What lies at the heart of a leader when the decisions he makes with regards to the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and before the successful end of both wars; decides to unilaterally drop the War on Terror before a declaration of victory is made over an enemy this country is still at war with?
What are we to make for example, of the president's decision through his Attorney General - Erick Holder - of bringing several of the 9/11 terrorists to NYC, including the Al Qaeda leader, Khalid Sheik Mohammed in order to try them in civil court, rather than trying them in military tribunals?
What motivates this president and his Attorney General to give foreign born non-citizen terrorists and enemy combatants rights they are not given under the Constitution of the United States?
Why is this president rushing to try as criminals law enforcement and intelligence officials of this government, who served this country with distinction in the previous administration? Even exposing them, their families, and their counterparts now serving in the field to exposure, and disclosing how the United States collects and gathers intelligence?
What is at the heart of the president's inability to make a military decision in wartime with regards to troop deployment to Afghanistan some four months after his leading Commander in the field requested an increase in troop assignments, and told him in no uncertain terms to give "US at least forty-thousand more troops or risk mission failure?"
By what sophistry of reason does this president conclude that the tragic incident at Fort Hood might not have been an act of Islamist terrorism when Army Major Hassan had for months given signs that he had been radicalized and had even attempted several times to contact Al Qaeda?
How can the president believe that the first act of terrorism on United States soil in eight years had been anything but an act of pre-meditated terrorism?
And why is he so cautious about Islamists while being quick to call as "stupid" a local police officer's arrest of an offending race bater who went out of his way to be offensive to the law enforcement official?
What motivates the president to close the most secure maximum security prison in the world and move its occupants who are amongst the world's most dangerous and motivated enemies of this country, into the continental United States, when there is absolutely no need to subject the American mainland and its population to this danger, especially in light of the fact that this president swore to defend and protect it precisely from such dangers foreign and domestic?
What motivated this president to order the FBI to discontinue its surveillance of foreign Islamist groups in the US with ties to terror organizations outside of this country?
Why has this president abandoned Iranian pro-democratic movements within Iran, while pulling all of the stops on behalf of a Marxist Honduran politician seeking to extend his presidency indefinitely by changing his country's Constitution?
What motivates this president to alienate allies such as Israel while making overtures of friendship with enemy despotic regimes such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran?
And why did he authorize almost a billion dollars in aid to Hamas, a terrorist entity and sworn enemy of this country's ally, Israel, that shoots missiles into Israeli cities with impunity? What would we demand our leaders do if the same were happening to US here? Why is he quick to condemn and criticize Israel when it takes measures to protect its Jewish and Arab civilian population from terrorism?
Why does this president travel extensively abroad to speak from those nations against his own country by apologizing on behalf of it for wrongs he claims it committed against them in the past?
What motivates this president to sign international agreements which subjugate the sovereignty of this nation and the Constitutional rights of its citizens to unelected tribunals, councils, and ministries, especially without congressional oversight?
What kept this president from participating as the leader of the free world in Germany's 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; perhaps one of history's most significant moments and one which signaled the start of the fall of the Soviet Union? Only to see him a week later, travel to the Far East?
The answer to these questions are part of a multi-layered ideologically based world view that has rendered this president and every member of his team dangerously inept and unable to perform the leadership requirements which their respective positions demand of them to meet in order to keep this country safe and to bring the War on Terror to a successful close in the coming years.
When ideology trumps reasoned and seasoned leadership, what results is nothing short of chaos; chaos on so many levels that it renders the person or persons who make them unable to understand the consequences of their well meaning but highly misguided policy decisions.
Lives are ruined and destroyed by such decisions. Nations fall by such decisions. And American life in war is needlessly shortchanged by men who makes such decisions. And such is the current occupant of the White House - Barak Hussein Obama and every person who serves under him as part of his team.
What we are witness to now is the result of a junior senator with no foreign policy experience, no experience outside of his district, and hardly any time having served as a US Senator to have been thrust to the most powerful and most influential, and important executive position on the planet, and then watch as he applies policies based upon a discredited ideology and world view upon the American domestic and foreign areas. This is nothing short than having put a person who is not qualified to do work he is not fit to do, and has no experience in; and then expect success. Barak Hussein Obama and his people - those Marxist ideologues and theorists he's surrounded himself with are out of their league, and we and the world are the worst for it.
Remember that by their fruits you shall know them. Listen closely to what Obama says, and especially look at what he does. Then observe where he goes with it. Afterwards keep a close eye on whom he meets, and how he comports himself, and again how he represents US. Then you will see a pattern.
Barak Hussein Obama is a man who is bound by an irrepressible ego and stifling ideology and world view, the combination of which will be his undoing, because it limits him to predictable actions and reactions which this country's enemies can use against him and US.
Unfortunately, if he is not stopped and his policies reversed, it may also prove to be our undoing as well. Obama is nothing more than a good public speaker, one on par with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, but a terrible wartime president. His is the classic example that good politicians are not necessarily great leaders. Between the two is a universe.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL
Men erect walls around other men. Men can knock them down. Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first crack in the Soviet System, perhaps history's largest and most feared empire.
The celebration held in Berlin today was conspicuous by the absence of the president of the United States. It is interesting that the leader of the most powerful nation in the free world would not attend such a historic commemoration of such a watershed event.
But why should he attend? After all, this gathering commemorates an event which sent shock waves throughout the world and right into the heart of the Kremlin, and resulted in fall of the Old Soviet Union and its satellites of captured and imprisoned nations.
Of course, one would expect the President of the United States to be present at such a historic occasion, but he was not. Not this president. Why should he attend?
Though this is an event which began the unraveling of the most pernicious empire in modern times; the president did not wish to be a part of a celebration which stood outside of the movements of wars and struggles of "national liberation" movements around the world; what some call Communist Revolution.
This was not a celebration of a Communist Revolution, therefore this president whose work as community organiser with ties to organizations and individuals from Marxist-Leninists to Maoists, many of whom he's staffed his administration with; did not become party to it.
This is how he is quick to condemn and bring to bear every force necessary against Anti-Communist Honduras, but can't bring the same energy against the tyrannical governments in Caracas, Havana, Tripoli, and Tehran.
Consider what appears to be inconsistent on the part of Obama - Honduras Communist President attempts to pass legislation suspending his nation's Constitutional restraint of multiple presidential term - rather call him on this, when the armed forces of Honduras remove him for suspending their Constitution; Obama springs into action against Honduras and its people in order to force them to reinstate the Communist president.
Consider also that this is the first president to authorize 900 million dollars in aid to Hamas in Gaza, a terrorist entity that shoots rockets into Israeli cities on a daily basis in order to kill innocent Israelis.
The first US President with strong pro-Palestinian points of view, and shares with them his own views on wars of national liberation which he considers the Palestinians as currently being engaged in against Israel.
When meeting earlier this year with Venezuelan dictator Victor Hugo Chavez, begins measures aimed at opening relations with both Communist Cuba and Venezuela, while snubbing Columbia and Peru.
When Iranians protest en mass on the streets of several cities in Iran, Obama does nothing, completely nothing when their secret police and revolutionary guards crush the protests and make mass arrests and detentions across the country, while continuing to develop nuclear energy and missile systems to carry the payloads. In the face of this, Obama does nothing.
When Russian forces crush the armed forces of Georgia, a former satellite nation of the old Soviet Union, Obama does nothing.
So with such a history, why are we to expect Barak Hussein Obama will honor the first major event that caused the downfall of a system of government he is trying to bring to the United States under the guise of change?
Perhaps Obama didn't attend the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall because for once, he didn't have anything to apologize for, so he stayed home.
The celebration held in Berlin today was conspicuous by the absence of the president of the United States. It is interesting that the leader of the most powerful nation in the free world would not attend such a historic commemoration of such a watershed event.
But why should he attend? After all, this gathering commemorates an event which sent shock waves throughout the world and right into the heart of the Kremlin, and resulted in fall of the Old Soviet Union and its satellites of captured and imprisoned nations.
Of course, one would expect the President of the United States to be present at such a historic occasion, but he was not. Not this president. Why should he attend?
Though this is an event which began the unraveling of the most pernicious empire in modern times; the president did not wish to be a part of a celebration which stood outside of the movements of wars and struggles of "national liberation" movements around the world; what some call Communist Revolution.
This was not a celebration of a Communist Revolution, therefore this president whose work as community organiser with ties to organizations and individuals from Marxist-Leninists to Maoists, many of whom he's staffed his administration with; did not become party to it.
This is how he is quick to condemn and bring to bear every force necessary against Anti-Communist Honduras, but can't bring the same energy against the tyrannical governments in Caracas, Havana, Tripoli, and Tehran.
Consider what appears to be inconsistent on the part of Obama - Honduras Communist President attempts to pass legislation suspending his nation's Constitutional restraint of multiple presidential term - rather call him on this, when the armed forces of Honduras remove him for suspending their Constitution; Obama springs into action against Honduras and its people in order to force them to reinstate the Communist president.
Consider also that this is the first president to authorize 900 million dollars in aid to Hamas in Gaza, a terrorist entity that shoots rockets into Israeli cities on a daily basis in order to kill innocent Israelis.
The first US President with strong pro-Palestinian points of view, and shares with them his own views on wars of national liberation which he considers the Palestinians as currently being engaged in against Israel.
When meeting earlier this year with Venezuelan dictator Victor Hugo Chavez, begins measures aimed at opening relations with both Communist Cuba and Venezuela, while snubbing Columbia and Peru.
When Iranians protest en mass on the streets of several cities in Iran, Obama does nothing, completely nothing when their secret police and revolutionary guards crush the protests and make mass arrests and detentions across the country, while continuing to develop nuclear energy and missile systems to carry the payloads. In the face of this, Obama does nothing.
When Russian forces crush the armed forces of Georgia, a former satellite nation of the old Soviet Union, Obama does nothing.
So with such a history, why are we to expect Barak Hussein Obama will honor the first major event that caused the downfall of a system of government he is trying to bring to the United States under the guise of change?
Perhaps Obama didn't attend the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall because for once, he didn't have anything to apologize for, so he stayed home.
WHEN A DEPRESSION IS CALLED A JOBLESS RECOVERING RECESSION
I've written oftentimes that the United States and every nation are undergoing what can only be called "a great shaking." Everything that can be shaken is being shaken to its very foundation, and this is having its affect on everyone, and everything. The very foundations of everything is being shaken, as the new unemployment figures have just come in today at 10.2 per cent. This puts the number of unemployed Americans - those filing for the first time, and those currently collecting unemployment benefits, at a staggering total of over 36 million unemployed; more than the combined population of every nation in the Caribbean Basin. That is a lot of people out of work.
Although the public is being told that the United States is in the very beginnings of a recovery, and the stock market appears temporarily high, the unemployment figures, and consumer confidence belie the reports. We are not in a recovery, and the same pundits who are making these claims know it. With the exception of what they are claiming now, they have stated several times in the last eight months that we will not be in a recovery until at the very least late 2011. So why the deception? It has to do with political and ideological loyalties. During the early months of Ronald Reagan's first term, when similar unemployment figures were exhibited, the news media went to town with them excoriating Reagan's policies, bemoaning the state of the economy, and how bad it was. Today, we're being told that similar figures - actually worst - are a sign that the economy is :"turning around," though the evidence is quite to the contrary. The United States is in a deep Recession, and some believe has broken into a Depression.
Add to the rising unemployment figures, the fact that when one factors in the under-employed, that is those people who are holding two or more jobs to earn what they used to earn a year ago, or those who are just getting by on half or a quarter of the previous earnings, and those who used to hold full time positions, but are now working part-time because they cannot find full-time work; the actual figure stands at 17.5 per cent. This would put the number of unemployed and underemployed Americans at an even more staggering 65 million! This of course is not counting those who are no longer collecting unemployment benefits because they have exhausted all of their extensions and are no longer used by the Department of Labor in their statistics. The true unemployment figures are not being reported, because the great majority of unemployed Americans have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits, and are no longer counted by the Department of Labor. They do not exist, they've fallen off of the Labor Department's radar. They are no longer even a statistic. This is not being reported, but it is having a devastating effect on consumer confidence, and that is another gauge by which we can know the true direction of the economy besides those of the unemployment figures.
But the signs of a depression are all around US. Where once there thrived numerous small businesses, now stand vacant lots. Some have been vacant since 2007, and have become abandoned commercial real estate. Thousands of car dealerships either went out of business, or were forced by the Obama Administration to go out of business and give their clientele list to businesses pre-chosen by the White House and the labor unions. Some thriving businesses were forced to close because of this. And though the dollar has never been weaker (due to the Fed's 24x7x365 printing to meet liquidity demands), small businesses have had to cut prices to the bone in order to keep sales up and remain in business. Large companies like Dell, Apple, and others have had to cut prices and think up all sorts of gimmicks to get consumers to buy their products, but few are falling for the bait. These are not the signs of a recovery, not by a long shot.
And while some business sectors have reported a slight uptick this past quarter, it is not because of true growth in R&D, procurement, investment, and job creation, but because they have scaled back R&D, reduced or eliminated procurement altogether, frozen hiring, and cut back to the bone their existing labor force. That translates into job losses and the unemployment figures confirm it. Of course any revenue minus the reduced overhead will be positive, and thus the "positive" numbers. The only sector that has seen expansion in the labor market has been government, and it is largely due to Obama's expansion of the federal government. This is not a recovery, and the American people know it.
The politicians and Wall Street think they don't, but they're wrong, because consumer confidence one of many gauges used in following and recording how people feel about the economy in general also paint a grim picture. Consumer confidence continued to drop in the month of October, just as it did the previous months. Again the slight uptick in the previous quarter had been due to the highly touted "Cash for Clunkers," which proved to be temporary, but at a cost of $21,000 per clunker to the tax payer for cars worth only hundreds of dollars; it proved like all other federal meddling in the private sector, a dismal failure, and total waste of tax payer dollars. As people continue to lose more jobs and remain unemployed without available work in the private sector, consumer confidence will continue to be weak and sluggish. If you're out of work and unable to find work, you're not going to spend whatever little money you have. This translates into less spending. This impacts businesses in reduced sales, and forces them to continue to cut their labor in order to stay in business. This is no recovery, it is a slow death. This is why the public continues to express worry about where the economy is going, and the economic viability of our country. The gubernatorial elections in New Jersey (a dark blue state for years), and Virginia which hadn't seen a Republican governor in decades, were indicators of the public's discontent with the direction the nation has been in these past several months. They want the government to stop spending and taxing, and the best way they have to show it is at the ballot box with the vote, and they have.
Another gauge that is used as a valuable indicator of where this economy is really going is the rate of bank failures and the level in which banks are lending to small businesses, where most of the jobs come from. Even with the massive bailouts given to them by the federal government - first under President Bush late last year, and now under Obama (Stimulus One, Omnibus One, , the banks have continued to fail at an incredible rate, and the ones that are solvent, are not lending, but hoarding and investing the TARP money overseas. What's more, the federal government is borrowing at an incredible rate to meet its responsibilities. This is crowding out small business, and others who have to compete with the government for scarce capital, and since the small business cannot borrow, it is not hiring, and it is not investing, and it is not growing, expanding, because it just holding on.
The Obama Administration, Congressional Democrats, and their allies in the news media like to tout the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) also known as Stimulus One, as having been successful in creating new jobs and preserving old ones, even while faced with growing unemployment figures, yet what they do not tell the public is that the jobs created have been exclusively federal bureaucracy jobs, not private sector jobs. So while the public sector is growing as the federal bureaucracy continues to expand under Obama, the private sector - the true harbinger of real economic growth, continues to contract. Although Obama had promised that his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would create three million new jobs, the opposite is what occurred, over three million jobs have been lost since they passed the ARRA, with more than 7.3 million (some say more than 8 million) jobs have been lost since the Great Recession/Depression of 2009 began in December of 2007.
Add to this congress' irresponsible passing of HR 1105, the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill which according to Freedom Works (http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/key-vote-no-hr-1105-2009-omnibus-appropriations-bi) would do the following, and has done the following:
"Far from the new fiscal responsibility taxpayers were recently promised at President Obama’s Economic Summit, this bill is a whopping 80 percent spending increase packed with earmarks and sweeping policy changes.
Rather than considering each appropriations bill individually, allowing time for Congress and the public to scrutinize, view, and debate the merits of these funding levels, this massive bill leaves gaping holes in accountability. This has resulted in over 9,000 earmarks for Congressional pork projects totaling approximately $5 billion in new spending. In addition to the thousands of earmarks, a lack of oversight has provided funds to agencies and programs that already received money through the earlier Economic Stimulus plan, in essence letting many “double-dip” from taxpayer funds.
The Omnibus Appropriations bill also hides many significant policy changes that should be considered on their own. These include: terminating the very successful D.C. School Voucher program – a program that has provided students of all backgrounds the opportunity to attend the school of their choice that suits their individual needs; funding for a new House Office building; and $245 million for “Housing Counseling” to be administered through HUD. Previously these funds ended up in the hands of ACORN, an activist group convicted of vote fraud and spearheading a campaign to trespass on, and take over, foreclosed properties.
Altogether the omnibus increases government spending at more than double the rate of inflation and almost triple the rate of median growth in household incomes. This is a country deep in recession that just tripled the deficit with earlier spending packages; Congress should not be expanding government or increasing spending anywhere. The bill for this spending will come due and when it does, it will have to be paid for with more taxes, hurting families and businesses already burdened from the loss of savings, jobs, and growing inflation.
Instead of looking for ways to spend more of the taxpayers’ hard earned money, Congress should simply pass a continuing resolution, freezing spending for government programs at the current levels."
Congress, which likes to vote itself its won pay raise, voted to bypass the procedural oversight of specific bills, and include in one large bill, all of its favorite spending programs for their political machineries back home in their districts at tax payer's expense. Fiscal responsibility went out the window with this bill, and so it has been since. Far from stimulating the economy, and stimulating the private sector, it has only enriched "connected" recipients back home where most the congressmen will face reelection in 2012.
Change has indeed come to America, but not the change that those who voted for Obama and gave the Democrats additional seats in congress and the senate anticipated and hoped for. This only serves to illustrate that ignorance is not bliss. Oh no, not by a long shot. Ignorance is dangerous. Especially when it is exercised at the polls as it was in the elections of 2008. And as far as a recovery is concerned, the only recovery we are seeing exists only in the minds of the partisans who report to US how great things are as they sit behind their desks and collect their six figures while the rest of US are squeezed and told to love it because it is for our good.
Although the public is being told that the United States is in the very beginnings of a recovery, and the stock market appears temporarily high, the unemployment figures, and consumer confidence belie the reports. We are not in a recovery, and the same pundits who are making these claims know it. With the exception of what they are claiming now, they have stated several times in the last eight months that we will not be in a recovery until at the very least late 2011. So why the deception? It has to do with political and ideological loyalties. During the early months of Ronald Reagan's first term, when similar unemployment figures were exhibited, the news media went to town with them excoriating Reagan's policies, bemoaning the state of the economy, and how bad it was. Today, we're being told that similar figures - actually worst - are a sign that the economy is :"turning around," though the evidence is quite to the contrary. The United States is in a deep Recession, and some believe has broken into a Depression.
Add to the rising unemployment figures, the fact that when one factors in the under-employed, that is those people who are holding two or more jobs to earn what they used to earn a year ago, or those who are just getting by on half or a quarter of the previous earnings, and those who used to hold full time positions, but are now working part-time because they cannot find full-time work; the actual figure stands at 17.5 per cent. This would put the number of unemployed and underemployed Americans at an even more staggering 65 million! This of course is not counting those who are no longer collecting unemployment benefits because they have exhausted all of their extensions and are no longer used by the Department of Labor in their statistics. The true unemployment figures are not being reported, because the great majority of unemployed Americans have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits, and are no longer counted by the Department of Labor. They do not exist, they've fallen off of the Labor Department's radar. They are no longer even a statistic. This is not being reported, but it is having a devastating effect on consumer confidence, and that is another gauge by which we can know the true direction of the economy besides those of the unemployment figures.
But the signs of a depression are all around US. Where once there thrived numerous small businesses, now stand vacant lots. Some have been vacant since 2007, and have become abandoned commercial real estate. Thousands of car dealerships either went out of business, or were forced by the Obama Administration to go out of business and give their clientele list to businesses pre-chosen by the White House and the labor unions. Some thriving businesses were forced to close because of this. And though the dollar has never been weaker (due to the Fed's 24x7x365 printing to meet liquidity demands), small businesses have had to cut prices to the bone in order to keep sales up and remain in business. Large companies like Dell, Apple, and others have had to cut prices and think up all sorts of gimmicks to get consumers to buy their products, but few are falling for the bait. These are not the signs of a recovery, not by a long shot.
And while some business sectors have reported a slight uptick this past quarter, it is not because of true growth in R&D, procurement, investment, and job creation, but because they have scaled back R&D, reduced or eliminated procurement altogether, frozen hiring, and cut back to the bone their existing labor force. That translates into job losses and the unemployment figures confirm it. Of course any revenue minus the reduced overhead will be positive, and thus the "positive" numbers. The only sector that has seen expansion in the labor market has been government, and it is largely due to Obama's expansion of the federal government. This is not a recovery, and the American people know it.
The politicians and Wall Street think they don't, but they're wrong, because consumer confidence one of many gauges used in following and recording how people feel about the economy in general also paint a grim picture. Consumer confidence continued to drop in the month of October, just as it did the previous months. Again the slight uptick in the previous quarter had been due to the highly touted "Cash for Clunkers," which proved to be temporary, but at a cost of $21,000 per clunker to the tax payer for cars worth only hundreds of dollars; it proved like all other federal meddling in the private sector, a dismal failure, and total waste of tax payer dollars. As people continue to lose more jobs and remain unemployed without available work in the private sector, consumer confidence will continue to be weak and sluggish. If you're out of work and unable to find work, you're not going to spend whatever little money you have. This translates into less spending. This impacts businesses in reduced sales, and forces them to continue to cut their labor in order to stay in business. This is no recovery, it is a slow death. This is why the public continues to express worry about where the economy is going, and the economic viability of our country. The gubernatorial elections in New Jersey (a dark blue state for years), and Virginia which hadn't seen a Republican governor in decades, were indicators of the public's discontent with the direction the nation has been in these past several months. They want the government to stop spending and taxing, and the best way they have to show it is at the ballot box with the vote, and they have.
Another gauge that is used as a valuable indicator of where this economy is really going is the rate of bank failures and the level in which banks are lending to small businesses, where most of the jobs come from. Even with the massive bailouts given to them by the federal government - first under President Bush late last year, and now under Obama (Stimulus One, Omnibus One, , the banks have continued to fail at an incredible rate, and the ones that are solvent, are not lending, but hoarding and investing the TARP money overseas. What's more, the federal government is borrowing at an incredible rate to meet its responsibilities. This is crowding out small business, and others who have to compete with the government for scarce capital, and since the small business cannot borrow, it is not hiring, and it is not investing, and it is not growing, expanding, because it just holding on.
The Obama Administration, Congressional Democrats, and their allies in the news media like to tout the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) also known as Stimulus One, as having been successful in creating new jobs and preserving old ones, even while faced with growing unemployment figures, yet what they do not tell the public is that the jobs created have been exclusively federal bureaucracy jobs, not private sector jobs. So while the public sector is growing as the federal bureaucracy continues to expand under Obama, the private sector - the true harbinger of real economic growth, continues to contract. Although Obama had promised that his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would create three million new jobs, the opposite is what occurred, over three million jobs have been lost since they passed the ARRA, with more than 7.3 million (some say more than 8 million) jobs have been lost since the Great Recession/Depression of 2009 began in December of 2007.
Add to this congress' irresponsible passing of HR 1105, the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill which according to Freedom Works (http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/key-vote-no-hr-1105-2009-omnibus-appropriations-bi) would do the following, and has done the following:
"Far from the new fiscal responsibility taxpayers were recently promised at President Obama’s Economic Summit, this bill is a whopping 80 percent spending increase packed with earmarks and sweeping policy changes.
Rather than considering each appropriations bill individually, allowing time for Congress and the public to scrutinize, view, and debate the merits of these funding levels, this massive bill leaves gaping holes in accountability. This has resulted in over 9,000 earmarks for Congressional pork projects totaling approximately $5 billion in new spending. In addition to the thousands of earmarks, a lack of oversight has provided funds to agencies and programs that already received money through the earlier Economic Stimulus plan, in essence letting many “double-dip” from taxpayer funds.
The Omnibus Appropriations bill also hides many significant policy changes that should be considered on their own. These include: terminating the very successful D.C. School Voucher program – a program that has provided students of all backgrounds the opportunity to attend the school of their choice that suits their individual needs; funding for a new House Office building; and $245 million for “Housing Counseling” to be administered through HUD. Previously these funds ended up in the hands of ACORN, an activist group convicted of vote fraud and spearheading a campaign to trespass on, and take over, foreclosed properties.
Altogether the omnibus increases government spending at more than double the rate of inflation and almost triple the rate of median growth in household incomes. This is a country deep in recession that just tripled the deficit with earlier spending packages; Congress should not be expanding government or increasing spending anywhere. The bill for this spending will come due and when it does, it will have to be paid for with more taxes, hurting families and businesses already burdened from the loss of savings, jobs, and growing inflation.
Instead of looking for ways to spend more of the taxpayers’ hard earned money, Congress should simply pass a continuing resolution, freezing spending for government programs at the current levels."
Congress, which likes to vote itself its won pay raise, voted to bypass the procedural oversight of specific bills, and include in one large bill, all of its favorite spending programs for their political machineries back home in their districts at tax payer's expense. Fiscal responsibility went out the window with this bill, and so it has been since. Far from stimulating the economy, and stimulating the private sector, it has only enriched "connected" recipients back home where most the congressmen will face reelection in 2012.
Change has indeed come to America, but not the change that those who voted for Obama and gave the Democrats additional seats in congress and the senate anticipated and hoped for. This only serves to illustrate that ignorance is not bliss. Oh no, not by a long shot. Ignorance is dangerous. Especially when it is exercised at the polls as it was in the elections of 2008. And as far as a recovery is concerned, the only recovery we are seeing exists only in the minds of the partisans who report to US how great things are as they sit behind their desks and collect their six figures while the rest of US are squeezed and told to love it because it is for our good.
Friday, November 6, 2009
WHEN RELIGIOUS FANATICISM EXPRESSES ITSELF
Just as expected following the attack of a lone gunman on innocent military and civilian personnel in Fort Hood, where thirty were wounded, some seriously, and thirteen murdered in cold blood, some having returned from war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, only to be killed on of all places; American soil; just as expected, we are now hearing from the press that this was "a lone nut job" that religion did not factor in this attack. Muslim leaders have gone out of their way to claim that Islam had nothing to do with these acts of terror, and even the president of the United States has asked for people not to be fast to draw conclusions.
On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera, the maverick left of center commentator, came out Saturday night using his skills as an attorney making comparisons comparing this killing with others committed by non-Muslims in efforts to make this killing and those others synonymous; in order to make the claim that religion - in this case - radical Islam in its most extreme form of expression - had no part in this killing. It was painful to watch this intelligent man, go out of his way to bend and twist his argument in order to divorce the assailant's religious beliefs as having played any part in his murderous rampage. It was painful because not is Geraldo an attorney, but he is a world class news commentator who has traveled and reported from almost every corner of the planet. Yet, for this one moment, it seemed as though he laid aside his intellect, and his good judgment, and an attorney's ability to view a case from every angle possible, and spin and morph the argument to fit a politically correct bias of his own choosing, supporting a premise that has no root in reality. His claim on its surface is so absurd that it begs to be dismissed and ignored altogether. It is an insult to our intelligence, because it a painful bending of selective points in order to posit a politically correct point of view.
If Geraldo and the others wished to defend Muslims against reprisals, it would have been better had he not tried to inject Islam into the discussion and denying it had any part in the affair. It really is an insult to my intelligence to hear this man willfully choose to bend his story in order to placate a religion for what would appear to be a defence of other Muslims. As mentioned above, it is so patently absurd that it does not deserve a rebuttal, yet for the sake of truth and fairness, it must be answered if only to be corrected, because justice demands it.
The very premise that religion - to be exact - Islam taken to its most extreme form of expression, had not played a role in this attack; is on its surface patently incorrect. For Geraldo on his show (Geraldo at Large) and others in the alphabet soup media to claim that it isn't because others who were non-Muslims "flipped out," and went on a murderous rampage themselves; is ludicrous; because unlike those other "non-Muslim" attacks, this one was made as the assailant shouted "Allah O Akbar!" god is great! in Arabic, the "rebel yell" of not just Islamists, but of all Muslims. Whatever motivated those other "non-Muslims" to go on their murderous rampages, this attack was motivated by fanatical religious hatred compelling a conflict of loyalties in a person to murder in the name of that religion. Way what one will about this man's mental, psychological, and emotional state of mind; at its very core this was a religious attack by a Muslim driven by conflicted loyalties to choose Islam and the murder of those whom he perceived to be its enemies.
To strengthen this is the assailant's own words where he is quoted as having declared that it was the right and duty of "all Muslims" to kill the enemies of Islam. The assailant considered the United States war in Iraq and Afghanistan a war against Islam, and as such believed it was his duty to take action against it, and action he did take. Though he was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, his misguided perception - no doubt fed by Jihadists, and Islamist Imams he heard, impelled him to take action against all enemies of Islam. In his judgment, America is fighting a war against Islam and against Muslims, and the time had come for him to decide whose side he was to be on. Thus far, and until the day of the incident, he had worn the uniform of the Army of the United States of America. It was time now for him to don the robes of a true follower of the prophet, and as reported by neighbors, days before the incident, he had begun to dress the part while not on duty.
Although he had taken an oath to protect and defend the United States, its Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic; his loyalty to his religion, triggered in him a clash of loyalties. When pressed to service - that is, to be deployed to a Muslim land, he considered this new responsibility so onerous to his religious sympathies, that although his MOS was not to engage in battle but to counsel; his judgment became so impaired by his fanatical hatred for "the enemies of Islam" that he was compelled to express this as he did on that fateful and tragic day.
His jihad resulted in the massacre of Fort Hood, the disruption of families, the death of innocents, and the premature and needless permanent separation of loved ones who had just returned from war with their families.
The media is so politically correct it is sickening. Because of its political correctness, it has lost the capacity to call evil what it is, and to identify its source correctly - religious fanaticism expressed in murderous hatred in the most extreme expression of the Muslim faith - of Islam. To claim that it is anything but this, is to deny the obvious. It is not an indictment of all Muslims worldwide, but an indictment of a religion - Islam - taken to its most extreme form of expression and manifestation in murderous religious hatred. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (US Army Ret.), make a most cogent case that this was indeed an act of Islamist terror (http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ). But allow US if you will to examine exactly what we can learn from this, and what we must do to not only avoid it, but to ever keep it from happening again. In order to do this, we must look beyond the confines of religious prejudice, and go into the very heart of what was the root cause of this man's pathology that drove him, and has driven others to similar acts against their fellow human beings.
The events of Fort Hood, Texas brings some very important lessons for US to take to heart. The tragic carnage which took place at Fort Hood is only the latest in a long history of religious hatred driven by a fanaticism that has plagued the human race since the dawn of time.
We are told that US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim, had become increasingly distraught because he was being deployed to Iraq, where he would be required to fight against Al Qaeda and other Islamists, which he could not bring himself to do. Because he could not bring himself to commit to his mission because he believed that even in his capacity as a psychologist for the US Army he would be required to possibly debrief and interrogate Muslims, he felt increasingly conflicted within himself about his mission, and committed the unspeakable: he committed murder. even when such a fanaticism was compelled by an expression of protest against killing; as twisted as this may seem to the rest of US.
This events of Fort Hood brings US to another almost forgotten story of a young Israeli's struggle to recover from wounds inflicted on him by a bomb that was delivered to his house as a Purim Present a year ago, and the shocking discovery that the "gift" which exploded and ripped his body to shreds had been sent by a fellow Israeli Jew driven by religious hatred because Ami and his family are Messianic Israelis.
It is the story of a family's pain, a young man's faith, and the heartwarming gestures of support and prayers of Israelis from every corner of the country sent to this young man and his family for his and their recovery; especially that they heal from the deep wounds of the heart something like this can inflict on a human soul; because Israelis above all others, have learned firsthand that this kind of wound takes longer to heal.
Like Fort Hood, what happened to young Ami is something one expects from an enemy, but when it is done by someone from within your community; from the last place anyone would anticipate such a horrendous act as coming; it serves a bitter lesson of how fanaticism in any form impairs good judgment, the potential such fanaticism has for grave danger to the peace of any community.
A religious fanatic felt justified to commit such an act because he believed he was doing it in the name of G-d. One incident happened in Fort Hood Texas, and this other incident happened in Israel. One incident took place between one American against his fellow Americans. The other one in Israel happened to a Jew from a fellow Jew. But, we see the same thing occur every day around the world. Demonic hatred fuels the religious wars being fought in the name of Allah between Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, several nations on the African Continent, and other parts of the world.
Such religious bigotry is what fuels the Anti-missionaries as well within the Jewish communities of the world, because what happened to this young Israeli happened as a result of another Israeli who was compelled by his religious convictions that what he was doing he was doing as a mitzvah (good deed) to his god, as twisted as this may seem to be to the rest of US.
Religious hatred filled a man's heart and drove him on a rampage against his fellow Americans; and religious hatred filled another man's heart, driving him to lose his judgment and attempt to murder a fellow Jew in the name of the god he believes he serves. But history is replete with such acts in the name of G-d. The pogroms of Eastern Europe; the European Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the religious wars of Europe between Catholics and Protestants; the Moor's conquest of Spain, Muslims on Muslims; right down to the present day.
Yesterday's massacre of a lone gunman in Texas is perhaps the latest act of senseless carnage because the assailant had filled his heart with so much hate, and had become so despondent due to this religious hatred that he committed an act against fellow Americans who did not expect for this to happen in of all places, an American fort inside the continental United States.
We are seeing a lot of the wrong type of religious expression, misguided as it is, and such expression, when taken to its most extreme form of manifestation, murders innocent human life.
Whether the religion is Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, or any other; if anyone's heart is filled with hatred towards one's fellow human being, and one allows this hatred to take expression through action against someone else in the name of his god; then such a person is not serving G-d.
Religious expression which manifests itself in hatred is not built upon G-d's foundation, because it is not based upon G-d's love, but on religious hatred and man's bigotry, because we also find where it says the following:
The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1John 2:9-11
And Messiah has added another commandment to those who are His followers where He says: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. This is I command you, that you love one another."
(John 13:34-35, 15:12-13, 17).
Perhaps the greatest commandment is the following one: "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR G-D WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT,", (Deuteronomy 6:5), but there is another commandment which that we are all told to follow, and that is the following one: "YOU SHALL NOT TAKE VENGEANCE, NOR BEAR ANY GRUDGE AGAINST THE SONS OF YOUR PEOPLE, BUT YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF: I AM THE LORD."
(Leviticus 19:18)
An ancient Rabbi and Tanna whose writings never made it to the Talmud, writes:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked , does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...
1Corinthians 13:1-8a
Expositing Torah life, the same ancient rabbi and Tanna admonishes elsewhere:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law.
Romans 13:8-10
The prophet Malachi posits the question to everyone who claims to love G-d and keep His commandments, and yet harbors enmity towards his fellow man:
"DO WE NOT ALL HAVE ONE FATHER? HAS NOT ONE GOD CREATED US? WHY DO WE DEAL TREACHEROUSLY EACH AGAINST HIS BROTHER SO AS TO PROFANE THE COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS?"
How can we sum all of this up? If the best expression of your love for G-d is to hate your fellow man, then It is not the G-d of the Scriptures whom you are serving, because He has commanded US - that is, you and me and everyone else - to love our fellow man whom we can see ; who like you and me and everyone else, is made in the image of the Lord whom we cannot see. Just as it says:
If someone says, "I love G-d," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love G-d whom he has not seen
1John 4:20
You love G-d? Then keep His commandments by loving Him first and foremost, then loving your neighbor as yourself, and also loving especially your brother as He has loved you. Anything else that comes short of this is sin because it comes short of the commandment to love, and it is a commandment.
On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera, the maverick left of center commentator, came out Saturday night using his skills as an attorney making comparisons comparing this killing with others committed by non-Muslims in efforts to make this killing and those others synonymous; in order to make the claim that religion - in this case - radical Islam in its most extreme form of expression - had no part in this killing. It was painful to watch this intelligent man, go out of his way to bend and twist his argument in order to divorce the assailant's religious beliefs as having played any part in his murderous rampage. It was painful because not is Geraldo an attorney, but he is a world class news commentator who has traveled and reported from almost every corner of the planet. Yet, for this one moment, it seemed as though he laid aside his intellect, and his good judgment, and an attorney's ability to view a case from every angle possible, and spin and morph the argument to fit a politically correct bias of his own choosing, supporting a premise that has no root in reality. His claim on its surface is so absurd that it begs to be dismissed and ignored altogether. It is an insult to our intelligence, because it a painful bending of selective points in order to posit a politically correct point of view.
If Geraldo and the others wished to defend Muslims against reprisals, it would have been better had he not tried to inject Islam into the discussion and denying it had any part in the affair. It really is an insult to my intelligence to hear this man willfully choose to bend his story in order to placate a religion for what would appear to be a defence of other Muslims. As mentioned above, it is so patently absurd that it does not deserve a rebuttal, yet for the sake of truth and fairness, it must be answered if only to be corrected, because justice demands it.
The very premise that religion - to be exact - Islam taken to its most extreme form of expression, had not played a role in this attack; is on its surface patently incorrect. For Geraldo on his show (Geraldo at Large) and others in the alphabet soup media to claim that it isn't because others who were non-Muslims "flipped out," and went on a murderous rampage themselves; is ludicrous; because unlike those other "non-Muslim" attacks, this one was made as the assailant shouted "Allah O Akbar!" god is great! in Arabic, the "rebel yell" of not just Islamists, but of all Muslims. Whatever motivated those other "non-Muslims" to go on their murderous rampages, this attack was motivated by fanatical religious hatred compelling a conflict of loyalties in a person to murder in the name of that religion. Way what one will about this man's mental, psychological, and emotional state of mind; at its very core this was a religious attack by a Muslim driven by conflicted loyalties to choose Islam and the murder of those whom he perceived to be its enemies.
To strengthen this is the assailant's own words where he is quoted as having declared that it was the right and duty of "all Muslims" to kill the enemies of Islam. The assailant considered the United States war in Iraq and Afghanistan a war against Islam, and as such believed it was his duty to take action against it, and action he did take. Though he was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, his misguided perception - no doubt fed by Jihadists, and Islamist Imams he heard, impelled him to take action against all enemies of Islam. In his judgment, America is fighting a war against Islam and against Muslims, and the time had come for him to decide whose side he was to be on. Thus far, and until the day of the incident, he had worn the uniform of the Army of the United States of America. It was time now for him to don the robes of a true follower of the prophet, and as reported by neighbors, days before the incident, he had begun to dress the part while not on duty.
Although he had taken an oath to protect and defend the United States, its Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic; his loyalty to his religion, triggered in him a clash of loyalties. When pressed to service - that is, to be deployed to a Muslim land, he considered this new responsibility so onerous to his religious sympathies, that although his MOS was not to engage in battle but to counsel; his judgment became so impaired by his fanatical hatred for "the enemies of Islam" that he was compelled to express this as he did on that fateful and tragic day.
His jihad resulted in the massacre of Fort Hood, the disruption of families, the death of innocents, and the premature and needless permanent separation of loved ones who had just returned from war with their families.
The media is so politically correct it is sickening. Because of its political correctness, it has lost the capacity to call evil what it is, and to identify its source correctly - religious fanaticism expressed in murderous hatred in the most extreme expression of the Muslim faith - of Islam. To claim that it is anything but this, is to deny the obvious. It is not an indictment of all Muslims worldwide, but an indictment of a religion - Islam - taken to its most extreme form of expression and manifestation in murderous religious hatred. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (US Army Ret.), make a most cogent case that this was indeed an act of Islamist terror (http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ). But allow US if you will to examine exactly what we can learn from this, and what we must do to not only avoid it, but to ever keep it from happening again. In order to do this, we must look beyond the confines of religious prejudice, and go into the very heart of what was the root cause of this man's pathology that drove him, and has driven others to similar acts against their fellow human beings.
The events of Fort Hood, Texas brings some very important lessons for US to take to heart. The tragic carnage which took place at Fort Hood is only the latest in a long history of religious hatred driven by a fanaticism that has plagued the human race since the dawn of time.
We are told that US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim, had become increasingly distraught because he was being deployed to Iraq, where he would be required to fight against Al Qaeda and other Islamists, which he could not bring himself to do. Because he could not bring himself to commit to his mission because he believed that even in his capacity as a psychologist for the US Army he would be required to possibly debrief and interrogate Muslims, he felt increasingly conflicted within himself about his mission, and committed the unspeakable: he committed murder. even when such a fanaticism was compelled by an expression of protest against killing; as twisted as this may seem to the rest of US.
This events of Fort Hood brings US to another almost forgotten story of a young Israeli's struggle to recover from wounds inflicted on him by a bomb that was delivered to his house as a Purim Present a year ago, and the shocking discovery that the "gift" which exploded and ripped his body to shreds had been sent by a fellow Israeli Jew driven by religious hatred because Ami and his family are Messianic Israelis.
It is the story of a family's pain, a young man's faith, and the heartwarming gestures of support and prayers of Israelis from every corner of the country sent to this young man and his family for his and their recovery; especially that they heal from the deep wounds of the heart something like this can inflict on a human soul; because Israelis above all others, have learned firsthand that this kind of wound takes longer to heal.
Like Fort Hood, what happened to young Ami is something one expects from an enemy, but when it is done by someone from within your community; from the last place anyone would anticipate such a horrendous act as coming; it serves a bitter lesson of how fanaticism in any form impairs good judgment, the potential such fanaticism has for grave danger to the peace of any community.
A religious fanatic felt justified to commit such an act because he believed he was doing it in the name of G-d. One incident happened in Fort Hood Texas, and this other incident happened in Israel. One incident took place between one American against his fellow Americans. The other one in Israel happened to a Jew from a fellow Jew. But, we see the same thing occur every day around the world. Demonic hatred fuels the religious wars being fought in the name of Allah between Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, several nations on the African Continent, and other parts of the world.
Such religious bigotry is what fuels the Anti-missionaries as well within the Jewish communities of the world, because what happened to this young Israeli happened as a result of another Israeli who was compelled by his religious convictions that what he was doing he was doing as a mitzvah (good deed) to his god, as twisted as this may seem to be to the rest of US.
Religious hatred filled a man's heart and drove him on a rampage against his fellow Americans; and religious hatred filled another man's heart, driving him to lose his judgment and attempt to murder a fellow Jew in the name of the god he believes he serves. But history is replete with such acts in the name of G-d. The pogroms of Eastern Europe; the European Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the religious wars of Europe between Catholics and Protestants; the Moor's conquest of Spain, Muslims on Muslims; right down to the present day.
Yesterday's massacre of a lone gunman in Texas is perhaps the latest act of senseless carnage because the assailant had filled his heart with so much hate, and had become so despondent due to this religious hatred that he committed an act against fellow Americans who did not expect for this to happen in of all places, an American fort inside the continental United States.
We are seeing a lot of the wrong type of religious expression, misguided as it is, and such expression, when taken to its most extreme form of manifestation, murders innocent human life.
Whether the religion is Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, or any other; if anyone's heart is filled with hatred towards one's fellow human being, and one allows this hatred to take expression through action against someone else in the name of his god; then such a person is not serving G-d.
Religious expression which manifests itself in hatred is not built upon G-d's foundation, because it is not based upon G-d's love, but on religious hatred and man's bigotry, because we also find where it says the following:
The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1John 2:9-11
And Messiah has added another commandment to those who are His followers where He says: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. This is I command you, that you love one another."
(John 13:34-35, 15:12-13, 17).
Perhaps the greatest commandment is the following one: "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR G-D WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT,", (Deuteronomy 6:5), but there is another commandment which that we are all told to follow, and that is the following one: "YOU SHALL NOT TAKE VENGEANCE, NOR BEAR ANY GRUDGE AGAINST THE SONS OF YOUR PEOPLE, BUT YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF: I AM THE LORD."
(Leviticus 19:18)
An ancient Rabbi and Tanna whose writings never made it to the Talmud, writes:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked , does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...
1Corinthians 13:1-8a
Expositing Torah life, the same ancient rabbi and Tanna admonishes elsewhere:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the Law.
Romans 13:8-10
The prophet Malachi posits the question to everyone who claims to love G-d and keep His commandments, and yet harbors enmity towards his fellow man:
"DO WE NOT ALL HAVE ONE FATHER? HAS NOT ONE GOD CREATED US? WHY DO WE DEAL TREACHEROUSLY EACH AGAINST HIS BROTHER SO AS TO PROFANE THE COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS?"
How can we sum all of this up? If the best expression of your love for G-d is to hate your fellow man, then It is not the G-d of the Scriptures whom you are serving, because He has commanded US - that is, you and me and everyone else - to love our fellow man whom we can see ; who like you and me and everyone else, is made in the image of the Lord whom we cannot see. Just as it says:
If someone says, "I love G-d," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love G-d whom he has not seen
1John 4:20
You love G-d? Then keep His commandments by loving Him first and foremost, then loving your neighbor as yourself, and also loving especially your brother as He has loved you. Anything else that comes short of this is sin because it comes short of the commandment to love, and it is a commandment.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
NEW HIT SCI FI SERIES GETS POLITICALLY CORRECT MAKEOVER BY ABC
Some Observations of "V" the New Series
It appears that the new ABC Sci Fi television series remake of "V" has become the latest hit with audiences, but it is too much of a hit with them, and for ABC, who does not wish for its new series to be identified with any person, persons, political movement, or cause/s; the executives at the top of the alphabet soup channel have decided to fire the series' original producer, Scott Peters. And there is additional news that writer/executive producer Jeffrey Bell has also left the series, with ABC having replaced them with more politically correct counterparts who will now helm and write the upcoming episodes. It is not known at this time, which direction the series will now take.
It appears that too many of Tuesday's audience identify with the premise of the series in their own lives - that they are living at a period in America of "political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
"The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: 'Why don't you show some respect?!' The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: 'Embracing change is never easy.'" as the article featured as a link on the Drudge Report, and written by Glen Garvin for McClatchy/Tribune News tells US(http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-tc-tvcolumn-v-1102-1103nov03,0,7062976.story).
It is not known if ABC took these steps because of the Chicago Tribune's write-up which showcased the article cited above, but if there are any doubts, the article's title featured the following captions: "'V' Aims at Obamamania" and not only does Mr. Garvin who wrote the article pen the observations above (just cited), with the controversial title, but he also asks, "So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?"
One thing is certain however, Mr. Garvin is a keen observer, because the connections he makes as a reporter of Obamamania are absolutely correct and accurate. And coming from one such as he, it comes something as a surprise from someone writing for the mainstream media. Not only is it an admission of sorts, but perhaps even a revelation for a member of the news media, since Mr.Garvin does not work for Fox News, or talk radio, or is even a conservative; as some on the Left would assume.
It appears that in the words of the X Files, the truth is out there. I would add to that also that the truth is getting out as well.
It appears that the new ABC Sci Fi television series remake of "V" has become the latest hit with audiences, but it is too much of a hit with them, and for ABC, who does not wish for its new series to be identified with any person, persons, political movement, or cause/s; the executives at the top of the alphabet soup channel have decided to fire the series' original producer, Scott Peters. And there is additional news that writer/executive producer Jeffrey Bell has also left the series, with ABC having replaced them with more politically correct counterparts who will now helm and write the upcoming episodes. It is not known at this time, which direction the series will now take.
It appears that too many of Tuesday's audience identify with the premise of the series in their own lives - that they are living at a period in America of "political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
"The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: 'Why don't you show some respect?!' The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: 'Embracing change is never easy.'" as the article featured as a link on the Drudge Report, and written by Glen Garvin for McClatchy/Tribune News tells US(http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-tc-tvcolumn-v-1102-1103nov03,0,7062976.story).
It is not known if ABC took these steps because of the Chicago Tribune's write-up which showcased the article cited above, but if there are any doubts, the article's title featured the following captions: "'V' Aims at Obamamania" and not only does Mr. Garvin who wrote the article pen the observations above (just cited), with the controversial title, but he also asks, "So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?"
One thing is certain however, Mr. Garvin is a keen observer, because the connections he makes as a reporter of Obamamania are absolutely correct and accurate. And coming from one such as he, it comes something as a surprise from someone writing for the mainstream media. Not only is it an admission of sorts, but perhaps even a revelation for a member of the news media, since Mr.Garvin does not work for Fox News, or talk radio, or is even a conservative; as some on the Left would assume.
It appears that in the words of the X Files, the truth is out there. I would add to that also that the truth is getting out as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)