He is risen indeed!
There is an article over at the American Thinker today, entitled Testimony Wrought in Blood. It is not a new argument, but if one is not familiar with Christian Apologetics, he will perhaps not have run across it yet.
Besides the Gospels themselves, and the writings of Paul, several books may interest you:
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel presents a journalists investigation into the truth of Christianity.
and
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza.
My take? As a fallen men and women, we can not look God in the eye (speaking figuratively. God is not a man after all.) He will turn his head away from us in shame, not want to see us. But because his son took our sins upon himself, God now looks through the filter of the Christ, and sees us as his children. We can look God in the eye, as a child would. We can become a child of God! As a first step, all we need to do is confess our belief.
How could anyone not take this great gift of grace?
Happy Easter!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Taking a Break
You may have been wondering where I have been.
I have decided to take a break. While there are always events I can comment on, the fact is that I have said everything I felt compelled to say. At the same time, I realize I have been preaching to the already converted. I have not changed any one's mind, or to my knowledge gotten anyone to even rethink their positions. Of course, you only see the final product, and not the inner workings, so you could be forgiven for thinking that I am the same. But I assure you, I have over the years pondered both sides of the argument, and have changed my mind based on better evidence many times. And while the pundits are paid for this, and do a better job than I can do, I need to see to my family.
I also must confess to a certain melancholy, born of a loss of faith that there is anything that we can do to stop what is going to happen. The Lord has judged our generation, and found it unworthy, I fear. It probably isn't fair, but the Republicans have only two years to start fixing things. So far, they have claimed to have a plan, but they have done precious little to show us what it is. Everyday they waste is more political capital lost. Everyday the Democrats can keep socialism alive is that much less ground they need to pick up before they go on another tear against our liberties. People will not long remember how bad Pelosi was, and soon enough she will be back setting the agenda, and passing legislation with no regard for the Constitution.
The Constitution. When a Republican (in name only) like Lindsay Graham can say with no apparent irony that "Free speech is a nice idea, but we are at war!" I wonder if it is well and truly a dead letter.
In any case, I need to step back, refresh, and get my bearings. Oh, and smoke a pipe or two while that remains legal.
I have decided to take a break. While there are always events I can comment on, the fact is that I have said everything I felt compelled to say. At the same time, I realize I have been preaching to the already converted. I have not changed any one's mind, or to my knowledge gotten anyone to even rethink their positions. Of course, you only see the final product, and not the inner workings, so you could be forgiven for thinking that I am the same. But I assure you, I have over the years pondered both sides of the argument, and have changed my mind based on better evidence many times. And while the pundits are paid for this, and do a better job than I can do, I need to see to my family.
I also must confess to a certain melancholy, born of a loss of faith that there is anything that we can do to stop what is going to happen. The Lord has judged our generation, and found it unworthy, I fear. It probably isn't fair, but the Republicans have only two years to start fixing things. So far, they have claimed to have a plan, but they have done precious little to show us what it is. Everyday they waste is more political capital lost. Everyday the Democrats can keep socialism alive is that much less ground they need to pick up before they go on another tear against our liberties. People will not long remember how bad Pelosi was, and soon enough she will be back setting the agenda, and passing legislation with no regard for the Constitution.
The Constitution. When a Republican (in name only) like Lindsay Graham can say with no apparent irony that "Free speech is a nice idea, but we are at war!" I wonder if it is well and truly a dead letter.
In any case, I need to step back, refresh, and get my bearings. Oh, and smoke a pipe or two while that remains legal.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Are the Best of the Free Life Behind Us Now?
Do you sometimes get the feeling that nearly everything is illegal? Could be here is the reason why :#links.
Each time the State ratchets up its desire to control people, it makes the penalties stiffer and stiffer. The seat belt laws are a good example. First they just put seat belts in the cars, and there were the ubiquitous public service announcements telling you that they might save your life. Quite a few folks bought that argument, and started to wear seat belts. That was as far as the insurance industry could go in "nudging" you. They had no way to monitor your use of seat belts, so couldn't really give people who used them better rates. People accepted these public service announcements, and generally made up their own minds about whether to wear seat belts, and when.
But there always seems to be a nanny willing to make a law. The next phase was seat belt laws, but they promised that these would only be enforced if the officer had another reason to stop you. More people started using seat belts more consistently, because now the law compelled you to do so. And Americans have typically been a law abiding people. But what a cost to freedom. Does the State really have a right to tell you to wear seat belts, in service to insurance companies? A liberty minded person might ask what else they think they have the right to tell you, and in service to what industries? Can the State, like the Pope, tell its citizens to eat fish on Friday because the fishing industry needs a boost? More importantly, are citizens not adults who can determine for themselves when to wear a seat belt? But that was not good enough, as it turns out.
The next phase was that the police could set up road blocks and give you a ticket if you weren't wearing your seat belt. Oh, and while you were stopped, they could ticket you for any other violations they might find. Many people felt as if they were living in a police state. Frankly, I think they are right. In making laws compelling seat belt use, the State infantilized the entire population, essentially assuming that everyone was like a child who had to be nagged to eat his vegetables, and had to be kept away from the sweets until he had eaten all on his plate.
The same ideas seem to apply with regards to the serious, and strictly adult decisions regarding weapons. In the nanny State of North Carolina, you can not practically take your weapon off your property without a permission slip from the State. North Carolina is an open carry State, nominally. But if you do open carry, you will be arrested, your weapon confiscated, and you charged with something. Going about to the terror of the pubic is always a good one. Then there are the numerous "gun free zones" meaning "criminal empowerment zones," where crossing an invisible line makes you no longer a law abiding citizen, but a criminal. If you walk into a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol while carrying a gun for which you have a concealed handgun license, suddenly you become a criminal. What has changed? Were you a responsible person before, but inside this building you suddenly become a crazed killer? Does the restaurant have mind control rays? The State, having finger printed you, run a background check on you, and ensured that you knew the law, can't seem to trust you to know where and when you might need to carry your weapon. You must be told each of the seemingly thousands of places where you must disarm, for reasons that make no logical sense. Guns don't belong in classrooms. Why? Guns and alcohol don't mix, even if the one carrying the gun doesn't drink. Guns in banks are a bad idea because they are afraid you might try to rob the bank? And why don't guns and theaters mix? Oh, its because the sell sugar laden products that might get you on a sugar high and drive you crazy, right? But then why are grocery stores not a "criminal empowerment zone?" Enough, already. New York has some very strict laws, and getting a permit to carry is not an easy process. But once you have a permit, you can carry pretty much everywhere.
Yesterday, on the radio, I heard an old song by Merle Haggard, and had to wonder the same thing:
Is the best of the free life behind us now,
Are the good times really over for good.
-Merle Haggard
Each time the State ratchets up its desire to control people, it makes the penalties stiffer and stiffer. The seat belt laws are a good example. First they just put seat belts in the cars, and there were the ubiquitous public service announcements telling you that they might save your life. Quite a few folks bought that argument, and started to wear seat belts. That was as far as the insurance industry could go in "nudging" you. They had no way to monitor your use of seat belts, so couldn't really give people who used them better rates. People accepted these public service announcements, and generally made up their own minds about whether to wear seat belts, and when.
But there always seems to be a nanny willing to make a law. The next phase was seat belt laws, but they promised that these would only be enforced if the officer had another reason to stop you. More people started using seat belts more consistently, because now the law compelled you to do so. And Americans have typically been a law abiding people. But what a cost to freedom. Does the State really have a right to tell you to wear seat belts, in service to insurance companies? A liberty minded person might ask what else they think they have the right to tell you, and in service to what industries? Can the State, like the Pope, tell its citizens to eat fish on Friday because the fishing industry needs a boost? More importantly, are citizens not adults who can determine for themselves when to wear a seat belt? But that was not good enough, as it turns out.
The next phase was that the police could set up road blocks and give you a ticket if you weren't wearing your seat belt. Oh, and while you were stopped, they could ticket you for any other violations they might find. Many people felt as if they were living in a police state. Frankly, I think they are right. In making laws compelling seat belt use, the State infantilized the entire population, essentially assuming that everyone was like a child who had to be nagged to eat his vegetables, and had to be kept away from the sweets until he had eaten all on his plate.
The same ideas seem to apply with regards to the serious, and strictly adult decisions regarding weapons. In the nanny State of North Carolina, you can not practically take your weapon off your property without a permission slip from the State. North Carolina is an open carry State, nominally. But if you do open carry, you will be arrested, your weapon confiscated, and you charged with something. Going about to the terror of the pubic is always a good one. Then there are the numerous "gun free zones" meaning "criminal empowerment zones," where crossing an invisible line makes you no longer a law abiding citizen, but a criminal. If you walk into a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol while carrying a gun for which you have a concealed handgun license, suddenly you become a criminal. What has changed? Were you a responsible person before, but inside this building you suddenly become a crazed killer? Does the restaurant have mind control rays? The State, having finger printed you, run a background check on you, and ensured that you knew the law, can't seem to trust you to know where and when you might need to carry your weapon. You must be told each of the seemingly thousands of places where you must disarm, for reasons that make no logical sense. Guns don't belong in classrooms. Why? Guns and alcohol don't mix, even if the one carrying the gun doesn't drink. Guns in banks are a bad idea because they are afraid you might try to rob the bank? And why don't guns and theaters mix? Oh, its because the sell sugar laden products that might get you on a sugar high and drive you crazy, right? But then why are grocery stores not a "criminal empowerment zone?" Enough, already. New York has some very strict laws, and getting a permit to carry is not an easy process. But once you have a permit, you can carry pretty much everywhere.
Yesterday, on the radio, I heard an old song by Merle Haggard, and had to wonder the same thing:
Is the best of the free life behind us now,
Are the good times really over for good.
-Merle Haggard
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Porretto Nails The One
Francis W. Porretto has been running a series of posts over at Eternity Road, the latest of which is The Shape of Things to Come, Part 5: The Worse the Better. I highly recommend you go over and read all of them, but especially this one. You may have noticed that the lies, half truths, the dissimulations, and the obscurations have been coming faster and faster. To take one example, his proposed budget for FY 2012 is not a balanced budget in the real world. How can the claims made by The One, and supported by the Democrat Party be squared with reality? Porretto explains how in this chapter of The Shape of Things to Come. It also explains why arguing with Marxists is futile. The only value in it is to highlight for those willing to listen the utter irrationality of the thinking on the Left.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)