JudgeRight

What more needs be said?  For the same reasons you shower and gargle mouthwash, you should be as happy as you can for the sake of those around you.  Its a moral obligation.

Who do you tell your secrets to?

For a large portion of my life, there was literally nobody I would share most of my secrets with.  Shame was such a controlling force I could not imagine anyone loving me if they really knew me.  I didn't think I could love anybody who could love what I believed myself to be.  This is the miraculous power of a forgiving God.  He directs His followers to love the unlovable, to remember our own former condition, to be His representatives on earth.  Its work to find the church that observably fits this description, but it is well worth it.  I sat in church for the better part of 2 years before I was able to open up to anyone completely and then it all came out in a flood.  It was then that I could seek helpful counsel.  Thank God for my brothers in Christ, Gary, Pat, Doug, Cliff and many others.  It was Gary demonstrated God's love to me, with flesh on it.  In other words, Gary related to me that God could love me by loving me with the love he'd learned from God.  Yes, even me.  I'm talking about that kind of love that makes you feel safe, even acceptable with your story fully revealed.

HWGCRE

A Bible believing, Christ emulating church is one of those places that deals with everything that comes through the doors.  Don't expect me to get into the gory details here, this is not a safe environment like that church was, nor is it the venue for spilling your vulnerabilities, but it is a venue for letting others know Who and what you recommend.  I recommend everyone find a church which 1 believes the Bible is the infallible Word of God, 2 regularly studies its depths 3. encourages its members to put its teaching into daily practice.  4 attempts to meet each others needs.  5. reaches out to the local community to serve it 6 has a program for reaching people across the world for God.  You cannot know how deep or how far reaching your influence can be for the betterment of society and the human condition if you can do this much.  Investigate the faith, believe God, go to church, and give back.

As a society, we value education.   Enough so that we have made education available to everybody completely apart from financial costs.  I believe this has resulted in a devaluation of education among the recipients.  Had schools been a privelege to me and my generation rather than a given, we would have taken the opportunities we were afforded much more seriously.  As it was, I felt I was being force fed.  My parents disaggreed, largely because they did not get complete education.  The more I learn about the application of agenda into our educational programs, the more I believe we are being force fed misinformation.  This is one of the myriad reasons I advocate vouchers or school choice.  If this school is doing a lousy job, I get to choose a better school just like I get to choose a better hamburger joint or auto mechanic.

I am a religious man but I have avoided arguing politics and judgment from a religious perspective simply because of the current bias against Christianity in the Western cultures.  On this topic, I believe this is not possible because there simply is no better source for wisdom than faith in God.  There is only one path to wisdom.  There is only one path to understanding the benefits and consequences of world views.  The rest are condemned to continuously circling around false assumptions because; all men reason in a circle, or begin by assumptions. Their knowledge and wisdom depend on their assumptions. The God-rejecter begins by assuming his ideas and those of the fools before him are intelligent and rational. He begins by assuming he has made great advances in the twenty years since he was in diapers. The righteous man begins by assuming faith in an infinitely wise God, Who has revealed truth and wisdom in Scripture. He begins by thinking he knows nothing at all and needs the help of Another. 

The other you choose should be based on their fruit.  I'll come back to this thought in a moment but I wanted to point out the carnal mind and its motivation.  The reason the carnal person tears down the reputation of the good and builds up or covers up the reputation of the evil is they are biased by their desires for their own particular brand of evil and align with other brands of evil to overcome the majority's good judgment to protect their access to their favored brand of evil.  Ergo, the Liberal elite college professor who denies the existence of God aligns with the Hezbollah terrorist who targets and kills innocents in the name of Allah.  Its insane and the professor denies it, but his deeds reveal him.  His fruit is supportive of Hezbollah and destructive to his own country and ideology.  Carried out to its logical conclusion, his course would end in submission to Islam and Allah as described in the Qu'ran.

Back to the fruit of faith.  If the fruit of belief in God is the Taliban, Hezbollah, Fatah, and the hundreds of other mainstream organizations which openly and proudly present their blood lust and domineering control of the population as the will of Allah, you might want to consider the consequence to you personally and those you love if their ideology is employed everywhere.  If the fruit of faith is an environment which welcomes other ideologies and fights for equal opportunity for all, even for countries other than its own, then you might want to consider the Source of such an ideology.  Perhaps someone can recall a civilization and ideology which welcomes other cultures to enter their arena of ideas, not just for purposes of debate, but always looking for the better to employ in their own society, but I can't recall one.  Perhaps someone can recall a society in history which bleeds for other cultures without expectation of payment or profit, but I can't recall one.  Certainly, it isn't Islam.  Islam has been imperialist, expansionist, and violently militant from its inception and continues to be today in 44 nations around the world so they can bless the people with 'morality' by chopping off the heads of anyone who refuses to submit to their authority.  Pardon me, but that isn't religion, that is a theopolitical movement to advance a government and the power of its leaders.  Come to think of it, wasn't it the U.S. (a predominantly Christian culture) which went to war in Bosnia to protect Muslims from the Christians engaging in ethnic cleansing?

As for the faith of non-faith, what is its fruit in recent history?  Nazism, Communism, Maouist, Taoist, etc., have all been the sources of the greatest bloodletting in history, even more than all three major religions combined.  All of them stem from the Marxist ideology of eliminating faith in God.  More than 100 million lives lost in the last century alone.  The thing that sets Christianity apart from all the rest is its self correcting nature.  It was the Christian which drove the anti-slave movement.  It was the Christian which corrected the witch trials and the inquisition.  You name the ill in Christianity from history and just know that it was Christians which corrected the wrongs.  Not only that, but in the last century it was predominantly the Christian cultures which corrected the ills of the anti-God regimes of Nazism, Communism, Taoists and eventually pressured the Maouists to some degree of morality and value for human life and self will.  This continues even today and it is predominantly the Christian culture which is exerting some control on the bloodlust of the Islamists.

Let God be true.

This is a crucial proverb, for the rest are wasted without fearing the LORD. Solomon put it first! The basic foundation for learning is to fear God (9:10); but fools reject wisdom and instruction, for they are proud and selfish without regard for God. They love their own opinions (26:12). Rather than search for truth, fools simply want to promote their own thoughts (18:1-2). But you cannot even start learning without the true fear of God.

Who is the LORD? He is Jehovah of the Bible, the great I AM THAT I AM (Ex 3:14; 6:3). He created the heavens, earth, seas, and everything in them in six twenty-four hour days. When He came as a man 2000 years ago, He was named Jesus (Is 7:14; 9:6; Matt 1:21-23; John 1:1,14). Jesus Christ is Jehovah! And He is coming soon with His mighty angels in flaming fire to destroy His enemies (II Thess 1:7-11; I Tim 6:13-16).

The fear of God is an affectionate reverence for Him and humble submission to His word. Fearing God is loving His commandments and hating evil (8:13; 16:6; Ps 111:10; 112:1). Fearing God recognizes Him as the First Cause and Last End of all things (16:4; Rev 4:11)! It knows His forgiveness and seeks to please Him (Ps 130:3-4). A man fearing God trembles humbly at His word (Is 66:2). It is the whole duty of man (Eccl 12:13-14).

Natural men, who do not fear God, are fools (Ps 14:1; 36:1; 58:1). Their reasoning processes are perverse, for they reason in a circle from their own conceited ideas (Rom 1:20-23; I Tim 6:3-5,20-21). Spiritual men, who do fear God, are wise and reasonable, because their thoughts begin with faith in a Creator God (II Thess 3:2; Heb 11:3,6). The fool begins his thinking with thoughts of other fools, the believer with the words of God!

All men reason in a circle, or begin by assumptions. Their knowledge and wisdom depend on their assumptions. The God-rejecter begins by assuming his ideas and those of the fools before him are intelligent and rational. He begins by assuming he has made great advances in the twenty years since he was in diapers. The righteous man begins by assuming faith in an infinitely wise God, Who has revealed truth and wisdom in Scripture. He begins by thinking he knows nothing at all and needs the help of Another.

The fool cannot prove his theories. He calls hallucinations like evolution to be science, but he has never observed evolution, duplicated it in a laboratory, or adequately defined it. He is a fool! And his so-called science is merely a fable (I Tim 6:20-21). The believer knows the Bible is absolutely true internally and externally: but he cannot and will not prove it to the fool, because the fool is missing the essential factor - faith (II Thes 3:1-2).

Consider faith closely. The fool has faith - belief and trust - in himself and his other fellow fools. It takes more faith to believe man came from chaotic gases and baboons than it does to believe man came from an intelligent Creator. The fool has faith, but it is faith in man's hallucinations! The fool has faith in lies, which is self-deception! The believer has faith in God and His word (Heb 11:1-6), which is self-instruction (15:33)!

How did man originate? The fool says a big bang of chaotic gases formed order, design, beauty, life, and the ability and laws to reproduce and preserve them. The man who fears God knows the fool is a fool, because only an idiot could imagine such nonsense, and only the insane would say it! As a humble child trusting God, he cries, "The Emperor has no clothes!" He knows God made man from dust and breathed into him the breath of life.

Evolution is the result of God-hating and sin-loving minds given over to the devil, and it is God Himself Who blinds these fools to worship baboons as their ancestors (Is 44:9-20; Rom 1:20-23). Their "think tanks" today are to smoke hallucinogenic substances and see who can win the day by coming up with the most outlandish explanation for a thing! Do you doubt this accusation? How do you think they say the big bang was 14 billion years ago? They do not even know what men were doing on earth 4 thousand years ago!

The blessed God blinds men who are not thankful to Him for what they are and have (Rom 1:20-23). When they give more glory to the creature than to the Creator, He gives them over to a reprobate mind to do very inconvenient things like sodomy, abortion, child rebellion, rap, bestiality, Picasso, and same-sex marriages (Rom 1:24-32). Jehovah, the LORD, has committed Himself to destroy such men (I Cor 1:19-20; 3:19-20).

How did the seven-day week originate? Did Neanderthal man decide he was tired after working six days and needed the seventh for rest? The movements of the sun give us seasons and years and days, and the moon gives us months, just as God declared (Gen 1:14-19). Where did the week originate? By God's revelation (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11)!

How did morality originate? Is adultery wrong? If not, why is polygamy wrong? If not, why is prostitution wrong? If not, why is pornography wrong? If not, why is bestiality wrong? If not, why is pedophilia wrong? How do you reason, fool? Did the caveman of your theories want to protect the woman and give her a loving and secure life in a monogamous relationship of two adults? Or did the blessed God ordain marriage?

Consider how an evolutionist reasons. He laughs at sexual abstinence and virginity, while pulling very small infants apart limb by limb with a suction abortion. He sues farmers for housing chickens in safe cages with constant food, water, and vitamins; but he viciously defends the so-called right to rip an unborn child to pieces! And they call this knowledge!

Fearing God is the beginning of knowledge ... about religion! If it were not for God and His Bible, men would still be sacrificing their wives and children in fire to make peace with their idols, as is still done in India today! They would still be cutting and painting themselves to make peace with the Great Spirit and go to the Happy Hunting Ground.

Fearing God is the beginning of knowledge ... about government! If it were not for God and His Bible, men would still worship their emperor as god, like the Egyptians of old and the Japanese of yesterday. Benevolent government was ordained in the Bible, and it is only widely enjoyed in nations that have been havens for Bible preaching. In all other nations, the peasants are used to satisfy the appetite for luxury of the ruler.

Fearing God is the beginning of knowledge ... about history! Most historians today write history to further a social agenda, and those that write honestly have little data anyway. As foolish man discovers that the Bible accounts of ancient civilizations are true, the same men outlaw the Bible in schools, lest the children have truth at their disposal. Consider the recent discovery of the Hittites that the Bible had described for 3,000 years.

The Bible has all the answers from the origin of the universe to what to do with your foolish child, from the origin of death to the cure for it, from perfect rules for marriage to the eternal state of the wicked. Fearing God means that you believe and trust His word, which gives you insight and answers for all the questions of life, while the evolutionist fool can only speculate about new ideas on the age of the big bang.

Fearing God means you do not fear man, which brings pressure to compromise (29:25; Jer 1:8,17). Peer pressure of elementary school students or academicians in your professional field cause men to accept traditional ideas or politically correct theories. It is time for the child to cry again, "But the Emperor has no clothes!" The fear of God saves a man from this bondage, for such a man despises all human opinions (Ps 119:98-100,128).

Where does wisdom originate? In the fear of the Lord! God opens men's eyes, ears, and hearts to truth and wisdom (I Kgs 3:5-15; Jas 1:5). God opens their eyes to His word (Ps 119:18). God shows them His secrets (3:32; Ps 25:14). And they fear no man (Heb 13:6). Wisdom cannot be found anywhere in the universe, but in the fear of God (Job 28:12-28)!

Many Persons, such as Paine & Voltaire, with some of the Ancient Greeks, say: "we will not converse concerning Good & Evil; we will live in Paradise & Liberty." You may do so in Spirit, but not in the Mortal Body as you pretend, till after the Last Judgment; for in Paradise they have no Corporeal & Mortal Body -- that originated with the Fall & was call'd Death & cannot be removed but by a Last Judgment; while we are in the world of Mortality we Must Suffer. The Whole Creation Groans to be deliver'd; there will always be as many Hypocrites born as Honest Men, & they will always have superior Power in Mortal Things. You cannot have Liberty in this World without what you call Moral Virtue, & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue. A Vision of the Last Judgment, p. 93.

The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science. Mental Things are alone Real, what is Calld Corporeal Nobody Knows of its Dwelling Place, it is in Fallacy & its Existence an Imposture. Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought, Where is it but in the Mind of a Fool. Some People flatter themselves that there will be No Last Judgment & that Bad Art will be adopted & mixed with Good Art, That Error or Experiment will make a Part of Truth & they Boast that it is its Foundation. These People flatter themselves I will not Flatter them.

Error is created. Truth is eternal. Error, or Creation, will be Burned up, & then, & not till Then, Truth or Eternity will appear. It is Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it. I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance & not Action; it is as the dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Question'd, "When the Sun rises, do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying, `Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.' I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative eye any more than I would Question a window concerning a Sight. I look thro' it & not with it. A Vision of the Last Judgment, p. 95.

Written over 200 years ago in England by William Blake.  I believe it was somebody on either VOX or StumbleUpon who recommended this site to me and it is so very appreciated but I don't remember who it was.  I bookmarked the page and occasionally go back only to discover again how very much like me he observed the world's cultures self destructing, but much more eloquently expresses those observations than I ever will.

---

Rouze up O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court, & the University: who would if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War. Painters! on you I call! Sculptors! Architects! Suffer not the fashionable Fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works or the expensive advertizing boasts that they make of such works; believe Christ & his Apostles that there is a Class of Men whose whole delight is in Destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just & true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever; in Jesus our Lord.

And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.

Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets.

Numbers XI. ch 29 v.


http://www.betatesters.com/penn/blake2.htm

http://www.betatesters.com/penn/

I collect analogies.  They help me reveal truth by slightly adjusting perspective.  A new friend on Stumble Upon had this one on her home page.  Its new to me and I thought I would share it with you.  Hope you enjoy.

A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."

The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister: "You must not be a very good barber because you wouldn't permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and shave." Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition? I can't help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"

Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then don't blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved."

On the same site is this little jewel.  This is why we must use our judgment.  You are going to find good information and bad information mixed together in this life.  You have to use wisdom to discern what is good from what sounds good.

Conservatives have been exercising this foolish principal for decades and look where its gotten us.  I now know this to be a foolish notion because when truth and reason is not explained, the enemy can make false charges against your character and the friend can be convinced your motives are not right.  Worse, the bystanders get only the false impression left by the false charges.  Not only do you have to stand for what you believe in, you have to explain why you believe it, and you'd better do it in a way that makes knowledge desirable.  Whether my enemy believes me is not the point.  That his charges against me are accepted by others is the point.  That was George Bush's greatest failing as president of the United States of America, not torture, not the national security initiative, not even the spending, but explaining to the nation and the world why these were necessary actions and demonstrating our judicious military restraint.

My friend's page is choc full of really good stuff, so I am not knocking her at all.  I'm just saying the best pages, minds, and messages can have some bad stuff mixed in.  We have to be vigilant about what we take to be good every minute.

Here's one more from her page that is new to me and useful.

Daily radar and Beltway Blips posted a blurb by CNN with a link to the original article.  However, if you click the link CNN's webpage informs you that you have searched for something that does not exist.  So what?  Links break all the time, right?  Well yes, but a professional site like CNN generally is on top of fixing things like that.  This isn't getting fixed.  I suspect its because the story justifies Bush era interrogation techniques.  You could do us all a favor by following these links and giving CNN lots of feedback about their missing story.

Beltway Blips

CNN

Stupidity is a luxury.  The more separated you are from the consequences of your stupidity, the more stupidity you can survive, the more stupid you become.  Or, you can reverse the observation and state:  The closer you are to the consequences of your stupidity, the sooner and the more you pay for your stupidity, the more incentive to acquire objectivity.  The further we get from the last generation to be raised with the values and commitment to truth, right, and good, the more stupid our culture becomes.  We know that generation as the Greatest Generation.  That generation acquired its name by facing down the greatest evils of the last century and by producing the most successful economy the world has ever known.  They are the generation which grabbed onto the technology revolution with both hands and turned little ideas into great companies and generated productivity advances by leaps and bounds.  They faced the great challenges and defeated them and they ignored the most important duty they would ever have.  The duty to pass their values on to the next generation.  Their progeny were the stupid generation.  That generation which brought us the sit-in demonstration, the drop-out and drug cultures, and another return to the Utopian vision of world peace.  Why?  Because they were protected from the consequences of stupidity by their parents' wealth and blind faith in the professors to educate them with the best information and intent.  Unfortunately, those colleges were infected by the home grown communists.  Literal communists.

So, the stupid generation went to college.  Then, they went into entertainment and journalism and education.  These are three industries which do not depend on truth or objectivity.  All three industries with few exceptions, are protected from the consequences of objectivity blindness.  In education we find the hard sciences are the only place you can find conservatives and Republicans dominating on the college campus.  In entertainment, the only place you can find a conservative dominated field is sports.  Why?  Because the hard sciences are dependent on hard facts, objectivity.  The same with sports, the ball goes through the goal or the ball does not go through the goal.  It doesn't matter how many times and how well you explain the evil nature of the Jew and the Christian.  I'm sure I've mangled my attempt to title this observation by mixing Latin and French but... The defacto trifecta une betement is roughly translated 'the state of a perfect storm of foolish misinformation' resulting in full blown cultural delusion. 

When I was a kid, horror movies were truly horrific.  These days the entertainment industry creates image driven horror but back then, these movies had plots that laid out circumstances anyone could imagine themselves falling victim to such as a radio dj being stalked by a woman who appeared to be normal and in full control of her faculties, but who would set him up to be arrested and ruined if he did not meet her desires.  (Play Misty for Me)  Another was a nice looking motel which happened to have a caretaker who would kill overnighters and restore the room to normal before morning. (Psycho)  These movies took you into the lives of either the victims or the perpetrators if not both.  I bring this up because the next movie I mention is very much like the couch potato voter's experience in America today.  A woman is hired to be an office worker in an insane asylum.  She is received by the doctor and his staff and is pleased by their warm spirit.  She is set to work and goes through half the movie doing her job but finding odd things happening from time to time.  Before the movie is over, she realizes the good doctor and his staff are the inmates and the actual doctor and those remaining alive of his staff have been locked away in one of the padded rooms for weeks.  By the time this woman figures out what's going on, many of the other patients have been killed or maimed and her life is in dire jeapardy.

Let me just analagyze for a moment here.  If America is the insane asylum and socialist/communist/extremists' violence is against the founding fathers' ideals and the staff are those who hold true to those ideals, then the couch potato voters are the non-violent inmates, rather than the new hire.  A new hire would be an immigrant who values the same principals as the founding fathers.  New hires and non-violent inmates are being killed and maimed right along with the staff.  Immigrants, unsuspecting voters, and patriots to the founding fathers ideals are suffering tyrranny at the hands of the enemies of the founding fathers' ideals.  You guys helped these nuts get control of the asylum because they promised you a bunch of stuff you want, but they aren't delivering, because they can't deliver.  First they don't have the will to give you all the things they promised you.  Second, they couldn't if they tried, nobody has the resources to deliver on all those promises.  Third, even if we did have all those resources, they don't have the self discipline to deliver them because they first take everything they want.  Foruth, when you realize you aren't going to get what they promised you, the nuts are going to turn on you with all the vehemence they used on the staff.

I'm saying, America is literally headed toward becoming a communist state.  The nuts are destroying our Constitution right by right, legal precedent by legal precedent.  If the Republicans are going along, then they fall into the couch potato/non-violent role right beside you.  Their motivation is just like yours.  Personal profit.  But the modern day Liberal, the controlling force in American culture today, are literally parcing out favors and rights to promote their control and methodically destroying all the rest of our rights and wealth.  All the traditional information venues are controlled by these Modern day Liberals.  There is no police force to call in to set things right.  The framers of our Constitution wrote that right into the founding documents.  You have a right and the responsibility to ensure the government does not wrest control of our culture from the hands of those who value the framers' ideals.  Personal liberty comes with personal duty.  Your duty is to protect the individual's rights and hold government accountable to the rule of law.  If you won't, then liberty and rights are dead and the grand experiment of the culture of freedom is gone, perhaps forever more.  If we are not the next 'greatest generation' there may never be another opportunity for our children to be one.  Our only police force is you and the few who are finding other information venues like the internet are awakening to the real dangers, but it is highly unlikely enough will be motivated to act before its too late because this perfect storm of misinformation is keeping the majority either ignorant or in opposition to the steps we have to take. 

The following videos are long, approximately 35 minutes each, but you will not hear a more important message about the current condition of the Modern day Liberal's frame of mind.  Two years ago, Evan Sayet gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation that went viral and this year gave another expanding his examples.  The first video is the most recent.   If I haven't been clear enough or conveyed the dangers well enough for you to understand or believe my warnings, please listen to Evan explain the insanity we are observing in Wathington, in the media, in our kid's schools, and in the entertainment industry.

To quote Evan Sayet, "Every single medium in which there is honest open discussion, the Liberal looses.  He has to loose because he's always in opposition to the truth.  Take the same arguments the Liberals make on TV news and in the newspapers, into talk radio where they have to answer questions and they loose.  Take them to a townhall meeting or onto online debate forums and they loose.  Right?  Cable newstalk shows with representatives of both sides, they loose.  Viewers go to FOX news.  The only talk radio station they have has to have millions of dollars pumped into it by George Soros.  Their radio station is basically on welfare.  Liberal ideology cannot win in the marketplace of ideas."
KILL YOUR TV!!!

Breitbart TV
The premier right the founding fathers concerned themselves with while creating our Constitution was individual Liberty.
Chief among the frames of our culture is this freedom to speech and freedom to assemble.  We are a culture entirely dependent on this protection which empowers us to hold all entities, be they government, business moguls or cooperatives, or power brokering NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) accountable for their behavior.  One reporter/journalist was attempting to both hold other journalists up to a standard they claim for themselves and gather information to present to the rest of us for our consideration of the press' performance.  In the original video this journalist did capture, you can see this is one individual with two cameramen.  This venue did not have a crowd protesting the event, there were no crowds of any sort outside the venue.  The venue itself was not well attended.  For some reason though, the venue producers felt it necessary to set up a barricade against this one reporter with his two cameramen.  This took place on a UC campus so the security was provided by the campus police.  Through the entire video, there were no more than 12 people present outside this venue, 3 being John and his cameramen, 3 being security personnel, and at least two were members of the venue production team.  So we're not talking about an out of control situation for the security, nor are we talking about an abnoxious protester harassing people.  This was one journalist asking questions to people who were there to attend this event.  Nobody's path was being blocked, nobody's access was being blocked.  The plain fact is, the venue providers didn't like this man's message and acted to shut him up.  Catch the irony here?  A journalist is critical of journalists, and the journalists who purport to value freedom of speech above all else use the police to shut this journalist up.  And what was the event this journalist was critical of?  It was a Walter Cronkite award for excellence in reporting to Katie Couric for her interview with Sarah Palin last year.  What else can be said?  This behavior demonstrates the profound hipocrisy of the Main Stream Press.  They don't believe in freedom of speech.  They don't believe in their self proclaimed journalistic integrity.  They are worse than anyone has charged and many charges have been laid at their feet.  They are Utopian idealogues.  They are political advocates.  They are the highest form of hiporcrites.  They are the last industry on earth you want feeding you information.

And what was the event this journalist was critical of?  It was a Walter Cronkite award for excellence in reporting to Katie Couric for her interview with Sarah Palin last year.  What else can be said?  This behavior demonstrates the profound hipocrisy of the Main Stream Press.  They don't believe in freedom of speech.  They don't believe in their self proclaimed journalistic integrity.  They are worse than anyone has charged and many charges have been laid at their feet.  They are Utopian idealogues.  They are political advocates.  They are the highest form of hiporcrites.  They are the last industry on earth you want feeding you information.

Hat tip to SuperSparky

Aggregious examples abound of the advocacy journalism rampant in the MSM industry, but last week one CNN reporter was bald faced about it.  CNN is guilty as she is because this woman has worked this way in the recent past.  They knew she is an advocate rather than a journalist with integrity and continue to put her on the big news much less any political news, much less any news at all.  If anyone wants credibility, they will act in accordance with their own stated guidelines but this is a cancer through the entire industry.  Rare examples remain of journalists much less editors and anchors who do hold to the standards the industry has set for itself.  Michael Yon for example, funds his own way into battlefield areas to report on the conditions and progress of the war effort.  He criticizes and praises commanders and actions as they deserve.  He has criticized political leaders and presidents from both Republicans and Democrats.  You can find some very good sources online but I have thrown my TV out.  I wouldn't pay for a newspaper to line the bottom of a birdcage.  It might infect the bird's vocabulary.

Do you think the Tea Party people let that go?  Not on your life.  Did the CNN reporter include any of that coversation in her reporting?  Not on HER life.  KILL YOUR TV!!!

Hat tip to Acr0phobic

I don't mention it often becuase I desire my blog to be a benefit to all comers, but my purpose for this blog is to communicate my best advice to my nieces and nephews.  This essay is more a love letter to them, but still can be a benefit to all comers.  So do read it even if it seems to be of a personal nature.  One of my nephews has recently been found to have a problem with stealing.  I had a conversation with his mother who is concerned about the consequences he is facing.  She has been acting to bail him out of this trouble and I disapprove.  She has paid to get his truck out of the impound yard and it sounds like she is counseling him to wait till the police have a case to prosecute and for him not to volunteer any information that could lead to a conviction.  This is an addictive behavior.  The addiction stems from a dependence on the chemicals the body produces in artificially creating high stress circumstances.  He has been taking ever greater risks to stimulate the production of adrenaline and various other chemicals the body produces to equip the mind and muscles to handle danger.

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So, let me be clear to my nephew first.  I don't have any children of my own.  You and your siblings and cousins are the closest I get to having children.  This means my progeny investment is in you guys.  I love you guys more than words can express.  What I have to say here is not legalism, nor is it cold, nor is it hatred.  It may be hard but I say this to you because I know this is the best course for you to take for your long term best self interest.  Your remorse right now doesn't mean spit.  You want to prove remorse to me or a judge or anybody else besides your mom, you will make everything right.  "EVERYTHING!!"  You will confess what you've done to each and every one of those you've done it to and you will apologize, and you will pay them for the damage and loss you've caused, with interest.  This is the minimum you can do for redemption in the eyes of men.  Now listen to me very carefully.  Running off and joining the military is not going to fix you.  You need more than a little discipline.  Your problem is not your environment.  Your problem is you and wherever you go, there you are.  The one thing joining the military will get you is a 10 year sentence in Leavenworth when this behavior surfaces again.  What can change you is you.  You have to decide to turn yourself in each and every time this urge takes control.  There is more payoff for you than those items you like to have.  You get a high out of the risk and so you have to look at other ways you can get that high and fend them off with every bit as much determination as is required to keep from stealing.  When you make the cost of this behavior more expensive than the payoff, then you'll get control over it, but not until then.  If you won't or can't make this too expensive, then society will.  They will lock you away for long segments of your life and that kind of record will ruin all your prospects.

Now to all of you; you are broken.  Not one of you has managed to live one week without doing somebody some kind of harm.  Whether its unjustly costing somebody self esteem, causing somebody to do extra work, or causing someone to be considered less valuable by their friends and neighbors, anything that causes any form of harm.  That is our human condition.  That doesn't mean you are bad people, this is our sin nature.  This is the proof that we all need a Savior.  God gave you two natures.  One is flesh with all its appetites and desires, the other is spirit with all its appetites and desires.  The fleshly nature is no different from all the animals.  An animal will do whatever pleases its flesh.  If its hungry and food is out, it doesn't consider the hunger of others or whose food that might be, it eats.  If it wants sex and a partner is willing and often even if the partner isn't willing, it will have sex without considering the offspring, without any other thought.  If it knows an action to cause it pain or fear it will avoid that action, but otherwise does as it pleases.  You have a spirit which desires more than a single moment of gratification.  Your spirit concerns itself with the will of our Creator, with the consequences to others of our actions, with the eternal goals for life and love.  You know greater pain can be caused by hurting your spirit than can be caused by hurting your flesh.  That's why its so hard to give our hearts to another person.  That's why its such a risk to love and to be open and vulnerable.  When someone is careless with our hearts, that pain is much worse than being cut or having a bone broken.  This is how we cause God pain.  We are unfaithful to Him.  Our whole experience in relationships is riddled with pain until we begin relating to God.  He alone is faithful.  This is a critical point.  Faith and faithfulness are very closely related concepts.  One is belief and the other is action.  You cannot be faithful without this knowledge of God because whatever is not from faith is sin, or is unfaithful.  It is likened to the mariage relationship.  If one spouse goes out with a person other than their spouse, we know this as being unfaithful or faithless.  Likewise, when you act without concern for, or in opposition to God's will, you are acting without faith.  It is action based in unbelief.

All our lives, we are fed messages through advertising and peer groups that strengthen the will of the flesh or our animal natures.  From the time we can focus our eyes on the TV screen, advertisers focus their messages on your interests.  Toys and dolls and McNuggets while we are children, cars and gadgets and food, and alcohol and sex when we become adults.  What kind of campaign is comparable to meet your spiritual appetites?  There are perversions which are directed toward your spiritual appetites like romance movies and books and some video games but what really seeks to meet your spiritual needs?  You have to be responsible to yourself for strengthening and feeding the will of your spirit.  You have to feed your spirit more than you allow the world to feed the will of your flesh.  I am not now talking about food, but information.  Advertisements are nothing more than information which feed your faith in finding pleasure and fulfillment in things or services that please the flesh.  Some of it is good information simply appealing to your natural appetites and some of it is bad information promising more than they will deliver, but still appealing to your natural appetites for their own profit.  Those who deliver what they promise are honorable businesses though they will appeal to your appetites to encourage over endulgence.  That is the free market.  You have to be responsible for you.  You have to be intelligent enough to make wise choices.  You have to consider the consequences of over endulgence and choose to refrain from eating the whole 30 ounce steak or the whole quart of icecream.  Its not healthy to eat that way and its not any better to act that way with any product or service offered for sale or even as a promotional gift.  If thinking of your spirit is not motivation enough, then think of your Creator and your family.  You honor God by your obedience to His will, by being a good example to others, and you demonstrate right behavior to your friends, neighbors, spouse and children.  Your behavior is a bigger influence on those around you than you can imagine.

The only source I know which is capable of meeting your spiritual needs, strengthening your spirit's will is the faith community.  Our family has chosen Christianity, others choose Judaism, Islam, Confuscious, and Buddhism.  You can look to other essays I've written to learn why we've chosen Christianity, but for now I'm concentrating on the more general need for faith.  It is the faith community which provides standards outside ourselves through the scriptures, standards higher than our society requires, standards which meet all the requirements which add strength to our spirit for behavioral self control.  Make your church your extended family.  Don't just go in there once a week and warm a pew and sleep through a sermon, but get involved in the church's stated mission.  Become a person the rest of the church can call on and depend on to meet goals and offer services to both the church community and as an outreach to the rest of our society.  Those are acts of kindness which are great for your character, but most important of all is that you get into the scriptures and learn God's will and put it into action.  Apply the lessons it provides to your daily life.  You will soon learn that you can't do it without the help of God to guide you and strengthen you to this purpose.  Only then can you begin the process of healing your broken nature.  It starts with these words.  "I am a sinner and I need a Savior.  God, forgive me and help me be the person You want me to be."  Its not good enough to say it once and move on.  Every day starts with that concept.  Every moment is a decision to do right by God and man or to please yourself. 

Your family is there for you through thick and thin.  We love you and you have to love each other even when one screws up as bad as Kleptomaniac has.  You are all you have in this world.  You never give up on each other and you certainly never give up on yourselves.  You support one another and you meet each other's needs.  You have to be strong enough to offer this kind of tough love when its called for, but otherwise be kind and cordial to one another.  You'll never know until the moment arrives when you will have to call on them to stick with you through the thinness of your own life.  In the words of Dr. Laura Schlessinger; "Now go do the right thing."