I Truly Hate Election Season

This post on Baldilocks pretty much sums up why.

I try very hard to avoid talking politics with family members who disagree with me. The way I feel about it, they are entitled to their opinions and I'm entitled to mine. Maybe I'm a wimp in this regard, but I just want to get along. When family is involved, I don't want to debate. I will debate when I feel it's being forced on me, but I don't want to. It's very stressful and emotionally exhausting.

Anyway, try as I might to avoid discussing politics, my liberal family members always want to bring it up. They always have to force the issue.

I try to be good-natured about debating and defending my beliefs, and I try not to get angry. But being harangued and condescended to has a way of making me lose my temper.

So, I end up being the bad guy once again...all because I stood up for my beliefs in an exchange on politics that I didn't want to participate in in the first place.

(Thanks to Dean's World for the above link.)

Slap 'Em

Tony Woodlief lists sixteen things that deserve a good slap.

If I may add a few:

Idiot neighbors who have band practice on their back porch while you are trying to take a nap.

Idiot neighbors who let their dog run around in the street and then stand in their front yard and gawk slack-jawed while cars are desperately trying to keep from hitting the dog.

People who check out at the prescription area of Eckerds with a full shopping cart, making you have to wait even longer to pick up your prescription. Usually, these same people, sales circular in hand, will haggle with the clerk over the price of the items they are buying. (I think Steve H. once wrote about this particular breed of jerk.)

I may add more later...

Michael Moore, Tent Preacher

I listen to Hugh Hewitt on the Internet sometimes from work. (You can listen to the previous day's show or the current day's show live at this site.) Yesterday, he played and dissected a speech Michael Moore was giving in Boston this week. Hewitt has noted that this convention has become very identified with Moore. He also noted that this may backfire on the Dems like the so-called "Pat Buchanan convention" in 1992 backfired on the GOP.

Anyway, as I was listening to Moore, his manner of speaking reminded me of a fire and brimstone preacher. I mean, if I didn't know what words he was saying, and didn't know who it was, I would have thought he was preaching at a revival in a tent somewhere. He is certainly good at what he does; I'll give him that. He has the emotional manipulation down pat...he held his audience in the palm of his hand. I didn't get to hear the whole thing because I had to go home, but I can listen to yesterday's show today.

In other Michael Moore news, remember this post, with the photo of the Marine holding a DVD of F911 in one hand and a letter to Moore in the other? Well, I'm convinced it's the real deal because apparently Moore has been targeting our troops with his propaganda. Unfortunately, it is having a horrible impact on the morale of our troops. I think Dean Esmay's comparison of Moore to Lord Haw Haw and Axis Sally is very appropriate.

And, of course, in our eee-vil "neocon-run corporate dictatorship", Moore is being severely punished for his actions. He makes millions of dollars. He makes speeches, writes books and makes movies. He is invited to conventions and is able to bend the ears of the some of the most powerful politicians in the nation. He has many celebrity admirers. He has millions of fans who hang on his every word.

Yep, those "neocon fascists" are really keeping him down and silencing him.

Is Gladys Kravitz coming to your church?

Sure looks like it! Does anyone else think the very idea of this group calling themselves "The Mainstream Coalition" is completely laughable?

BTW, here's a link to the original article.

Update: MCJ has more on this same subject.

Pro-Abortion Swag

I first saw this t-shirt (along with some other Planned Parenthood trinkets) in this post by Dawn Eden from a couple of days ago. Drudge picked up on it, today. Now, Dawn has found some interesting links between the t-shirt and the writer of the appalling article I posted about last week. From Dawn's post:

In other words, this revolting T-shirt, which is now making headlines around the world, is the brainstorm of Amy Richards, who co-writes the "I Had an Abortion" campaign literature and proudly wears the slogan across her chest in an ad campaign for her and her partner's upcoming documentary.

That Times Magazine article now looks less like a shocking admission of individual guilt, and more like a first volley in a propaganda campaign that is only just beginning.

Cartoon Self-Portrait

You can make a cartoon picture of yourself at this site. I look sort of like this:

(Via Twisted Spinster.)

I have one question...

...about this whole Annie Jacobsen story. Some have said that the suspicious acting Syrian band members with expired visas were just praying as required by their religion. Okay, fair enough. Then why didn't they simply inform the flight crew as to what they were doing? Wouldn't that have saved a lot of trouble? Or did they arrogantly think they didn't owe the "infidels" any explanation?

Like many others, I'm tired of the eagerness to dismiss Annie Jacobsen's story with a bunch of condescending crap about her being a "hysterical woman". She saw suspicious behavior and took note of it. She was concerned about it. Only someone completely addled by 9/10 complacency and political correctness would not be concerned.

Security Moms and Eowyn Voters

I'm sure you've heard about Security Moms, women who are concerned about the security and defense of this country. These are women who see this issue as being their main concern when deciding who to vote for in November.

I have to admit I've felt a little left out of the whole Security Mom thing. While I am in complete agreement with the concern for defense issues, I'm not yet a mother. Well, via Jen Speaks, I found another description that would include people like me -- Eowyn Voters:

You mess with me and the people I love -- I take offense to that. You stand aside and let other people mess with me and the people I love -- I take offense to that too. I'm not a fan of war, I have no great desire to be a warblogger, but it is because I long for peace, true peace, that I choose to fight the war that is upon us. I choose to fight by blogging, I choose to fight by voting, and if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to physically fight for my life or for those around me, I will choose that as well.

So, consider me an Eowyn Voter, too. In fact, I'm going to slap one of these handy banners on the sidebar.

W00t! W00t!

After about a year, I finally reached and exceeded the 50 pound mark in my weight loss! I have lost 51.5 lbs. so far...GO ME!

I hope this is real...

Click for a larger view.

Update: For those having trouble seeing what the letter says:

16th July 2004

Mr. Micheal [sic] Moore,

Half-Truths and Deceptions do not make good documentaries. Telling only half the story, tells America you are hiding something. You have no honor and no integrity. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Semper Fi
Cpl. Gabriel "SweetPea" Brooks
Kandahar, Afghanistan

Horrible

That's the only word I can think of to describe this article. It's a woman coldly describing why she decided to abort two of the triplets she was carrying. Basically, she didn't want to have to move to the suburbs and buy large jars of mayonnaise. Also, she might have had to slow down her career a bit and put some tiny human beings first in her life. (Link first seen over at Peppermint Patty's. Michelle Malkin has some more commentary on this.)

Way back when I used to be "pro-choice but personally opposed to abortion," I read an article similar in tone to this one. The article was supposed to show me how much better it is now that abortion is "safe and legal". However, it had the opposite effect on me. It made me question my beliefs on this issue. It took a year or two, but I gradually became pro-life.

The article was in Ms. Magazine. This was in the late 80s and I was going to college. One day, walking from one of my classes, there was a table of magazines free for the taking. So, thinking of myself as kind of a feminist, I picked up a Ms. Magazine. I remember that it had Cher on the cover.

I had read copies of Ms. before. I would always forget how strange and whacked-out the content was in between its polished and mainstream-looking covers. Even then, I was turned off by radical feminism, even though I thought of myself as a feminist.

Anyway, this particular issue had an article about "the bad old days" before abortion was legal. The article consisted of the personal stories of several women who had illegal abortions. I don't remember any of the stories making me think, "Yeah, it's a good thing it's legal now," although that was my opinion back then. And one story in particular horrified me.

This was the story of a woman who had gotten pregnant while a college student. Her boyfriend offered to marry her, but she didn't want to get married. She wanted to finish school and start a career. I think she was about five months along when she went to an abortionist. I can't remember the particulars, but he did something that would later cause her to give birth to her dead baby.

So that's what happened when she was alone in her dorm room later. After doing so, do you know what her main concern was? Getting rid of the body. And do you know what she did?

She flushed the baby down the toilet.

That's right she flushed her child down the toilet as if it were excrement. And there was no acknowledgment from her that the baby was anything more than excrement. And do you know what her main worry was?

That the baby would stop up the toilet and she would get caught.

She also said that her health was very bad after having the abortion because she lost a lot of blood. My reaction to that was, "Who cares! You flushed your baby down the toilet!"

This woman was just so completely self-absorbed, I lost all compassion for her. She flushed her dead baby down the toilet like it was nothing, and had no remorse. And for what? For a career? What is a career compared to a human being?

So, that is what turned me towards becoming pro-life again. (Yes, I was pro-life when I first found out what an abortion was, when I was around eleven or twelve. As a teenager I talked myself into being "pro-choice but personally opposed".) Thank you, Ms. Magazine, for getting me to see the light.

Policy on Comments

Because of some recent problems, I thought I should post a policy on comments. I already have a policy on trolls (and a revision here), but I think some further things need to be clarified:

• Any comment that is abusive, profane and insulting to any other commenters or to myself will be deleted. Any comments from anyone else responding to such a comment will also be deleted. This is not because I am lumping you in with the initial comment; I just don't want the exchange to remain in the thread.
• Anyone posting abusive comments to myself and others will most likely be banned. If you are not banned, consider yourself lucky...you will not get another chance if you act up again.
• If you are spamming and trolling my site, you will most likely be banned on the first offense. I will either delete your comment or I will change it in ways that may not be pleasing to you, but will be amusing to me. If you are a spammer, your site will be added to the blacklist.
• Posts with comments will have the comments closed after about three weeks. Because of this policy, I have not had nearly the problems with comment spam that others have had. Besides, if someone is commenting on an old post, chances are that they are either a troll or a spammer.
• Remember, this is my site. This is my territory. I pay for it and I spend time maintaining it. Please show some respect if you are going to comment here.

What I'd really like is comment moderation -- that is, comments must be approved by me before they appear here*. From what I understand, the latest version of MT doesn't have that, although there will probably be a plug-in or something. I don't think I will be upgrading until the general release becomes available. (I don't want to use the Developer's release.)

*Yes, I know WordPress has that capability, but I don't feel like moving my blog to another package right now.

"They'll know we are Christians by our..."

Random thought for the day:

Have you ever noticed that the Christians who brag about how loving they are (and wag their fingers at the rest of us for supposedly not being loving enough) are about the least loving, most vitriolic Christians you'll run into?

I have.

Update: Okay, I decided to put this entry back after taking it down. For the record, what prompted me to post this was some recent nastiness directed at Dawn Eden. I just thought it was funny how Dawn's critic just about broke his arm patting himself on the back about how loving he is.

Actually, that post was just the last straw. I have witnessed behavior like that many times before.

Yes, the comments on this post will remain closed. And speaking of last straws, I'm going to post a policy on comments in a little while.

FMA Scuttled

As you know by now, the Federal Marriage Amendment was voted down by the Senate. While I support the amendment, I was not surprised to see it voted down.

This subject has prompted Joshua Claybourn to post about Christian Libertarianism:

There are some important questions that I think one must ask when considering it. How many hearts will the amendment change, and how will it change them? Do the amendment's supporters expect people to view the debate or provision and conclude that homosexual unions are in fact wrong? I'm guessing no heart will be convinced of that through an amendment, but I'm positive that countless hearts will be hardened by a party and, indirectly, a faith that isn't accurately portrayed in this debate.[...]

The state should not be called upon to bring about the virtuous life. The price is subservience to the state. Many will view this as a cop-out or shirking from God's wishes, but I am a libertarian precisely because I wish to protect traditional values and culture from the state. San Fransisco's mayor Gavin Newsom is a wonderful example of the problems that can befall a church that so closely ties its precepts to a secular state. It's time for the church to consider its own marriages apart from a secular state.

I appreciate a lot of the things Josh is saying in his post. I'm totally opposed to the idea of a theocracy or the church getting bound up in political matters. However, Josh falls into the error that is typical of libertarians -- that changes in values and the culture occur in a vacuum and don't effect anyone else.

An example of this is a statement recently made by libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz -- a statement I've heard other bloggers echo. He said that if gays "marry", it doesn't have the slightest effect on your own marriage. And that is true...now. But what about the future? What about what marriage will mean, say, fifty years from now? Libertarians are very often "here and now" thinkers. This gives credence to Mark Shea's often-made statement that libertarianism is for selfish people with no children*.

Josh seems to be saying that the church can be sealed-off from the rest of society -- that how society or the state views marriage doesn't have to affect the way the church views marriage. But society does affect the churches. Why else are so many churches falling into apostasy? Also, if the church is walled-off from the rest of society, then how is this "changing hearts and minds" supposed to take place? I see this leading to a church that is completely ineffectual and irrelevant. (Actually, this is already happening despite the fevered hysteria from certain quarters about the "Religious Right".)

As for the state...what if churches that refuse to "marry" gays start getting charged with discrimination and "hate crimes"? The gay marriage proponents say that this won't happen, but once again I ask, what about the future?

If gays want to have completely secular legal arrangements, such as civil unions, that would give them legal rights that a marriage would give a straight couple, I honestly would have no objection to that. It would be a purely legal matter, a matter of the state. But why the insistence on "marriage"? Why change the very definition of marriage?

Considering that many straight couples have the same view of marriage -- that it's just a vehicle for attaining certain legal rights and financial advantages -- perhaps Josh has a point. Let those people, whether they be straight or gay, have their civil unions. Save marriage for those who see it as something more than a legal arrangement.

*Although, to be fair, a libertarian could just as validly point out that statism, whether it be from the left or right, often uses "for the children" as its rallying cry.

Update: Josh has corrected me regarding one of my statements in this post.

Update 2: Eric Seymour answers Josh: Why Christians should support the FMA.

New Conservative Blog

Check out RedState.org. Here is their mission statement.

(Via Ben Domenech, who is one of the contributors.)

iTunes

I've just started using iTunes, recently. (In fact, when I get a little free time, I find myself more interested in browsing the iTunes store than blogging -- so you can partially blame my lack of blogging on iTunes.) iTunes has just sold 100 million songs.

The P2P services seem to be in decline. The free P2P clients are packed with spyware and adware -- and people are getting more aware of the danger that poses. Also, my understanding is that the RIAA is jamming the P2P services with bad copies of popular songs. I think the success of iTunes bears out my contention that if you give people a good legal alternative that allows them to purchase songs in an electronic format, they will be willing to pay.

BTW, the above linked article has one statement that I know is false:

Tracks cost 99 cents each and can only be played on Apple's popular iPod and iPod mini digital music players.

The bolded part is simply not true. I don't even own an iPod...yet. I play my purchased songs on both my iBook and my Windows PC. You can authorize up to five computers (not including iPods) to play your songs.

Update: Reuters has corrected the error in their story.

Radio Blog Non-Update

I've decided the current songs in the Radio Blog are going to stay until next month. I don't have time to pick out new songs right now. And I think the audiobook of The Screwtape Letters is too long for the Radio Blog. However, I have made other arrangements* if you're interested in it.

*Hurry -- only for a limited time!

Update: I'm taking the audiobook down at midnight Friday night, so get it while you can.

Falling Hopelessly Behind

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I've got so much "real life" stuff to do that it's hard to get the time to post. I'm so behind in my blog reading that it's not even funny. I feel like just marking everything in my aggregator as "read" and starting over. I see great stuff that I want to post about later (when I have time), but it seems "later" never comes. I either forget what it was I wanted to post about, I don't have time to post about it, or I see that someone else has already given the subject a better treatment than I could.

So, anyway...bear with me. I'll get time to blog again eventually.

Live 365 Radio Station

It's been on the sidebar for a few days but I haven't mentioned it. Somebody liked it enough to preset it, so I thought I would go ahead and mention it. I now have my own Live 365 radio station: LilacRose Radio. It has about four and a half hours of music right now. I'm going to add more, since I still have more room, but I have to decide what to add. Because of licensing rules, you have to be careful not to have too many songs from the same artists or albums within a certain time frame, so that makes programming the station a little more challenging.

I was reluctant to say anything about the station because I've never gotten any comments about the music in the Radio Blog and very little feedback about the off-site downloads I've offered in the past. I figured that people just thought my taste in music sucked. But, if you're inclined, give the station a listen and rate it.

I'm going to change the songs in the Radio Blog soon. I may do something a little different with it...I'm thinking of putting the audiobook version of The Screwtape Letters in the Radio Blog for this month. We'll see...

Imprecatory Prayer

This Doug Giles column should raise some hackles:

Given the soft-focused, effeminate condition of evangelicalism, I’ll bet the great majority of Christians have never even heard of an imprecatory prayer, much less prayed one. More than likely, the above God-inspired texts aren’t on their refrigerator scripture magnets either. I’ll go a step further and venture to guess that the majority of evangelical and Catholic clergy don’t even know what an imprecatory prayer is and have probably never taught on them or prayed them from the pulpit (Please investigate and report back to me.)

If my assumption regarding your typical congregation and clergy is true, then this is sad, unbiblical and a prime reason why militant Islam continues to march on. We are not using the spiritual big guns of imprecatory prayer against the beast of militant Islam.

Do you pray imprecatory prayers? I know I have. While they may be un-PC these days, they are certainly Biblical and necessary.

(Via Relapsed Catholic.)

Christianity and Culture Stuff

Here's a couple of interesting items on the above topic:

Via Thunderstruck: Washington Times - Art, Christianity reunited

Craig Detweiler is hoping for a modern-day renaissance of the arts. He dreams of the day when members of the Christian church will again be the primary patrons of respected artistic endeavors, as in the era of Michelangelo. [...]

"Those artists who are Christians that come to Fuller Seminary tend to want to inform their art by studying faith," he says. "They tend to be people who do not want to be known as Christian artists, but Christians who are thoughtful artists whose faith informs their work."[...]

"When God asked the Israelites to create the Tabernacle, there were things in the Tabernacle that didn't have any function, but to be beautiful," Mr. Davison says. "We know from the Bible that God appreciates beauty. We can see that all around us. It's a way we communicate as human beings."

Instead of focusing on evangelism, Mr. Davison would rather have artists who are Christians correctly represent the worldview they attest to believe. Further, since he says only a person can be a Christian, he doesn't use the word "Christian" as an adjective. He tries to discourage his students from becoming involved in subcultures, such as "Christian music" or "Christian dance."

"In an effort to engage in popular culture, we get 'love songs for Jesus,' " he says. "They think the text of the songs are conveying a biblical truth, but it's not a biblical truth. These songs may be fun to sing, but what does the song really say? Does it say a truth we believe about God?"

Amy Welborn has some scathing commentary on this year's Christian Booksellers' Association exhibit:

But it's obvious something has gone haywire in the pop evangelical take on this. What it is, I think, is the failure to hold up what secular pop culture reveals about human needs to any kind of judgment. My sense is that this has happened because of the evangelical emphasis on church growth and the CBA concern for profit and sales. If self-help and personal happiness concerns have taken root in American culture, the pop evangelical response is to simply baptize those concerns without really questioning them. If Americans want to diet, we'll just give them Christian diet books.[...]

Last year, we had a lot of discussion about Thomas Nelson's magazine-style repackaging of the New Testament for teen girls called "Revolve." In the year since, they've come out with one for boys called "Refuel" and now one for women called Becoming.[...]

I picked one up and spent a lot of time looking through it on the trip back. I found it, on one level, incredibly insulting (as a woman), but that's par for the course for me. I tried to look at it objectively, discerning what it told me about what the Christian life is all about.

Answer: men, beauty, fitness and food!

Yeah, yeah, inner beauty and all that. But the fact is, you could take all of the inserted, extra material in the "zine" parts of this publication, take out the few references to Scripture verses, and come up with something virtually indistinguishable from any woman's magazine. No particular focus on Jesus or salvation, no real contemplation of what the Good News is all about, just a "positive" self-improvement text.

Filled with photos of beautiful women, not one of them over a size 6.

Have a Good Holiday Weekend!

I probably won't post anything again until next week. Tomorrow (July 3) is my birthday, so I hope to relax and have a good day.

The Fourth of July is hard for me because it's the anniversary of my brother's death. He died of a brain tumor seven years ago. So, I just like to lay low on that day.

Until next week, folks...

Lovely!

Here's more about those blue roses.

This is what they look like:

(Via Drudge.)

Fight!

A pictorial representation of what the 2004 election season is going to be like: