Posted by: Mason | July 14, 2008

Finally! Obama described accurately.

Reformation Faith Today was kind enough to post the descriptive explanation of Obama I have been trying to find. Most people, apparently, believe he is somehow what the world needs. He is full of “hope,” and “change,” and doesn’t everyone want that? I might, except for the fact Obama has not provided definitive things to “hope” for nor “change.”

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.  Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Obama is a post turtle’. Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was. The old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a ‘post turtle’.The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain.  ‘You know he didn’t get up there by himself, he doesn’t belong up there, he doesn’t know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a (dummy) put him up there.’ Sent to me by an astute reader.

Now, I just have to figure out which is Obama; the dummy or the turtle. I think probably he is the turtle. I don’t think he has brains enough to actually come up with the idea to put a turtle on a post.

Posted by: Mason | June 25, 2008

Links: 1 removed; 1 added

The Internet Monks adoration for George Carlin was a bit much for me, so I removed his link. I did however, find a new one.

The Ochlophobist appears to be my kind of guy. His link is at the right in the list.

Posted by: Mason | June 24, 2008

Democrat’s Word Usage

My congressman is Rep. Thaddeus McCotter. He is from Livonia, Michigan, the 11th district. I voted for him and this video verifies that my vote was not wasted.

Rep. McCotter does not waste words, he is not “postmodern.” He does not deconstruct language, he uses language as though words actually have meaning in reality. He does not believe that words are merely signifiers meaning whatever those in power want them to mean. Democrats, for the most part, are “postmodern” in this regard because they generally use words to twist and distort meaning. Because this is so it sometimes becomes necessary to explain what the reality is that their words define or describe.

Needless to say I will vote for Rep. McCotter each time his name is on the ballot.
ps: I forgot to tell you where I got YouTube link. The Assistant Village Idiot gets a very large HAT-TIP for this.

Posted by: Mason | June 24, 2008

"…tyranny over the mind."

Dr. Veith blogs as Cranach. He doesn’t know it but he has become one of my mentors. I lurk around his blog and read his books. The last one I read is Postmodern Times, A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture. On his blog recently, he quoted Thomas Jefferson:

“I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind.”

I enjoy Dr. Veith’s writing because as his quote of Thomas Jefferson so aptly portrays, Dr. Veith is opposed to “tyranny over the mind.”

In our current political climate, and the sound-bites television gives us from our Presidential candidates, many don’t recognize they are being manipulated by “tyranny” of the mind. However, anytime someone uses and gets away with pre-emptive claims of bigotry - tyranny is at work.

B. Huessein Obama remarked recently that the Republicans WILL attack him because as he said:

 …(quoted from Hugh Hewitt)…We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

If this kind of bigoted language is the best we can expect from a candidate for the Presidency of the United States we are in trouble. I would have preferred something more along the lines of “this is what I will do as President, or “I will bring all people together by….”  instead we get “change,” or “hope,” without a hint as to the answers for the questions of from to what and hope for what.

Obama speaks in the language of postmodernism. It is evident he has nothing to say and even less to offer. His only hope is that a sufficient number of Americans have been dumbed down to the point they don’t know the meaning of the word tyranny and will vote entirely for the ephemeral desires of “hope.”

Posted by: Mason | June 3, 2008

Their kidding - right?

A man wearing a T-shirt depicting a cartoon character holding a gun was stopped from boarding a flight by the security at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

I thought I was experienceing “Ground Hog Day,” and I had been suddenly thrust back into the first day of April. But this was no April fools joke. It was a real headline about a real event. Reality is the scary part. My wife and I fly a lot, and Heathrow is generally one of the places we stop every few years. But back to what happened.

It was just a simple foolworking security in a London Airport who created the mess. What the fool, perhaps idiot would be a better noun, in security did, was deny access to a flight because this young man had a cartoon picture of a gun on his teeshirt.

 Brad Jayakody wearing the T-shirt

The problem I have with this is, it makes very apparent the level of intellectual prowess demanded of security screeners. Apparently, governments will hire only those who can remain focused in a mind-numbing job. We all know those kinds of folks are generally mentally challenged and this incident seems to prove the point.

Mr. Jayakody, pictured above, obliged the moron’s in charge, and changed his shirt so that he could continue with his travel plans.

Common sense should inform that the threat of this particular gun remains intact whether in Mr. Jayakody’s suitcase or on his back. But then, Mr. Jayakody lamented, all he wanted was someone in charge with common-sense. He was unable to find anyone with this particular trait.

Like that is a requirement to work airport security.

Posted by: Mason | June 2, 2008

20 Reasons from Piper

I thought this was interesting since I probably fit in with most of this list.

20 Reasons I Don’t Take Potshots at Fundamentalists

June 2, 2008  |  By: John Piper
Category: Commentary

 

1. They are humble and respectful and courteous and even funny (the ones I’ve met).  [Me: I'm not always humble, respectful or courteous - but I try to be. I'm learning]

2. They believe in truth.  [Me: Absolutely. Yes Virginia there are such things as absolutes!]

3. They believe that truth really matters. [Me: See above, and without it; What?]

4. They believe that the Bible is true, all of it. [Me: Oh,oh! Even the six day part? Yep! Now I'm in for it.]

5. They know that the Bible calls for some kind of separation from the world. [Me: At much as possible without riding horses and raising my own food.]

6. They have backbone and are not prone to compromise principle. [Me: That's me]

7. They put obedience to Jesus above the approval of man (even though they fall short, like others). [Me: I even get it from "church" folk for some of the refusals I make regarding Sunday]

8. They believe in hell and are loving enough to warn people about it. [Me: Try to talk about hell to someone who doesn't believe in sin. Now, that's a challenge.]

9. They believe in heaven and sing about how good it will be to go there. [Me: Yep! I do that!]

10. Their “social action” is helping the person next door. [Me: Yep! That's me!]

11. They tend to raise law-abiding, chaste children, in spite of the fact that Barna says evangelical kids in general don’t have any better track record than non-Christians. [Me: I did try. I don't know how successful I was, but I can say that every Sunday my kids and their kids plus Me 'n' Ma fill one long pew in our church. I hope that's worth something to those who notice such things.]

12. They resist trendiness. [Me: Does a 9 year old car count?]

13. They don?t think too much is gained by sounding hip. [Me: I tried it once. It didn't work.]

14. They may not be hip, but they don?t go so far as to drive buggies or insist on typewriters. [Me: Does an old computer count?]

15. They still sing hymns. [Me: I even play them for our church on Piano, Organ, or Keyboard. Organ? Are you crazy?]

16. They are not breathless about being accepted in the scholarly guild. [Me: The what?]

17. They give some contemporary plausibility to New Testament claim that the church is the ?pillar and bulwark of the truth.? [Me: I'm working on this one in my church]

18. They are good for the rest of evangelicals because of all this. [Me: Amen and Amen]

19. My dad was one. [Me: Not]

20. Everybody to my left thinks I am one. And there are a lot of people to my left. [Me: Just about everyone is to my left. Even Piper sometimes.]

Posted by: Mason | May 16, 2008

Why are we aiding Myanmar?

Christian Apologetics is generally accepted as argument for God. Atheism, on the other hand, is the belief that the concept “god” is an aberration of small-minded people needing a crutch to survive their allotted 4 score and 10 years.

Richard Dawkins one of the prophets for Atheism and an Oxford Professor has said,

“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

I would have to ask then why the apparent concern of so many humans over the loss of life in Myanmar and China from their recent natural disasters?

If, as Dawkins, and other atheists claim, most humans believe in natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc., doesn’t it follow that aid should be withheld from these devastated areas? Logically, by aiding these people, we are interfering with “evolutionary” imperatives. Moreover, I’ll venture we are contributing to global warming with excess use of machines burning fuel to assist these people.

What is it within the chemical firings of the human brain that appear to simultaneously send to so many, signals demanding others provide aid and comfort? Shouldn’t the evolutionary response, be indifference? Why are we wasting so much money on those poor creatures if, as we teach our children, there is no God? There is just nature trying to insure the survival of the fittest.

I guess I will have to stay with my belief in God and continue to pray for relief and aid for those so devastated by natural disaster.

I got the idea for my post from “Hip and Thigh,”. Aimee Miller wrote a post as a letter to Dawkins asking to clarify for her, her (tongue in cheek) new found belief in atheism. It is an excellent post and should be read by all.

ps: Shouldn’t Al Gore be speaking out about the Global Warming we are causing burning fuel to fly supplies of food and water into these areas? I’ll bet one C130 fully loaded with food and water creates enough heat flying into Myanmar to kill 2 Polar Bears and 3 seals.

Posted by: Mason | May 13, 2008

New Choir Member?

At my church we are always interested in finding new choir members. Great singers are hard to find. I think I have one thanks to “The World From My Window.”

Now I have to see if I can contact Mommy, according to the credits that is her agent, to see if I can get her under contract for Sunday Mornings.

Posted by: Mason | May 12, 2008

Another quote I like!

A Modern Utopia by HG Wells, “CYCLE TRACKS WILL ABOUND IN UTOPIA”

Reminds me I need to dig through the “stuff” in the garage and get out the old bicycle. At $3.999 per gallon for gas, I can get used to riding it again. 

Posted by: Mason | May 12, 2008

Things Al Gore didn’t tell us

Four of the past 5 months are “all-time” records for Southern Hemisphere sea ice anomalies, “unprecedented” since the data set began in 1979

The explanation for the chart is here. It appears we may not run out of ice-cubes anytime soon.

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