Paul Volcker's concern about the "dollar crisis"

Volcker's Demarche

Excerpt:

On the dollar, Mr. Volcker's blunt talk of crisis is a welcome tonic to the devaluationist consensus that now dominates Washington. The world has been staging a run on the greenback, with damaging results if it continues. Mr. Volcker noted that when "concerns about recession are rife," the central bank will be tempted to "subordinate the fundamental need to maintain a reliable currency" to the impulse to shore up a flagging economy. The danger is that you lose both battles, as the U.S. did in the 1970s, and wind up with stagflation.

The present climate, Mr. Volcker told his audience, reminded him of nothing so much as the early 1970s. Then as now, certain commodity prices were rising fast – he cited oil and soybeans as two examples. Then as now too, these were explained away as speculative price run-ups and not as a harbinger of a broader inflationary trend.

We all know how that ended, and Mr. Volcker knows better than anyone. He was the one who, at the end of that decade, had to step in and raise interest rates to punitive levels to break the back of that bout of inflation. With commodity prices spiking again – soybeans are $12 a bushel today compared to $7 a year ago – Mr. Volcker is warning the Fed not to let inflationary expectations become embedded once again.



Comment: Note bolded red above

Good questions for Obama re Wright

Obama's Minister Problem

The Quotes:

- "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
-- Sept. 16, 2001 (the first Sunday after 9/11)

- "The government . . . wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no. God damn America; that's in the bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human."
-- 2003

- "The United States of White America."
-- July 22, 2007



The Questions:

Why did he stay a member of the congregation? Why didn't he speak up earlier? And why did he reward Rev. Wright with a campaign position even after knowing of his comments?

"when the tide goes out, you see who is not wearing their bathing suit"

Citigroup, Wells Fargo May Loan Less After Downgrades

Excerpt:

Bank holding companies including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have the thinnest safety cushion against losses in seven years.

The margin may erode further in coming weeks. Credit ratings on $704 billion of bonds have been cut this year following the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said last week that the downgrades may compromise bank capital ratios enough that some of the largest institutions will no longer be considered well capitalized.

Falling below a regulatory benchmark that is intended to maintain a minimum level of capital to protect depositors against losses would subject banks to more scrutiny from regulators than they have ever experienced.

``This is a nightmare for the country,'' said William Isaac, who was chairman of the FDIC from 1981 to 1985. Banks will ``raise what capital they can, then they'll slow down their growth and stop lending, and what should be a mild recession becomes a much more serious one.''

The biggest danger to the economy is that to preserve their ratios, banks will cut off the flow of credit, causing a decline in loans to companies and consumers. Banks have already raised $136 billion in capital, based on data compiled by Bloomberg, and cut dividends. More stock sales and payout reductions are likely to follow, says analyst Meredith Whitney at Oppenheimer & Co.


Comment: Bank accounting is murky to me ... but this article is about capital ratios.

Thinking about "blameless"

Our church is in the midst of the Pastoral candidate process. This past Sunday, our prospective Senior Pastor answered questions for an hour. Many were very tough. One question pertained to the capstone qualification of the Bishop, "blameless".

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:2, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach"

The Greek adjective (ἀνεπίλημπτος) is used just three times in the New Testament, all in 1 Timothy: usage. The meaning is basically this: "blameless, unrebukeable"

West Wing: Four Days in Denver

Four Days in Denver

Comment: Language alert! But a good read!

Salon: Why Hillary Clinton should be winning

Why Hillary Clinton should be winning

Excerpt: (Too long to excerpt)

Comment: Salon's points: Hillary has better chance against McCain ... and the Dem's system is crazy!

Conclusion:

In the final analysis, though, the fights inside the Democratic Party aren't really about either an ideal American democracy or the American democracy that actually exists. According to the Obama campaign, democracy is defined as whatever helps Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a candidate arguing this way. But everybody should see it for what it is -- not something new or transformative, but one of the oldest ploys in the playbook of American politics.

An Absolut fence

View images at http://michellemalkin.com

Absolut campaign depicted southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico

Excerpt:

The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers.

The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan "In an Absolut World," showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.


HT: LaTimes Blogs

Not-fast food

Building better burger at Rube Goldberg contest

Excerpt:

This year's task was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between bun halves.

The victory by the 17-member Purdue Society of Professional Engineers was the team's third such win in the past four years in the contest, named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks.

Texas A&M University placed second; the University at Buffalo in New York was third.

After winning the regional contest in February, Purdue's team added 55 steps to perfect its machine, captain Drew Wischer said.

"We put 4,000 to 5,000 man-hours into this machine since September, and all the hard work has been well worth it," said Wischer, a senior in aviation technology from Cedarburg, Wis.

Comment: Interesting

Jesus at the wheel of a '66 Mustang

Bow your heads: Kansas man forming Mustang Church of America

Excerpt:

An idea popped into Charles' head last summer, and The Mustang Church of America and Museum was born. It's even got its own logo: the Christian fish symbol with the running pony inside.

Built next to the house in which he was born, the facility is set to open later this summer and will display Mr. Ales' collection of Mustangs. He also plans to host car shows, swap meets and two Mustang blessings a year. Charles and his adopted son Robert Brunch, both ordained ministers, will preside over Sunday services in the non-denominational church. "I'll preach goodness and helping my fellow humankind. I'll preach what we're supposed to do - make this a better world than we found it," he told the local Pittsburg, KS Morning Sun newspaper.

The mural behind his pulpit will show Jesus at the wheel of a '66 Mustang. Bet you don't have one of those at your church.

Comment: Speechless. Full article here. More:

Ales is planning a unique mural for the wall behind his pulpit.

"It shows Jesus at the wheel of a 1966 Mustang," he said. "It's being done on a metal plate at Patterson's Artworks."

He's also had T-shirts printed up with the same theme. His church logo, developed by Matt Wilbert, is a fish, a traditional Christian symbol, with a Mustang horse inside.

"Somebody asked me if I wasn't worried about people thinking this was sacrilegious," Ales said. "Well, I hope Jesus has a sense of humor."

He and Brunch are both ordained through the Universal Ministry School of Theology.

The stresses of blogging

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

Excerpt:

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

Comment: I am sooooo stressed!

Anti-consumerism in Florida

A Ban on Allstate Upheld in Florida

Excerpt:

A Florida appeals court on Friday upheld a state regulator’s order suspending the Allstate Corporation from writing new insurance policies in Florida.

The Florida insurance commissioner, Kevin M. McCarty, said that Allstate had 15 days to appeal and that he was not sure when the suspension would take effect.

Allstate said it was reviewing the ruling, issued by the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, but believed it was not yet final. Allstate said it would continue to write new business.

“We are very disappointed in today’s ruling and disagree with the court’s opinion,” Allstate said Friday.

The suspension would mainly affect new auto policies, because Allstate said previously it planned to reduce its homeowner policy exposure in Florida.

Comment: And how does this help the consumer?

Another Hillary lie!

Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells

The Lie:

Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.

...
The Truth:


The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

“We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System.

Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February.

Comment: Won't these people (the Clintons) ever stop?!

Obama's miscalculation on capital gains

Obama's Capital Loss

Excerpts:

In 1986, the tax rate jumped to 28% from 20%, a 40% increase. Tax revenues spiked briefly in anticipation of the hike (as investors moved to cash in at the lower rate), then dropped precipitously. Four years later, in 1990, the federal government was still taking in 13% less revenue at the 28% rate than it did in 1985 at the 20% rate.

As for Mr. Obama's implication that capital gains remain the privilege of the wealthy well, that's yesterday. In recent decades, the U.S. has become a shareholder society, and average Americans increasingly rely on investment income to save for retirement or even to pay bills.

...
With the economy weak, this is an especially poor time to be talking up tax hikes. A higher rate, and its devaluing of U.S. assets, would hammer U.S. competitiveness, making it harder to attract global capital. America is increasingly isolated in taxing capital gains. Many industrialized competitors publicize a lower rate, and many (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand) have no levy at all.

If Mr. Obama really wants to lift the economy – and those middle-class American shareholders – he'd advocate cutting the rate, or indexing it to inflation so investors aren't taxed on phantom gains. That would violate the Democratic left's faith that tax rates don't matter to growth and that raising taxes on capital and "the rich" is good politics. We doubt members of America's politically astute investor class agree.

Comment: Cf Hoover's heirs?

Who are Hoover's heirs?

Hoover's Heirs

Excerpt:

To hear Mr. Schumer and his fellow-traveling columnists tell it, Hoover's great policy blunder was to do nothing, all the while insisting that everything was fine. But the problem with Hoover's economic policy isn't that it was passive but that it was actively destructive.

In 1930, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, setting off a wave of protectionist retaliation that undid the globalization of the preceding decades and did far more harm to the world economy than the stock-market crash ever did. Two years later, amid a bad recession, he undid the Calvin Coolidge-Andrew Mellon tax cuts, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 63% from 25%. The recession became a Depression.

Comment: It's the Dems who want to raise taxes and dismiss free trade!

Ready for 50mpg cars? Think again

Why automakers don't sell a car that gets 50mpg

Excerpts:

Consider the exercise Ford just went through. It ran a computer simulation on what would happen to the mileage of a Ford Focus small car if you built it entirely out of lightweight aluminum. Losing the steel allowed the Focus to drop 1,000 pounds—30 percent of its body weight. That enabled Ford to outfit it with a tiny one-liter engine, half the size of its old engine, but far more fuel efficient because of new technology. Best of all, the small motor goes just as fast as the big one because the car is so much lighter. The result: fuel economy on this fabulous Focus went from 35mpg to 50mpg. What's stopping Ford from moving this car from pixels to pavement? The cost of an all-aluminum car could top $50,000—not a sum the typical economy-car buyer is willing to pay. "What's going to be the cost acceptance for this much improvement in fuel economy?" asks Dan Kapp, director of Ford's advanced engines and transmissions. "We don't know yet."

Still, all the major automakers are putting their cars on a crash diet. Ford wants to drop 250 to 750 pounds in all its models by 2012. Toyota and Nissan want to cut the fat by 10 to 15 percent. But this slim-fast campaign is running into the drive for more safety features in automobiles. Back in the 1980s, the Honda CRX-HF and the Geo Metro each got more than 50mpg, but they didn't have airbags or steel beams in their doors to protect occupants in a crash.



Comment: I used to have a '95 Geo Metro (like picture below). I used it for Pastoral visitation. It did not have A/C, was a 5 speed transmission, and a 3 cylinder engine. This car was fun to drive ... but my one "long" trip from Denver to Pueblo Colorado (120 miles) was seriously hard on one's backside and back!

Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5, Personal Attention 6.5, and Candy 4.0 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate

---

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Please enter the command: 'I Thought You Loved Me.exe', try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 It runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources. Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

---

Comment: From my daughter

Foreclosures hinder job transfers

Unsold Homes Tie Down Would-Be Transplants

Excerpt:

The rapid decline in housing prices is distorting the normal workings of the American labor market. Mobility opens up job opportunities, allowing workers to go where they are most needed. When housing is not an obstacle, more than five million men and women, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s work force, move annually from one place to another — to a new job after a layoff, or to higher-paying work, or to the next rung in a career, often the goal of a corporate transfer. Or people seek, as in Dr. Morgan’s case, an escape from harsh northern winters.

Now that mobility is increasingly restricted. Unable to sell their homes easily and move on, tens of thousands of people like Mr. Kirkland and Dr. Morgan are making the labor force less flexible just as a weakening economy puts pressure on workers to move to wherever companies are still hiring.

Signaling an incipient recession, nearly 85,000 jobs disappeared in the United States from December through February, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to announce on Friday that March failed to produce a turnaround in hiring.


More:

Mortgage defaults force Denver exodus

Excerpt:

For hundreds of homeowners in this mostly middle-class corner of Denver — and an estimated 1.2 million more nationwide — the wave of foreclosures battering U.S. financial markets is quickly unraveling the American dream. Those who have lost homes here describe seeing their lives crumble into anxiety and embarrassment. Many leave for cheap apartments or rooms with relatives, a trend that is tightening the market for affordable housing.

This small corner of the Mile High City represents an extreme example of how foreclosures are transforming lives and neighborhoods. On some blocks, as many as one-third of the residents have lost their homes, making this one of the worst hotspots in a city that was among the first to feel the pinch of the foreclosure crisis. Many houses here remain empty, bank lockboxes on the front doors.

The foreclosure epidemic has swept so quickly through this part of Denver that in less than two years, lenders took action on 919 of the roughly 8,000 properties here, according to city records. Their owners defaulted on more than $171 million in mortgages they had used to buy their way out of apartments and into cul-de-sacs. Many were buying homes for the first time, in what seemed the most affordable of the city's new subdivisions. They paid their way with easy credit — sometimes secured from aggressive lenders who appeared to look past the checkered credit histories and unstable jobs of some of their customers. Ultimately, many of the buyers couldn't afford their mortgages.



Comment: Interactive map of Green Vally Ranch subdivision (2nd article)

a candidate for child-abuse charges or letting kids have their independence?

Here's Your MetroCard, Kid

Intro:

I left my 9-year-old at Bloomingdale's (the original one) a couple weeks ago. Last seen, he was in first floor handbags as I sashayed out the door.

Bye-bye! Have fun!

And he did. He came home on the subway and bus by himself.

Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn't strike me as that daring, either. Isn't New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It's not like we're living in downtown Baghdad.

Anyway, for weeks my boy had been begging for me to please leave him somewhere, anywhere, and let him try to figure out how to get home on his own. So on that sunny Sunday I gave him a subway map, a MetroCard, a $20 bill, and several quarters, just in case he had to make a call.

No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn't want to lose it. And no, I didn't trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn't do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, "Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I'll abduct this adorable child instead."

Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.


Comments: Featured on The Today Show. Trust me I know they were "different times" and a different place: Growing up in Fort Wayne Indiana (1950's), we used take the bus all over town (the bus ride was a dime). We used to do endless exploring with "bike-hikes" in the Summer. Mom would pack a lunch and off we would go. Once we sent our middle son on a bike adventure in Denver. He called after about 3 hours and providing the cross streets said "where am I?". After that checkpoint he made it home OK. I actually applaud this woman for her willingness to let her son explore! Beat me up!

Government: punishing prudence and rewarding irresponsibility

Uncle Subprime

Excerpts:

Mr. Frank's idea is that, for mortgages originated between the start of 2005 and mid-2007, a lender and borrower would be able to agree on a federal refinancing plan. Lenders would have to write down their loan to no more than 85% of the current appraised value of the property – which means the banks will use this opportunity to unload the biggest stinkers in their loan portfolios.

For the borrower, the deal is even sweeter: a low fixed monthly payment and a reduction in the principal to market value. The Federal Housing Administration would then guarantee the loan, up to a total of $300 billion in total Frank Refis. The deal is so sweet that even Mr. Frank is concerned that otherwise reliable borrowers may "purposely default" to be eligible for assistance. His solution is to require borrowers to "certify" that they really, truly aren't doing this simply to get on the taxpayer gravy train.

...
In sum, Mr. Frank is volunteering U.S. taxpayers to insure $300 billion in mortgages with underwriting standards to be named later. Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd thinks $400 billion is more like it. Quavering Republicans should do the political math. The Mortgage Bankers Association tracks 46 million mortgage borrowers, and 42 million are paying on time. More than 20 million households own their homes outright and, having worked for years to pay for them, probably don't want to pay for someone else's. Neither do 35 million renters who didn't take a flyer on nicer digs.



Robert J. Samuelson: How Not to Save Housing

Excerpts:

No reasonable person takes pleasure from seeing people lose their homes, and Congress is understandably upset. Estimates of defaults in 2008 run up to 2 million. If realized, that would be roughly twice the 2006 level and about 2.7 percent of the nation's 75 million owner-occupied homes. It would be the highest rate since World War II but well below much higher rates during the Great Depression, says economist Kenneth Snowden of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The best-known congressional proposal comes from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. (The Bush administration is reportedly considering a similar plan.) Frank's plan would authorize the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee $300 billion of new home loans to strapped homeowners, allowing them to refinance their mortgages at lower rates and reduce outstanding amounts. Under the plan homeowners who borrowed between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 1, 2007, would be eligible for new loans if their monthly payments of interest and principal exceeded 40 percent of their income—well above a more prudent level of 30 percent.

...
Everyone wins from this arrangement, say its supporters. Homeowners—some of the victims of deceptive lending—stay in their houses. Neighborhoods don't suffer the potential blight of numerous foreclosures. Housing prices don't go into a free fall, depressed by an avalanche of foreclosures. Although lenders take a loss, the losses are lower than they would be if homes went into foreclosure. That's a costly and lengthy process that can involve losses of 50 percent or more.

The Frank proposal and others like it put politicians on the barricades, trying to protect needy homeowners. The imagery is flattering. But there are two glaring problems, one moral, the other economic.

About 50 million homeowners have mortgages. Who wouldn't like the government to cut their monthly payments by 20 or 30 percent? But Frank's plan reserves that privilege for an estimated 1 million to 2 million homeowners who are the weakest and most careless borrowers. With the FHA now authorized to lend up to $729,750 in high-cost areas, some beneficiaries could be fairly wealthy. By contrast, people who made larger down payments or kept their monthly payments at manageable levels would be made relatively worse off. Government punishes prudence and rewards irresponsibility. Inevitably, there would be resentment and pressures to extend relief to other "needy" homeowners.



Comment: Every parent knows that sometimes one can be "too good" to children. Examples would be shielding them from financial realities to the point that they do not learn to be fiscally responsible adults. It's also possible for government to be "too good" to the point that it "punishes prudence and rewards irresponsibility". These 2 articles highlight that danger.

Alcohol and the Bible

Alcohol and the Bible

References to Alcohol in The Bible

Comment: A thoughtful article and a good reference (2nd link).

What did Lincoln believe?

Lincoln and the Will of God

Excerpt:

By the time of his Second Inaugural, with the end of the war in sight and the preservation of the Union a near certainty, he could say with confidence that the proposition had survived. And this “fundamental and astounding” conclusion had come about under the watchful and unfathomable eye of a Providence whose ways are ultimately beyond explanation but “whose judgments are true and righteous altogether.”

This is what we know for certain of Lincoln’s religion. After all the informed speculation and historical sleuthing, the rakings of historiography, the mountains of testimony and reminiscence and wishful thinking pointing in one direction and another, the written record that this “shut-mouthed man” himself left us will have to be sufficient.

“I don’t know anything about Lincoln’s religion,” a longtime friend, David Davis, remarked after Lincoln’s death, “and I don’t believe anybody knows anything about it.” Though Davis’ skepticism should give pause to more historians than it has, he overstated the case. We will never know for sure whether Lincoln held orthodox Christian beliefs, whether he believed in the Trinity, the divinity of Christ or his resurrection, the life everlasting, the forgiveness of sins, the inerrant word of God as revealed in the Old Testament or the New.


Comment: This brief clip does not do justice to the entire article. Kathee and I are causal students of Lincoln. As we drove home from the Lincoln Museum a month ago, we discussed whether Lincoln was a Christian. It seems that all sides want to claim him for their champion. Probably the best answer is that only the Lord knows.

Does Reverend Wright represent “the black community”?

Richard John Neuhaus: The Strange Ways of Black Folk

Excerpts:

In the speech, Obama once again invoked the boilerplate leftisms of class warfare and the grievances of what he depicts as a nation, black and white, of seething resentments. Without using the phrase, he calls for a new war on poverty and massively increased spending on urban public schools, even though such spending has been multiplied in recent decades to no discernible effect. The teachers’ unions make sure that the alternative of school choice never gets mentioned.

In this speech, he did not mention abortion, the single most polarizing question in our public life, but his promise is to move us beyond our divisions by taking a position so extreme that he refuses to support even the “born alive” legislation that would protect the lives of infants who survive the abortion procedure. Not for nothing is he rated the most liberal member of the Senate. His call for national reconciliation, however rhetorically appealing, is more believably a call for capitulation by those who disagree.

...
Perhaps the single most telling statement in the Philadelphia speech is this: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.” The most reasonable interpretation of that statement, maybe the only reasonable interpretation, is that the Reverend Wright represents “the black community.” This ignores the great majority of blacks in America, who are in the working and middle classes and participate fully in the opportunities and responsibilities of the American experience.

The senator lends his prestige to the claim promoted by sundry race hustlers that Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and Bill Cosby, along with millions of other black Americans, are not black enough to be part of “the black community.” One can understand why a Harvard law-school graduate born in Hawaii with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas would, for political and perhaps personal reasons, seek the street credential of having “roots” in a militantly black sector of the intensely race-conscious city of Chicago. But complicity in the explicit slander of America and the implicit slander of most blacks in America is a very high price to pay for a ticket of admission to “the black community.”

In his speech, Obama reminded us that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week in America. He might have done something about that by joining one of the racially integrated churches in his New Hyde Park neighborhood. But of course that would not have given him the “black street creds” that he needed for political, and perhaps personal, reasons. In saying he could not disown the black community represented by the Reverend Wright and his church, Obama, however inadvertently, invited his supporters to join in giving new respectability to old stereotypes. The message was and is: This is how those black folk are. Get used to it.


Comment: A worthwhile read. About the author: Richard John Neuhaus

Support James William Spiers - Boycott Pizza Hut

Support pours in for pizza driver

Excerpt:

A Des Moines pizza delivery driver who was suspended after he shot an alleged armed robber last week said Tuesday that he has been overwhelmed by support from people who cheered what happened.

"But no one had contacted me directly about a job offer," said James William Spiers III, 38, who was suspended by Pizza Hut after he fired multiple shots at a man who allegedly put a gun to his head Thursday and demanded money at the Sutton Hill Apartments, 2100 S.E. King Ave.

Comment: Dominos or Papa Murphys ... here I come!

Another reason not to vote for Obama

Obama Would Consider Gore for Major Post

Excerpt:

Democrat Barack Obama says as president he would consider putting Al Gore in a Cabinet-level position—or higher.

A woman at a town hall asked the Illinois senator if elected president would he consider tapping the former vice president for his Cabinet, or an even higher level office, to address global warming.

"I would," Obama said. "Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues but climate change is real."


Comment: The Title says it all!

"the redemption of their souls is costly"

Kathee and I read Psalm 49 & 50 Monday. I found this passage to be instructive (from Psalm 49):

5 Why should I fear in the days of evil,
         When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?
6 Those who trust in their wealth
         And boast in the multitude of their riches,
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
         Nor give to God a ransom for him—
8 For the redemption of their souls is costly,
         And it shall cease forever—
9 That he should continue to live eternally,
         And not see the Pit.

John MacArthur says of this passage: "No person, regardless of means, is able to escape death; it is inevitable. This passage anticipates the second death of hell, except for those who by faith have repented of their sin and embraced the only adequate ransom - the one paid by the Lord Jesus Christ with his death on the cross." (MacArthur Study Bible)

The phrase "the redemption of their souls is costly" made me think of "knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Banking layoffs?

Analysts see 200,000 banking industry layoffs

Excerpt:

Analysts at the financial research firm Celent LLC said in a report Tuesday that it expects the U.S. commercial banking industry — essentially, all companies that lend or collect deposits — to lose 200,000 of its 2 million jobs over the next 12 to 18 months.

An annual loss of 200,000 jobs at the nation's commercial banks would be an unprecedented number.

Comment: This could be interesting.

Don't mess with oldsters........

George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed,which she could see from the bedroom window.

George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked 'Is someone in your house?' and he said 'no'. Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available. George said, 'Okay,' hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

'Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I've just shot them.' Then he hung up.

Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response Unit,and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George: 'I thought you said that you'd shot them!' George said, 'I thought you said there was nobody available!'

Comment: Per Snopes, not a true story.

F in Art ... but A in Civics

Student Sues Wisconsin School After Getting a Zero for Religious Drawing

Excerpt:

A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference.

The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw "demonic" images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional.

"We hear so much today about tolerance," said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. "But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message."

Tomah School District Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the district hadn't seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit, the student's art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words "John 3:16 A sign of love" in his drawing.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.


Comment: He will get an A in Civics! The Alliance Defense Fund is involved. More here:

A copy of the drawing created by the student is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/APDrawing.pdf. Copies of artwork depicting demonic images created by other students in the class are available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DemonicDrawing1.pdf and www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DemonicDrawing2.pdf.

Comment: Links are active in the Alliance Defense Fund press release.

National Geographic Parody

PHOTOS: National Geographic Parodied by Harvard Lampoon

Comment: I like the photo of the guys filling the lava lamp from a lava flow!

Hillary's bowl off challenge

Comment: She's got a sense of humor!

Bobby Jindal for GOP VP?

WSJ: How McCain Can Win the Base

Excerpts:

That's why Mr. McCain's choice of vice presidential running mate can make or break his candidacy. The party's professional trunk-waving pachyderms and the beltway bozos who think that pragmatism will win the new day are already offering up a list of business-as-usual candidates. But pragmatism is not practical in the long run.

No, this is the time for change, real change. This is a time for someone whom everybody knows to be the rising star of the GOP, the new governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal.

And what a governor! Having taken office in January, after winning 54% of the vote in the open-field primary, Mr. Jindal immediately called a special session of the legislature and persuaded them to pass his 64-point agenda for ethics reform. They said ethics reform couldn't be done in Louisiana--a state whose reputation as a cesspool is legendary--but he did it in a two-week session. Now he's calling a second special session to pass the tax cuts necessary to jump-start the post-Katrina economy in his state.

...
Do some think this is an election about experience? Mr. Jindal, who was elected to Rep. David Vitter's seat when Mr. Vitter ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, was re-elected for a second term with 88% of the vote. That's not enough experience? It's as much experience in Congress as Barack Obama has to show for his three years. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Jindal, in his last term, had an American Conservative Union rating of 100, with 96 for both terms. In addition he has consistently taken the No New Taxes pledge proposed by Americans for Tax Reform.


Comment: All CFG Bobby Jindal posts.

Four April Fool's jokes

Paris Hilton's National Geographic cover

More from Fox News

Virgle

Note the contracted logo ... Virgin Air + Google

Canadian deal to buy Ely

GMail custom time

Comment: Another that is all to real:

suggestio falsi and suppressio veri

The Tall Tale of Tuzla

Definitions (click link): suggestio falsi and suppressio veri.

Here's another definition: Mythomania

Obama's obfuscation

Liberal views could haunt Obama

Excerpt:

When Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seeking state office a dozen years ago, he took unabashedly liberal positions: flatly opposed to capital punishment, in support of a federal single-payer health plan, against any restrictions on abortion, and in support of state laws to ban the manufacture, sale and even possession of handguns.

Comment: Article has links to 2 PDF's of his '96 questionnaire. His campaign's response:

The campaign said his views have been consistent, and points out that his positions have always been more nuanced than can be conveyed in yes-or-no answers.

Comment: So why did he answer with yes-no responses?

Hillary’s St. Patrick’s Day Massacre

Hillary’s St. Patrick’s Day Massacre

Excerpt:

So here is the one compelling mystery still unresolved about Hillary Clinton’s Bosnia fairy tale: Why did she keep repeating this whopper for nearly three months, well after it had been publicly debunked by journalists and eyewitnesses?

In January, after Senator Clinton first inserted the threat of “sniper fire” into her stump speech, Elizabeth Sullivan of The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote that the story couldn’t be true because by the time of the first lady’s visit in March 1996, “the war was over.” Meredith Vieira asked Mrs. Clinton on the “Today” show why, if she was on the front lines, she took along a U.S.O. performer like Sinbad. Earlier this month, a week before Mrs. Clinton fatefully rearmed those snipers one time too many, Sinbad himself spoke up to The Washington Post: “I think the only ‘red phone’ moment was: Do we eat here or at the next place?”

Comment: Couldn't resist. More from Peggy Noonan:




That's what the Bosnia story was about. Her fictions about dodging bullets on the tarmac -- and we have to hope they were lies, because if they weren't, if she thought what she was saying was true, we are in worse trouble than we thought -- either confirmed what you already knew (she lies as a matter of strategy, or, as William Safire said in 1996, by nature) or revealed in an unforgettable way (videotape! Smiling girl in pigtails offering flowers!) what you feared (that she lies more than is humanly usual, even politically usual).

Comment: Does she lie by nature or for strategy? Doesn't matter ... she is toast!

Dan Stahl blogging Men for Christ

Men for Christ 2008


Comment: Home for brief dinner break. Now leaving for evening.

Friday happenings

Today I am going to the Men for Christ event at Fourth Baptist. I've been looking forward to this for more than 6 months.

I am working from home until noon and then heading over to the church.

My prayer is that I would allow these speakers and the fellowship to strengthen me as a believer.

Who needs the "Yellow Pages"?

Publishers say yellow pages still relevant

Excerpt:

Industry leaders assert that consumers use yellow pages at a higher rate than newspapers and radio for local business information. Shoppers who open yellow books intend to spend cash, they say, and businesses advertising in the national print yellow pages can expect a return of about 13-to-1, according to statistics from the nonprofit trade group Yellow Pages Association.

Yet even with some numbers in their favor, publishers acknowledge that often perception clouds reality, and many believe yellow books are going the way of newspapers. Their mission, publishers say, is to change that point of view.

Comment: I literally never use the yellow pages. I wish they would not deliver them to my door. I don't think I have used the yellow (or white) pages (printed editions) in 4-5 years. If you can't Google it, it ain't worth finding!

The $53 trillion asteroid

Glenn Beck: The $53 trillion asteroid

Excerpt:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."


Comment: Nobody's listening!

More invectives from Obama's Pastor

Comment: Here Wright speaks of Italians as ‘Garlic Noses’. I heard Hillary say, that Obama should have separated from his Church!

Egg McMuffin inventor dies

Egg McMuffin inventor Herb Peterson dies

Excerpt:

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He "was very partial to eggs Benedict," Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.


Comment: I had my first Egg McMuffin while honeymooning in Florda (December 1974). I still like them! Wiki: Egg McMuffin

Photoshop Express

Adobe launches free, online version of Photoshop, hoping to draw new users

Excerpt:

While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a "beta" test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.

Web-based software is increasingly popular, and Adobe knows it's got to get on that train, said Kathleen Maher, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research.

Many kinds of software are available for use online in a trend known as "software as a service," or "cloud computing." The earliest were e-mail programs, but they now include services to create and manage content and even whole operating systems. And they don't require time-consuming upgrades because they're maintained by the service provider.



Comment: Looks very promising. Join here: Adobe Photoshop Express

Cohabitation = "marriage lite"

Marriage hits lowest rate since records began almost 150 years ago

Excerpt:

The number of Britons tying the knot has collapsed to a record low, it has emerged.

The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago.

And the number of weddings held in 2006 was the smallest since 1895, when the population was little more than half its present level.

The evidence that marriage is withering away at an increasing pace was met with a furious response from critics of Labour's benefits system, which disregards the status of husbands and wives and pays parents extra to stay single.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis claimed the Government had "fuelled family breakdown" and researcher Patricia Morgan, who coined the phrase "marriage lite" to describe cohabitation, said Labour had succeeded in "eradicating" marriage.

"This is what they have tried to achieve and they should be congratulating themselves," she added.

"But it is a disaster for children, families and society."

Comment: Cohabitation is "a disaster for children, families and society".

More documented HATE from Obama's church

Obama Church Published ‘Ethnic Bomb’ Claim

Excerpt:

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.

Arabs have always supported the dismantling of this racist government. In 1962, African-Arab Sudan granted Mandela a passport to travel with to gain international support in his struggle to free his people. Libya, among other Arab states, provided Mandela and other African liberation movements, political as well as material support. As a result, Libya was designated by the White House as a terrorist rogue state. What a great honor!


HT: WSJ: Best of the Web Today

More from the WSJ:

Baghdadi's "open letter" is an anti-Israel screed, in which he states, among other things, that "what the Zionist Jews did to the Palestinians is worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews, because . . . Jews should have learned from their tragic experience" (a sentiment he attributes to Arnold Toynbee) and that Israel and apartheid South Africa "both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."

Comment: Hard to believe that Obama would attract the traditional Democratic Jewish voters! The WSJ link contains link to PDF with complete articles.

Going Green!

Kathee and I have had this "reusable bag" discussion and decided to give these a try.

I bought this set and then 4 more of the tan one on the right. We still need paper bags (Kathee uses them for cat litter and kitchen trash bags).

I also ordered a couple more stainless steel bottles. (I currently bring a 40 oz bottle of water to work every day. I think I will completely kick the pop habit and bring an extra 32 oz of water).

Bags available a ReusableBags.com

Robert's Rules of Order

A Stamp of a Memorial, at Least
Author of 'Robert's Rules of Order' Is Celebrated Subtly

Excerpt:

He was an Army civil engineer who commanded a party exploring a military route from western Canada to Puget Sound, a brigadier general who built up the defenses of Washington and Philadelphia against Johnny Reb invaders and a member of the commission that designed the Galveston sea wall after the island city was swept away by a hurricane. He died in 1923.

This accomplished fellow, a West Point graduate, also had much to do with the shaping of Rock Creek Park, but none of his engineering exploits account for his fame, such as it is. An orderly sort himself, he not only wrested order out of nature's chaos, he also brought order to contentious human nature.

Robert is the man who, even today, keeps meetings of lawmakers, ladies clubs, school boards and corporate directorates from devolving into shouting matches or worse; who keeps PTA meetings and corporate board gatherings calm and orderly (most of the time). He's the man who keeps us mannerly. His rules of order, in DeFord's words, "allow us to make informed decisions but where everybody has equal rights to participate."

"Every parliamentarian has heard stories of meetings that blow up in an awful way," says his grandson, Henry Martyn Robert III of Annapolis. "But it need not be. The rules are the secret."

As Robert the grandson tells the story, the elder Robert was living in New Bedford, Mass., in 1863 and was asked to preside over a meeting to consider the defense of the city during the Civil War.

"He didn't know beans about it [presiding over a meeting], and he found it very embarrassing," Robert III said. "He made up his mind that if he got out of it alive, he would learn something about the subject."

Learning something about parliamentary procedure involved reading a few books and making some notes, which he carried in his wallet for about four years.

When he moved to San Francisco, he encountered a city where prostitution was rife and Chinese laborers brought in to build the railroad were exploited, even chased by dogs for sport. Robert, a Baptist lay leader, was offended.

He joined the YMCA and several newly formed religious groups dedicated to relieving the plight of exploited souls, but he found that the city's motley population had discordant notions about how to conduct meetings. San Francisco needed rules.

When Robert came out with the first version of his rules of order in 1876, he had trouble finding a publisher. Who'd want to read such a book? So he printed up 4,000 copies himself. Since then, Robert III says, it has sold 5 million copies. (He is listed as one of the five authors of the 10th edition.)


Comment: See also: Official site: Robert's Rules of Order

HT: Bikebubba

The Facebook song

Comment: I have a Facebook account! When I first set up my Facebook account, I thought I was checking a box indicating my gender (male) but actually checked the box indicating the kind of people I wanted to me. Greg Lincott contacted me and said that checked box indicated that I was not a heterosexual! I quickly fixed!

HT: Greg Linscott

Hillary Clinton: a Verdun-like pattern

The Long Defeat

Excerpt:

Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of résumé padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting “blue dress” and only-because-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.

For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.

For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring. About a fifth of Clinton and Obama supporters now say they wouldn’t vote for the other candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, on the other side, voters get an unobstructed view of the Republican nominee. John McCain’s approval ratings have soared 11 points. He is now viewed positively by 67 percent of Americans. A month ago, McCain was losing to Obama among independents by double digits in a general election matchup. Now McCain has a lead among this group.


Comment: Why does she go on like this? Read full article for Brook's view. For "Verdun" see Battle of Verdun

Is the Gospel preached in black churches?

In black churches, fiery sermons are the norm, not exception

Excerpt:

The Rev. Amos Brown's Easter sermon at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco didn't have much to do with Jesus' crucifixion or resurrection from the dead and instead covered everything from skyrocketing gas prices and the subprime mortgage crisis to race relations in the United States and presidential politics.

Comment: I sure hope this is the exception and not the norm (but per this article not the case!).

More on liberation theology:

Excerpt:

... liberation theology [is] leftover Marxist theory baptized in the narrative of Scripture and applied to a set of political goals. The tenor of the Trinity United Church of Christ ministry is one that is defined by race and politics. The church is "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian," it says, and the language of black liberation theology is everywhere in the public presentation of the mission and identity of the church.

What is disturbing to me is that too many Christians have been diagnosing the particular political aims of Reverend Wright and his church as though this were the preeminent problem.

But what is the root? Liberation theology has been with us since the 1960s, in too many incarnations to count, always offering a version of the same message. The liberation theologians see the Gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected, the message of deliverance from the reign of sin and death through repentance and faith, as too "pie in the sky." In contrast, liberation theology offers economic and political salvation in the here-and-now, sometimes through pulpit rhetoric and sometimes at the point of a gun.

Liberation theology is seeker sensitive. The first waves of this movement, in Latin America, were designed to make Christianity appealing to the people by addressing their felt needs, the desire for armed revolution and Marxist economics. Liberation theology only works if one can connect with real or perceived oppression and then make the Scripture illustrative of how to navigate out of that situation. The Kingdom of God is a means to a social, economic, or political end.

This is not the Gospel as proclaimed by the prophets and apostles, a Gospel that centers on Jesus Christ and Him alone. We should be outraged by the clips of the Wright sermons. But we should be outraged first as Christians, not first as Americans. The most egregious aspect of the Wright sermons is not what he is saying about America, but what he is not saying about the Gospel.

But one does not have to be a political radical to bypass Jesus at church. And it is certainly not true that liberation theology is the exclusive domain of those who have suffered oppression. White, upwardly mobile, pro-American preachers do it all the time, preaching liberation theology with all the fervor of Jeremiah Wright, if not the anger.

Just take a look at the best-selling authors in evangelical Christian bookstores. Listen for a minute or two at the parade of preachers on Christian television and radio. What are they promising? Your best life now. What are they preaching about? How to be authentic. How to make good career choices. How Hillary Clinton fits in Bible prophecy.

How many times have we all heard from pulpits the Bible used in exactly the way that Jeremiah Wright uses it, except perhaps in reverse? Jeremiah Wright uses the Scripture as a background to get to what he thinks is the real issue, psychological or economic or political liberation from American oppression. Others use the Scripture as a background to get to what they think is the real issue, psychological or economic or political liberation through the American Dream. Either way, Jesus is a footnote to get to what the preacher deems really important, be it national health care or support for Israel. Either way, apart from the Gospel, the end result is hell for the hearer, regardless of whether God damns or blesses America.

This past Sunday, Easter Sunday, the new pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ preached from the biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus, but did so as illustrative of the controversy over Wright. In some other churches all over the country this past Sunday, the account of the crucifixion and resurrection was utilized as illustrative of finding hope when you're hopeless, of finding a light at the end of your tunnel. In both cases, the preacher is fitting Jesus into a preexisting storyline. He is not calling his hearers to find themselves in the storyline of a crucified, buried, resurrected Jesus. Jesus is a mascot, just for different agendas, none of which will last a minute past the Judgment Seat.

There is a liberation theology of the Left, of the kind of politicized movement we see right now in the newspapers and on our television screens. There is also a liberation theology of the Right, one represented by prosperity gospels and grinning consumer Christianity. Both are at heart Mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barrabas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.

Preachers will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That's why so many of our evangelical superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don't like to talk about sin. That's why other evangelical superstars are seen to be courageous for their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their congregations.

Where there is no Gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right, anything will do. The prophet Isaiah warned us of such conspiracies replacing the Word of God centuries ago (Isa 8:12-20). As long as the Serpent's voice is heard, "You shall not surely die," then the powers are comfortable.

HT: Denny Burk

Greed!

My Take on Greed

Excerpt:

Lately, I've been thinking about greed. In our capitalist system, it does a lot of good by prodding us to become successful financially. But it can also do a lot of harm. People break laws under the influence of greed -- or they do only what's best for themselves, at the expense of everyone else.

Want some examples? Out of greed, mortgage bankers made home loans to people with poor credit histories, then immediately sold the loans. Now when borrowers default, it's somebody else's problem.

Out of greed, Wall Street's investment bankers packaged the same loans in ways that earned the securities undeserved investment-grade ratings, then sold them to eager clients. As those securities are now downgraded to junk, they become pretty close to worthless.

Four of the five biggest firms on the Street -- Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley -- recently took losses in the tens of billions of dollars for subprime skeletons in their own closets.

Comment: Another example of greed: embezzlement to murder to suicide

Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God

Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God

Comment: HT: Dowblog: Philosophy of Religion

How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT

Comment: A YouTube runner up. Very good!

Efficient church ushering

Comment: This is how the ushers 'stack' people at 4th Baptist! :) Note how efficiently people 'come forward'!

Really: "The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond". We saw this on CNN this morning. Selection from the 2007 Youtube awards. Link below:

WSJ: Heller case

Guns and Legal Ammo

Excerpt:

District of Columbia v. Heller has become the test case for a question that has animated legal scholars, politicians and lower courts for much of our modern history: Is the Second Amendment guarantee a collective right, which is to say it is reserved only for state militias, or is it an individual right?

Judge Laurence Silberman's landmark opinion last year for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down D.C.'s ban on handguns, rejecting the militia argument and scouring the historical and legal record to show that the Founders clearly intended to protect an individual's right to defend himself and family. The District appealed, and so the Supremes will issue the most important Second Amendment ruling in decades.

Judging by Tuesday argument, the High Court has a majority in support of the circuit court opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts asked why the Framers included the word "people" if the Amendment only applied to militias. Justice Antonin Scalia discussed the importance the Framers attached to providing citizens the means to protect against tyrannical government. Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the Court's swing vote, informed all in attendance that "In my view, there's a general right to bear arms quite without reference to the militia either way."

Comment: Results in June

Snowy morning

We had 3-4" of snow yesterday and woke up today to another 3". I took these from my tractor.

Kathee on MacBook:

Brits more 'Debt-Gorged' than Yanks!

Debt-Gorged British Start to Worry That the Party Is Ending

Excerpt:

As the United States economy weakens, many Americans are being overwhelmed by personal debt, but Britons are even more profligate. For most of the last decade, consumers here went on a debt-financed spending spree that made them the most indebted rich nation in the world, racking up a record £1.4 trillion in debt ($2.8 trillion) — more than the country’s gross domestic product.

By comparison, personal debt in the United States is $13.8 trillion, including mortgage debt, slightly less than the country’s $14 trillion G.D.P.

And while the Federal Reserve in Washington has cut interest rates, in an effort to loosen lenders’ grip on credit, the Bank of England’s interest rate increases last year are trickling through to mortgages at the very time home values are dropping and banks are becoming more reluctant to lend.

Comment: Hard to believe another nation could be more addicted to debt than the U.S.!

The Democratic ticket?

Bill Richardson endorses

Excerpt:

Bill Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor, backed Barack Obama for president Friday in Oregon, answering speculation over one of the most heavily sought endorsements this primary season.

The New Mexico governor, who dropped out of the Democratic race for president in January, in his endorsement showed great admiration for Obama’s speech on race delivered Tuesday in Philadelphia.

“Senator Obama reminded us that cynicism is not realism and that hope is not folly,” Richardson said Friday. “He appealed to the best in us … his words are one of a courageous, thoughtful leader who understands that a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Comment: I previously predicted Richardson as VP ... but on the Hillary ticket. Now predicting Obama / Richardson

Stake in the heart for Hillary

Story behind the story: The Clinton myth

Excerpt:

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

Comment: No revotes for Florida or Michigan!

Previous CFG horror-themed Hillary commentary:

"She's alive! Alive!"
Fall of the "House of Clinton"
NH on Clinton

Why we cannot abandon Iraq

Purported bin Laden message: Iraq is 'perfect base'

Excerpt:

Al-Jazeera broadcast on Thursday an audiotape on which a voice identified as Osama bin Laden declares "Iraq is the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine."

The voice calls on "Muslims in neighboring countries" to "do their best in supporting their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq."

"My speech to you is about the siege of Gaza and the way to liberate it," he said.

"The Gaza siege is a direct result of Annapolis," he adds, apparently referring to the site of November's summit in Annapolis, Maryland, where Israeli and Palestinian leadership agreed to work toward a two-state plan.

He accused Arabs who supported the plan of having become "partners in this horrendous crime."

And he predicted, "Palestine will be restored to us, with God's permission, when we wake up from our slumber and adhere to our faith and sacrifice our souls and belongings for it."

The speaker called for armed revolt in the Middle East.

Comment: What's Obama's ('get out of Iraq now!') response to this?

Sin as we view it

Has the 'notion of sin' been lost?

Excerpts:

Take it from the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, who doesn't give a jelly bean for the modern version of Easter.

"All the Easter eggs and the Easter bunny are even more extraneous to the purpose of Easter than Santa is to Christmas," Mohler says. "At least Santa Claus was based on a saint. I wonder whether even some Christian churches are making the connection between Christ's death and resurrection and victory over sin — the linchpin doctrine of Christianity."
...
A new survey by Ellison Research in Phoenix finds 87% of U.S. adults believe in the existence of sin, which is defined as "something that is almost always considered wrong, particularly from a religious or moral perspective."

Topping the list are adultery (81%) and racism (74%).

But other sins no longer draw majority condemnation. Premarital sex? Only 45% call it sin. Gambling? Just 30% say it's sinful.

"A lot of this is relative. We tend to view sin not as God views it, but how we view it," says Ellison president Ron Sellers.

Comment: It is a grievous, self-deluding mistake to discount our sinfulness!

More from Albert Mohler: Sin by Survey? Americans Say What they Think

For Christians, a few observations are in order.

First, we do not find out what acts are sinful by asking our neighbors. Christians believe that God alone has the right to determine sin, and that the ultimate authority for determining sin is the Bible -- not a poll.

Second, these data seem to indicate that Americans think of sin only in terms of what we do, not in terms of who we are. The Bible reveals sin to be what we are as fallen humanity, not merely the acts we commit or fail to commit.

Third, Christians understand that sin is, most importantly, an act of rebellion and disobedience against God himself. Surveys like this point to the fact that most Americans think of sin as acts against other humans or acts against the self (as in gluttony). When sin is seen only in this perspective, all that remains is a negotiable social etiquette.

Fourth, this report reminds us of the evangelistic challenge we now face. The loss of a deeper sense of sin means that many (if not most) Americans see themselves in no need of salvation. As a previous generation of Christians knew so well, we have to communicate the "sin word" before we can explain the "grace word" in evangelism.

Motley Fool: A Farewell to ARMs?

Motley Fool: A Farewell to ARMs?

Excerpt:

One reason why adjustable-rate mortgage rates haven't dropped is that lenders are more risk-averse than ever. Falling home prices are already sapping liquidity from mortgage-lending institutions, requiring cash infusions at Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC - News) and other mortgage lenders.

In addition, lenders are understandably reluctant to offer adjustable-rate mortgages. With the threat of federal legislation freezing rates at artificially low levels, borrower financing through ARMs is an extremely risky proposition. Furthermore, because the market for mortgage-backed securities has experienced severe problems lately, lenders have to plan for the possibility that any loan they make will have to remain on their books for the long term.

In response to this additional risk, lenders are demanding higher spreads over prevailing Treasury rates. As a result, borrowers may see less benefit from lower rates than they have during similar periods of low rates in the past.

Whether the mortgage market starts to function normally again remains to be seen. For now, however, most borrowers still have every incentive to choose fixed-rate mortgages over ARMs.


Comment: Good riddance to ARMs!

If Ann Coulter had liveblogged the Gettysburg Address

If Ann Coulter had liveblogged the Gettysburg Address

Comment: I'm not an Ann Coulter fan.

Osama bin Laden accuses the Pope

Bin Laden: Pope Helps Anti-Islam Crusade

Excerpt:

Bin Laden's audiotape was posted late Wednesday on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group's media wing Al-Sahab.

"The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God," said a voice believed to be bin Laden's, without specifying what action would be taken.

He said the cartoons "came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role," according to a transcript released by the SITE Institute, a U.S. group that monitors terror messages.

"You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings," he said. "This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe."

Comment: Pope Benedict XVI has nothing to fear - His Swiss guard will protect him!