joyfulchristian

We might want to review that policy

Scrappleface reveals the carbon copy list for top secret materials. We might want to pull a couple of those names.

Pretty revealing

The informal process? Ah yes, the public education system.

I hope someone's looking for a way to nip this in the bud

You know, we've got serious trouble brewing in Venezuela:

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised hundreds of thousands of supporters he would win a resounding victory in his December 3 reelection bid he describes as a challenge to Washington.

[...]

 

"We are confronting the devil, and we will hit a home run off the devil next Sunday," said Chavez, who ruffled feathers in October by calling President Bush the devil in remarks at the United Nations.

"On December 3 we're going to defeat the most powerful empire on earth by knockout," Chavez said.

That a South American President is campaigning using language that makes it sound like he's running for President of Iran should be scaring people.  That it appears to be playing is seriously disturbing.  That Chavez's rallies look like something out of the Castro play book may be the most disturbing by far:'

Donning red like most of his supporters, Chavez delivered a two-hour speech marked by his signature combination of fiery leftist rhetoric and crowd antics typical of pop music concerts.

He spent nearly ten minutes trying to see which of four groups of demonstrators could cheer louder -- then told them all to be quiet.

"Whoever talks first will turn into a donkey," he thundered, only to break into his unmistakable giggle.

I honestly haven't spent enough time and energy tracking what's going on down there to even pretend to know what the motivating factors are or how we could realistically diffuse this madness, but I sure hope someone's working on it.  I have no idea if Chavez believes this garbage, but I have no doubt that some of his supporters do.  And there's only one logical course of action if you believe the leader of a foreign country is the devil incarnate and it ain't good.

Cosmic treason and the nature of sin

I have no knowledge of the people involved, but Joe Carter has an excellent post on the nature of sin:

What is truly amazing is how patient and forbearing God has been throughout history in light of our continued betrayal. Look, for example, at the examples in the Old Testament. Those who refuse to recognize God’s holiness often complain that Jehovah is cruel and vindictive. In truth, God’s dealings with humanity in the OT are an example of a God who is maddeningly patient and merciful.

The punishment for sin is death—complete physical and spiritual death. Yet over and over God foregos enacting his righteous judgment (justice) and treats mankind with mercy (nonjustice). It is a sign of our skewed perspective that we are shocked when we read about God slaying the wicked. What should surprise us is that God isn’t infinitely just, continually slaying all wicked sinners.

Which  is why I'm glad God answers the prayer, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Otherwise, all would be lost for everyone.

Joe quotes RC Sproul who compares sin, even minor sin, to treason against God. I don't have the time to look it up, but CS Lewis made a similar comparison. He explained that sin is an act of civil war against the Almighty. That is why you can't expect God to take you back without repentance. Repentance is the act of laying down your arms and surrendering to God. Asking God to take you back without repenting is, essentially, asking him to take you back without, you know, actually going back. (While taking pot shots at him to boot.)

I want my dragon sausage!

You can't make this up.

So far ...

I'm finding it pretty hard to be optimistic about the next two years.  The Republican party doesn't appear to have learned their lesson and the Democrats are busy reverting to their idiotic form:

Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 if the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has his way.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.

Of course, the fact that Rangel is chairman of Ways and Means is disturbing enough.  The fact that he's willing to trash our defense capabilities (the last few year have made it pretty clear that that a volunteer force is vastly superior to a drafted one) on the theory that the only reason politicians supported the war is that they're a bunch of selfish b******s who advancing selfish goals says a lot about him. It's apparently never occurred to him that maybe they thought they were doing the best thing for the country. If it had, he'd no that they'd be willing to do that even if the personal risks were greater.

Watch out Russia

Canada's watching you:

As Canadian security agencies scrambled to arrest an alleged Russian spy this month, President Vladimir Putin landed by helicopter atop the new $400-million headquarters for one of his country's intelligence agencies.

Inspecting the palatial building northwest of Moscow, he reportedly paused to fire a few pistols in the built-in firing range, before proudly pronouncing it “the best-equipped complex that any intelligence agency in any country has.”

Halfway around the world in Montreal's Trudeau Airport, authorities were keeping a lookout for an ostensible Canadian citizen by the name of Paul William Hampel. He had been flagged as an “illegal” and a serious threat to national security.

His arrest, based on information gathered by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, amounts to a clear message from Ottawa to Russia and other spying nations: We're watching you and we know what you're doing.

I think I speak for everyone when I say, "People are spying on Canada?"

 

And we thought pork barrell spending was bad here

The mayor of a village in Peru, a village that lacks paved roads and indoor plumbing, spent $157,000 to build a park with statues of genitalia.  Apparently voters aren't amused.

A "Lott" of trouble

Jonah Goldberg touches on some of the reasons the GOP was nuts to make Trent Lott Senate Minority Whip:

The boys and girls in the clubhouse seem to think that what happened to Lott was unfair. “He apologized, and he paid a serious price for it,” Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said. Maybe so. But so what? It’s not about him. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Lott is a bad face for the Republican party. Period. Full stop. If that’s unfair to Trent, boo hoo for Trent. Somebody buy him an ice-cream cone.

Besides, the idea that fairness to Lott should supersede what’s good for the Republican party is of a piece with precisely the sort of back-scratching, log-rolling mentality that got the GOP in trouble in the first place. It bespeaks a mind-set that says, “Well, Senator so-and-so voted for my pet project, so in fairness to him, I’ll vote for his.” Nowhere does this calculation figure in the good of the country.

Lott’s rehab is a nice story — for Lott. But it’s hard to see how it will have a happy ending for the rest of us.

Personally I was thrilled when Lott was booted from his leadership position. Not because of his ridiculous Strom Thurmond blow-up (it was bad, but overblown), but because he'd proven mostly incompetent.  This was the man who foolishly worked out a compromise with Tom Daschle allowing equal committee memberships in the Senate when they had the votes to take over. Daschle repaid this kindness by convincing "Jumpin" Jim Jeffords to leave the Republican party and caucus with the Democrats as an independent only a few months later. Yeah, that worked out well.

Goldberg concedes that Lott would be good as Whip, but I am by no means convinced. He may do good at "whipping" up more pork, but that's about it.

I wish he was right

Joe Carter lists seven reasons Giuliani can't win the Republican nomination. He's nailed reasons that he shouldn't win, but I'm not so sure that these will actually sink him. Hard to top this though:

Seven words that will do in his candidacy: Rudy Giuliani in Drag Smooching Donald Trump.

Somehow I missd that one.

Never thought I'd see the day

The RNC is officially toast.

That's about right

I wish this wasn't so accurate:

The Classic Version
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

The Modern Version
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. BBC, ITV and Sky show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Britain is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Read the rest.

Complete departure

There have been enough disturbing trends in the Anglican world to make me wonder if the Episcopal church could even be loosely considered "Christian", but if this story isn't overblown it may be time to start asking this question about the broader Anglican Union":

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.

Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.

Unbelievable.  What part of "Thou shall not kill" did they not understand?

Wow

One of the most common complaints that I hear about traffic light cameras is that they are supposedly a privacy violation. I've never understood that. How can you posibly have a reasonable expectation of privacy on  a city street?  Afterall, if the city had put a cop on the corner, there would be nothing wrong with that. I suspect that these people's real problem is that the camera doesn't make judgments and can't be reasoned with.

My only real problem is that the camera can't tell the police who was driving the car. They simply see the license plate and look up who owns the vehicle.

However, I wasn't thinking of this issue:

A SOUTH Australian man has been flooded by NSW traffic fines after hundreds of alleged traffic fine evaders claimed he had been driving their car at the time.

NSW Police yesterday said they were investigating after nearly 240 people, seeking to escape traffic and parking fines, falsely claimed one of two people were driving their vehicle at the time of the alleged offence.

Police said they had found the man's name on at least 140 statutory declarations sworn by drivers between the end of 2002 and May last year, The Australian reported today.

Good luck dude.

The benefits of a group blog

So this is what I'm missing from blogging by myself:

JOHN adds: The great thing about when we disagree is, one of us is almost sure to be right!

Heh.

Last Monday

... I was driving Larissa to school. She seemed kinda down o I asked what was wrong.

"I'm having a grumpy morning."

A few seconds later, "I think what would help is if I could take a day off from school. I don't think I'd be so grumpy then."

Creative try for a seven-year old I thought. Didn't keep her out of school though.

I understand the sentimate ...

completely.

Give her some support

I was just over at SarahK's and reading about her newest symptoms and doctor problems. I'm all to familiar with having a serious medical problem that you can't get a diagnosis for (though I've never felt my doctors weren't taking me seriously). It's incredibly frustrating. Sarah's one my favorite people so swing by and offer some encouragement.

Little surprise here

Summarizing recent polling data, Pat Toomey says:

Republicans won their majority in 1994 by offering the American people an idea, manifested with a promise. The idea was limited government. The promise was the contract with America. They never got around to fulfilling the promise. And when they gave up on the idea, the American people gave up on them.

This is really no surprise. The fact that many of the Porkbusters prime targets were Republicans and that Ted Stevens put one of the "secret holds" on the earmark transparency legislation should have been a big tip-off. I'm a registered Republican, but I have no real loyalty to them. I have a loyalty to Christian and Conservative ideas and the protection of our country. The Republican party has pretty well abandoned Conservatism, plays lip service to Christian ethics, and has proven to have poor follow-through on security the last few years.. I'd gladly trade them for anyone else, if there was anyone else to be had.

Ah, you gotta love some people

Some people just can't help the non sequitur.

Just thought I'd drop by and mention that a hero of the 'Christian' "Right", Marilyn Musgrave has said "The war in Iraq hasn't gone quite the way we hoped" - understatement of the millenium.

I don't have a clue who Marilyn Musgrave is. I can honestly say I've never heard of her.  Regardless, this is hardly surprising.  I believe just about anyone who supported the invasion of Iraq would admit that the subsequent reconstruction was poorly executed (at a minimum). I harldy see the point.

That combined with Pastor Ted's outing really does sum up the problem.

What problem is that? In what way are someone I've never heard of saying the war isn't going as planned and someone else I'd never heard of until he got caught with drugs and a gay prostitute connected?

If you're going to rant, could you please at least explain yourself?

Sorry to 'mouth off' - but it IS a Constitutional Right. STILL.

Don't recall anyone saying it wasn't.  You have the right to mouth off all you want, and I have a right to delete unrelated posts. For some reason I can't bring myself to delete these those. I find them mildly entertaining.

I can only assume that the apology for mouthing off was facetious because someone who takes the time to post disjointed comments to unrelated year-old posts on barely active blogs doesn't strike me as someone who dislikes mouthing off.

Organ purchasing as pre-emptive self-defense

Eugene Volokh has posted the introduction to a new article that he has coming out in a few months.  Essentially, he seems to be arguing that, based on other areas where people's lives are in danger and they are allowed to take extraordinary measures, even when they are harmful to others, the same should be allowed for organ purchases.

I, of course, would not have relied on the Roe and Casey abortion cases as I believe those cases were wrongly decided and should be reversed. Still, I find the argument interesting.

This of course ignores the policy arguments for banning organ sales, namely that the poor and desperate will be taken advantage. I presume in the actual article he'll address that to some extent.