Pray for Courage

This morning after making coffee, making my morning supplication to God, and reading the Bible, I opened up the American Thinker to find J. Robert Smith's article entitled Tucker Carlson is Right: It's About Evil. Finally, someone is saying what I, and, by the comments below the article, a lot of others have been saying. But we are saying this with tiny voices. We need someone with a bullhorn to shout it loudly: "What is happening is EVIL. I have criticized Tucker Carlson for often coming up to the line, but then not saying what is clearly right in front of everybody's faces. Apparently, that is because the powers that be at Fox News would not allow it. But now the American Thinker allows Smith to write about what is, in fact, evil.

Smith talks about these things as Satanic. And clearly evil has many names, whether it is Satan, or Lucifer, or Ba'al, or Asteroth (Ishtar) or Moloch or indeed any of the other names by which evil is called. But we must recognize that mutilating our children, exposing them to pornography, claiming that boys can be girls and vice versa, is evil. Of course, abortion is pure evil. Claiming to be able to control the climate is both evil and incredible arrogant. The Conservatives and the Left no longer have the same policy goals, but differences on how to achieve them. The Left has embraced the dark side, and more than anything wishes to annihilate the Right.

Prior to being fired by Fox News, Tucker Carlson spoke to a Heritage Foundation audience. Carlson’s remarks were seminal. He identified the clash between traditional America and the Left as rising to an entirely new and ominous level.

We’ve moved beyond mere politics and policy differences, Carlson claimed. The conflict is with a Left that has increasingly embraced evil. That’s hard to accept. Most Americans don’t want to regard other Americans as evil. But the evidence is abundant and growing.

...snip...

Indeed, sexually mutilating children to “change their gender” is well beyond politics. It’s deranged, for starters, and abusive and demeaning of a child’s personhood. As Carlson pointed out, proclaiming killing babies in the womb a “positive good” is morally grotesque. Sexually indoctrinating children -- from kindergarten forward -- is a lurid act of mental and emotional molestation.

Razing the working and middle classes by choking off conventional energy production; attacking law and order; imposing reverse racist policies as retributions against nonblacks for the false charge of ongoing “systemic racism;” forcing woke in schools and businesses; dictating where citizens should live; even dictating what cars -- if any -- Americans drive; and what constitutes diets make the argument all the more persuasive that the Left is a cult with no stop built in.

There’s a cold war underway that’s unlimited in scope, initiated by a pernicious, destructive leftist cult, a war whereby society is to be consumed, spit out, and remade. Failure isn’t an option. Fanatics aren’t interested in splitting differences. They want nothing to do with peaceful coexistence. There’s no “national divorce” in the offing. They’re predatory, sanctimonious, and very willing to blow up everything rather than concede. They’re true believers, whose souls are entirely consumed.

Gentle readers will want to read the entire article, and offer a prayer as Carlson suggests:

That prayer needs to be a call for strength, resolve, and acceptance of realities, and the courage to fight to defeat the malicious forces loose among us. Our rights, our freedom, our very lives are at stake.

Tucker Carlson Has Left the Building

I was busy yesterday and missed the BIG news that Tucker Carlson left Fox News. His last show was Friday the 21st. Andrea Widburg had the news at the American Thinker entitled A Media Earthquake Has Just Hit: Tucker Carlson Has Left Fox. And over at Townhall the Town Hall staff has remarks by Tucker Carlson shortly after his last show. You will want to both read Widburg's piece - always insightful, and watch Carlson's remarks.

My own take is that Tucker Carlson, along with Glenn Beck and a few others is one of the only reliable truth tellers. Gentle readers will know that I have warned you not to fall into the trap of telling lies that you know are lies. But also attempt to find out if what people are telling you is the truth. By and large, Tucker tells the truth. I rarely watch anything on Fox any more, and since I have taken off the record list the Tucker Carlson Show, I don't know that I will be watching it much at all.

AOC was apparently thrilled that Fox had taken Carlson off the air. Foolish woman. Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly were discussing Carlson's potential next moves. Both agreed that Fox releasing him had basically unleashed Carlson to really go after the liars stalking America. I agree with that assessment. I also feel, like Carlson, that the GOP is not fighting hard enough for the American people, that there are still too many who play the game for personal money and power and to hell with their constituents. So it will be interesting to see what comes next

AI is just a tool

 The past two weeks, there has been a lot of talk about artificial "intelligence" or AI.  Recently, CBS's Scott Pelley was interviewing Google CEO Sundar Picai, this exchange took place:

“You don’t fully understand how it works and yet you’ve turned it loose on society?” Pelley asked.

“Let me put it this way, I don’t think we fully understand how a human mind works either,” Pichai responded.

Pichai, in other words, didn't really answer Pelley's question. How our brains work is not really in question. But of course Pichai should understand how his AI works or he shouldn't put it out there. No product should be put on the market if the producer doesn't understand it.  But, it brings up a fundamental issue with AI, which is that it isn't "intelligent" at all.

Today at the American Thinker Robert Arvay has the right attitude about AI. In an article entitled Artificial Intelligence is no big deal - until it is. Everyone seems to be trying to scare us with the idea that an AI might become smarter than us and enslave us, or kill us all off. Of course if one did decide to kill us off, who would manufacture the parts needed to repair the machines?

There is a lot of hype regarding artificial intelligence, known also as A.I. That hype has been fed by old movies such as Colossus: The Forbin Project and by less fictional but still spectacular predictions of a technological singularity.

The Forbin Project is science fiction, and like the best of science fiction, it has a kernel of truth that makes it worth thinking about as a precaution. It speculates that computer networks may become a cruel master of humanity. The technological singularity is a theory, not a wild guess, that predicts that computer intelligence may suddenly, and the key word is suddenly, spring out of human control. Taking these two together, one can understand why there is so much nervous attention being paid to A.I.

...snip...

According to the Forbes article linked above, "the scale, scope and complexity of the impact of intelligence evolution in machines is unlike anything humankind has experienced before. ... [There is] no historical precedent and [it] is fundamentally disrupting everything in the human ecosystem." That may sound overly dramatic, but Forbes articles are known more for sober analysis than for hyperbole.

That said, we need to tap the brakes in our examination of A.I. I am not the first to point out that computers are not genuinely intelligent. Not only do they mimic intelligence, but they may even give the outward appearance of being alive and conscious. They are none of that. They are "stuff," wires and diodes, etc., made by people. In that sense, they are like any other tool. Yes, they are complex, too complex for most of us to understand, and getting more complex all the time. Even so, the real threat comes not from computers and A.I., but from the people who build, program, and use them.

People worry that AI is too fast. Of course, that is why we employ computers in the first place, because they are much faster than the human. Calculating things by hand is incredibly tedious.  Man has constantly invented ever more powerful ways to calculate from logarithms to slide rules to calculators and computers.  But as Arvay points out, they are not really 'intelligent." For all the gee whiz factor, computers do three things that man has always done. First is word processing, second is calculating numberical data (spread sheets) and performing database functions. Think the old phone book. I think our real problem with using AI is to weed out the biases of the system. AI may be able to assemble various facts, but it still takes a human to determine the truth.  After all, it is just a tool.  Use it wisely.

It behooves us, then, to recognize A.I. as the useful tool it is — to use it, but not depend on it for making the moral decisions that only we, not it, can make. Instead of the artificial variety, we must use our natural, God-given intelligence.

Reality Not Religion

 Back on April 15th I had a post on a review of a movie, Nefarious I had seen. My point at the time, besides that gentle readers might like this movie, was that the horror of this movie was not the typical blood, guts and special effects, but was rather in the nature of the gradual demonic takeover of a person until he no longer believes he can be forgiven. Step by step, half lies and untruths told at just the right moment to trap the victim. As I said at the time, my blood ran cold. You can read my initial review here.

There is another review of the movie at Townhall.com entitled Nefarious: A Faith-Based Horror Film? by Roberto Orlando. Orlando seems to be somewhat afraid to come right out and say that this is in fact a faith based movie, thus the question mark at the end of the title.

The narrative of Nefarious is straightforward: A supposed sociopathic murderer named Edward Wayne Brady (Sean Patrick Flanery in prison and awaiting interrogation. We learn that he's not insane but a nefarious demon who welcomes the electric chair to flee his current host.

Our protagonist is Dr. James Martin (Jordan Belfi) professed atheist sent to judge Brady's sanity and, thus, his life or death; he learns from Nefarious and the world down under (a la The Screwtape Letters) that by the end of their session, he (Martin) will commit three murders. Therein lies the inciting incident that sparks the conflict.

...snip...

In a plot that bespeaks the arrogance of modern man, it works toward proving the moral theme: Judge not, lest ye be judged. It also cautions the audience: dismiss faith (and the devil) at your peril.

Go ahead and read Orlando's article. However, an even better review can be found at Crisis Magazine by Sheryl Collmer entitled Nefarious Is...

Nefarious is not a horror movie along the lines of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Nightmare on Elm Street, which I plan to exit this life without ever having seen (see Carrie, above.) It didn’t have shower scenes, or someone presumed dead grabbing your ankle, or gore galore. It was basically a conversation between an unbeliever and a demon. And the demon had all the muscle.

...snip...

The movie had tones of The Screwtape Letters (without the whimsy) as it drew the curtain back from the strategies and objectives of the dark angels. He tells us exactly how the demons win their game, and thus it becomes a warning for the audience. Like Screwtape, Nefarious plays the long game, waiting patiently as his subjects make tiny decisions wrong and, unexaminedly, go on to make bigger wrong decisions until the sins are so disastrous that the soul despairs and then belongs wholly to the demons.

Nefarious Is... a review by a Christian and a Catholic, and for reasons I don't understand, the Catholics seem to be the most aware of the real demons around us. Prohibitionists used to call alcohol "demon rum." But alcohol is just a substance, entirely neutral, neither good nor bad. The real demon is the living being that tempts the alcoholic to drink to excess. There is no cure for alcoholism, but by turning to Christ each and every day, the alcoholic can live a normal life. And as I read the Bible each day, I find it to be reality, as the archeologists keep finding out.  Indeed, maybe it is time to stop calling it a religion, for as I keep insisting, it is the hard Truth.

The thing is, I was never aware that it was a religious movie. The main character was a demon, yes, so by definition, it was spiritual. But it did not strike me as religious, the way God’s Not Dead did. There was theology, as the demon tells his story, and I went home and fact-checked it to my Bible, but it still struck me as reality not religion. As Frank Sheed said in Theology and Sanity, “To overlook God’s presence is not simply to be irreligious: it is a kind of insanity, like overlooking anything else that is actually there.” Or in other words, a movie that takes account of God and spirits is simply sane, not religious.

I think Sheryl Colmer's article at Crisis Magazine is the bestreview so far.

Stop Being Cowards About Restricting Abortion

 At Townhall.com today, David Harsanyi has an article saying Republicans Need To Stop Being Cowards on Abortion. Note that Harsanyi isn't a Christian Pro-Lifer, indeed he is an atheist. But even Harsanyi recognizes that the killing of innocent children is immoral. He says so. Even more, the killing of them by tearing them limb from limb is sickening. Republicans should stand proudly for the life of the unborn.  Republicans often point out that voters don't back them.  Well, it works both ways.  Christians are being targeted for pro-life stances.  Having Republicans in our corner would be nice.

Harsanyi presents several paragraphs of useful abortion information that, if voters knew these facts, might cause them to re-think their vote for Democrats.

How many voters know that the Democratic Party supports legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy on demand for virtually any reason? How many voters know this position aligns with only six other countries in the world -- three of them, not incidentally, being North Korea, Vietnam and China?

How many voters know that Democrats want to pass a federal law banning states from stopping sex-selective abortions or the dismembering of the post-viable unborn or the requirement of parental and guardian notification for minors before getting abortions? How many know that Democrats want to strip medical workers of their conscience rights by compelling them to participate in the procedure or lose their jobs? How many people know that Democrats want to eliminate the popular Hyde Amendment, which stops the federal government from funding abortions with taxpayer dollars?

Now, maybe a majority of voters aren't aware of Democrats' maximalist positions because the media endlessly lies and obfuscates them. And maybe pollsters rarely ask useful questions on the topic because the answers are a lot more complicated than they'd like. And, maybe, after the shock of Roe v. Wade being overturned -- treated by Democrats as if it had been chiseled into magical stone tablets over the past 50 years -- the energy and passion of the debate will temporarily reside on the pro-abortion side. And, maybe, if every voter knew all the facts, it still wouldn't matter. Abortion is a complex and emotional issue.

None of that excuses the inability, or aversion, of national conservatives to make a coherent and compelling pro-life case. Sometimes it feels like Republicans are more terrified by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision than pro-abortionists. Even if pollsters were right about the unpopularity of abortion restrictions, there is this crazy thing that politicians occasionally engage in called "persuasion." Rather than just chasing around voters for approval, this entails convincing them with arguments.

Then Harsanyi points to a number of cases where a Republican championed the unborn and won. He speculates that these positions may be more popular than Republican politicians think. If that is true, Republicans should perhaps make restriction of abortion a plank in their candidacy.

Then again, if every Republican lost every race in the country over abortion, it still wouldn't make killing human beings for convenience any less of a moral abomination or the fight to stop it any less critical. A majority position isn't, by default, moral or decent -- quite the contrary. And meaningful political fights aren't predicated on short-term gains. Overturning Roe took 50 years. The political fight over abortion might take even longer.

The Return of the Ancient Demons

Tucker Carlson had a great broadcast a week or so ago. You can watch it right here. As Carlson points out, there is a new religion flooding the United States called "Transgenderism." Of course, there is no such thing as being "transgendered." One is born either male or female, and nobody can change those facts. Carlson points out that to believe such things is to claim to be God Himself. What Carlson didn't say is that this is in fact an ancient religion, the worship of the demon Ashteroth.

The demon Ashteroth, also called Ishtar in ancient Mesopotamia, was often associated with Ba'al as his consort. Ashteroth was the goddess of prostitutes, licentiousness, homosexuality, but also transgenerism. Here priests were castrated, and dressed as women. Along with Ba'al and Moloch, Asteroth was one of the demons fought against by the ancient prophets. Like ancient Israel, America has turned away from God, and have invited these demons into our lives again. You can see the terrible things happening in America now, the chaos being spread everywhere.

Christians slowly kicked the ancient demons out of society, and it was under the banner of Christianity that the United States was founded.  When America turned its back on God and Christianity, the ancient demons returned.

The ancient prophets pleaded with the Israelites to repent and turn back to God. They usually did not, and suffered the consequences. So, I will no longer expect that anyone will repent. Our nation is doomed, and I am glad that I won't be around too much longer to see it. After all, asking people to repent just hardens peoples' hearts. So, don't repent, but know that God will find another country to take down the United States and do his will.

The Return of the Ancient Gods

Today at the American Thinker Civis Americanus has an article entitled The Democrat Left Welcomes Antisemites, Cop Haters, and Terrorist Supporters. As always you should go read it.

No really, go read it. I'll wait.

Read it? Good. Did you notice that the article mentioned exclusively BLM? Not of course that these are the only antisemites, cop haters, and terrorists that find a political home in the Democrat party. But it does point out that there is a profound problem with identity politics in general, and groups like BLM in particluar. That problem is that God created man in his own image. It doesn't say that God created black man, asian man, and white man. He created man.  To identify oneself as a race or other immutable characteristic is wrong.  It is sinful.  We are to identify ourselves as what we are: images of God.  Thinking about just that will blow your mind.

In the first chapter of Genesis it says:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that [h]moves on the earth.”

Note also that God created mankind in only two varieties, to wit: male and female. That is each one of us is born in one of two genders, not 57 or whatever the current count is. More specifically, there are no "transgender," let alone trans-anything else. There is no nonbinary either. And God expects that men will dress as men and fulfill the role of men, while women should dress as women and fulfill the role of women. And yes, of course I feel compassion for people who feel that they were, as they say, born in the wrong body. But realizing that this is not reality is the first step toward helping these confused people adjust to reality.

I don't know when the Lutheran churches began downplaying the role the the devil in the lives of men, but I was taught that the ancient gods, Ba'al and his Ashteroth and Moloch were not real. Supposedly they were mere myth, nothing to worry about.  Of course one understands that the idols representing these gods were made by men, and worshiping a clay image seemed stupid. But what if they used the images much as say, Catholics use icons?

As it turns out, these ancient gods are in fact real and are the main manifestation of Lucifer in the lives of men. Jonathon Cahn has a book out now entitled Return of the Gods that shows how, as we kicked God out of our public life, we didn't, as one might predict, just have a godless country. Unfortunately, it is our fate to either serve God, or serve the Devil.  There is no other choice.  I don't know about you, but I would prefer to serve God.  

Ba'al is the god of gain and greed. Man needs certain things to survive: food, water, shelter. And of course he needs a mate. Ba'al works on men's needs to convince him he doesn't ever have enough. The sense that a man doesn't have enough causes him to chase after more and more, and to not trust the God of creation.  You see all the time advertisements playing on the idea that you must save enough, invest enough rather than just trust God.

Then there is his consort Asteroth, the goddess of prostitutes, of licentiousness, of fornication but also of transgenderism and cross dressing. Feminism, the idea of the strong, independent woman is part of the influence of Ashteroth because it denies a woman's role.

Finally, Moloch is the god of human sacrifice. In ancient times parents actually fed their children to Moloch's fires seeking the favor of the god. Today Moloch is the one to whom abortionists sacrifice our chidren. Ever wonder why so many abortionists fight so viciously to keep abortion available? It is not simply the money abortion brings in. It is an actual religious reaction, whether they acknowledge it or not.

We must kick these demons out of our lives, and out of America.  We must trust our Creator implicitly in all things. Heis our only hope.

Undate: Watch a message from Jonathon Cahn.