The Freedom Wave

Ever been in a "wave" at a football game or baseball?? So what are these?!?!

Lebanon, Arab Democracy?

Is this the beginning of a Freedom Wave in the Middle East? God, I hope so. I see and hear of stuff like this and it makes my heart glad for my kids.

"The Keyes to Homosexuality"

Eric Hogue has poised some difficult questions. In answer, is Mary Cheney a “selfish hedonist?” Is Maya Marcel-Keyes? Yes, but aren’t we all to some degree or another? Is the stain of Mary Cheney’s or Maya Marcel-Keyes’ sin more prominent than mine in God’s view? No. Is Alan Keyes reaction to his daughter’s public outing of herself as a “liberal queer” the correct one accordding to WWJD? Ouch. A highly emotionally charged issue. A family is being ripped apart in public, but I believe the tear started in private long ago. Keyes is obviously hurt and angered by his daughter’s action. But what is more obvious is that there some deeper hurt and unresolved anger flowing between Keyes and his daughter for her to want to publically rub his face in it like this.

In contrast, Mary Cheney’s avoidance of the limelight and her father’s reaction to the clumsy attempts by Captain Talltales and the ambulance chaser to politicize his daughter’s sexual mores was the epitome of Christian grace by the father. Theirs is a much deeper and stable relationship at the public surface anyway. Dick refused to use his family’s issues in the political arena no matter how much the press and Batox and the Boy Plunder tried to despicably manipulate the issue to their benefit. Of course, Mother Cheney let Batox (aka Capt. Talltales, aka John F'ing Kerry) have it after the last debate for publicly pooping in the Cheney nest. She was right to do that. It was a cheap tawdry stunt and needed to be called such.

The Cheney’s apparent reaction to daughter Mary’s walk on the wild side reminds me of the parable of the Prodigal Son (or Daughter as the case may be). The Prodigal Son took his inheritance from his father and pissed it away on wild living or in short – a sinful lifestyle. The father let him do it. He certainly didn’t hogtie him to stop him. Yet, when the son had lost everything and had to take the most menial job available (slop hogs) to even survive, his father gleefully accepted him home with a party when the son finally came to his senses. The joy was in that his son “was lost, but now is found.” The parable, of course, is that God the Father will always accept you back from the wilderness if only you choose to return to Him.

If an offspring demands, insists upon kicking and screaming to have their way even though you know it’s wrong, the best thing to do is apparently let them have their way all the while making sure they understand your arms are still open to them as God’s are to all of us. That’s a true model of WWJD, even though I would need Jesus to pry my arms apart into the open embrace! My respect for Dick Cheney shot into the stratosphere watching him struggle with those emotional strings that punk of a lawyer tried tugging on. Any respect I might have had for Kerry/Edwards sank into the swamp. Small men.

Is Alan Keyes opening his arms to his daughter in response to her public slap to his face? No, he isn’t. Can’t say that I blame him. I understand his anger. But is it Christian? No. If I were a member of his congregation (presuming he will never read my pathetic little blog), I would call him to the mat on this in an iron-sharpening-iron thing. If nothing else to tell him to keep a private family matter just that no matter how loud and obnoxious his daughter may get, and to keep a crowbar handy for Jesus to pry apart his arms.

I'm Bored Today But Hinchey sure is a nut!!

So been browsing the net. Seems any crackpot can get elected these daze. Karl Rove must be blushing, because ole Maurice Hinchey thinks he's the most evil genius since Dr. Evil. From Google, Michelle Malkin thinks Hinchey is crazy. The Chuckster outs Hinchey's lunacy. Tim Blair lets some more VRWC cats outa the bag that Hinchey's on to something.

Me? I thinks Hinchey is the Haliburton Candidate:

((A phone rings in Congressman Hinchey's office.
He picks it up and a mechanical voice slowly says over the telephone))

"Maurice? Maurice Hinchey? Congressman Maurice Hinchey?

You are to go on CNN today and say the following ....."

GOD!! What a Bunch of Whiners!!

From the annual reading program (I'm a bit behind):

10Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his
tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. 11 He asked the
LORD ,
"Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done
to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I
conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry
them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath
to their forefathers? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep
wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' 14 I cannot carry all these people by
myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat
me, put me to death right now-if I have found favor in your eyes-and do not let
me face my own ruin." - Numbers 11:10-15

Yeah Brother Moses, I hear ya!! I could just hear Moses making a nasally impression to the Lord of the whiners saying “Ohhh, Give us meaaattt to eaaattt. This manna stuff bloowws.” “Ye God!!! Please. Just kill me before I kill them. I can’t take these little babies and their incessant whining anymore! Jeeez!” says Moses to the Lord. Ever felt like that? Man, have I as a gov’mint manager!! The Bible is an onion with infinite layers. I never thoroughly read Numbers before because the accounting side of it always had me dozing off, but this was a real gem.

It actually had me laughing out loud when in the verses that followed, the Lord basically agrees with Moses, to paraphrase: “You’re right my faithful servant! They ARE a bunch of unfaithful whiners! I will relieve your burdens by delegating part of your duties and My Spirit on seventy others. Wished they had stayed in Egypt and dined on meat in slavery rather than accept My liberation? Fine. Meat they want, then meat they shall have until it makes them sick and DIE!” Here’s the actual text:

16 The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to
you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of
Meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with
you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on
them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not
have to carry it alone.
18 "Tell the people: 'Consecrate
yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard
you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!"
Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for
just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole
month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have
rejected the LORD , who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why
did we ever leave Egypt?" ' " – Numbers 11:16-20

Our “heroes” meet their destiny with:

31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought
them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a
day's walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the
people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then
they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still
between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD
burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore
the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who
had craved other food. – Numbers 11:31-34

Whew! Patience is a virtue as my mother used to tell me. Instilling discipline on an unruly mob is hard work. I have to hand it to us sometimes, we can really push the Lord’s buttons sometimes. Thank You Jesus for taking the burden of us. I’m not sure the Father would have put up with all we dish out for too much longer!

Cullyfornya - Banana Republic

That's what our vaunted Speaker of the House would have you believe. There's this from the Sacramento Beast. Not exactly an entirely sympathetic story on Fabian, but what they didn't report on was played on the Belly of the Beast this morning. Fabian likened (R)nold's election to that which happens in "under-developed countries" when the "minority party wins" and then starts governing. Well, hell, if purging a multi-billion dollar deficit in a year's time is something only a Hugo Chavez could do, that doesn't say much about freedom and democracy now does it?

When does this guy term out?

The L Files

Someone call Agent Mulder and get him started on The L (as in League) Files - Jose’s juiced!! Jose Canseco has written a book outing several sacred cows in MLB as fellow juicers (eg steroids), including the most sacred cow - Mark McGwire. I remember the Oakland A’s “Bash Brother’s” days with Mr. 40&40 Jose and Big Mac “bashing” forearms after knockin’ ‘em out of the Coliseum. The worst part was A’s tickets started sky-rocketing to the point me and my SJSU buds couldn’t afford to go anymore. Ahhhhh yes, the price of success! I was glad to See my A’s take it to the top. Nowdaze they’re trying to C their A’s. I lost interest in baseball after the strike. Guys making bucco bucks (salaries that would take ten years for me to total up to!) for living out their so-called dream but whining that they weren’t paid enough made me want to hurl. Their use of steroids sours me stomach even more. Either God gave you certain gifts or He didn’t – deal with it. Or if you’re going to “enhance” those gifts, at least don’t lie about it so we can take your achievements with the requisite grain of salt rather than the rock that’s forming now.

Well, Matt Lauerererer was giving Jose what for on the Today Show. Matt taking marching orders from the League it seems, by implying Jose needs the bucks so comes out with a kiss-n-tell book, so to speak. Hasn’t Matt quit for CBS yet? Hell, he meets all of the qualifications!!! This should make Matt the leading candidate for Dan Blather’s job for the CBS honchos, since he’s showing himself as a ready corporate player ‘Rather’ than a journalist if you’ll pardon the pun. Either NBC or CBS may have just pleased the League big time by this clumsy attempt to paint Jose as a louse, ‘Rather’ than digging into the real story.

Does Jose have an axe to grind with the League? Sure he does! He tweren’t exactly their idear of a poster boy so they done showed him da door!!! Was that smart on the part of the League? Probably not, given what Jose has in that pointy little head of his. To be clear, I’m no Jose Cansucko (G-Mann, Terry, remember those days??), errr, Canseco fan, but is he telling the truth in this book? I have no doubts he is. True, he has internal demons that he’s been less than successful at fighting. He’s never grown up in my opinion, hence my non-fan status, but I’m stopping short of calling him a liar on this. There’s too much supporting evidence that he’s telling the truth. If the League has their own version of the Cigarette Smoking Man, ole Jose better keep one eye over his shoulder from here on!

Public Skrools and Homophobia

Well, I might have gone off the deep end a bit this am with an e-mail to The Hogue Show. The topic was a bill placing some limits on what can be taught in public schools regarding health and sex education, which I’m all for. Rabbit trails can (and apparently have) run down paths regarding so-called “alternative lifestyles” in some of the health/sex ed curriculums. My take on sex education in the public skrool beyond; here’s what the two different reproductive organs do, here's what happens when you put them together, here’s the primary consequence of that particular act and here’s the secondary consequences (venereal disease), is that anything else beyond the basic facts is social engineering attempting to usurp parental authority.

Hogue agreed with that, but thought I might be “bi-polar” because I was accusing the bill’s author, Mountjoy, of being homophobic. Not the case. The other speaker Eric had on (Tony?) made a supportive comment about the bill, as he was concerned about “homosexual recruitment.” That statement set me off. It set me off enough to dash off a hasty, angry, ill-conceived e-mail to the Hoguester describing that kind of talk as homophobic. While my writing style may have had the appearance of being bi-polar in its angry tone, I stand by my position that Tony? is bad for the cause if he’s going to make public pronouncements about “homosexuals recruiting our children to their group,” as if they are setting up something like lemonade stands or camped out right alongside the military recruiting stands (which I support Eric, the Solomon rule at Yale notwithstanding). That type of talk sounds a wee bit paranoid at best, downright psychotic at worse. Either way is a public perception of people like me, with severe moral objections to any attempt to mainstream alternative lifestyles, as right wing homophobic nut cases. If there is indeed homosexual recruitment for partners going on, which I’m not denying is happening anymore then I’d deny I use to recruit women as partners for one-night stands in my misguided youth (I was a lousy recruiter BTW!), fear of that is more a comment on one’s parenting skills then the skill of the recruiter. I have neither fear nor hatred of homosexuals, so when I hear people saying misguided things that tend to paint people with my opinion as fanatics, I take offense. As our senior pastor at Adventure Christian Church said one time, “We’re not afraid of any sin!” Damn Right!! I’ve described a variety of things as sinful and to be avoided to our 4th grader, so yes I would be upset to learn teachers are contradicting my words to him regarding homosexuality if that’s happening, but I’d not be fearful.

And that’s what sex education beyond the basic facts starts delving into - sin. Is homosexuality wrong? If not, then what is wrong? Is bestiality wrong? Is adult-child sex wrong? Is pre-marital sex wrong? Who draws that line? If I were to pronounce homosexuality a sin (which I am, as well as the other examples), there are those out there who will accuse me of a hate crime. Like I said earlier, I don’t hate homosexuals, I hate their sin as much as I hate my own sins, but I don’t hate the sinner. The sinner is to be saved and God has very clearly defined what He considers sin. But this is not a discussion for the public skrools, so Mountjoy’s proposal is right on the mark.

How do I know it’s sin? Weeelll…. “Because the Bible tells me so!” as the song goes. Yes, yes, yes, I know the left-wing arguments out there about the “hateful and cruel God” described in Leviticus when it comes to punishment for homosexuals – which is DEATH. Well, nearly EVERY offense described in Leviticus, as well as the last chapters of Exodus, was punishable by death. It wasn’t just reserved for those poor oppressed homosexuals. Even the New Testament doesn’t have good things to say about homosexuality and other sin with Paul describing what happens when men turn away from God and to themselves (Romans). The difference between the Old and New Testaments is God allows us to choose Him or sin in the New with Christ paying for the sin part. That is not a cruel and hateful God that would do such a thing.

There was no such freedom in the Old. Why? Well, Christ hadn’t come yet to pay full price. But if you read the Bible (and I do mean READ it, not just skim it for soundbites to argue about), you would detect a few things about the early Israelites. Primarily they were not very nice people. “Father” Abraham passed his wife Sarah around like she was a whore so save his own skin. Nice, very nice. Jacob stole his older brother’s blessing by deceiving his dying father. Nice, very nice. Joseph’s brothers threw him down a well and then sold him to slave-traders. Nice, very nice. Judah wouldn’t let his widowed daughter-in-law remarry and had sex with her because she disguised herself as a prostitute to receive his seed and produce a child. Nice, very nice. And the list goes on. These were barbaric people! They lacked personal discipline and engaged in rather noxious and downright UNHEALTHY behavior. Why else would the Good Lord see it necessary to describe to the freed-from-Egypt Israelites what must be done if a man “lay with a woman” who was menstruating? EEEE-Yuucccck!! Are You freakin’ kidding me?!?! I mean, the mind just reels to read some of these “laws” handed down to the Israelite tribes. Just disgusting people, and the purpose described in these first books of the Bible is the Lord instituting JUST A LITTLE DISCIPLINE on a bunch of savages. They may not have understood the value of human life to God, or how to treat their women-folk honorably like gentlemen, or personal property, but they certainly understood they didn’t want to die for breaking the rules!! At least once the Lord contemplated ridding Himself of the whole rotten lot those “stiff-necked people,” but Moses talked Him out of it. He relented primary out of love for His people, even though their wickedness grieved Him plenty.

This isn’t just about homosexuality; it’s about sin in general when it comes to the human condition. Ours is a wicked culture and always has been. Up onto now, the wickedness was kept in the shadows, repented for and eventually left behind the sinner as the Holy Spirit sunk in enough. Now daze, it’s “celebrated” under the euphemism of “diversity.” A stiff-necked people we have become once more. But to say homosexuals are going to “recruit” my son into their ranks via the education system gives them more credit then I give myself as a God loving/fearing father. It sounds nutty and makes me look like just another kook for taking a moral stand. That offends me.