paleoevangelical: "Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing [guns in classrooms]."

paleoevangelical: "Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing [guns in classrooms]."

More on gun control debate and whether the so-called "gun free zones" mean anything.

'Gun-Free Zones'

Excerpt:

The bucolic campus of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., would seem to have little in common with the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City. Yet both share an important characteristic, common to the site of almost every other notorious mass murder in recent years: They are "gun-free zones."

Forty American states now have "shall issue" or similar laws, by which officials issue a pistol carry permit upon request to any adult who passes a background check and (in most states) a safety class. Research by Carlisle Moody of the College of William and Mary, and others, suggests that these laws provide law-abiding citizens some protection against violent crime. But in many states there are certain places, especially schools, set aside as off-limits for guns. In Virginia, universities aren't "gun-free zones" by statute, but college officials are allowed to impose anti-gun rules. The result is that mass murderers know where they can commit their crimes.

Jesus = "Persona non grata"

VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE: University convocation told of Allah, not Jesus; Speakers also invoke Buddha, Dalai Lama

Excerpt:

Speakers at the Virginia Tech convocation called on Allah and Buddha in their efforts to minister to the survivors, family and friends of victims of the shooting massacre at the school – but Jesus wasn't mentioned by name.

1. 1st Speaker: A Muslim cleric invoking the name of Allah and quoting the Quran.
   
2. 2nd Speaker: A Buddhist Community Leader preaching that mankind is basically 'good.'
   
3. 3rd Speaker: A Female speaker from the Jewish Community quoting Ecclesiastes: 'There is a time for everything.'
   
4. 4th Speaker: A Liberal Lutheran Minister talking about 'healing,' etc. and how everyone needs to come together (blah, blah, blah…).
   

"BUT NOT ONE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN PASTOR/PREACHER. NO INVOCATION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST JESUS,"


Persona non grata = meaning "an unwelcome person"

Comment: Why is the name of Christ offensive? Because of His claims (John 14:6), because of His cross, and because of the Gospel. Who the world needs most ... the world most readily rejects and ignores!

1. Romans 9:33, "As it is written: “ Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”"
   
2. Galatians 5:11, "And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased."
   

Are you ashamed of that name? Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."

Is the Lord and Savior "Persona non grata" in your heart and life?

He still offers comfort and rest to the weary sinner: John 14:1 & Matthew 11:28-29

He still calls out for fellowship: Revelation 3:19-22

The World From Our Window: Statement From Pastor In Blacksburg, Virginia

The World From Our Window: Statement From Pastor In Blacksburg, Virginia

I trust that all my friends would pray for this situation. The human toll is beyond my comprehension!

Angels - their state

Gustave Dore, "The Three Visitors", Genesis 18:1-14

As to the state of the angels, it is clearly taught that they were all originally holy. It is also plainly to be inferred from the statements of the Bible that they were subjected to a period of probation, and that some kept and some did not keep their first estate. Those who maintained their integrity are represented as confirmed in a state of holiness and glory. This condition, although one of complete security, is one of perfect liberty; for the most absolute freedom in action is, according to the Bible, consistent with absolute certainty as to the character of that action. These holy angels are evidently not all of the same rank. This appears from the terms by which they are designated; terms which imply diversity of order and authority. Some are princes, others potentates, others rulers of the world. Beyond this the Scriptures reveal nothing, and the speculations of schoolmen and theologians as to the hierarchy of the angelic hosts, have neither authority nor value.


Hodge v 1 p. 639

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1. Day 4 of a cold. It started Friday night after dinner. I missed church on Sunday and really was low all day. I stayed home from work yesterday. Today back to work and wish I would have stayed home.
   
2. We are taking tomorrow off to celebrate Kathee's birthday
   
3. Tomorrow is decision day for Allstate (insurance adjuster) and Westurn roofing. I know I have hail damage but will Allstate pay a claim for a new roof? Or less? I know my posture: if less than a replacement I am going to appeal. Stay tuned.
   
4. Work: my desktop upgrade job finally passed UAT (user acceptance testing) for my major business partner. Another major group has a different upgrade job and that is still in UAT.
   
5. Kathee's brother is too arrive back from Florida today or tomorrow. We may see them tomorrow.
   
6. Good Wells Fargo news: Several U.S. regional banks reported weak earnings on Tuesday amid struggles with interest-rate pressures and rising loan losses, including those from mortgages. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC - News), the fifth-largest U.S. bank, bucked the trend, boosting profit 11 percent despite its large exposure.
   

Gun Stops Gunman

Same state, different school, different outcome (Wednesday, January 16, 2002 ).

Gun Stops Gunman

Excerpt:

There was a shooting Wednesday at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. Peter Odighizuwa, a 43-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Nigeria who'd flunked out of school allegedly went on a rampage and killed a dean, a professor and a fellow student with a .380-caliber pistol. Three other students were injured.

But the presence of another gun on campus almost certainly saved lives. MSNBC reports:

Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, officials said.

"We saw the shooter, stopped at my vehicle and got out my handgun and started to approach Peter," Tracy Bridges, who helped subdue the shooter with other students, said Thursday on NBC's "Today" show. "At that time, Peter threw up his hands and threw his weapon down. Ted was the first person to have contact with Peter, and Peter hit him one time in the face, so there was a little bit of a struggle there."

Blaming Charlton Heston

Who's fault is it?

1. "lax" gun laws?
   
2. Lax security?
   
3. N.R.A.?
   
4. Foreign student?
   
5. The administration did not lock down the campus?
   

We can wonder away about the Virginia Tech tragedy! But the answer lies in the wickedness of man and the age-old "problem of evil". The posting title - "Blaming Charlton Heston" - comes from this Blaming Charlton Heston.

Excerpt:

In the strongest editorialized image of the day, German cable news broadcaster NTV flashed an image of the former head of the National Rifle Association, the US gun lobby: In other words, blame rifle-wielding Charlton Heston for the 33 dead.

Comment:

If we had more of that "Charlton Heston" of The Ten Commandments - by this I mean real values-based education, students would have a higher regard for human life!

For a thoughtful, contrarian view on the gun control debate: How to prevent next massacre.

Two tax articles

Democrats and the AMT

Excerpt:

This year more than three million taxpayers will be hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax on their 2006 income. But next year that number could rise to 23 million unless Democrats in Congress come up with a way to halt the juggernaut that is the AMT. The fixes that have been put in place the past few years have expired, and if nothing is done nearly one in five filers will be caught short by a tax that was created in 1969 to target 21--yes, 21--millionaires who had managed to avoid paying any taxes at all.

Comment: A tax designed to close the loophole on just 21 tax payers ... now set to catch 23 million! For a good read: The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS


Case Closed - Tax cuts mean growth

Excerpt:

The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.

Now, as before, politicians are itching to fund their pet projects with the short-term revenue increases that come from tax hikes, ignoring the long-term pain they always cause. Unfortunately, the tax cuts that have produced our record-breaking government revenues and personal incomes will expire soon. Because Congress has failed to make them permanent, we are facing the worst tax hike in our history. Already, worried investors are trying to figure out what the financial landscape will look like in 2011 and beyond.

Comment: I've made peace with my taxes. I just pay them and don't complain. But it's a fact that this country needs tax reform! I'm not optimistic! Check out Fairtax.org and select "compare the fair tax to income tax".

Angels - their nature

As to the nature of angels, they are described, (1.) As pure spirits, i.e., immaterial and incorporeal beings. The Scriptures do not attribute bodies of any kind to them. On the assumption that spirit unconnected with matter cannot act out of itself, that it can neither communicate with other spirits nor operate on the external world, it was maintained by many, and so decided in the council held at Nice, A.D. 784, that angels had bodies composed of ether or light; an opinion which was thought to be favoured by such passages as Matt. xxviii. 8, Luke ii. 9, and other passages in which their luminous appearance and the glory attending ther presence are spoken of. The Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, decided that they were incorporeal, and this has been the common opinion in the Church. They are declared to be "substantiæ spirituales, omnis corporeæ molis expertes." As such, therefore, they are invisible, incorruptible, and immortal. Their relation to space is described as an illocalitas; not ubiquity or omnipresence, as they are always somewhere and not everywhere at any given moment, but they are not confined to space circumscriptively as bodies are, and can move from one portion of space to another. As spirits they are possessed of intelligence, will, and power. With regard to their knowledge, whether as to its modes or objects, nothing special is revealed. All that is clear is that in their intellectual faculties and in the extent of their knowledge they are far superior to man. Their power also is very great, and extends over mind and matter. They have the power to communicate one with another and with other minds, and to produce effects in the natural world. The greatness of their power is manifest, (a.) From the names and titles given to them, as principalities, powers, dominions, and world-rulers. (b.) From the direct assertions of Scripture, as they are said to "excel in strength;" and (c.) From the effects attributed to their agency. However great their power may be, it is nevertheless subject to all the limitations which belong to creatures. Angels, therefore, cannot create, they cannot change substances, they cannot alter the laws of nature, they cannot perform miracles, they cannot act without means, and they cannot search the heart; for all these are, in Scripture, declared to be prerogatives peculiar to God. The power of angels is, therefore, (1.) Dependent and derived. (2.) It must be exercised in accordance with the laws of the material and spiritual world. (3.) Their intervention is not optional, but permitted or commanded by God, and at his pleasure, and, so far as the external world is concerned, it would seem to be only occasional and exceptional. These limitations are of the greatest practical importance. We are not to regard angels as intervening between us and God, or to attribute to them the effects which the Bible everywhere refers to the providential agency of God.

Hodge v 1 p. 637-638

An early review of Handel’s Messiah

It was ...

“tooty tutti”

Comment: I'm not sure what this meant, but I'm sure it was not a compliment!

Read the full article. It's interesting: On today’s date, two hundred sixty five years ago in Dublin, Ireland, George Frederic Handel’s Messiah enjoyed its world premier

“All music was once new”

George Frideric Handel

Handel's Messiah

If the jeans don't fit ... blame it on the genes!

'Fat' gene found by scientists

Excerpt:

A gene that contributes to obesity has been identified for the first time, promising to explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim.

People who inherit one version of the gene rather than another are 70 per cent more likely to be obese, British scientists have discovered. One in six people has the most vulnerable genetic make-up and weighs an average 3kg more than those with the lowest risk. They also have 15 per cent more body fat.

Comments (sarcasm alert!):

1. Where did they find that really disgusting picture? Did someone pose for this? What a weird camera angle! (if you want to get grossed out ... Google "obese people" on Google images!) I spared you!
   
   
2. Here's another question: when they show obese people (normally either their huge bellies or back ends) on TV (like whenever the news reports on obesity), do these people need to sign a "release form"? ... Do they receive royalties?
   
   
3. I ask because perhaps I can sign on for this and have my picture taken and receive royalty checks for life! This by the way is shorter for the obese!
   
   
4. For me, I blame it on my upbringing, my Mother (who obviously overfed me ... if you could only see my baby pictures!), my wife, my children (who have brought so much stress into my life!), my boss (stress again!), and now my jeans (which are too tight) ... er my genes which are defective!
   

The Imus lynch party

Pat Buchanan: The Imus lynch party

Comment (for the record):

1. I do think that Imus should have been fired because ...
2. If I used language at work like he used on the air, I would be fired in less than an hour ... and
3. I felt it robbed the Rutgers women's basketball women some of the honor due them, and the dignity that every person should be afforded.
4. It is also obvious that there is a lot of hypocrisy in the way filthy talk is regarded in our culture. Imus did not get a pass (and he should not have) but others do (detailed Buchanan's commentary).
5. I hope all read!
   

Excerpt:

While the remarks of Imus and Bernie about the Rutgers women were indefensible, they were more unthinking and stupid than vicious and malicious. But malice is the right word to describe the howls for their show to be canceled and them to be driven from the airwaves – by phonies who endlessly prattle about the First Amendment.

The hypocrisy here was too thick to cut with a chainsaw.

What was the term the I-Man used? It was "hos," slang for whores, a term employed ad infinitum et ad nauseam by rap and hip-hop "artists." It is a term out of the African-American community. Yet, if any of a hundred rap singers has lost his contract or been driven from the airwaves for using it, maybe someone can tell me about it.

If the word "hos" is a filthy insult to decent black women, and it is, why are hip-hop artists and rap singers who use it incessantly not pariahs in the black community? Why would black politicians hobnob with them? Why are there no boycotts of the advertisers of the radio stations that play their degrading music?

Angels

So much is said in the Scriptures of good and evil angels, and such important functions are ascribed to them both in the providence of God over the world, and especially in the experience of his people and of his Church, that the doctrine of the Bible concerning them should not be overlooked. That there are intelligent creatures higher than man, has been a general belief. It is so consonant with the analogy of nature as to be in the highest degree probable, apart from any direct revelation on the subject. In all departments of nature there is a regular gradation from the lower to the higher forms of life; from the almost invisible vegetable fungus in plants to the cedar of Lebanon; from the minutest animalcule to the gigantic mammoth. In man we meet with the first, and to all appearances the lowest of rational creatures. That he should be the only creature of his order is, à priori, as improbable as that insects should be the only class of irrational animals. There is every reason to presume that the scale of being among rational creatures is as extensive as that in the animal world. The modern philosophy which deifies man leaves no room for any order of beings above him. But if the distance between God and man be infinite, all analogy would prove that the orders of rational creatures between us and God must be inconceivably numerous. As this is in itself probable, it is clearly revealed in the Bible to be true.

Hodge v 1 p. 637

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1. Kathee is at a ladies' fellowship meeting tonight
   
2. This week I have dealt with the dreaded BSOD issue on about 100 workstations. It is not a Microsoft issue, but another (unnamed on this blog) vendor
   
3. Roger is at USMC reserves tonight through Sunday. They are going to Camp Ripley in Little Falls. Roger just has this month and then May and he will have completed his six year commitment to the Marines. Of those six years, he has been on active duty for 2 1/2 including 7 months in Iraq. We are glad for him to be finished!
   
4. I had coffee with my friend Scott today.
   

Religious double standard?

Is college using a double standard on 'entanglement' with religion?

Excerpt:

[Minneapolis Community and Technical College] is planning to install facilities for Muslims to use in preparing for daily prayers, an apparent first at a public institution in Minnesota ...So the college is making plans to use taxpayer funds to install facilities for ritual foot-washing.

t's hard to imagine the college researching and paying for special modifications to the college to facilitate Christian rituals. And the "safety" justification? Imagine if a particularly strict group of Christian students found it necessary to sometimes baptize others in the restroom sinks. Would the school build them a baptism basin because a student hit his head on a sink?

George Will: Fuzzy climate math

Fuzzy climate math

Excerpt:

The Prius hybrid is, of course, fuel-efficient. There are, however, environmental costs to mining and smelting (in Canada) 1,000 tons a year of zinc for the battery-powered second motor, and the shipping of the zinc 10,000 miles — trailing a cloud of carbon dioxide — to Wales for refining and then to China for turning it into the component that is then sent to a battery factory in Japan.

Opinions differ as to whether acid rain from the Canadian mining and smelting operation is killing vegetation that once absorbed carbon dioxide. But a report from CNW Marketing Research ("Dust to Dust: The Energy Cost of New Vehicles from Concept to Disposal") concludes that in "dollars per lifetime mile," a Prius (expected life: 109,000 miles) costs $3.25, compared with $1.95 for a Hummer H3 (expected life: 207,000 miles).

The CNW report states that a hybrid makes economic and environmental sense for a purchaser living in the Los Angeles basin, where fuel costs are high and smog is worrisome. But environmental costs of the hybrid are exported from the basin.

Comment: I don't see myself ever buying an SUV (the Hummer H3!). I'm actually pretty impressed with the Prius. Dave P. at church has one and is impressed with it. But until they perfect the hybrid battery so that it has a lifetime of 200,000 miles, I probably won't buy one. Here's the link to the study: CNW's 'Dust to Dust' Automotive Energy Report. Be sure to scroll down to the attachments. I read these two and they are very interesting: "Why 100,000 miles for the Prius" & "DUST PDF VERSION".

Decrying Filthy Talk!

Trash Talk Radio

Op-Ed Contributor
Trash Talk Radio
By GWEN IFILL
Published: April 10, 2007
Don Imus’s comments about the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University were no surprise. But they were a new low.


NCAA, Rutgers women's coach blast Imus Talk show host apologizes for calling NCAA runners-up 'nappy-headed hos'

Comments: I deplore racist degrading talk like this! Understanding that every human being is created in the likeness of God demands that Christians stand opposed to this Neanderthal, meathead, and God-dishonoring talk!

James 3 has instructions about language that honors and dishonors Christ

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

Christians must (in our salt function) decry and condemn such talk! (If I called a coworker what Imus called these young ladies ... I would be fired! No second chance.). He should be fired and I hope that he is! (For the record - I've never watched or listened to Don Imus and I never will!)

GM, AmEx also pulling ads from Imus show

Don Imus show loses more advertisers

Advertisers taking a stand by dropping ads from his program:

Corporation
GM
American Express
Procter & Gamble
Staples
GlaxoSmithKline
Ditech.com

Motley Fool: Bank on Wells Fargo

Foolish Forecast: Bank on Wells Fargo

Quote:

Banking behemoth Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) will report Q1 2007 financial results next Tuesday. Here's what to expect. Analysts expect earnings to grow to $0.65 per share, up 8.3% from last year's first quarter.

Comment: It shouldn't surprise Cold Fusion Guy readers that I have shares in Wells Fargo. We've found it a solid investment. Caveat: It is important to diversify (not put all of one's financial egges in one basket!)

Elizabeth's "scary" neighbor

Elizabeth gripes; neighbor is famous

Excerpt:

But apparently, you're nobody until Elizabeth Edwards dislikes you.

The Orange County Republicans sent out a release denouncing Edwards' remarks. Newspapers from as far as Ireland have picked up the story. On Tuesday, "Inside Edition" sent a film crew to his single-wide trailer in rural Orange County that sits near the Edwards' $6 million, 29,000-square-foot estate.

Johnson didn't rebut Edwards' comments. He's a proud member of the Grand Old Party and owns a 9 mm handgun he said he's not afraid to use.

What got his goat, he says, was Edwards' calling his 42-acre property "slummy."

Comment: Monty looks like a "good old boy" ... as a matter of fact not a lot different than me! (I have him by 2 years ... but he owns 42 acres next to Elizabeth Edwards)

Leadership is often by nature unpopular

McCain's Finest Hour - Leadership sometimes means bucking public opinion

Excerpt:

Answered Mr. McCain: "I disagree with what the majority of the American people want. I still believe the majority of the American people, when asked, say if you can show them a path to success . . . then they'll support it." Later Mr. Pelley observed that Mr. McCain was betting his entire campaign on the success of the current "surge" strategy in Baghdad. The Senator replied that he'd "rather lose a campaign than lose a war."

Comment: This is what I like about John McCain: he provides principled leadership in the public discourse about the war.

Gutsy Brit!

Faye's blast at squirming tyrant

As Faye stood in front of bearded Ahmadinejad he asked her through a translator: “How is your daughter?”

Faye fumed in response: “I don’t know, Mr President, I haven’t seen her for 13 days — remember?”

The Islamic fanatic stuttered: “Oh yes. But haven’t you been allowed a phone call to her?”

Faye replied: “No I most certainly have not”.

Comment: Faye, your courage is inspiring!

The Soul of the Embryo

What Becomes You - The Soul of the Embryo

A book review of The Soul of the Embryo: An Enquiry into the Status of the Human Embryo in the Christian Tradition, by David Albert Jones

Excerpt:

Thankfully, in The Soul of the Embryo, David Albert Jones corrects such misrepresentations with a well-documented, definitive account of Christian tradition from the early Church to the twenty-first century. In a clear, irenic style, Jones, a Dominican theologian who directed the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics in London and now teaches bioethics at the University of Surrey, shows that for two millennia Christians consistently “repudiated abortion at any stage of pregnancy.”

Starting with Jewish and pagan antiquity, Jones shows that in the Old Testament, the embryo was “the subject of God’s invisible informing activity,” the chosen one being called from and molded in the womb. No surprise, then, that the Jews considered deliberate abortion a grave sin against God and nature.

The first Christian text on abortion is in the Didache (first century), which states, “You shall not kill a child by abortion nor kill it after it is born.” The same teaching is found in other works of the second to the fourth centuries, including apocalyptic texts where people face their aborted children at the Judgment. In the fifth century, John Chrysostom calls abortion “something even worse than murder” because it involves killing one’s own flesh and blood.

....

Jones calls it reasonable to define a human being as “an individual living being of the species Homo sapiens.” The embryo is “clearly a living being, is an individual and is human.” From fertilization, a “complete whole” is developing, not a part of a whole. It is, in other words, a person with a person’s full rights.



Comment: If you have wondered (as most of us have) about the “ensoulment” of the embryo and the true beginning of the human soul, I recommend this book review (I haven't read the book) to you!