“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”
~ St. Paul, 1st century
Philippians 4:8 ~
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places.”
~ Ephesians 6:12 ~
"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
~ Ephesians 5:11-14 ~
"Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies."
~ Psalm 40:4 ~
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
Hi, GOP: You Are Terrible and Obamacare Jr. Stinks ~ The majority of Americans NEVER wanted this unaffordable care nightmare. Why won’t these elitist politicians do what we elected them to do?! #REPEAL ~
Instead of what we want and what you have been promising us, we get handed this Technicolor yawn of complex rules, regulations and handouts that ends up with those of us who take responsibility for ourselves once again getting stuck with the bill for the freeloaders who won’t. You babble about “empowerment,” but you people are still in the driver’s seat.
Their new Obamacare plan isn’t an attempt to shift America away from government-run healthcare. It’s an attempt to re-enshrine government as the center of the health care system, with a slightly rejiggered vision of its role. The plan isn’t likely to lower costs, promote competition, or curb moral hazard.
The majority of millennial children (now aged 18-34) had two working parents; this was partly an ideological project of feminism and partly economic necessity. The downside was the damage done by daycare, services for which grew by 250% between the 1970s and ;90s (see Laura Perrins’ work on psychological trauma caused by daycare). According to Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Thesis, babies require two years of intimate attention to enable them to form the caregiver-child bond essential for secure ego formation. Any disturbance of this process will “predispose the children to respond in an anti-social way to later stresses.”
Sad, but it sounds like a plausible theory to explain these fragile snowflakes.
• U.S. officials believe a sewage spill from Mexico’s Tijuana River was deliberate
• It caused 143 million gallons of raw sewage to pollute Californian coastline
• Sewage ran for 18 days and only stopped last week on February 23
The left thrives on its moral narcissism. It parades around its false spectacles of victimhood. But its policies leave behind real victims. When the left fought against President Trump’s common sense immigration security reforms, a little girl in a village in New York became one of its many victims.
Harvard orders students to spy on each other with broad new rules against single-sex clubs ~ Stripping students of freedom of association, a ridiculous “implementation committee” has decreed that not only will members of single-sex clubs be punished and excluded from a broad range of fellowships and leadership positions they’ll be blocked from from running for office or leading The Harvard Crimson.
The European political and media elites continue to deny that anything is wrong in Sweden in particular or in Europe in general. They ridicule President Trump for saying otherwise. But those who actually live and work in areas where there are large numbers of Muslim migrants, or in Muslim enclaves, know that Trump was speaking the truth.
A wildflower superbloom is underway in the desert Southwest in March after seven inches of winter rain. Anza-Borrego State Park in California hasn’t experienced a bloom so prolific since at least 1999 according to park officials.
Updated: 3-11-17 ~
I just finished listening to this Olive Tree podcast with Dr. James DeYoung, author of “Burning Down the Shack” (referenced below) ~
Essentially, “The Shack” deconstructs the entire Bible. It rejects Christianity for agnosticism.
“The Shack” the newly-released movie based on a 2010 novel of the same name by William P.Young, is peddling a brand of faux-Christianity that believers would do well to avoid.
An engaging work of fantasy-fiction, “Shack” plays fast and and loose with scripture, reinventing God Himself to appeal to our 21st century post-modern mores and a humanist worldview. (I’d really like to tell you how it ends so you won’t even be tempted to watch/read the story. But since the entire premise was so foreign to Christian theology I simply couldn’t finish the book and tossed it aside in frustration about halfway through.)
The narrative draws us in by appealing to our human nature. “Mack,” a father grieving the kidnapping and brutal murder of his young daughter, receives a mysterious message inviting him to a meeting in the very shack where the crime took place.
Sudden tragedies understandably create a deep longing in each of us for solace and comfort, along with a desperate need to make sense of the event. Our world has suddenly been knocked off-kilter. It’s certainly natural to cry out “Why God, why?” And while Young seems to be trying to answer our “whys” and offer consolation and hope, he does so at the expense of God’s Word.
Beyond the fact that God the Father is clearly not a black female who calls herself “Papa”, scripture in several much more disturbing ways. According to “Shack” theology, in the end there is no justice, no judgement and no hell to fret about. All paths lead to God – and apparently all dogs go to heaven.
“(T)he theology promoted in [William Paul] Young’s novel is of a particularly sinister and heretical variety.”
“William Young departs from an evangelical understanding of God, in whom holiness and love are equally balanced, to a universalist understanding of God, in whom love is paramount and judgment and holiness are considered to be in conflict with his love,” DeYoung wrote. “In comparison with Bunyan, Young denies that there is future punishment and that God punishes sin.”
DeYoung provides some background on Young’s goofy theology ~
“I have known the author of The Shack, Young, for more than a dozen years. In 2004, Young wrote a lengthy document in which he rejected his evangelical faith and embraced universalism,” DeYoung wrote. “… He said then: that evangelical faith and its teaching about judgment makes God ‘grossly unjust’; that ‘Jesus is a million times more vicious and vindictive than Pharaoh, Nero or Hitler put together’; that Jesus Christ is ‘not the Savior from sins’; that Jesus died ‘a failure and in vain and never saved anyone’; thus Jesus ‘is not even a good man but a liar, a rogue and a deceiving rascal’; that ‘Calvary is a farce, a travesty and a sham.'”
Young then “began work on a novel proclaiming universalism for his children.” And then three years later Young “rewrote the fiction and published it as The Shack, in part his autobiography.”
In a very contemporary way William P.Young has created his own “truth” and would like the rest of us to buy into it. Don’t.
Here’s a better suggestion: Start at Genesis 1:1 and read the Bible from cover to cover. When you’re finished, start over. Repeat. The only way to KNOW God’s eternal truth is to immerse yourself in His eternal word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
Do not add to His words,
Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
Proverbs 30:5-6
In evaluating the book, it must be kept in mind that The Shack is a work of fiction. But it is also a sustained theological argument, and this simply cannot be denied. Any number of notable novels and works of literature have contained aberrant theology, and even heresy. The crucial question is whether the aberrant doctrines are features of the story or the message of the work. When it comes to The Shack, the really troubling fact is that so many readers are drawn to the theological message of the book, and fail to see how it conflicts with the Bible at so many crucial points.
… the continual mantra that The Shack has “ministered healing” to its readers or viewers shows just why William Young’s work is so seductive in its nature: because it attacks a person’s soul at its worst. Many people I’ve encountered who liked the book read it when they were struggling with depression or some deep sadness in their life, and felt that the book assisted them. However, just as one might be tempted to harm their physical bodies by turning to alcohol or drugs to combat depression, so too can the devil tempt one with spiritual harm by leading a suffering person into false doctrine. Being personally satisfied is not a mark of being healed, but rather complete, perfect healing found in the comfort of the true God, and the true Gospel – and one will find neither in The Shack.
As Jefferson famously excised from his Bible all those passages he considered unbearable, Young has gutted the Christian faith of anything he considers repugnant. What remains bears only a passing resemblance to the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.”
Well, as Mollie Hemingway writing at the Federalist puts it, yesterday’s ‘Day Without Women’ Was A Bit Of A Bust. Could it be that most of us have finally figured out that the trumped-up war between the sexes is just pretty darn silly after all?
Take for example the myth of the gender wage gap ~
Contrary to irrational, contemporary theories of relativity, men and women will never be interchangeable; the two sexes were created to be complementary. By each of us focusing on our strengths, not – often contentiously – pointing out the others’ weaknesses, we can build a better, healthier society – together.
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The high winds we’re experiencing right now in Michigan (thank you God for our generator!) got me wondering about that ridiculously impractical alternative-energy source the greens are so very fond of – wind turbines. There are record widespread power outages in the Detroit area today, and even if we had a wind farm on every corner they’d be totally worthless – not to mention dangerous – on a day with 50-60 mph gusts.
Countries further down the alternative path, like Britain and Australia, are learning this lesson the hard way – make that the very expensive way ~
Not only do the turbines have to be turned off in high winds, the structures themselves are at risk from storm damage, endangering the public. This is from the Daily Mail after a series of gales blew through the UK a few years ago ~
Christine Smith, a local Conservative councillor said: ‘This shows they can be very dangerous, these blades could have fallen on someone’s car or home. They are lucky someone was not walking nearby.
‘Wind turbines are flawed, they don’t work when it’s too windy, and don’t work when it’s not windy enough. There are much better alternatives to use less energy such as under-floor heating and insulation.
Then of course there’s the real irony – consumers actually have to subsidize the power companies for the reduction in power; energy costs go up when there’s less of it available.
Until mankind discovers a safe, affordable alternative, nothing beats good old fossil fuels for reliability. In the meantime, we just need to make sure we have enough at our place right now to power the generator for the next several hours. 🙂 (Might be time to switch to one of these babies.)
More and more, renewables are being recognised as an environmental disaster, as a charter for troughers and rent-seekers, as a human health hazard, and as a serious threat to economic stability […]
All I ask is one simple question: if an industry can only exist because it’s dependent on subsidies and regulation, what do you think will happen to that industry if the public mood swings, a revolutionary spirit takes hold post Brexit and Donald Trump, and those subsidies are withdrawn and the regulation is removed?
Judge Monica Herranz was hearing the case of Diddier Pacheco Salazar, 22, on January 27 in Multnomah County, Oregon. Salazar was in court regarding a DUI he had been charged with on January 1st.
U.S. Attorney Billy Williams told KOIN that the only way Salazar could have escaped the agents, as the Multnomah County Circuit Court has three doors – one for the public, a private judge entrance and one for inmates to be brought in from jail, would have been Herranz helping him escape through another door. He told FOX 12, “I felt that it was inappropriate and delegitimizes the work of ICE agents who are out there doing their jobs. When you’re talking about the judicial system – whether it’s federal or by state – you have an expectation that people are going to abide by the law and not take steps based on their own motivations, their own politics.”
Yes Billy, it’s rather difficult to enforce the laws when you have a judge who arbitrarily breaks them.
The report tallies approximately 3 million arrest offenses attached to the incarcerated criminal alien population. Of these offenses, half a million were drug related, 70,000 were sexual offenses, 213,000 were for assault, 125,000 were for larceny/theft, and 25,000 were for homicides. Based on the GAO’s sample of criminal aliens, they estimated that their study population of 249,000 criminal aliens was arrested about 1.7 million times, averaging about 7 arrests per criminal alien.
By definition, not one one of these crimes would have occurred absent the immigrant who committed it – in other words, without admitting these individuals, there would have been at least 70,000 fewer sexual assaults, 25,000 fewer slayings, 125,000 fewer robberies, and so forth.
Furthermore,
recent U.S. Sentencing Commission data that showed that although illegal aliens only account for 3.5 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 36.7 percent of federal sentences in Fiscal Year 2014.
Apparently Judge Herranz is doing her part to make sure that percentage stays nice and high.
Pacheco-Salazar was arrested by ICE two weeks later when he returned to the courthouse for another hearing. He is currently being held in an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington.
“The White Helmets,” a short documentary directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, won an Oscar at last Sunday’s award ceremony. The film tells the tale of “heroic first responders” in Syria who rescue victims from the war-torn rubble. The only thing is – as Pamela Geller points out – they’re essentially a happy-face version of jihadists ~ The White Helmets: Al-Qaeda Wins An Oscar.
In your average lifetime, everyone will get their share of war propaganda films. In America, it’s a kind of sacred tradition, where Hollywood does the job of revisionism, paving over an otherwise uncomfortable history with a new coat of celluloid. It’s necessary – not just to make us feel better about ourselves, but also to cover-up any inconvenient truths and high crimes of the state.
To be honest, when I first heard about this film being promoted by Netflix, I wasn’t surprised at all because ever since the Syria conflict began in 2011, the establishment media has gone out of its way to falsely promote it as a “civil war”, and have used the NGO known as the White Helmets which calls itself the ‘Syria Civil Defense’, as its primary media protagonist in furthering that narrative.
The fact that a documentary about The White Helmets received an Oscar Award simply confirms what a glorious bubble the entertainment industry resides in, and how easy it is these days for a documentary film to used for the purposes of propaganda and made to reinforce a mainly US-UK foreign policy project.
In reality, the White Helmets organization is just basically camouflage for “moderate” Islamists. They really should win an award for ingenuity. What better way to take advantage of the Western propensity to throw money at a problem in the hopes it will go away than by claiming altruistic motives, while at the same time covertly waging war against government forces (- and non-Muslims)? It’s a win-win for al-Nusra – and other “moderate” jihadis.
And what better way to advance the cause than create a “documentary” to promote their narrative of selfless humanitarian aid? Henningsen explains how it works ~
The footage was provided by a terrorist-affiliated NGO based in Turkey, operating in Syria, and who is primarily funded by the US State Dept, the British Foreign Office, the Netherlands, and other NATO member and Gulf states to the tune of over $150 million and whose chief remit is producing US-led Coalition propaganda images for mass media consumption. The film, funded and distributed by Netflix, seems to be an extension of that remit.
As I’ve pointed out in various other posts about Syria, Bashar Assad is clearly no angel. But that doesn’t make Western efforts to depose his government legitimate. The White Helmets operate solely in terrorist-held areas. They aren’t “unarmed” as they’ve claimed, and they aren’t impartial.
But they surely do have Hollywood – and probably most Americans – fooled; what great acting!
My advice? Skip the Oscar-winning “documentary,” and watch this instead ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*CAVEAT: Patrick Henningsen appears to be anti-Semitic (refers to Israel in other writings as the “Zionist regime”) and pro-Palestinian, which makes him hugely suspect in my opinion. However, several other sources – including the above video – (even Huff-Po is vacillating) corroborate his lengthy and extensively-documented narrative about the White Helmets.
An Iraq War veteran and member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, Gabbard is known for her sharp criticism of former US President Barack Obama’s interventionist policy in the Middle East […]
“We must stop directly and indirectly supporting terrorists—directly by providing weapons, training and logistical support to rebel groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIS; and indirectly through Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Turkey, who, in turn, support these terrorist groups”, Gabbard wrote.
Levin lays out definitive proof – primarily from the Obama acolyte media itself – that the previous administration was spying on an opposition party candidate and his surrogates during the course of a presidential election.
Yes – this is another Watergate — x10! But what are the odds Barack Hussein Obama and his shady associates will ever be held accountable?
The wiretapping was widely reported by the very media that is now pretending to have no idea what is being discussed.
The only conspiracy theory on the table here is whether Obama and his people played any role in the spying. And considering the IRS being used to target Obama’s enemies, the filmmaker behind one Obama movie ending up in jail, the filmmaker behind another movie Obama didn’t like also ending up in jail, it’s not much of a reach.
Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
Donald Trump’s Boffo Speech to Congress ~ Politically and theatrically brilliant. In case you missed it, Bruce Thornton recaps the president’s excellent address to the joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Optics for the Dems were just abysmal ~
After a campaign and first month in office filled with caustic tweets, petty squabbles, heated rhetoric, and seeming disarray, Trump spoke in the disciplined, lofty, aspirational, conciliatory tone we expect of presidents. But the Democrats mostly sat on their hands, even when Trump promised to create jobs and help curb the slaughter in blighted black neighborhoods, boons for the Democrats’ constituents…
Greenpeace Claims Immunity from Lawsuits Because Its Claims Are ‘Hyperbole’ ~ The environmental activist group has been pushing for legal action against ExxonMobil, alleging the company “knew” about climate change in the 1970s and 1980s. Apparently they thought that fact distortion was a legitimate legal strategy. 😯 Now it seems…
Greenpeace is admitting that it relies on “non-verifiable statements of subjective opinion,” and “because its claims are not meant to be factual, the group believes it cannot be held legally responsible for what it says.”
• The resettlement contractors are paid by the head to drop off refugees who are essentially paying clients and they want to keep their little federally-funded fiefdoms going.
• The Libs want reliable Democrat voters (especially in red states!).
• The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is working day and night to erase borders and dilute Christian nations with Muslim migrants.
(I)t’s hard to make people happy by exposing gay activism’s ugliness. From both a strategic and biblical perspective we’ll get much further by revealing the true beauty of the way of Jesus Christ […]
… we have to keep pointing back to the better way. We need to learn to paint the picture better, to show the truly beautiful way, the way of strong and lasting marriages that unite in godly love to build the next generation.
They claim to reduce greenhouse gases,
From mulched trees as burnt bio masses,
By importing wood pellets,
The renewable zealots,
Are behaving like right silly asses.
• Obama’s goal is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment, a family friend tells DailyMail.com
• Jarrett has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion to work closely with the former president and Michelle Obama
“It was in the interest of representing the residents of the 34th district, home to the largest community of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, that I felt compelled to tell my colleagues what Sen. Hayden’s support of the communist regime meant to the Vietnamese-American community,” Nguyen wrote in (an op-ed for the Orange County Register) […]
“I am deeply disappointed with the majority party leadership’s actions because they didn’t just silence my voice, they silenced the voices of the more than 930,000 residents I represent. Their actions were not the result of some arcane Senate rule or the fact I didn’t follow protocol but because some senators did not like what I had to say.
“In Vietnam to this day, free speech does not exist and on Thursday, I caught a glimpse of what that must be like. The freedoms we enjoy in this country are worth defending and I am proud to have been a part of that fight. As an American, I am committed to continue to fight to protect first amendment rights for the residents of my district and for the residents of the great state of California.”
At least 24 doctors in Ontario have asked to be removed from a list of physicians willing to participate in Canada’s Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) law, passed in June. Some 30 more have requested their names be put on hold.
Jeff Blackmer, vice president of the Canadian Medical Association, said some doctors initially think they are helping patients end their suffering but find the reality much different.
“We’re seeing doctors who go through one experience and it’s just overwhelming, it’s too difficult,” he said. “And those are the ones who say, ‘Take my name off the list. I can’t do it anymore.’”
This silly catchphrase struck me as ludicrous the very first time I heard it at least two decades ago. Time hasn’t altered my opinion one bit.
Intended perhaps to be an upgraded version of the old marketing maxim “the customer is always right,” the fact that it’s not universally true or even mostly true is what makes me loony. Just because someone feels a particular way about something doesn’t make it so.
Tragically in today’s post-modern, moral-relativistic world far too many deluded souls have taken the inane expression to heart. Case in point, this unfortunate make-up artist, who’s in a category all by himself ~
Vinny Ohh, 22, from Los Angeles in California, has had over 110 procedures to transform into a ‘genderless’ extra-terrestrial.
Vinny said: ‘I want to be a sexless alien being, I want my outside to reflect how I feel on the inside.
‘The overall image I want to do is an alien. I want to be a hybrid, not male or female.
‘I’ve wanted to be sexless and genderless since I was 17, I’ve been going to doctors to see if it’s possible but had no luck.
‘I don’t want people to think I’m trying to change into a woman. I could live without sexual organs so why should I have a penis or a vagina?
So Vinny basically wants to be nothing. How horribly sad. What he needs is not a physician as delusional as himself who’s willing to perform this destructive surgery. If he were really lucky he would find a doctor who will help him deal with the world as it really exists, and the fact that he is a biological human male – not an androgynous alien.
Call me crazy – but shouldn’t we all strive to have our perception correspond to reality?! After all, the reverse – attempting to alter reality to fit your perception – is the classic definition of insanity.
Swedish political leadership has gone insane. They are importing camels and calling it “a job market initiative” in order to give Somali Muslim migrants work […]
According to the government’s thinking, not only will it give Muslim migrants work, the hope is that automotive companies like Volvo will use the camels in their advertisements in Sweden. Marketing genius, eh? The government thinks that tourists might come to Sweden to “pet the camels” and that there “will be fashion shows.” “Camel products will be sold.” I kid you not. And selling of camel milk which “is said to help autism,” which is completely untrue. Camel milk does not cure autism.
If only this silliness was the extent of the cultural clash problem the Swedes were facing when it comes to their Islamic newcomers. On a much more serious note is this recent account from Katie Hopkins (English television personality/newspaper columnist),
I didn’t come to Sweden for the riots. Or because of Trump […]
I came because I was asked. Repeatedly.
Swedish women reaching out by email, by letter, to quietly show me what has become of their country.
Dads writing that they were worried for their daughters, tweeting that Sweden is not the place people imagine it to be, that young girls are scared to go out at night.
A news feed filled with reports of the rape and assault of Sweden’s young women, some inexplicably streamed live on Facebook by the gang as they attacked.
Other reports filed quietly away in a box marked unmentionable: the rape of a 14-year-old child by an ‘unaccompanied minor’ immigrant who later bragged he was 45.
When Trump turned the world’s attention to Sweden by clumsily referring to the effects of mass-migration on what used to be seen as the most liberal country on earth, the country was ready and waiting to blow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Within twelve hours of my landing in Sweden, an asylum centre was burned down, arson suspected; a hand grenade was planted in a bin, either for the police or the mosque; and another hand grenade exploding, injuring one in Malmö.
Whether this noisy stuff matters or not is open to debate. I’d argue this is madness. I am in utter disbelief that this is Sweden in the 21st century, a country idolised for its ultra-advanced ideals.
A cameraman for the Swedish equivalent of the BBC asked me why this had to be politicised at all; why couldn’t it just be that someone put an explosive device in a bin?
I looked at him and wondered which one of us was mad.
I asked Mattias Karlsson, leader of the Swedish Democrats – currently leading in the polls – why other politicians refuse to acknowledge the problems right in front of their eyes.
He explained that to accept there is a problem would mean accepting nearly 80 years of liberal thinking was wrong. That multiculturalism doesn’t work, that mass immigration does not lead to integration, that Sweden has made a big mistake.
In a sincere attempt to help befuddled lefties understand where this reality-detachment of gender-fluidity is taking us, I’m posting this helpful video wherein Dr. Michael Brown brings a much-needed measure of sanity, along with real compassion, to the trans debate ~
• A biological male does not have female genitalia.
• A biological male does not have female chromosomes.
• A biological male does not get a monthly period.
• A biological male cannot conceive or bear a child.
• A biological female does not have male genitalia.
• A biological female does not have male chromosomes.
• A biological female does get a monthly period.
• A biological female cannot impregnate another woman.
It also remains true that chromosomes do not lie (meaning, XY = male and XX = female, and abnormalities are just that — abnormalities) and that biology is not bigotry…
