This about sums it up…

This indictment is far more comprehensive than the one I offered a few days ago. I wholeheartedly say “hear, hear!” (HT: Daily Pundit)
***

It’s become more and more obvious that Republican apologists are going to be able to get away with blaming the upcoming “stunning” defeat on the Foley “scandal,” rather than the fact that large chunks of its base and other normally dependable voters are going to stay home in disgust over the several years of:

Wild-eyed pork, earmarks, and increasing government size and power.

intentions to put Gonzales and Miers on the Supreme Court.

Failure to engage the strongest enemies of the US, in particular Iran.

Horrible mismanagement of the Iraq occupation.

Passing and signing the Campaign Finance Reform act.

The new trillion dollar entitlement program for Prescription Drugs.

The gigantic Katrina rathole.

The education bill.

Reneging on structural party promises about smaller, less intrusive government.

Accomodation of Kofi Annan and the biggest financial scandal in history.

An absolute failure to grapple with illegal immigration and open borders, with only the policy of amnesty and and increase of tens of millions of “legal” immigrants over the next two decades offered as a “solution.”

Unarmed airline pilots.

Agreeing to sign the Assault Weapons Bill.

Needlessly intrusive “security” at airports.

A refusal to sensibly profile for terrorists.

The Ports Dubai fiasco in which critical parts of American ports are still owned by a foreign Islamic nation.

Making a general botch of our and Israel’s efforts in the middle east.

A policy that will permit the world’s most dangerous nations to threaten us with the world’s most dangerous weapons.

Far too close and suspicious relationship between the families of our President and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, which has led to dangerous security breaches like permitting the huge Saudi private “charity’ network to continue to function in the US and fund Wahabbi mosques and schools where hatred of America forms the heart of the curriculum, and allowed free passage of 15,000 Saudi “students” into our colleges and universities.

A general and comprehensive betrayal of just about every fundamental precept espoused by the Republican Party over the past fifty years.

Islam, the Religion of Peace ™.

No, of course, none of that has anything with my decision to refuse to vote for any Republicans this fall. It must that terrible Foley scandal.

Nothing new under the sun

This is an interesting 90-second tour of centuries of history in the graveyard of empires.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
“Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. …
Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Psalm 2:1-4 and 10-11

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

(HT: Evangelical Outpost)

Art, life and Halloween

Plenty of people refer to entertainment media as “escapes” — breaks from reality. Fair enough. Reality today can be depressing: ugly open ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, murky terrorist threats in Europe and the U.S., economic uncertainty and a sense the wheels are coming off of the world we once knew.

So what are moviegoers ‘escaping’ to? Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Grudge 2. Next week it will be Saw III.

I’ve never understood the appeal of ‘slasher’ films. Society seems to want to minimize real violence — there are certainly enough drives to ban firearms to testify to this. So why is there a thrill in watching characters tortured on the silver screen?

Of course, the current glut of cutthroat cinema is tied to Halloween:

Adding the decorations during peak demand also boosts the bottom line. The National Retail Federation expects Halloween sales to reach $5 billion this year; 26 percent of that will be spent on decorations.

At Spirit Halloween in Raleigh’s Sutton Square on Falls of the Neuse Road, shoppers can buy the Death Crawler — a half-man that drags himself across the floor — for $129.99. There’s also a 6-foot Leatherface replica of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” fame that comes with a bloody chainsaw, for $249.99.

Does it strike anybody else as odd that in a time of war and increasing consumer debt, people are spending hundreds of dollars to adorn their homes with death and dismemberment?

“It’s all in good fun,” comes the quick retort. To which I reply that our sense of fun has become severly warped. The late Pope John Paul II was ridiculed for criticizing what he called a “culture of death” sweeping the world. But between Hollywood, the video game industry, euthanasia and abortion as birth control, can anyone seriously deny he had a point? Any outsider looking at what our society consumes for ‘fun’ has to become concerned over what to expect from us:

If you live in Indonesia or Nigeria… you’ll get little chance to balance the negative impressions you draw from The X-Files, Hannibal or Natural Born Killers with any firsthand experience with America or Americans. No wonder so many Islamic extremists (and so many others) now look upon the USA as a cruel, godless, brutal and vulgar society – a “Great Satan,” indeed.

I wonder what will happen to Hollywood’s box office receipts if the day ever comes where people leave their ‘escapes’ only to emerge into a reality regularly filled with 9/11 events. It will be a shame if only then do we lose our taste for blood and gore. It will also be too late.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Power and principles

Before 1994, the GOP spent many years in the minority in Congress. For some reason, that experience seems to focus the political mind. After scratching their heads, election after election, the Republicans produced the Contract With America. The document wonderfully distilled a coherent conservative government strategy.

Twelve years later, that Contract looks more like a hit piece. Once in power, the party rubbed their hands together, yelled “payback time” to the Democrats, and began abusing Federal perogatives every bit as much as their rivals had — the more egregiously, since they’d campaigned as the responsible, limited government types.

The two major parties have all but destroyed our constitutional Federal government. That’s why we have situations like this.

Monopolies breed poor customer service. Right now the two parties believe they have a lock on their “bases,” because they can always snort “what will you do…vote for the OTHER guys?”
When will voters recognize this party system as a shell game, cry “a plague on both your houses,” and vote in responsible citizens in lieu of party hacks?

Info rich, thought poor

From Charlie Reese:

Clear thinking today is especially difficult, because the present generations of human beings are exposed to information in an unprecedented flood. Some years ago, it was estimated that the average American was exposed to about 15,000 messages per day. I’m sure that number has increased.

Information is not truth. It is bits of data that might be true or false or completely useless to know. I’ve often recommended that people take an information break. Go a week without watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers or magazines or surfing the Net. It might be difficult at first, but if you persist, you will be surprised by how normal the world appears once you’ve cut out the political chatter and the daily roundup of the world’s pain and misery.

The most important point is to realize that your mind belongs to you. It is your principal means of survival. Don’t rent it out to politicians or political parties or anybody else, including columnists and commentators. All leaders of whatever stripe desire is to persuade you to adopt their agenda. Don’t do it. Arrive at your own independent agenda. If your own agenda coincides with theirs, then cooperate. If it doesn’t, go your own way.

Think, folks, think.

The most privileged societies often seem to squander their advantages. We have abundant food and health knowledge in the U.S. — but people eat Twinkies and refuse to take care of themselves. Same is true on the information front. Our media choices are nearly unlimited and omnipresent — but are mostly the info equivalent of Twinkies. Yes, life is unfair to many. But it’s safe to say that in the land of plenty, many are choosing to be poor in more ways than one. If one chooses not to think, it’s a good bet someone will offer to do it for them.

Kids will (not) be kids

It amazes me how much society tolerates, even adores, adults acting like juveniles, but prohibits kids from being kids:

Tag is now out during recess at Willett Elementary School in Attleboro. So is touch football and any other unsupervised “chasing” games that are deemed to pose the risk of injury as well as liability to the school.
… a growing movement against traditional games played by young children in school gymnasiums and playgrounds. A few years ago, school administrators in the area, as well as around the country, took aim at dodgeball, saying it was an exclusionary and dangerous game. Modified versions now include softer balls and ways for children to re-enter the action.

Let’s summarize the childrearing process as accomplished by public schools:

– So long as a student refrains from politically unaccepable behavior, they can dress or talk any way they like…
– Physical discipline is out of the question (but we’ll keep armed security around just in case)
– If students show too much energy, or not enough responsiveness to the droning in class, diagnose as ADD and drug them up
– Spend more time teaching sympathy for other societies than adherance to the standards that got our own where it is — include generous amounts of guilt for all the ills of the world
– Use vending machines to raise revenue (don’t we pay enough property taxes??), restrict how the kids can play at recess, then complain all the kids are too fat.

Any wonder why our family homeschools now?

You can’t eat just one…

When I worked with nuke weapons, we used to chuckle at the “limited response options” built into warplans. Most of us labored under the “potato chip” theory of nuclear war, based on the old ad slogan: “you can’t eat just one.”

North Korea seems to be working toward validation of that theory.

SEOUL – United States spy satellites have detected activity near North Korea’s nuclear site that may signal preparations for another test.

NBC television said spy satellites had detected people and trucks near the site of last week’s blast.

An intelligence official in Washington said: “US intelligence is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting another nuclear test.”

China, meanwhile, has to be concerned this is bad for business. From Cox and Forkum:

UPDATE: As I was saying…

Your own political Jesus *

A surprisingly lucid editorial on Christianity and politics ends up in USA Today:

In our political tradition, most evangelicals and other conservative Christians today are really moderates. They want a government that is non-sectarian without being hostile to organized religion and people of faith. That’s a whole lot closer to what the Founders had in mind than the officially godless public square advocated by the American Civil Liberties Union.

What’s more, the creation of the religious right was largely a function of the courts and politicians pushing the boundaries the other way. Evangelicals were moved to civic activism because the IRS threatened to revoke the tax-exempt status of private Christian schools; because the U.S. Supreme Court removed abortion from the political process; because mentions of the Almighty began to be scrubbed from valedictory addresses for fear that someone, somewhere might take offense. Today, the term “goddamn” is treated as protected speech, but remove the “damn” and watch the lawsuits roll in. (best summary of the current standard I’ve read in a long time — Jemison)

So evangelicals did the only responsible thing they could in a democracy. They organized and reached out…

That fact is intolerable to many intellectuals.

The remainder of the editorial deals with the double standard that permits bashing of the “religious right’s” politics while applauding those who cite the teachings of Jesus to justify various community initiatives. The authors never summarize this standard, but I will: it’s OK to cite Jesus as an authority figure for SOCIAL responsibility, but the moment you cite His comments on INDIVIDUAL responsibility, you’re considered beyond the political pale.

The Left has some truth on their side when they charge the Church with neglecting its duties to “widows and orphans.” They forget, however, that Jesus never advocated “giving unto Caesar so he can give your money to others.” The Christian owes a personal duty to minister to others, and that can’t be delegated to the State simply by voting for a tax increase.

On the other hand, the so-called Right is correct that many of their opponents would reduce Jesus to an environmentally conscious, spiritually aware guru who made people feel good about themselves. If idolatry is attempting to make God in a form preferable to Man, what’s happened here is the ultimate idolatry of the ’60s generation: Jesus as a Birkenstock-wearing Peacenik. The problem is that Peacenik said he came bringing a sword — a standard that would divide. That standard involves personal conduct… and accountability.

Politicians seek any advantage they can, so it’s no surprise that parties of every pursuasion look to bless their platform by trying to associate it with Christ. But as a commentator recently said, Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. If anything, He’s probably a monarchist.

(* – my apologies to anyone who got that Depeche Mode song stuck in their head as a result of the title of this post. If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t shake it either… dum, duuum, da-dum…)

Cold front in Hades

Who’d have thunk it? The Saint are 5-1 going into their bye week!

Now, as long as we’re dialing down the thermostat in Hell, maybe we can see about these other long-overdue items:

– Reduction of Federal Gov’t activities to those specifically enumerated in the Constitution
– Withdrawal of all overseas troops not actively involved in hunting Al Qada and its allies
– Serve notice that all mutual defense treaties will be null and void in 12 months. There is no reason to consider attacks on Taipei and Warsaw to be the same as attacks on Texarkana and Walla Walla.

OK, so maybe the devil doesn’t need to buy a parka yet. Still, if the Saints can piece together a successful football season, there’s hope that anything’s possible…

Shedding a little light

This is just a fascinating collage of satellite imagery. Enjoy (click to enlarge).

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14