Why oh why can’t we just make this guy the President?!?

Yeah, this is going to be a lame post just to say that I’ve updated some stuff about the site and therefore have now “almost” finished the clean up from the changeover to the 3.0 design.

Here’s the changes:

• Added my 4 latest tweets from Twitter to the sidebar.


• Updated the about page with current information. Including some subtle changes to some of the text to make the theology section more clear.

Yes, I know I still need to actually do the portfolio page. I’ll get to it… eventually…

If you are not wondering, please feel free to read anyway… Oh, you were expecting me to say “please feel free to skip this post?” Of course not, I don’t want you clicking away from my website!

I know you are thinking, there’s already a multitude of reviews and opinions about the iPad, why would I add to that instead of point you to some article or other that I mostly agree with or like in some way, or pointing out the stupid ones? Because this is my website silly and I can post anything I want on it!

So, the iPad

There is no doubt that the iPad is a gorgeous device. It’s thin, lightweight and beautiful. And it’s full of multi touch goodness with an evolved (from the iPhone and iPod touch) multi touch UI. There are so many things about this device that make my mouth water, and I even went into the iPad announcement with the mindset that I could not see how I would even want such a device. And yet Apple has done it again. They have made me want, seemingly against my very will. I went into this product announcement pretty sure that Apple was going to announce some sort of tablet device, and pretty sure I would not like it and certainly would not want it. And yet after it was all said and done, and despite any arguments I have against it, I wouldn’t mind having one (on at least some level).

The good

Where do I begin?
Like almost (and note the use of the word “almost") everything Apple does, it looks like the iPad follows suite. iPad is (or looks to be) easy to use, fun to use, and still manages to bring power to the hands of the user (don’t flame me iPad dissenters, I’ll get to the bad in a bit).

Horsepower!
The iPad has it. At least from the demo and the accounts I have read of the hands on experience, there is no sluggishness in iPad’s performance. It looks like a very smooth experience. Webpages render quickly, scrolling is silky smooth, pinch zooming is a breeze, all the little animations never stutter, and so on. This is in contrast to the first iPhone. I still have a first generation iPhone in my house, it’s my wife’s phone. As break through as that device was, by comparison to my 3GS, and now especially in comparison to the iPad, the original iPhone is seriously flawed in that it is underpowered. Nothing is snappy on the original iPhone!

The interface
iPad excels at bringing the multi touch experience from the iPhone to the larger screen in a way that makes sense and builds on the ease of use that the iPhone has. You see something on the screen you want to get to, you touch it. Anyone can use this device. I mean really. Gone are the days of, “do I click or double click?” “Oh, you meant right click not left click?” or “What do you mean by control click?” It’s all gone because now! See it, want it, touch it. It’s (mostly) that simple. And at least from what I could see, pretty much every thing built on the iPhone’s interface and made sense, as well as looks beautiful. This should be no surprise, this is Apple’s strength. Great aesthetic design and ease of use.

It does real stuff
Yeah, it carries over all the functionality of the iPhone; Mail, Safari, iPod, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, Notes, not to mention all the applications in the App Store that are already available for the iPhone and will run natively right on the iPad (iPad will even pixel double iPhone apps so that they will run full screen). And there is an SDK for developers to develop apps specific to iPad. Yeah, it’s got all that, but Apple has also done something else that’s interesting…

iWork
Those of you on PCs may not realize it, but Apple’s iWork suite is amazing and quite compatible with Microsoft Office in terms of importing documents created by MS Office, and exporting documents to MS Office format. And most importantly to me, it’s easier and more fun to use. Apple has created a version of iWork just for the iPad. And this is interesting. combine iWork for iPad with the really cool keyboard Dock Steve Jobs also announce for the iPad, like for when you need to do some serious typing, and this device really does become almost the only device “many users” will need to take with them almost anywhere. And don’t underestimate how powerful this could be for presentations. And it brings the “See it, want it, touch it” interface I mentioned earlier to iWork. People are forever asking me how to do stuff in iWork or MS Office. And it looks to me like this could eliminate a lot of that.

I do think multi touch is the future, and Apple is pioneering a lot of things the right way in this area. It seems to me that the multi touch UI is a far more natural feeling interface and does not require me to “learn” anything. No more, “do I click, double click, right click?” That’s just gone, and replaced with, there’s a button that I want so I just touch it. There’s an email I want, so I just touch it.

The Bad

Multi What?
That’s right, a carry over from the iPhone (and this limitation I also hate on the iPhone). NO MULTI-TASKING! This really does kill me and it really is pretty much a deal breaker. On the one hand, I really do hate to keep harping on this subject, it has after all been hotly debated. And Apple will tell you that this is a feature and not a flaw, because look at what multi-tasking would do to battery life. And yet, this concept is so old to computing, and so essential that one wonders how Apple can (KEEP) glazing right over this and glibly pretending that it doesn’t matter, and even pretends it is better to not multi-task. They are completely missing the point here. Sure the push notifications they introduced is a really good idea for things like IM where keeping the whole application open in the background and constantly communicating with the server would really unnecessarily drain the battery fairly quickly on a portable device (and we all certainly know that on the iPhone anyway, battery life REALLY stinks!). But what if, as I’m working on an iWork document I want to have Pandora playing in the background? Sorry, that’s not allowed because you can’t run more than one app at a time! Do you know how UTTERLY RETARDED THIS IS? Sorry, I felt like using all caps… I’m over it now… Yeah so, I’m even willing to compromise with Apple. Let us have some interface whereby we choose 1 or 2 applications we would like to keep backgrounded (such as pandora). I mean, I have my iPhone hacked to allow me to run as many apps in the background as I want. Do you know how often I background more than one app at a time? Not very. It’s usually Pandora, or if on a trip, my GPS navigation app so that I don’t loose my place or miss a direction while checking my email from the passenger seat while my wife drives. I really do find that apps open so quickly that switching back and forth between apps isn’t a problem for the most part and it’s really only 2 or 3 apps at most that need to stay open in the background. Push Notifications really are a good way to handle IM clients and the like. It just wouldn’t take much to satisfy me here.

I Can’t see you
Do you realize how AWESOME the iPad would be for video chats? And yet though Apple builds cameras into their laptops, right at the top of the screen, and builds them into their new cinema displays, and though there’s plenty of room somewhere on the iPad’s bezel (some people have even complained about how stinking big that bezel is), there is no camera to be found on the iPad! This really is a shame and a HUGE missed opportunity on Apple’s part.

Connect stuff? Kidding right? That would make iPad too useful!
Related to “I Can’t see you” is the fact that you can’t just buy a webcam for the iPad either because guess what, the only access you are going to get to the iPad is through the standard iPod connecter. And thats great, I love the iPod connector, I just wish it at least had a USB port or two on it as well. They’re thin little ports and would be easy enough to hide in the design of the iPad. Why? Why? Why? can’t we have more connectivity? This is actually a gripe I have even with Apple’s full grown computers (You know, like removing the Express/34 Card slot from the “professional” laptops). The iPhone isn’t a problem just having the iPod connector. But this is a little different. I may want to connect devices to this thing if I’m really going to use it like a computer.

I need my mommy!
And still related is the fact that this cannot be a standalone device. It is pretty much going to be necessary to connect it to a full grown computer at some point. It is designed to be a device that syncs with a computer. It can’t even do over the air updates! So if nothing else than for updates it is going to have to be connected to a computer running Windows or OS X. I think Apple has again missed an opportunity.

What’s a widescreen?
The iPad has what’s essentially a 4x3 screen in a widescreen world. Enough said.

No Flash support
Now, I have to tell you I have mixed feelings about this one. I HATE Adobe Flash, I despise it. I think it represents everything that is wrong with web-design today. In fact, for a long time I have tried to keep flash off my website, and you currently have to look hard in the archives to find any flash on this website. And any flash you find on my website will be when I posted a YouTube video. And I hate doing it. Flash is such a heavy technology. In fact, I have an add-on installed on my computer that prevents flash from loading unless I specifically tell it to load. Flash video will peg my processor at anywhere from 50 to 70 percent. And my computer is not too shabby. And this is not just the flash browser plugin for the Mac. I have observed this phenomenon on Windows too. Flash just chews up CPU cycles in a bad way, and boy do I hate flash when I’m running my laptop on battery power. Using that much CPU cycles not only makes a little heater out of my laptop but kills that battery in a hurry! That being said, Flash is sometimes essential at this stage in the internet game. There are times when you simply have to have the flash browser plugin installed to make some websites work. Which is why I like my “clicktoflash” plugin. If I really need flash to load on a website, all I have to do is click it. I think this is the way it should work on the iPad. I don’t mind that it doesn’t load flash by default. To me that is a feature! But at least give me the option to load it if I really want to!

Saved from the evil apps!
This closed app ecosystem is really getting tiresome! It’s the same app ecosystem that is being used on the iPhone. I’m okay with Apple being a gate keeper to some degree, I’m okay with the apps being completely sandboxed. What I’m not okay with is the way Apple has gone about this. Apple sometimes rejects apps without explanation, or sometimes with an explanation that doesn’t make sense. Take the Google Latitude app for iPhone as an example. Apple rejected it because it “duplicated functionality” and “confuses the user.” I’m sorry but while Latitude may have some of the same functionality of the stock maps application, it is not the same thing. And frankly, I’m not okay with Apple being my app gate keeper in this sense! I’m okay with them making sure it doesn’t destabilize the system. I’m okay with them making sure it plays within the app sandbox. But no application should be rejected unless it violates these two things. And I’m using Latitude just as an example. I was so severely disappointed and enraged at Apple when they rejected the Latitude app that I wanted to punch Steve Jobs right in the chops (well almost at least). But to me this demonstrates a very real problem/flaw with the iPhone OS app ecosystem! You see on my computer, I install any app I want, but on my Phone and now Tablet computer? Forget it. Apple tells me if I can or can’t install Google’s Latitude app and that’s just the way it is! And frankly, it’s disturbing and disgusting!

We love the small footprint and cruddy 3G service!
Yeah, the cellular data version of the iPad is effectively saddled to AT&T… again (sigh, sigh, sigh). Sure it’s an “unlocked” device, but it only supports the 3G bands that AT&T uses (let’s not even talk about the stupid micro sim!) How hard would it be to make a version that supports T-Mobile’s 3G band, and a version that supports Verizon and Sprint’s 3G? Or at least Verizon and Sprint, seeing how Verizon only has 5 TIMES MORE 3G COVERAGE than AT&T. Even Sprint has more 3G coverage than AT&T. And though AT&T’s 3G (UMTS with HSDPA being rolled out) may be technically faster than Verizon’s, Verizon consistently has a better 3G experience. And even if the problem is that AT&T’s network is just overloaded by all the iPhones and other data hungry devices, isn’t the answer to spread the load out among the other networks? Have I mentioned that I don’t live in a AT&T 3G area. But Verizon has 3G in my area… sigh!

Why do I need an iPad?

Now, I do think the iPad would probably be great for my wife. In fact, though it will be a couple years, when her laptop needs replaced, we may well get her an iPad. She can sync it to the Mac Mini Media center we have when it does need to sync with a big computer, or needs a software update. And for the things she does it would be perfect and inexpensive.

But why would I get one? Given the cons of this device, and the fact that anything I would do with the iPad I can do just as well on my iPhone. And when I need more horsepower than my iPhone, I need a full grown OS, I need OS X. So why would I get one?

So it looks like I’m just not in Apple’s target audience anyway. But I really can’t see why if you have a laptop and a good smartphone (like the iPhone), why would you need the iPad? It’s too limited at this time! I know I said toward the beginning of this article that I wouldn’t mind having one. And I wouldn’t. From the aspect that it’s a cool flashy device, and it’s beautiful, I wouldn’t mind having one. But it would have to be free or dirt cheap as you can see from my conclusion. Because really, it’s not worth spending the money on! I think Apple missed the boat!

Welcome to the 3.0 design of TJDraper.com! You will find things have been cleaned up in general. And with the two pillar side bars instead of just one, there is less scrolling to see everything in the sidebars. The Sidebar on the left is for blog utility related items like Recent Posts, Categories, Monthly Archives etc. The sidebar on the left is for stuff I want to put there, like site info, blog roll etc.

Also, for those who care, the core coding will validate, and all CSS validates with the W3C validator. You will run into some archive pages that won’t validate simply because a picture I posted a while back didn’t have the alt= attribute assigned to the img tag.

This is also my first website that will not work in IE 6. But that’s okay because it’s very hard to write code that works in modern browsers and validates, as well as works in IE6. So if any of my readers are still using IE6 I urge you to upgrade, preferably crossgrade even to Safari.

So not only have my ninja skills improved for writing code that validates, but my speed has also improved. I did this re-design in 6 hours. Granted I based the graphic design off the previous look so I didn’t sit around too much racking my brain for color schemes and stuff, and I did recycle (copy and paste) some of the Expression Engine specific code that makes the blog work. But still, it only took me 6 hours.

Me Happy!

Editing and graphics by me.

I am really excited about this film. Make sure you watch this trailer!

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Edited by yours truly:

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. - Psalm 122:1

Man is Windows frustrating. I’ve been working on websites this evening and since 80% of the world uses IE on Windows I must resign myself to testing sites on IE for Windows.

Well anyway, Windows started nagging me about an update while I was in the middle of working. It was annoying too because I had all my browsers and different various windows just where I wanted them and this nag window would pop up right over them while I was doing something. It had a little progress bar and said that Windows would automatically restart in 10 minutes if I did nothing. And it had buttons to restart now or ignore till later. To make a long story longer, I clicked restart later. I didn’t want to bother with restarting since Windows take approximately 3.5 years to restart.

Well 5 minutes later up popped the dialog again. “Now that’s frustrating,” I thought to myself. “Didn’t I just tell this infernal thing I would restart later?” So I clicked later… AGAIN! Well apparently Windows thought it misunderstood me the first 2 times because it did it again. And again. And again.

After a total of 5 times it finally won. You see that last time I was busy doing something else and so ignored it for the 10 minutes it needed. But you know what’s frustrating? I was just clicking over into Windows to test some code I just wrote and it was shutting down.

I gotta tell you I was unimpressed! I told that silly thing 5 TIMES I did not want to restart right now. When an update pops up on Mac OS X, and you tell it later that’s the end of it. It realizes that, “hey, he meant what he said when he said later. To ask again would be interrupting his work.” Not to mention, automatically restarting after I clicked later?!? That’s out of the question!

So yeah, I was just reminded in a small way why I do not put up with the troubles that 80% or so of the rest of the world puts up with.

Windows always makes me appreciate my Mac!

Merry Christmas to all!

Just try to resist that smile!

I love Christmas time when seemingly everyone becomes postmillennial and sings of Christ victorious!

Talking to grandma on mommy’s iPhone.

Allen and I built a new clothesline today.

I can’t figure it out…

We started with a shooting competition

I wasn’t the only one with a camera

I just happened to snap the right photo at the right time to get this cute shot

DANGER!! DANGER!!

Yes, I actually shot a gun! *gasp*. It had been about 7 years since I shot a gun, but I actually tied with Pastor Lovett for 1st place

So we had to have a shoot off, but since I was under pressure this time I didn’t win the shoot off.

Cutest baby at the Reformation Celebration, or in the world for that matter!

There was a “Diet of Worms” for the kids…

The challenge: eat the “dirt” and “worms” without hands.

No hands? no problem!

Mission accomplished

All participants got a “marshallow shooter”

And there was a cookie competition

Halloween has a “socialist tenor” because menacing figures arrive at your door uninvited, demand your property, and threaten to perform an unspecified ‘trick’ if you don’t fork over. That’s the way the government works in a nutshell.

Here are some long overdue pictures:

Wait, I have a blog?!? Say it ain’t so! If I had a blog I would keep it up to date. I would certainly NEVER allow two months to go by without a single post on said blog...

Okay, okay, so I’ve been a bit busy. But I will try to find some time to post a little more often.

This guy is good! I wish we had a bunch of politicians like this in the US.

Here’s one of those gems that is so good I had to post it. You may find the original here on Iron Ink.

“While the Anabaptists argued against infant baptism, that children could not experience faith and repentance, the Reformed replied that although children did not possess the acts of faith, they still could possess the disposition (habitus) of faith. Since absolute certainty about the internal state of the recipient is never certain in the case of either adults or children, the question is whether we have the same certainty in either case…. Just as with adults, the hearts of infants should be judged with charity….

Since as a poorer dispensation of grace circumcision was administered to children, it follows that as a richer dispensation of grace baptism ought to be administered to children as well. Also, the entire idea of the covenant as the historical and organic realization of election points toward the inclusion of infants through their connection with their parents in grace and blessing.”

Herman Bavinck
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. IV – pg. 498

1.) Those who hold to anabaptist ecclesiology while trying to embrace Reformed soteriology at the same time are seriously confused. Anabaptist ecclesiology suggests that membership of the church is characterized by those who themselves choose to be part of the church. The emphasis falls on the individual. This is advocated in keeping with anabaptist “pure church” theology. (A “pure church” is one that has no tares. Classical Baptist theology holds that all that are members of the Church are saved.) This emphasis on the individuals choosing has an Arminian flavor.

2.) As faith is received passively and is a consequence of regeneration before it becomes active in conversion it was fitting for the Reformed to speak of infants having the habitus of faith. The idea is that in having this disposition of faith infants will display that faith actively as they age to the point of being able to display that faith.

3.) The judgment of charity should be extended to infants of believers in Christ since as being the child of at least one believer infants are already members of the covenant. Throughout scripture God promises to be God to His people and their children. God reckons and counts His people covenantally. This differs from Baptists who reckon God’s people individually and who count them one by one in conversion. The difference here is the difference between God counting His people as one with individuals seen as extensions of that one community. On the other hand Baptists count God’s people as individuals who when totaled together count as the whole.

4.) In the old covenant the children were clearly part of the covenant. Baptists would have us believe that in the new and better covenant the children are only part of the covenant upon their “asking Jesus into their hearts.” The new and better covenant leaves children out of the covenant.

5.) In the end Baptist theological notions of covenant should be seen as a ongoing social compact that each generation has to ratify for themselves with their vote for Jesus in order to be part of the compact. On the other hand Reformed notions of the covenant should be seen as a social compact decreed, organized, and populated by God.

Source

Personally, 1 trillion dollars is such a large figure it is hard for me to grasp just how big it is. I mean I deal with money in terms of tens, twenties, hundreds and thousands. You get past that and start throwing numbers around like billions, and now trillions and it’s sort of lost on me. In principle I am opposed to government bail outs of any scale and I’m opposed to any and all national debt. But I was still having a hard time with the numbers involved in the latest fiasco. I therefore found this illustration most helpful in putting things in their proper context. I suggest you take a good long and hard look at it as well. This is the amount of our great, great grandchildren’s money we have spent:

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

Pastor Lovett will begin this series by going through the Apostles Creed, line-by-line and considering both the theological and practical implications of this historic creed. The Apostles Creed contains the essentials of the Christian faith and is the oldest existing creed we have (dating back to the 2nd century), and churches of different stripes use it regularly to profess the faith of Christendom.

We will be investigating what different phrases in the creed mean, and will spend some time discussing what is perhaps the Creed’s most controversial line, “He (Christ) descended in to hell.”

This study is open to all and we hope you will join us. We will be meeting at Studio D on the Centerville Square.

Learn more

The global warming is coming down thick around here… and in MARCH, in Tennessee. This is just not cool!

This is with the flash so you can see the snow coming down:

And now without the flash:

(To view these video clips, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Unbelievable!

An Oklahoma City police officer wrongly pulled over a man last week and confiscated an anti-President Barack Obama sign the man had on his vehicle.

Read the full article about the assault on freedom!

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96AU3H80&show_article=1

And of course I’m not surprised, but it’s still so hard to get my head around just how much money this really is! We’re not talking about spending my money any more, or my son’s money. I don’t even think we’re spending my son’s, son’s money at this point. They’re spending money so far into the future I’m not sure which generation’s money they are spending! It isn’t just bad, it’s 100% WRONG! It’s complete and utter foolishness and even downright wicked!

Here’s a couple of choice quotes. First up, House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio:

With a price tag of more than $1 trillion when you factor in interest, it costs every family almost $10,000 in added debt. This is an act of generational theft that our children and grandchildren will be paying for far into the future.

And John McCain:

This measure is not bipartisan. It contains much that is not stimulative and is nothing short—nothing short—of generational theft since it burdens future generations with so much debt.

It’s as if most people don’t realize that at some point, someone has to pay the piper!

Oh, and here’s a cool website about Porkulus!

Edit: It’s too bad McCain didn’t feel that way about Bush’s Stimulus package!!!

The current problems we are facing today in the United States go back much further than most people, even “conservatives” believe. Even further back than The Federal Reserve!

I don’t know whether it’s the actual starting place, but many things were certainly set in motion as the result of the Civil War.

Allow me to repost here, a very good little blurb from Iron Ink:

Lincoln And Freedom?

For the most part Lincoln worshipers don’t realize that the Great Emancipator suspended the writ of habeas corpus – arresting and imprisoning tens of thousands of people on the slightest suspicion. Thousands of those people were imprisoned for four years without ever knowing what the charge against them was. Lincoln authorized expenditures from the treasury without congressional approval and in the face of a warning from his Treasury Secretary that such greenback printing was unconstitutional, printed the infamous Lincoln greenbacks anyway. Lincoln ordered conscription, which the Chief Justice of the Supreme court believed was unconstitutional. Lincoln closed countless newspapers and jailed opposition editors. This is closely chronicled in “Lincoln’s Warth; Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President’s Mission to Destroy the Press.” Lincoln ordered martial law in states where local courts claimed jurisdiction. This martial law had the effect of driving Northern opposition from their homes and from the States where martial law was in force. Lincoln deported a member of Congress, Clement L. Vallandhigham of Ohio, because of his outspoken opposition to the Lincoln administration.

It has to be one of the great ironies of American history that the tyrant Lincoln is remembered as the man who brought freedom. Even the Emancipation Proclamation was a mockery of the idea of freedom for in the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln freed the slaves who were beyond the ability of the North to enforce Lincoln’s edict while leaving the slaves in bondage who were in border states controlled by the Union.

The freedom that Lincoln achieved was the freedom of the state to exercise its will at the expense of the citizenry.

This is a Mac post so it may bore you… but I just have to post it. Besides, I need to take a break from posting about our country going down the tubes!

I don’t know if I have many Mac readers that read this blog but just in case they do.

I get tired of people whining about OS X. You know who you are. I read it everywhere all over the Mac and Apple blogs and forums. Apple needs to fix this, Apple needs to fix that. Blah blah. I was pushed over the edge today when I was reading someone complaining about the Finder in OS X. Here’s a good one for you, maybe you’d like to go back to the Finder in OS 9? Yeah, that would be a good idea… Or not! Have you forgotten how wretched it really was (yes a “few” people actually still think it was better, but I don’t know how that’s possible). For anyone who actually does think that the OS 9 Finder might have been better, I have an old iMac running OS 9 I’d love for you to use. The Finder is HORRIBLE! Unfit for use! OS 9’s Finder might have been better than the Finder in OS x 10.0, 10.1 or 10.2, but for the last 3 versions of OS X the Finder has been far superior to any other file manager out there.

Yes, I am aware of Pathfinder, and even used it for the 30 day trial period and the fact of the matter is, Finder is superior! And please don’t even try to bring Windows Explorer into this (it’s utterly unusable after using the Finder! Trust me, I know. I have Windows still)

Some people love to say that Apple should re-write the Finder because very little has changed since the OS X Finder first came out and it is extremely outdated.

Let me explain why this is utterly ridiculous in pictures:

Finder in OS X, 10.1 (Puma)

(image from GuidebookGallery.com)

Finder is OS X, 10.5 (Leopard)

So you Apple using whiners, we have the best file manager on the planet so please get over yourselves.

You may now go on about your business.

Here are some of the quotes I’ve collected recently:

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.

- Ronald Reagan

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

- Ronald Reagan

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

- Ronald Reagan

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

- Ronald Reagan

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

- Ronald Reagan

The bottom line is that we’ve become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, ‘I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.’ Tragically, today’s Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.

- Dr. Walter Williams

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the end of any nation. You cannot multiple wealth by dividing it.

- Dr. Adrian Rogers

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

- Winston Churchill

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

- Winston Churchill

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

- Winston Churchill

And now, included because of it’s utter absurdity!

I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.

- George W. Bush

From Blog and MaBlog:

So then, agreement appears to have been reached on the $800 billion 2009 Economic Illiteracy Advancement Act. In times to come, I will be writing in a bit more detail about economics, but let me say a little brief something now.

In order to “invest” 800 billion into our troubled economy, the gummint must find that money somewhere. Where? Why, it appears that the only source for them would be . . . our troubled economy.

Well go figure… couldn’t have said it better meself! Oh, sorry to interupt, I will let him continue:

Impress it on your minds, boys and girls. Brand it on your frontal lobes, good people. This is crazy. It is not quite like taking money out of your left pocket and putting it into your right pocket because many different people are involved, unlike the pockets deal, and usually such transfers are made without a great deal of loss. This is more like trying to fill up the low end of a swimming pool by extracting water from the other end of the pool, and doing it by means of a colander that you use to scoop up the water, and then running really fast down to the troubled end of the economy, I mean pool. Remember, the colander is far more efficient at the “taking water out” end than it is at the “putting water in” end.

So, then $800 billion in means at least $800 billion out. $800 billion of private deals, purchases, loans, investments, and so forth, have now vanished. Nobody notices though, because you can’t take video footage of the factory that was never built, and you can’t interview the employees of that factory about how happy they are with their new job. Being private and uncoerced (more or less), these vanished deals were far more likely to have been fruitful.

The government does not create money; it can only rearrange it, about as effectively as that collender. The government does not create jobs—it can only rearrange jobs, and when it does this (as it has now, to the tune of $800 billion big ones), there is inevitably a downgrade. But God is still in His heaven, and America is only getting what America wants and deserves. And America is going to get it good and hard.

Source

There’s a lesson to be learned! If a culture teaches you that it’s okay to kill babies while they are still in the womb, then we shouldn’t be surprised when they feel it’s okay to do it outside the womb as well:

...One of the clinic’s owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant’s umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

If you can stomach it, here’s the source:
http://www.geneveith.com/abortion-horror-story/_1390/

Yeah, I know, it’s about time…

I must say that it will probably be good for me to get away from this project for a while though! My blood boils hotter and hotter each time I get into the project. The atrocities committed against Terri are nothing short of evil. The flaws it reveals in our legal system, and the character of the men that run that legal system are nothing short of astounding! But we shouldn’t be surprised, this is nothing more than the natural progression of a nation that aborts full term babies as a matter of course. And don’t even get me started on the priorities of this nation! Oh, it’s okay to kill a patient that is not terminally ill by starving and de-hydrating her to death! It’s okay to murder babies made in the image of God, but you better not mistreat your dog! You better not kill a snowy tailed spotted owl (or whatever kinds of owls are “endangered")… but I digress.

Here’s the trailer (which incidentally I edited).

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Go and pre-order the film!

I remember talking 14 years ago to a young conservative who complained every week about what he had watched on ABC’s Nightline. “Every show is the same,” he said. “They talk about some terrible problem going on in our country, then end the segment by asking what the government is going to do about it!”

GO READ! It’s a REALLY GOOD post!

I’m working from home both today and tomorrow while the rest of the Franklin Springs team is in San Antonio at the film festival… And yes, I’m enjoying myself just fine without the film festival!

No really, not having to make the 15 hour drive (one way) this year is such a relief!

Anyway, so there’s not really a lot of point in my going to the office if I’m going to be the only one there and I’m not doing anything I can’t do at home. Well anyway, my munchkin decided I needed some help:

I tried to get him in! But in a country that just elected Obama… yeah, that’d be a little difficult since the guy just makes too much sense.

It’s been 21 days since I posted anything in the Politics category so I offer you this from Ron Paul:

I posted five albums with a whole bunch of pictures to Facebook:

Natasha Grace - 6 pounds, 8 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long

My family comes to see Natasha

Natasha breaks in the bouncy seat

Natasha’s Baptism

After Natasha’s Baptism

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.”
(Psalm 103:17-18, NKJV)

“He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”
(Isaiah 40:11, NKJV)

“For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.”
(Isaiah 54:10, NKJV)

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
(Matthew 28:18-20, NKJV)

“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
(Acts 2:39, NKJV)

She’s already famous and making the rounds on the internet:

Dolce Musica: Natasha Grace is here!

The time is finally here. Rachel is in labor and Allen is with my parents, and all the aunts and uncles over in that neck of the woods.

We are told the baby is in a good position, as opposed to Allen (he was posterior). Every thing looks good at this point, and we give God the praise for it.

I borrowed my sister’s D80 so I should be able to get some good pictures!

I plan to post an update with pictures here when the baby is born. Stay tuned…

As I wait on pins and needles for the baby to arrive (due date day is almost over and still no sign of labor) I thought I would share this article. It is after all, that time of year again when the air can be filled with a lot of “BAH humbug.”

Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

I sympathize with those who want to be rigorously and distinctly Christian, who want to be disentangled from the world and any pagan roots that might lie beneath our celebration of Christmas, but I don’t go that route on this matter because I think there comes a point where the roots are so far gone that the present meaning doesn’t carry the pagan connotation anymore. I’m more concerned about a new paganism that gets layered on top of Christian holidays.

Here’s the example I use: All language has roots somewhere. Most of our days of the week—if not all—grew out of pagan names too. So should we stop using the word “Sunday” because it may have related to the worship of the sun once upon a time? In modern English “Sunday” doesn’t carry that connotation, and that’s the very nature of language. In a sense, holidays are like chronological language.

Christmas now means that we mark, in Christian ways, the birth of Jesus Christ. I think the birth, death and resurrection of Christ are the most important events in human history. Not to mark them in some way, by way of special celebration, would be folly it seems to me.

I remember I lived next door to somebody back in seminary who didn’t celebrate birthdays for their kid. The idea was, partly, that all days were special for their kid. But if all days are special then it probably means that there are no special days. Yet some things are so good and precious—like anniversaries, birthdays, and even deaths—that they are worthy of being marked. How much more the birth and death of Jesus Christ!

It’s really worth the risk, even if the date of December 25 was chosen because of its proximity to some kind of pagan festival. Let’s just take it, sanctify it, and make the most of it, because Christ is worthy of being celebrated in his birth.

There is no point in choosing any other date. It won’t work.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Truer words may never have been spoken!

I give you just an excerpt:

Digital Penmanship in an Age of Incoherence

Digital penmanship is critical. Take the extra five seconds out of your day to properly capitalize, puncuate, and structure your sentences. This is true of text messages, instant messaging, and email; when your face isn’t present, your body of text represents attitude, your intelligence, and your philosophy of professional conduct. It’s not masculine to talk like a barbarian, nor is it graceful. So I present to you, five quick tips for maintaining professional courtesy in your digital life.

Much more in the article (highly recommended) HERE.

I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system” - George W. Bush

I don’t think you even have to be an ultra conservative such as myself to see the utter absurdity of this statement.

What’s next, a breathing tax, how about a tax for “just being alive.”

I know, let’s impose a tax for owning land… oh… wait… we’re there.

Seriously, tax me for downloading music??? This is incredible. Oh, I know what the problem is, we don’t have enough taxes that’s why we have a budget deficit! Big government is the problem you say??? Come, that’s an outdated notion!

Oh, and make no mistake, while this is only being proposed in New York, other states will follow the path.

New York Governor David Paterson has reportedly proposed a so-called ‘iPod tax’ on downloaded music and entertainment services to help his state close a $15.4 billion budget deficit.

The Daily News reported that Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) products aren’t Paterson’s only targets. He has proposed 88 new fees and taxes that go far beyond, including on movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars, massages, cable and satellite TV.

“This is where we are,” the paper quoted Paterson as saying. “Maybe we should have thought about this when we were depending on what we thought was inexhaustive collections of taxes from Wall Street — and now those taxes have fallen off a cliff.”

Now, here’s a little sanity:

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth. - Ronald Reagan

Yes I know there has been a lot of politics on this blog lately, but I can’t help it. This stuff just makes my blood boil!

Here’s a quote for you:

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.

There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking .

Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

Blood pressure still not high enough? Try clicking here for a little help with that.

I wonder how long it will be before we go from ignoring the constitution in practice, to just outright scrapping it.

We’re getting close now. My sister posted a few pics she took the other day on her Facebook profile. Enjoy:

Maternity

I’ve been a little negligent in posting this announcement, but as I said in my previous post, “better late than never.”

3 of the films we submitted to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival have moved on to be semi-finalists.

• An American Adventure


• A Full House of Blessing


• The Terri Schiavo Story (a two part television special for the Joni Eareckson Tada television show)

Go HERE to see all the semi-finalists.

Yes, yes, I’m long overdue for some pictures. I’ve been too busy bemoaning the demise of our country (see the Politics topic for more info ).

So below are a few pictures, but for more, visit these three albums I just posted on Facebook:

A Few Photos of Allen
Silver Dollar City 2008
Reformation Day 2008

(yeah, we had a Black Widow in our house… NOT COOL!)

I love how these people just laugh at him. Indeed, some of them even seem VERY unprofessional. I wonder how crow is tasting?

...or can it?

Did you know that there were other automakers in the United States that failed and did not receive a bail out by the U.S. government?

Well go figure…

Look, I will admit that half of the problem within the auto industry of the U.S. is all the silly government mandates and regulations ranging from fuel economy and safety to who knows what else. But the way to fix it is to remove the government from the equation it doesn’t belong in, not MORE government intervention!

And there it is! The tower that has improved my quality of life!

I can’t actually see it from my house, but that’s just because of the trees. It’s less than a mile the way the crow flies!

I’ve had a cell phone for over five years now, and today I saw the first evidence that cell providers are actually expanding their coverage!

You see, as far as I can tell coverage has been more or less the same for the last five years with the exception that I got significantly better coverage in Fairview when I switched to AT&T;. And around the country I’ve seen some places where AT&T;is better, and some places where Verizon is better. But I have not personally seen any change or progress on either network until today.

Previously, signal was scarce at our house, and couldn’t be had at all further into Lyles. We limped along by holding the phone a certain way in certain places of the house, though my wife’s junky Samsung is considerably worse at picking up signal than my iPhone...

Well that changed today! As I was getting out of my car I noticed that, quite unusually I had full signal strength. Carrying the phone around the house, under the bed etc. I could not get signal to drop by even one bar. Apparently someone flipped the switch on a new tower.

So there you have it! Hurrah for cell coverage!

Where do the bailouts end??? How come the government gets to decide which companies receive bailouts? A bigger question, such as in the case of the automakers, is why do we bail out companies who are obviously so big, bloated, and mediocre that they can’t make it anymore?

I guess capitalism works too well, when you let companies fail, so that other, more efficient companies, with higher demand and better products can step up and fill the void, therefore we must interject the government into it! Problem is, this just makes the mess bigger, the clean up longer, and prolongs inevitable failure!

/soapbox

Edit: A post on the “Give us Liberty” blog started this rant of mine… (there, is that better John? )

Dear Readers,

I want to let you know about a most heinous piece of legislation called “The Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA).

FOCA has many sponsors in both the senate and the house, notable (and telling) are such sponsors as Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John Kerry, Senator Joseph Lieberman, President Elect Barack Obama, Representative Rahm Emanuel, and many many more in both the senate and the house.

FOCA would establish abortion as a fundamental right (like the right to free speech) and wipe away every restriction on abortion nationwide. It will eradicate state and federal abortion laws that the majority of Americans support and prevent states from enacting any protective measures in the future.

I encourage you to contact your representative, and your two senators and ask them to oppose this heinous, God despising bill! I believe there are many more people against this than for it, but the problem we face now is the same problem we have faced on many occasions, which is apathy and inaction by Christians. There are many liberal activists for this bill, but many more who should be actively opposed to this bill that need to take a stand! Let your representatives and senators know (liberal or not) that if they vote for this bill that you, their constituents, will not re-elect them! Or if you know they are opposed, thank them, and affirm your support against this bill.

Our voice needs to be heard!

Contacting your representative and senators is very easy, and can be done online. I know they pay attention to these forms of communication because I have received acknowledgement on more than one occasion.

Here is the form for contacting your representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

And here is where you go to contact your senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please also visit http://www.fightfoca.com, to sign their petition and find out more information.

And please pray for our country!

It still just blows my mind, and yet here we are. I don’t think I predicted this here on my blog, but I know that there has been talk among many of us “fringe” conservatives about this coming up.

Have a gander at THIS.

So now we gotta bail out the auto industry. Lets prop up some more mediocre businesses instead of letting a company more qualified step in and fill the void. Forget all this free market crap, it works too well. We gotta take the American people’s money and give it to irresponsible companies that make mediocre products. Let’s not let the manufactures that make better products step up. Let’s not let the American people decide what type of products they need, and when.

Socialism, you gotta love it… wait, no you don’t!

This article from Blog and Mablog is so good! As usual Pastor Wilson hits the nail on the head. And sometimes I just have to share them here. I shared it in Google Reader but I have no idea how many folks read my blog that may not be on Google Reader…

I have been arguing that the central response of Christians to the ongoing disintegration of our culture must be to return to the worship of the triune God in such a way as that it becomes the seed of a renewed and rejuvenated Christian culture. That end cannot be accomplished by political means, as Scripture teaches, and cannot be accomplished by political means, as a brief commonsensical glance around the political room will tell you. When it happens, there will be political results, but political means will not have spiritual results. Christ is the Savior of our culture. Christ does not need our culture to rally around to save Him.

The Republican Party is corrupt. The Democratic Party is corrupt. And so why not go with the third party option, as with the Constitution Party? The problem is that there is no such thing as the Constitution Party. The Constitution Party today is split, splintered and fractured over issues like the participation of Mormons, and even some wavering on the life issue in at least one state organization. The basic problem is individualism and a resultant political sectarianism playing out in the civil realm. We cannot get anything right in the political sphere until we get it right in the Church first. When we get it right in the Church, other areas will follow. When Christians are worshipping God rightly, in spirit and in truth, we will then be in a position to reform an existing party, or establish a new one. Until then, we will continue to have trouble locating our own rear end, even if allowed to use both hands.

Now when the reformation in the Church comes, it may result in establishing a party very much like what the Constitution Party ought to have been, or it may result in the restoration of one of the corrupted mainline parties. We shall see.

In the weeks to come, we should see some very interesting jockeying for position among professed conservatives. With the Senate, the House, and the White House now all in Democratic hands, there is no natural elected leader of the conservatives, and nature abhors a vacuum. Among those who are elected to something (or those who would like to be), look for two groups to form—one consisting of outsiders gathering around Sarah Palin, and the other consisting of establishment Republicans, gathering around Newt Gingrich. We will see what happens there, but I see in Gingrich a retread of McCain. He is kind of on the conservative end of the establishment, but he will be their representative, and that establishment will not take this election as a basis for throwing out all the corruption. And on top of that, we really should stop looking for national moral leadershp from men who have betrayed their wives. In addition, if the Republican Party is serious about reform (as they aren’t), they will begin by stopping their employment of openly homosexual operatives.

The fact that the long knives came out against Sarah Palin right after this election was clear evidence of the first move being made in this upcoming political scramble.

In the world of punditry, there will be the same basic division—outsiders like Rush and Ann Coulter, and inside the Beltway figures like Bill Kristol or Fred Barnes. Consider it the difference between saloon-brawl conservatism and button-down WSJ conservatism.

And complete outsiders, like ourselves, you and I, need to worship the Lord tomorrow, and we need to sing the psalms, hear the sermon, and come to the Table. Rise up, O Lord, and scatter Your enemies.

This is the man that it appears you are electing to be president! Of course the whole problem is that most of you just don’t care, in fact agree with what he is saying here. May God have more mercy on us than we deserve!

Look, I’m under no delusions about Republicans being a lot better, or a Godsend or anything like that. But sometimes you just need to sit back, relax, and have some fun.

With that disclaimer out of the way… I found this pic on the net somewhere and it was so funny I just had to share it.

(Oh yeah, I’m not in to Halloween either, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy this type of humor ).

On the campaign trail Obama said something to the effect of:

They found out that when I was in school I would split my peanut butter sandwich in half and share it and now they call me a redistributionist

I’m telling you what, this man has a major problem if he can’t tell the difference between sharing his own sandwich, or reaching over to another kid’s lunch bucket and sharing that sandwich!

I can’t remember the last time I actually waited as long as possible to get gas because I knew it was only going to get cheaper.

So far, I’m having a hard time feeling bad about this economic downturn…

Every once in a while I come across a gem so good, I have to repost it here. This hails from the blog of Doug Wilson.

A friend sent me this little thing making the Internet rounds. Thought I would pass it on.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20’, declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right’, exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

HT: Bill Garaway

Source

This is the man that is so dangerously close to the presidency.

...and it appears we are going to have an Obamanation! Yes, our Country is that far gone!

Read: Obama Endorsed by Colin Powell

Let me just say right here, yes I believe God is sovereign and whatever happens in this election will be His will. And if Obama is elected let me say that this will not mean that judgement is coming. I full believe that if Obama is elected it will mean judgement is here!

Consider that we have a Democratic majority in the house and senate, and Obama would be the most left wing liberal President we have ever seen. As an ultra conservative, capitalist human being I shudder to think what will happen to our country if this come to be, but enough of that because as I said, God is sovereign and he knows what he’s doing.

It will be interesting to see which way God takes this.

1. Start a revolution and take the country back by force


2. Vote strategically

1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

1. Social Issues
2. Economic Issues

Every once in a while, I run across an article so good that I must post it. Today is one of those days.

I offer you this article by Doug Wilson.

Source

After a while words mean what they usually mean. If everybody misuses a word, and they do so for several centuries, then they have successfully changed the meaning of that word. Words like conservative or capitalist get shanghaied, and there you are, left muttering that you didn’t really want to conserve the Great Society, and that you prefer capitalism, not this mutant crapitalism.

But let us deal with the substance, and not with the words. A free market means that you need to have the freedom to fail. If you don’t have the freedom to fail, then your economic transactions are answerable to some regulator or bureaucrat, and not to God. And, depend upon it, that regulator or bureaucrat will screw it up. God has built accountability into the world. He is not mocked. But if you insist on having the government step in every time somebody new is going to learn what comeuppance means, then you are at war with the concept of accountability.

But accountability is the word that the minions of Congress keep using. They are waving it around as though it sets up some kind of mystical aura of protection, which it actually does, for them. Insisting on accountability for others means that they can forestall . . . accountability for them. Very useful magic word.

We are told that we have to intervene because all these financial entities are “too big to fail.” But this simply assumes that for the Fed to step in this way is not setting us up for an even greater failure, down the road just a little ways. Virtually all government crises—including this one—are the result of the previous waves of reform that all the intelligent people were demanding. But having Congress oversee the economic markets of a nation like ours is like having a chimp disassemble your laptop computer for a little troubleshooting. Suit yourself. And when things go really badly, computer-wise, Nancy Pelosi will insist that the “next time this happens, we will take steps to ensure that the chimp repairmen are only allowed to use their thumbs.”

We really do get the government we deserve. In less than a month, virtually every elected lunatic that I have seen on the tube during this silly season will be returned to Congress, with loud shouts of triumph. If people were to ask me what we can do to survive the nine miles of bad road that appears to be just ahead of us, my advice would be this: cultivate, really cultivate, a deep and robust sense of humor. And that is not possible unless God is in His heaven.

The house has passed and the President signed the bill which hastens our decent down the black hole of economic demise.

Not that I expected anything different in the long run, but I guess I had held to a shred of hope when congress voted it down the first time. Sigh.

I haven’t heard how my rep voted yet but she seemed pretty deadset against it when I heard her on the radio yesterday so I hold out hope that I can point my finger in a direction away from myself .

It is interesting to see how the Dow responded both the first time when everyone thought this would go through, and how it shot back up the next day when it was voted down. And how now it’s lower than it’s been in 7 years!

I’m not sure how this will work having never posted a picture from iBlogger...

I’m audio mixing this project at the moment.

On edit: it made the pic smaller than I would have liked… Oh well.

And about stinking time too!

Article from Fox News

I figure, why write my own articles when others seem to be articulating this issue so well.

I give you yet another article which makes the point so well:

The way the proposed bailout plan works is that the government would buy all of those bad mortgages held by banks and investors. Now the plan has already been expanded to allow the government to buy up all “troubled assets,” including student loans, car debt, and even credit card debt (not from consumers, of course, but from the banks that aren’t collecting what people owe them).

Think of that. The government would be assuming the banks’ risks and bad investments. In regular socialism, the government at least nationalizes productive industries. In this government takeover of capitalism, the government is nationalizing only bad assets.

Opposition to this plan is growing, especially among the general public, even though both presidential candidates essentially support it.

source

I realize I have posted an inordinate amount of posts today by comparison to my usual habits, but this post by a good friend of mine is also too good not to pass along!

Missing the Branches for the root...

Go and read!

I’ve downloaded a cool new iPhone app called iBlogger so I can post easily from my phone.

This is a test to make sure it works. If you are reading this then it does.

1. Drive 1,700 miles round trip
2. Hang out with the Fam at Silver Dollar City
3. Ride Roller Coasters
4. Crack Windshield in Car

Yep!

My new car (55,000 miles), decides it cannot strike at my finances mechanically, it being so new and all. So it went and found probably the only rock flying around on the Interstate and ran right into it.

Little rock at 70 mph equals cracked windshield.

I didn’t actually get a picture of it after it spread, but I did get initial pics:

That cost me $250.00 to get the windshield replaced.

Fun times!

Let me break this down for you, my dear readers.

Problem: Many of the American people were stupid and went and got loans they couldn’t pay for housing they couldn’t afford.

Problem: Lenders were stupid and gave loans to people that couldn’t afford them.

$700 billion bail out DOES NOT EQUAL SOLUTION!!!!!!!

If I were to loan out money to someone who could not pay me back should the government come in and bail me out? If they did I would be thinking, hey, this worked out okay I’ll just do this again.

So basically the idea is to take the American people’s tax money and buy bad mortgages from stupid lenders so that stupid people can stay in the housing they can’t afford.

Yep, I think that about sums it up.

How do I know? Because our “Republican” president is one of the front runners on this insane $700 billion bailout, which essentially completely undermines capitalism and a free market society.

President Bush, saying he decided to “act, and act boldly,” has sent a request to Congress for up to $700 billion to let the federal government to buy up bad mortgages in a move to stem a widespread economic meltdown.

Bush pledged Saturday to work with Congress to quickly pass the rescue package. And he deflected conservative criticism that the government is taking an overbearing approach to stabilizing the financial markets.

“My first instinct was to let the market work,” Bush said. But after being briefed by experts on the scope of the problem, he said he realized a “robust and strong” bailout was needed.

“It is a big package because it was a big problem,” Bush said. “The risk of doing nothing far outweighed the risk of the package.”

UN-BELIEV-ABLE!!!

Full Article on Fox News

In the circles in which I run the political arena is a most sticky place… I’ve wanted to post so much more on this issue but two things have kept me from doing so.

1. Time, I got no time


2. Even some of my closest friends are divided on this issue

Article: John McCain and Judicial Selections

Now I sit back and wait for the backlash

It amazes me how proponents of abortion want to trumpet the word “choice” but when it comes down to it they don’t really consider it a choice. If you have a down syndrom baby for instance, you should abort it, no choice about it!

CLICK HERE, to see why I’m fired up about it!

As I was sitting in the passenger seat today traveling through Colorado, I took the time to read a post on my iPhone and want to share it with my readers (all 2 of them). But firstly, I few notes on this post…

While not ready to draw firm conclusions on McCain’s choice, I believe Pastor Wilson has some great food for thought.

I will also note that I do side with, to *some* extent, what I will term here as “choosing the lesser of two evils” because slowing down the car speeding toward the ravine does give us time to get true Bible believers who are interested in building the Kingdom “behind the wheel” to continue the metaphor. But again, only to some extent. And I tend to agree with Pastor Wilson regarding Roe v Wade being a large determining factor.

And lastly, I do know and understand that we must be working on a local level, but to the extent that we care about National politics… Here you go.

Enjoy:

Click to read the post on Pastor Wilson’s Blog

So tonight I was working on getting the sermon posted on the Heritage website, and as I’m working on trimming the heads and tales so that it starts and ends smoothly, Allen happened to be walking by my office with toys in hand. As I’m playing back the audio, our Pastor’s voice comes out of the speakers saying. “And God’s people said...” To which Allen instantly says, “Amen!”

He knows the drill .

So, I ran across this article in my Google Reader Shared items. It’s just way too good not to post here as well. I don’t know a lot about the blog it comes from since I’m not a regular reader… but this is a great post none the less.

Source

I read a great quote from Pastor McAtee on how the Credo-Baptist position essentially views children as salvifically-unviable-fetuses:

Credo-baptists believe that soteric worth is tied up with moral agency. Such moral agency is dependent upon consciousness. For Credo-baptists, soteric rights presuppose interests, and creatures without a fairly advanced state of consciousness do not and can not have soteric interests. Hence, until such a time that a child is considered salvifically “viable” as witnessed by a advanced state of consciousness, the child is, salvifically speaking, not a person, but rather is a soteric fetus awaiting enough consciousness to be considered a candidate for soteriological personhood.

And ironically, the first commenter on Pastor McAtee’s post takes most Paedo-baptists to task with the same logic:

Insert Paedo into this article where it reads Credo and some would think that you had certainly made a mistake and truly meant Credo. However, many who would think you made that mistake apply this very reasoning to God’s Covenant children by rejecting them from Christ’s table “until such a time that a child is considered salvifically “viable” as witnessed by a advanced state of consciousness”.

And if you’d like to be entertained by hearing some Lutherans (Missouri Synod) discuss it, check this thread out. Pastor Weedon brings out a quote from Luther on 1 Corinthians which explains that the “examine himself” command doesn’t apply to children at all. Its quite telling that Pastor McCain jumps in immediately and begins repeating slogans and ad-hominems as if his life depended upon it. He knows exactly the threat that the quote presents to the anti-paedocommunion establishment, even if others don’t yet see it.

(Thanks to James Lansberry for posting this in his Google Reader shared items!)

I am convinced that we live in a world where logic and reason are quickly being thrown out the window...nay, flushed down the toilet in favor of complete and utter moronism!

What??? don’t believe me? I offer this article as PROOF POSITIVE that morons exist, and what’s more? they are a force to be reckoned with:

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24134255-5017313,00.html

And I quote from linked article,

FORGET those plans to have a third child for the country because further increases in the birth rate could harm the economy, the nation’s productivity watchdog has warned.

A major analysis of the nation’s increasing fertility rate said it was at its highest level for 25 years - but the Productivity Commission yesterday warned further increases may aggravate rather than solve the problem of the ageing of the population.

This is because it will shift women out of the workforce while they care for babies, depressing labour supply and reducing the taxation base as our population ages…

Do people really believe this… uhhh… cow poo poo? Come on seriously, what kind of effect does it have on the economy when THERE IS NO POPULATION? Take this into consideration,

The replacement fertility rate is roughly 2.1 births per woman for most industrialized countries but ranges from 2.5 to 3.3 in developing countries because of higher mortality rates.[1] Taken globally, the total fertility rate at replacement is 2.33 children per woman. At this rate, global population growth would trend towards zero.

And if you really and truly believe that the world is over populated try flying over just the United States sometime and look down once in a while. Overpopulation MY HIND FOOT (assuming I had a hind foot).

Also be sure to download AND READ the PDF over the sidebar called,"A New Dark Age.”

(Thanks to my friend Joshua for making me aware of the stupid article!)

Well looky there, someone posted pictures of my boy!

http://timdraper.blogspot.com/2008/08/pictures-of-his-cuteness.html

...at least as official as it can be at 20 weeks of pregnancy. We’re having a girl!!!

WooHoo!

God is good!

I just reviewed “The Dark Knight” over at MovingTruth.com. If you want to see it you’ll have to register .

I haven’t commented on the presidential campaign in a bit, and now that Obama is over in the Holy Land—I can’t quite make out what he is doing there, but piecing together reports from the media accompanying him, I think he has been walking on the Sea of Galilee—let me offer just a few observations now.

Having already made it clear that I will not be voting for either gentleman, thus keeping my voting principles unsullied, this question may arise: “Given that it will be one or the other, who do you hope will win it?” If Obama is elected, I will have four years of being appalled. If McCain is elected, I will have four years of being disgusted. This means the question amounts to a psychological one—do you prefer being appalled or disgusted?

For those who hold a pragmatic, hold-your-nose vote is appropriate, they might think that it comes down to a choice between a pro-life, imperial hawk (McCain) and a pro-choice peacenik (Obama). I am afraid I read that one a little differently. In reference to the rise of American empire, the historian Charles Beard once commented that empires are not built in fits of absent-mindedness.

An aside: I am using empire here as a metaphor for American hegemony. I know that we are not an empire in the classic sense defined by the history of Rome, or even England. There are some striking differences. But the hegemony is still a reality, and it is a reality that did not come about by accident.

But this means any notion of American imperialism that thinks this is a function of what the Republicans are doing is an analysis that is superficial in the extreme. Historically, the Democrats have been neck-deep in the business, even more than the Republicans. The classic “isolationist” response has its historic home in the Republican Party.

I say this because a vote for Obama will not be a vote against American hegemony around the world. The Republicrats are all driving us to the same place. We are on a road trip with two people in the car who both want to drive, one to take in these sights on the way, the other wants to take in those. But the destination is not really a question. McCain is in favor of a vigorous and open assertion of our intentions, and Obama will allow employees from the State Department to massage our intentions as only they can do. As far as empire goes, McCain will be for honest empire and Obama for dishonest empire. But nothing substantive will really change on that front.

As far as the pro-life question is concerned (which in my mind is the great question), a McCain election might result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I am not holding my breath, but if it happens, I will rejoice. An Obama election will remove that possibility for another generation, at least.

The one blessing I can see that would come from an Obama election would be that it would shut up those young evangelicals who are hot for Obama. Three months of Obama in the White House would appall me, as I said, but it would make it impossible for anyone who even pretends to have respect for Scripture to behave the way you can do at a campaign rally—before anything has actually been done. More on that later perhaps.

-- Doug Wilson

Original Post

1). IT’S HOT NOW! I’m ready for fall… I offer you this snapshot from my iPhone Weather Bug application:

Uhh… yeah… that’s a little warm.

(please note however, despite the global warming hype, we really aren’t in any danger of breaking any heat records, I just like to complain)

2). I offer you a snapshot from my desk, where I’m editing away in Final Cut for the past 1 1/2 weeks: