Democratic Agenda

Thought this was pretty funny, posted at Liberty Pundit:

Agenda for 2008 Democratic National Convention

7:00 pm: Opening flag burning

7:15 pm: Pledge of Allegiance to the U.N. in Spanish

7:20 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

7:25 pm: Nonreligious prayer and worship with Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton

7:45 pm: Ceremonial tree hugging

7:55 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

8:00 pm: How I Invented the Internet – Al Gore

8:15 pm: Gay Wedding – Barney Frank presiding

8:35 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

8:40 pm: Our Troops are War Criminals – John Kerry

9:00 pm: Saddam Memorial Rally – Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon

11:00 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

11:05 pm: Collection of Osama Bin Laden kidney transplant fund – Barbara Streisand

11:15 pm: Free the Freedom Fighters from Guantanamo Bay – Sean Penn

11:30 pm: Oval Office Affairs – William Jefferson Clinton

11:45 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

11:50 pm: How George Bush Brought Down the World Trade Towers – Howard Dean & Rosie O‘Donnell

12:15 pm: “Truth in Broadcasting Award” – Presented to Dan Rather by Michael Moore

12:25 pm: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

12:30 pm: Satellite address by Mohmoud Ahmadinejad

12:45 pm: Nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Nancy Pelosi

12:50 pm: Speech and toast by Hugo Chavez to the departure of “the great satan”, George W. Bush

12:55 pm: Hillary proposes a toast to our 89 million new Democratic Mexican voters

1:00 am: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

1:05 am: Coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton

1:30 am: Ted Kennedy proposes a toast

1:35 am: Bill Clinton asks Ted Kennedy to drive Hillary home.

Miscellaneous Politics

Some great stuff the past couple of days from Liberty Pundit:

1) A story I would have expected to read at the Onion, but it's actually true, posted at Yahoo News: "Iraqi fisherman nets shark 160 miles from sea:"

A two-meter shark has been caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles) from the sea.

The shark was pulled from the mouth of an irrigation canal that joins the Euphrates River.

Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark’s presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a “75 percent chance” Americans had put the shark in the water.

“This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter,” said fisherman Hatim Karim.

2) A great video about S-CHIP:



3) John Edwards' plan for a socialist America:

John Edwards says if he’s elected president, he’ll institute a New Deal-like suite of programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealth disparity. To do it, he said, he’ll ask many Americans to make sacrifices, like paying higher taxes.

Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, says the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. He also pledged to start a government-funded public higher education program called “College for Everyone.”

4) A video showing Democrats before the war in Iraq:

For My Wife

From Steven Curtis Chapman's new CD, "This Moment."

Here are the full lyrics:

You're up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
Like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
And you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Oh, maybe you just don't know
Or maybe you've forgotten

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

With every "I know you can do it"
Every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
They're just like the drops of rain over time
They become a river

And you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
How you're changing the world
You're changing the world

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
Oh, I believe that you
You are changing the world
One little heartbeat
At a time

And you're changing the world

Words Cannot Do This Justice

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Why Should This Surprise Me?

I wrote yesterday about a Maine middle school (Portland's King Middle School) considering handing out birth control pills to girls as young as 11. Sure enough, the school committee approved the proposal by a 7-2 vote:

Five of the 134 students who visited King's health center during the 2006-07 school year reported having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in Portland's school health centers.

Committee member Sarah Thompson, also the mother of a King eighth-grader, supported the policy, even though it made her "uncomfortable."

"I know I've done my job as a parent," Thompson said. "(But there) may be a time when she doesn't feel comfortable coming to me... (and) not all these kids have a strong parental advocate at home."

Nothing like teaching our kids to find any way to avoid consequences other than actually abstaining from actions in the first place. So basically this school - and the state of Maine - is saying that it's okay for kids as young as 11 to have sex, as long as they use protection and the girl's on birth control.

Slippery Slope In Action

I hate the phrase "slippery slope" because I think fallen man is far beyond a slippery slope and is on more of an iced-over black diamond mountain. But I digress. The title above is the same used in an email newsletter from Glenn Beck, with the following explanation:

What do you do when five out of 135 middle school students say they are sexually active? Of course, you give them condoms! If you are in Maine at King's Elementary School, you don't stop there. King's free loving administrators are looking to hand out birth control pills to those who want them. Glenn hopes that, for the sake of consistency, the MIDDLE school is also handing out clean syringes, for those students who wish to use heroin. After all, kids will be kids---and we don't want them using dirty needles. Glenn appeared on Good Morning America to talk about the subject with Diane Sawyer---and sexologist Logan Levkoff who argued the school is doing the right thing. She, by the way, has a website that is sponsored by Trojan. ABC neglected to disclose that this guest was in the pocket of 'big condom'. Watch the Video from GMA.

Go watch the video. It's tremendous. I especially enjoyed this quote: "I think providing birth control pills may encourage some kids to have sex if they think that it's safe, but what's the alternative? Unsafe sex? Pregnant 12 year olds?" How about the alternative is parents that teach their kids that sex is for marriage? I also enjoyed the "Sexuality Educator" talking about "sexual health." What in the world does birth control for middle school students have to do with sexual health? Pretty sure last I checked the pill did not prevent against STDs. What's next, free abortions for high school students?

I'm sick of this garbage. Does this trickle-down from our government, or "trickle-up" from parents and families? It's the whole attitude of, "Well, people are going to do it anyway..." Whether it's illegal immigration, sex, underage drinking, drugs, whatever, it seems like we have lowered our expectations to the point that anything goes - we'll encourage dangerous behavior and try to make it safe somehow, because "they're going to do it anyway." How about standing up for convictions, and teaching our children to have some? How about enforcing laws? How about wanting our children to be better than us?

Environment & Public Works

Found some interesting stuff at Senator James Inhofe's EPW Press Blog:

1) Global Warming Hysteria: There is an abundance of new peer-reviewed studies, analyses, and data error discoveries in the last several months that has prompted scientists to declare that fear of catastrophic man-made global warming "bites the dust" and the scientific underpinnings for alarm are "falling apart."

*Antarctic ice has GROWN to record levels,

*The Southern Hemisphere has COOLED

*Global averaged temperatures have not risen since 1998 and

*A survey of 538 peer-reviewed studies reveals that less than half of published scientists endorse man-made global warming theory and only 7% believe that man-made gases are a major cause of global warming.

*But despite all of these developments, the American people are soon going to be asked to pay thousands per family for so called "solutions" to warming.

RELATED LINKS:

New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears

Scientists Counter Computer Model Sea Level Rise Fears

2) Law of the Sea Treaty: Senator Inhofe is also currently working to ensure that the United States does not make the grave mistake of hastily joining the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by ratifying the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). LOST would detrimentally impact the sovereignty of the United States by:

*Creating a governing body known as the International Seabed Authority (ISA) which regulates 70% of the Earth's surface, placing seabed mining, fishing rights and deep-sea oil-exploration under control of a global bureaucracy

*Granting the ISA the power to levy a global tax

*Possibly infringing on the War on Terror by interfering in the President's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) combating the transfer of WMD's.

*We must have an open, honest, and thorough discussion on this treaty. This is not a treaty to be glossed over and rushed through - the implications are too far reaching and the consequences for our national security would be grave.

RELATED LINKS:

Statement of James M. Inhofe

Hearing: Full Committee "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea". (Tuesday, March 23, 2004)

EPW Full Committee "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea". (Tuesday, March 23, 2004)

3). WRDA: There is a critically important national infrastructure bill [the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 or WRDA (H.R. 1495)] that is long overdue and a model of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, President George Bush is threatening to veto this bill, saying it contains "excessive spending".

*The WRDA bill is an authorization bill, not an appropriations bill, so it doesn't spend a dime of Federal money.

*The WRDA bill authorizes projects in the areas of navigation, flood damage reduction, hurricane and storm damage reduction and environmental restoration.

*If it fails now, there will be no restraints - no upper limit -- placed on Congressional spending for infrastructure.

*I will personally demand a 60 vote super majority before allowing any project to exceed its authorized level.

*The authorization process is the most significant part of the process that STOPS runaway spending and distinguishes between political earmarks and true needs. -

*As the most conservative member of the United States Senate, as ranked by the American Conservative Union, I have long argued that the two most important functions of the federal government are to provide for the national defense and to develop and improve public infrastructure.

*Again, this bill does not spend any money.

RELATED INFORMATION

Paul Weyrich: Senator Inhofe: Leader in Appropriations Accountability

INHOFE CONTINUES TO MAKE HIS CASE IN SUPPORT OF WRDA, DRAWS MORE PRAISE FROM OKLAHOMA NEWSPAPERS

You should really take some time to find out about this "LOST" treaty, or "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea." If you're up for some light reading, here's the full text; it's only a 202 page .pdf file. But in all seriousness, this thing has some issues. I'm hesitant to use the word "sovereignty" in regards to nations, because there is really only one Sovereign, but put in the limited perspective of nations, I kind of like how the U.S. is set up, and would like to keep it this way. I don't want the U.N. telling us that we can't stop boats in "our" waters to stop terrorism. And I don't really want the U.N. taxing me. They have no authority over me - they provide no rights or freedoms or protection for which it is right for me to owe them anything. From all I can tell, what they do best is corruption, paranoia propaganda, and America-hating. But that's just me.

Osteen "Mini-Roundup"

• Tim Challies reviews Osteen's new book, "Become a Better You."
• InternetMonk.com has some reactions to the 60 Minutes piece last night.
• The White Horse Inn has an Osteen page with various links, including their latest podcast.
  

Slap In The Face

I just had to post this for the last line. It's from Glenn Beck's email newsletter (which you can receive by signing up on the front page of GlennBeck.com):

Democrats are pushing legislation that will declare Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians a 'genocide', which will likely anger Turkey and threaten to strain relations enough that critical supply routes to US troops would be cut off. According to the New York Times, 'The issue is nettlesome for both the Bush administration and Democratic lawmakers, exposing the former to charges of seeming apathetic about Ottoman-era atrocities, and the latter to charges of being indifferent to American troops in Iraq.' Hmmm, which side do would you err on? Being apathetic about Ottoman-era atrocities? Or indifferent to US Troops currently involved in war? It would seem at first glance that those in Congress of The United States of America would consider this a 'no brainer'---at second glance it appears that most in congress simply have no brains. Read the transcript. (Insiders listen here).

Amazing Grace

Saw this video at church today. This guy's name is Nick Vujicic.

Find out more about Nick and his ministry at LifeWithoutLimbs.org.

Horton Articles and 60 Minutes

From James Grant:

Michael Horton will be on 60 Minutes tomorrow night, October 14. White Horse Inn has the information here.

I also noticed that Westminster Seminary California has a collection of articles from Horton written after his interview with 60 Minutes. It is titled, “Joel Osteen and the Glory Story: A Case Study.” You can find the collection here, which includes these articles:

• Joel Osteen and the Glory Story
• What Ever Happened to Sin?
• Are You in God’s Story?
• Suffering and a Theology of Glory
• Doesn’t God Want Us to be Happy?

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

Romans 12:1

I enjoyed this sermon on Romans 12:1 ("I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." - ESV) from John Piper, broadcast this past week as Desiring God's radio podcast on Monday & Tuesday.

Piper caught my attention at a couple of points, which came across in the podcast, but not in the manuscript. First, in talking about our bodies, I'll start with text from the manuscript:

1. Bodies. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

The point here is not to present to God your bodies and not your mind or heart or spirit. He is going to say very clearly in verse two: "Be transformed in the renewal of your mind." The point is to stress that your body counts. You belong to God soul and body, or you don't belong to him at all. Your body matters.

...

The offering of our bodies is not the offering of our bodily looks but our bodily behavior. In the Bible the body is not significant because of the way it looks, but because of the way it acts. The body is given to us to make visible the beauty of Christ. And Christ, at the hour of his greatest beauty, was repulsive to look at. Isaiah 53:2-3 describes him: "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows,and acquainted with grief." The beauty of Christ is the beauty of love, not the beauty of looks. His beauty was the beauty of sacrifice, not skin.

God doesn't demand our bodies because he wants models for Mademoiselle or Planet Muscle. He demands our bodies because he wants models of mercy.

This is where I tried to get down what he said in the podcast, expounding on his manuscript:

We need to embed this biblical truth into the minds & hearts of our little ones, beginning at 2, 3. What kind of a bathing suit do you put your three year old in? You think you're going to change them at 13? Don't count on it.

We need to embed into our children this truth. My body means, before God, my behavior, not my looks. For the sake of anorexia, for the sake of bulimia ... because, in part, of a culture that is so unbelievingly relenting in the lies it tells about bodies. From the littlest girl and the littlest boy, lie after lie after lie is coming to them about what their body means. And I'm afraid many parents play right into it.

If we could just embed in our children the truth. God looks on the inward man and how it works itself out in mercy by the body. He does not look upon the body to see its muscles and curves and hair distribution and complexion. If only we could help them early on.

...

You have a body to give bodily evidence that Jesus is your treasure. ... And that will mainly show by your behavior, and not your looks.

Then, in talking about "holy." Again, I'll start with text from the manuscript:

3. Holy. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Probably the best explanation of holy bodies comes from Romans 6:13 where Paul said almost the very same thing he says here, using the very language of "presenting" our bodies to God, only he refers to our bodily "members" and not just our bodies. "Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life [i.e., a living sacrifice], and your members to God as instruments for righteousness."

And more "expounding" on his manuscript from the podcast:

Let these hands be for instruments of righteousness in the world. As they click on the keyboard or push the mouse and click, let every click be righteousness. Swear it! Nail it! "I will not make my index finger on the left key an instrument of unrighteousness." Swear it! Oh, brothers, draw a line in the sand, before you meet Jesus. and make these hands holy.

What does it say in 1 Timothy? "I beseech all men everywhere to lift holy hands in prayer." Are they dirty? What have you done with your hands in the last 24 hours? What keys have you punched? What have you touched? What magaziness have you opened? What channels have you turned to with these hands? You have defiled hands this morning, defiled eyes, defiled mind? I am so thankful for the blood of Jesus, are you not? It is only through Christ that these hands can be acceptable.

Horton on 60 Minutes

From the White Horse Inn:

Dr. Horton to Appear on CBS's 60 Minutes

Currently scheduled for Sunday, Oct 14th, the interview will focus on the teaching and ministry of popular televangelist Joel Osteen, author of Your Best Life Now. 60 Minutes airs on CBS Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings). See our full Press Release and the story on the 60 Minutes website.

Socialism

From Liberty Pundit:

A LESSON IN HISTORY

1) “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”

A. Karl Marx
B. Adolph Hitler
C. Joseph Stalin
D. None of the above

2) “It’s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few…and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity.”

A. Lenin
B. Mussolini
C. Idi Amin
D. None of the Above

3) “(We)…can’t just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people.”

A. Nikita Khrushev
B. Jose f Goebbels
C. Boris Yeltsin
D. None of the above

4) “We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own…in order to create this common ground.”

A. Mao Tse Dung
B. Hugo Chavez
C. Kim Jong Il
D. None of the above

5) “I certainly think the free-market has failed.”

A. Karl Marx
B. Lenin
C. Molotov
D. None of the above

6) “I think it’s time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being watched.”

A. Pinochet
B. Milosevic
C. Saddam Hussein
D. None of the above

Answers:

(1) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/29/2004
(2) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 5/29/2007
(3) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
(4) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
(5) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007
(6) D. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 9/2/2005

Paranoia = Peace?

I'd have more to say about Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize if Yasser Arafat didn't win it in 1994. As crazy as Al Gore is, at least he doesn't support terrorism & killing people (that I know of).

Mailbag

Just had to share this from the Sports Guy's Mailbag:

Q: Here's my plan for my first kid. I have the entire 2004 Red Sox playoffs on DVD, as well as all the Patriots' Super Bowl DVD's. What if, instead of Dora and Barney, I prop my kid up in front of Tom and Papi? Hell, my kid may come into this world just before the NBA playoffs. What a way to start. This cannot fail; this will be revolutionary. All I need from you is a way to convince my wife this is a good idea.
--Bob, Pittsfield, Mass.

SG: Convince you? I'm beating you to it. There's no rhyme or reason to any of the shows aimed for kids under 18 months old. They have only one goal: to juggle as many weird colors, sights and sounds as possible to keep the kids' attention and eventually give them ADD.

For instance, our daughter went through a huge "Teletubbies" phase that ended only when we sent her to a Teletubbies rehab center. What are the Teletubbies, you ask? Multicolored, androgynous, possibly homicidal Muppets with speech impediments and farting problems who pop out of the ground after getting instructions from a smiling baby whose face has been superimposed on the sun, then jump around, wobble into each other and giggle for no reason. Twice per show, they break away from the Teletubbies to show a group of English kids learning from a female teacher named Debbie who has scary Austin Powers-type teeth. Then the show ends with the Tubbies popping back into the ground as the smiling sun baby grins in approval. That's the whole show.

So here's my question: If I'm going to overload my impressionable child with a show that inundates him or her with colors, weird sounds, strange noises and inexplicable movements, wouldn't a baseball or basketball game make just as much sense? Would I rather have my little boy dreaming of hanging out with Tinky Winky and Dispy ... or KG and Big Papi? Bob from Pittsfield, it's you and me. Let's do this.

And I was also reminded of the stiff competition for my least favorite baseball announcer ever:

Q: After two weeks of TBS, I never thought I would long for Tim McCarver's voice. But I am almost there.
--Chris, Longmont, Colo.

SG: I'm, uh, not almost there. I have a ways to go.

Announcers, Part 2

Speaking of bad announcers, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about Chip Caray, my least favorite baseball announcer of all time. (Although if Joe Buck only announced baseball, it would be a tough call.) Here are some observations that Sandomir made of about some of Caray's statements, all from Game 3 of the Indians-Yankees ALDS series:

He stated that Derek Jeter was playing in his 49th postseason game — “No. 1 of all time.” Truth: it was his 49th division series game, out of 122 postseason games.

He likened the “dynamic duo” of Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera to the Rivera-John Wetteland bullpen pairing in “those great early years of Joe Torre,” when they were dominating the World Series. Truth: Rivera and Wetteland were Yankee teammates for two seasons, and Torre managed them only in 1996.

He said the “Yankees led the world” in home runs this season with 201. He liked saying it so much he said it again. Truth: The Brewers led the majors with 231, followed by the Phillies with 213 and the Reds at 204. The Yankees and Marlins were tied at 201.

He extolled Alex Rodriguez’s “offensive heroics in the first two months of the season” for keeping the Yankees in the race. Truth: A-Rod had a sensational April, but he slumped in May to a .235 batting average with 5 home runs and 11 runs batted in.

He introduced Indians reliever Joe Borowski ... as having played for the Brewers and the Reds. Truth: He never played for Milwaukee, and while he once signed with the Reds, he never made it out of spring training. Caray also noted his hometown, Bayonne, N.J., but pronounced it as if it were part of the Louisiana bayou.

...

He also has an annoying air of certitude. With the bases loaded Sunday, and the Yankees leading, 5-3, thanks to Johnny Damon’s three-run homer, Caray said, “This is a spot where they have to score another run to win the game.” Does he also read palms?

That attitude led him on Sunday, after Rodriguez’s first hit of the series, to say, “And here come the Yankees!” A-Rod went back to the bench on Jorge Posada’s double play.

After Damon’s run-scoring single in the third, he said, “And here they come!”

No, they didn’t: Jeter promptly grounded into a double play.

This guy's horrible, and makes a great case as to why nepotism is not a good thing. His grandfather is the legendary Harry Caray, who I'm too young to remember being any good, but I'll trust those who knew him when he was "in his prime." (If announcers can have primes. I'm also reminded that Joe Buck's dad was a terrific announcer. Obviously good announcing doesn't get passed down the family tree.) His dad Skip has been an announcer on TBS for the Braves for a long time. I'm biased, but I think he's okay - generally doesn't get too excited or take the game too seriously, and is willing to make fun of himself. Chip, however, jumps out of his seat every time someone hits a pop fly, "Swung on and BELTED!" Yeah, Chip, swung on and belted into the glove of the center fielder.

Announcers

I'm waiting for the day when televised sports do not have play-by-play announcers. Maybe an interactive broadcast where the viewer can request explanations of rules or rules interpretations, or injury reports. Anyway, here's a good recent example of how worthless announcers are, courtesy of the "Versus" network (formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network, and home of hunting, fishing, rodeos, and the NHL). The situation: Stanford has the ball, trailing USC by the score of 23-17 with less than a minute to play. Listen carefully.

Worship

This video was a bit convicting:

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Find Your Candidate

Don't have any idea who you want to vote for to be our next President? Try this quiz. I like these things, even if they aren't all that accurate - Mike Huckabee answered it on the Glenn Beck show today, and he only agreed with himself 71% of the time according to the results.

Umm...I just went to Glenn's website and found the following video posted. It's apparently from when Glenn worked in Baltimore in the early 90's. For any of you who listen to or watch much of Glenn, the guy on the right is his best friend and current Houston area talk show host, Pat Gray.

Quote Of The Day

"...everything we have in Christ comes from God and returns to God, beginning in his will and ending in his glory." - James Montgomery Boice, in Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary, p. 32

Desiring God Conference

Audio, video, and text of the messages from the 2007 Desiring God National Conference: Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, are now online.

Joke Of The Day

From Liberty Pundit:

One afternoon John Edwards was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass. Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.

He asked one man, “Why are you eating grass?

“We don’t have any money for food,” the poor man replied. “We have to eat grass.”

“Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I’ll feed you,” Edwards said.

“But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree.”

“Bring them along,” John Edwards replied.

Turning to the other poor man he stated, “You come with us, too.”

The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, “But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!”

“Bring them all, as well,” Edwards answered.

They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine.

Once underway, one of the poor fellows turned to Edwards and said, “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you.”

Edwards replied, “Glad to do it. You’ll really love my place. The grass is almost a foot high.”

Rush On Rush

Good take from Brian @ Liberty Pundit on the Democrats' ridiculous criticism of Rush Limbaugh after taking some comments of his from a recent show entirely out of context. I am particularly disgusted by Tom Harkin's consistent representation (or lack thereof) of the state of Iowa. You can watch this video of Harkin wondering if Rush is "high on his drugs again." Hey, Senator Harkin, it's so far beyond cliché that I hate to ask, but you know what happens when you "assume," right? Limbaugh (who I find to be one of the most arrogant-sounding radio hosts I've ever tried to listen to) was speaking of "phony soldiers," such as this one, in Rush's own words:

One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.

What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.

Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:

'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.

He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."

This is an example of a "phony soldier." Not someone who questions the war or the decisions of his superiors (that's another debate altogether). But someone who lies about his service and gets used by politicians to spread propaganda.

Faith & Football

I enjoyed this story about Jon Kitna, the Detroit Lions' QB:

...

Kitna is a fanatic for Christ, there's no question. He often prays on his way to the line of scrimmage, to calm himself. But it's clear to teammates that he sees God as more than a lucky rabbit's foot, which is why, while the vast majority of Lions prefer to keep their beliefs private, Kitna's public pronouncements don't grate on them. Posers and prima donnas splinter far more locker rooms than religion. And Kitna walks his talk without sanctimony. He doesn't drink or cuss.

The worst anyone can recall him saying on the field is "fudge." He says he has tithed at least 10 percent of his salary his entire adult life. That includes the time he spent as a teacher after a record-setting career at Central Washington. The donations got bigger when the Seahawks signed him as a free agent in 1996, and they continued to grow after stops in Cincinnati (where he was the league's 2003 Comeback Player of the Year) and, now, Detroit. "It's about production on the field and consistency off it," Kitna says. "What guys really have a problem with is inconsistency -- people who say one thing and do another. Hypocrites. Chameleons. My teammates learn pretty quick that this is who I am, every day and in every situation."

And the tests come constantly. Walking into the Lions' locker room a few days before the Vikings game, Kitna was greeted by silence. The Lions have three iPod docks that plug into their speaker system. But when someone began blasting Christian music, a tense standoff ensued. It was noted, loudly, that a majority of people in the room didn't want to listen to God rock. And so the speakers remained mute until Kitna arrived. "Everyone's music should be heard," he said, "or no one's." The Christian rock was resurrected, followed by a heavy dose of hip-hop.

"Learning about each other, understanding each other, compromising for each other -- that's what it's like in a good locker room," says Lions wideout Roy Williams.

"That's some real s... that went down with the music and Jon's response. And that's the stuff we never had around here in years past. Is that religion? I don't know. Jon talks to everybody, I know that. And the last quarterback we had didn't do that."

Last November, during a long flight home after another defeat, Williams asked Kitna if his cussing during games was getting out of hand. Kitna said he wasn't one to judge, then explained in a whisper how he hadn't always been so pious. In 1993, Kitna was drinking himself to oblivion four nights a week, shoplifting, brawling, cussing constantly and sleeping with, he says, "all different kinds of women" behind Jennifer's back.

Eventually she caught him in bed with another woman, which is when he decided to go back to church. He believes God removed those vices from his life with a snap of His mighty fingers. Ten months later, Jon and Jennifer were married. "I didn't feel pressure or like he was judging me," Williams says of his talk with Kitna. "Jon just said, 'If you ever want to go deeper, I'm always here.' I'm young; I have questions about religion and faith. He's a good guy to ask."

...

Quote Of The Day

R.C. Sproul, ending Chapter 3: "Predestination and Free Will" of Chosen By God:

"We conclude that fallen man is still free to choose what he desires, but because his desires are only wicked he lacks the moral ability to come to Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerate, he will never choose Christ. He cannot choose Christ precisely because he cannot act against his own will. He has no desire for Christ. He cannot choose what he does not desire. His fall is great. It is so great that only the effectual grace of God working in his heart can bring him to faith." (p. 75)

I Wish This Was From The Onion...

...but it's not. Yahoo! News has a story about a group in Austria trying to get their Supreme Court to legally declare a chimpanzee as a person:

He’s now got a human name — Matthew Hiasl Pan — but he’s having trouble getting his day in court. Animal rights activists campaigning to get Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed Thursday to take their challenge to Austria’s Supreme Court after a lower court threw out their latest appeal.

A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case earlier this week, ruling that the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories had no legal standing to argue on the chimp’s behalf…

Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is “a being with interests” and accuses the Austrian judicial system of monkeying around.

“It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can,” Balluch said.

(HT: Liberty Pundit)