Give Her Four Stars

This has been in the works since July, but it was made official on Friday.

Congratulations to General Ann E. Dunwoody on becoming the first woman promoted to four star general. Have an excellent 10 years in grade.

And may you never see five stars.

Global Warming or SeaLab

It seems that TIME is trying to get back into journalism. They've recently reported on a study that suggests a reason for storms causing more and more damage.

No...it's not climate change.

No...it's not governmental incompetence.

It's our mastery of land capture.

We are seeing more damage from natural disasters because we are able to successfully live in more dangerous places.

"There has been no trend in the number or intensity of storms at landfall since 1900," says Pielke, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado. "The storms themselves haven't changed."

Wait...didn't the Goracle predict worse and worse storms because of American SUVs?

Look, if someone were to build Sealab 2020 and then there were a sudden uptick in people dying from compression sickness or shark attacks, you wouldn't blame deep zone water pressure. Or if SkyLab started experiencing routine lung decompressions, you wouldn't blame atmospheric loss. So why are so many ideologues ready to say "global warming" for every disaster?

There are some elements of human culpability that needs to be addressed: land use and unfair insurance practices.

Before we become hopelessly lost in despair, however, there is good news: we can do something about this problem. We can enact meaningful building codes and stop keeping insurance premiums artificially low in flood zones.

But first we need to understand that disasters aren't just caused by FEMA and greenhouse gases. Says Tierney: "I don't think that people have an understanding of questions they should be asking — about where they live, about design and construction, about building inspection, fire protection. These just aren't things that are on people's minds."

In real estate, the old mantra is Location, location, location. It should be. Some plots are naturally good for building. Others have to have a lot of preparation, then maintenance. It is a poor use of our resources to continually try to fight against natural consequences. It ties up capital and man-power in maintenance rather than expansion.

Heresy Helper

Yeah...I know. It's not really a meaty "Theology Thursday" post. But I'm low on time and have surgery coming up next week. Whattayawant?

Thanks, Sacred Sandwich!

Zobambies

Given my love for all things Zombie, this is just a natural fit.


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Oh well...I guess they can keep composing hymns to their savior.

Monday Ministry Musing

I know lots of people going through the ordination process in the PCUSA. Someone from the presbytery that oversaw my own process is facing some of the same challenges of being stuck. This individual wrote a poem that got me thinking about my own process. I didn't ask permission to post it, but I used it as a reflection piece - for myself and for those who are stalled out in the process. I changed the wording, but kept the structure and the overall theme. This is like an epistle - if you listen to this end of the conversation, you can probably hear what's going on in the original poem.

What happens if I focus on the ordination process,
becoming callous (non-reverent) from the handling of holy things?
Or, in a desire to be called “Reverend,”
ignore the adjective when it doesn't come from a committee?
What if I miss the everyday chances
to live into my own baptism
because I'm focused on someone else
as a child of the covenant?
What if I never break the bread of hospitality
and pour the cup of tea at my own table,
or if I don't recognize them as “the gifts of God for the people of God”?
What if my voice is never heard (in a choir)?
What if I don't listen to those who set foot in a pulpit?

What if I made seminary about a piece of paper,
Whether a diploma,
or an ordination certificate,
and therefore wasted my time
and all our resources?

What if I believe that my usefulness to God
is equivalent to my usefulness to a denomination,
a local governing body,
a committee,
or a single congregation?

What if I think I'm not good enough,
even though the Lord of the Universe
took on flesh and died in my place,
then sent His Spirit to reassure me
of my place at His table?

What if I used seminary
as a buffer against following God's call?
What if I missed growing during that time
because I was waiting on something at the end...
...instead of waiting on God?

What if I lost sight of the glorious
ministry of the covenant people of God
because I wanted to be in the lead?

What if I missed out on the call to serve
a congregation from out of the midst of them
because I would only listen to a call if it
were duly authorized and passed through
paper channels.

What if I passed over the garment of praise,
the garment of salvation,
and the robe of Christ's righteousness,
because it didn't look like a Geneva gown?

What if I made the mistake of taking a good thing
and missing out on the best thing.

Lord, I believe.
Help my unbelief.

Lord, You have called.
Help me follow You wherever You call.

Here's Martin Luther's prayer for his own ordination:

Oh, Lord God, Thou hast made me a pastor and teacher in the Church. Thou seest how unfit I am to administer rightly this great and responsible Office; and had I been without Thy aid and counsel I would surely have ruined it all long ago. Therefore, do I invoke Thee. How gladly do I desire to yield and consecrate my heart and mouth to this ministry! I desire to teach the congregation. I, too, desire ever to learn and keep Thy Word my constant companion, and to meditate thereupon earnestly. Use me as Thy instrument in Thy service, Only do not Thou forsake me, for if I am left to myself, I will certainly bring it all to destruction. AMEN.

May all who seek leadership among God's covenant people say Amen!

Looking for the Bright Side

Iowahawk reminds us that there is at least one thing for which we can be grateful.

I'm extremely grateful for the positive example that African American males in this country have in BHO. I long for the day when young boys start to idolize a man who worked hard in school (or at least we assume he did, since he graduated...kind hard to say since he has sealed his records. But that's the new transparency he promised, I guess.). I hope that BHO replaces all the miscreant sports stars and rascally rappers that loom large as a ticket to prosperity. If nothing else, BHO has given a booster shot to the ideology of the American dream for a segment of the populace who - either through oppression, complicity, or indolence - had lost sight of how to succeed in a meritocratic system.

I'm also grateful that is a big-enough win that nobody can say their vote wasn't counted. Granted, some votes were counted that shouldn't have been. (What do you expect of the Chicago political machine writ large?) But at least we don't have to put up with some simps saying that the election was taken from them because their vote didn't count.

Now, let's see if Mr. Obama can live up to his promises of change.

And for all our sakes, let's hope he sticks to his promises for a new day better than he stuck to his promises about public funding. (Wait...does this mean we can drop the rhetoric about the Republicans buying elections? Another silver lining!)

Why Democracy is Broken

Because people think that government is here to help you make it when you can't make it yourself...



...rather than to stay out of your way, or facilitate your own independence.

DEMOCRACY FAIL.

Don't Blame Me

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Yeah...like I'd vote for either of those clowns.

My vote is solidly with the Kodos party - looking forward to the first woman president.

Election Humor

h/t TotallyLooksLike.com

Sometimes God gives you a freebie

The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
but the heart of a fool to the left.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NRSV)

Left, right, or wrong, go exercise the privilege purchased by the blood of patriots!

Priorities

Lots of folks are talking about our recession and the horrible quality of life we'll have therefrom. I disagree. Our spoiled society doesn't know lack or want.

If you want to look at bad times, look at the deprivation suffered in the 1930s in America. We can't complain when we do this sort of stuff with our money:




Hmm...socialism I could vote for!


h/t Slopshot

On this coming election day: WHERE ARE YOUR PRIORITIES?

More Noble than Nobel

People sometimes ask me why I'm so against the whole global warming topic.

"Even if it's not man-made, doesn't it make sense to get off fossil fuels?" (Yes, it does.)

"Aren't you a corporate shill?" (Not according to my bank account.)

The problem with focusing on global warming is that it draws our attention away from concerns which we can actually address. We end up giving Nobel Prizes to imposter / hypocrites like Al Gore and leave real humanitarians - like Irena Sandler on the left, who was tortured by the Nazis for her aid to the Polish Jews in WWII - behind.
True story.

Bjorn Lomborg eloquently shows that the impact we can have by addressing other human problems (extreme poverty, malaria, food infrastructure) with the BILLIONS being pumped into "green tech" is FAR GREATER than the impact expected by even the most generous global warblers.

We lose the opportunity to deal with injustices which we can actually redress by focusing on that which we cannot effect. This is ethical escapism, in my view. At election time, sloganeering rules the day. FEED THE POOR!!! (But I'm going to ignore my neighbor who is facing foreclosure.) STOP ABORTION!!! (But I have no intention of donating to abortion alternatives or changing my scornful glances at unwed mothers.)

We like to focus on issues that are important, but over which we can do so little. It insulates us from focusing on those issues where we can do something to advance others, defend (and propagate) our values, and make an impact.

I invite you to use whatever energy has been put into the election cycle or whatever your pet issue is and do something locally. You'll feel empowered. Who knows...you may actually start changing things from the bottom up.

Saturday Sweets

I'm not a big sweets fan, but I do have a definite weakness for Coca Cola. Halloween always makes me think of candy (I grew up during the satanist-laced-candy scares of the 1980s, so I'm happy I'm not paranoid over it). Above is a picture of Haribo's Happy-Cola Gummi Candies. Why don’t more companies make cola flavored candy? Am I in a small minority of people that likes the flavor?

Here's a list of the cola-flavored candies I've enjoyed to date.

• Haribo Happy-Cola Gummi Candy
  
• Wonka Bottlecaps (root beer too - a personal favorite)
• Cola-flavored PEZ
• Root Beer Barrels
• Chupa Chups has a cola flavor and a cola-lemon flavor
• Dr. Pepper Gum (discontinued)
• Bubblicious Cherry Cola flavor (discontinued)
• Reed’s Candy Rolls (Root Beer)
• Peerless Root Beer Floats
• Mike & Ike Root Beer Float
  
• Mike & Ike Cherry Cola
• A&W Root Beer and Dr. Pepper flavored JellyBelly jellybeans
• Aidin Cola Candy
• Root Beer Sanded Candy
• Haribo Fizzy Cola
• Cherry Cola and Root Beer flavored candy sticks
• Cola Cubes
• Hubba Bubba Cool Cola
  
• Root Beer Float Ring Pops
• Cola (and Cherry) Twizzlers
• Haribo Gummi Rootbeer Barrels
• Super Cola Candy
• Cherry Cola Taffy
• Dr. Pepper Rush Rox Candy
• Cola Jolly Ranchers
• Cherry Cola Soda Jolly Ranchers
• Cola Nerds
• Cola Chewits
• Coke Balls
• Gummy Cola Tigers
• Excel Fizzy Cola Candy
• Excel Cola Chews
• Excel Cola Gum
• Playgum Cola Bubble Gum

I'm sure I missed some. I had two or three really lovely ones in London...but what can't you get there?

The Gospel Recovered

Cindy Jacobs (whom I blogged about yesterday) calls her latest book Reformation Manifesto (the "new apostolic movement" often sees itself in line with a new Reformation - which is why they say the older churches oppose them).

But I'm giving a shout out to the REAL Reformation the Church continually needs.



Here's to 491 years of the Gospel recovered!

And here's "the classic"

BLESSED REFORMATION DAY!!!

Exodus 32 to CBN

Self-appointed "prophet" and dubiously-doctored Cindy Jacobs recently announced on CBN that she had a vision - a word from God Almighty - that Christians needed to go to New York City and "pull down the strongman" that was blighting our economy.

The Lord further said, “October 29 was Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed, and Satan wants to do it again.” We must be proactive in prayer. At the beginning of the year many intercessors began to hear from the Lord that without divine intervention, a major shaking was coming to Wall Street. This would spread until there were food shortages....On September 29 last month, the US stock market went down 777 points in one day. Cindy says it was no coincidence that this happened on the first day of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

Okay... While I disagree that God Rosh Hashanah had anything to do with it (other than, maybe, the smartest financiers in NYC were at Synagogue that day), I'm cool with her asking people to pray. I pray for the nation every day - and for people caught up in this economy. Christians are to pray for the welfare of all, and especially their country and its leaders.

But I think Cindy makes some SERIOUS missteps. First, she has this charismaniac idea of territorial spirits - a larger part of a mistaken notion of Spiritual Warfare as something other than sanctification. Here's what she asked people to do:

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

When people that claim to follow God start getting around brazen cattle, I get nervous.


Here's some video of them singing and marching around the bull.

Dancing and singing isn't enough...they even "lay hands" on the thing!



I'll bet these folks know every verse about dreaded sexual sins. I just wonder if they've ever stopped to read Exodus 32.

I'm not waiting for Moses (or Charlton Heston) to come down the mountain and toss stone tablets at them.

But the idolatry police are about to throw the book at'em!!!

This is what happens when we let orthodoxy become something we "used to do." This is what happens when we're so concerned that everyone's spiritual experience become celebrated that we refuse to be biblically discerning for fear of being "critical." We like to think it's something that only "the left" does...but there's so much of it on the right, too.

With "Christianity" like this, America deserves any and every plague God throws at us.

Learn more about Spiritual Warfare here, here, and here.

Irving Norman had the right idea...

Don't Forget To Set Your Clocks Back

Don't forget to set your clocks back before you go to bed on Saturday.

Obamanomics

Obama promises to provide openness in his presidential administration. Yet we don't have a real copy of his birth certificate, his health records are hidden, his academic records at Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard Law are all closed (including his thesis).

So much for openness.

So to get an idea of what he means when he says "spread the wealth" let's hear what he's said in the past:



Did you catch that?

• Supreme Court is too bound by the U. S. Constitution.
• We need to make legislative and administrative changes to force redistribution of wealth.
• It's not a question of if/whether, but HOW!!!
  

Did you expect anything less from the most liberal senator to run for president?

I'm tingling like Chris Matthews...but I think it's actually a chill running up my spine!

Biden Balks

Looks like somebody at WFTV Orlando didn't get the MainStreamMedia Memo about soft-ball questions only to Obama / Biden.



Quoth the Obama campaign: "We are not amused!"

How dare they question The One or His Mouthpiece....

YES WE CANnula

Before you trust Obama with the military and economic power of this country, you might want to ask what he does with..."bio-hazardous material."

Barack Obama never met an abortion bill he didn't like.

If you want to work against abortion on multiple fronts, I am with you. Education, economics, and - most importantly - changing the culture. Let's get it done.

But don't tell me your pro-choice when you have no desire to extend the protection of life to these babies born alive. Opponents of the Hyde Amendment and proponents of unrestricted access to abortion in all terms (which not even Europe can swallow) are actually pro-abortion.

Choosing sides

of the brain.

http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/jill_bolte_tayl.php#more

So...right or left?