Mean Annual Temperatures at Darwin Airport, Australia (Blue is "Unadjusted"; Red is "Adjusted".)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Cartoon Corner – 12/12/09
From Chip Bok: The Nobel Peace Prize committee’s plan to give Bush another kick in the leg (a reason it gave for Carter’s 2002 Peace Prize) backfired when President Obama became a war president with the troop surge in Afghanistan. Here’s a BBC report on President Carter’s award in 2002.
From Townhall.com
From www.cagle.com – Is this a cartoon? Maybe not but I hope it’s shocking enough!
The Difference – Christian Devotional – 12/12/09
by Charles R. Swindoll at Crosswalk.com
Matthew 5:13-16
Ours is a hell-bound, degenerate world, and you know it. Political corruption abounds. International peace, a splendid ideal, continues to blow up in our faces. The crime rate escalates as domestic violence and gang wars and drug traffic and overcrowded jails continue to plague society. Pending legal cases choke the courts of our land with an endless litany of litigation. And even when cases are finally brought to trial, no courtroom or prison cell can remove madness from minds or hatred from hearts.
Satan, our relentless enemy, has a game plan, and it's on the board. Knowing that his days are numbered, knowing that he has an appointed amount of time before the scoreboard counts him out, he holds the world in his lap and gives it directions, implementing his strategy day after day.
If our Christian message is a mirror image of the message of the world, the world yawns and goes on its way saying, "What else is new? I've heard all that since I was born." But if the Christian lifestyle and motivation and answers are different, the world cannot help but sit up and take notice, thinking: How come they live in the same place I live, but they are able to live a different kind of life? Why is their love so deep and lasting and ours so shallow and fickle? How is it that she can forgive and never hold a grudge? Why do these people have so much more compassion, kindness, integrity, and patience than anyone else I know?
Do you get the message? It's the difference that makes the difference!
Matthew 5:13-16
Ours is a hell-bound, degenerate world, and you know it. Political corruption abounds. International peace, a splendid ideal, continues to blow up in our faces. The crime rate escalates as domestic violence and gang wars and drug traffic and overcrowded jails continue to plague society. Pending legal cases choke the courts of our land with an endless litany of litigation. And even when cases are finally brought to trial, no courtroom or prison cell can remove madness from minds or hatred from hearts.
Satan, our relentless enemy, has a game plan, and it's on the board. Knowing that his days are numbered, knowing that he has an appointed amount of time before the scoreboard counts him out, he holds the world in his lap and gives it directions, implementing his strategy day after day.
If our Christian message is a mirror image of the message of the world, the world yawns and goes on its way saying, "What else is new? I've heard all that since I was born." But if the Christian lifestyle and motivation and answers are different, the world cannot help but sit up and take notice, thinking: How come they live in the same place I live, but they are able to live a different kind of life? Why is their love so deep and lasting and ours so shallow and fickle? How is it that she can forgive and never hold a grudge? Why do these people have so much more compassion, kindness, integrity, and patience than anyone else I know?
Do you get the message? It's the difference that makes the difference!
Principled Politics – 12/11/09
Charles Krauthammer: The New Socialism
In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in. OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history. Why not them? So in grand U.N. declarations and conferences, they began calling for a "New International Economic Order." The NIEO's essential demand was simple: to transfer fantastic chunks of wealth from the industrialized West to the Third World…
But such dreams never die. The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism. Read more…
Oliver North: Get Serious
When I was a young Marine, we were encouraged to read Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" as a primer on conflict. Our mentors were officers and senior noncommissioned officers who had served in World War II, Korea and the early days of the conflict in Indochina. These were serious men for whom the profession of arms was no trivial matter. They taught us that Sun Tzu's tome, from the sixth century B.C., was relevant to the fight we were headed for in Vietnam and would serve us well in the future. According to Sun Tzu, "The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Therefore, it is a subject that must be seriously studied." The most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize appears to have ignored this sage advice. Read more…
David Limbaugh: Obama Reducing the Debt? Dream On
Two recent news stories illustrate, more clearly than ever, the Obama Democrats' contempt for the free market and individual economic liberty. If given the chance, they will expand government and spend as much of our money as they can get away with…
Obama Democrats believe that they know better than we do how our money ought to be spent and that they have a superior moral right to our money. They might even recognize that supply-side economics works -- just as they know capital gains tax reductions generate more revenues. But to them, the free market isn't fair because winners and losers are determined, not by the government, but by other factors, including people's raw efforts. They believe that economic "fairness" -- or "economic justice," a good old Jane Fonda/Tom Hayden/Marxist phrase -- should be dictated from the top down by government officials and bureaucrats.
If they permit significant reduction of this monstrous debt that they are deliberately expanding exponentially, they lose their main excuse to implement their socialist schemes, which are born from the chaos and fear they've generated. So when you hear them talking about debt reduction, look at their actions, not their words -- except for their unscripted, candid statements. Read more…
Marxists, Socialists Launched Obama? By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily
During President Obama's West Point address last week in which he committed 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, he referred to his opposition to the war in Iraq, which he first voiced at a 2002 anti-war rally said to have helped launch his political career. The rally, which drew some 2,000 participants, was planned by socialist and Marxist activists associated with Weatherman Underground founder William Ayers. "I opposed the war in Iraq precisely because I believe that we must exercise restraint in the use of military force and always consider the long-term consequences of our actions," Obama declared Tuesday. The Oct. 2, 2002, rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza that was widely credited with propelling to Obama to the national stage. That event, meant to protest the impending invasion of Iraq, was coordinated on behalf of a small group, Chicagoans Against the War & Injustice, run by Marxist Carl Davidson and extremist activists Marilyn Katz and Bettylu Saltzman. Read More…
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Love is an Action – Christian Devotional – 12/11/09
Posted by Rick Warren at purposedriven.com
Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. 1 John 3:18 (NLT)
The baby Jesus shows us that love is something you do. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.
Do you really love someone? Let's see how you act toward that person.
Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It's also more than sentimentality, like so many of today's songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.
Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can't command an emotion. If I told you "Be sad!" right now, you couldn't be sad on cue. Just like an actor, you can fake it, but you're not wired for your emotions to change on command. Have you ever told a little kid, "Be happy!" I'm trying, daddy!
If love were just an emotion, then God couldn't command it. But love is something you do. It can produce emotion, but love is an action.
The Bible says, "Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions" (1 John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: "I love people." But do we really love them? Do you really love them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.
Excerpt from Joseph, The Father’s Journey; third novella of the Cradle to Cross Trilogy
[My good friend Mac McConnell's short Biblical novels are exquisite chocolates for the soul and the perfect Christmas gift! Get them here..]
Chapter Six – Bitter Wine.
All I have is this pitiful note she sent months ago;
“Joseph, I’m all right. Don’t worry, my husband, I’ll be home soon. Joseph, I have wonderful news. My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. I love you, Mary.”
But, every night at twilight, just to satisfy myself, I looked down the road hoping to see her coming home. The view was breathtaking from the side of our little hill. I could see right past her father Heli’s cottage to the road south.
I could see anyone on that road as the sun set, but I wasn’t looking for just anyone.
It happened. I had to pinch myself. It was just a girl on a donkey, a silhouette is all. But there was something … I could tell it was my Mary, but wondered if I was dreaming—just wishful thinking. It had been over three months since I laid eyes on her. The longest three month of my life. I wondered if they were playing tricks on me.
No, she was unmistakable.
I started down the path, slowly.
Should I go to her?
Chapter Six – Bitter Wine.
All I have is this pitiful note she sent months ago;
“Joseph, I’m all right. Don’t worry, my husband, I’ll be home soon. Joseph, I have wonderful news. My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. I love you, Mary.”
But, every night at twilight, just to satisfy myself, I looked down the road hoping to see her coming home. The view was breathtaking from the side of our little hill. I could see right past her father Heli’s cottage to the road south.
I could see anyone on that road as the sun set, but I wasn’t looking for just anyone.
It happened. I had to pinch myself. It was just a girl on a donkey, a silhouette is all. But there was something … I could tell it was my Mary, but wondered if I was dreaming—just wishful thinking. It had been over three months since I laid eyes on her. The longest three month of my life. I wondered if they were playing tricks on me.
No, she was unmistakable.
I started down the path, slowly.
Should I go to her?
Principled Politics – 12/10/09
No Ceiling... and the Sky is Falling by Howard Rich
The irony of the United States' current financial situation is that it would be absolutely impossible for any business or private citizen to ever wind up in such dire straits…
Of course, words like “out-of-control” or “unsustainable” don’t really cut it these days when it comes to Washington’s impending budget disaster.
We are looking at nothing short of catastrophic recklessness – as well as an unmitigated contempt for future generations that is likely to cripple our nation’s economy for decades. Read more…
How to Create Jobs Without Really Trying by Cal Thomas
President Obama delivered his latest speech on job creation and the economy Tuesday at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington. As with all of his speeches, this one was loaded with first-person references and blame of the Bush administration for America's economic troubles….
The president would achieve real success by cutting taxes, eliminating unnecessary regulations and liberating the free enterprise system to do what it does best: create products and services people will buy so that companies will hire people.
That has always been the formula that has produced a strong American economy. Government produces little that people want to buy. Government mostly takes from those who produce. Government can spread wealth, as this president is attempting to do -- but it can't create wealth. So by spreading wealth rather than allowing wealth to be created, the result is less wealth to spread.
Why can't liberals understand this? It is because this president and much of his administration have never punched a time clock or run a business.
The economic power of America is in Americans, not in government.
Read more…
Kentucky Votes No - A special-election warning on health care.
By the WSJ
In his private meetings with Democrats, President Obama's health-care argument has come down to an appeal to make "history" (see above). He'd be more candid if he said that if they vote for the current bills many of them soon will be history.
That's the warning from the unlikely quarter of Tuesday's special state senate election in Kentucky that became a referendum on the Democratic agenda in Washington, especially health care. Voters in the 14th District elected Republican Jimmy Higdon over Democrat Jodie Haydon by 12 points. That's significant in a district that leans Democratic by more than 2 to 1, and where Democrats and their allies spent more than $1 million, perhaps twice what the GOP did. …
But the message from Kentucky is that the Pelosi-Harry Reid agenda is becoming politically toxic, and Democrats who vote for it will want to have career contingency plans. Read more…
Christian Corner – 12/10/09
TODAY'S VERSE from HEARTLIGHT 
VERSE:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life. -- John 3:16
THOUGHT:
What else is there to say, other than "Praise God!" and "Thank
you Jesus!"
PRAYER:
Thank you for loving me with an everlasting love, dear Father. I
love you, too, and look forward to sharing the biggest part of my
life with you in your presence. In Jesus' name. Amen.
The Privatization of the First Amendment
by Mario Diaz at The WSJ
[This is a must read for Patriots and Christians alike. BHO’s often-“PC” insidious attack on both camps is more than obvious here – JS]
President Obama's nomination of Chai Feldblum to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) represents one of the most serious threats to religious freedom we have seen in a long time. Read more…
Rallying Points – Christian Devotional – 12/10/09
by Charles R. Swindoll at Crosswalk.com
To rally: "to muster for a common purpose . . . to arouse for action . . . to come together again to renew an effort." That's the way Webster defines the verb. He says the noun means: "a mustering of scattered forces to renew an effort; a summoning up of strength or courage."
Throughout Scripture, we encounter God's rallying points: places where His people assembled for a common purpose, for recovery and refreshment, for mustering forces and getting recharged for battle.
For Abraham it was Bethel, the place of the altar. For Moses it was the bush in the desert. For the Hebrews en route to Canaan? Well, they had several. During the day, a massive cloud overhead. At night, an enormous column of fire. Along the way, the tabernacle, that portable sanctuary where the Lord met with His chosen ones. Later, it was the temple. Then, following the terrible years of Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah envisioned a plan for "mustering scattered forces to renew an effort" as he led a ragtag group of dejected Hebrews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls.
Jesus Himself became a rallying point for a handful of men whose lives were otherwise destined for mediocrity. And after His departure, His Spirit came at Pentecost and ignited a spark as the church universal came into existence, offering perpetual hope for fractured, lost humanity.
Finally, today, you and I can look back and recall a specific place—our own Bethel or desert bush—where God became real to us again.
Where would we be without rallying points? Places that catapult us into new dimensions we would otherwise never inhabit.
Today, rallying points are often provided by evangelistic crusades. Critics, of course, want us to believe these are nothing more than some old-fashioned revivals where church folks gather, sing a few songs, listen to Bible preaching, then promptly go back to business as usual. You and I know, however, that these meetings can be some of the most significant events ever held in America, for they may provide a fresh spiritual awakening that will be nothing short of revolutionary.
So, thank God for your own Bethel. And pray that He will provide the same for others.
Pray that He will arouse us for action and muster us for a common purpose in these days when our forces often seem scattered and when we need a summoning up of strength and courage.
Rallying points replace flabby faith with the grit and gristle of godliness.
Totalitarian Sentimentality
[THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PIECE! – JOHN! American Thinker Blog said: Conservative philosopher Roger Scruton has penned what should become known as the most devastating exposé regarding the decades-long but self-deceptive liberal claim to the mantle of “compassion.”]
By Roger Scruton from the December 2009-January 2010 issue
Conservatives recognize that social order is hard to achieve and easy to destroy, that it is held in place by discipline and sacrifice, and that the indulgence of criminality and vice is not an act of kindness but an injustice for which all of us will pay. Conservatives therefore maintain severe and -- to many people -- unattractive attitudes. They favor retributive punishment in the criminal law; they uphold traditional marriage and the sacrifices that it requires; they believe in discipline in schools and the value of hard work and military service. They believe in the family and think that the father is an essential part in it. They see welfare provisions as necessary, but also as a potential threat to genuine charity, and a way both of rewarding antisocial conduct and creating a culture of dependency. They value the hard-won legal and constitutional inheritance of their country and believe that immigrants must also value it if they are to be allowed to settle here. Conservatives do not think that war is caused by military strength, but on the contrary by military weakness, of a kind that tempts adventurers and tyrants. And a properly ordered society must be prepared to fight wars -- even wars in foreign parts -- if it is to enjoy a lasting peace in its homeland. In short conservatives are a hard and unfriendly bunch who, in the world in which we live, must steel themselves to be reviled and despised by all people who make compassion into the cornerstone of the moral life.
Liberals are of course very different. They see criminals as victims of social hierarchy and unequal power, people who should be cured by kindness and not threatened with punishment. They wish all privileges to be shared by everyone, the privileges of marriage included. And if marriage can be reformed so as to remove the cost of it, so much the better. Children should be allowed to play and express their love of life; the last thing they need is discipline. Learning comes -- didn't Dewey prove as much? -- from self-expression; and as for sex education, which gives the heebie-jeebies to social conservatives, no better way has ever been found of liberating children from the grip of the family and teaching them to enjoy their bodily rights. Immigrants are just migrants, victims of economic necessity, and if they are forced to come here illegally that only increases their claim on our compassion. Welfare provisions are not rewards to those who receive them, but costs to those who give -- something that we owe to those less fortunate than ourselves. As for the legal and constitutional inheritance of the country, this is certainly to be respected -- but it must "adapt" to new situations, so as to extend its protection to the new victim class. Wars are caused by military strength, by "boys with their toys," who cannot resist the desire to flex their muscles, once they have acquired them. The way to peace is to get rid of the weapons, to reduce the army, and to educate children in the ways of soft power. In the world in which we live liberals are self-evidently lovable -- emphasizing in all their words and gestures that, unlike the social conservatives, they are in every issue on the side of those who need protecting, and against the hierarchies that oppress them.
By Roger Scruton from the December 2009-January 2010 issue
Conservatives recognize that social order is hard to achieve and easy to destroy, that it is held in place by discipline and sacrifice, and that the indulgence of criminality and vice is not an act of kindness but an injustice for which all of us will pay. Conservatives therefore maintain severe and -- to many people -- unattractive attitudes. They favor retributive punishment in the criminal law; they uphold traditional marriage and the sacrifices that it requires; they believe in discipline in schools and the value of hard work and military service. They believe in the family and think that the father is an essential part in it. They see welfare provisions as necessary, but also as a potential threat to genuine charity, and a way both of rewarding antisocial conduct and creating a culture of dependency. They value the hard-won legal and constitutional inheritance of their country and believe that immigrants must also value it if they are to be allowed to settle here. Conservatives do not think that war is caused by military strength, but on the contrary by military weakness, of a kind that tempts adventurers and tyrants. And a properly ordered society must be prepared to fight wars -- even wars in foreign parts -- if it is to enjoy a lasting peace in its homeland. In short conservatives are a hard and unfriendly bunch who, in the world in which we live, must steel themselves to be reviled and despised by all people who make compassion into the cornerstone of the moral life.
Liberals are of course very different. They see criminals as victims of social hierarchy and unequal power, people who should be cured by kindness and not threatened with punishment. They wish all privileges to be shared by everyone, the privileges of marriage included. And if marriage can be reformed so as to remove the cost of it, so much the better. Children should be allowed to play and express their love of life; the last thing they need is discipline. Learning comes -- didn't Dewey prove as much? -- from self-expression; and as for sex education, which gives the heebie-jeebies to social conservatives, no better way has ever been found of liberating children from the grip of the family and teaching them to enjoy their bodily rights. Immigrants are just migrants, victims of economic necessity, and if they are forced to come here illegally that only increases their claim on our compassion. Welfare provisions are not rewards to those who receive them, but costs to those who give -- something that we owe to those less fortunate than ourselves. As for the legal and constitutional inheritance of the country, this is certainly to be respected -- but it must "adapt" to new situations, so as to extend its protection to the new victim class. Wars are caused by military strength, by "boys with their toys," who cannot resist the desire to flex their muscles, once they have acquired them. The way to peace is to get rid of the weapons, to reduce the army, and to educate children in the ways of soft power. In the world in which we live liberals are self-evidently lovable -- emphasizing in all their words and gestures that, unlike the social conservatives, they are in every issue on the side of those who need protecting, and against the hierarchies that oppress them.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Principled Politics – 12/09/09
Michelle Malkin: The Depths of Demcare Demagoguery
How low can they go? The desperate Democratic peddlers of a government health care takeover have proclaimed an insurance "holocaust in America", lambasted conservative health care town hall protesters as "political terrorists", sent SEIU thugs to demonstrate outside Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman's private residence, and derided senior citizens questioning President Obama's fuzzy math savings claims. Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading them deeper into demagogic mire. Read more…
Jonah Goldberg: The Real Fat Cat Party
One of the great frustrations of the libertarian-minded right is how Republicans got stuck being "the party of big business."…
The notion that big business is "right wing" has always been more sloppy agitprop than serious analysis. It's true that historically, big business is against socialism and communism -- and understandably so. Socialism and communism were once close to synonymous with expropriation of wealth and the nationalization of industry. What businessman or industrialist wouldn't be against that? But many of those same industrialists saw nothing wrong with cutting deals with statist regimes. For example, the Swope Plan, put forward by Gerard Swope, president of General Electric, laid out the infrastructure for much of the early New Deal. Read more…
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