Update 03-03-2012: After this group of postings there should be only one or two more blog postings of material until Holy Week 2012. Then the postings of Holy Week 2012 or shortly after would conclude the Basic Christian blog Ministry. ~ God bless everyone, David Anson Brown

I hate to compare any minister of God to a gangster. But the sad truth is that today there are a handful (well, maybe more) of unscrupulous preachers who share some of Capone's most disgusting traits. They are notoriously greedy. They are masters of deception and manipulation. They have bought their way into the charismatic religious subculture and used their uncanny hypnotic ability to control major Christian TV networks. And, like Capone, their days are numbered. Justice will soon catch up with them. These false prophets probably all started out with a genuine call from God, but success destroyed them. They were lured away from true faith by fame and money, and when their ministries mushroomed they resorted to compromise to keep their machines rolling. Now, in the midst of the Great Recession, God is closing in on them. But before we rejoice that these imposters are being removed from their pulpits and yanked off the airwaves, let's hit the pause button and reflect. How did these false preachers ever achieve such fame? It couldn't have happened without help from us. We were the gullible ones. When they said, "The Lord promises you untold wealth if you will simply give a thousand dollars right now," we went to the phones and put the donations on our credit cards. God forgive us. We were the undiscerning ones. When they said, "I need your sacrificial gift today so I can repair my private jet," we didn't ask why a servant of God wasn't humble enough to fly coach class to a Third World nation. God forgive us. We were the foolish ones. When it was revealed that they were living in immorality, mistreating their wives or populating cities with illegitimate children, we listened to their spin doctors instead of demanding that ministry leaders act like Christians. God forgive us. We were the naïve ones. When they begged for $2 million more in donations because of a budget shortfall, we didn't feel comfortable asking why they needed that $10,000-a-night hotel suite. In fact, if we did question it, another Christian was quick to say, "Don't criticize! The Bible says, 'Touch not the Lord's anointed!'" God forgive us. We have treated these charlatans like Al Capone-as if they were untouchable-and as a result their corruption has spread throughout charismatic churches like a plague. Our movement is eaten up with materialism, pride, deception and sexual sin because we were afraid to call these Bozos what they really are-insecure, selfish, egotistical and emotionally dysfunctional. If we had applied biblical discernment a long time ago we could have avoided this mess. There is no way we can know how many unbelievers rejected the gospel because they saw the church supporting quacks who swaggered, bragged, lied, flattered, bribed, stole and tearfully begged their way into our lives-while we applauded them and sent them money. When well-meaning Christians quote 1 Chronicles 16:22 ("Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm," NASB) to cover up corruption or charlatanism, they do horrible injustice to Scripture. This passage does not require us to stay quiet when a leader is abusing power or deceiving people. On the contrary, we are called to confront sin in a spirit of love and honesty-and we certainly aren't showing love to the church if we allow the charismatic Al Capones of our generation to corrupt it. ~ J. Lee Grady is contributing editor of Charisma and author of the new book The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale. Follow him on Twitter at leegrady.

There's a new form of Christianity sweeping the U.S. Its main focus: sex. Don't be surprised. We already have a Christian denomination catering to every other worldview, comfort zone and obsession, so why not sex? As I said in "The Marketing of Evil": No matter what kind of person you are, a form of Christianity has evolved just for you. There's a politically liberal Christianity and a politically conservative Christianity. There's an acutely activist Christianity and an utterly apolitical Christianity, a Christianity that holds up a high standard of ethical behavior and service, and a Christianity for which both personal ethics and good works are irrelevant. There's a raucous, intensely emotional Christianity drenched in high-voltage music, and there's a quiet, contemplative Christianity. There's a loving Christianity and a hateful, racist Christianity, a Christianity that honors Jews as God's chosen people and a Christianity that maligns Jews as Satan's children. So, it was just a matter of time before we got a version of Christianity for people obsessed with sex.

MADISON, Wisc., Dec. 22 /Christian Newswire/ - Focus on the Family has a story on Glenn Beck, a Mormon, on their CitizenLink Website. Glenn Beck was a CNN host and will move to Fox News in January. Beck is currently promoting his book, "The Christmas Sweater." The CitizenLink story focuses on Beck's faith and why he wrote "The Christmas Sweater." ... Through the years, Focus on the Family has done great things to help the family and has brought attention to the many social ills that are attacking the family. However, to promote a Mormon as a Christian is not helpful to the cause of Jesus Christ. For Christians to influence society, Christians should be promoting the central issues of the faith properly without opening the door to false religions. Some of the false doctrines of Mormonism include polytheism, an attack on the trinity, that Jesus was the spirit-brother of Lucifer, that God the Father is married to Mother God, temple baptisms for the dead, the Bible has missing parts and many errors. Christians are to stand up against the social ills of society, however, we are to put Christ first and His essential biblical truths.

We are going to begin to look at some of the aspects of Holy Week regarding what actually happened during the final Amazing events of Jesus Christ while He was physically here on earth. We will be considering what His events accomplished and how His completed events affect us today both personally and individually as Christians and as a whole in the Christian Church. - God bless you ~ David Anson Brown

When does the next episode come out? We will be filming May 21-25, 2012. The next episodes will be available in early June 2012. Our goal is to film 2-3 episodes at a time, producing a total of around 10 episodes. If you would like to assist us in this endeavor, please donate today.

WHAT IS IMPLIED IN EVANGELICAL FAITH:

1. It implies an intellectual perception of the things, facts, and truths believed. No one can believe that which he does not understand.
2. Evangelical faith implies the appropriation of the truths of the Gospel to ourselves. It implies an acceptance of Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The soul that truly believes in Christ, believes that He tasted death for every man, and of course for it. It apprehends Christ as the Saviour of the world, as offered to all, and embraces and receives Him for itself. It appropriates His atonement, and His resurrection and His intercession, and His promises to itself. Christ is thus presented in the Gospel not only as the Saviour of the world, but also to the individual acceptance of men. He saves the world no further than He saves individuals. Evangelical faith implies a personal acceptance and appropriation of Christ to meet the necessities of the individual soul.
3. Faith is a state of committal to Christ, and of course it implies that the soul will be unreseveredly yielded up to Him, in all His relations to it, so far and so fast as these are apprehended by the intellect.
4. Evangelical faith implies an evangelical life. This would not be true if faith were merely an intellectual state or exercise. But since, as we have seen, faith is of the heart, since it consists in the committal of the will to Christ, it follows, by a law of necessity, that the life will correspond with faith. Let this be kept in perpetual remembrance.
5. Evangelical faith implies repentance towards God, that is, a turning from sin to God.
6. Evangelical faith implies a renunciation of self-righteousness. It is impossible for one to embrace Christ as the Saviour of the soul, any further than he renounces all hope or expectation of being saved by his own works, or righteousness.
7. Of course it implies peace of mind. In Christ the soul finds its full and present salvation. It has found its resting-place in Christ, and rests in profound peace under the shadow of the Almighty.
8. It implies hope, as soon as the believing soul considers what is conveyed by the Gospel, that is, a hope of eternal life in and through Christ.
9. It implies joy in God and in Christ. St. Peter speaks of joy as the unfailing accompaniment of faith, as resulting from it.
10. Present evangelical faith implies a state of present sinlessness [covered by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7)]. Observe: faith is the yielding and committal of the whole will, and of the whole being to Christ. This, and nothing short of this, is evangelical faith. But this comprehends and implies the whole of present, true obedience to Christ. This is the reason why faith is spoken of as the condition, and as it were, the only condition, of salvation. It really implies all virtue.

When contemplated as an attribute of love, it is only a branch of sanctification. When contemplated in the wider sense of universal conformity of will to the will of God, it is then synonymous with entire present sanctification. Contemplated in either light, its existence in the heart must be inconsistent with present sin there. Faith is an attitude of the will, and is wholly incompatible with present rebellion of will against Christ. This must be true, or what is faith? -- REVIVAL TRUTHS by Charles G. Finney

Today there is much confusion about preaching holiness. In many churches where I preach holiness, people will come and say, "Wow, that was a great sermon. We have not had a holiness sermon preached here for a long time." Then when I talk to the pastor, he or she will say, "I preach holiness every Sunday." One pastor said, "I can't believe it, I preach holiness every Sunday, they just don't recognize it." -- Well, what could be the problem? Could it be that there has been such a reaction against the legalistic [i.e. 7th Kingdom (wordly, self focus) of this world] approach of preaching holiness that we have moved into another one-sided fad? I remember a sermon against cowboy boots because wearing them would make the person proud. There was a time when two trips to the altar was the norm with little focus on a relationship with Christ or a life to be disciplined. There was more of a focus on legalistic rules to follow, most of them in the negative. -- Today we hear life sermons. They emphasize how to live first, but there is not much emphasis on the divine work of grace to empower and enable one to live a holy life. Could it be that the time is right for us to bring the two approaches together? We need the message of living a holy life, but we need to receive the divine experience and be filled with the Holy Spirit who gives us the grace to live out God's plan for holy living. -- We can't live a holy life alone in our own power. Yes, we can discipline ourselves, but it is always with an inner struggle. God put in place a plan for us to to be set free from the bent toward sin. We need the kind of doctrinal preaching that will lead people to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit so they can have a holy relationship with a holy God. Let's use the Biblical terms like Sanctification [8th Kingdom - The Eternal Kingdom of Jeus Christ] so people will understand them when they read about them in the Word. There has never been a greater need for the church to preach the wonderful message of [8th Kingdom] holiness. Let's proclaim it! ~ Dr. Louie E. Bustle - President, Holiness Legacy - www.holinesslegacy.com -- {Note: The Holiness movement has a history of men and women being Servant Leaders and in that capacity both men and women have pastored as servants representing Holiness pulpits to the congregation. But especially in this day and age it is not wise to let another person male or female have authority over you and sincerely a diverse and capable group of elders, leaders and mentors can and should have an equally or even a more significant impact on Christian and spiritual matters both for the group and for individuals.}

Revivalists, in the early 1800s, such as Asa Mahan (president of Oberlin College) and evangelist Charles Finney advanced Wesley's theology. They taught "that sinners had the natural ability to believe, and that evangelistic methods could overcome their 'moral' inability through the persuasive power of the Gospel." "Finney and Mahan applied this same understanding to the Christian's growth toward spiritual maturity. To be sanctified, they insisted, required only the same kind of simple, instantaneous faith one exercised to be converted." In 1836 both men experienced what they called "baptisms of the Holy Ghost" which they believed not only freed them from committing sin but also removed their tendency toward sin. Contributing to the spread of this "Holiness" doctrine were the popular camp meeting revivals of the first half of the 1800s, the ministry of Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) (who taught that sanctification could be reached instantaneously by an act of faith) and the "Prayer Revival" of 1857-1858 (sometimes called the Third Great Awakening). There was also much unrest in Methodist circles as many felt the denomination had lost its fervor. The Wesleyan Methodist (in 1843) and the Free Methodist (in 1860) left the denomination to form the first Holiness denominations. Until the 1890s the Holiness Movement was largely a Methodist phenomenon, but as the Methodists settled more into mainstream Christianity tensions escalated into a schism which resulted in new, non-Methodist, Holiness denominations. These included the Church of God, Anderson, Indiana (1880), Church of the Nazarene (1908) and Pilgrim Holiness Church (1897). The Holiness adherents saw themselves as the true descendents of the Wesleys and practiced strict moral ethics, abstinence from worldly pleasures and amusements and a strong belief in entire sanctification (also known as the "second blessing" and the baptism of the Holy Spirit). More importantly "Holiness teaching offered 19th-century evangelicals a means of overcoming their sectarian conflicts. Doctrine might divide, but the experience of a pure heart would unite all true believers against the threats posed by religious formalism, atheism, and Roman Catholicism." This Holiness emphasis would continue to be spread throughout the 19th century by individuals and groups as diverse as the Salvation Army, Quakers, D. L. Moody, Hannah Whitall Smith, the Y.M.C.A., the Keswick Movement and Oswald Chambers. A brief explanation concerning some of those might prove helpful. ... Maturity in Christ is expected of every believer; freedom from spiritual battle with the world, the flesh and the devil is attained only in the next life. At the same time, we must be careful that we do not over react to Holiness philosophy and believe that godliness is attained through our own self-determined efforts of obedience. We are certainly called to obedience, but it is not a self-energized, self-motivated or self-obtaining obedience. It is an obedience made possible only because of the power of God in our lives. This is the consistent teaching of the New Testament, but we will direct our attention to Romans 8:12-13. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Peterson, once again, summarizes things well, "Holiness of life is not simply attained by moral effort nor even by striving to keep the law of God. It is not even a matter of 'letting go and letting God.' Practical holiness involves 'putting to death' in our lives what God has already sentenced to death on the cross ('mortification') and living out the new life given to us by the indwelling Christ. Human effort is required, but not apart from, nor distinct from the activity of God's Spirit, who subdues the flesh as we mortify it in His power, and as we set our minds upon the things of the Spirit." -- Holiness of life should be the heart-felt desire of every Christian. But that holiness is not found in either short-cuts or self effort. **It is found as we pursue righteousness (2 Timothy 2:22) laying aside the deeds of the flesh (Colossians 3:5-10) through the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16) and as we behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Holiness Movement was in many ways a reaction to the dead orthodoxy and lifeless spirituality that infiltrated so much of Christianity during the nineteenth-century. However, its [explicit] remedy, a second blessing [based more on human ability] resulting in the eradication of sinful tendencies and a higher life not available to the unbaptized, went beyond the teaching of Scripture. As is often the case in reactionary movements, the cure [i.e. a cultural salvation, human based rules salvation] may be as bad as the [original sin] disease.

An Ancient Holy Week Timeline, Bible Study, Devotional & Personal Journal for Easter Week 2012. ... Follow along with Jesus in the current Resurrection (Easter) holiday dates of 2012 during the last Ten days leading up to and including His Cross and His Glorious Resurrection. It also marvelously explains and demonstrates that Jesus did indeed die and remain deceased for a total of 3 days and 3 nights and that He then Resurrected' returned from death' just as He prophesied that He would. This is a Personal Study-Journal encouraging the reader to include their own devotions during this 10 day journey with Jesus. ... It will change your life!

The program provides excellent anytime devotions and is perfect as a gift for others. Most importantly the end user can create their own comments list, add links to other websites, blogs, RSS feeds, references and documents that once combined create an inclusive individual 'Platform' for Christian research, devotionals and study projects.

Basic Christian Full Content PDF Version. The BasicChristian.org most complete resource.

we continue from here: https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/alcoholism/463883-occasionally-i-we-just-like-count-our-days-sober-pt-25-a-21.html D

Bad news for gamers, specially in Sweden, as the authorities took the decision to tax the so called LAN parties, such as the biggest one in the world, Dreamhack. In fact, the organizers of multiplayer get-togethers will be forced to pay a fee of up to $5,000 in order to receive a "permit" to connect PCs and video game consoles for gaming purposes, although the new rules do not apply to, for instance, Internet cafes, where computers are ma...

Netbur Networks es especialista en el desarrollo integral de aplicaciones web, en un proceso que engloba: Diseño gráfico. Diseño de páginas web. Maquetación profesional. Programación HTML, DHTML, Javascript, PHP, Servlets, Java.... Administración BB.DD. SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL. Alta y posicionamiento en buscadores.

Die Legalisierung von Cannabis stellt einige EU-Staaten auf die Probe: Deutschland musste seine Pläne jüngst etwa abschwächen. Lernen könnte Berlin von einem Experiment, das in den Niederlanden in den Startlöchern steht. Mehrere Städte werden dort den legalen Anbau und Großhandel mit Cannabis testen – wohl auch, um der florierenden Drogenkriminalität etwas entgegenzusetzen. ORF.at sprach mit Regierung und Betroffenen über Chancen, Fehler und den Wunsch nach einer europäischen Linie.

orf.at

Ein Kühlschrank voller Kot, das ist der Grundstein für ein ehrgeiziges Projekt: Schweizer Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler wollen einen Tresor für Darmbakterien aus aller Welt anlegen – und damit die bedrohte Artenvielfalt im Darm retten.

orf.at . . . spektrum.de

Er arbeitet als Reinigungskraft in öffentlichen Toiletten. Er putzt sehr gewissenhaft. Die Handgriffe sind einstudiert, der Ablauf bleibt sich gleich. Der Mann bückt sich mit schnellen Bewegungen nach dem Abfall, den die Leuten liegen gelassen haben, er sammelt Fitzelchen ein, leere WC-Papier-Rollen. Dann zieht er sich die Gummihandschuhe über. Er macht die Kloschüssel sauber. Er seift das Sieb im Urinal ein. Mit einem kleinen Kontrollspiegel inspiziert er die Unterseite der WC-Sitz-Erhöhung. Anschliessend poliert er die Armaturen. Nimmt mit einem Wischmopp den Boden auf. Ein Mann macht seinen Job, er macht ihn gut – und er wirkt zufrieden dabei.

Hirayama, so heisst er, arbeitet für «The Tokyo Toilet», das steht auf seinem Overall. Wim Wenders’ neuer, in Japan realisierter Kinofilm «Perfect Days» dreht sich um ihn: einen glücklichen Toilettenreiniger in der Hauptstadt.

nzz.ch . . . imdb.com . . . orf.at

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The two men will meet at the White House as part of a long-standing tradition showing a peaceful transition of power.

Authorities in Argentina have released some details about the events surrounding the singer's death.

Everything we learned on the red carpet and behind the scenes of the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Entdecke QUADRO, das innovative Klettersystem für individuelle Spielwelten! Eltern erhalten mit QUADRO die Freiheit, fantasievolle Spielstrukturen für ihre Kinder von 6 Monaten bis 8+ Jahren zu schaffen – sei es ein aufregendes Bällebad oder ein herausforderndes Klettergerüst. Das modulare QUADRO PLUG-IN-SYSTEM ermöglicht einen schnellen und sicheren Aufbau, der die Bedürfnisse von Kindern perfekt trifft. Made in Germany und in Kinderzimmern weltweit im Einsatz, fördert QUADRO die Entwicklung durch… | Quadro Der Grossbaukasten GMBH – Hamburg

media:personal DE ist als Unternehmen auf die TV, Medien- und Kommunikationsbranche fokussiert. Hierbei arbeiten wir mit national und international tätigen Unternehmen, Agenturen, TV/Radio-Sendern, Verlagen sowie Produktionsunternehmen zusammen. Unser Kunde ist ein erfolgreiches Medienunternehmen (mit eigener Produktion) mit dem Schwerpunkt Handelswerbung. Schwerpunkt ist u.a. der Lebensmitteleinzelhandel. (bitte Arbeiten z.B. speziell für Supermärkte, Discounter, oder Handel, Baumärkte etc. mit Bezug zum… | media:personal DE // Personalmanagement Andreas Burg – Essen

media:personal DE ist als Unternehmen auf die TV, Medien- und Kommunikationsbranche fokussiert. Hierbei arbeiten wir mit national und international tätigen Unternehmen, Agenturen, TV/Radio-Sendern, Verlagen sowie Produktionsunternehmen zusammen. Unser Kunde ist ein erfolgreiches Medienunternehmen (mit eigener Produktion) mit dem Schwerpunkt Handelswerbung im Bereich LEH (Prospekte Supermärkte). Das Unternehmen bietet bei dieser Position auch ein attraktives Home-Office Modell an. >>> Profil &… | media:personal DE // Personalmanagement Andreas Burg – Essen

Wir, die IN AUDITO Media GmbH mit unserer bekannten Marke schnellestelle.de, sind eine Personalmarketing-Agentur mit Sitz in Markkleeberg bei Leipzig. Mit mehr als 400 Kooperationspartnern unterstützen wir Unternehmen deutschland- und europaweit (mit Online-Stellenschaltungen, Recruiting in sozialen Netzwerken oder Kandidaten-Direktsuche) bei der Ausschreibung ihrer offenen Stellen. Mit mehr als 10 Jahren Erfahrung im Recruiting begeistern wir unsere Kunden. Derzeit beschäftigen wir im Unternehmen etwa 35… | In Audito GmbH – Markkleeberg

Waldhausen ist einer der weltweit führenden Anbieter von Reitsport­artikeln mit Sitz in Köln. Seit 1836 beliefern wir den Fachhandel mit hochwertigen Artikeln für Pferd & Reiter. Unsere Marken E·L·T, SWING und Waldhausen sind europa­weit erfolgreich im Reitsport etabliert. Unser Sortiment um­fasst mehr als 15.000 Produkte, die wir aus der ganzen Welt im­por­t­ier­en und in über 70 Länder vertreiben. Wir wollen unseren Kunden stets das Beste bieten! Dafür arbeiten wir täglich mit einem hohen… | Waldhausen GmbH & Co. KG – Köln

Unser Geschäft ist die Freude unserer Kunden. Mit mehr als 140 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern und mehr als 10.000 Artikel im Sortiment sind wir einer der führenden Anbieter für Sammler im Bereich Münzen, Briefmarken und Zubehör. Die Primus GmbH widmet sich hauptsächlich dem Handel mit Münzen, Produkten aus Gold und Silber, Briefmarken, Zubehör und betreibt seit 2020 ein eigenes Auktionshaus. Wir suchen zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt eine/n: Einkäufer für Werbemittel / Druckerzeugnisse (m/w/d) Ihre… | Primus GmbH – Konstanz

Wir suchen Dich als Verstärkung für unser Team vor Ort in Bielefeld! Zu sofort und gerne in Teilzeit (unbefristet)! Selbstverständlich kannst Du nach entsprechender Einarbeitung auch ein bis zwei Tage in der Woche im Homeoffice arbeiten. Was wir von Dir als Mediendesigner*in / Webdesigner*in (m/w/d) erwarten: - Studium oder eine vergleichbare Ausbildung zum/zur Mediendesigner*in / Webdesigner*in / Grafiker*in (m/w/d) - Versierter Umgang mit der Adobe Creative Suite - Umfangreiche Erfahrung und sicherer… | screen concept – runge – Bielefeld

What: Check out this great "Weird Al" Lens.
Why: Because, he's "White & Nerdy".

Big Ben Instrumenten has changed its name to Eurias and its web site address to http://www.eurias.nl/

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

No Bulwark against Tyranny, Part I

No sooner do I complain about Al Gore seeing fertile ground for global warming hysteria among evangelical Christians than I learn (via Glenn Reynolds) that the World Council of Churches is in favor of having the United Nations regulate new technology! Blogger Christine cites a report on nanotechnology by the WCC:

Firstly, society must engage in a wide debate about nanotechnology and its multiple economic, health and environmental implications. Secondly, some civil society organizations have called for a moratorium on nanotech research and new commercial products until such time as laboratory protocols and regulatory regimes are in place to protect workers and consumers, and until these materials are shown to be safe. Given the regulatory vacuum and inertia by leading nano nations to act, the call for a moratorium is justified and deserves public debate... [bold added]

Christine correctly notes that this call for "democratic control" at the world level by Christians is very naive, but she is herself very unclear over whether any government control of new technology would be proper and, if so, why it would be or what it would properly entail.

When the defenders of freedom offer only murky objections to the most outrageous proposals, they fail to address the underlying incorrect argument and end up coming down for what amounts to the very same thing, only incrementally. To wit, this blogger ends with the following:

This is not to say that we might not need some kind of international organization someday to deal with, say, nanoweapons. I expect we will. But the ETC proposal is not the way to go. The WCC might want to start looking at this whole topic in a broader way, rather than relying on one external organization so heavily.

No. It isn't that the WCC is looking at only one organization. It is that they seek to trample the freedom of scientists to innovate rather than simply address legal questions -- within the framework of protecting individual rights -- brought up by the new technology. You don't want or need a world authority to do that at all. And as for a world body dealing with nanoweapons, if one of those is desirable at all, a better model than the UN is obviously needed.

No Bulwark against Tyranny, Part II

And if defenders of science from government control are rendered ineffective without proper principles, so are those who would keep the government from robbing the public in the name of promoting science.

Although Martin Fridson makes a number of good points in his TCS Daily article against our government funding a "Manhattan Project" in the name of breaking our "addiction to oil", he never really questions the propriety of the government interfering with the allocation of resources (and time) towards research that our private sector would be better off doing itself. Here is his conclusion:

If something beyond the ordinary profit motive is required to bring forth the means for greater energy independence, the government should follow two principles:

• Encourage scientific exploration on multiple fronts, rather than put a thumb on the scale for any single technology.
• Spend the taxpayers' money on outputs, rather than inputs.

On what basis is one to determine that "something beyond the ordinary profit motive" (i.e., government force) is needed for "greater energy independence"? And more importantly, why should this "something" be used at all to take money away from American citizens to do what Fridson suddenly seems not-so-confident that private enterprise can do -- rather than being used to part hostile regimes from oil wealth and secure our supplies of cheap energy?

UN "Oversight" of Art

Cox and Forkum once again hit the nail on the head with this cartoon on some attempted UN oversight of art done at the behest of religious authorities.


And be sure to read Allen Forkum's partial fisking of the Kofi Annan's remarks at the UN's asinine "Unlearning Intolerance" seminar.

Oh yeah. Their upcoming book is nearly out the door!

A Threat against Reliant Stadium?

This article in the Houston Chronicle is the first I've heard of the home stadium of the abysmal Houston Texans specifically appearing in the crosshairs of terrorists. With the Texans Foundering at 1-4, perhaps their management could claim to be doing its best to keep fans safely at home! They need to put a positive spin on something this season.

Wrong Actress, (and now,) Wrong Writer

On October 18, Michelle Malkin said, "I really can't believe this soft-headed starlet is going to play Dagny Taggart. Blecch."

And on that very day, Mike informed us that the people behind the (latest overhyped) effort to make Atlas Shrugged into a movie have switched writers. "[T]hey've changed the writer after ... pimping [James V.] Hart for the last year."

The new writer has Pearl Harbor among his "credits".

My eyepatch joke looks more and more like a prediction every day.

300 Million!

"Or 957 trillion, if you work for Lancet ...", as Tim Blair put it in this very nice photo-blog in commemoration of America's latest milestone.

Since so few US media outlets were inclined to celebrate this non-grim milestone, the job was outsourced to a little Australian blog. Following is a small sample of Americans, from which you may reasonably extrapolate a figure of 300 million.

Thank you, Mr. Blair! (HT: Isaac Schrodinger)

William "Effin'" Buckley Rides (in Plumber Pants) Again!

Diana Hsieh catches a longstanding enemy of Ayn Rand being openly dishonest again. Here's the quote:

It is widely noted that for all that [North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Il] thinks of himself as a leader with a divine afflatus to bring to his people and the world the fruits of Juche (the North Korean variant of Leninism, with a little Ayn Rand mixed in), he is himself a man of total self-indulgence, devoted to porn, Scotch, and Daffy Duck cartoons.

Often, at times like this, I get a kick out of an old fisking I wrote, of a hack job by one of Buckley's -- erm -- underlings, Andrew Stuttaford, to "commemorate" the 100th anniversay of Ayn Rand's birth. His whole brilliant conclusion was basically that Ayn Rand was "strange".

"Of course he does," is all Stuttaford can think to say about the fact that Rand got a lift from Cecil B. DeMille. This isn't a damned cliche! It really happened, and I think it's pretty neat that it did. Stuttaford is then confronted by the fact, obviously unpleasant to him, that a small group of people regularly met with Ayn Rand after she became famous, to discuss philosophy.

Frat boy makes the following scintillating observations: (1) Rand was (twitter) "the sage of selfishness." (2) Those people sure were creepy. Call me crazy, but here's what I find creepy: people who meet regularly "at the feet" of some cleric to take whatever he says on faith, and then practice ritual cannibalism. Oh! But I'm wrong because more people do the latter. [with minor editing]

Enjoy!

A Bleg

Daniel Rigby is curious about Typepad. Drop by and give him the straight dope if you are so inclined.

NOFORN

CONFIDENTIAL-ly, Bubblehead may think he has cornered the market on increased gummint blog traffic through his prostitution of such terms as "top secret" and "for official use only", but he forgot a few key words. I leave further such similar abuse to my more, um, enterprising compadres, but in the meantime, that smacking sound is me at the public trough!

-- CAV

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

Today, I find myself getting back into the blogging groove after an insanely busy last couple of days. Lots of good stuff here, and I just barely skimmed through the feeds. Here are today's finds in the order I encounter them on my browser tabs....

Neil Davenport of Spiked describes what sounds like a real travesty of a televised bull session. "[BBC Channel 4 newsreader Jon] Snow summed up the mealy-mouthed character of the programme by declaring that, 'Perhaps free speech is a high price to pay for a multicultural society'."

Such affairs not only fail to address the relevant issues rigorously, they provide false "evidence" that public debate is a waste of time and therefore not really worth defending anyway.


Yesterday, I posted on "Physicians as 'Little Dictators'". Andrew Dalton of Witch Doctor Repellent provided another example (physicians being conscripted as informants) of how government management of medicine opens up whole new frontiers to the abuse of government power. And he caused me to remember another example of further potential abuse down the road.


Little Green Footballs relays the following example of the moral poverty that goes hand-in-hand with Islam's total abdication of reason in favor of a mountain of holy decrees. This comes from a sermon about some gang rapes that occurred in Sydney, Australia.

In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?"

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men. [bold added]

So women are "meat" and men are "cats". I guess if I had such a low opinion of myself, I might be susceptible to Islam, too.

Remember this the next time you hear a Moslem whine about being "offended" by intellectual criticism of his religion. And the next time you hear some useful idiot insinuate that Islamic headdress for women is somehow "liberating" to them.

The carte blanche granted to Islamic "men" to rape women, however, is more than balanced by some rather curious restrictions.


According to the Czechs, Egyptian airline passengers have been probing in-flight security measures. Quoth a Norwegian paper, "The crew on board discovered the three Egyptians trying to open the door into the cockpit. When the stewards intervened they immediately gave up their attempts and gave the excuse that they were looking for a staff member because they wanted to buy chewing gum."

Going to the cockpit to buy gum? Horse Mohammed!


The Gaijin Biker relays news that sanctions against North Korea are being felt already. (Or that North Korea is making sure reports to that effect are getting out to the West, anyway.)

Given our record with the "Palestinians", perhaps I stand to make a quick buck by laying bets on when sanctions against North Korea will end -- without causing any substantive change in its capacity to build nuclear warheads, of course.

Kim Jong "Mentally" Il is not exactly the brightest bulb (and his country shows it), but he knows that too many of his colleagues are even dimmer.


Cookie posts a very funny sea story over at Ultraquiet No More.

Now...it don't take genius to figure out just who had to clean up all the shit. The coffee urn...a total loss...oh it was fixed and cleaned...but ain't nobody would ever drink outta it after that...includin me....the boat had t'get a new one.

Hey! I can't help it if so many of the best ones are about blowing sanitary tanks!


Is it really worth your while to check on a blog in a language you don't understand? It certainly is if you're an American named Gus Van Horn (whose "second language" is classical Latin) and the blogger in question is Carl Svanberg.

Svanberg links to quite a gem from USA Today. Heather MacDonald:

What are we supposed to learn when a candidate talks about his faith: That he is a good person? The rich history of religious bounders and charlatans should give the lie to that hope. Nor has a sincere belief in God prevented behavior we now view as morally repugnant. There were few more religious Americans than antebellum slaveholders and their political representatives; their claim to a divine mandate for slavery was based in unimpeachable Scriptural authority.

Or perhaps a politician's discussion of his prayer habits should reassure the public he'll make the right decisions in office. But what if opposing candidates declare themselves supplicants of the divine will -- how will a voter decide who is most likely to receive divine guidance?

Anyone who has ever sneered in derision when listening to some piece of human refuse babbling about "finding Jesus" during an interview from behind bars would do well to remember that emotion -- and why he felt it -- the next time he hears the same sentiment uttered by a politician.

Both want to use the moral blank check that people grant to religion as a means of purchasing positions of power for themselves.


And then there were [some number less than three].

Via Randex, it now seems that the producer of the Atlas Shrugged movie(s) are no longer going to make a trilogy.

I know that movies and books are different genres, and I never expected the movie(s) to have everything that is in the book. Nevertheless, I have serious doubts that anything less than a trilogy can be adequately faithful to the book.


Andrew Dalton remarks on the government's curious difficulty in grasping the purpose of public bathroom segregation by sex.


Andy has jury duty.

That reminds me. If I suddenly disappear for months after some time next week, it won't be because a competent defense attorney rejected me on sight during the selection process.

And look in the papers for either a harsh verdict or a hung jury in a high profile case.

That also reminds me that I need to make up my mind on whether jury nullification is a valid concept.


Daniel Rigby says "Screw Ageism". I would add that for demonstrably dangerous activities, such as driving vehicles when one is incapable of operating them safely, it is not an unwarranted government intrusion to intervene.


The man with the apt nom de plume of Toiler points to a story I intend to read. "Notice that artist Chris Miles is not just engaged in a sensuous dance with his on-again, off-again muse. It's also a lot of damn hard work and learned skill."

Labor of love. Not labor of lust. Not labor of amorousness. Not labor of commitmentphobia. Not labor of convenience.

Love. And love, like all worthwhile things, is often difficult.


As usual, Cox and Forkum nail it. Title: "Give War a Chance". Caption: "meanwhile, in Fallujah..."

Soldier One: We've given Iraqis food, money, clean water, schools, hospitals, freedom ... even our very lives.... What did we miss?

Soldier Two: Defeating them.

And as has been usual lately, Blogger problems are preventing me from uploading the image.


Hannes Hacker recently emailed me a lnk to this very funny Onion article the other day: "Mars Rover Beginning to Hate Mars".

That was right up there with "Coke-Sponsored Rover Finds Evidence of Dasani on Mars"!

-- CAV

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

Yes. Even I have my limits!

Add numerous extra obligations to a massive dose of election fatigue and you get a somewhat abbreviated weekly roundup! I very nearly decided not to post it at all this morning, but realized that what I have found might, put together, bring some welcome relief from the upcoming election.

There is nothing here about the election or John "effin'" Kerry past this point.

The Undercurrent has posted a preview (in the form of a few articles) of its upcoming November issue.


Through the Harry Binswanger List, I was reminded of an article I'd run across a few days ago about the popular myth -- now being used to sell the idea of government favors for American ethanol producers -- that Brazil's independence from foreign oil is due to its cultivation of a domestic fuel ethanol industry.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva didn't celebrate the oil independence milestone out in an Amazon sugar field.

No, he smashed a champagne bottle on the spaceship-like deck of Brazil's vast P-50 oil rig in the Albacora Leste field in the deep blue Atlantic. Why? Brazil's oil independence had virtually nothing to do with its ethanol development. It came from drilling oil.

I recall that after the fall of communism, ecological disasters -- real ones -- were turning up all over the old Soviet Bloc for awhile. And then Kyoto, I believe, exempted developing countries from its emissions obligations. And now we see that Brazil, that worker's paradise always held up to the United States as some kind of great "progressive" example, has been (shudder) drilling for oil! No one bats an eye or even says anything about it until seven months later!

That activity ( drilling ... Shhh!) has been all but banned in the United States! If you need a reason to doubt the sincerity of the left when it claims that its efforts to throttle American economic might are motivated by a desire for such things as "clean air", add this to the pile. And then try looking at the pile!


Dave Harriman's well-regarded "Physics by Induction" course is being made available to the public.

[Harriman's] unique approach is to teach physics historically, thereby teaching it inductively. From the early Greeks to Copernicus to Newton, this course presents the essential principles of physics in logical sequence, placing each in the context of the earlier discoveries that made it possible and explaining how each was discovered by reasoning from observations.

Cox and Forkum have just announced the availabilty of their latest book, Black and White World III!


I seem to have found a new whipping boy in Arnold Kling, a "former" member of the far left who has "converted" to Libertarianism and frequently posts articles to TCS Daily.

In his latest affront to the cause of individual rights, he discusses which form of government intervention would be best to combat the unsubstantiated threat of anthropogenic global warming. Quick! What's missing from the two excerpted paragraphs?

For this essay, I want to take as given the report's assessment of the cost of global warming. Also, I will take as given that the strategy of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, which I call the de-industrialization strategy, would cost one percent of global GDP each year. I want to suggest exploring an alternative strategy for fighting global warming, which I call the climate engineering strategy.

...

I also will concede that I am not entirely comfortable putting the world's climate in the hands of scientists who attempt to engage in climate engineering. However, that discomfort is nothing compared with my fear of putting our future in the hands of international bureaucrats who are eager to embrace de-industrialization and to engineer a reduction of world GDP of $400 billion a year.

Our Libertarian fails to mention that he also "takes as given" that we should simply forfeit our freedom and property to busybodies -- who would tax us at best and forbid us to enjoy industrial society at worst -- all because of an overhyped, undersubstantiated climate phenomenon! Even if industrialization did cause global warming, such solutions are wrong because they threaten individual rights.

Mr. Kling, your "discomfort" is nothing compared to mine when I consider that you, who so quickly forget the importance of freedom, are regarded as one of its defenders!

Why not talk instead about freeing ourselves entirely from governments that will take any excuse they can get to push us around?


Back in World War II, we had a foe in Japan whose soldiers and citizens were so fanatical that they held military glory as a higher value than their own lives. Our leaders wisely decided to bring the war to them, ultimately showing them through the power of atomic weaponry what this really meant. They learned and we won.

Today, we have a foe in Islamic totalitarianism whose soldiers are so fanatical that they didn't even wait for things to get desperate before they became suicide bombers. Our leaders have done little to bring the war home to them. In fact, our enemy is far closer to bringing home to us the lesson of complaisence than we are to showing them what war really means.

Iran, the cradle of this movement, is being permitted to lie undisturbed as it feverishly develops the cpability to build nuclear weapons. There is, nevertheless, a significant portion of its citizenry who do not necessarily oppose America. So why haven't they overthrown the mullahs? Because the mullahs are insulating them from the full consequences of accepting their rule:

I live in a country where alcohol is officially banned, but where the art of homemade spirits has reached new heights. Sharing my astonishment about the cocktail book with some friends with better connections to the Islamist regime, they explained the government has a silent pact with the educated and affluent in Iran's big cities, who render politics unto Caesar, provided that Caesar keeps his nose out of their liquor cabinets.

In other words, the well-to-do Iranian drinks and reads and watches what he wishes. He does as he pleases behind the walls of his private mansions and villas. In return for his private comforts, the affluent Iranian is happy to sacrifice freedom of speech, most of his civil rights, and his freedom of association. The upper-middle class has been bought off by this pact, which makes a virtue of hypocrisy.

The subtitle of the article sums it up best: "How can you have a revolution when everyone is watching TV?"

Until we give them a reason to get up out of their couches and work for regime change, they probably won't.



"Funny that out of all of my brother's wristbands, this one is first to break." -- Kyle Rosenburg

(via This is Broken)

-- CAV

Cross-posted from Gus Van Horn

It is two days after an election which saw the Republicans lose their "permanent majority" rather decisively. Why did this happen? I have argued that the party earned its defeat by attempting to implement a religious agenda domestically while the public was "preoccupied" with the threat of Islamofascist terrorism.

At the same time, I never became comfortable enough with the idea, advocated by most prominent Objectivists, of voting for the Democrats to actually do so. Either they were wrong on this point or I have more thinking to do on the subject. Be that as it may, two days is short enough that it is still worth looking at some of the pre-election debate and long enough that some of the fallout from Election Day is becoming apparent.

I missed this Allen Forkum blog on the election until this morning.

Will Bush adopt even a few of these measure? Perhaps, but the prospects are worse than dim. Certainly the leftist-influenced Democrats will not. I'm hoping that it's still possible to influence Republicans and other Americans to begin fighting to win. However, voting for Democrats in order to hasten a change for better political alternatives could be the better strategy. I'm not yet convinced we've reached that point.

This is pretty close to where I was in my explicit thinking Tuesday. My gut feel was indifference to the results. My first stab at making sense of this conflict is that we were fast approaching the point at which the Republicans needed to be dislodged if we weren't there already. This is something I will be sorting out perhaps for some time.


A huge misgiving I have about the left is the increasing willingness it has shown in the past decade to forcibly restrict freedom of speech. For example, Michelle Malkin reports that David Horowitz was attacked just yesterday at Ball State, on his way to a speaking engagement.


Another misgiving I had about voting for Democrats was that their victory would cause the Republicans to "get the wrong message" and end up becoming more like the Democrats rather than understanding that it was their failure to live up to their own promises that got them into trouble. You doubtless already have heard that Bush has already gotten rid of Donald Rumsfeld in favor of Robert Gates, who believes we can negotiate with Iran. On top of that, Bush seems to have already conceded that there should be a minimum wage hike.

At first glance, it might seem that my fears are being realized. In fact, though, we are just seeing a man who has no fundamental objections to these things moving faster to his actual positions -- or at least being pushed to where he would go anyway. After all, we were already negotiating with Iran before the elections. Bush's accelerated buckling at the knees will hasten substantive debate or consequences. In that respect, this is a good thing. (I abstained in Bush vs Gore because I saw environmentalism as the major issue in that election. I couldn't vote for Gore, but I didn't see Bush stopping the environmentalists, either.)

And that's (mostly) all I'm going to discuss fallout-wise. I know. The Dhimmocrats are gleefully drawing up lists of Bush Administration officials to impeach or try for war crimes, and coming up with all sorts of idiotic legislation. but we knew they'd do that all along. (Well, okay, I didn't think they'd be screaming Gore/Kucinich in '08 so soon, but then I don't spend "enough" time at DailyKos!)

What will be interesting to see is how far gone the Republican Party really is. How many more of them need spine transplants, are essentially Dhimmocrats already, or are hell-bent on theocracy? The only substantive political debate going on in America is on the right. Do the better parts of the right really have a home? If so, will they evict their deadbeat roommates? This is what we'll learn.


Myrhaf delivers the quote of the day after he observes Arlen Specter winning reelection only to all but switch parties: "With politicians like Specter, the question is not, 'Is America on a highway to hell?' The question is, 'How have we survived this long?'"


Myrhaf also comments on Rush "Water Boy" Limbaugh's new-found sense of "liberation":

Rush Limbaugh tells us:

I feel liberated, and I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried.

You know what, Rush? It would have been better for America (and for your self-esteem) if you had not carried the Republicans' water when they did not deserve it. But instead of doing what was best for America, you did what was best for Republican Party power. There is a difference.

My initial reaction to hearing about this was about the same.

As a scientist, I have a saying that bubbles up to mind when I hear someone defending a view I think is rubbish: "Real scientists don't have pet theories." In the realm of politics, it would go something like this: "Real patriots don't 'carry water'."


Trey Givens reacts to the predictably mealy-mouthed assessments of our election results we're getting from abroad.

First of all, when anyone tells me what a virtue humility is, I have a nearly irrestistable urge to punch them in the face. My immediate thought is, "How dare you talk to me about humility?" Not because I'm so humble, I'm not, but because I don't see any reason to be more humble than I am.

Second of all, Americans have no business voting for the benefit of everyone else in the world. Whatever decisions are made in elections need to be on the grounds that it is what is best for America, so the world's opinion of our leaders be damned.

Finally, I think the fact that they're following our elections closely proves the point that America is awesome and we didn't get to where we are by being concerned about other people's feelings. [bold added]

If Allen Forkum is where I was before the election, Trey Givens is, at least in this respect, where I am now.


Apropos of nothing....

I just got a phone call -- despite being on the national "do not call" list -- with a recorded message informing me that "This call is impor--".

Click!

Important to whom?

God, I hate telephones sometimes.


Paul Hsieh writes a very good piece on why it is so crucial to root out attempts to transform America into a theocracy.

Although this may seem improbable now, those ideas may seem much more plausible to a country that has been softened up by a barrage of conservative Christian academics and intellectuals who have been teaching that America is a Christian country, that American virtue depends on its religiosity, that the very survival of America depends on the inclusion of religious values in the government, that the "wall of separation" between church and state imposed by the secular Left has been a major source of our problems, and that the attacks we have suffered are the price we are paying for ignoring these "truths". This misintegrated worldview could gain significant traction amongst a large segment of Americans who aren't otherwise armed with a opposing strong rational explicit philosophy.

Read it all. There are some especially alarming examples of bleeding edge -- This phrase seems particularly appropriate here! -- conservative thought on the matter of separating church and state at the beginning of the piece.


A Bush vs Jesus gag campaign ad has been making the rounds lately. Andrew Dalton says correctly, "Right attack, right target, wrong message."

Amen.


File this away for future investigation: Martin Lindeskog has found a "guest blogging network" that purports to give feedback on which posts attract the most readers.

I am unsure of the utility of this for my particular niche, but it is still an interesting idea.


Grant Jones lays down the law on comments. I'm with him there, although I have another category of comments I will not post: The confusing. It doesn't happen that often, but once in a while, I will get a comment that just doesn't make any sense to me. I moderate comments, so those just don't get posted.

Hey! At least he didn't say, "I could just get drunk one night and start deleting comments at random."


Bo has found more submariner types who blog and wonders the same thing I do: Whatever happened to Periscope Jack?

That guy was, I am prety sure, the only one I found before Bo or Bubblehead! And it was a very well-done blog, too.


Myron asks, "How many of 'you' are there?" There are 49 of "him" in America. I have a rare first name and a common last name. There are 623 of "me" computed in that way. If I use my middle name (as I do on a daily basis, being named for my father), there are 1,564 of me.

But there is only one Gus Van Horn!

-- CAV

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