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The Gods of Liberalism Revisited

 

The lie hasn't changed, and we still fall for it as easily as ever.  But how can we escape the snare?

 

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

Oklahoma Fixes Illegal Immigration Problem

Some people say it's impossible to get all the illegal aliens out of our country. However, here's a report showing how it can happen: just cut off access to the gravy train.

From WorldNetDaily:

Thousands of Hispanics have fled the Tulsa, Okla., area in the shadow of a looming state law that limits benefits and mandates deportation for illegal aliens, according to a report from KTUL television in Tulsa.

The state of Oklahoma recently approved a new law that requires deportation for illegal aliens who are arrested, and limits benefits and jobs to those individuals. The report said in East Tulsa, where a community of Hispanics has grown over recent years, there's been a sudden drop in population.

Business owner Simon Navarro has been in business there 11 years, and said the tough law has chased away 30 percent of the state's Hispanic population.

"Two months ago I heard 25,000 Hispanics have left Oklahoma," he told the station. "They are leaving. A lot have already left.

Now if the whole country would get serious about illegal immigration--on a local, state and federal level--we could go a looooooong way to getting control of our borders again.


Friday, August 24, 2007

British Driver Clocked at 172 MPH


A man in Britain has pleaded guilty to driving 172 MPH on a rural road in England, according to Breitbart. He was driving a 3.6-litre Porsche 911 Turbo near Oxford when they caught him.

I've never been along the road where he was caught, but I know some of those roads in England are pretty small. Some of their two-lane roads are about as wide as one of our interstate lanes, or so it seems.

Still, people haul a major load of buttage over there. When I lived in England, I remember driving around the M25 which loops around London one morning, going to pick up a friend at Gatwick Airport. I was in my little Mazda 323 in the slowest of 3 lanes doing about 90-95 MPH (with the pedal on the floor). Porches and Jaguar's were shooting past me in the other two lanes like I was standing still. I bought a faster Datsun Bluebird (the one in the pic above and left) after I wrecked the Mazda (don't say it) and got that puppy up to 120 MPH a couple of times along (I believe it was) the A10 between Kings Lynn and Cambridge. (Note: I've since wised up and learned not to drive that fast.)

British friends told me the police don't even look twice at you unless you're doing over 100, but this is just too fast. The Breitbart article says up until this guy near Oxford, the fastest they'd ever nailed someone for was 156 MPH and they locked him up for 5 months.


Abortive Euthanasia


A WorldNetDaily report from a few days ago indicates abortionists are resorting to new tactics to get around laws against partial birth abortion.

What many liberals say is too "inhumane" to do to convicted murderers is being done to children in the womb before the full abortion procedure takes place.

In order to avoid any chance of a live birth and prosecution, three major Harvard-affiliated hospitals – Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women's, and Beth Israel Deaconess – have made lethal injections in the womb a standard operating procedure for abortions at 20 weeks gestation or later.

"No physician even wants to be accused of stumbling into accidentally doing one of these procedures," Dr. Michael F. Greene, director of obstetrics at Massachusetts General, told the Globe.

In some facilities, patients are given the choice to use lethal injection. Generally, it is believed the risk to the woman is slight, although critics of the federal ban say they should not have to be inconvenienced. Some case reports suggest a danger to the woman if one of the common drugs used, potassium chloride, is accidentally injected into her.

Prior to the actual abortion, the baby is injected with either potassium chloride – one of the drugs used for lethal injections of criminals – or the heart drug digoxin.

But Dr. Mark Nichols, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University, does not give women a choice if their baby is over 20 weeks' gestation – the injection is required.

Apparently they're unwilling to allow anything--even some law--to come between them and killing an unwanted child.

If the unborn child was really just "a piece of tissue" or a part of the woman's body as pro-abortionists claim, why would there be a need to inject it with a lethal chemical before surgically removing it? You wouldn't do that with a tumor or a failed organ, would you?

Is this an indirect admission by abortionists that they're killing a separate, distinct human being?


Living Without Fear


Today's Men of Integrity devotional had not only a good story, but a "Thought to Apply" that impacted me.

Those who fear God face life fearlessly. Those who do not fear God end up fearing everything.—RICHARD HALVERSON (former U.S. Senate chaplain)

It occurred to me that you can see the truth of this thought played out in the world of current events. While it can be said that conservative Christians are concerned about a great many things (Christ does tell us to be salt and light in a fallen world, doesn't he?), I don't think we worry about world events nearly as much as liberals do.

I've talked with a number of Christian friends, and almost without fail, even though we often lament the destruction and suffering in this world brought on by doing things our way instead of God's way, in the end Christians usually acknowledge that God is ultimately in control of the outcome and has an ultimate plan for this world: a wiping away of all the dirty muck, to create a new Heaven and new Earth where there will be no sin or death. It just doesn't get better than that.

Meanwhile, those who don't place their hope in Almighty God worry that we're not throwing enough money at social problems to create our own "heaven on earth," worry about global warming wiping out mankind, asteroid strikes, too much carbs, having a fancier house than our neighbors, urban sprawl, running out of oil, mercury filled light bulbs, fried foods, lack of "free" health care, and whatever the "scare of the day" is.

I can't express how comforting it is to know that despite any and all problems we have here on earth, there is a God who loves us, and if we'll only put our trust in Him, we can know with certainty that everything is going to turn out okay in the end.


Turning the Vietnam Tables on Liberals


From CNS News, the libs don't like it when a few days ago President Bush turned around on them the Vietnam comparison (usually used in conjunction with the word "quagmire").

Here's what the president said:

"Today, the names and places have changed, but the fundamental character of the struggle has not changed," said Bush in Kansas City, Mo. "The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Then as now, people argued the real problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end," Bush said. "The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be.

"In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution," Bush added.

"In Vietnam, former allies of the United States and government workers and intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea," he noted.

It's about time someone took this "quagmire" malarky comparison away from them and pointed to the real similarities: pulling out militarily will leave our allies, the people we were there to protect, at the mercy of bloodthirsty tyrants. It did in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and it likely will in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Besides, we still have troops in Germany and Japan after 60 years, so why are liberals in such a hurry in the Middle East?)

We can't abandon our friends in the Middle East as we did in Vietnam; our credibility, our future security, and human decency forbid it.


America's Worst Enemy, Itself

GUEST COLUMN

By Phil Magnan
Director, Biblical Family Advocates

It isn't as though we are unfamiliar with the concept of the speeding train and the foolish driver who believes that they can outrun that train across the tracks; only to be crushed beyond recognition. But when you look at America, some Americans are wondering if we are in a similar race for our very own existence. Of course any person can point out some of the top dangers to America, whether it's bio-terrorism, illegal immigration or nuclear war. But the maddening reality is that we do not understand that WE are our own worst enemies. Here are a few examples that should make us begin to wonder if we are the largest group of lemmings to commit collective suicide. (Full Article)

 


US Intel Gathering is Constitutional

Despite Democrat hysteria about the NSA eavesdropping program where we spy on terrorist phone calls (the one a Democrat-controlled Congress recently voted for), we are only eavesdropping on foreign terrorists, and when the call involves someone in the US, they get a warrant.

US intelligence eavesdrops on thousands of foreign telephone calls on lines that cross through US territory but monitors the calls of fewer than a hundred people in the United States, intelligence chief Mike McConnell has disclosed.
McConnell's comments followed passage by the US Congress this month of a law allowing the intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless intercepts of calls between two foreign points.

McConnell stressed in an interview with the El Paso Times that intelligence agencies must still obtain court warrants to monitor calls in which at least one of the parties is in the United States.

"And so if a terrorist calls in and it's another terrorist, I think the American public would want us to do surveillance of that US person in this case," he said. "So we would just get a warrant and do that."

"It's a manageable thing. On the US persons side it's 100 or less. And then the foreign side, it's in the thousands," he said.

This monitoring is also nothing new. During the Clinton era, there was plenty of monitoring of US citizens going on...and this was before terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade towers and the Pentagon.

We might also recall that while this monitoring under the Clinton administration was going on, Clinton was sitting on his hands with his pants around his ankles while terrorists attacked us overseas and plotted the 911 attack.


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Confirmed: Terrorists Probing U.S. Mexican Border


Officials have confirmed Iraqi terrorists are trying to get into the U.S. across the Mexican border.

From WorldNetDaily:

The confirmation comes from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, who talked about the situation in an interview with the El Paso Times recently.

"Coming up through the Mexican border is a path," McConnell said. "Now, are they doing it in great numbers? No, because we're finding them and we're identifying them and we've got watch lists and we're keeping them at bay."

But, he said, "There are numerous situations where people are alive today because we caught them (terrorists)."

How many have they caught?
McConnell's office did reveal some numbers, during fiscal 2006, there were 14 Iraqi nationals caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally, while so far in 2007, that number is 16.

"Now some we caught, some we didn't," McConnell told the newspaper. "The ones that get in – what are they going to do? They're going to write home. So it's not rocket science; word will move around."

That may not seem like a lot, especially if you have no interest in protecting our borders, but 19 terrorists killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 911. Who knows how many terrorists are getting through, and how many were already here...


Regular Women to Replace Feminists in Gov't

Janice Shaw Crouse's column yesterday asked "Why Aren’t Women Running for Office?"

While feminists would surely say women are being oppressed by the man, Crouse says the generation of feminist victimology is starting to fade from the political scene in America.

There are a good number of women in government today, and a lot of them are the liberal type (which doesn't exactly create a positive female role model in power for average American women), but Crouse says a new generation of empowered women is coming along, and I think she's right.

In short, the women who are complaining loudest about women not being involved in politics want only a certain type of woman in office –– those who will support the so-called “women’s rights” agenda –– abortion-on-demand, the mainstreaming of lesbian and homosexual lifestyles, and condom-based sex education in the public schools beginning in kindergarten. Clearly, more and more women are rejecting that agenda in favor of the traditional Judeo-Christian values. The old-guard feminists are still around, but they are losing influence and a whole new generation of conservative young women is coming along to replace them in the halls of power.

Wait 'till you see my daughter in action in a few years. She's going to knock your socks off with her smile and her smarts!


Kyoto Destroying Ozone Layer

Doesn't this sound like the typical UN project? According to Reuters, some countries are deliberately hiking their output of greenhouse gasses so they can make money on the carbon credits in that little scheme.

In addition, evidence suggests that the same projects, in developing countries, have deliberately raised their emissions of greenhouse gases only to destroy these and therefore claim more carbon credits, said Stanford University's Michael Wara.

Kyoto is meant to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, but is undermining a separate pact called the Montreal Protocol, meant to phase out gases which harm the earth's ozone layer.

At the heart of the clash is a carbon trading scheme under Kyoto, worth $5 billion last year, whereby rich countries pay poorer ones to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf, called the clean development mechanism (CDM).



HT to Free Republic.


Bad News for Global Warming and Biofuel

Brit Hume's Political Grapevine brings bad news for disciples of global warming: more peer-reviewed studies that reveal Al Gore for the alarmist he is:

The Belgian Weather Institute concludes that carbon dioxide does not have a decisive role in global warming.

A study by two Chinese scientists says CO2's role in warming is "vastly exaggerated."

And new research by University of Washington mathematicians shows a correlation between high solar activity and periods of warming.

There's also bad news for the ethanol/biofuel movement. Seems creating biofuels would create more greenhouse gasses than fossil fuels--and would take 40% of the United States' ag land just to replace 10% of our fossil fuel usage.

Meanwhile, what is billed as the first comprehensive analysis of global biofuel impact has concluded that their use may release between two and nine times more carbon gases than fossil fuels.

The study published in the journal Science says the clearing of forest land to grow biofuel crops will produce immediate carbon gas releases and also destroy habitats, wildlife and jobs. It says that while biofuels look good from a Western perspective, they will be harmful on a global scale. The study contends it will take about 40 percent of American and European agricultural land to grow enough biofuel crops to replace only 10 percent of fossil fuel use.


Free Market Health Care

A recent Washington Times article examines an ongoing market-driven health care option, in contrast to the grossly inefficient socialized medicine system of Canada:

In the U.S., we have a market-based response to the problem. A rapid expansion of retail health clinics in the United States is taking place in what the Department of Health and Human Services has designated as medically underserved areas. Take MinuteClinics, a division of the drugstore chain CVS, which offers walk-in health care centers for common medical problems such as strep throat, sunburn, mono, flu, ear infections and sinus infections, and offer vaccinations, checkups, etc. People can pay cash or use their regular insurance. Most visits are 15 minutes or less with no appointment needed. In many cases, MinuteClinics are often affiliated with local hospital or physician practices, and will refer customers to a primary care doctor if they don't have one. Additionally, the center generates an electronic medical record that customers and doctors can access through the phone, fax or Internet.

There are 200 MinuteClinics across America. Most are in federally designed medically underserved areas providing immediate care, referrals and electronic medical records for about $50 per person. Other private companies are involved in this trend as well and have been joined by the American Academy of Family Physicians in an effort to improve access to health care for millions Americans.

A great deal of why our current health care system in America is so broken is that we have for the last 50 years progressively taken more and more of the free market out of the system, while increasing more and more government intervention (Medicare, Medicaid, government regulation, etc.). Our current system is not truly a free market system, with the government paying roughly have of the medical bills in this country, but neither is it yet a fully socialized medicine setup because the government still isn't regulating or centrally controlling the vast majority of the system.

It's time to swing back to the free market that helped build the economic dynamo that has traditionally been the United States.

HT to the National Center for Policy Analysis.


Terri Schiavo's Death Still Being Rationalized, Despite Breakthrough for Brain Injured

GUEST COLUMN

By Bobby Schindler

Recently, a group of surgeons restored the consciousness of a man who had been in a “minimally conscious state” for six years, unable to feed himself or communicate. The experiment, led by Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic, involved implanting two electrodes into the brain of a trauma victim. (Full Article)




Most Americans in the Dark, Politically


Being dumb is fun, isn't it?

This probably explains a Democrat majority in congress, continued devotion to socialism, and all the angst over Iraq and the war on terrorism.

From Breitbart.com:

Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed.

Global political knowledge was miniscule, with just three percent of women and 14 percent of men saying they are extremely knowledgeable on world politics.

One reason for the knowledge gap is lack of interest, according to the poll.

"Well over half (57 percent) say they do not like learning about political issues in other countries," and 32 percent expressed a lack of interest for homespun politics, the Harris Poll group said.

What did John Wayne say? “Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.”


Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Problems the Surge Hasn't Solved


Since positive news out of Iraq has stunned Democrats, they're busy trying to find new reasons to pooh-pooh our military effort and prophesy defeat.

From the Washington Post:

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

You know, maybe we could encourage our enemies by also pointing out that the surge hasn't reduced global warming or the number of uninsured in America, either. It also hasn't improved my gas mileage, or solved that soap scum problem I have in the shower, or cured my nasal congestion, or made it easier to clean my windows without the glass streaking, or convinced my wife to agree with me more, or made the sky bluer, or made the grass greener, or removed those scuffs from my shoes, or...


Kill the Moose, Save the Planet


Now it seems the moose in Norway are wreaking as much destruction upon our fragile planet as these diabolical cars we drive.

From Spiegel Online:

The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year -- equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey.

Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.

I guess it's time to exterminate the moose. If this becomes a worldwide movement (after all, liberals say we should follow the lead of socialist Europe), how this will fit in with the Endangered Species Act in the United States is anyone's guess.

(If we could just stop these animals from farting, I think it'd be okay to drive our SUVs.)


High School Joy

ON THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY

By Raymond J. Keating


If only high school had been as enjoyable as portrayed in “High School Musical,” which hit the Disney Channel in January 2006, and in the sequel “High School Musical 2” that debuted on Friday, August 17.

Dating back to the early days of Hollywood, the most beloved musicals tend to be idealized, feel good affairs. It’s enjoyable escapism. That’s the case with both “HSM” and “HSM2.” (Full Article)


How to Reduce Divorce Rates by Half and Save Billions

Aug. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a speech at 'Family Preservation Day' at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 19, Marriage Savers President Mike McManus, charged, 'Presidential candidates say they support `Family Values.' Why not ask them, `Do you support reforms that could slash America's divorce rate in half? None would cost the Federal Government a penny. In fact they could cut the federal deficit by $40 billion. Here are three steps to cut the divorce rate that a new President could take: (Full Article)


Love INC, Area Churches Help Over 1,000 Children With New School Clothes

For the fifth consecutive year, Love INC’s Clothe-A-Kid for School program is mobilizing area churches to help children in need with new school clothes.

On Saturday, August 25, over 800 children in Rapid City and Spearfish will receive a backpack and new clothes purchased just for them by area church volunteers. (Full Article)


More Lunacy from the Bench


CNS News tells of illegal immigrant Nicholas Martinez who was sentenced to a year in jail for drug possession and child endangerment. He was denied probation because the judge at the time found

"Mr. Martinez is illegally in the country and is in violation of the probation rules right from the start if I place him on probation," court documents quoted Judge Hannelore Kitts as saying. "He has to comply with all the conditions of the probation and he can't do that because he's in violation of the law not to violate any federal or state laws."

But in the appeals court, where ostensibly "the best of the best" judges serve, foreign invader, drug user and child endangerer Martinez is as pure as the wind-driven snow.
But on appeal, a three-judge panel threw out the sentence, based on an apparent contradiction in U.S. law. While it is illegal to enter the country without the proper documents and permissions, it is not necessarily illegal to be in the country.

In its opinion, the court explained that Congress had implicitly created the distinction: "While Congress has criminalized the illegal entry into this country, it has not made the continued presence of an illegal alien in the United States a crime unless the illegal alien has previously been deported," said the opinion.

The court also cited previous cases, including a 1958 Supreme Court case, which found that laws regarding illegal entry into the country "are not continuing ones, as 'entry' is limited to a particular locality and hardly suggests continuity."

So I guess under this twisted logic, if I break into the house or business, as long as I don't get caught in the act of breaking in, I'm no longer committing a crime once I'm in the building.

These judges supposedly are college educated?

Justice has typically been symbolized as blind, with the blind woman. Perhaps these days we should change the symbol to something representing stupidity. Our laws exist to protect the innocent, not to provide a game of legal "Twister" for judges.


Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Grima Rove-Tongue

From the folks at PatriotPost.us, playing off the Lord of the Rings characters Grima Wormtongue, King Theoden, Gandalf and Aragorn:


[The Patriot Post (PatriotPost.US)]


Ju-Jitsu Demo at Central States Fair

My daughter's Ju-Jitsu dojo, Rushmore Ju-Jitsu, did a demo at the Central States Fair yesterday and tonight.

We missed the one yesterday, but participated in the one tonight. It went very well and was well attended.

Here's one of my daughter doing a roll.



Here's one of Sensei Doug Langworthy, the owner of the dojo and a 5th Degree Black Belt. He's doing a demo with the sword, and ends by cleanly slicing that pole in two. He's lethal, but he's very good with the kids in his school.


'Biblical Reality' Based on False Assumptions

A new book called "Moses Didn’t Write About Creation!" by someone calling themselves Ephraim is getting some attention around the internet. It's a new concept regarding origins called "Biblical Reality" and is defined as "the ordained marriage of Biblical Truth, and Scientific Reality."

However, I don't think it's deserved because not only is it incorrect, the preface and first chapter that I read reveal it to be a rather juvenile attempt to say the Bible doesn't say what it plainly says, and that we should automatically believe the modern contention that the earth and humanity are billions and millions of years old, respectively. It also makes some pseudo-science-fiction claims of life elsewhere in the universe which, while not contrary to the Bible, is not a claim you can support in any way from what the Bible tells us.

This book is like every other book that tries to harmonize modern interpretations of scientific reality with what the Bible says: it automatically presupposes that evolutionists and claims of a 4.5 billion year old earth are true. In other words, it doesn't approach the question from an objective standpoint, but one that already presumes that what atheists and evolutionists claim is correct: that our planet is incredibly ancient, and that God didn't really mean what He said in the Bible. Here's an illustration:

Perhaps you are one of the many of us that still have trouble trying to make sense of the differences between the scientific and religious explanations of the origins of mankind, of Earth, and of the universe. After reviewing the discoveries of science (scientific reality), you then wonder about the credibility of creationism and the theological views of the beginning of our existence.

These scientific discoveries that the author calls "scientific reality" are presented to the public through the lens of an old-earth/evolution worldview, not in their raw, unbiased form, so it's no wonder you might "wonder about the credibility" of what the Bible says.

It also isn't just "theologians" who have told us God created the universe and everything in it in six days--He told us that himself in Genesis. It's there, plain to see for anyone who has eyes to see. The successive generations outlined in those boring, dry genealogy chapters also help us determine the approximate age of the earth and the human race; these genealogies are what Archbishop Usher used when he developed the chronology commonly referred to when creationists say earth is about 6,000-10,000 years old.

The beliefs upon which atheists and evolutionists found their theories are themselves often flawed, and explainable within a Biblical framework.

For instance, radiometric dating, which is the evolutionists strongest evidence, is itself based on many unverifiable assumptions (that decay rates have been constant in perpetuity, that the samples tested are uncontaminated by parent or daughter elements, etc.), and has rendered multiple, verifiably inaccurate readings such as the 30-year old lava dome at Mount St. Helens being dated at 2.8 million years old.

Also, the geological formations which evolutionists tell us took thousands and millions of years to form can be easily explained by the global cataclysm of Noah's flood. In fact, some of the geological features which were formed around Mount St. Helens after the 1980 eruption prove that geology like that of the Grand Canyon can be formed in hours and days, without the need for thousands or millions of years.

Then there are the man-like species fossils always trotted out as "proof" of evolution and an ancient earth. These are usually proved decades later to simply be monkey fossils, if they aren't outright fakes. And the Neanderthals could have easily been people who were suffering from malnutrition and rickets; their DNA is very close to that of modern man (even in a Biblical framework of a few thousand years, there would be some genetic drift--in genetic tendencies and dominant traits, not new genetic information), and there is much evidence to support the contention that they suffered from disease and malnutrition.

What the majority of the modern scientific community and the media present to us as "science" is in fact just theories that have some support based on a particular interpretation of the evidence at hand. Theories which surmise evolution and an ancient earth start, just like creation science, with a presupposition and the viability of that presupposition is tested by the evidence.

The interesting thing is, within the framework of each argument, evolution theory comes up woefully short, with myriad contradictions and essential elements that are impossible within its framework which excludes anything that doesn't conform to the modern observation of natural law; meanwhile, within the framework of creation theory, the evidence comes in heavily on its side, which already presupposes supernatural causation and occasional supernatural intervention.

In short, there are many theories that are both scientifically viable and fit within the framework of the Bible. But if you start with the presupposition that an ancient earth is true and the Bible doesn't really mean what it plainly says, then you will automatically reject these theories, and even their viability.

This book is just a continuation of the rejection of Biblical truth in favor of belief that modern scientists are correct in their theories. It is just another attempt to harmonize two ideas that can never be harmonized. The theological and historical claims of the Bible cannot be made to agree with an ancient earth, an ancient humanity, previous hominid species, and/or evolution. Likewise, the claims of an ancient earth and evolution cannot be made to agree with the claims of the Bible. One supposition will always remain subordinate to the other, and since the Bible claims to be absolute truth, any claim contrary to that of the Bible is completely incompatible.

This book brings nothing new to the table, just more "the Bible doesn't really mean what it says."


Spitting on Warm Linoleum


WorldNetDaily reports on a new climate study which will soon appear in the peer-reviewed Journal of Geophysical Research.

The study finds that Al Gore, um, overstates global warming just by a teensy bit:

A major new scientific study concludes the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on worldwide temperatures is largely irrelevant, prompting one veteran meteorologist to quip, "You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.

I've long said that it boggles the mind how liberals can claim our SUVs are burning up the planet, yet completely discount the sun as a cause of temperature change on our world.

To put human contributions to "greenhouse gasses" into perspective so that even liberals should be able to understand it...
"Only 2.75 percent of atmospheric CO2 is anthropogenic in origin. The amount we emit is said to be up from 1 percent a decade ago. Despite the increase in emissions, the rate of change of atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa remains the same as the long term average (plus 0.45 percent per year)," he said. "We are responsible for just 0.001 percent of this atmosphere. If the atmosphere was a 100-story building, our anthropogenic CO2 contribution today would be equivalent to the linoleum on the first floor."

Al Gore must have some mighty impressive linoleum in his house.


Interview with Senate Candidate Sam Kephart

My column in the Rapid City Journal today is on Sam Kephart, the Spearfish businessman who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Tim Johnson.

I interviewed Kephart over lunch a few weeks back, but because several column topics arose that I didn't think had as long of a "shelf life" as Kephart's comments, I ended up running those first. I hope Sam hadn't given up on me running this piece.

What does Kephart think of Johnson? Though I'm sure in someone's definition it's an "attack," here's what Kephart had to say:

While he says Johnson is a “nice guy,” Kephart believes Johnson is a “status quo” politician who isn’t willing to display the assertive leadership necessary to fix our most pressing problems.

“We’re at a time when we need someone a little more ‘Janklow-esque’ and a little less ‘hail fellow well met,’” Kephart told me.

Sam is a little "moderate" for my political preferences, but I found him to be a very likable guy. If I had to characterize his personality with one word, it would be "positive." He's a very upbeat, optimistic, hopeful man with an infectious good nature.

He's not nearly as conservative as I'd like on things like abortion, but he is very much in favor of a strong, no-nonsense defense of our country.

You can read today's issues-oriented column here, and hopefully as I have time, I'll share more details of the interview that I didn't have room for in the column in future postings.


'Seeing South Dakota' column has had a lot of stuff in it over the years

By Gordon Garnos

AT ISSUE: The letter started, "Dear Mr. Garnos, I have been reading your column for quite a while in my hometown newspaper and have never understood where the title comes from. You seldom write much about actually seeing South Dakota. I'm always expecting you to write about some places in the state that would be interesting to visit..." It was back in '02 when the column was started. It was right after I retired after nearly 40 years with the Watertown Public Opinion. A weekly newspaper publisher, a good friend, asked me to write a column on South Dakota issues. In other words, "take a good, hard look at our state," and, thus the title, "Seeing South Dakota." The column is now in several weekly papers across the state. By the way, the letter was from California. (Full Article)


Why Libs Hate Talk Radio

Here's an illustration of why liberals (in both parties) would like to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine" to emasculate talk radio.

From the Politico:

“What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says.

The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on the immigration debate more intensely than the mainstream media did from April to June.

Talk radio is being credited with bringing down the amnesty bill...and I would have to concur. The "mainstream" media certainly wasn't doing it's job; it was too busy using its stories to shelter illegal aliens.


Monday, August 20, 2007

Montana is Canada's Health Care Backup

The Calgary Herald has a story about the birth of quadruplets that the model socialist health care system in Canada just couldn't handle.

There was no room at any other Canadian neonatal intensive care unit, forcing CHR officials to look south of the border.

Jepp was transported to Benefis hospital in Great Falls last Friday -- making her the fifth Alberta woman to be transferred south of the border this year because of neonatal shortages in Calgary.

The Daily Mail blog has this observation from Don Surber:
There is a difference between health care and health insurance. In capitalistic America, the concentration is on health. In socialistic Canada, the emphasis is on paying the bills. The story ended with how much the American hospital charged. Looks like a quarter-million bucks for a 5-day stay. Given that it was the quadruple birth of 2-pound babies two months premature, I’d say it was a bargain.

Just remember, though, that Canada’s backup system is in Montana. Americans spend 15% of their income on health care. That’s why Great Falls has enough neo-natal units to handle quadruple births — and a “universal health” nation doesn’t.

After all, they didn’t fly Mrs. Jepp to Cuba, did they?

HT to World Magazine blog.


Missouri: Being Right While Being Wronged Can Be Expensive

By Carrie K. Hutchens

Being right, while being wronged, can be expensive in Missouri! Ask Gary and Cynthia Stocklaufer, the young couple that went to court to adopt a relative's son only to have the child taken from them. Taken from them because someone within the system decided that Gary was too fat to be a father. He "might" get sleep apnea. He "might" develop diabetes. Oh those almighty "Mights"! What if all adoptions were based upon all the "mights" that are out there? (Full Article)

 


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Daughter's Baptism

My daughter Karissa was baptized this morning, so today's a special day for us.


Karissa gave her life to Jesus Christ when she was about five years old, but we waited a while before letting her get baptized because we wanted to make sure she understood what she had committed to when she was five, and to make sure it was genuine. It's not to say that someone can't understand what being born again is at that age, but when you're dealing with the vocabulary of a 5-year-old, it can be difficult to be certain.

But she's been after me for some time now to get baptized, so after discussing what it means with her, her Mom and I finally talked with the church leaders and she was baptized today at nine years old.

She's not perfect (she has too much of her dad in her to be perfect), but if she holds fast to her growing faith, she's going to have a great life ahead of her, in this world and in the one to come.

Her baptism is a public profession of her inner faith, so thanks for letting us share this special day with you all.


Taxpayer Twinkie Subsidies

I see Anna at DakotaWomen isn't thrilled with today's poverty potty break at the South Dakota Potty Break.

JAR at SDPB had written about his displeasure (as a taxpayer if nothing else, presumably) at seeing people on taxpayer-funded food stamps buying a bunch of junk food.

Anna responded:

I mean, I disapprove of yuppies in SUV's using three parking spots and going into Hy-Vee to buy a seven dollar cup of Starbucks coffee and crates of bottled water that just come from a tap anyway, but I manage somehow not to post my contempt for them on the internet.

I'm not thrilled with yuppies in SUVs buying $7.00 cups of Starbucks coffee either. However, there's one key difference between the aforementioned activities of the ungrateful food stamp recipient and the spoiled yuppie:

the taxpayer isn't having his wallet lightened by the government to pay for the yuppie's behavior, but the taxpayer is being legally plundered to subsidize the surly, unproductive Twinkie purchaser.


South Dakota Native on USS Indianapolis

Today's Argus Leader features a compelling article about the men of the USS Indianapolis who endured 4 days in the water after their ship was sunk in the final days of World War II.

This story has regained attention recently with this month's Discovery Channel airing of "Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever."

One of these heroic survivors, Ed Brown, is from Sioux Falls.

The article is long, but it's an interesting and gripping story.


What Public 'Charity' Really Breeds

I took a potty break this morning at the South Dakota Potty Break and noticed that he and I share some of the same observations about poverty and what America's poor often look like in the real world, without looking through the rose colored glasses of liberalism.

There are a handful of people who through whatever reason (major medical problems, freak adverse circumstances, no-win occupations like the small farmer, etc.) who have hit poverty without exercising counterproductive behaviors to put themselves there. I'm not talking about these folks.

But the vast majority of the "poverty stricken" got where they are because of self-destructive behaviors (substance abuse, gambling, etc.) or a simple lack of ambition. I grew up poor (the son of one of those struggling small farmers) and saw plenty of relatives who were the self-destructive and unambitious kind; I'm no stranger to poverty.

When liberals take money out of one person's pocket against their will and give it to these irresponsible, self-destructive people, they're not only robbing the first person, they're also enabling the second person to continue with their unproductive behavior. They'll never rise out of poverty if we teach them that their bad behavior will be compensated for, and there will always be saps out there who will hand them sustenance with no education or requirement to do better.

Sometimes the only way a person can realize that they need to change is when their destructive lifestyle becomes completely unsustainable. Thanks to liberal "compassion," many people in this category never reach that stage that brings about change.

So liberalism ends up creating and perpetuating more of what they claim they are working against.

Private charity where individuals connect with individuals and lifestyle changes are required...that's the only hope for those who simply don't understand the value of being responsible.

Today's was a productive potty break.


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