Friday, July 31, 2009



I don't really have any reason to post this picture, except I want to. I don't have anything profound to say. I guess I could say "album art has come a long way".
You can download John Piper's book "Filling Up The Afflictions of Christ", as study of several missionaries, free. Yes, free. Go here. It is in "pdf" format, so you'll need Adobe Reader, which you can also download for free.

Think of it as your Spiritual Stimulus Package.
Nissan has an electric car! It looks like the Versa but is completely electric. And it is a plug in. You park it at night and plug it in to recharge it. A cool bonus is you can program it from your smart phone. That means you can program it to charge only after peak demand for electricity subsides.

I'd like to have an electric car to drive to work. I'm tired of paying money to people who kill my friends. The help to the environment is gravy.

If I get one, I'm going to put a picture of Osama bin Ladin on the back glass with a read circle around him and a slash. (I threw that last sentence in just in case you thought my desire for an electric car meant I was evolving as a human being.)

Thursday, July 30, 2009

REVEREND IKE TO FIND OUT WHAT THE GOSPEL REALLY IS

The New York Times reports that Reverend Ike is dead.

When I was of high school age in the late 1960's, I sometimes listened to the Reverend Ike on the radio late at night. We moved a lot, and a lot of the time I had insomnia, so I would listen to the radio at night, turning the volume so long only I could hear it on the clock radio next to my head.

Back then we only had AM stations as far as I knew. Late at night, the less powerful stations would fade away and powerful stations, especially clear channel stations, could be heard from far away. Many of the broadcasts were religious.

I had nothing else to do.

Ike's full name, it turns out, was Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II. He was loud and made a lot of bold assertions about his power to heal and make you rich. I remember him selling prayer cloths. Once, he evidently had a revival tent of some sort. He cut it up into pieces. If you sent in an offering, he would send you a piece of the tent as a prayer cloth.

He promised he would wear each piece next to his body, then you could wear it next to your body and be healed. I remember he said "bod-day", as in "I will wear it next to my bod-day, and when you wear it next to your bod-day, you will be healed of any disease in your bod-day."

Ironically, even as a teenager, I never took him seriously, thinking he was a con man or, as we called it in West Texas, a snake oil salesman. Yet, enough people believed him, or hoped, to send him millions of money to heal them or make them rich.

It turns out, old Ike also was one of the original prosperity preachers, long before I even knew what that was. Even as a teenager I had the Puritan work ethic deeply instilled. Prosperity came to those who worked hard, not those who mailed in money to radio preachers in some sort of celestial lottery. And you did not really seek to be rich, just comfortable.

Ike called his "theology" a “positive self-image psychology”. I'm wondering if Joel O'Steen was listening, too.

Even the New York Times realizes the so called prosperity gospel contradicts the Bible. They said "The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it." Why is that the NYT can see this but the modern Pentecostal church cannot?

Here is another quote that would ring today on so called Christian television: “This is the do-it-yourself church. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.”

Like many modern televangelists, he flaunted his wealth with expensive cars, houses and clothes. In contrast, Jesus told a rich young man to sell all he had and follow Christ. He also said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

I guess Ike knows by now. He died rich, but he is still dead and facing his eternal fate. Ike had his own take on that. He said “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.” I always heard you cannot take it with you. So, I'm not sure how you can bribe the gate keeper.

One way or another, Ike knows.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

MORE THOUGHTS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM

As more and more people study the healthcare reform package, more and more people find out they do not like it. One group that does not like it is senior citizens.

James Carville's Democracy Corps is a firm that does public opinion polls. You know Carville as the liberal Democrat campaign manager and pundit. Knowing who he is, you know there is no “conservative bias” in the poll.

The poll found that 54 percent of senior citizens oppose the healthcare reform legislation. Further, 40 percent oppose it "strongly."

The reason Seniors oppose the plan is that it moves the government’s expenditure on health care from the elderly to the young. The President wants to provide full and free healthcare to 43 million uninsured Americans. That costs a great deal of money. To raise that money, the President wants to cut the Medicare and Medicaid programs by $500 billion. This will be devastating to the more than one-third of senior citizens who depend on those two programs for their healthcare.

You may have noticed over the last few years the development of euthanasia and assisted suicide as societal benefit measures. That is, kill or assist the suicide of those who are no longer “productive” in society. Think of Hitler with the Jews and others he did not think were a benefit to society, and replace them with the old and sick. The Netherlands engages in similar programs for the elderly and many have considered it.

The President intends to appoint a panel of experts to decide who gets health care and how much. This is based on the British model. So, if you need heart surgery to survive, but the panel of experts decides you are not worth it, you get to die for your country.
The President has candidly stated that the panel would closely examine the chronically ill and the aged because they consume 80 percent of the total health care resources.

Friday, July 24, 2009

"the way to the union of Christendom does not lie through committee rooms, though there is a task of formulation to be done there. It lies through personal union with the Lord so deep and real as to be comparable with his union with the Father." by William Temple
NORTH KOREA BELIEVES IN THE POWER OF THE BIBLE.

The North Korean government, such that it is, has publicly executed a Christian woman for distributing the Bible. Her name was Ri Hyon Ok and she was only 33 years old.

Just in case public exectution was not enough deterrent, the Communists sent her parents, husband and three children to a political prison camp. We used to call them concentration camps, didn’t we.

Oddly, North Korea claims to have freedom of religion. But North Korea lies about a lot of things. The government licensed four churches. There is one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox. However, ordinary North Koreans cannot attend services there, just foreigners.

We in the land of the relatively free should pray for the 30,000 North Korean believers who must worship in secret to avoid death and imprisonment while we worship in air conditioned comfort in spacious buildings. We need to support our brothers and sisters in harsh places.

The North Koreans are right, however. The Bible is powerful. Let it out and see what it will do.
THE PROBLEM WITH GUSHING

Fox News carried this story on their website: "A Turkish official says restoration workers have uncovered the never-before-seen mosaic face of an angel at Istanbul's Haghia Sophia — a former Byzantine cathedral. The cathedral's Christian mosaics were covered up in line with Muslim custom shortly after Constantinople — the former name for Istanbul — fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the cathedral was turned into a mosque."

It's a great discovery, but the article is over stated. The art has been seen before. It was seen by the artist, and it was seen by the Christians in the church. It just has not been seen since the Muslims overran the town and converted the Christian church buildings into Muslim mosques.

Take a breath, Fox.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

THE OBAMA DEFENSE: I FORGOT!

Remember that great Steve Martin comedy routine where he uses the "I forgot" defense to get out of all kinds of trouble, including failing to file taxes? Now, Obama appears to be using it on Obamacare.

There has been lots of rumbling over the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives which, many feel, is pure socialism. The President has consistently told people they could keep their doctor and their insurance. It has been a major selling point. The problem is, it is a half truth.

What the President says is “If you have health insurance, and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.” Any American who hears that thinks, that means it is forever and in all circumstances. But, under the House bill, it only means right now.

At issue is Section 102 of the massive bill. It provides that insurance companies cannot enroll new people. If you lose your insurance or change employers, you have to enroll in the government plan. I guess we could call it the Orwell Insurance Company. If you have no insurance now, you must enroll in the government program to have insurance.

This means you have no freedom to contract with the insurer of your choice. It means insurance companies have no freedom of contract. It also means insurance companies will slowly go out of business. More accurately, it means the Unites States government is putting insurance companies out of business.

When asked pointedly if this is true, how did the President respond? He said “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.”

Are you kidding me, Mr. President? You are pushing the legislation. You are going on television to sell it to the American public. But, you are not aware that a major provision and a major change in government, business and freedom is in the bill? This is either a lie or an incredible and negligent omission of monumental proportions. I suspect a lie. He must have been brief on it. And, even if he did not know about it in advance, which I cannot believe, his advisors would have been aware of it when Investors Business Daily published their analysis, and he would have distanced himself from it.

This president's credibility is on the line here. Either he lied or he is making this all up as he goes along and does not know what he is doing. Either way, too much is at stake for this type of shoddy behavior.

Your health care world is about to be changed dramatically. It would be nice if those doing the changing knew what they were doing and told the truth about it. Was there not supposed to be "transparency" in this administration?

Welcome to the Gulag.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The CDC reports that one third of all black pregnancies end in abortion. It looks like Margaret Sanger is still getting her way, keeping down the population of african americans.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

IF I CAN MAKE IT THERE...

Had a fun day in New York City today. The Oldest had to work and left me on my own. I grabbed a street map and took the "2" from Brooklyn to Times Square. Then I got on the "A Train". I always wanted to say that. It took my to the upper west side, which is very nice, and I got off a couple of blocks from the Museum of Modern Art. The Locals call it the MOMA.

I spent several hours there looking at paintings, architecture and sculpture. Oh, and photography. I saw Picasso and Chagall and Cezanne and Miro and Gaugin and Munch and a host of others. I really have sensory overload. You could spend a lot of time there if you like modern art.

Then I took the "E" back down to Times Square and transferred "over the ramp" to the "A Downtown" down to Chambers Street. On the subway , you have to remember Uptown is north and Downtown is south. I got off and walked through the tunnel to the Church Street exit and walked down to Church and Duane where the oldest worked at a hotel as concierge. This, by the way, is "Midtown" Manhattan. We met up, grabbed a Coke from 7-11., then walked down to the subway entrance for the "2" and took it back to her place in Brooklyn.

Whew.

It is cool to have public transportation. I bought a pass for several days and just swipe the card. The downside is you cannot just run out to the driveway and zip off somewhere. The upside is, you can go almost anywhere without a car.

When we got off the bus, we walked to into the food market on the corner, about 10 steps. There are farmer's markets all over the city with fresh produce, Since Jamaicans live in the area, there are some exotic fruits to try. We bought fresh vegetables to cook for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we load up the truck and take her stuff to storage and run errands. Hopefully, we'll get through in the afternoon and have the night and next day to run around some more before heading to the airport. I still want to see Central Park and the Guggenheim.

Oh, and for all my Texas friends, I don't think it has been over 80 since I have been here.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

URINE THE MONEY

Forget electric cars. You might have a hydrogen car! In theory, that is a good thing, because hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. The problem is, a lot of the hydrogen is bonded to other elements and it is expensive to "unbond" them. For example, hydrogen bonded to oxygen produces water. To separate them, you apply electricity. Electricity costs money and energy to produce which may be more expensive than the product is worth. Itis also hard to store, requiring a low temperature, but a high pressure.

But, guess what. It takes less energy to take hydrogen out of urine. No, really.
Fortunately, though, there’s urine to the rescue. You can just store the hydrogen in urine. Urea, the major component in urine, is hydrogen and nitrogen mostly, about twice as much hydrogen as nitrogen.

I assume this means this will all be done somewhere out of sight and you, the driver, will just pull up to a nice sanitary hydrogen station and "pump" it into your car.

But, as you might imagine, I can think of all kinds of benefits to this.

First, it is a whole new industry for homeless people. Now they have to go to the plasma bank and donate plasma for money. You have to get stuck with a needle and people have to wait on you. But, now, they can go to the urine donation station and give a donation with relative ease. For the heavy drinkers, this is an added benefit. They have more to donate, they get more money, the refill more often and they donate more often. Talk about recycling.

And donations are really easy to make. You just install rows of urinals along the outside wall of the collection station and mark it "men". There are millions of urinals floating around in old buildings that could be salvaged and recycled. So, it is a green thing! (The recycling, not the urine silly.)

Then, you take all those vending machines from old gas stations and fix them to a sensor. When the sensor detects the donation, it dispenses money instead of, well, other things.

For women, it is a bit more complicated, of course. You would need to build stalls and proper toilets and probably places to wash hands and those thin tissue things that say you can make a ring around the seat and somehow that thin thing is supposed to prevent diseases. But, it would stimulate the economy, as we could hire the jobless and guys like Bernie Madoff to build the stuff. Plus, you would have to clean the women's side.

So, we can save the planet with urine.

We need to have a contest for the best slogan to promote this new venture. Maybe start a Facebook group.

I thought we would get T-shirts that say "Hydrogen is No. 1".

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

I'm looking at a Starbucks cup on my desk. It says "You bought 228 million pounds of responsibly grown, ethically traded coffee last year."

I didn't realize I had drunk THAT much coffee, although I knew it was a lot.

But I feel really ethical about it.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

HOW TO TELL YOU HAVE BEEN ON A DIET A LONG TIME #1

I received an email today from a man named Dieter, pronounced dee-ter. But I read it as Diet-er and thought, wow, he must be even more into this than me! Then it dawned on me...oh my.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Two of my categories of posts are humor and politics. Do you think I need them both? Or could I consolidate it all under humor?
OK, ONE MORE ON AL FRANKEN FOR HUMP DAY

A new survey shows a majority of Minnesota voters do ot remember if they voted for Comedian Al Franken or not.

It probably goes like this: how did he get to be Senator? I don't know, someone must have voted for him. Who would do that? I don't know, I'm sure I didn't. Who did you vote for? I don't remember, but surely I wouldn't vote for a comedian. What will people think?

Davis Logsdon, who conducted the survey for University of Minnesota, said "There's been a lot of short-term memory loss."

I bet. I know I don't remember voting for him.

However, all is not lost. Endorsements are pouring in. First, from Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He gave this ringing endorsement: "Other losers could learn a lot from him".

I think there will be a lot of losers in Minnesota, and the rest of the country.
Another thought on Al Franken, the Comedian\Senator from Minnesota, from Instapundit:

AL FRANKEN THOUGHT: Caligula sent a horse to the Senate. Minnesota is just sending part of the horse.

Enjoy it, Minnesota, you earned it.
a Roman Catholic understands the dangers of Liberal Protestantism better than Evangelicals. Read the interesting article.

A telling point is the inclusion of the liberal denial of the doctrine of original sin. A major leader in the SBC recently said the Bible didn't explicitly teach original sin.


HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

I celebrated Canada Day by not getting involved in anything.