Marco’s impressive defense of Christianity

Posted on January 21, 2016

Wow! Totally impressed with Senator Rubio’s response to this “what about us?” question from an atheist. What an unapologetic, concise and articulate witness for the faith ~
 

 
Awesome job – particularly at the very end where he emphasized the positive influences that true Christian values have on any society.

 

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Note – This was created/posted by an atheist, hence the silly title; “Pastor-in-chief?” Clearly, the dude wasn’t sincerely seeking an answer to his question. He’s probably too young to have figured out that one’s own personal worldview influences every single aspect of your life – consciously or unconsciously. But he was respectful enough to let Rubio respond without interrupting, and I really appreciate him posting the video.

Posted in Comfort & Joy, Timeless Principles, Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Flint’s Water – Filtering out the falsehoods

Posted on January 20, 2016

FlintRiver
 By now has every Democrat in the country who is running for, holding – or has ever held – public office, has weighed in – as loudly as possible – on the tainted water in Flint, Michigan. Frantically babbling, through any media source(s) available, they’re all proclaiming in no uncertain terms how it’s all the fault of those mean, racist-sexist-bigot-homophobic Republicans. Most of these shameless opportunists don’t give a tinker’s damn about the unfortunate citizens who’ve been affected by this crisis. They simply can’t pass up the opportunity to demonize a Republican governor – especially in the middle of an election year.

The mantra from the lefty press and Democratic officials is at a fevered pitch: What did Michigan Governor Rick Snyder know, and when did he know it, and how could he and his emergency managers try to save money while poisoning Flint’s children?

Source: Conservative Review

 
But we here at Designs-on-the-Truth have a real penchant for, well, the truth.
So who’s really responsible for this fiasco? The answer is about as murky as Flint’s water. But first in line is definitely not Gov. Snyder (RINO though he may be).
 
As a Michigan resident, I can say one thing with absolute certainty; Flint has been run (into the ground) by Democrats for YEARS (The city has elected a continuous string of Democrat mayors since 1975.).

 

This whole sad affair requires much more investigating that the low-information crowd has the patience or attention span for (they’d rather get all fired up by Michael Moore’s agit-prop). But here are two reliable sources who by all indications have broadly researched and are honestly reporting on this story ~
 
• Democrats’ Failure to Launch: Flint Water Crisis
• Lies, deceit and more sniper fire: the Obama administration knew about Flint last April
 
Both of these articles provide the history behind the water contamination and recount how various officials and bureaucracies have either addressed or ignored the situation ~

It was Detroit that cancelled Flint’s water contract in 2013 after the city council decided to try to get out from under Detroit’s hefty water fees, forcing Flint to scramble for water since its new plan wouldn’t go into effect until 2016.
 
flintwaterplant
 After the council came up with a plan to treat water from the Flint River, Mayor Dayne Walling, a former field director for Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), shut off the Detroit water supply in April of 2014, stating that it is “historic” to be able to take drinking water from the city’s own “roots.” Complaints poured in from residents that the water tasted and smelled bad, but the mayor insisted, along with the city’s Emergency Manager and the MDEQ, that the water was safe.
 
Flint has been through four Emergency Managers in four years, as it was wildly bankrupt. But even after the problems caused by years of economic irresponsibility, the voters of Flint installed two felons, one a murderer, and two individuals who have declared personal bankruptcy in the past.
 
As the months wore on, after continued complaints from city dwellers, Mayor Walling continued to claim the water was safe, and that the residents were “wasting their money on bottled water.”

[Read the whole account HERE.]
 

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While there’s plenty of blame to spread around, if this has to be about political parties (and with leftists, it’s always political), the Democrats were in charge of the water source switch and have been in control of the entire progression of events – up until it became a crisis. At which point they threw up their hands – and accused the Republican Governor of ignoring the problem. Ergo, it’s all his fault. 🙄
 

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Related:
Flint, MI – progressively failing

Posted in Mendacity, MSM Malpractice, Unvarnished | 3 Comments

Let the Countdown Begin!

Posted on January 20, 2016

➡ TIME LEFT UNTIL OBAMA LEAVES OFFICE
woohoo-smlr

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment

The arbitrary “justice” of “Obama’s America”

Posted on January 19, 2016

Remember when Barack Obama vindictively sent his minions after Dinesh S’Souza for having the temerity to expose the Marxist roots of the president’s worldview? DOJ managed to nail the prominent conservative/Christian activist on an unfortunate campaign finance violation, an infraction that is rarely prosecuted, much less punished with a jail term. Unless you’ve offended his excellency that is.

 
At the time of D’Souza’s indictment NRO published an excellent article by Andrew C. McCarthy analyzing the O’Ministration’s lopsided application of justice: Amnesty, but Not for D’Souza ~

obamasAmerica

(Dinesh is) not just a harsh critic of progressivism and the academy, but a highly visible Obama detractor. D’Souza is author of The Roots of Obama’s Rage and co-producer of the equally controversial film 2016: Obama’s America. They purport to trace the president’s politics to the Communism and anti-colonialism of his father. While some commentators found the book insightful, it has also been panned, and not just from the left (see, e.g., Andrew Ferguson’s scathing review in The Weekly Standard). Still, it was a big bestseller and, in conjunction with the movie, drew the ire of the White House, where you’d be better off slandering the prophet of Islam than critiquing Obama.
 
So now the Obama administration has indicted D’Souza for not one but two felony charges, arising out of alleged campaign-finance irregularities. Specifically, he is accused of corruptly reimbursing straw donors to the campaign of Wendy Long, Republican candidate in the New York Senate race — contributions D’Souza could not lawfully make himself because he was already “maxed out” at the $5,000 ceiling. […]
 
D’Souza has no criminal record. Moreover, contrary to myriad voter-fraud violations that Attorney General Holder will not lift a finger to pursue, the transactions at issue posed no conceivable threat to the integrity of the election process: Ms. Long lost by 46 points. As observed by no less than Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz (an Obama supporter), “This is clearly a case of selective prosecution.” There would, the professor added, be “no room in jails for murderers” if the Justice Department made a practice of such prosecutions.

 
Recently Bill Whittle at PJTV sat down with D’Souza to get his take on this whole travesty and hear about his incarceration experience. This video is part 1 of a three-part interview; I highly recommend watching all three. These two are a couple of real wise guys – literally and figuratively 🙂 – so the conversation is entertaining as well as very enlightening ~
 

 
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Related:
Obama’s latest interview… ~ D’Souza gets in a few great digs in this mock conversation with B.O.
“Dinesh, you are like a brother to me” ~ More so than Barack anyway

Posted in Unvarnished | 3 Comments

Manipulating the masses with misinformation

Posted on January 18, 2016

Kathleen Parker and the Strange Heresy of Ted Cruz is a cautionary tale to ponder as we rush headlong into the “silly season” of presidential primaries. It’s illustrative of how the mainstream media uses innuendo, spin and outright deceit to herd the low-information crowd into the desired corral to reflexively pull the lever for the preferred progressive candidate(s).
 
Writing at Aleteia, Anthony M. Esolen provides a superb analysis of the Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker’s misguided criticism of Ted Cruz. In case you missed the controversy…
KathleenParker

Ted Cruz, it seems, had called upon the Body of Christ to rise up in support of his presidential bid, which led Kathleen Parker, one among her nodding panelists at CNN, to feign offense that Cruz should be begging Jesus to come up out of his grave and write his name on a ballot in Iowa.

Are Americans that ignorant? Parker seems to think so – or maybe it’s just the ones she knows ~

“I don’t know anyone who takes their religion seriously who would think that Jesus should rise from the grave and resurrect himself to serve Ted Cruz,” Parker said. “I know so many people who are offended by that comment.”

 
Hello?! Where to begin? (Beyond the obvious, she needs to get outside her NYC bubble once in a while!) Esolen offers Parker what is clearly a desperately needed refresher course in the history of Western Civilization, referencing everyone from St. Augustine to King Arthur to Sidney Portier ~

Secularism among journalists is often thought a necessary enhancement to their “unbiased” outlook, but it’s not too much to ask that we have a few journalists, just here and there, who actually know something about Scripture and the Christian faith. If you do not know that the central tenet of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter, appearing in the flesh to his disciples, and if you do not know that the Church is the Body of Christ, as St. Paul says, then what else are you not going to understand? […]
 
Has she never seen a single painting of the Resurrection? Never seen Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas, in which the risen Lord guides the finger of the apostle to probe beneath and within the flesh of the lance-wound in his side? Does Parker not know why we call him Doubting Thomas? Never seen a single one of the many renderings of Jesus walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? Never read Dante’s Divine Comedy? Or Milton’s Paradise Lost? Or John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”?
 
Has she never read Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities? Did she not understand the irony of the grave robber Jerry Cruncher calling himself a “resurrection man”? Did she not know why the code words that bring Dr. Manette from prison are “Recalled to life”? Did she not understand why the author suspends the scene at the end of the novel, to repeat the words of Jesus to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life”?

 
Esolen includes many more examples but you get the idea. And even though our western societies are rapidly devolving into a post-modern cesspools, Parker, by trade (she won a Pulitzer Prize after all) and by age (Gen Xer), can’t possibly be ignorant of the tenets of the Christian faith and its remarkable influence on almost every aspect of our culture.

Imagine somebody wandering about Iowa, not knowing what those big cylindrical structures are for, and that cows eat grass. Imagine somebody living in Nashville and thinking that “country music” refers to national anthems. Imagine somebody living in Italy and thinking that Donatello was a kind of ice cream. Imagine a Russian who thinks serfs were waves on the Caspian Sea.
 
We mustn’t give Parker a pass, but I am cruel only to be kind. We need journalists, even secular ones, to know something about Christianity, and how it has formed and advanced civilization into this troubled century. Without that knowledge, they will have nothing to offer – no informed point of view, no insights, no “unbiased” ability to analyze the challenges before the West.

 

I say Mr. Esolen is being much too kind. It’s not the first time Ms. Parker has been deliberately obtuse about the Christian faith. And when another opportunity to discredit a conservative candidate presents itself you can bet she won’t hesitate to do it again.
 
But at least we’re wise to her bogus anti-Christian tactics. Don’t be manipulated by Parker – or any of her fellow “journalists” – into misjudging candidates, and voting for four more years of hopeless, Godless change.

 
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Related:
On CNN, WashPost’s Parker Mangles Ted Cruz’s
Remarks, Christianity ~
Jesus-HolyLand-smlest

Parker also failed to realize that it is an essential Christian belief that Jesus already rose from the grave after dying on Mount Calvary. As St. Paul put it his First Letter to the Corinthians, “If Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins.”
 
Moments later, (Parker) claimed that “the evangelical community…may disagree with what I just said, and may see it as less offensive than I did.” That’s probably right, because they knew what Cruz meant by “the Body of Christ.”

Posted in Mendacity, MSM Malpractice | 1 Comment

Iran finally frees Pastor Abedini!

Posted on January 17, 2016

At last! After almost three and a half years the Iranians have released Pastor Saeed Abedini along with three other Americans they had been arbitrarily holding in their draconian prison system. Details seem pretty sketchy at this point, but at least Abedini can finally return home to his family. Praise God! ~
 

 

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Related:

Fearless Faith – Saeed & Naghmeh Abedini
BREAKING: [UPDATED] American Pastor Saeed Abedini and Other Americans Free and Safe ~ ACLJ (American Center for Law & Justice) had been spearheading the efforts to bring Pastor Abedini home
Leaders Rejoice over Saeed’s Release but Lament Nuclear Deal
Pastor Abedini’s Wife Cites Stress in Suspending Public Efforts for Husband’s Freedom ~ Hmmmm

Posted in Comfort & Joy | Leave a comment

Saturday Shorts – 1-16-16

Posted on January 16, 2016

sshorts1-5-13

Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
Orthodox priest complains to German authorities about harassment on Christians at refugee camps ~

“Many Christians who came from the Middle East are suffering from such a strong harassment that they want to come back home, because their situation there seems to them a lesser evil as compared to the circumstances at German refugee accommodation centers,” the priest said.

Do we need any more proof as to who actually deserves “refugee” status? Muslims just can’t seem to stop persecuting Christians no matter where they live. Gee, let’s invite more here!

 

5 Ways to Stop Gun Violence that Obama Hates ~ Way too much common sense for our friends on the left. But then they’re not really looking for solutions are they?
 
It’s Beyond Time For A Cold-Eyed Look At Trump’s Record ~ From Daniel Horowitz at Conservative Review. Because his out-spoken brashness appeals to our sense of patriotism, it’s really tempting to overlook The Donald’s strong liberal tendencies. Don’t.
 
Finally, a Strategy to Checkmate Obama’s Executive Actions ~ Sounds like a plan…

Though Congress has given up much of its power when it comes to using its “power of the purse” to stop executive overreach, there is one power it still holds, and there is absolutely no reason not to use it. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, popularly known as “Advise and Consent,” requires the Senate to approve all presidential appointments of cabinet officials, ambassadors, and federal judges.

But can we get the RINOS to buy in?
 
Obama Regs Cost Americans $784 Million Every Day the Gov’t Was Open in 2015 ~ This insanity has got to stop! ~

Bureaucrats pushed $197 billion in regulatory costs in 2015, including $99 billion in costs due to finalized regulations on industries covering energy producers to food companies to manufacturers. In total, regulators wrote 82,036 pages of rules in the Federal Register last year — a record level.

 
Sexual Orientation is Not “Born That Way” ~ Just a convenient lie that paved the way for same sex “marriage” ~

“And yet there is little scientific evidence to suggest that the categories we use today in the United States—categories that are historically quite new—originate in the body at all,” he said. “I think social scientists, lawyers, biological researchers and activists all need to examine why it is that many of us are so deeply invested in biological explanations of sexual orientation, particularly when they appear to have limited efficacy in terms of promoting more positive attitudes toward sexual minorities.”

 
Obama’s 140 Broken State of the Union Promises ~ Video provides a montage of 140 lies, half-truth’s and unaccomplished goals the prevaricator-in-chief hasn’t made good on in the last seven-plus years.
 
Border Crossings Continue To Surge ~ While the GOP candidates debate immigration, the O’Ministration is busy turning America into a third world dictatorship ~

Since October around 40,000 families and unaccompanied children have been caught at the border, hitting record highs for these winter months. December alone has seen the highest numbers in one month since the 2014 border surge.

 
Meanwhile, we pay scant attention to the vivid example of unrestricted immigration on the other side of the Atlantic as it morphs into a desperate clash of civilizations ~ Is Europe Choosing to Self-Destruct? Apparently, yes.
 
Find Out How Much Obamacare Rates Increased in Your State ~ Yikes! Sure glad we opted out last year and joined a Christian medi-share plan.
 
How falling oil prices exposed the great green lie: Saudi Arabia’s battle with the US to drive down prices show we’re far from reaching ‘peak oil’ ~ The UK Daily Mail reminds us how – before they invented the convenient “climate change” fantasy – the greeniacs were peddling the myth about earth running out of fossil fuels.
 

Illinois Appeals Board Slams 127 Turbine Wind Farm Proposal Due to Excess Noise Health Effects & Loss of Neighbours’ Property Values ~ Whoa. If left-leaning Illinois is coming to its senses maybe we’re making progress. (Check this site out: StopTheseThings. It sounds like living near these beasts is an ongoing nightmare!)
 
Vatican spokesman: Islam teaches “non-violence in the name of God” ~ Didn’t realize pot was legal in Rome 😀
 
Duck Commander Phil Robertson endorses Ted Cruz (me too!)~

“My qualifications for president of the United States are rather narrow: Is he or she Godly, does he or she love us, can he or she do the job, and finally would they kill a duck and put him in a pot and make him a good duck gumbo?” Robertson said. “Cruz fits the bill.”

Posted in Everything Else | Leave a comment

Meanwhile, in another part of the world…

Posted on January 15, 2016

inotherNews
 

It’s not just ISIS. Radical Muslims are on the march across Africa too.
 
Just now (Friday night, Jan. 15th) Islamic jihadis have murdered at least 20 people and are holding others hostage at a hotel in the West African country of Burkina Faso ~

At least 20 people died and others were taken hostage when Islamist gunmen stormed a hotel in the capital city of Burkina Faso on Friday, a hospital director said, an attack for which al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility.
 
Security forces in the early hours of Saturday began an assault to reclaim the Splendid Hotel and entered its lobby, part of which was on fire, a Reuters witness said. The hotel is frequented by Westerners, which may have made it a target.

Source: Reuters

 

Earlier today the Somali branch of the religion-of-barbarians slaughtered more than 60 Kenyan soldiers in an attack on a military base ~

In an early morning ambush, Islamic terrorists of the radical al-Shabaab group attacked an African Union military base in southern Somalia Friday, breaching the walls by exploding a car bomb and overrunning the base.
 
al-Shabaab 
According to the officials of the Somali army, the blast demolished the entrance to the military base in in the town of El-Ade, Somalia, slaughtering dozens of Kenyan soldiers and allowing heavily armed jihadist militants to storm the base.

 

We’re only two weeks into 2016, and so far it looks like the Islamic savages’ new year resolution has been to ramp up the body count.
 
But don’t worry. None of this is an existential threat to we fat and sassy Americans.

 
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Related:
Al-Shabab seizes African Union base in Somalia

Posted in Good vs.Evil, Unvarnished | 2 Comments

Check out this latest Hillary campaign ad –

Posted on January 14, 2016

It’s practically an endorsement for Ted Cruz! Sure hope it gets a lot of air play!
 

Posted in Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Ted Cruz responds to #POTUS #SOTU

Posted on January 13, 2016

This is why Phil Robertson (and I!) support Senator Cruz for president ~
 

“President’s speech was less a State of the Union and more a state of denial”

Video via Sen.Ted Cruz

Posted in Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Responding to #POTUS #SOTU

Posted on January 13, 2016

Thank the good Lord, the country has been subjected to its last reality-challenged State of the Union address from Barack Obama!
 
Senator Mike Lee (UT) offered this short but eloquent response to the president ~
 

Video via The Daily Signal

Posted in Unvarnished | Leave a comment

Cultural Marxism and the destruction of the civil society

Posted on January 12, 2016

Taking stock of the social, moral and cultural rot infecting western societies today, is it any wonder so many of us feel like finding a deserted island to flee to; on which to merely subsist in peace for our remaining days? How in the world have things devolved so rapidly?
 
Watch and learn ~

 

[Don’t be put off by the perplexing “critical theory” terminology in the first minute or two. Intentional deception is all part of the progressive subterfuge.]

Video via Mises Institute

 
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Related:
CULTURAL MARXISM, CRITICAL THEORY, & THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL ~

Critical Theory, as applied mass psychology, brought forth a ‘quiet’ psychic revolution which facilitated an actual physical revolution that has become visible everywhere in the United States of America. It was the destructive criticism of the primary elements of American culture that inspired the 1960s counter-culture revolution. As the name implies, this false ‘spiritual awakening’ by the idealist Boomers in their coming-of-age years was an effort to transform the prevailing culture into an inverted or opposite kind of culture that is a necessary prelude to social revolution.
 
Now that these elite Boomers are in positions of power in the United States, they are completing their work of destroying every institution that has been built up over 200 years of American history. Their aim is to destroy any vestige of the Anglo-American path taken by Western Civilization in forming the unique American culture.
 
Most Americans do not yet realize that they are being led by social revolutionaries who think in terms of the destruction of the existing social order in order to create a new social order in the world. These revolutionaries are the New Age elite Boomers, the New Totalitarians. They now control every public institution in the United States of America. Their ‘quiet’ revolution, beginning with the counter-culture revolution of their youth, is nearly complete….

 
Now, go watch the Marxist in the White House address the nation that he’s helping destroy from within ➡ SOTU

Posted in Cultural Erosion, Unvarnished | 2 Comments