20 posts from March 2008

I was visiting my mother last week for Resurrection Day.  We had a very good visit and were able to talk over some things that had been on her mind.  Mom is 64 and quite ill.  She has heart problems and respiratory problems and a degenerative spinal problem, and she smokes.... while using oxygen!  I've seen the results of a cigarette and oxygen tube combination.  One of my acquaintances from years ago had a father in similar circumstances and he died in his chair by catching himself on fire.  An oxygen rich environment makes material that normally would not burn very flammable.  The smoker does not die in a sudden explosion.  Instead the oxygen makes your skin, your chair, your rug, everything burn like gasoline.  Being elderly and in poor health, they do not have the strength to get away from the oxygen or to fight the flames.  I'm sorry if this scares somebody, I'm not telling you this because I get some kind of thrill from scaring people.  I'm telling you this to let you know how I feel about it.  Please speak to your loved ones who smoke and are on oxygen about the terrible danger of a torturous death or injury they are exposing themselves to.

On the second day of my visit, she started into a coughing fit and knew she was in real trouble.  She did get her bronchial pathways cleared that time but it scared her.  This same visit, my mother confessed to me that she is not ready to die.  She is a believer, she does have a relationship with God, and she feels secure in the knowledge of that relationship.  But she has regrets and she has a lot of time to run over those regrets again and again in her mind.  She is in no condition to do anything to correct those things, but she doesn't feel ready to meet God because she is focusing on her works. 

I have recommended she read Dennis Prager's book, "Happiness is a Serious Problem" I've even taken her a copy but she hasn't gotten to it yet.  What she would learn from the book is that contentment is the key to happiness.  Paul the apostle said; Philippians 4:11"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be ^(B)content in whatever circumstances I am."  So we do what we can toward reparations and leave the rest in God's hands with prayer and supplication. 

I have been present at only one conscious death but that was of a non-believer.  He had cancer and wasted away to nothing until he was, very like my mother, too weak to clear his bronchial passages.  That man is the bravest man I've ever known.  After the doctors had pronounced his case chronic, he refused any medical assistance to the very end to the point of fighting off an oxygen mask in his last minute.  He was naturally very unsettled about the prospect of his death, but refused any 'preaching' from anyone.  "He'd lived his life as an unbeliever and he damned sure wasn't going to hypocritically turn at the last minute." 

I once read about a Christian who was secure in his faith so on the day he felt the nearness of his death and calling all his unbelieving acquaintances in to watch him die said, "Today, you will see how a Christian faces death."  It may have been British preacher Charles Simeon who is quoted as he smiled brightly, “What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time?” When they all remained silent, he exclaimed, “The creation! I ask myself, ‘Did Jehovah create the world or did I?’ He did! Now if He made the world and all the rolling spheres of the universe, He certainly can take care of me. Into Jesus’ hands I can safely commit my spirit!”

This is the way I want to go when my time comes.  Assured of God's approval, assured of my faith, assured I am going home to a mansion in the city of peace and not to rot in the dirt.  This notion, "If I'm wrong I've lost nothing, but if I'm right I've gained heaven." (evangelical argument to atheists) is still looking backward.  Those guys were eagerly awaiting their reward.  So, with some reflection on the topic, I read over the phone to my mother, quotes of dying believers and quotes of martyrs.  She searches the scriptures herself, but a little boost of fresh examples of life yielding faith can only encourage her.

I ask you to pray for her to find peace in these last weeks and months of her life.  That she would know the presence of God and can use it to witness to unbelievers.  Let her go in with a flourish sweeping lost souls into the faith as she goes.  In her final struggle, may she demonstrate the presence and the goodness of God toward His children and may it all bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ.

AprilTrip 028

_praying_together

I was in a chat when a young woman mentioned that she'd had an abortion years ago and knew that God had forgiven her, but she couldn't forgive herself. She asked for advice on what she should do. By clicking here, you'll be linked to a site designed especially for parents who've made this decision, for free counseling.

Folks, abortion hurts more than the baby. The guilt is so heavy on the parents who make this decision, sometimes retroactively but it comes nevertheless, that they cannot accept the ultimate decision for forgiveness. If you are considering ending a pregnancy, consider this woman's story and think again.

The value of a child cannot be measured in dollars and investment, in trouble and payoff, they're worth is measured in potential and joy. The work invested in them is its own reward. Like any relationship, just being near them and interacting with them is amazingly joyful. Every child lost to abortion is harmful on so many levels. To society, we've lost another wage earner who would contribute to the economy and to the support of their elders through the Social Security programs not to mention the potential Einstiens and Tchaikovskys. To the community, we've lost a contributor to local culture and support structure. To the family, we've lost a daughter/son, sister/brother and continuing blood line. To the parent, we've lost the most precious loving hearts.


When you look at a little child and think, his/her mother could have decided they were not prepared for the task of parenting and just "got rid of it." what goes through your mind and heart. No big deal? When you look at a man or woman who've contributed to society for decades, can you think, they should have been aborted? According to the scriptures, this thought is equivalent to murder. Why isn't actual abortion considered murder? Because some men decided that a fetus is not a person and so has no rights? No, because too many people are ignorant of the facts, of the pain and guilt that follows, of the cost to society, and of the lost talent that advance knowledge, contibute to the arts, or lead us through evil times. God makes known his heart on this issue by giving us a conscience. And conscience is a terrible punisher for wilfully rebelling against God.

I know this kind of guilt though not through this kind of act. I worked through it by a Christian brother's advice to me, "If you were the only sinner on earth, God would have done that work on the cross for you alone. If God considers you valuable enough to send His Son to die on a cross to save you, and He has decided to forgive you, who are you to overrule His decision. Do not consider your judgment concerning your worth more valid than God's judgment of your worth.

I don't know how unbelievers deal with this kind of guilt. Its too overwhelming to work through without God to overrule my self disgust, and self loathing.

Geert Wilders of the Netherlands has been promising to release his movie FITNA for months now.  (Fitna translated means 'unbeliever.'  He has battled his own government and press in order to have the 'right' to release his movie to speak out about the dangers Islamism is posing to his culture and to his country.  His only option for releasing this movie was to post it on the internet because no publisher or media outlet would open their doors to him.  LiveLeak, here in America posted the movie for us because of their belief in freedom of speech even though they don't necessarily agree with the message.  In less than 48 hours LiveLeak, the internet video posting service, pulled the movie from their site due to threats made against members of their staff.  Our own media is complicit with this silencing of video evidence of Muslim aggression with regards to clips like the planes crashing into the towers during the attacks on the World Trade Center and Daniel Pearl's, Nicholas Berg's, murders which the radicals so proudly posted on the internet and many other examples.  They do so on the basis these scenes are too disturbing while finding no trouble airing video of other murders or assassinations of political leaders.  Remember the lawyer that was shot several times by his disgruntled client?  The end effect is the dumbing down of the American public with regard to the vast array of the threats against Western culture.  The author of 'Roots of Jihad' Dr. Tawfic Hamid and many others who would know tell us how the radical versions of Islam are main stream in Muslim countries' governments and educational institutions.  During his interview on a Canadian news and commentary show, he explained radical Islam as that which teaches Salaf which is the root of Wahabism and moderate or mystic version of Islam is called Sufi.  He explains that the Salafi teacher can point to hundreds of references in Islamic literature that support violent actions whereas the Sufi teacher is not theologically supported.

The 15 minute film displays the results of the murderous works of radical Islam in both their own culture and in our culture and compares these images with verses out of the Q'uran and sermons, speeches, and interviews made by the most popular radical religious, political leaders, and even their teaching institutions instructing their followers to kill the Jews and attack the infidel until he submits, that Islam will rule the world, will defeat and rule the U.S. England, etc.,  There is nothing false presented in the movie and it is offensive to Muslims because they fear retribution against their peaceful members for what the radicals are doing.  I was fully aware of most of these images and the sermons and speeches because I have been blogging on this very topic for the last two years and had posted most of the images in my articles.   The final message in the film is two-fold, "Stop the spread of radical Islam" and "Muslims must be the ones to reform Islam."

The subject of this article is to point out that Islamism is inhibiting free speech in the one country built on 'freedom of the people' and 'self governance.'  The United States of America has been attacked in a far more damaging way than 11 Sep 2001.  This attack is defeating our basic rights successfully and revisiting the question of whether free speech is a legitimate right to our citizens.  We've been through this before with the marches by the KKK.  We hate the message of the KKK but we allow them to say what they say because if they can't speak their message, then eventually we won't be able to speak ours.  The difference in this instance is Islam.  Islam en total is 1.3 billion people around the world and rapidly growing, a substantial number to be sure.  Early into the struggle between radical Islam and the West, it was estimated that the radicals make up 10% of all Muslims.  That comes out to 130,000,000 people who want to force Islam on the rest of the world.  Add to that number the moderate Muslims who are offended by cartoons of Muhammad or videos revealing how extreme and how far spread Islamism has managed to become, because they fear Western retribution will fall on them, and you begin to see consequences of speech in a new light.  Now, due to the threat Muslims are posing to the venues of modern day speech (LiveLeak, YouTube, etc.,) hacking the websites of any and all hosts who've posted FITNA and threatening their staff members and to the Western media's reluctance to look at the whole story, the controversial movie is difficult to access and information is more difficult to get.  There are still sites where you can get it\ but they are increasingly less popular, smaller sites organized by people like Brigitte Gabriel and Dr. Hamid.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103&p=1

I found this today and it scares me.  They are still playing posturing games and the news is making this information available to the enemy.  So the enemy knows they can communicate with autonomy right now.  Nobody's watching because its illegal.  The original FISA bill only allows monitoring calls from outside the U.S. to outside the U.S.  This is ridiculous!

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In Christendom we have a saying.  Know Jesus, know peace..... no Jesus, no peace.  Radical Islam is, and always has proven just the opposite for its faith.  This study is historically and empirically supported.  

When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to "the reasonable" Muslim demands for their        "religious rights," they also get the other components under the table. Here's how it works (percentages source  CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).

As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped  for their colorful uniqueness:

At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.

They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).

After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:

At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:

From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:

After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:

100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:

Of course, that's not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.

"Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world and all of us against the infidel. -- Leon Uris, "The Haj"

It is good to remember that in many, many countries, such as France, the Muslim populations are centered around ghettos based on their ethnicity. Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. Therefore, they exercise more power than their national average would indicate.

Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.. www.frontline.org.za/books_videos/sti.htm

It is a shame on Islam that the house of war knows more peace than the house of peace where Muslim upon Muslim violence claims more Muslim lives and stifles economic success than all the Crusades and the military actions of the last century in Muslim lands, combined.  You are following liars, your media and your scholars and your clerics are propagating a massive conspiracy of hatred and blame on the West for the evils perpetrated on your people by your people.  Break the stranglehold of fundamentalism and Sharia and call into accountability your leaders and informers.  Some of you have access to the same information I do, and it is your responsibility to make the truth known to your people just as it is mine to my people.

These facts are opening the eyes of the peace activists and moderate factions in the West and their hatred and prejudice currently set squarely on the religions of the West will be redirected toward Islam and will be far greater than the so called 'crusaders' at work in Muslim majority lands today.  Lies from Western and Eastern political leaders, Islamic religious leaders, news agencies, and embedded Muslim scholars in our institutions of higher learning are being revealed with the advent of the internet where people can now have information within minutes of events.  The more 'in the news' violent Islam makes itself in current events, the more the public educates itself in the history of Islam and begin to shout down the ignorance of our so called tolerant and their sources of false information. 

These revelations source anger and hatred toward beneficiaries of the lies which cause great personal and financial cost to the formerly ignorant West.  Brothers, fathers, and sons are dying needlessly, economic malaise for tax dollars and corporate profit results in funded Muslim aggression toward the rest of the world needlessly.  The end result will be a world wide movement to eradicate Islam and in that day, the farce of the 'house of peace' will pop and the resonance will be heard till the end of time just as the farce of Hitler's super race resounds to this day. 

Ain't politics grand? 

Mel Reynolds 

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?

My job takes me around the neighborhoods of my little community here in Orange County.  The other day I met a man by the name of Jerry Nail.  I took a couple of minutes to get to know Mr. Nail because the man is 83 years old, and like most people of years, he has some stories to tell.  Mr. Nail is a veteran of the Korean war and a simple skill was all that kept him out of combat. 

He was drafted into the Army and went through basic training in a tiny little town south of Santa Cruz.  He met an old friend there and was quickly put to work with his simple skill.  Valued among the many grunts coming through the station, he was treated rather well.  He was housed off base, commuted to work with this buddy, and all in all, had a pretty good time of it.  Then orders came down that he was to be shipped over to the war zone.  So he sent his wife home to Orange County and got on a boat that took a month to get there.  He'd been assigned a bunk on the bottom of a stack of five berths at the very bottom deck of the boat.  Although the boat was large, the seas were rough for much of the voyage and the hull of the boat was lifting out of the water and slamming back down onto the surface with a great thud.  Even metal as thick as the hull of a ship can only take so much punishment and sure enough, water started sloshing forward and aft with every tilt over the waves.  They had to bilge pump out the water and repair that tear en route.  Well, when he got there, they had them lined up and were checking them in when a buck sergeant (E-3) [all of 12 months of service under his belt] said to him, "Says on your paperwork you can type.  Is 'at true?" 
"Yep"
"You any good at it?"
"Well sure."
That's where he got his assignment.  So while many of his basic graduates got handed a rifle and were sent directly to the front line, he was sent to the Adjutant General's staff in Seoul.  There's where he did his entire tour in Korea.   There is a verse in the  Bible that describes the blessings of skills, otherwise known as talents.  It says, "A man's talents make room for him."  I asked him what it was that got him to learn how to type and he sheepishly replied, "Well, I wanted to be where the girls were."

Remember that friend back at basic training?  When Jerry was back on home ground, his friend had made quite a lot of money in construction and real estate.  Jerry found this plot of land and the friend volunteered to build his house for him and told him if he had to use extra laborers he'd have to charge him for their labor, otherwise it was on the house, er. so to speak.  Turns out, the friend paid for the lot, less than $500.00, the material, and the labor.  Jerry basically got his house in Orange County as a gift from a friend.
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I met another 83 year old man today, named Frank.  He didn't give me his last name, but he served in the Army Air Corps. as a nose gunner during WWII.  He said he'd manned every gun on the 'Fortress' except the top gun, but his assignment was the nose gunner position.  He flew more than 50 missions and told me it was alright, that he didn't mind it much until he knew more about it. 

When you start hearing the horror stories of other men's experiences, then you start fearing when your turn will come.  It is my great fortune that his turn never came.  Anyway, Frank came back to the states and got some education in electronics.  Mind you, this was before transistors were invented.  From there he began to work with flight simulators.  In those days you had to figure all the dynamics of motion, control input, reaction, and feedback in math by hand.  Later on he started working with computers and by the time he retired, he had no interest in computers.  He told me he hadn't read a novel since high school.  Friends would ask, you don't read?  He'd have to say, well I read all the time, but it's tech manuals to keep up with the technology.  He was very interested in my report on free energy but my skills of understanding these things is very limited.  I described what I did understand and he was impressed but still seemed reluctant to accept that it was feasible.  Old people have enough sense not to argue with somebody who's convinced he knows what he saw was real.  Whether it was real or not, he will argue for days he knows what he saw.

I was proud to meet and get to know one more of our unassuming heroes.  God bless 'em everyone.  I don't know if I have any young readers, but if I do, here's a valuable bit of advice.  Whenever you get around an old person, start asking them about some of their adventures.  You're bound to hear at least one story better than you'll find in most books or movies.  I've only given you the highlights of these two men but they know how to present their adventures so you feel like you were right there with them when they were standing in those lines that would determine the course of their destinies.  By the way, both of these men were draftees.  I'd offer pictures of these guys, but Motorola software sucks.  It will not interface with a computer.  I want to fire Verizon for selling these phones on the promise that you can move you music files from your computer to the phone or pictures from the phone to the computer.