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.

Healthcare: The unconstitutional juggernaut

"Healthcare is your basic right."  Sure sounds good as a political promise, but I couldn't find it in the Declaration of Independence.  That dusty, old document says something antiquated about God being the one who gives man his rights.  Among them, it avers, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (which has a far different meaning in the minds of the peripheral coasts than it did in the minds of our founders).

Since the Big Three are "among" those unalienable rights, there must be other unspecified rights "among" which the Big Three find themselves.  Healthcare must be one of those, loitering in some unspecified location between the penumbra of the Declaration and the Constitution.  So if healthcare is "among" the rights alongside the Big Three, surely there must be other important rights that have not yet been brought to the fore of congressional or presidential minds. 

That got me thinking.  (Cue the ominious "Twilight Zone" music.)

Shelter's pretty important.  I should have a right to shelter.  And since we've already noted the high standing of healthcare with the "among" rights, my home should be toasty in the winter and nicely chilled in the summer.  That means it should have good insulation and energy efficient windows.  To save American money, I'd be willing to take a hit for the team and live in San Diego where the temperatures remain at 75-degrees give or take 3-degrees throughout the year.  It's my right, afterall.

I need to work, too.  Therefore, employment is a right.  But I'll need to take care of my kids, too, so I'll only be able to work between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. because I need to drop my kids off at school and pick them up in the afternoon to get them to play practice, football practice, bassoon lessons and their Feng-Shui classes.

If I'm going to work, because it is my right, you know, I'll need to get to work.  Therefore, with the logic of a Sicilian when death is on the line, having a car must be a right, too.  Since there is some question as to whether or not the environment is in jeopardy, nuts to the green cars.  Gimme a hot Porsche.  And since I'll be pooling my kids to school and all events extra-curricular, I'll need a family vehicle.  How about a Yukon with DVD's for the kids (educational videos, you know).

I must certainly have a right to eat as well.  Since I'll be so busy commuting my kids all over town, I'll need someone to prepare the food.  I guess that means I have a right to live-in home service, too.  Perhaps a personal cook and maid and a masseusse to take care of the stresses of my day.

And...and...and...

Whoa.  Hey, was I sleeping? 

You get the idea, though, don't you?  If we take "healthcare as a right" to its logical conclusion, we will be required nothing.  We will be handed everything.  My rootbeer induced delusion speaks of human needs NOT human rights.  The rights (and God-given they are) provide us the freedoms to live our lives as we see fit to meet our needs.  Success or failure?  They are up to us.

When Ma and Pa Ingalls headed out of the big woods and onto the prairie, they didn't lean on the hope or change of Grover Cleveland to bail them out if their buckboard sank into Plum Creek.  Their success came about because of the blood, sweat, and tears of Charles and Caroline.  What role did the government play?  It stayed completely out of their vittles.

Healthcare is not a right, it's a need.  And thereby, it's no business of the government to provide it except to protect my God-given rights to try and procure a livelihood for my family and me.

I don't think Congress or the President will listen to me.  Maybe they'll listen to US?

Curious: Texas church fires

Jay Nordlinger relays questions posed by his readers in his weekly Impromptus about the dozen arsons in east Texas (here).  They ask:

What if the churches had been abortion clinics? Or mosques? Wouldn’t the burnings have been national news then?

Good point.  Let's go a step further.  If the crimes had been against abortion clinics or mosques, would the crooks have been guilty of hate crimes?  Yes, I do believe they would have been so indicted.

It seems that the only specific people group against which hate crimes do not apply are Christians.

(By the way, hate crimes are stupid.  If a dude torches a house for the insurance or because the folks in it are Yankees fans and he loves the BoSox, the penalty should be the same.  I hope the arsonists get the full extent of the law piled upon their backs.  No more.  No less.  No cherry-on-top required.)

Still, all in all, the media has been pretty quiet about the arsons.  Pretty quiet.

(Photo from KLTV video)

Thank you, Dr. Dobson!

This Friday, James Dobson retires from his post at Focus on the Family.  He will be missed.

Dobson had a thriving role at USC's Children's Hospital in the 1970's as a PhD in clinical psychology.  He shelved it all to meet a growing need of ministering to families through radio.  Oh, what a need!  His radio program grew from a tiny little rented office in southern California to an enormous complex in Colorado Springs with a far-reaching ministry.  Dr. Dobson unapologetically took God at his word and shared with families across America how Jesus Christ was the solution to man's and the family's most desperate need.

His works have been translated into dozens of languages.  His program is heard around the world.

And he is hated.

Had Dr. Dobson remained a man talking about parental discipline, healing marriages, and the like, he may have faded from radio and gone back to teaching.  He didn't.  He couldn't.  Families have to deal with homosexuality.  Families have to deal with abortion.  Families have to deal with pornography.  Dr. Dobson would not bury his head and pray they went away.  He spoke plainly into his microphone that such things stood in direct opposition to God and his word.  Many felt he drifted too far into politics, and in an increasingly secular America, thou shalt not mix God and politics.

I will always thank God for how he used Dr. Dobson within our nation, but I thank God for how he used Dr. Dobson in my family most of all.

Beginning in the early 1990's, God began to prod my wife, Tracy, and me toward adoption.  We ignored him, but he kept prodding.  One evening in 2001, Tracy headed to town.  It was a half an hour drive.  She turned on the radio and heard Dr. Dobson and Steven Curtis Chapman discussing the Chapman's adoption of their little girl, Shoahannah, from China.  My bride's heart stirred like never before.  She mentioned hearing it to me, but our conversation went no further.

The next day, she had to go back into town, thought little of the time, and when she clicked on the radio, she was startled to hear Chapman and Dr. Dobson discussing adoption, again.  It was a two-day program.  When she returned home that night, our conversations grew more passionate.  We had four sons already and our living space seemed full, but there was obviously more room in our family.

On August 4th, 2003, an orphaned, little, Chinese girl got herself a dad, a mom, and four new brothers.  Emma became our daughter.

God wasn't done.  On July 6th, 2005, we welcomed Kara into our family, too.

Thank you, Dr. Dobson, for serving your Lord and Savior in this ministry for the last thirty-plus years.  Thank you for the many ways you have blessed me and my family.

Thank you, Dr. Dobson, for Emma and Kara.

Well done!

But a vapor

In the drizzly pre-dawn of January 16th, 37-year old Terri left home for her morning run.  She died when struck by a pick-up driven by a man on his way to work.  He never saw her.  A tragic accident.

Late in the evening of February 9th, Kevin went to work on his job as a cable repairman.  While hoisted high in the air to work on an elevated line, a drunk driver struck his truck and threw Kevin from his bucket.  He died from the fall.  Kevin was 38.  It was his son's birthday.

Last fall, Jim retired from a distinguished career in our nation's Air Force.  On Friday night February 12th, he went to bed but did not wake up on Saturday morning.  Jim was 49. 

Remember how short my time is;
For what futility have You created all the children of men?
What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?

~ Psalm 89

When we lived in Arizona, the locusts would shed their skins all over the side of our stucco home.  They looked substantial, but pinch them between your fingers and they disintegrated.  How fragile our lives.  How thin the veil between life and death.  We appear so strong, but in a moment...

He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.

~ Psalm 78

 
On March 13th, my second son will marry the love of his life. One month and four days later, my eldest son will tie the knot with his beloved.  I have not been promised to see the joy that will spread across their faces when they behold their brides bedecked in white, prepared specially for them.  Nor have they been promised to see that day.

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.

~ Psalm 103

If you have not gone through such seasons, you will.  They cannot be escaped.  What will the seeding of such sorrow precipitate in our lives?  Will we reject our God?  Will we turn to sex or scotch?  Will we withdraw or lash out?  God himself, through a psalm penned by Moses, guides us in the dark night of our grief.

So teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom...
...Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

~ Psalm 90

Such have been my days of late.  Not complaining.  That's just the way it is.

I look forward to the morning.

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

The ninetieth is a breathtaking Psalm to meditate upon if you happen to find yourself in such a season (here).

Photo by Tyler Pond

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.

The source of your beef

You want to set off fireworks outside the 4th of July?  Bring up the topic of "submission" in the church today.  A couple of preachers are in deep haggis for asserting that a number of the societal problems within Great Britain are due to women not submitting themselves to God's word by submitting to their husbands in marriage.  Color me startled that any churches remained within Reformation Europe that still taught out of the Bible.

...Three...two...one...BOOM!

One woman churchgoer said she was ‘disgusted’ by the sermon, adding: ‘How can they talk that way in the 21st Century?’  Another, who also did not want to be named, said: ‘We’re supposed to let our husbands talk for us and remain silent? What kind of medieval sermon is that?

From the rest of the news story, the Daily Mail didn't get it either (read it here).  In an era when women can be found most anywhere except an NFL offensive line (maybe the Lions?), the idea of biblical submission conjures images of doormats and servitude.  The one brief comment the article allowed in defense of the rectors was:

People misunderstand the word “submit”. In this context it means saying how can I be most beneficial in this relationship as a helper. To submit does not make you an inferior being.

Here's the deal.  That's what the Bible says.

• Ephesians 5:22 - "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."  (Get full context here) 
• Colossians 3:18 - "Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord."  (Again, context here)

Peter did not counter Paul's writing, either.

• 1 Peter 3:1-2 - "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct."

Now, my point in lighting this powderkeg is not to highlight what the Bible says about the role of men or the role of women within marriage.  I do so to highlight the absolute ignorance of those who claim to be Christians but think the Bible is some Burger King drive-thru menu from which they can pick and choose.  You don't like it, become a Druid, but understand this: rejecting the God of the Bible is a very serious decision, indeed.

God made us.  He knows how best we function as individuals, as societies, and as married folk.  He went so far as to take on human flesh and to undergo a most barbaric death to redeem those who choose to accept the free gift from the maw of hell.  Why do we kick against the goads?

There are plenty of churches across our country and across Europe that will let you have your religion your way.  In favor of homosexual marriage?  You can find a church.  All in favor of abortion?  You can find a church?  Women in the pulpit?  You'd be hard pressed not to find a church.

But to find an uncompromising, Bible-teaching church is becoming more challenging with each new day.

Let me encourage you to hang around a church that actually preaches and teaches from the Bible for a month or two.  You just might find your life changed...forever. 

If you don't like what you hear and if what you hear is coming out of the pages of Scripture, your beef is not with the man in the pulpit.

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.

Lest we forget...

These photos were released today, previously unreleased from the NY Police Authority.  Interesting that these would come out on the eve of Iran's threats against the free world.

Study them.  And REMEMBER!

"On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country."  ~President Bush

"They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa."

"Our nation has been put on notice, we're not immune from attack."

"We're in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them."

"I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them." ~ President Bush

QotD: Poster-style

Words mean things.  To most people, anyway.