Don’t Believe the Hype Sunday, Apr 29 2007

After watching the debate by the Democratic candidates I wish I could truly believe that members of the left truly support the military.

But I just don’t believe it.

I don’t know why but I think it has to do a lot with how those on the left have treated those who serve in the military in the past.

During the Clinton Administration, the left’s hatred of the military was open and out there for all to see. They did not hide their contempt for the men and women who wore a uniform in the Armed Forces. They debated on pay raises and cut funds desperately needed for training. In Colin Powell’s autobiography, My American Journey, he details a visit to the White House where a Clinton aide told then General Powell, “we don’t talk to the military around here”. If that isn’t a snob remark I don’t know what is.

A friend of mine participated in the Haiti invasion in the early 90s and was due to receive a medal for his actions. President Clinton was the presenter. As the President, our Commander in Chief, passed along the lines to congratulate everyone, my friend remarked how he felt as if the President was somehow bored and disinterested in the whole thing. He said that when he shook the President’s hand he could tell that his congratulations were not sincere.

The left’s neat little slogan of ‘Support the Troops; but Not the War’ is just a clever way to behave just like their 1960s era Viet Nam predecessors but be just sly enough where their hatred of the military doesn’t show.

It won’t last though and it will only take time before the first violence erupts between protestors and the soldiers they say they support.

If the Democrats truly support the troops then, as a serviceman, I ask that you do what you complain about: give us everything we need to win. Ensure we do have APCs with increased armor. Ensure we all have keflar vests. Ensure we have the best intel we need to win this war. Give us some credit. Give us the tools and we will give you a victory. You cannot fight a war with one hand behind your back and that is how the Democrats want to fight the War on Terror.

Actions speak louder than words.

Until they do this, I don’t believe they support the military at all. I think it is all just a clever smoke screen.

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Christian Persecution: It didn’t end with the Coliseum Sunday, Apr 29 2007

The media, today, is very fond of reporting stories of one group of people who are being persecuted by another. Sadly, very little news is reported of the continuing persecution of Christians throughout the world.

Christians are being persectued? You don’t say? I’ve never heard that.

That’s because the press never reports it.

Special interest groups are quick to remember Christianity’s crimes but never the crimes committed against Christianity. From the beginning, Christians have faced persecution. First from the Jews who considered Christianity a dangerous sect then continuing with the Roman Empire in 64 AD when the Emperor Nero blamed the great fire which swept through his city on the Christians. Nero was among the worst persecutors as he had many of the early Christians murdered, crucified and used as fodder for gladiator or fed to wild animals in the Coliseum. History also ignores pagan persecution of Christians by other groups such as the Goths, the Vandals and the Persians. Almost all the Apostles suffered death at the hands of pagans including Andrew, Phillip, Peter, Bartholemew, Thomas, Matthew, Simon the Zealot and Jude. Remember this the next time a Wiccan mentions the burning times.

Christians, particularly Catholics, have suffered hard in such countries as Ireland and Kosovo under the Turks. Other than the Crusades, Christianity and Islam have actually gotten along well until the crisis in Cyprus between Christian Greeks and Muslim Turks and the Civil War in Lebanon between rival sects. Since then, the relations between Christians and Muslims have been more than touchy.

Today, Christians continue to face enormous persecution especially in such countries as Pakistan, India, China, Sudan, the Middle East and Southeast Asia (Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka).

Lately, Christians in the United States have weathered assaults upon both their right to practice their religion and attempts to silence them from protesting by such groups as the ACLU and other special interest groups. These groups, in particular, have been accused, with some merit, of the following:

• The ban on any religious expression by faculty in front of students.

• The increased usage of BCE/CE, not just limited to strictly non-Christian studies but also to more general historical terms, even including Christianity or societies which eventually lead to Christianity (such as Greece and Rome).

• The Christmas controversy. O’Reilly refers to “The War on Chistmas”, a phrase originated by journalist Peter Brimelow in 1999. Advocates of greetings such as “Happy Holidays” replacing “Merry Christmas” state that their goal is to be more inclusive of non-Christian faiths, but O’Reilly contends that such efforts are a veiled attack on Christianity.

• In 2000, when the Brooklyn Museum of Art displayed an image of the Virgin Mary crafted of dried elephant dung, among other media, and festooned with photographs of winged female breasts, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani decided to cut the city’s voluntary funding to the museum. The state court ordered him to resume the previous financial support with an added $5.8 million.

• In March of 2006, one of the University of Oregon’s campus newspapers, The Insurgent in their coverage of the Muhammed cartoon controversy, published 12 cartoons of Jesus, along with two editorials criticising Catholicism. Two of the cartoons depicted Jesus with an erection and one presented him engaged in homosexual activity. In response, the Catholic League wrote Oregon lawmakers in complaint of the newspaper. The president of the Catholic League characterized the issue as hate speech. The response to the edition offered by the president of the university was criticized as tepid.

You can find information on the persecution of Christians going on at such websites as Persecution.org, Voice of the Martyrs, and the American Center for Law and Justice.

I speak, of course, about current events which are widely ignored by the media who pick and chose those who they wish to be labled as victims. In February to March 70 churches were destroyed by radical Muslims in Europe, the Kosovo bishop was attacked by his Muslim neighbors, 3 Christian schoolgirls were beheaded in Indonesia, Sri Lankan rebels targeted Christian churches, China and India jailed Christian activists, Christian shops were burned in Egypt, three people were tortured and brutally murdered in Turkey and two Pakistan brothers were tortured to death for failing to reject their Christian conversion and return to Islam. Do you here these things on CNN or MSNBC? Never.

source: International Christian Concern www.persection.org

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Morality & Politics Do Not Mix Friday, Apr 27 2007

I watched in horror as several of the Democratic Party’s candidates for President openly condone and approved of abortion and gay marriage. Others, thinly veiled their contempt for the US military preferring them to be brought home in disgrace than to make any attempt to win the war in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Earlier in the week, I saw Democrats use both the relatives of deceased Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch themselves in an attempt to smear and discredit the President. Democrats would rather use the military as pawns instead of appreciating the sacrifice they make for this country.

Senator Kucinich openly defended gay marriage and hoped that his daughter, if she ever turned homosexual, would have free access to jobs and housing. Of course, he mentioned nothing of his own responsibility to be a parent and to teach his child that homosexuality is wrong. He would rather just abdicate that role and make accomodations for his mistakes instead.

On the issue of partial ban abortion the candidates were even more immoral. It was clearly stated that despite the ruling by the Supreme Court, every attempt would be made to make partial birth abortions legal claiming that it is a woman’s right to destroy a child. Other than instances of rape, wouldn’t it have been better if the woman was just responsible with her sexuality? I guess not for responsibility is no longer a principle we look up to.

Other candidates have a history of favoring lobbyists and receiving kickbacks for their votes.

All in all, the debate was more a display with what is wrong with America than it was how these hopeful politicians intend on leading us in the 21st Century.

Morality can be bought and sold as evident by the debate last night and that is a frightening though.

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Christianity Under Fire Friday, Apr 27 2007

I do not want to be a doom-sayer but it seems to me that Christianity is under fire as predicted in the Book of Revelation. 

Revelation 2:10 states that

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

It is hard not to worry, however, when I read the headlines from the news and see politicians openly embracing anti-Christian stances. It is hard to watch lobbyist groups and organizations such as the ACLU file lawsuit after lawsuit aimed at quieting Christians and making them second class citizens in their own country. Talk show hosts and television shows openly ridicule and mock Christians with the general approval of the public. You do not dare say the word, “God” in a school for fear of being cast out or looked upon as a heretic. Church attendance in America, over the past few decades, has been on the decline and our youth are indoctrinated and lured through the media into a world approving of violence, free sex, homosexuality and drug use.

America is not alone in it’s persecution of Christians. Around the globe Christians are arrested and murdered for practicing their faith in Africa, India, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China and the various small nations that make up Indonesia. Europe has become a haven for atheists and seems to be the center of the evangelical attempt to wipe out Christianity from the face of the planet.

I wonder when Christians will finally have the nerve to say enough is enough. How much longer must we act the role of lamb instead of being lions?

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In the Land of Anything Goes Friday, Apr 27 2007

In the Land of Anything Goes

I wonder if we are truly the land of the free or do we live in the land of anything goes? A society, at least a successful one, is one where there is a structure of laws and rules of acceptable and proper behavior. When we break down those restrictions we tumble head over heels into barbarism; into a land where anything goes.

People take their freedoms too far. It’s too the point where ‘freedom’ has become not a respect for the law but is instead a thorough disregard of it. It is the law that keeps us free. To remove the law again takes us back to the land of anything goes.

In this land of anything goes, we would be “free” to do as we will without regard to it’s consequences or fear of justice. We may take life as we feel. We may have sexual relations with whomever or whatever we want. We may mock anyone we choose no matter the consequences. We may destroy our bodies and the bodies of those around us for they are nothing but flesh. In the land of anything goes; life is cheap and is to be used for your own self pleasure. Nothing is too shocking. Nothing holds much value. It is but a tool to be used.

Acceptable and long held values of loyalty, devotion to family, worship of God, patriotism, courtesy and decency are going to fade away as our society crumbles and as anarchy assumes it control over us.

We must be worry here in America, for under the influence of socialists, anarchists and atheists, this nation is fast slipping from the land of the free into the land of anything goes. A land where barbarism will be the norm and the law will no longer exist. This is a land I do not wish to live in.

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Knee Jerk Reaction in Blacksburg Tuesday, Apr 17 2007

It is with the deepest sympathies that I read about the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech. As a serviceman stationed in Virginia, this incident hits a little close to home.

As I read about the 33 students viciously murdered by 23 year old Cho Seung-Hui, a Korean, I cannot help but feel saddenned by the whole experience and yet, at the same time, I find myself angry over those who are using this tragedy as an excuse to pound the soap box on their own political agendas; namely, gun control.

It is very human to want to place the blame on a scapegoat; to find that one person or institution we can reach out to and point our righteous fingers at to say, “it’s all your fault” but herein lies the truth. The blame, the responsibility, for all that occured belongs to one Cho Seung-Hui for it is he who woke up yesterday morning with full intent on killing someone that morning. It’s all his fault but he is dead, by his own hand, and therefore this is where the blame should end. As Harry S Truman stated so eloquently, ‘the buck stops here’. This isn’t the gun owner’s fault. It’s not the gun dealer’s fault. It’s Mr. Cho Sheung-Hui’s.

No gun law would have stopped Mr. Hui from killing someone yesterday because up until yesterday, he had broken no law so why would anyone stop him from buying a gun? Yesterday, Hui had already made up his mind he was going to do it; he was going to kill someone. It didn’t matter whether he used a gun or a homemade bomb, he was going to hurt someone for whatever perceived ill was done to him (an ex girlfriend in this case). He didn’t need to use a gun. He could have used a knife or even his own vehicle. It didn’t matter and it doesn’t matter. It’s after the fact. It’s like trying to replay the Superbowl on Monday morning.

There is nothing that could have been done to prevent this tragedy. We don’t walk around with ready made psychological tests we can use to determine who is and who isn’t going to go ‘over the edge’. It’s nearly impossible to figure that out. Mr. Hui did not have a criminal record so therefore he legally obtained a gun. No gun dealer can know the state of mind of their customers. As I’ve said, it’s impossible.

I grow weary of those who use tragedy to pound the pulpit on their own agendas because for now, and for weeks later, the news will be filled with arguments for and against gun ownership. Everyone remembers the lunatic who used a gun but they forget the thousands of others who own them and never once fire a shot in anger at another person. For that one bad apple, the barrel must suffer and somehow I find that to be wrong.

Those knee-jerkers, however, those who must find that scapegoat, will still find fault however and become reactionaries, responding on emotion instead of thinking things through to their logical conclusion.

I feel sorry for the gun, that inanimate object which, in the hands of the wrong person, becomes the arbiter of life and death. It is not the gun that kills but the person weilding it. I wonder if the ACLU will represent the gun in court?

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Going My Own Way Tuesday, Apr 17 2007

I belong to neither the Democrat nor the Republican parties. The reason for that is that I cannot stand the labels that come with belonging to either one.

Historically, both parties have had some very fine politicians and leaders who I admire greatly. The Democrats can trace their roots back to Thomas Jefferson whose political descendants include Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn and John F. Kennedy. The Republican Party started off on a noble cause to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln is one of my childhood heroes. I’ve admired Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt in their party. Although I was not a fan of his domestic policies, I did admire the way Ronald Reagan stood up to the Soviet Union and helped bring about it’s collapse. It used to be that while each party stood on it’s own platforms, they were always willing and able to work together for the betterment of the nation (with the exception, of course, of the American Civil War).

Today, however, the political area is much more polarized. We are divided by economic class, race, gender and sexuality. Major lobbyist groups hold powerful sway with both parties to the point where it is hard to see where the party’s platform begins and the lobbyist ends.

I find fault with both parties on their stand on the sanctity of human life. The Republicans are against abortion and yet are for the death penalty. The Democrats want to end the death penalty but are for abortion. How can you be both for life but against it?

The Republicans use the military as a tool for foreign policy way too often. Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Big Stick’ policy worked in the early 20th Century but it fails when applied in the 21st. The Democrats are believed to be soft on defense and their record over the past 20 years makes that argument a pretty strong one. The truth: neither party knows how to effectively or efficiently use the armed forces of the United States.

I’m a Christian and am not ashamed to declare this openly. It has become vogue to ‘debunk’ and call Christians such colorful names as ‘Christo-Nazis’ by those who do so know absolutely nothing about the faith which they criticize. Unofficial spokespersons for the right and the left such as Rosie O’Donnell and Anne Coulter have both abused and misused religion for their own party’s political ends. Fat Rosie for the Democrats and Anorexic Anne for the Republicans. Neither of these two innerly ugly women can rightfully speak for or against Christianity because, truth is, they know nothing about it and just shoot from their mouths. It would be best if they just left the religion to those who actually practice what they preach and stop smearing a faith that is based upon the 2000 year old teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus will still be here long after both Fat Rosie and Anorexic Anne are nothing but bad memories and dust.

I have grown tired of both parties using sexuality to batter each other. Neither party are pariahs of good taste and both have their own sexual skeletons in their closets. Neither can say that they can speak for morality (when both members are guilty of visiting prostitutes, accepting kickbacks or fondling pages, you have no high ground to stand on). One side of the coin is too harsh; the other is way too accepting. God teaches us to temper justice with mercy but he also set a standard of conduct and behavior he expects us to follow. The Kingdom of Heaven is not free; there is an admission price.

Which comes down to the blame game. Because neither party is willing to budge or to compromise with each other they spend an awful lot of time and resource blaming the other side for their own faults at not coming to an agreement. There are two sides to every story and every truth has a bit of fiction in it. It takes two to tango. If you are aren’t tango-ing, it’s because you’ve both become tangled up. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are far too blind and narrow sighted to see the forest for the trees.

I’m tired of the blame game now. You’ve even got me involved in it. I’m so tired of being called right wing by those on the left and leftist by those on the right. It is like I am being silenced by both sides. I am not allowed to disagree with them or to come up with my own solutions. How narrow minded is that?

To my critics, and there will be many, I say this. You both know where you can both stick your proverbial labels, your insults and your slurs? It’s a place where the sun don’t shine and I hear that the procedure for putting labels, insults and slurs there can be quite painful.

I am going my own way.

I no longer vote by party lines. I vote by the character of the candidate and what I believe he or she is serious or not about doing for the people who elect them. I really don’t agree with either platform for either party which is a sad commentary on the state of affairs for American politics.

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Hello world! Tuesday, Apr 17 2007

I thought about changing the title of this post but I have since changed my mind. This is my very first blog on Word Press and I hope that it will be the first of many.

My name is Michael and I am 40 years old. I am from Northeastern Pennsylvania in Luzerne County. I haved served in the US Navy for 20 years and will retire very shortly.

I consider myself to be an unusual person in that I have never, ever fit in with any one group. I have never been satisfied with the expectations expected of myself by those who affiliate with the group. I find myself despising cliques which are those small subgroups within a group.

I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat although I hold beliefs in common with both parties.  I am very much in favor of helping the poor, improving our educational system and for creating a national health care plan. At the same time, I am very much for a strong national defense (one that makes sense), a fair and equitable foreign policy, pro-immigration and for equality among the races and genders that make up our great nation. Even among those lines, I feel that there is a great difference between racial inequality and lifestyle inequality.

I am also a Christian which is the one group I do find myself at ease with. I will defend my faith for I feel that it has come under increasing attack since the terrorist bombings of 9/11. From having been a member of other blogging communities and message boards I have a growing concern for the number of those who post anti-Christian rhetoric on the Internet. If I were a Jew, these comments would be considered to be anti-Semitic and there would be a throng of people clamoring for those remarks to be removed but as I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, it seems to be okay to do so; it is en vogue to harrass Christians.

Politics aside, I am a pretty normal person. I am not a big sports fan but I do love baseball and occasionally will follow hockey. I also love a wide variety of music and watching DVDs.  I enjoy walking in the park with my girlfriend and her children. In fact, those 4 people are the most important people in my life.

I enjoy writing and will write a lot. I’ve written several poems and short stories. Two of which have been published.

Anyway, this is me.

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