Can’t pass it up…

This is too good to pass up. I get the Opinion Journal from the WSJ each day and it is one of the best reads on the Internet. I probably say that because I agree with the opinions of the crew who put this together each day: Most of the time I agree.

Today’s output by James Taranto and Crew was great. He, and they, went through the Imus thing and did what thinking people everywhere are doing and that is wondering why the Poverty Pimps Jacksongue and Sharptongue get a pass.

Anyway I just couldn’t figure if this bit was satirical, or serious so I thought I would comment:

Taranto & Company say:

“First it was Imus. Now another talk-show host is under attack for insensitivity, United Press International reports:

A spokesman for Alzheimer’s patients said U.S. TV talk show host Larry King may owe an apology for his recent remarks about the disease.

Patrick Moffett, author of an Alzheimer’s book, in a news release called on King to apologize for insensitive remarks about Alzheimer’s disease he made during a recent interview with The New York Times. At one point [King] said he would retire “(if), God forbid, I had an onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s. That would be it.”

“I’m still a Larry King fan,” Moffett said. “I just think he should be a little more sensitive about Alzheimer’s for the sake of all of us that are dealing with this dreadful disease.”

But King probably won’t suffer Imus’s fate. Alzheimer’s patients generally are willing to forgive and forget.”

The emphasized sentence at the end is what hit my old funny bone. Are they trying to be funny or did that just slip out.  “Alzheimer’s patients generally are willing to forgive and forget.”  That cracks me up. What else can Alzheimer’s patients do but forget? That’s what Alzheimer’s is.  Forgiving, on the other hand,  is difficult for them as they generally forget there is anything to forgive. Where was I. Oh yes, I remember.. then once the grass gets to about 2 inches in length….

 

War is not a game!

Amadamnutjob of Iran said:

“You will know that among the detainees there is one lady who is a mother of a child. Why is it that the most difficult work like patrolling at sea should be given to a woman?

“Why is there no respect for motherhood? Why does the West not value its women?”

Winston Churchill said before World War II:

England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war.
Winston Churchill

Amadinejad’s question, although uttered by a lunatic, is prescient in that he has looked into his Persian crystal ball and seen the hollowness that is Western Civilization. What used to be called Men in the West no longer have the testosterone produced courage to make war. So we send our young women and mothers. To rationalize our cowardice we call it  ”equal opportunity.”

Castration of Western Manhood, through mind-manipulation (brainwashing) by Feminazi’s, as Limbaugh would call them, has to be one of the most disgusting, sick, cowardly, anti-woman, irrational, religions since the idea that killing babies by abortion is a right.

The charade played by the West in this so-called “war against terror,” is a crime against humanity. War is not a game. Churchill knew this Chamberlain did not. Amadeinejad knows this the West does not. The West once again has chosen shame.

If we do not kill those who need to be killed in Iran today, this will be the view seen from the suburbs of London, Washington D.C., and other cities in the West as soon as the Persians are able. They believe in Islam and it believes Dhimmis must submit or be killed.

If we do not somehow regain the courage of real MEN; kill those who would kill us, before they have the weaponry to accomplish that; our Western women better begin shopping for Burka’s while they are still allowed to drive. Persian branded Islam does not tolerate women driving or being seen in public uncovered.

The ”girly-men” who now rule in the West will no longer have their pornography, or scantily clad women to ogle. What will these wusses do then? They can’t turn to each other as they do in SanFrancisco, the Persians will hang them.

We had better awaken from our stupor, become Men again, and kill those who need to be killed. History informs that is War: Kill or be killed. What is going on in the Middle East is not war, it is a game and it will result in either the humiliation or death of the West by a bunch of rag tag, screwballs.  

**** credit where credit is due: Dr. Sanity coined “Amadamnutjob.” She is great! ****

 

Rule Britannia? Not!

The Bookworm Room linked to this from Melanie Phillips. Ms. Phillips is a Brit who shares in the belief that the West may have sunk to low to pull itself from the “miry clay.”(Psalm 40)

When so-called fighting people haven’t the stamina to resist at all I have to ask why are we wasting so much time money and young lives? We obviously don’t have the intestinal fortitude to go it alone; That’s why we are so concerned about what the Eurowusses think. Why not just return home with our tails between our legs – as the Pelosi Democrats want – and wait our demise wallowing in the cowardice they make so evident.

Ms. Phillips says:

First the sailors allowed themselves to be taken without a fight. Then they abased themselves before the genocidal Iranian regime and – notwithstanding the duress we now know they were under – behaved subsequently with an astounding absence of decorum and propriety which set the seal on Britain’s humiliation as a senile and toothless lion. Now we learn that they are to even be allowed to tell their story in the media, with the express permission of a defence high command which, in granting such exemption from the normal rules, grotesquely linked the behaviour of these 15 grovelling sailors to British heroes who were in receipt of the Victoria Cross.

The Iranians now know from this debacle that they can make trouble for the west with impunity. They can take hostages, smuggle arms into Iraq, blow up British soldiers and even go nuclear — and no-one will do a damn thing to stop it.

For whatever reason this morning I cannot help but mentally make historical Biblical connections to this event as I alluded to at the start of this post when I quoted Psalms 40:2.

I suppose because of the locale in which this is all unfolding, and to whom the Brit’s were bowing, I was reminded of what Daniel supposedly saw concerning this same Persian or was it Medean empire so long ago. Perhaps he was actually looking not into the near future from his day, but into the far distant future of Britain, Europe and America to our own day.

Dan 2:42 And [as] the toes of the feet [were] part of iron, and part of clay, [so] the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

---

Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men (read this as Muslims – ed.): but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

The same Bible I got these quotes from says there is nothing new under the sun that all is vanity . (Ecc 12:8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all [is] vanity).

I think Solomon may have been wiser than we gave him credit for. The vanity of the Euro/Brit wusses in their so-called resolve reminds me of the “dog returning to it’s vomit.” (That’s in the Bible as well - you can look it up).  

I know Pelosi’s recent suckup to Assad in Syria makes we want to vomit.

 

Elite snobs? You decide!

John Edwards wants to be President but not bad enough to actually think about what he says: “…Democrats to give Fox [News] a platform….” I would have sworn Fox already had a platform. Don’t they own a T.V. channel or something? 

Edwards complaint is that Fox is not “objective,” in that a debate featuring him would be used to advance some “right-wing” agenda. Being objective means to most of us that we should examine all of the facts, try to determine variances in viewpont, figure out which hold the most validity when compared to reality, then decide which side is believed to be “objectively” true. At least that’s what I think it means.   

• “We just called the CBC [Congressional Black Caucus] to let them know that we’re looking forward to their debate with CNN but we’re not going to participate in the proposed debate with Fox [News Channel]. There’s just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending to be objective.”–Edwards campaign statement, April 6

If Mr. Edwards lived by those kinds of criteria I might be more sympathetic to his beliefs and those of his Missus. However, after reading this:

There Goes the Neighborhood
“Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the ‘rabid, rabid Republican’ who owns property across the street from her Orange County [N.C.] home–and she doesn’t want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor,” the Associated Press reports:

Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.

“I wouldn’t be nice to him, anyway,” Edwards said in an interview. “I don’t want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn’t like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me.”

Johnson says he appropriately brandished the gun to protect himself from trespassers. Mrs. Edwards has more grievances against her neighbor:

Edwards views Johnson as a “rabid, rabid Republican” who refuses to clean up his “slummy” property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.

Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.

Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he’s spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract.

“I have to budget. I have to live within my means,” Johnson said. “I don’t have millions of dollars to fix the place.”

There are two Americas, and Elizabeth Edwards would just as soon not have to look at the other one. Maybe that’s why she is so eager to live in the White House, the ultimate gated community.

So there you have it. Mrs E, is an elite, snob, bitch, who would not deign to lower herself to try to get to know her neighbor nor ascertain why he acted in the manner he did.

Why does Mrs. Edwards remarks remind me so much of Hillary and Mrs. Kerry? One begins to wonder doesn’t one?

Whatever became of the Democratic Party which at least pretended to like the little guy? Oh, I should take that back. Democrats still pander to the “po black folk,” don’t they? Maybe I have them all wrong.

 

Probably Wasn’t Christians…

The following story is just a reminder of the brutality that apparently is part and parcel of Islam. The “Attackers,” obviously are not identified, presumably because they are not known. (Yah! Right!) In any event I am going to go way out on a limb and state that I don’t believe they were Christians.

I believe the attackers were probably followers of Islam due to the idea I have that there probably are not more than 4 or 5 Christians in all of Yemen and those keep hidden so as not to attract their own demise.

But then hey: What do I know?

Thirty Hurt in Fuel Attack on Yemen Mosque Reuters

Apr 07, 2007

SANAA—Attackers poured fuel over worshippers at a mosque in northern Yemen, locked the doors and set fire to it, wounding 30 people, the official Saba news agency reported.

The attack took place on Friday in the northern province of Amran, south of Saada, where troops are battling Shi’ite Muslim rebels who the government says want to install clerical rule in the Sunni-dominated country. It was not immediately clear if the mosque was used by Sunni or Shi’ite worshippers.

“Security authorities are investigating to identify the assailants and the motives of this criminal act,” Saba quoted Amran Governor Taha Hajar as saying.

Eight victims in critical condition were taken to the capital Sanaa, while 22 were admitted to local hospitals for treatment for burns, the agency said late on Friday. Several people suffered from smoke inhalation.

Saba said the attack was the third in Amran. In 2001 a man opened fire at worshippers, killing three, and in 2003 a bomb exploded in a mosque killing one man and wounding 50, it said.

Government officials say at least 250 rebels and about 120 soldiers have been killed since January in a campaign against followers of Shi’ite Muslim rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Houthi’s supporters are not linked to al Qaeda. 

 

Best bumper sticker

Yesterday I saw what I believe to be the best bumper sticker ever. It was succinct, stated a truism we in Michigan understand, and was quietly understated. It said:

My two favorite teams are Michigan and whoever is playing Ohio State.

Don’t you just love the Gator’s? Twice in one year they “whupped” the obnoxious “Red O.”

 

Ban spoons! Obesity is epidemic!

“Blaming guns for crime rates is like blaming spoons for Rosie O’Donnell being fat.”

Where in the world did I find that quote? I don’t remember. But it is of sufficient quirkyness I believe, to deserve my taking the time to use it here.

Another line I saw the other day which I also liked a lot I have used in the header to this blog:

“Unfortunately, we’ll all be dead relatively soon, so I won’t be around to say I told you so, and you won’t be here to roll your eyes and tell me to shut up.” (Stacy Horn)

I wrote Stacy – who is a writer – to ask if I could use her line, she graciously granted permission. Moreover, she commented that when she wrote the line it “cracked” her up as it did me. That was refreshing; a writer whose writing is enjoyed by her as well as others. Do you have any idea how rare that is. Most writing is done for an unknown audience in the hopes of garnering money. That isn’t writing and it is not art. It is usually trash generated for no other reason than self-agrandizement. Don’t believe that? When was the last time you heard an interview of an “author” who actually liked what he/she had written? That’s what I thought: never.

Most of what I read this morning as I sped through the galaxy of blogs was the usual banal rehash of someone’s link to someone who commented about what someone said about….. My God; Who cares about that drivel or mine? I don’t.

Therefore: Be it know to all (both of you) who read this page from time to time, I am going to change. From this point on I am going to focus on posting only the gems of language usage I find here and there. 

I think this will be a fun project and it will improve the blog world because I won’t be contributing more hokum to pollute the atmosphere.

Now I have to change the name of the blog. Aha! I have it! I will use the internationally famous Mark “the bird” Fydrich’s oft quoted remark: “Ya know, ya never know, ya know.”

For those too young to remember, Mark was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in the 70’s famous for talking to the baseball as he stood on the mound preparing to dazzle one or another opposing team member with his prowess.

Anyway I really do think spoons should be universally banned. Rosie obviously would not be such an example of obesity were it not for the ready availability of eating utensils.

Post Script #1 – I found another one I like:

“I’m not really a fan of “Blended Worship” either. That usually degenerates into something like the Sizzler salad bar.”

Obviously this one refers to church Music and its’ deterioration into who knows what. Sizzler salad bar seems and apt description

 

Reason gene impaired?

Mike at Return of Scipio commented about Portland and posted the picture above. When I see what I presume to be humans carrying signs to denigrate the very place that gives them the license to carry such signs I can only think that they should live in places where such license is not readily available. Indonesia for instance:

Indonesia’s Muslim courts gave this Australian a 20-year prison sentence for
allegedly smuggling 9-lbs of marijuana.  The men who decapitated three Christian schoolgirls were given an average of just 16 years by the same Islamic court.

Reason of course is the mechanism most humans use to decide what actions should be taken and what actions are better left undone. In both these incidents I begin to think perhaps Darwin was right and these particular examples of the species somehow evolved without important genes thus restricting their access to reason.

Stupid is stupid but biting the hand that feeds (first picture) and thumbing one’s nose at the laws of a Muslim country (bottom picture) can only be viewed as severe mental handicap of one sort or another.

Addendum:

I posted before I read Dr. Sanity this morning. I know better than to write without first consulting my shrink, but I am getting older and forget. Doc has an excellent read about what currently passes for sanity in our culture. You should read the whole thing.  She writes about the LaCrosse team rape case at Duke Multiveristy (Uni means one or united – I use Multi – to indicate disunity)

[...]Because their ability to think rationally has been severely compromised by (Marxist) ideology, today’s left is bereft of ideas and reduced to relying on mere Marxist rhetoric and tired, worn-out slogans that are trotted out in every circumstance and situation. They dare not face the real and pressing injustices of the world; instead, they mouth the multicultural and politically correct dogma, offically approved and sanctioned by the high priests of their ideology.

The article is worth the time it will take to read it – it is short.

 

The Real March Madness

March is known as the month of “madness” for the NCAA basketball tournament held each year. The real madness is, of course, the killing perpetrated in the name of God.

The Religion of Peace keeps a tally of the daily atrocities committed by Islamic radicals around the world.  Take a minute to visit this informative site. The table listing  the ”Religion of Peace” body count for the first 20 days of March, (Over 950 and counting) is astonishing.

I don’t often post about this sort of thing but lately about all I have heard on the news is what a terrible thing we Americans and our military are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and I suppose New York because we have military there as well.

Perhaps the media and the cowards in Congress are right. Maybe we should just get out of all the dangerous places on the planet and let the butchers do what they are going to do anyway. Afterwards, when the blood thirst of the Islamist-radicals has been satiated, if that’s possible, we can read how Pelosi, Conyers, Murtha, and the rest of the cut-and-run crowd truly thought the killing would stop when we left these insane people to their own devices.

I am confused by all this however, as I understand the Islamic Government of Sudan is doing the same kind of thing in the Darfur that Saddam did in Iraq, but I haven’t heard the Democrats blame the United States for those atrocities. Now, that I think about it further, where are the Democratic voices to condemn us for what is happening in Ethiopia where once again “Islamic insurgents,” are killing for the fun of it.

What set me off on this was the report I read recently of Iraqi “insurgents,” driving a car into a market area of Baghdad with children in the back-seat, parking the car, walking away, then detonating the bomb with the children in the car.

A car bomb in a market-place is horrible, but to use children to insure access to the market is beyond my ability to rationalize, no matter how I try. Only minds that are sociopathic could indulge themselves in these kinds of activities.

Now I read more energy is being wasted trying to “negotiate” with the psychotics who perpetrate these crimes. I have come to the conclusion the leadership in the Western countries is just as insane as the Islamist wacko’s around the world. The only difference is the degree to which the car bombers in Iraq and their sycophants in the Congress believe themselves to be sanely pursuing a righteous agenda.

List of Islamic Terror Attacks For March 2007  (The list is to long for this post but it numbers over 950 killed just in the first 20 days of March. Religion of Peace, indeed!

 

Magic-words…

The Assistant Village Idiot had this to say:

There is a current strain of Christianity which is a magic-words Gospel, a gross oversimplification of Anabaptist teachings. Just say the magic words, and you’re saved forever. At one level, I like to think that God will take any poor excuse or technicality to bring us Home, but magic words theology flies in the face of some verses of Scripture. People make a declaration and are saved, but the ones we hear about seem to have continued on in action as well. The Prodigal Son actually did come home, after all, rather than being magically transported at his death to his father’s arms.

I attend a Church in which the Pastor is caught-up in this form of theology. Every Sunday we hear that we must be able to remember, a date, a time, and a place, where we accepted Christ. I don’t: I can’t. The reason is I was a young child, 9 or 10 as I recall, memories from that long ago era are hazy at best.

I have gone along with this non-biblical religiosity most of my life, telling, when asked, that I was ”born again” as a child – omitting date, time and place. Now I believe differently. I believe the fact the Bible teaches we are dead in trespasses and sins so I, like the Reformers, have a difficult time figuring out how I could have possibly done anything spiritual-wise without first having been made alive (again in the spiritual sense) by God’s Holy Spirit. Dead people do not respond well to the Bible and it’s message of good news.

I believe salvation is first an activity on God’s part. It is He who “wills,” to do whatever He wants. If we respond to Him (that’s where our supposed free will kicks in) we begin a life-long process. God gives us a different kind of heart (Ez 36) and it is through this new heart that I was able to respond. Since I am not a theologian I can only relate what I feel (experience) and what I read from the Bible. In my case, over my life, I have tried things that were mistakes (meatanoia is the Greek and it is also the word we translate sin) but I have never been able to escape that inner tug on my conscience, soul, or mind, pulling me always back to Him.

Am I saved? Of course. Who says? God does. Logically, I say to myself, ”if God can’t save me without my participation I might as well go get drunk, because I probably wouldn’t trust a God like that anyway.” I accept this state of affairs because life the other way – again experience verifies – is not pleasant.

The Bible says my acceptance of this arrangement is faith. Did (Do) I have  anything to do with it? Yes and no. He tugs, I respond. These activities happen simultaneously so I can’t say which comes first other than what I have eluded to above. Adam and Eve were told they, and we by extension, were dead-meat. Later God says he puts a new heart in those he “calls,” so I can only say God has done it. I don’t remember when He performed heart surgery on me, but I know I did not choose to be born again. As a matter of fact I still  wrestle with the idea because there are things I want to do which I won’t do because…. And, then there are things I do which I don’t want to do because…. Sounds like the Apostle Paul doesn’t it?

Then there is this from Jesus himself in Matthew 19:

(25) When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

(26) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

A commenter on the “Idiot’s” post today had this to say:

[...] Fast forward to Concord Christian a decade or more later. Tim used to come home and say how Mr. Lester had a successful summer at the Christian Summer Camp he was at. He used to have a specific number of “souls” he had brought to Christ that summer. All I could think was that he was like the old fashioned gun slinger who kept notches in his gun belt to keep track of the number of people he has taken down. I always had this picture of Mr. Lester “praying the prayer” with someone, getting up and going in search of his next project. And when his teaching method with Tim seemed to be to conform Tim to his interpretation of the gospel and not to entertain Tim’s thoughts on the subject, I was overwhelmed with his lack of spiritual depth.[...]

Me too! My post began with a quote from the Assistant Village Idiot in which he stated “the ones we hear about seem to have continued on in action as well.”  It is this statement that triggered this long post. I am one who has “continued on.” Not on my own, of course, but in response to the “tug” I mentioned above.

In my Church are folks who apparently delight in their spirituality by “testifying” how they won the cable guy, “I can’t remember his name” they say, or “I won the pizza delivery guy to the Lord.” We are told he “doesn’t know his name either.” Then we have the evangelists who make an appearance from time to time telling how “they wins souls” at the gas pump, in the Quik Shop and at Wal-Mart. All these “born again” people remain nameless and unseen, however. They do not attend our Church our membership is in decline. We placate ourselves however, with the platitude that we have “planted,” and someone else will “harvest,” what we have “sown.”

Barna, I think it was Barna, did sample research after some Billy Graham Crusades several years ago. Hundreds of people “walked the aisle,” claimed to be “born again,” but the local Churches didn’t see these folks. After one Crusade in California the membership increase in the local churches was 16 as I recall. (Don’t rag on me here. I couldn’t find the link, so I am quoting from a faulty memory).

I don’t know why I wrote this other than the “Magic-word,” gospel just has not been setting well with me lately. As a matter of fact I cringe when I hear, “if you can’t remember a date, a time, and a place….”

Funny (as in coincidental) that the “Assistant,” should write about this subject today. Then again, maybe not. God’s ways are mysterious.