Of Wheat Harvests and Way-Back Machines

 

‘And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.’ ~ Acts 26:10

 

• ‘Central banks are quickly waking up to the fact that gold is a currency.’

Here are some folks who understand the importance of gold:

• ‘I think we have a food crisis right now.’ ~ Hussein Allidina, head of commodities research, Morgan Stanley

• Property rights were eradicated in the name of the Civil Rights (sic) crusade. Therefore, folks should not be surprised to discover that a woman is being brought up on civil rights violations for requesting a Christian roommate—in her own home.  [Update: The charges were later dropped.]
  

• Sadly, I found out the hard way that this phone hasn’t been invented yet.

• ‘Coconut oil is exceptionally helpful for pregnant women, nursing moms, the elderly, those concerned about digestive health, athletes (even weekend warriors), and those of you who just want to enhance your overall health.’

• So, you have a rat and you have a land mine.  What to do?

• ‘The truth is that the US is insolvent and its policymakers will stop at nothing in order to avoid sovereign default. So, it should come as no surprise that at its latest meeting, the Federal Reserve downplayed the risk of inflation, thereby setting the stage for another round of money creation.’

• ‘In the waters off Tybee Island, Georgia, right at the Georgia/South Carolina border and not far from Savannah, buried in about 10 feet of silt is a hydrogen bomb. It’s been there for more than 50 years. . . The sad lesson is that we have less to fear from naked aggression than we do from incompetence and bad engineering.’

• Once again, the opiate of college football supplants heritage and tradition.

• I’ve rarely seen such an incompetent understanding of the U.S. Constitution in my life—not by O’Donnell, mind you but by the author of this article.’

• It wasn’t the New Deal that made folks fond of FDR—it was his push to repeal the 21^st Amendment.

‘Industry Booms as States Vote Repeal of Prohibition’

• ‘The national security police state has been advancing for years but now that the true takeover of American society is in full swing, Americans are finally beginning to understand that everything supposedly aimed at terrorists is in fact directed towards them.’

• ‘Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further widespread droughts and floods.’

• The economic whizzing contests regarding currency devaluations currently underway (actually, they’ve been underway for quite some time) would be a thing of the past if countries simply backed their currencies with gold. That would mean that they would be forced to live within their means.

The economic storm is gathering.

• A proper understanding of God’s Providence precludes any serious contemplation of ‘What If’ history, of course (Ephesians 1:11); however, it is sometimes an interesting exercise to imagine how one incident might have affected—and saved—millions of lives, had it occurred differently.

• ‘We’re the people that live. They can’t wipe us out, they can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, cos we’re the people.’

• Decades from now, I fully expect to see an epidemic of deafness due to the amazing volumes at which folks listen to music. Likewise, we may not be surprised to find an alarming rise in the rate of brain cancer due to cell phones.

 

BBQ and the Culture War

  

‘No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.’  ~ Matthew 6:24  

 

‘The most truly disadvantaged are those who are hated for their virtues, not their vices…’ ~ Wilmot Robertson, The Dispossessed Majority

 

 

 

• ‘North Korean officials are infuriated by [Gospel] leaflets that have been floated over the communist nation’s secured borders and dropped from plastic bags attached to gas-filled balloons.’

 

 

 

• Another professing Christian company capitulates to Mammon and agrees to worship at the altar of Equality. The e-Harmony matchmaking site will now begin to include homosexuals in its listings following a lawsuit in New Jersey. You cannot serve two masters.

 

 

 

 

• For those of you with small children, I have found the perfect Christ-mas present for your young’uns. Can you afford it? YES YOU CAN!

 

 

 

‘I can look back on campaigns in which I saw Republicans on the local level working their hearts out for a cause they believed to be just , only to realize, after is was all over, that the kingmakers had given them a candidate who would not campaign on the issues.’ ~ Phyllis Schlafly 1964

 

 

 

• If it has not become increasingly clear to us by now, the current tactic in the culture war against Christians is to make us appear mentally ill. In this video, Joy Behar of ‘The View’ insists that homeschooled children are ‘demented.’

 

 

 

• ‘In discussions of Texas barbecue, the equivalent of Matt Damon and George Clooney and Brad Pitt would be establishments like Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market, in Lockhart; City Market, in Luling; and Louie Mueller Barbecue, in Taylor—places that reflect the barbecue tradition that developed during the nineteenth century out of German and Czech meat markets in the Hill Country of central Texas. (In fact, the title of Texas Monthly’s first article on barbecue—it was published in 1973, shortly after the magazine’s founding—was “The World’s Best Barbecue Is in Taylor, Texas. Or Is It Lockhart?”) Those restaurants, all of which had been in the top tier in 2003, were indeed there again in this summer’s survey. For the first time, though, a No. 1 had been named, and it was not one of the old familiars. “The best barbecue in Texas,” the article said, “is currently being served at Snow’s BBQ, in Lexington.”’   [Anyone up for a road trip?]

 

 

 

• I’ve been waiting for this for SEVENTEEN YEARS!! Do you know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby!

 

 

 

• ‘In any case, what I really mean to say is that our crazed foreign policy was a major reason why Americans gave Obama such a stunning victory. There’s just one problem: our foreign policy is going to remain pretty much the same.’

 

 

 

‘Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice. Those who are best at artifice succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both.’

 

 

 

• Here is a neat photo report on the birth of a chicken.

 

 

 

• It appears that government mints throughout the world are having trouble meeting the demand for gold coins.

 

Can you tell which one is the artist?

 

• Peter Schiff, one of the few men to try and warn us (unsuccessfully) of the coming economic meltdown, discusses what we can expect to see down the road. Some of his conclusions might surprise you. (Podcast.)

 

 

 

• ‘Unfortunately, as we moderns ascended the social heights, when we reached a new level we often kicked out the ladder we climbed to get there. And now when we find ourselves forced to reverse direction, we find that the things that allowed us to exist comfortably at lower levels are no longer available to us. Mother and Dad and that comfortable home equipped us to venture out into the wide world, but now that the wide world has turned us away we return to find that Mother and Dad and home are no longer there to welcome us back—and that it was our leaving that destroyed them.’

 

 

 

• Technology makes it much easier to be a jerk.

 

 

 

• It’s not about ‘equality’, it is about destroying our Christian culture. Maybe one day we’ll all wake up and realize it.

 

 

 

• For those who haven’t discovered that the Constitution is irrelevant in Washington City, here is more proof. The President no longer thinks he needs the Senate to ratify a treaty and the next President may very well not be a natural born citizen. But the Constitution’s long, slow death which began in 1861 doesn’t seem to concern very many folks.

 

 

 

• Speaking of whether the u.S. Constitution still means anything, the controversy over President-elect Obama’s birth certificate continues to build.

 

 

 

• ‘[S]preading [the wealth] is mostly what Washington does. Here, the Constitution is an afterthought; the supreme law of the land is the principle of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs.’ ~ George Will []

 

Like my new ‘do?

 

 

• Here is an example of just how corrupt Washington City can be: ‘Ted Stevens — the longest-serving Republican senator in history [who was recently convicted in a court of law for corruption] — bid farewell to the Senate on Thursday’ to a standing ovation.

 

 

 

• ‘Already, you can see that the political constellation is lining up in a way that is more friendly to the cause of liberty. The Democrats are up to their old tricks, which are transparently dumb and dated. The Republicans are responding with smart and sound criticisms. The government looks poised for a fantastic gridlock that will let the liquidation take place so that we can move toward a good recovery.’

 

 

 

• I’ve said it here before—and probably will again—but don’t expect u.S. foreign policy to change. In fact, you can expect an expansion of the GWOT©–you can bank on it—now that Obama has selected Hillary! to be Secretary of State. For all of her rhetoric and demagoguery, she is a neoconservative u.S. hegemonist of the highest order. The world should be very, very nervous right about now.

In honour of the long, long, long, LONG-anticipated release of their new album, to-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by Guns ‘n Roses:

  

Relax–You’re Two Tents

‘Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.’  ~ Proverbs 16:31

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I have posted and commented a few times regarding the obligation we have been given to provide an inheritance for our children and to do our best to provide for their well-being after we are gone.

There is a flip-side to that coin, as well. In addition to looking ahead, we are called to look back, as it were, to those who first cared for us. It is an all too prevalent view in society to-day that our responsibilities to our parents end the day we depart from under the roof they have provided. However, according to Jesus, the opposite is true; it is incumbent upon us to see to our parents’ needs as they grey:

 

‘And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”‘ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”’ ~ Mark 7:9-13

 

The question, then, is how best to provide for our aged parents. I would think that, at the very least, we should lay aside treasure for their care as we would an inheritance for our children. The debate, however, is usually to be found regarding whether it is best to oversee their care personally or to subsidise it professionally. I tend to prefer the former after having seen loved ones in nursing homes—though I am not condemning the practise. There are many fine facilities with talented and caring professionals who provide wonderful care for our aged. Yet, when I recently visited Ashlee’s grandmother in an old folks home, I was seized by the conviction that I do not want to spend the balance of my old age in such a place. I pray that my children will take the burden upon themselves (and it most certainly can be burden, no matter how willing we may be to carry it) to care for me—and I pray all the more that God will grant me the ability and the desire to do the same for my and Ashlee’s folks should that become necessary.

‘But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for^(A) members of his household, he has^(B) denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’  ~ I Timothy 5:8

 

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Here’s an interesting account for those lamenting the ‘inevitable’ nomination of John ‘100 Years in Iraq’ McCain:

 

‘One of the most interesting American political stories involves the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to be the Republican party’s candidate for President of the United States in 1860. This was the Republican party’s second presidential convention, and the man everyone expected to receive the nomination was the powerful and well-known William H. Seward of New York.

‘Abraham Lincoln, although having recently been introduced to eastern audiences through a series of political speeches in New England, and prior to that having gained some fame due to his participation in “the Great Debates” with Stephen A. Douglas, was not considered a serious contender for the appointment. How he and his political team brought him from “dark horse” contender to the victor is the subject of the following article.’

 

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‘We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals of our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.’ ~ Ronald Reagan, 1964

 

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A significant number of folks have inquired as to why I grew my beard.  My retort has often been to point out that, physiology being what it is, the question that really ought to be asked is why they shave theirs.

The short answer is that a few years ago I continued to be overcome by a feeling that God had given men the gift of growing a beard for a reason and, over the course of several months, I felt compelled to give in to the inward call and let my beard grow.  I now can’t imagine myself with out it!

‘How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest–a sign of strength and rule.’  ~ St. Clement of Alexandria, 2.275

 

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‘The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.’ ~ Joe Sobran

 

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Keep in mind how we are lectured incessantly that the ‘Islamo-fascists’ (whatever that means) ‘hate us for our freedoms’ :

MR. [TIM] RUSSERT [‘MEET THE PRESS’]: ‘Why does [Osama bin Laden] hate us so much?’

VICE PRES. CHENEY: ‘It must have something to do with his background, his own upbringing. He’s the son of a prominent Saudi family, successful business group with significant wealth. He went and served in Afghanistan with the mujahedeen during the war against the Russians, and he has, for whatever reason, developed this intense hatred of everything that relates to the United States. And his objective, obviously, is to try to influence our behavior to force us to withdraw from that part of the world, and clearly he’s not going to be successful.’ [Emphasis mine.]  ~ September 16th, 2001

 

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‘DALLAS — After more than 40 years under lock and key, a large collection of documents and items related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was released by the Dallas County district attorney on Monday.’

 

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The Government of the United States recently voiced support for the Kosovar declaration of independence from Serbia. Pardon me if I’m a bit confused but I thought the U. S. did not support secession—and 600,000 dead soldiers proved it. What’s with the change of heart?

 

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 A recent study found that a significant number of restaurant lemons tested contained fecal bacteria!

 

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‘One of the most intriguing mysteries about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that darkest of American labyrinths, is why his brother Robert F. Kennedy apparently did nothing to investigate the crime.’

 

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‘The question is: How can one promote legislation that “provides help for the poor” without at the same time violating his pledge to promote legislation that offers “hope for the oppressed”? The only way for government to give money or services to the poor is first to take the necessary funds from other citizens, i.e., to steal from them, which surely qualifies as oppression. Furthermore, if Campolo purposes to “promote legislation that turns biblical imperatives into social policy,” how can he support laws that blatantly violate Exodus 20:15 (“You shall not steal”)?’

 

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 ‘Two senior Church of England Bishops have called on people to give up carbon rather than chocolate for Lent.’

 

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To-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by Willie Nelson:

 

Put Up or Shut Up

‘Thus, you will know them by their fruits.’  ~ Matthew 7:20  

 

‘There are six things the Lord hates … hands that shed innocent blood … ‘  ~ Proverbs 6:16, 17

The election season seems, more often than not, to bring out the worst in us. Amiable discussions can descend rapidly into arguments of herculean proportions–between friends, no less. However, the bi-annual bloodsport is not without its redeeming qualities. During the current conflict (or as some refer to it, the ‘election’) has taught me a great deal.

 

Primary among the lessons learnt regards perhaps the most divisive and polarising issue of our day, abortion. I have had myriad discussions with others regarding the issue and have found, oddly enough, that some of the most heated discussions have been with fellow travellers in the pro-life movement.

 

My father and I have often sparred (respectfully, of course) regarding whether or not a candidate’s profession of opposition to abortion is sufficient cause to support him (all other things being equal). I, based on observation and experience, have insisted vehemently that it most certainly is not. Pro-life candidates have been singing the same song–without result–for decades. In fact, once in office, they actually do very little to promote legislation that will move us closer to ending the Abortion Holocaust once and for all. Rather, they hide behind the supposed insurmountable judicial behemoth–or so they would have us believe–of Roe v. Wade and insist that, if we would just continue to elect them, they may–may–be able to place justices on the Supreme Court who may–may–overturn that abomination. Back to the disagreement with my father: He will always vote for a pro-life candidate while I refuse to take their profession at face value. I require proof of their pro-life credentials.

 

Enter Ron Paul.

 

It has been through the Ron Paul r3VOLution that I have received a lifetime’s worth of economic and political education, not the least of which has been in the area of the abortion debate. Dr Paul does not merely pay lip service to the anti-abortion argument–he has lived it. As an ob/gyn, he has delivered in excess of 4,000 babies. He has stated that it is not merely a spiritual or political argument that life begins at conception, it is a scientific argument. Dr Paul has also insisted that during the 40-plus years of his medical journey, not once–not once–has it been necessary to abort a child in order to save the mother.  More importantly, he has actually done something tangible to end the systematic infanticide that other ‘pro-life’ candidates seem unwilling or unable to do.

 

With his introduction of the ‘Sanctity of Life Act’ he has educated me–and countless others–to a political reality: It is not necessary for us to ‘patiently’ wait for the balance of the Supreme Court to save the day nor must we embark on the difficult and prolonged (and perhaps quixotic) road to constitutional amendment to see it through. We have it within our power to end abortion–if the professing pro-life candidates are serious about their beliefs.

 

The proposed legislation ‘would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life. This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths of 45 million of the unborn.’

The authority accomplish the goal of ending abortion is already in place! Article III, Sec. 2 of the Constitution for the United States, gives Congress the authority to limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court:

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. [Emphasis mine.]

Eureka! How did we not see this before? The answer is simple–we really don’t follow the Constitution nor are most of us even vaguely familiar with what actually comprises it.

I will be writing my congressman and senators urging them to pursue their authority to bind the heretofore limitless power of the Supreme Court. I actually have extremely low expectations, especially with the former (Chet Edwards, a Democrat); however, in the future, we should demand that those who seek our vote and profess to stand against infanticide agree to pursue this course. The days of deflecting responsibility by laying it at the doorstep of judicial nominations have ended. They hold the power–and have for more than 200 years. Now, they must use it or lose our support. The days of mere pro-life rhetoric have passed. Now are the days of action. Thirty million murdered souls cry out for justice. Will we see that they obtain it?

And thank you, Dr Paul, for your wisdom and enlightenment.

Deo Vindice.