Free In Idaho!

I remember 12 or 14 years ago, during a discussion with a Christian friend, mentioning that I was of the Reformed persuasion.  He was shocked, and loudly berated me that “Christianity didn’t need reforming!”  It took some discussion, but he came to understand that perhaps he didn’t know what “Reformed” and “Reformation” meant.  If you are like my friend and do not know what I mean, take a minute sometime today and do a quick search on “Reformation Day”.  It might not mean what you think it does. 

Happy Reformation Day! 

 A mighty fortress is our God,
 a bulwark never failing;
 our helper he amid the flood
 of mortal ills prevaling. 
 For still our ancient foe
 doth seek to work us woe;
 his craft and power are great,
 and armed with cruel hate,
 on earth is not his equal.

 Did we in our own strength confide,
 our striving would be losing,
 were not the right man on our side,
 the man of God’s own choosing.
 Dost ask who that may be? 
 Christ Jesus, it is he;
 Lord Sabbaoth, his name,
 from age to age the same,
 and he must win the battle.

 And though this world, with devils filled,
 should threaten to undo us,
 we will not fear, for God hath willed
 his truth to triumph through us. 
 The Prince of Darkness grim,
 we tremble not for him;
 his rage we can endure,
 for lo, his doom is sure;
 one little word shall fell him.

 That word above all earthly powers,
 no thanks to them, abideth;
 the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
 thru him who with us sideth. 
 Let goods and kindred go,
 this mortal life also;
 the body they may kill;
 God’s truth abideth still;
 his kingdom is forever.

          - Martin Luther  1529

Accountability.  What a thought.  Would that we had a little more of it in our daily lives, particularly our politics.  It is frustratingly absent in American politics, especially apparent now during the election season.  The finger pointing and blaming, the waffling and weaseling, the empty promises and behind the back finger-crossing… and need I shine the light on the media again?  Nah.  Bold cockroaches that they are, they no longer feel it necessary to scurry and hide.

Accountability.  Beyond our individual lives, the word also applies to the Leviathan that used to be our constitutional republic form of government.  What was intended by its founders to be a government which would facilitate the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of the American people daily grows from that helpful servant into a demanding and oppressive master.  How does accountability apply to the Leviathan you ask?  Because it is made up of men, and the call for accountability comes not just from other men, but from God.  I know, an unpopular idea today.  (And as an aside, it is one point where I question the idea that BHO is a Christian, given that he and his proposed government seem to differ greatly from traditional Biblical Christianity on such things as accountability to God, the sanctity of life, the nature of justice, and the source of salvation; a discussion we can save for after the election, if indeed we are allowed to have it.)

May I share a quote from Dr. R.C. Sproul?  This is from an article titled “Principles For Voting“, which I recommend as a refreshing step back from the endlessly repeated details of the current election; it is a call back to basic principles, and a reminder of the truth about who we really are as Christians, and the role our government has been given.

A few years ago I was invited to give the address at the inaugural breakfast of the newly elected governor of the state of Florida. And on that occasion I said to the governor elect, “Good sir, today is your ordination day. You have received your mandate to govern not from the will of the people, but from almighty God, who Himself establishes government and calls you His minister, not the minister of the church, but His minister as a guardian of the affairs of the state. And I remind you that you will be judged by Him in how you carry out your duties.” But in our time the separation of church and state has come to mean the separation of the state from God. It is one thing to say the state is not accountable to the church, it’s another thing to say the state is not accountable to God. And when the state assumes its autonomy and declares its independence from Almighty God it is not just the right but the duty of the church to call the state to task: Not to ask the state to be the church, but to tell the state to be the state under God.

Accountability.  A sobering thought.  At least, it should be.  Remember it next Tuesday, and beyond.

EXXON released its 3rd quarter results today, and, needless to say, the media is apoplectic about the record profits.  Yeah, I guess $37 billion profit in the first 9 months of the year is something to talk about.  Good job EXXON!  It’s so refreshing to see a company that can still make a profit.  Even if it is less than 10% on your gross income, and it’s for sure that you won’t repeat it in the 4th quarter; your year so far has been great.  There are a whole lot of pension funds and 401k’s that would be hurting even worse if it weren’t for an oil company or two in their holdings. 

One thing the media is NOT telling you about though, is that along with the big profits came an even bigger tax bill.  How does $94.2 BILLION in total taxes grab your ungrateful little socialist heart?  9 months… 94 billion dollars in taxes… kinda hard to paint them as greedy robber barrons when you know their taxes are 2 1/2 times the profit they make.  How would that look on YOUR paycheck, eh?  So you think “tax breaks  are just welfare for oil companies”, eh?  $94 billion in taxes sounds more like welfare for congress.  But somebody has to keep that trough full.  After all, the looters and the moochers expect their “fair share”.

How about we call this the quote of the day?

No fully-grown human being with a single ounce of self-respect ever wants to be taken care of by others.  No person with dignity will tolerate being told what to do, what to think, how to work or how to be an “acceptable” person.  No free man or woman will tolerate the loss of liberty in exchange for material comfort.

It’s from a great article over at American Thinker entitled “The Repugnance of Socialism“.  Did your dad ever say “you live under my roof buddy, then you live by my rules”?  And do you remember saying “screw that, I’m outta here”?  It happens to a great many of us sometime in our later teens.  So, why do so many Americans want so desperately to slip on the chains of a nanny state, to be “taken care of” and to be told once again what to?

This, quite plainly, says it all.  A definite “read the whole thing“.  It is a well presented calling out of Barack Hussein Obama, and this is but a taste

Oh, Mr. Obama, Teddy Roosevelt said about a hundred years ago that we Americans should first look at the character of our leaders before anything else.

Your character looks horrible.  While you make good speeches, motivating speeches, your character does not match your rhetoric.  You talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. 

1.  You lied to America.  You lied many times.  You distorted facts.  You parsed your answers like a lawyer.

2.  You distorted the record of John McCain in your words and in your advertisements.

3.  You had associations with some very bad people for your personal political gains and then lied about those associations.

4.  You divide America about race and about class.

I would add “5.  You used governmental power to try to supress and intimidate your opponents and critics.” 

A liar, divider, socialist, thug… all hail our Dear Leader.

Ah, socialists… you gotta love ‘em.  All show, and no go.  Down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez spent a pretty chunk of his oil change in China in order to send up a satellite.

President Hugo Chavez has increasingly turned toward the East for help in technological development, and his latest endeavor — at a cost of some $406 million — will help him spread his revolutionary message across Latin America.

A rocket launched from China’s western Sichuan province carried the 5.1-ton satellite into space and it is supposed to reach its final orbit 21,900 miles (36,500 kilometers) above the earth next week.

It will begin carrying radio, television and other data transmissions in early 2009 after three months of tests.

Cool.  Way to go Hugo.  Now, all you have to do is figure out how to keep the electricity on, so your folks can watch their “dear leader” on the tube.

“This is a satellite for freedom,” Chavez said in a nationally televised address following the launch.

He deeply regretted not having it online in time to carry his American counterpart Barack Sharing Your Pie Obama’s upcoming television special, but he promised to be ready in January for Mr Obama’s new continuing weekly series.

Ok, I made that last part up.  So sue jail me.

Chatting on the phone with my sister last night, she mentioned the CEO bonuses thing.  I think it bugged her when I told her the problems in our economy don’t have anything to do with big CEO bonuses, and if a guy or gal can make a successful company they should make big heaping piles of cash.

I’m sure she was talking about the bankers getting big bonuses from the taxpayer bailout shakedown the government just pulled off.  Everyone is all upset this morning that the banks are hoarding the money, or using it to buy up little banks, or paying big bonuses to their executives instead of “making loans” and saving the country from the end of the world.  All together now, big whiny voice

“It’s not FAAIIIRRR!”

What did you expect?  For crying out loud, the crackheads are doing what crackheads do… all the things you’d EXPECT them to do when you give them a big pile of Other People’s Money.  Seriously, you expected all of them to get religion in the midst of the armtwisting the Government did to get the Bailout Rip-off Bill passed?  The bill did nothing to change what was wrong in the first place, it didn’t change the system or the crooked people in place (including the crooks in the Congress).  All the Bailout Business As Usual Bill did was let them know there are STILL no consequences for what they do.

Party on dude.

Barack The Marxist Obama and Joe The Tool Biden try desperately to squirm out from under the “socialist” label, and they might be able to do it, at least before the election, because of the willing stonewalling being done by the mainstream media.  But socialist he is and anyone who who says otherwise is willfully ignorant.  Sarah Palin’s wardrobe?  Joe The Plumber’s license?  Barack Obama’s Inaugural address?  Hardly journalism.  But questions about Obama beliefs being Marxist?  No way.  Howard Wolfson on FOX just said that was “out of line”.  And when Obama is elected you can bet that’ll never happen again.  He’s going to make sure that we “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution“.

For crying out loud people, wake up!  The information you need, in the man’s own words, is out there if you are willing to look at it.

Obama isn’t about equality, hope, and change.  How about breaking down the Constitution?  How about redistributing your wealth?  How about blacklisting reporters and TV stations?  And how about the idea that the Warren Supreme Court wasn’t radical enough?  Check this out from Michelle this morning, and follow the links.  This is Barry from 2001

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendancy to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.

No more suffering.  Redistributive change will happen when you elect a community organizer socialist to be the President of the United States.  And the biggest domino is finally about to fall.  The first colony in America tried that vision of distributing to everyone regardless of their contribution, and they quickly discovered that the broken nature of human beings made that a nearly guaranteed failure.  Now, four hundred years later we have a man and a party hellbent on doing it again.  Every time it’s been tried it has been a failure.  It has NEVER worked in the history of mankind, whether it be a hippie commune, a religious order, a dictatorship, or a “democratically elected” government… socialism will NEVER work, because it ignores the fundamental truth that human beings are not ‘basically good’.  No amount of free education, free food, free healthcare, free sex, or free unicorn farts, to say nothing of big unfree government will ever save mankind, or cause him to evolve into some enlightened society.  And Barry Soetoro isn’t going to be the first man in history to make it work either.  Government, even Obama’s government, cannot save you. 

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.  It isn’t what you think it is.
 

Good Sunday morning to you.  Today’s music is “With All I Am” by Hillsong.

Into your hand
I commit again
with all I am
for you Lord

You hold my world
in the palm of your hand
and I’m yours forever

CHORUS
Jesus I believe in you
Jesus I belong to you
you’re the reason that I live
the reason that I sing
with all I am

I’ll walk with you
wherever you go
through tears and joy
I’ll trust in you

and I will live
in all of your ways and
your promises forever

CHORUS

I will worship I will worship you forever

CHORUS