Just another day: Dallas to Denver

As the crow flies, the distance between Big-D and Mile High runs just shy of 700 miles. That's about the same distance from Jerusalem to the Iranian border...as the missile flies. Nothing like a little perspective to sober you up to the coming confrontation.

In his novels, Joel Roseberg has posited some interesting stuff. He wrote about an Islamic terrorist plot on the president using airplanes before it occurred. In his book, "The Ezekiel Option," he imagines Iraq acquiring the stuff of nuclear weaponry and the chess match that took place as the free world attempted to hold Israel from destroying the "canned sunshine." Ultimately, the madman of Iraq hit the button.

Here we sit a half-dozen years removed from the novel, and the madman resides a hundred miles further east. This lunatic has vowed over and over the destruction of Israel. And he recently showed the capability of launching a missile into space (for geological purposes). And it's been learned that they have enough weapon's grade material to enter the nuclear club.

Some might consider this no different than the US and USSR standing nose-to-nose over Cuba in 1962. Except that an alliance between the Bear and Cuba is not mentioned in the Bible. An alliance between Russia and Iran is mentioned in a prophecy about the last days and war against Israel (Ezekiel 38:1-5). Such an alliance has not existed until recent days.

I came across an article in the Jerusalem Post online this morning about the imminent clash between Israel and Iran (here...a worthwhile read regarding how near the brink these two nation's are. Please take the time). The language the author uses is staggering. A few excerpts:

• "The consequences for this confrontation are apocalyptic because Iran's full partner in this enterprise is Russia."


• "The question of when and how this endgame will play out is not known by anyone. Israeli leaders wish to avoid military preemption at all costs if possible. But many feel the military moment must come; and when that moment does come, it will be swift, highly technologic and in the twinkling of an eye."

While I don't know that the writer understands the significance of his words, he uses language in a context that is hard to ignore.

Seat backs and tray tables

Don't you love the little sermonette you get when embarking the airplane about what to do in the middle of an aviation disaster? Do you really think folks considered getting their seat back in the full upright and locked position before their baby bellied into the Hudson River? The position of the tray tables had no impact on the horror that befell the flight that nose-dived into a Buffalo neighborhood a few weeks ago.

When life careens out of control, the petty dissolves away. You cinch down your lapbelt and pray that God carries you through to a smooth landing or ushers you home and into his arms.

Our nation has lost thrust in its engines. Now what? Most of us are passengers. We're hoping for Sully and his crew, but I fear we're stuck with Curly, Moe, or Larry. That said, it's time to focus on what I can do here and now, and pray the knuckleheads up front know don't crash the plane between now and the next election.

I've come to love the common-sense writings of a corny actor. While I don't cater to his drooling over the WPA, he offers good advice to us during this chaotic time about cinching down our lapbelts (read it here).

And next election, lets get the boobs out of the cockpit.

We'll take him!

Geert Wilders couldn't get into Britain. Banished, he was. Indicted in his own country, too. Hmmm...hundreds of years ago, the outcasts of Europe sought a place they could go and be welcomed to live their life. Hmmm...

The irony that Geert Wilders has come to the United States.

He spent the last few days making the talk show rounds. O'Reilly and Beck last night. Hannity tonight. All Fox. MSNBC? It's all Mardi Gras. Anyway, where Mr. Wilders could not show his film Fitna at Parliament, he will be showing it to our Congress. I wonder if Keith Ellison will walk?

Maybe we have a pulse, yet.

If we do, it's waning. Thomas Sowell wrote the most impassioned piece I've read from his pen. Pretty feisty for seventy-nine. Sadly, he's got bigger cajones than most of our pablum sucking politicians.

...There are moral corrosions within ourselves that weaken our ability to face the challenges ahead.

Give him a read (here) and pray that God blows the wind in our favor.

Living the dilemma

You want to raise blood pressure? Toss "abortion" as a topic into the middle of any conversation and you'll feel the temperature rise in the room.

For the pro-life folks, they need to come to terms with the life of the child on one hand and the care for the mother and budding family in the other. Neither need be sacrificed.

As I consider the ethical dilemma of the pro-abortion folk, I'm reminded of Arthur Fonzarelli (aka, "The Fonz" or "Fonzi") from "Happy Days." The man could not say he was "wr-wr-wr...wr-wr...", wrong. His face would contort and his eyes would close as his soul attempted to master his ego. The pro-aborts cannot mention the second L-L-L...L-L-L...L-L.. --ahem-- LIFE involved in this equation! So focused are they on personal autonomy that they will not acknowledge the God-given rights due the innocent life that cannot speak for itself.

Today in his Impromptus, Jay Nordlinger discussed his journey from pro-abortion to pro-life. A powerful read (here) about a man who had to come to terms with the other half 0f the ethical dilemma he had been ignoring.

Take a moment and give it a read. At least through the first bullet. The other bullets deal with other stuff (they are also worth the read but are off topic).

By the way, have you ever heard of someone moving from staunchly pro-life to staunchly pro-choice after a time of ethical soul-searching? Hmmm...

The demise of moderate Islam

Let's see, we're over two weeks removed from the ritual beheading of a beautiful Islamic woman at the hands of her husband, and only now does a story surface on how Muslims are handling this PR crisis in America. That's the story. No visceral condemnation.

Eric Gorski in his AP article stated, "At least nine mosques, imams and Islamic organizations also agreed to denounce domestic violence at the behest of a coalition of Muslims that organized after (her) death." Oooh. That's bold. Denounce domestic violence. And only after a healthy prodding. Gorski's article asks some hard questions that many news outlets won't ask (read it, here).

Mark Steyn, ever with the watchful eye on Islam's spread, notes the shriveling of the moderate fraction of Islam in his recent National Review column (another tight, cogent read, here). In it, he provides more detail on the Islamic thuggery behind Geert Wilders ban from Britain.

I am not an Islamic bigot. If I see a Muslim, I don't itch to bead him before my 9mm. They, like me, are created in God's image. I have a Muslim in my neighborhood who seems to be a dandy neighbor. Many Muslims, a not insignificant percentage, would like to see the planet rid of folks like me. That cannot be ignored.

Until the cry goes out from within Islam against the losers who blow buildings, slaughter civilians, and behead their brides, we must be vigilant against this growing strain that seeks not only the demise of innocents but also the demise of civilizations. Our civilization.

Until the cry goes out, profile! Profile at the airports, profile at the mosques, profile at the Islamic charter schools that refuse to fly the American flag and that receive the preponderance of their funding from Riyadh. My grandma has heart medicine in her ditty bag, not C4. The kid your wanding has a PSP and some jerky in his backpack and not plastique.

Were I an Islamic man with the swarthy complexion of a Fertile Crescent native, I would be the loudest in the paper decrying the butcheries. I would be on local radio and TV stations explaining the peaceful nature of my purported religion of peace. I'd be screaming it from the housetops, and at the same time, I would be pleading with the police to profile any who looked like me to root the demons out of their dens.

Instead, we get a group trying to figure out how to repair its public image. They might start by cleaning house.

Stimulus: The physics of our demise, Part III

In the first part of this series, I noted the absurdity of the stimulus (here). In a nutshell, how is that taking ridiculous amounts of my money and your money (where else will the stimulus money come from?) and giving it to incompetent business owners who have already ruined their banks or their auto assembly lines will stimulate the economy? Do the gods in DC know better how to invest my money than do I? NOT-SO-MUCH!

Part two of the series (here) held the government accountable for thievery, legal plunder Fredric Bastiat called it in "The Law." Such conduct runs contrary to God's clear word. Such conduct also removes the responsibility from individuals to care for their fellow man because the government has taken that en masse upon themselves. This, too, is unbiblical.

Couple these two nasties together and you get the imminent demise of our nation.

We're approaching a trillion dollars in government handouts within the last six months. How big is that number? If you were given one hundred dollars every second of your life from your birth until you were seventy-five years old, you'd still be $800 billion shy of a trillion.

I heard a financial adviser speaking this afternoon, and he said that it's better to stimulate the economy now to dimish the long-term pain in getting the crippled companies back on their feet. Here's the problem. He has no clue (nor do Obama, Bush, Pelosi, Reid, etc.) that this "stimulus" will stimulate anything! Again, these CEOs and Boards of Directors have proven nothing but their incompetence and ineptitude; will more money suddenly make them sage and frugal with their money? HAH! Will the economy be stimulated or will the money disappear like the Lost Ark at the end of the only respectable Indiana Jones movie?

Failure brings about a spectacular biblical response. It is called "repentance." I screwed up. MY BAD! Not yours, not his, not government's, not Japan's. Mine. I must make amends. If I am criminal, I must repay. This is good. With regard to our sin, it causes us to realize we can't repay and need a Savior. But in our conduct with one another, we must make amends.

Caveat emptor is another great biblical principle. Be wise with your money! While "a fool and his money are soon parted" is not to be found in the Proverbs, the principle is there in spades. Perhaps I will study where to put my money with a bit more scrutiny next time.

With no one willing to man up, our government continues to grow like a malignancy. The genie is so out of the bottle only a cataclysm will get him back in. Think about this, government agencies wll be getting millions and billions with which to stimulate the economy. That will require government jobs for fiscal apportionment and oversight (wink-wink). Do you really think that any congressman or senator whose constituents will receive that money this year will want to see it cut next year? Do you?

Nobody knows what happened to the money President Bush doled out before he left office. Oh, sure, we know where it went, but what do we have to show for it? Anyone? Jobs? Stock market a-soaring? Any return on our dollar?

And of this money that will be coming out of our wallets for this next syringe full of narcotic, who's getting it and why? Who picks that? The thousand page stimulus bill hit the floor at 11 p.m. and was voted on the next afternoon. No one can scrutinize it that fast. I bet you didn't; I sure didn't. I was asleep. You have a warm fuzzy about that? You shouldn't (not my sleep habits but how the vote went down). Again, will the powerful seek to appease their constituents to shore up their re-election or will they truly seek the nation's good? The only way that will happen is by exposing the "legal plunder" for what it is.

The more the government grows, the more laws we get, the more regulated we are, and the less responsible and free we become. That's where we stand now with folks rejoicing over a hideous beast, birthed from the loins of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Our Founders built a small and limited federal government. We've turned our backs on their wisdom, and with fingers crossed, we hope the beast will redeem us.

But we have created a monster, and it's shaken loose its chains. The future looks dire.

God & Darwin

Darwin's 200th birthday came and went this past week like a burrito-induced gas bubble. I noticed its arrival but hardly noticed its passing.

Many know the title to his most famous work, "The Origin of Species," but I venture that better than 97% do not know Mr. Darwin's subtitle. Do you? It is:

"The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life"

Might someone explain to me why you cannot find a recent print of that book with the subtitle included? Hmmm...

Marvin Olasky wrote a column for a recent issue of "World Magazine" that highlights some huge misconceptions about evolution arguments and how to enter the debate with honey vice vinegar. It's a good read (here).

He ends with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut, a most secular writer/philosopher ("Slaughterhouse Five," "Breakfast of Champions"), who has come to a most observant conclusion:

"My body and your body are miracles of design. Scientists are pretending they have the answer as to how we got this way when natural selection couldn't possibly have produced such machines."

You go, Kurt!

Geert Wilders

Blame the Jews for the world financial crisis? Okey-dokey.

Put a crucifix in a beaker of urine? Art!

Make a film highlighting the dangers of Koran-adhering Islam? Bigot! Intolerant! Hate-inciting criminal!

Truly. Geert Wilders, a member of Dutch Parliament, made such a film and for it was indicted by his own country and not permitted to enter Great Britain to show his film to their parliament.

Civil rights outcry? As quiet as an English church on Sunday (or German or French...pick your Old World country).

Europe as we knew it is dead. Eurabia is metastisizing. Read all about it here.

BTW: Drudge, CNN, and Fox News have finally picked up on a wife's beheading in New York state by her husband, the founder of one of the first Islamic television stations in the US. That only took four days!

QotD: On Lewis

"He didn't set out to write theology. But his imagination had been thoroughly baptized, and Christ was the only hero who could emerge."

Janie B. Cheaney, "World Magazine"
On C. S. Lewis' inspiration for The Chronicles of Narnia

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.