Serious legal hurdles for gay divorce

Um.  Does that one make the little propeller on your beanie spin contrary to the earth's rotation, too?

This one comes as no surprise:

A Supreme Court without Protestants?

You can almost here the CNN newsroom, "We can only hope!"  In a post-modern, post-Christian nation, does the majority even care anymore?  Most justices receive a nice coating of tar and feathers if they even hint that law's Source (God Almighty, in case you were wondering)  informs their jurisprudent opinion.

Next, please:

Night of Comedy in DC

Legislators must be staying late.  Next:

Pot farm found on state property

Dude, like that's news?  It lined the boulevards of DC when Marion Barry helmed the city.  And you thought your buddies liked hiking in Moab because of the wild rock formations.

Last one for this trip around the track:

Study: Obese kids get bullied more

Yes, and the average person has ten digits on their hands and ten on their feet.  Who got paid for such a study?  I could have told them that for a quarter of the price and been quite happy.  Here's the tragedy of that headline.  The parents are to blame for the obesity and the grief.  I heard some parents lament recently that they couldn't get their kids off the video games.  Excuse me?!  Who's the PARENT?  If you let your kids consume a box of Twinkies as an afternoon snack and then give them a half-gallon milkshake from Sonic to wash it down, and if their only toned muscles can be found in their texting thumbs and Guitar Hero fingers, they will end up a wee bit pudgy about the mid-section.  If your kid is a budding Michael Phelps, you'd better own a supermarket to keep his furnace fueled, but most of us could have served as models for the extras in Pixar's Wall*E.

I wish I were making this stuff up, but it was all collected on the front page of CNN.com.

Just another day: Is there anybody out there?

Yeah, you can bet that when a major quake smacks the earth, I'll be posting another "Just another day."  Just consider me that quaint, long-haired maniac walking the streets of the blogospherre toting my big sign and crying "The end is near!" except that my hair is really short and I don't have very much of it anymore.  With that, away we go.

• Right in the middle of someone's Chile.  8.8 on Herr Richter's scale.  That's a whopper.  So much so that the folks across the Pacific in Japan (!) are concerned about a tsunami. 
• Not to be outdone.  Japan had their own rocker earlier in the week.  They tagged 7.0 which is itself a doozy but nothing compared to 8.8.  Consider, too, that Japan's construction is a lot more high tech compared with most of Chile's construction.  Japan fared pretty well, overall.  Chile's going to be a mess.  Is the earth burping more than normal?
• Blizzard after blizzard after blizzard.  Few on the east coast are singing, "Let it Snow."  It's been snowing there since December.  We should have had the Winter Olympics in D.C.
• Drudge.  None of these events are new.  It seems every week some "natural" phenomena grab the headlines.  Drudge linked an article to MSNBC asking the question, "Is Nature Out of Control?"  Last year we had tornadoes as abundant "dudes" in a snowboard half-pipe interview.  This winter it's winter capturing everyone's attention.  Then Haiti, Japan, and Chile in the span of a month.  While the article deals with earthquakes (here), all of nature has been heaving. 
  
  What gives?  Roland Emmerich might want us to believe it's because of "2012" or perhaps some bizarre cyclical upheaval that gives rise to "The Day After Tomorrow."  Jesus had other ideas.  He said,
  

  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

  Nations have been hammering nations for a couple centuries, but the whole deal with the troubled earth seems awfully recent. Some writer at MSNBC seems to think so, too.
• Money, money.  The head of the International Monetary Fund has joined a growing choir calling for a global currency (here).  With the shrinking of international distances, economies seem to be more and more intertwined, like it or not.  Should we move to a global currency, it's a very small step toward nations asking for an international government with oversight over global interactions.  A very small step.  All of this on the heels of the euro's disintegration (here) and America's lethal national debt.
• Animals.  God forgive them.  A dog bites a man, it's put down.  If it does it once, it's likely to do it again.  So will someone please explain to me why an orca that's been involved in three human deaths would be allowed to swim leisurely in its pool (here)?  The supreme idiocy of "animals are people, too" fleshed out for all to see.  One man kills three, he'll be facing lethal injection.  Shamu does it?  He gets an extra-large bucket of herring.  What gives?

Last one, turn the lights out.

Tiger & such

Really, no cohesive theme today, but it's been such a long time since I regurgitated the ruminations of my mind that I felt compelled.  Can you believe I do this to relax?

• Tiger.  I'm surprised by the spears that the PGA's greatest philanderer has taken for his recent confession.  I confess I did not watch his public penance.  I did read the transcript, and it seemed pretty sincere to me.  "My fault," rang throughout.  "All my fault."  I did catch a bit of his delivery on the Olympics.  Considering his material, I thought he delivered it pretty well.  I'm dropping my stone.
  
  
  Expect there to be no criticisms from the talking heads for Woods mentioning the role his Buddhist beliefs would play in his restoration.  Had he appealed to Christ (and found forgiveness for his sin and the strength to overcome future sin), as suggested by Brit Hume, he would have been labeled as weak for needing such a crutch or as a hypocrite for dallying and then repenting.  Alas.
• Olympics.  I wasn't going to watch the Olympics this time around.  Problems swirled around these games what with global warming focusing its sole attention on Vancouver, the muffed torch lighting and the luge track tragedy on opening day.  The whole thing seemed doomed before it even began.  Then I got hooked.  Shawn White soared as high out of the half-pipe as the stadium lights that lit up the British Columbian night.  Lindsey Vonn pounded down a mountain that ate half the girls for lunch to clinch gold.  Shani Davis became the first man to win 1000-meter gold back to back in speed skating.  Watched a gut-wrenching fight for a bronze medal in cross-country skiing that went down to a photo finish.  I wish you could have seen these women gut-out those last two miles up hills and then sprinting side-by-side toward the finish line.  They knew they would not win but a medal was at stake.  Then a bit later, skiers sprinted to the line side-by-side for no medal but to earn one higher place when all was said and done.  And for their country. 
  
  Yeah, I'm watching the Olympics.  I even watched the men's figure skating, Rachel, an event where there do seem to still be a few men involved (Johnny Weir notwithstanding).
  
  
• Gaffes.  If you collected all of the public-speaking blunders of past presidents and played them across the airwaves far and wide, folks would believe America plucked its presidential candidates from the detention room of the local junior high school.  That's just the cost of doing business.  You dare to open your mouth in public and you'll find your tongue becoming dyslexic.  Is Joe Biden a moron because he recently spoke of America leading the world into the twentieth century?  I believe he knows full well what century we are in.  Chalk it up to a misspeak (though, our Veep could stand a little more of the proverb "Thinkest before thou openest thy pie-hole").  When queried about the attack on the IRS building in Texas, Massachussetts' newest Senator, Scott Brown, talked himself into an oral half-nelson.  Imbecile?  Purposefully hateful?  I don't think so.  Does Katie Couric really believe that Sarah Palin reads no magazines?
  
  
  
  I remember once being interviewed for a community member position for our newspaper's editorial board.  They asked me which columnists I most followed.  My brain locked.  I read the paper every day in those days, and I read most of the columnists.  The only one I could recall wrote inane articles about meaningless topics.  Because of the awkward silence and before my mind could stop them, my lips uttered her name.  I sounded like a dope and didn't get the position.
  Perhaps the Olbermann's of the world would be well served to cut a larger swath of slack toward such folks who have to make their living giving round-the-clock public proclamations.  If Joe Biden continues to state that we're leading folks into the twentieth century, and if pressed, he thinks we are moving into the twentieth century, then we might question whether his synapses have begun to misfire.  Now, let's see if I can heed my own advice.
• Twilight.  Mark Steyn's recent column bode's ill for the west.  A great read, but that is most often the case.  A snippet. 

On the one hand, governments of developed nations micro-regulate every aspect of your life in the interests of “keeping you safe.” If you’re minded to flip a pancake at speeds of more than four miles per hour, the state will step in and act decisively: It’s for your own good. If you’re a tourist from Moose Jaw, Washington will take preemptive action to shield you from the potential dangers of your patio in Arizona.

On the other hand, when it comes to “keeping you safe” from real threats, such as a millenarian theocracy that claims universal jurisdiction, America and its allies do nothing.

Read the rest of the piece here.

•  Big Al.  No, not Gore this time.  Haig.  Alexander Haig died today.  As we move further and further from the 1980's, many forget that he served as Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan.  No doubt his steely demeanor had much to do with the dismantling of the Iron Curtain.  Few remember that he was also a decorated four-star general.  If any remember him at all, they remember him as attempting to "Al Haig" presidential powers unto himself during the attempted assassination on President Reagan.  A funny annecdote if one had the inclination to study it through.  Anyway, many thanks to our Lord for providing our nation such a man at such a time as his.
  

• Larry Talbot.  Hollywood's newest attempt at resurrecting an old movie is out.  It's "The Wolfman."  Growing up, I loved the horror classics.  As I grew, I learned about how such literary works provided a peek into the dark side of man by transferring that sin into the character of the monster.  Larry Talbot was no exception.  An innocent, humble man gets struck by a beast and as such, becomes a beast himself.  Part-time.  Most of the time, he's just Larry.  When the moon goes full, he becomes unleashed.  A good story forces questions.  The Wolfman follows that rule.  How is it that such ordinary folks (Ted Bundy, Malik Nadal Hassan) can unleash such evil?
  
  
  I didn't see it, but from the reviews, one gets hammered with such visual depictions of animalistic brutality as to be wrenched of any questions that might have surfaced.  So macabre and horrifying has Hollywood become because they can, that the outstanding stories that may have been conjured in the minds of the writer get lost as the director unleashes a fury of graphic sex, grisly violence, or sensibility-assaulting profanity that any nuanced message is lost in translation. 
  Thank you, Lon Chaney (and Junior, pictured above).  Thank you Mr. Legosi.  Thank you Mr. Stoker and Mrs. Shelly.  Thanks for a story that addresses the plight of God's creation as we struggle within a fallen world and with our fallen nature.
• Jesus.  I've heard this before, so what came out of Elton John's mouth the other day is no surprise.  He contends Jesus Christ was a homosexual man.  It seems that most who make those assertions are homosexual men or women or strongly favor such relationships.  The simple fact that Christ had twelve male disciples does not make him homosexual any more than it makes Peyton Manning gay for putting his hands under the fanny of his center for twenty plays every game.  Sad to hear folks say such things in their ignorance.

Let's end on a high note.  Jesus told his disciples on the night before his execution, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace."  What things?  The things he told them that night (John 14-16) and the things he told them for their three years together.  And wherein could his disciples, many of whom went to their own executions, find peace?  In their Christ, their Messiah, their Savior, Jesus himself.  Dead he would be in twenty-four hours, but alive he would be three days later.  He explained.

 "In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world."

Amen!  On that note, I'm out.

Just another day: Let it snow

Lots and lots of disparate musings rattling my cage, and they want out!

• Winter.  The absurd amounts of snow in north Texas do not make me fear global cooling any more than the heat wave in Rio makes me fear global warming.  Weather is cyclical.  God made our planet habitable.  He'll make sure we don't fry/freeze, apologies to Nobel Prize winners and data doctors.
  .
• Winter, of the nuclear variety.  The Persian Madman has announced Iran's entry into the nuclear world.  Does that make you as toasty inside as it does me?  I'm sure the folks on the outskirts of Tel Aviv are just giddy.
  .
• Arson.  East Texas church torchings nears a dozen (here).  Would we be hearing more about it if said places of worship were mosques?  Methinks so.
  .
• Freedom.  As I drove home from work yesterday, I heard Dennis Prager discussing employment law on AM radio.  The gist of the conversation delineated the legal differences in hiring between for profit businesses and organizations and nonprofits.  For example, a religious organization does not have to hire an avowed atheist because it runs contrary to their fundamental convictions and the very purpose of their existence.  Then I wondered, why should any business owner have to hire someone they find objectionable?  Shouldn't a business owner be free to hire whom they please to work for them?  Why would you want to work for a businessman who has some major beef with you but was made to hire you through government strong-arming?  Just thinking.
  .
• Olympic-sized mess.  Who thought to have the Olympics in some place that his miniscule amounts of snow during their winters?  Lots of rain.  Not so much snow.  Alberta?  Great idea.  Pacific coast.  Um...
  .
• Number two.  How many of you can name the #2 golfer in the world?  Anyone?  Steve Stricker.  How do I know that?  He lives two miles from my mom, and Mom's a golf junkie, not to mention that my son has his autograph tacked to his bedroom wall.  Anyway, the man cries after winning every tournament.  Eight for eight.  What's up with that?  For him, every win is a dream come true, and I believe he is utterly aware of that a golf swing can leave a golfer faster than Larry King can leave a wife. 
  
  An interesting insight into #2.  Jay Nordlinger asked him a question after he won his first tournament back in 1996.  Here's Nordlinger's take on the Q & A.
  

  “How old were you when you figured you would go on to win a PGA tournament? Were you in junior high, high school? College?” Stricker answered, “I never realized I would win until this very day.”

  And so on Sunday when Roger Maltbie met up with him for the greenside interview, Stricker again shed his tears, amazed that he would once again be atop the leaderboard after 72 holes.  You don't find many like that anymore.  (Nordlinger's "Impromptus" here with Stricker bit on pg. 2 and a nice link to a Forbes article on Stricker.)
  .
• Tremblers.  Didja hear about the earthquake Chicagoans endured yesterday?  Normal?  Methinks not.  Tons of snow.  Quakes leveling Haiti and tapping Chicago on the shoulder.  An odd season, this winter of 2009-2010.
  .
• Truth.  Speaking of odd, why do folks no longer--generally speaking, mind you--no longer believe what the Bible says?  The further down the timeline we travel, fewer and fewer will even take God's challenge ("Taste and see that the Lord is good, " says Psalm 34:8.  "Blessed is the man that trusts in him").  Is it any wonder our society, culture, and government are sliding down the commode?

That's it for now.  I hope that clears my head.  Until next time, I'll be gazing toward the sunrise.

Just another day: For we are many

Let's see what's grinding away in the gristmill today.

• Rumble beat!  Did you hear about the quake in California?  If you lived there, I'm sure you did.  I remember getting onto an elevator in Vegas one morning, and before the elevator started moving, it started moving.  Side to side and up and down vice simply up or simply down. Four-point-something if I remember correctly.  When I returned to my then-home in Phoenix, my bride who had still been abed at the time of the trembler, said she felt it, too.  Anyway, the earth keeps shakin'.
• When you're not a racist.  Please tell me, when are we going to stop including ethnic heritage on applications, etc?  The only real African-American is the dude who just immigrated here from Libya, South Africa, or any point in between.  Like an Irish-American just got off the boat (or the plane (can you say that without parroting Herve' Villechaize?))  from Dublin.  I contend that both would be more likely to simply refer to themselves as "American" and with great glee.  Why must you refer to yourself as an African-American?
  
  Which takes me to the second classification question, why can certain people expose their utter ignorance with racist pigeon-holing and not be ostracized from public discourse while others get excoriated?  Why do we still hear from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and their ilk, but Trent Lott and Jimmie the Greek get an immediate sentence to Siberia?  Why does Harry Reid get a "tsk-tsk" as opposed to joining Trent in his yurt?  Why does past racial oppression give you a right to be racist today?  Should northeastern America hate the Brits?  Should the French hate the Germans?  Interestingly, it seems there's a greater loathing from east to west than from west to east?  Should Hawaiians hate the Japanese?  And why can Democrats get a pass (Robert Byrd), but Republicans get held to account?  Grrr...
  
  Should there be a law against racist remarks?  Should there be hate crimes?  NOOOOOO!!!!  Should it matter that I murder you because I hate you or that I murder you because I racially hate you?  Nope.  Gimme the chair on both accounts.  What if I'm at work and I make an ass of myself by referring to whitie as "cracker?"  My boss should have the freedom to fire me for not wanting such filth in his establishment.  As John Stossel is so fond of saying, folks will come to learn if your place of business is inhospitable to racist filth.  You will attract the kind of clientele you hope to attract.  Let the masses police the masses.
  
  In other words, let Harry Reid's constituents impeach the slime.
• More darkness.  Have you heard about the new movie "Legion?"  Here's the premise:  demons have to save mankind from an angelic host.  I will keep my eyes peeled to see how it does at the box office.  It says alot about what we have become that such a film would even be made.  What if it's a blockbuster?
• Scylla and Charybdis.  No doubt you've heard of the oppressive Israelis being mean to the displaced, peace-loving Palestinians of Gaza, right?  Did you know that Egypt's got nothing for them either?  Yeah.  They're building a wall between Egypt and Gaza.  Pretty cool.  It's not that their Palestinian.  It's because of the cancer, Hamas, and the fact that they hate peace.  Israel could offer Hamas all the sea front property along the Galillee with ready built estates, and Hamas would reject.  Hamas wants only the demise of Israel, and they have nothing for those allied with that nation.  Read it here.

• Things that go boom.  Many empathize with terrorists self-detonate in crowded marketplaces or attempt to ignite their knickers on crowded planes.  Why?  They feel that these folks have been economically oppressed by American oil, that they simply haven't had the advantage of a Berkley education, that if we just offered them sympathy and trust abounding then love would steer the stars.  Not so much.  Seems doctors do it, too (here).  And army majors.  And TV station owners.  Now, what was the common thread? 
• Bummer.  Saw on FoxNews this morning where a 104-year old man died when he was hit by a car.  Somehow that would be like Michael Phelps drowning.  Sad.
• 'Roids.  Mark McGwire admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.  I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.  You mean he didn't go from pencil-statured Oakland A to bridge-piling St. Louis Cardinal by doing more reps on the bench???  Shocked, shocked.

That's probably all you can stand for one day. At least the Vikings are still in the playoffs. But then, they haven't yet played, and Dallas looms like Legion.  Come on, Fran Tarkenton!!

People

There's none righteous.  No, not one.  Not my words.  God, through the heart, mind, and hand of Paul, made that plain.  The reality of the daily newspaper bears it out.  A few thoughts on a few folks making a name for themselves of late.

• Tiger Woods.  Power.  Money.  Fame.  Talent.  None of which sets a person outside the bounds of law or morality.  How often, though, when so much comes to one so young or so old, that they succomb to the lies and the enticements of the serpent.  I cannot cast the first stone, but that in no way excuses or condones his egregious conduct.  It just reminds me of the inkly blackness of my own heart and the pristine grace of a God who's offered himself on my behalf.

• Chris Matthews.  My respect for his journalistic insight has diminished exponentially since Barack Obama's election because he is unashamed in his bias.  Last night, in trying to make a point about the conservative nature of the military, Matthews suggested that the President, in choosing to give this speech at Westpoint, the US Military Academy, had entered the "enemy camp."  Charming (watch it here).

UPDATE:  Since originally posting Matthews original comment, he went on air last night and began with one of the most sincere apologies I have ever seen from one in the public eye.  He need not apologize for leftist political views.  He needn't even apologize for pretending they are journalistic.  But what he said two days ago needed an apology and he did so with a class rarely seen on TV.  Watch it here.

• President Obama.  Nations that make the Russians look conservative have begun to recognize the hollow nature of the President's rhetoric.  Here's a German assessment of our leader's speech.
• Scientists.  Did you know they are human, too?  Did you know that they can be as petty, back-biting, arrogant, deceitful, and hypocritical as you and I?  Do you think we might stop treating them as deity heretofore in the wake of Climategate?  I hope so.  SUVs for all my friends!
• Thomas Sowell.  This from his "Random thoughts on the passing scene" from yesterday (always worth the time...here):

Sometimes we seem like people on a pleasure boat drifting down the Niagara River, unaware that there are waterfalls up ahead. I don’t know what people think is going to happen when a nation that already sponsors international terrorism has nuclear bombs to give to terrorists around the world.

On that note, here's hoping that the sun rising in the east tomorrow morning is 93 million miles away.

Just another day: I'm all shook up

• RUMBLE. It made the news web-sites this morning, but you know, other things happened during the day so it's fallen off the page. What's 'it'? The earth moved. Again. And again. And still again.
  
  The earth's shaking like mad. Today alone, world-wide, the earth fidgeted at a magnitude greater than 5.0 twenty times. Two-zero. Four of those readjusts topped 6.0. Yesterday, in the South Pacific, site of last weeks major burbles, they cleared 7.o three times with a near miss at 6.7.
  
  The world's weaving more than a teen texting while driving (here). Were I merely a student of geology, I would find this unsettling, but I'm a student of theology. Jesus Christ declared with sober certainty that he would return to the earth. The intro to this event?
  

  "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

  Is Jesus Christ's return to the earth imminent? That I can't say with certainty. I believe it to be so. What I do know for sure is that we are one day closer than when Jesus spoke to his disciples and the earth won't stop shaking.
  


• ONE IN FOUR. Another article hit the cyber-news sites this morning and disappeared shortly after lunch. Pew research indicates that over one-quarter of the world's population (1.57 b-b-b-b-billion) is now Muslim (here). This is groovy so long as those Muslims are your run-of-the-mill neighbor who doesn't mind going to the pool, bagging your pork at the grocery store, toting your St. Bernard in his cab, or leaving your head on your shoulders.
  
  Conservative estimates, though, indicate that ten percent of Muslims are of the more irritable variety, the kind whose fashion includes vests lined with C4 and a matching belt with detonator buckle. Ten percent of 1.57 b-b-b-b-billion is (math in public...carry the five...) 157 million. That's just under half the population of the United States. Hmmm...
  
  The AP article linked above makes it seem that many of these Muslims aren't just of Arab heritage. They note that more Muslims now live in Germany than in Lebanon. In itself that's an impressive stat, but paltry few of those German Muslims are named Hans or Fritz. You see, Germany has an enormous population of Muslims (as does most of Europe) because of immigration. From the Middle East. So just because the Muslims are German Muslims, they're still named Abdul and Mohammed.

Just thought you'd like to know. 'Til next time, eyes to the east.

Just another day: "The angry earth"

Nothing takes place just because. History continues to unfold to its final culmination. Is today just another day? Never. Everybody is one moment closer, even now, to meeting God face to face. Too often I pass my days -- yawn! -- like a hamster on a wheel.

Consider some of the events that have transpired here in recent days.

• Mad dirt. Fox News this morning headlined in eye-popping font "THE ANGRY EARTH." Despite the fact that the planet can show no more emotion than the keyboard I'm tapping (the livid lamp?), it did highlight the fact that folks recognize something's going on. American Samoa and Indonesia touched near 8.0 on Mr. Richter's scale with a day of each other. Hundreds have died. "...and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places."


• Polanski. Director Roman Polanski was arrested in Europe. Do you know why? I hope so. He drugged, sodomized, and raped a 13-year old girl in 1977. He pled guilty to that charge but fled the United States before he could be sentenced. Because he's an award-winning film director, the usual suspects are up in arms over the intolerance of the Victorian right (no surprise that Woody Allen, a smudge who slept with his step daughter, doesn't understand what the fuss is about and Whoopi Goldberg says it wasn't "rape rape"). If you ask me, Polanski should be emasculated. Bill Bennett provides some moral clarity here. "...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."


• Evil no more. To declare the American way of life superior to any other is to invite scorn to be dump-trucked upon your head. In the "elevating t-ball to international diplomacy" department, the Empire State Building is honoring communist China's 60 year birthday party. What have they brought us? Orphanages bursting with little girls and a deficit of 40 million women of marrying age all because of their nifty one-child policy. Apart from fertility practices they've brought Asia political and religious prisoners and organ harvesting. Oh, yes, and we did have the Olmpics. Light up New York! More here and here.


• Evi no more, II. OO-go Chavez and MOO-O-mar Qaddafi think we should redefine "terrorism" (here). Isn't that like having Roman Polanski and Woody Allen defining "normal relationships?"


• A "D" in history. Benjamin Netanyahu had to begin his speech to the UN with a history lesson. Israel's president brought documented evidence verifying the Holocaust. Shouldn't any nation whose leader flunks history (i.e. Iran and Venezuela to name two) be immediately suspect on all other issues and be ignored on any topic they would like to bring before the international community? You elect him? Fine, but you're keeping him inside your borders. He leaks out and we'll swat him like a fly. They certainly be allowed anywhere near nuclear power or bottle rockets.

Until next time, eyes to the east!

Just another day: In the merry, merry month of May

Is it really just another day?!? I don't think so. This is an odd time. Consider.

• The nuke's on you. North Korea just detonated a nuke. Boom. Okay, it was last week. Still, boom! Considering we've lived with nukes all our lives, we have treated that little rumble in the western Pacific as no more significant than another Yankees win. I don't think we can fathom the inferno and devastation that a well-placed nuke would bring. Perhaps those survivors from the outskirts of Hiroshima or Nagasaki could enlighten us.
  

Thing is, in our lifetimes, the nukes have been held by folks who knew and understood the serious nature of the weapon in their hands. They comprehended the mass destruction that would be unleashed upon their foes. These nations were sane and civilized with the possible exception of Pakistan.

Now, North Korea has a nuke. Does anybody remember their testing of a ballistic missile a few months back? One of Barack Obama's first tests in the international sphere? Not that NK would attach a nuke to a missile. That could reach the US.

And Iran's on the brink. Yawn.


• Race is on. The very best mind in constitutional law to fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court is an hispanic woman. Just so happens to be. Far more subtle than a nuke is Ms. Sotomayor. Could have far greater impact on the dissolution of our nation, long term. It's not her heritage or her skin color. It's her devastatingly destructive opinion of law. Whim. Eyes wide open vice blind. Determining the merit of the individual vice weighing them in the objective balance of law. Perhaps we'll get to see Sharia introduced at the SCOTUS. Speaking of which...
  


• Greece is the word. Muslims are rioting in Greece. An insult to the Koran, I guess. Rotterdam, second largest city in the Netherlands, now has a population comprised mostly of Muslim immigrants. And they want the laws changed (here). They've got a groove. They've got a meaning.


• America's most wanted. David Jones, not the former Monkee but the pastor, never intended to subvert San Diego law, but that's what he's done. His crime? He and his bride had the audacity to hold a Bible study in their home. GASP! (here) Apparently it is a religious assembly and requires city permits to have such an assembly outside of of religious zoning. Ten to fifteen folks in your home for a Bible study. Wicked criminality. Tupperware parties, poker nights, Super Bowl gatherings, gay love-ins, or pot smokeouts? All okay. Bible studies? Das ist verboten! Ver ah your papers?? It'll cost 'em over ten-grand to get the required permits.


• Don't tread on me. Unless of course your an American whose not from America and really don't want to assimilate into the American fabric. Debbie Lucas hung a flag in her office at a hospital (in Texas of all places) in honor of Memorial Day weekend. When she returned to her Dilbert cubicle, it had be not only taken down but tossed on the floor. There had been complaints, the most vocal coming from her boss who had come to America 14 years earlier. Perhaps the boss should have moved to Venezuela. Or Cuba. You can toss the American flag on the floor all you want down there.

At least gas prices are going back up.

Just another day: Don't lose your head

I'll conclude my agony on the Stimulus Plan at some point this week. In case you missed it, you can read Part I and II here and here.

In case you're just stumbling into this quirky corner of the blogosphere, "Just another day" posts highlight the fact that these aren't just ordinary days. The Bible makes plain what life will be like in the days prior to Christ's return to earth. No, I didn't hit my head on the concrete. Christ's bodily return has held a place within credal Christianity for millenia.

Yes, I am one of those who believes what the Bible says. That said, I don't know the day nor the hour (biblical), but Christ commends His disciples to know the seasons. That said, I believe the season draweth nigh. And so, a few observations.

• Shake it up. More rumblings from across the globe. Indonesia topped out at 7.2 earlier in the week. That's a doozy of a quake, but the tremblers race upon the heels of one another such that folks begin to yawn. Ho-hum, guess we best buy new dishes. When New Jersey gets to rocking, though, at least an eyebrow raises away from the Sunday paper (here). Twice in the past few weeks, the Turnpike State has quivered to a couple of hiccups. For the folks who felt the earth waltz, imagine if either the 2.2 or the 3.0 topped out at 7.2!


• Religion of peace. Did you hear about the Muslim business man who cut off his wife's head? Probably not. Considering Islam is such the religion of peace, the Mainstream Media will not mar that image with such news stories. You can read about it here. Better yet, read Mark Steyn's commentary on it here. This isn't happening in Riyadh where we would expect such barbarity. No, folks, the infection has spread to our soil. I ask again, where are the moderate voices within Islam to speak out against this? Bueller?
  
  At least the Brits kept Geert Wilders off the island. Another successful game of "Don't Upset the Mullahs." Tea, anyone?
  


• Dr. Frankenstein, I presume? As expected, the Friday after the inauguration and two days after Roe's anniversary, President Obama reinstated overseas funding for abortion providers. Expect the Freedom of Choice Act to be birthed from this administration in short order. Seems that President Bush's restriction to stem-cell research that barred the dissection and dismemberment of human embryos will soon be repealed by President Obama (here and here). There was a day that if folks considered a situation ethically iffy, they erred. No more. It's a moral free for all.


• Volcanoes. Volcanologists (studiers of Spock?) surmise that the magmic mountain to the west of Anchorage, Alaska wants to flip its lid (here). Standing by. One did erupt in Colombia (here). I wonder what George Bush did to cause these.


• Oscars. The Motion Picture Association of America, the folks that tell us the best movies of the year because we're not savvy enough to vote with our money, has finally gotten to where the best performances for the ladies only go to those who are dressed most often like the little gold statuette. First, Halle Berry in "Monsters Ball." Now we get Kate Winslet in "The Reader." The latter seems to be a tip-of-the-hat to all the teachers these past few years who've been convicted for their seduction of their teenage pupils. Normalizing child abuse. How very nice. At least she can read, though.
  
  So who will win the Best Female (naked) Actor this year or next ? Who cares! What happened to acting? Give me an actress as opposed to the politically correct "female actor." Give me Ingrid Bergman any day of the week! Let's here it for the few, the proud who actually try to act with a nuanced look, a vocal variation or -- gasp -- a well delivered line ... all while clothed! Grinding like greyhounds in heat should garner nothing but a bucket of water. The most erotic kiss I ever witnessed on screen was the one never seen between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in "An Affair to Remember." On the steps on the ship. Zoinks, Scooby. Subtlety, understatement, imagination. Mmmm...acting!
  

To end on a happy note: CNN still recognizes the phenomenal affect of "Fireproof" this year in an article off today's web page (here). See you next time.

Just another day: What goes up...

• Iran's launch. No, not a new web-site. And not Ahmadinejad out a window. They put a satellite in orbit (here). Neato, huh? Until the satellite is made with weapons grade uranium, plutonium, etc., and rather than staying in orbit, it comes down...we know not where. But they do. Neato, huh?


• North Korean irony. Coincidence that ill Kim Jong and his rabble announced a pending long-range missile test (here)? Now who would North Korea have issues with that they would need long-range missiles? Hmmm...
  

• Independence Day irony. The movie. It's on tonight. Tuned in briefly and caught this repartee between the President played by Bill Pullman and an alien in the process of choking the daylights out of a former scientist played by Brent Spiner.

  President: There can be peace between us, if we can find a way to coexist. Can there be peace between us?
  
  Alien choking Spiner: No peace.
  
  President: What do you want from us?
  
  ACS: Die.

  Ah, sounds like the regimes of the previous two bullets, doesn't it. President Obama's going to have to have some supernatural savvy to appease those folks who want no appeasement; they only want our demise.
  
  In the movie, the ACS tries to off the President with his alien mind trick, but the cool USAF dude with his pistol blows him to pieces. After he's recovered, the President sobers up to the silliness of his former negotiations. Remember what he said?
  

  President: Nuke'em. Nuke the $#@%&*@$!

  Sometimes Hollywood gets it right.

• Chimeras: Hey, guess what! Scientists have discovered that animal-human clones don't work (here)! Reading between the lines, they're going to keep at it, though. God have mercy...or something.
  

• Technological Singularity: Huh? Yeah, I didn't get it either, even after reading the article (here). Seems that Google and NASA have cyber-birthed a new university to bring the moon into the seventh house and to align Jupiter with Mars. A bit about the university from the article:
  

  "Proponents say that during the singularity, machines will be able to improve themselves using artificial intelligence and that smarter-than-human computers will solve problems including energy scarcity, climate change and hunger."

  Unless Al Gore and the Davos Summit team beat them to it.
  
  One final quote caught my attention. Consider it the comedic part of this post:

  “The day before something is truly a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.”

  That from the vice-chancellor to the university. He failed to note that when the breakthrough doesn't occur, the crazy idea remains a crazy idea.
  

That's enough for now. We are one day closer. Sleep tight.

Just another day: A cosmic roar

Someone recently noted that turning to the news feels more and more like a Left Behind novel. True that. Then an article took me back to the late sixties, the 1960's to be more precise.

• Vietnam became a cauldron of nasty
  
• Israel smote its neighbors in a six-day fury the likes of which had not been seen.
  
• Breshnev and LBJ each had toy nukes
• Mao's Little Red Book polluted the land of one billion as he played with his own toys
  
• Free love, Kent State and Woodstock heralded the brazenness of the era
• The Motion Picture Association of America had to start rating movies

So I sit here and drop another "Just another day" intending to alert you to the "wars and rumors of wars" that portend the beginning of such things. And I do believe these to be such things. But if I'd been blogging in the sixties, I might have started JAD back then.

So what's been going on.

• Say "Excuse me!" Did you hear about what the astronomers heard? I always thought they looked, but I guess they listen, too. Normally, they say, the cosmos hisses. I wonder if it thinks it's watching a bad movie. Anyway, these eaves-dropping astronomers became bug-eyed when the heretofore timid cosmos coughed up a roar six times louder than 24-7 hiss (here). What gives? I don't know. Neither do they.


• Yellowstone's own gastro-intestinal difficulties. Seems Yellowstone's been quaking and shaking to beat the band these past few weeks. Did you know that one of the largest volcanoes in the world lies beneath the typically serene landscape? Yep. Is it going to blow. Scientists don't think so (here). Like meteorologists predicting hurricane season.


• Spanning the globe. Fourteen people are dead from a 6.1 earthquake down in Costa Rica and 1200 remain trapped under rubble. Considering their buildings have not been built to withstand such shocks, expect the toll to rise. Across the Pacific, Indonesia's dealt with 7.4, 7.1, and 6.1 to ring in the New Year. Here is a map of the hiccups this past week. Southern Cal's was a meager 4.5.
  


• WWF travels to Israel. As if the southeastern Mediterannean wasn't already like nitroglycerin in Barnie Fife's pocket, Lebanon's own terrorist team, Hezbollah, has come off the turn-buckles and fired their own "We're the Oppressed Victims" rockets into northern Israel (here and here). A UN "truce" means "ceasefire" to Israel but "time to reload" to the Muslims. What will escalate this mess across borders? Syria, Egypt, and Jordan al seem pretty quite. A bit further to the east, Iran stands there trash-talking like a child taunting the lion at the zoo. I think Iran will be surprised how far those paws can reach.


• Turn up the heat! Lots of cold around this winter. Lots of snow. Is this the cooling before the warming? Seems Europe's come to a standstill (here).
  

I do know this. We're four decades past the sixties. And one day closer. Until next time...

Just another day: 78* on January 3rd!!!

• Okay, it is Texas. But 78 degrees! Where's the snow? Where's the ice fishing? Makes me want to call Al Gore. Whoa. Maybe the heat's baking my brain.
  

Speaking of the Al Meister, I came across this today.

by Glen McCoy

More on former VP Gore later.


• Papua goes the weasel. 7.9 on the Richter scale in Southeast Asia. Again. That'll rattle the cattle. Tsunami alert. Again. Are these coming at increasingly regular intervals or is it just me? Really. Any geological geeks out there?


• Gaza-ntheit. Israel's spent from trying to abide this factitious peace with Hamas. When your foe says they want to make nice but continues to Moe Howard the back of your head, you can either take the thumping in squeaky whinyness like Curly or you can wield around on your heels and jam digits one and toe into the sockets of your irritator.
  

Yes, the tanks have pushed into Gaza. Hamas has released an interesting response. They have promised to unleash a "day of wrath" (here). Interesting choice of words.

• 2012. Remember the disaster movies of the 70's? Airport and it's sequels? Towering Inferno? Earthquake? What made those movies compelling was their plausibility. You could imagine something like that taking place today or tomorrow.
  

Apocalyptic disaster movies have replaced the localized disaster movie. The usual cause of this cataclysm? You and me. Next in the queue is 2012 by Roland Emmerich. He took a unique slant for this flick. His film imagines what would happen if the prophecies from the Mayan calendar would actually come to pass.

How is it that Hollywood will bite on Al Gore apocalypses and pagan religion apocalypses, but they utterly ignore the judgment and destruction promised by God in the Bible?


• Tragedy. I do not know what 2009 will bring. Standby for my "9 certainties for 2009." One of those certainties is death. Wow, Keith, tracking a little morbid, aren't we? Yeah, I guess so. But one of the things God calls us to do is to learn to number our days (Psalm 90:12). We are to be aware that none of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Most of us grasp that. It touches a more tender spot when we think of those nearest our heart.
  

The sudden and tragic death of John Travolta's sixteen-year old son exemplifies this truth. I say this not to make you live in fear. Each day is a gift from the Lord. So as the clock takes us further from the drop of the puck for 2009, savor the rich blessings of your family and friends. Enjoy strangers, too, and let them know you enjoy their presence. Live without regret to the glory of Almighty God.

Keep your eyes to the east.

Just another day: Christmas is coming

• Poor Al: Do you wonder if Al Gore and the other enviro-elves are running in gross disarray with the snow falling in locales like Malibu and Vegas? I do love the explanation that the incredible cooling we've experienced is due to the rapid acceleration of global warming (here). Yeah, didn't pass the common sense test for me either.

• Geological hiccups: What's up with the earth quaking in Carolina? Only 3.6, but Carolina?!?
  

• Political hiccups: Nice to have the neo-Soviets cruising the Med. They brought their fleet through the Panama Canal, a lovely geo-political nose-thumbing at the only military power in the west (that's us - U-S - in case you were wondering). Not all was jiggy as they anchored off Venezuela, home of the western hemisphere's version of Ahmadinejahd, Hugo Cha-vez. Fistcuffs and snubs abound (here).
  
  Was a time when the neo-Soviet presence in our western waters was seen as a direct challenge to America. Yawn. Outgoing President sees Putin as a soul-mate. How cozy will Barack Obama get with the burgeoning and increasingly belligerent bear?
  


• Money for nothin': So the Fed's going to give money at no interest? Um, I don't get it. But, hey, this is the season of playing with Monopoly money, isn't it? That's what the government's been doing for the last few months.
  
  

by Gary Varvel

• Cobbler, anyone? Back on the loafer-front, the following cartoon says alot about our nation and those we have been fighting. Consider, too, what would have happened if the Keds quarterback had launched the pass across the middle to Saddam Hussein.
  

by Dana Summers

• Blago-sphere: Have you ever seen our political landscape more corrupt? All the while the government's tossing cash like candy in a parade.


• Deep in the moral commode: Police in Nassau, NY approached a car parked behind a local school. The windows were steamed. The police exposed the 44-year old vice president of the PTA with a 13-year old girl. The vice-pres has kids, too. Now, would you feel differently if you knew that the VP was a 44-year old woman and the 13-year old was a boy for that indeed was the case? I hope not. These folks should be locked away. Or worse.
  

Just another day: Black Friday

The glorious tryptophan haze of yesterday's feast has faded after a glorious night's sleep. No, I did not awake in the wee hours of a chilled morning to save twenty bucks on something I really don't need anyway. Been there. Done that. Not a tradition I long to further.

Here's some of the wackiness that's caught my eye of late.

• HICKVILLE. I live in a town of just over 100,000 folks. A small state school resides here, too. Despite the fact that Islamic nut-jobs have murdered over a hundred folks on the other side of the planet, our local paper covered it on page 9. Some of the stories that preceded it? Harvey Milk. Iraq voting on America's departure in three years. Oldest woman died. Planned Parenthood gift certificates. Police taser naked DUI suspect...in California. I don't live in California. But you wouldn't know it from my paper.


• BLACK FRIDAY grew blacker still. Seems some zealous, me-first shoppers trampled a New York Wal-Mart employee to death in their haste to get-what?- an iPod? Guitar Hero VII? Greed. No, Gordon Gecko, it's not good.
  


• BACK TO MUMBAI. The world cries out against "terror." Terror didn't kill 100+ folks in India. It was not what left none alive in the Mumbai Jewish Center. How much savvy is required to assemble this five-letter puzzle.? Here are those letters in no particular order. See if you can piece it together (I picked a color as close to blood red as I could find).
  

A-M-L-S-I

Here. Maybe this picture will help.

Does the tablecloth (hijab) give it away?

• SAVE THE PLANET. As if the enviro-cataclysmic obsessions weren't bad enough, some folks are asking the UN to develop a plan to deflect incoming asteroids. Sounds great in theory and on the silver-screen, but deflect an asteroid?!? Little ones are of no concern. They fry in the atmosphere. If it's big enough to get through the atmosphere and do some damage, it's too stinking big for anything we've got to nudge it out of the way (apologies to Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman). Imagine Al Gore standing on the Mississippi River Delta holding up his large though not-quite-omnipotent hands trying to hold back Katrina. Can you say, "Absurd." Then there are these:
  


• Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. (Revelation 8:8-9)


• Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter. (Revelation 8:10-11)


• NORTH & SOUTH. Of the border, that is. Things are goofy in Canada. It seems they don't know which way they want the country to go. The current government recognizes the economic crisis in which it finds itself and wants to decrease spending particularly toward political parties and government workers. The opposition threatens to dissolve the government. Just to the north.

In and around the Caribbean, just to our south, Russia continues to cozy-up to kooks like Castro and Chavez. JFK had the spine to stare down Khrushchev. Will Bush for a few more weeks and then Obama have the wherewithal to stand toe-to-toe with Medvedev and Putin as the Neo-Sovs begin to up the military ante in our own backyard? Maybe our leaders consider Russia a "nation of peace." Maybe their just looking to swap some Stoli for a few Havanas and a couple sacks of coffee. Maybe.

Until next time, enjoy your turkey sandwiches!

Just another day: The economic summit

I would have included this last night had I known it was taking place. Both of these articles appeared today.

As leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, dubbed the G-20, gather in Washington, some European leaders are pushing for global financial regulation.

-CNN

World leaders at an emergency economic summit are moving to sharpen detection of risky investing and regulatory weak spots, hoping to avoid future financial meltdowns like the one now threatening the global economy.

-FoxNews

Not that many years ago, I could not have imagine the world's economies being so interlinked that the hiccups in the U.S. would ripple across the planet, nor that we would be impacted by the crises of other nations.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius (a day's wage); and do not harm the oil and the wine.”

- Revelation 6:6

Who would have thought that they would get together to try and determine how to stabilize the world markets? It doesn't require the imagination of Aldous Huxley anymore to see the international financial web growing stronger and then requiring some form of user ID to access the financial market.

...and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark...

- Revelation 13:17

It's not just finance, either. National identities were so strong when I was a kid, you couldn't imagine an international figure that would hold sway across the oceans. Mao? Loved in China, hated everywhere else. Brezhnev? Loved in the USSR, hated everywhere else. Nixon? Hated pretty much everywhere (too bad, really). Even the most loved leaders were loathed by a good 50% of the nations.

It seems that things have changed. Notice the international fawning over Vlad Putin. Good grief, he was Time's Person of the Year! The press can't get enough of his beefcake, stud-islav persona. He fishes mountain streams (sans shirt), hunts tiger (with shirt), and knows the martial arts. And he invades former Socialist states without a care knowing that the neutered international community and ham-strung US won't bat anything beyond the diplomatic protest eye-lash.

Who is like (this one)? Who is able to make war with him?

- Revelation 13:4

Putin is not the only man with which the world has fallen in love. Our very own president-elect has smitten the world-wide community. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the majority of nations ached for his election. Before he has done anything of substance, the image of Barack Obama and the eloquence of his rhetoric has earned him international superstardom.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10

Am I saying Putin is the Antichrist? No. I'm not saying it about the president-elect, either. But both men use biblical language with great panache to advance their cause, but when you delve into their deeds and what they espouse, those positions run contrary to God's word or are just a little bit "off." Note Putin's polish

Time Magazine: What role does faith play in your leadership?

Putin: First and foremost, we should be governed by common sense. But common sense should be based on moral principles first. And it is not possible today to have morality separated from religious values...

T: Earlier you used the phrase Thou shalt not steal. Have you read the Bible?

P: Yes, I have. And the Bible is on my plane.

The rise of such men shows to skeptics and affirms to the saints the truth of God's word. Such prophecies that even a generation ago seemed beyond imagination today are headlines.

Christ will return to this earth in body. The Bible does not equivocate on that. Much will take place before that occurs and most of it will not be pretty. Again, the Bible is clear.

The increased fragility of international economics and the rise of international supermen portend an imminence to all these events.

Stay tuned.

Just another day: November 14th

• FIRE. Does anybody remember when California has burned so readily? It seems that the state's been on fire for the last couple of years. Brush fires typically threaten communities when the Santa Ana's get going. But that's seasonal. The current infernos have seemed relentless. Relentless.
  

• TOLERANCE. Which people group in America cries loudest in its demands for tolerance? That would be the homosexual activists. Why is it that when they try to alter traditional marriage and states one after the other vote to uphold marriage as one man, one woman vile protests break out around the country. Aren't the homosexuals being intolerant to those who hold to God's definition of marriage?


• FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Seems the neo-Soviets will pay a visit to Cuba and Venezuela. If that weren't bad enough, it seems China will send an envoy Cuba's way, too. Bears and Dragons on our back porch. Oh my.


• KUMBAYA. "A website launched Friday with the backing of technology industry and Hollywood elite urges people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions." Yikes. Article here. Once again, the Golden Rule yanked out of context, the rest of the Sermon on the Mount ignored, and Jesus exclusive claims to being the only way to the Father dismissed. Pretty dim for "enlightened" people.


• IRA'ss & 401k's. How much have you lost? I've lost a ton. But...
  

  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-20)
  



• LADIES. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State? Guess we'll here celebrations on the left that another woman is serving as SoS. In their minds, that will make the second, Mme. Albright being the first (Ms. Rice does not count...being conservatively minded, she's not a real woman). And the first woman ever to make 4-star general took her oath today.


• MINNESOTA. Oh, the agony! Norm Coleman makes John McCain look like a staunch conservative but compared to Al Franken, old Norm looks like Mr. Reagan. The voting chaos going on in the great white north makes what went down in Florida a few years back seem like a day at Epcot. Exactly how many lawyers is Stuart Smalley employing? Does anybody on the planet find it odd that the discovered votes all tip toward Al? And what's with the name Al anyway? No, you may not call me Al!

I'll not touch the automotive debacle. Let's hear it for unions. Pffftthht!

Good night, and God's peace!