Archive for December, 2010
Hallelujah Chorus at the Mall Food Court
At noon on November 13, 2010, these unsuspecting shoppers at the Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario got a Christmas present they will never forget.
As I watch this … for the 10th time … I can’t help but wonder what the prophet Handel might think if he could see it. How could he imagine this scene, half a world and 269 years away, as he worked day and night in the summer of 1741 to set God’s Word to music?
Who knows what God will do with the work He has given each of us to complete?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE
As you may know, the prophet Handel is generally credited with writing Messiah, the Musical, but he actually plagiarized most of the lyrics. For example, he copied some of its most memorable lines from another prophet, a guy named Isaiah, who lived in the 700’s BC. For example, Isaiah wrote these lines:
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14)
For unto Us a Child is born, unto Us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:3-6)
Anybody can write about a person who has already lived and events that have already happened. The eternal beauty of Handel’s Messiah is that so much of it was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Only God can do that. Check this out.
Santa and reindeer sing “White Christmas”
Back by popular demand, this is too funny!
In the culture wars, we are Patton’s Army fighting for Bastogne
Gabrielle and her classmates are fighting the good fight on the battleground that must not be lost. The consequences of losing are too horrifying to contemplate, but they are outnumbered and surrounded.
Today, 66 years ago, the Battle of the Bulge began. Soon, the eyes of the world would focus on Bastogne, a little town in Belgium. As it turns out, the 101st Airborne had gone to Bastogne for some well-deserved R&R. Nobody expected the battle that was about to ensue.
Geography made Bastogne the most important location on the battlefield. All roads led to Bastogne. (Tennesseans know the strategic importance of Chattanooga in the War Between the States, because all railroads went through this city.) It was squarely in the middle of the German salient, and it was the key to victory.
The 101st Airborne fought bravely to hold the city, but they were surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned. Still, they fought on. They were teenagers.
George Patton knew the war could be won or lost at Bastone, so he turned his army 90 degrees to the north and raced toward the city. Yes, they were already in a battle of their own. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was difficult. But Patton knew the consequences of German victory would be too horrifying to contemplate. On December 26, 1944, Patton’s army broke through to relieve the 101st. For all practical purposes, the war was decided.
In the culture wars, the college campus is Bastogne. That is where the war will be decided. The Left understands this. Although liberals comprise only 20% of the American population, they are 72% of all college professors. They decide what is taught to the next generation. They fight to remove all traces of Christian morality and thought.
Christian pro-lifers in this environment are like the 101st Airborne. When they head off to college, they don’t know about the battle that will soon engulf them. They are teenagers.
From their first day on campus, their beliefs are viscously and relentlessly attacked and mocked, by professors and fellow students alike. They fight bravely, but they are outnumbered and surrounded. They deserve our help.
The culture wars will be won or lost on the college campus. We (all of us) are Patton’s army. At CBR / Pro Life on Campus, we race to college campuses with the ammunition of plain truth about abortion. We train pro-lifers how to articulate and defend the pro-life position. We bring our GAP project and our truth trucks to reinforce the message that (1) the unborn child is a baby and (2) abortion is much worse than people think.
We are helping pro-life students fight the good fight, not against flesh and blood, but “against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]” (Ephesians 6:12).
We need your help. At a bare minimum, would you consider $20/month, over and above what you are already doing? If we can get 1,500 of you to do this—if you do it, the others will—we can visit an additional 42 major universities every single year. Your $20/month will help us reach a million students every single year. If $20 seems too little compared to what’s at stake, feel free to do more. If $10 is all you have, then we ask you to commit that much.
Yes, you are already doing other things. Yes, it will cost you something. But we ask you to join this battle for the future of our nation, because the consequences of losing are just to horrifying to contemplate.
Give Huckabee for Christmas?
Wondering what to give for Christmas? How about a fun evening with Gov. Mike Huckabee and comedian Mike Williams? Radio advertising has started, so these tickets will go fast. Please get them now, before they are gone. This will be a fun evening to Celebrate Life!
Click here to get your tickets. Get a table of 10 at a seriously discounted price. The website is www.KnoxvilleHuckabeeDinner.com. Get a table of 10 at a seriously discounted price.
Want to meet Gov. Huckabee in person? Sponsorships are available. If you’re interested, e-mail me back or call Jeff at 1-800-521-6692.
Here’s comedian Mike Williams, who will provide entertainment:
Hail, Favored One! The Lord is with you!
If you live within a 3-hour drive of Pigeon Forge, this one song is well worth the trip and the ticket to Dollywood. Haven’t seen it yet this year, but hopefully soon.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqGyvwqI8K4
Other recordings differ in audio and video quality, but each one is magnificent:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icadzuoLyo
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POjhuQDC5-M
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On tax deal, Wall Street Journal follows FAB
Wall Street Journal now follows FAB!
Concerning the agreement to extend the current tax rates for 2 years, FAB wrote:
The only good thing about the 2-year extension is that it just postpones the real debate for another 2 years down the road, just in time for the next election cycle.
The Wall Street Journal now agrees:
But if an angry, let-me-be-clear Barack Obama just looked into the cameras and said he’s coming to get you in two years, what rational economic choice would you make? Spend the profit or gains 2011 might produce on new workers, or bury any new income in the backyard until the 2012 presidential clouds clear?
No matter how much economic bump Mr. Obama gets in 2011 from extending the Bush-era tax rates, the 2012 election will be fought over a deep national anxiety that he rightly identifies but misinterprets.
***
In such a high-stakes world, Barack Obama’s obsession with having it out over the tax tables is a vulnerability. His opponent in 2012 should run straight at it.
If the economy improves, Republicans will say we shouldn’t mess with a formula that’s working, which is a message that will resonate with Independents. However, Obama will be able to convince many voters that he deserves credit for the improvement, anemic though it might be. He’ll be trying to get voters to maintain one status quo (himself as President) and change another (tax rates), all at the same time.
If the economy does not improve, Obama will be in a world of hurt.
Of course, as I said, maintaining the current tax rates will not improve the economy, but it will at least avoid another insult. Other factors might help. (For example, dramatically cutting deficit spending will do a world of good by improving confidence in government.) Whatever happens, it will be great political theatre. The danger for Republicans will be if they try to oversell the effects that maintenance of current tax rates will have.
I’m still looking for something else good in this deal. They apparently gave us all a one-year reduction on Social Security taxes. Not so good. It’s just another give-away program that will do little to stimulate the economy, any more than Porkulus I did. Plus, more deficit spending just depresses even more our confidence in government even more, which is a huge drag on the economy.
Further, raiding the SS fund will put a few more dollars back into the pockets of working people, but it will be (supposedly) stealing it from their own Social Security fund. I say supposedly, because in reality, there is no SS fund. Our SS taxes have become a gigantic slush fund that is used by politicians to hide the true amount of deficit spending. They “borrow” (a.k.a. steal) our SS money (what they can’t borrow from the Chinese) and never pay it back. If you account for this borrowing/stealing, the deficit is much, much higher than they say it is. Harry Reid admitted to the thievery when he told HuffPost, “The money doesn’t come out of Social Security. It comes out of the general fund.”
More deficit, less confidence in government, worse economy. It will improve, but not as much as it could.
They supposedly extended unemployment benefits, but I don’t believe it lets people collect beyond the current 2-year limit. It just extends the program that allows people to collect up to 2-years, as compared to the normal limit of 26 weeks or so. As I understand it.
Here’s the one good thing about this process. If this bill goes down, we can hope the Republicans in the Senate will block every other piece of lame-duck legislation, as they have promised to do.
Angry “comics” target Canadian CBR
When your enemy hates what you are doing and scurries around trying to stop you from doing it, that’s the very thing you should do more of.
Check out this link. You can also see it here.
I think we’re onto something!
If We Were Politically Correct After Pearl Harbor
From Don Feder:
***
What would have happened if we had fought World War II the way we’re fighting the war on Islamic terrorism? What if political correctness guided America in the weeks and months after Pearl Harbor?
- On December 8, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have come before a joint session of Congress to apologize for the presence of U.S. Marines in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic earlier in the century, and the Spanish-American War. He would have offered to give the Philippines back to Spain and pay reparations.
- He would have referred to December 7, 1941 as “a day pretty much like any other and let’s not make a big deal of it” and cautioned that, “I think that at a time when the country is anxious generally and going through a tough time, then fears can surface, suspicions can surface. We have to make sure that we don’t start turning on each other.” To put the emphasis where it properly belonged, the president would have said that anniversaries of Pearl Harbor would be officially designated National Days of Service.
- America’s slogan would have become “Remember, Pearl Harbor was no one’s fault.”
Debating the Tax Deal — Cutting Through the Fog
If you care to cut through all the fog about the tentative agreement to not raise taxes, here are a few pertinent facts and my thoughts.
Remember, their “how-to” manual (Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky) tells Progressives that the ends justify the means. One of his moral authorities is Vladimir Lenin, killer of millions. Lying, cheating, stealing, etc. is OK if it helps you take money away from the “haves” and give it to the “have-nots.” Laws and moral norms (don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, etc.) are legal and moral constructs which have been created by the “haves” to keep wealth away from the “have-nots.”
For nearly 10 years, the Dems have claimed that the 2001/2003 tax cuts did nothing for the low-income and middle class. That’s a lie:
- These cuts lowered the bottom tax bracket from 15% to 10 %, a 5% decrease. Most other rates were decreased by 3%. The highest rate was reduced 4.6%, from 39.6% to 35%.
- A tax credit was given for each child under age 17 or so.
- The estate tax was eliminated.
- Now, after nearly 10 years of denying that tax cuts for middle class families even existed in this bill, the Dems have suddenly “found” the middle class tax breaks and are now declaring that these lower rates must now be preserved.
The latest sticking point is ostensibly the tax rates for those making over $1,000,000 or so. The Republicans wanted to keep it at 35%. The Alinsky-ites want it to go up to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6%. Actually, they want the tax rates to go up on everybody, but they don’t want you to know this.
The 5% rate difference may not seem all that important by itself, but it’s just the first wave. The Alinsky-ites will never be satisfied with 39.6%. As soon as that rate is established, the 39.6% will become the new baseline and they will want even more. They will demand another 10%, and we will all be admonished to accept another “compromise,” which will become the new baseline for the next “compromise,” and so on. Middle class families will not be exempt. Dems/Alinsky-ites believe it’s not fair that we have more money than the very poorest of our families, so they will come after us as well. The Dem/Alinsky-ite greed for money and power never ends. After all, it takes a lot of money to keep ’em happy at Planned Parenthood, ACORN, the unions, etc. There’s a reason Government is the only growth industry in our economy.
There’s another reason they want more of your money. There are millions of abortions done every year around the world that are not paid for by the American taxpayer. This is in injustice that simply must be corrected.
Postponing the Dem/Alinsky-ite tax increase for two years won’t do much for the economy. The planning horizon for business is much further than that, and investors need to know what the tax rates will be 10+ years out.
When the tax cuts were first enacted in 2001/2003, they helped stimulate the economy because investers know that the lower rates would stay in place until the end of 2010, and there was every expectation that they would be made permanent after that. The good effects of this tax cut on the economy, as realized in the mid-2000’s, were overwhelmed in 2007-2008 by the perfect economic storm:
- rising personal and business debt,
- the spike in world oil prices,
- the bursting of the government-created housing bubble,
- the expectation that deficit spending, already too high under Pres. Bush, would destabilize the economy in the long-run, and
- the fear that a new anti-business administration would destabilize the economy even worse and more quickly.
The only good thing about the 2-year extension is that it just postpones the real debate for another 2 years down the road, just in time for the next election cycle.
With regard to extending jobless benefits, I’m not sure what they actually have agreed to. Even with the internet, it can still be difficult to find facts that you can read and understand.
Flying car invented by CBR missionary friend
Steve Saint has invented a flying car. You may recall the story of Steve’s father Nate Saint, who was a missionary pilot. In 1956, he and four other missionaries were killed by Waodani Indians during an effort to make peaceful contact with them.
We have all been inspired by their sacrifice and the courage shown by family members of these men, women actually returned to the Waodani Indians with the good news of Jesus Messiah.
Steve is now himself a missionary pilot, and has been a huge help to CBR in setting up our airborne RCC campaign, which features huge abortion photos on airplane tow banners. Now he’s invented a flying car! Check it out:
