Quote of the Day

"Keith remembered a time, before television and other electronic devices had taken a firm hold, when meetings of one sort or another were deeply ingrained into rural life.  His parents were always going to a club meeting, a church meeting, a civic meeting, or something of the sort.  And there were sewing bees and quilting groups for the women, and political meetings and the grange meetings for the men...  there had been a time when rural people had depended upon themselves for entertainment.  But more important, many of the great social movements in the nation, such as abolition and populism, had begun in small country churches."
--from Nelson Demille's  Spencerville

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My Uncle and the Tire Iron

My Uncle Sherril is the young man in the picture without a tie.  Dad is at the top left.

In April of 1945 my Dad's 12 year-old sister Joyce went down the lane to pick up the mail and found a letter from the Navy Department.  She didn't know what was in it, but she knew it was important so she sped back to the house waving the letter in the air.

The letter was from The Casualty Notification and Processing Section and stated that Dad had been "wounded in action" and had "sustained multiple wounds." 

My grandfather, a very gruff man, broke down in tears and said to Grandma, "You promised he'd be OK!"  Grandma had promised him that Dad would come home safe from the war because she and the women at Maple Run Friends Church were praying for him.

Soon after that my Dad's 17 year-old little brother, my Uncle Sherril, was at Cole Station on State Road 22.   A neighbor farmer named Abe, who was doing quite well financially because of the war, was also there and casually said, "If the war can last a couple more years, I'll have my farm paid off."

Having just heard his big brother had been wounded and not knowing the extent of the damage done, Abe's words struck Uncle Sherril the wrong way.  He picked up a tire iron and went after him.  He had to be restrained by two men as Abe took off.

I just heard this story last night from my half-brother John.  I didn't ask... but knowing Dad, I'm sure Johnny heard it from Uncle Sherril, not Dad.

I love these little snapshots of the past.

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Bill Nye, The Science Guy vs Young Earth

William Sanford Nye’s scientific bona fides consists of an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell, and a stint at Boeing. But you can be anything you want on television...

It was Bill Nye who debated Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham to answer the question, Is Creation a Viable Model of Origins. 

The Left and other enemies of God have been wielding science for years in an effort to promulgate their own particular gospel, and ordinary individuals generally are impressed into believing that men who talk of things so difficult to understand must surely be onto something.

I have an undergraduate degree with a double major in chemistry and biology which means that I have studied just enough science to know that I have no business scientifically arguing the age of the Earth.  I know of smart people that claim the Earth was created in six 24 hour days and I know of other smart people (both Believers and non-Believers) who claim it took billions of years and a big bang.

So!  What do I believe?  I believe God spoke the universe into existence and until He tells me differently, I will accept literally the Bible which He directed into existence.

But I will not argue about it.

I believe arguing about the age of the Earth is just another distraction that rich, worldly Believers use to avoid dealing with their miserable efforts at being pure, Holy, and set apart for the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. 

Putting out a scientific argument for the existence of God or the literal veracity of scripture is all very nice, but people are going to choose to believe who they want to believe... They've been doing that for many years. 

I believe that a Holy Life is so strange to the World (and to most Believers) that it will be more remarkable and influential than any argument.

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Quote of the Day

"In a country where the Believers are thoroughly polluted by the world, Personal Holiness is the prerequisite for any effective venture into evangelism.  Polluted Believers making more polluted Believers saves no one, and only perpetuates the Cult of the Moral Lifestyle."

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Thanks Harry...

Seventy-one years ago this month my dad was healing from battle wounds and preparing to return to the South Pacific to participate in the invasion of Japan.  Perhaps a million American soldiers would die in Normandy-Like invasions followed by the slow and deadly march to secure the island. Millions upon millions of Japanese would die in combat, and many others would end their lives by suicide as they did on the cliffs of Saipan.

Instead, Harry Truman made the difficult but humane decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki... And he saved millions of American and Japanese lives.

Today, ignorant and politically motivated people condemn President Truman and America for ending the war as they did... but in spite of the fashionably stupid, it's and undeniable fact that a great many people owe their lives to  Harry Truman and his decision to drop the bomb.

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The Truth About Hillary's Bizarre Behavior

Nothing Surprises Me in this Election

At the very least, this is one strange woman.

Hillary Clinton "our kids are watching"

Our Kids Are Watching

This is a great campaign commercial and it illustrates perfectly Donald Trump's personal weaknesses.  I mean really... How smart can you be when you record on tape this kind of ammunition for your opponent to use?



Now back in 1998 our kids were watching when the Clintons made oral sex a matter for public discussion, but I'm not sure that's going to matter now.

For me, I'll just sit back and enjoy the irony of Hillary Clinton asking America to reject Trump on moral grounds.

It's kind of like Christians who pollute themselves and their families with network television and then claim that Donald Trump just isn't holy enough to be their nominee.  But I guess there is a lot of hypocrisy out there.

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Cops and the Black Man

From Robert VerBruggen in The National Review:

Let’s start with a fact everyone should be able to agree on: There is a disparity. Blacks are about 13 percent of the American population, yet according to data collected by the Washington Post in 2015 and 2016 thus far, they are about 27 percent of those killed by police. (For all the numbers in this article, I exclude any cases for which the race is “unknown.”)

But this isn’t the end of the discussion. Police are allowed, indeed often expected, to kill in certain circumstances — namely, when they reasonably think it is necessary to stop a threat to life or limb. People who pose such a threat are not necessarily representative of the entire population. So the question is, if not 13 percent, what baseline should we be comparing that 27 percent against?

One possible comparison group is murderers: According to the FBI, about half are black. Another is cop-killers, i.e., those who demonstrably presented a lethal threat to police: Again according to the FBI, about 43 percent are black. Still another is violent criminals in general: Most of these commit relatively minor offenses (such as simple assault, where there is no weapon or serious injury), but according to victimization surveys, about 24 percent are black. In other words, violent-crime rates roughly explain the gap — indeed, they over-explain it in the case of murderers and cop-killers, who are far more likely to be black than police-shooting victims are.
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Assuming that police are aware of these numbers and percentages, there would have to be a built-in prejudice against blacks solely based upon (a politically incorrect) reality.  But that prejudice does not appear to be reflected in the police shooting data.

The peaceful black man's biggest problem is the violent black man's effect upon society's fears,apprehensions, and prejudices... Just as the peaceful Muslim's biggest problem is the Muslim extremist.

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Quote of the Day

"Why should not an inner-city resident wish to buy a legal weapon, when armed security guards patrol America’s far safer gated communities? For most of the Clintons’ adult lives, they have been accompanied by men and women with concealed weapons to ensure their safety — on the premise that firearms, not mace, not Tasers, not knives or clubs, alone would ultimately keep the two safe.

The very wealthy can afford to be more concerned for a three-inch smelt than for irrigation water that will ensure that there are jobs for tractor drivers and affordable food for the less-well-off. When Hillary Clinton talks about putting miners out of work, she’s talking about people she has no desire to see unless she needs their votes.

Outsourcing jobs affects predominantly the lower middle classes; no pundit, D.C. staffer, or New York lawyer is replaced by some cheaper English-speaker from the Punjab. Obamacare follows the same pattern. Elites who praise it to the skies either have the money or the Cadillac plans to navigate around it. I doubt that Rahm Emanuel and his brothers queue up at a surgery center, hoping to win five minutes with an ophthalmologist who now treats 70 patients a day to survive under Obamacare."
--Victor Davis Hansen

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Candidates Who Excite the ignorant

In 2008 the Democrat Party introduced a very exciting presidential candidate that actually won in Indiana... You have to be a very exciting Democrat Candidate to win in Indiana.

He had no accomplishments but he was "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean" according to Joe Biden... and for expressing so remarkable a compliment for an African-American male, Joe was made his running mate...  The reasoning being that for Joe to go out upon such a tenuous limb as to call a black man bright and clean, he deserved the Vice Presidency.

Obama lacked any credentials in his first campaign and brandished no accomplishments in his second campaign... but he was exciting.  And, he looked nice and had a nice voice... just like people on TV... And in the spirit of Affirmative Action... Well, you know the outcome.

This year the Republicans are offering up a very exciting candidate of their own, and just as with the Obama campaigns, ignorant people are lining up to get excited over him.  He is a vulgar ignoramus... just like people on TV.

This may be an ongoing trend in America as our citizens become more TV-entertainment fixated and more ignorant of history and its lessons.

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Quote of the Day

"The choice this November is tragic. As happens often in life, this choice is between bad and worse, not bad and good.

But America has made that choice before. Forced to choose between bad and worse, we supported Stalin against Hitler and supported right-wing authoritarians against Communist totalitarians."

--Dennis Prager

Prager makes a good point and numbers his reasons for choosing the lesser of two evils:

1. Prevent a left-wing Supreme Court.

2. Increase the defense budget.

3. Repeal, or at least modify, Dodd-Frank.

4. Prevent Washington, D.C., from becoming a state and giving the Democrats another two permanent senators.

5. Repeal ObamaCare.

6. Curtail illegal immigration, a goal that has nothing necessarily to do with xenophobia or nativism (just see Western Europe).

7. Reduce job-killing regulations on large and small businesses.

8. Lower the corporate income tax and bring back hundreds of billions of offshore dollars to the United States.

9. Continue fracking, which the Left, in its science-rejecting hysteria, opposes.

For me, reason number one is the only argument for pulling the lever for Trump.  An activist Supreme Court torches The Constitution and changes our country forever.

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An Undivided Party has its Advantages

Many Trump supporters and haters have decided that Trump will most certainly win in November based upon the present polls that show a tight race or Trump with a narrow lead.

I'm a little bit surprised myself.

But Clinton is still in a fight with half her party over the nomination.  Bernie will eventually go away, and I expect the numbers to favor Clinton at that time.

So please don't get excited Mr. Trump Supporter... Heartache may be coming your way this summer and fall.

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Quotes of the Day

"America was founded on the idea of small government. But the Left is based on big government.
America was founded on the principle that human rights come from the Creator. For the Left, rights come from the state.
America was founded on the belief that in order to maintain a small government, a God-fearing people is necessary. The Left opposes God-based religions, particularly Judeo-Christian religions. Secularism is at the core of Leftism every bit as much as egalitarianism is.

It took generations, but the Left has succeeded (primarily through the schools, but also through the media) in substituting its values for America’s."
--Dennis Prager

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"If a boy who identifies as female has a right under Title IX to use the girls’ restrooms and showers, then it would clearly be discrimination on the basis of gender identity to bar a boy who identifies as male from also using them. After all, the difference between these two biological males is that they have different gender identities. How could one of the males be allowed to use the girls’ facilities and the other be barred from doing so if Title IX bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity? In short, contrary to everyone’s (including the Obama administration’s) understanding of Title IX, the transgender illogic would disallow any system of single-sex facilities to survive."
--Ed Whelan

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The Rulers, The Authorities, And The Powers

There was a time when I regularly watched Bill O'Reilly talk about the world's problems for an hour without ever mentioning the Enemy or our Lord.  Bill obviously doesn't know what is really going on.   But my heart is so earthbound that I regularly fall prey to the fantasies of the false teachers and the ignorant and actually work up an anger against men with whom I know I do not struggle.

But when I push myself away from the world's table long enough to sober up from the alcohol of entertainment... When I empty myself of network television and am subsequently filled with you know Who... When I discard the habits of the rich man and embrace the life of the poor man, say... In rural China,  who can afford neither television nor the antenna to receive its signal... When I live the life I was created to live between earth and God... then I actually feel the peace the Bible promises.

Even before death there is a price to pay for loving the world... the world inspired and run by the rulers, the authorities, and the powers.  Even before death there is a price to pay for inviting the enemies of God into your home and heart. 

Peace is better, and its abundance or meagerness identifies that which I love and portends my future.

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Living in a Red State has its Advantages

In a year in which Democrats nominated one of the most unlikable persons that ever walked the planet, the Trump voters decided that nominating someone even more unlikable was a good idea. 

Well the drunken night has run its course, the sun has risen, and Hillary Clinton is up 13 points over Trump... And Indiana is only leaning red.  Who saw that coming?

I can't stomach the Trump News Network (The News Network formerly known as Fox) so this morning I tuned in to MSNBC, where Rachael Maddow is so so so so happy.  The Democrats are like the Allies of World War II having learned that Hitler has committed suicide.

So a special thanks to Donald, Sarah, Jeff, Chris, Sean, Ann, Rush, Bill, Laura, the twits on Fox and Friends, Mitch, John, and the rest of the insipid Republican Establishment for their help in establishing the Democrats as the ruling Party in America for the next one hundred years.

So where was I going with this?

Oh yes, living in a red state has its advantages... and here it is:
There is no reason for me to sully myself by voting for Donald Trump.  If Trump needs my vote to win Indiana, then the swing states are already lost, and the election is already over.

Which it is.

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 Quote of the Day

Trump won’t win. And his loss, and Hillary’s presidency, will be the fault of the people who nominated him. It is outrageous and dishonest to blame Trump’s loss on the very people who warned you for months that he would lose. The fact that Trump is roundly despised, mocked and dismissed by the general electorate is not a new revelation. It’s been the case since his announcement speech, and for many years before that. The blame for President Hillary falls on those who ignored this reality, not on the ones who’ve been shouting desperately about it since July.
Speaking of which, please take a bow, Sean Hannity.  Also, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, etc. These paragons of conservatism worked tirelessly for many months to destroy their movement and assure a Hillary Clinton presidency. This morning, their victory on both counts is all but assured. We should congratulate them on their achievement, and, out of respect for their tireless efforts, we should be sure to remember their names and what they did. I imagine Hillary Clinton and the DNC are writing personalized thank you notes to every Trump shill on cable news and talk radio as we speak. They deserve the recognition. Truly, no one has done more to advance the Democrat cause than Sean Hannity and his fellow Trump lickspittles.
--Matt Walsh

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Perfect

Saw this on Facebook.

I'm sure I've used "your" when I should have used "you're" many times... But surely if I was making a poster for the internet...

But perhaps today's standards are different and I'm being a grammarphobe or something.

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Quote of the Day

"Trump is certainly not the answer for our mess, but he is not the cause of it either. His supporters are not saints, but they embrace the argument that elites promote policies in the abstract whose negative consequences in the concrete always fall on someone else less wealthy and well-connected. Their anger at those hypocrisies deserves to be heard with respect. For the most part, they are supporting a candidate who, by the standards of a debased age, is no more disingenuous or disreputable than he who currently sits in the White House or she who will likely sit there in 2017."

--Victor Davis Hansen

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Look Who's Back

A time traveler in military uniform wakes up on a sunny Berlin afternoon in 2011, looking up at a blue sky without enemy aircraft overhead. He hears no shelling, explosions or sirens.  You know his name. You know his face.

I love Netflix... No Madison Avenue, and I get to watch movies that I would never otherwise get to see. 

I recently suffered through the subtitles of a German film named Look Who's Back, which places a time travelling Hitler in modern day Berlin.  Much of the movie is played for comedy, but the underlying theme is a people frustrated with immigrants coming into, and changing their country... And this strange man saying the things they've felt about the situation but never expressed.

A German television station finds him, and believing he is an actor and comedian, enlists him to come and drive up their ratings.  The first time he appears on live TV he just stands there for a full minute, silently looking at his audience, just as Hitler did before his speeches back in pre-war Germany.

At the end of the movie, film is shown of right wing hate groups protesting along with clips of the time traveling Hitler riding through the streets... And he exclaims, "I can work with this."

I recommend the film.  It shows how when a government is deaf to the concerns of its citizens, the way is paved for the ascendance of the most outrageous characters...

(If you're not thinking about Donald Trump by now... you may be a Trump Zombie.)

I'm sure it was meant to be a left wing warning against right wing extremism in Germany, but the overwhelming popularity that the film has enjoyed may suggest an effect that is something contrary to the filmmaker's intent.

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How a Contested Convention Could Save Us

I watched MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning because I simply couldn't stomach another episode of Trump and Friends over on Fox News.  Well, I did peek for a few seconds and predictably it was all about how Cruz's victory in Wisconsin would effect Donald Trump's triumphant march to the nomination.

Call me crazy, but with the Supreme Court on the verge of becoming the Supreme Beings... the secular version of Iran's Council of Guardians... I'm thinking Republicans should be focused upon winning the election in November.

And when over half of his own party's voters consider Donald Trump scary (see Wisconsin exit polls) he isn't going to win in November.

My hope is that come convention time we will all take a deep breath,  look at the polling,  and nominate someone who has a chance to win.  That someone may be neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz. 

I'm fine with that.

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