But honey, God wants me to have these boots !!

Here's a storefront that is about two miles from my current office. 
If the police ever find stolen property in the place, the owners will find themselves in a theological minefield, right? 

Did God create Jimmy knowing that Jimmy would eventually steal those shirts and take them to God's Will Resale and swap them for cash? 

If I buy some stolen shirts from God's Will Resale, and then learn that they're stolen property, am I morally obligated to return them, even though God wanted me to have them? 

And why do bad things happen to good people? 

The mind recoils....

 

Another Failure For Fascism

Every now and then one is assured that yes, there is a God, and yes, she distributes Justice. 
One such moment occurred yesterday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius showed up with about 20 government techno-munchkins to give a seminar on the total freakin' awesomeness of ObamaCare and its website. 

Sebelius and Steelers (Pittsburgh's pro football team) Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website.

Unable to handle heavy online traffic and riddled with technical glitches, the website has been a source of criticism of the Obama administration and the new Affordable Care Act since its start on Oct. 1.

Sebelius, who is making similar trips to cities across the country to spread the word about the website, told the audience of about 100 people that Healthcare.gov was “open for business.”

“Believe me, we had some early glitches,” said Sebelius, who was introduced by Rooney, a backer of the law. “But it's getting better every day.”

At the back of the room, it was a different story. About 20 people armed with laptops and certified by the government to sign up people for coverage were meeting with uninsured people, answering questions and fruitlessly trying to access the website.

LaKesha Lowry, 41, came to the event to find out about her health insurance options. But the North Side resident said she was not able to access the site, even with the help of a certified application counselor.

“It said, ‘Try again later,' ” Lowry said.

I'm sure there are folks who don't understand why Libertarians rejoice at the total miserable failure of ObamaCare. 
Let me put it this way.  We rejoiced when the Berlin Wall fell.  Many of us were downright giddy when Pol Pot was arrested.  I intend to host a Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup/Party on the night of Fidel Castro's funeral. 
People who forcibly intervene in the lives and choices of adults do more harm than good.  When they fail, society benefits.  It really is that simple. 

I was hoping I could post Sibelius's travel and seminar schedule here, but can't find it online due to the government shutdown.  (Which brings up the following question:  Why is this twit still flying around the countryside promoting failed websites if the government is supposed to be shut down?) 

And I was hoping to find a funny photoshop of Sibelius to close this post.  I failed.  I did find these incredible ObamaCare postage stamps from the staff and readers of The People's Cube. 

  Isn't it strange how they've removed the countdown widget from the website error message? 

We're in the best of hands. 

A Biblical Defense Of Slavery

I recently found an old seminary Bible Course Syllabus from 1885.  It was written by Dr. J.B. Shearer of Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville Tennessee, "For the use of schools, colleges, and private bible classes" is the subtitle. 

This book makes me angry.  Stark raving nuts. 
I have no words to describe the human misery caused by the thinking in this book.

Please keep in mind that J.B. Shearer was an educated man with a Doctorate.  His book on the Old Testament is still in print, at least in a download edition, for those of you who are interested. 

Here's the section from Shearer's Bible Course on "The Scripture Doctrine Of Slavery".

Please stay with me. I'm going to go through Dr. J.B. Shearer's doctrine, point-by-point.  Shearer's bullet points are in bold type, scripture references are in italics, and my stuff looks like what you're reading now. 

Here's the syllabus used for part of Dr. Shearer's classwork.  

1)  I'll never be able to flesh out Shearer's first point, the one about slavery as a social institution vs. slavery as a sin.  Dr. Shearer's lectures are lost to history.  His later bullet-points reveal his sympathies, though. 

2)  Slavery has indeed existed in all ages.  It still exists.  Dr. Shearer is drifting into the "If God doesn't want it to be, then why does it happen?" argument. 

3)  "Jewish slavery antedates The Theocracy". 

You can go here to read the story in Genesis 14:13-16 of some of Abraham's relatives being captured by Sodomites (yeah, you in the back row, Sodomites) and carried away to be household slaves. 

If the Sodomites used military captives as slaves, then slavery was around before God set up his Theocracy of priests, prophets and such.  All political systems in place at that time were part of God's plan.  And God wouldn't have allowed slavery to exist if he didn't approve of it.  

4)  Dr. Shearer sees slavery as a "positive", but not a "moral" institution.  I don't own the other volumes of Dr. Shearer's syllabus that he refers to. 
I do have this picture, though.   

5) Abraham's slaveholding was recognized in the Abrahamic Covenant....(Genesis, Chapter 17)

12  He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,
13  Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
14  Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

So not only was God giving them the right to your labor and effort for the rest of your life, your owners also have the right, if not the responsibility, to cut off part of your reproductive organs.  Dr. Shearer helpfully points out that this is a universal covenant (or agreement).

Slavery was acknowleged and justified in the New Testament as well as the Old.  (Galatians, Chapter 3)

27  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

According to these verses, whether or not someone owns you and keeps you in a cage at gunpoint, you are now a child of Abraham/God/Jesus and will earn your heavenly reward.  But it's a heavenly reward, not to be given in this life.  We've still got a lot of cotton to pick.

6)  The master's right and authority are reconized in the fourth and tenth commandments.  Deuteronomy, Chapter 4.  (Here is the 4th Commandment.)

12  Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
13  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
14  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

(And the 10th Commandment:)

21  'And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.'

The statues of The Ten Commandments that Alabama judges want to put in their courtrooms are edited to simply state "Honor The Sabbath" and "Thou Shalt Not Covet".

A useful strategy to combat that lunacy is to insist that the uncensored commandments be posted in the courts.  Commandment advocates would then have to defend slavery or explain the omissions, and that would be fun.  

7)  Moses' law forbade permanent Jewish slavery, but encouraged Pagan slavery.  Exodus 21: 2-3.  Leviticus 25:40-46. 

I included a little more of the Exodus passage because it includes some helpful information on how to treat the daughters of your slaves:

Here's the Leviticus 25 passage.  Do you see why Damn Yankee Christians had such a hard time convincing their Southern counterparts that slavery was pure evil?

2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything.
3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’
6 then his master must take him before the judges.  He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do.
8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her.
9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter.
10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights.
11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.
45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.
46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

8)  Moses' law recognized, defined, limited and defended the rights of master and slave minutely.  Exodus 21:20-32 

The logic in this law, supposedly handed down by God, was clear:  Whip your slave too hard, you take a loss, and you get punished by the community.  But if the slave is back at work in a couple of days (with an improved attitude) the process is no different than tuning up an engine. 

20 “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result,
21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.  

9) Captives in war were divided by Divine direction.  And in the tithing, the Lord's portion was duly set apart.  Numbers 31:28-40.

This passage from the book of Numbers explains how the Israelites divided the slaves and loot after a battle.  When the author says that certain things were to be given to "the Lord", he means Eleazar and the priestly caste.  If we were to do this in our Middle East adventures, 1/500th of the oil would go to Jimmy Swaggart, the eleven Cardinals now representing the U.S. in the Roman Catholic Church, and Thomas S. Monson, now head of the Mormons in Salt Lake City:

28  From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the LORD one one of every five hundred, whether people, cattle, donkeys or sheep.
29  Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the LORD’s part.
30  From the Israelites’ half, select one out of every fifty, whether people, cattle, donkeys, sheep or other animals. Give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the LORD’s tabernacle.”
31  So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.


32  The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep,
33  72,000 cattle,
34  61,000 donkeys
35  and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.
36  The half share of those who fought in the battle was: 337,500 sheep,
37  of which the tribute for the LORD was 675;
38  36,000 cattle, of which the tribute for the LORD was 72;
39  30,500 donkeys, of which the tribute for the LORD was 61;
40  16,000 people, of whom the tribute for the LORD was 32.

If you aren't disturbed by verse 35 up there, the one which explains who gets the young virgins, you should be.  

10)  Slavery was in its origin a merciful system.  "Servus Quia Servatus" (The servant is saved).  The weaker were protected in the family, first by the master's interest and then by his affection.  The freemen became citizens. 

Yeah.  Well, Dr. Shearer, no one saw your Presbyterian ass signing up for a few years of picking other people's cotton in this merciful system. 

I don't have the time or desire to go through the rest of J.B. Shearer's drivel point-by-point.  Here's the second page of his chapter on slavery.  Boil it down to basics, and Shearer proves that the God of the New Testament approved of slavery just as much as he did in the time of Abrham, Isaac and Jacob. 

According to the book that we now call "Bible", God approves of slavery.  You can look it up. 

Ephesians 6:5-9: "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him."

Colossians 4:1: "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven."

1 Timothy 6:1-3 "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;"

Finally, there is the story of Onesimus, the runaway slave that Dr. Shearer mentions in bullet point #12.  Onesimus was a Christian.  Paul told him to return to his former masters.  Go here.  With the exception of "Buy Enron Stock" that's probably the worst advice in history. 

The collection loosely called "Bible" is just a book.  We don't know who wrote it.  Parts of it are interesting, parts of it are incredibly dull, and parts of it are downright evil.  It doesn't hold together very well.  If God really did inspire the book of Leviticus, then he is bat-shit crazy.  I defy you to read it and tell me otherwise.  Here's part of the leprosy cure from Leviticus 14:

Then the priest shall command to take for him who is cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field. He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days.

For those who got lost, here's a paraphrase:

Get two birds. Kill one. Dip the live bird in the blood of the dead one. Sprinkle the blood on the leper seven times, and then let the blood-soaked bird fly away. Next find a lamb and kill it. Wipe some of its blood on the patient's right ear, thumb, and big toe. Sprinkle seven times with oil and wipe some of the oil on his right ear, thumb and big toe. Repeat. Finally find another pair of birds. Kill one and dip the live bird in the dead bird's blood. Wipe some blood on the patient's right ear, thumb, and big toe. Sprinkle the house with blood 7 times. That's all there is to it.

The Bible shouldn't be used as a manual for doctors.  The Bible shouldn't be used as a justification for opposition to gay marriage.  It shouldn't be used as an excuse to close restaurants or bars on the Muslim, Jewish, or Christian Sabbaths. 

It should have never been used as an excuse for using other humans as slaves. 

Perhaps some of you disagree.  If so, please remember some of us have more guns than you, and might have some cotton that needs picking.   

Why the tornadoes hit Alabama and not Canada

I knew that the Global Warmists would pile on to the tornadoes and storms that recently hit Alabama and Mississippi, but I wanted to find the perfect example before posting anything about it. 

As all right-thinking people know, Jehovah/Yahweh/Zuul/Gaia doesn't like it when we tolerate gays and lesbians.  So He/She/It sent a hurricane to New Orleans to punish the offending parties. 

If our crops fail, it's because there are witches in our midst.  After we burn a few of them, the Gods are appeased and prosperity returns. 

I'll never forget going to my uncle's house in the early 1970's and hearing a farmer question whether or not our space travel was causing an uptick in hurricanes. 

Well, guess why we had tornadoes in the South last week? 

Bad legislative karma.  Yep.  Certain regions have legislators that don't bow at the foot of Saint Albert, The Goracle of Music City, Tennessee.  The Gods sent the tornadoes to those exact places as payback. 

Here's Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress:

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”
The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

So there you have it.  If the congressional delegations of 'Bama, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, Virginny, and Ol' Kentuck had just voted to let Al Gore buy Carbon Credits from himself, if we had just started using CFL bulbs a little sooner, if we had just built a few more idiotic windmills in West Texas, if we had implemented an economy-destroying carbon tax, if we had carpooled, starved a few more brown people by using grain as ethanol, used a push mower, minimized packaging, put on a sweater, bought a bracelet, air dried our clothes, and done other things to conform to some bureaucrat's Luddite fantasy.....

If we had turned our lives over to the government, crucified the evil Koch brothers, voted Democrat, and listened to the warnings from totally disinterested scientists whose research funding and prestige doesn't depend on government funding at all....

Then the earth-goddess Gaia would have been pleased.  Alabama would have been spared.  The tornadoes would have hit Canada, where the natives are well known for violating the Christian Sabbath.  And consuming alcohol.  And wearing clothing made of blended fabrics.  And not wearing Burkhas.   

Or it's possible that ThinkProgress needs to learn that correlation is not causation.  

On Prayer, Japan, and Bumperstickers

Because of this site, I've got Facebook friends all over the world that I've never met. Since the libertarian cause seeks to be a very big umbrella, I've corresponded with Rastafarian marijuana enthusiasts, Bible-quoting homeschoolers, transgendered gay rights activists, gun fetishists, anti-war activists, free market economists, property rights devotees and more than a few people who don't like going outside because of all those black helicopters that follow them around.

Because of the horrible destruction in Japan this morning, a lot of my Facebook buddies are asking everyone to pray for the people of Japan. 

Why? 

Should I ask God to prevent any more destruction?  Or should I ask God to not cause any more destruction? 

How much involvement on God's part are we assuming here?  Does God only intervene when enough of us ask him sincerely enough?  Can God be trusted to do the right thing without us having to nag him about it, kinda like I sometimes have to be reminded to set the recycling out on Thursday mornings? 

I have a standing joke with two of my employees about work and bumperstickers.  There are some people who go through life figuratively wearing this bumpersticker:

Things are beyond their control.  Life happens to them.  They are victims.  People wake up in the morning just to take advantage of them.  Most of their lives are predestined. 

And then there are those joyous souls who obviously have a different philosophy. 

These people exercise some serious "scene control".  They either control their own destiny, or believe that they do.  They believe that they have a free will, that they are responsible for their actions and the consequences. 

Which bumpersticker do you think God would put on his Cadillac?  Does he just set things in motion and let them play out?  Or does God make things happen? 

An explanation of Arlington's Super Bowl weather disaster

I don't believe that God intervenes in human activity, or anything else. 
There are only three exceptions to this rule:

1) My blackjack games
2) My football bets
3) The life and works of Jerry Jones  

Let's concentrate on #3.  Jerry Jones and the City Of Arlington conspired to steal some peoples' houses, bulldoze them, and build a Pharaonic Pyramid of a football stadium on the site of the theft. 
It was all legal, done within the realm of Eminent Domain, and at least 51% of Arlington voters voted in favor of the theft. 
You can hit the Jerry Jones or Eminent Domain tags at the bottom of this post to read some older rants on the subject. 

Tomorrow's Super Bowl was supposed to be a week-long celebration of the crime, seven days of partying to reward the many who voted to rob the few.  Million-dollar parties, Concerts.  Swarms of media. 

Full Disclosure: My employer, Jukt Micronics, got a contract to build the ESPN booth that they're using in downtown Fort Worth.  Nice piece of work, but it's generally been too cold for ESPN to use it. 

But what has happened?  We've had ice storms, sleet, and snow.  The power companies have had to implement a rolling blackout system for businesses, warehouses, manufacturers and some residences.  Traffic has slowed to a crawl.  Or no crawl at all, because everyone has stayed home all week.  We don't do snow very well. 

DFW airport and Love Field have had to operate at a limited capacity when they could operate at all. 
Downtown Fort Worth was supposed to have crowds rivaling Disneyworld.  On my one trip downtown I saw a few drunken Cheeseheads wandering around, Wisconsinites who know how to deal with this kind of weather.  That was it. 

And then, this happened:

As bowling ball-size chunks of ice fell on him from the roof of Cowboys Stadium on Friday afternoon, Win McNamee said he didn’t think he would survive.

“Honestly, while it was hitting me, I was thinking I’m going to die here,” McNamee said. “It was pretty frightening.”
McNamee, a veteran photographer who works for Getty Images, was one of six people injured by falling ice outside the site of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV in Arlington. He broke his left shoulder in four places and was planning to fly home to Washington, D.C., on Saturday and undergo surgery soon.
None of the other injuries were thought to be life-threatening, authorities said. One person remained hospitalized in stable condition Friday evening, officials said.

Lord have mercy, what a mess.  And why do I think that it isn't over yet? 

As for the economic impact of the disastrous weather?  Go here for ABC's evaluation of it.  We've got hotel cancellations left and right, retailers shuttered, and restaurants operating at 10% of capacity.  The national media is gleefully mocking Arlington's lack of preparedness for this kind of weather.  Especially the reporters who have been told by the NFL that their cities (Denver, Seattle, Detroit) aren't good Super Bowl locations because of their....weather. 

How could something like this happen?  I mean, what are the freakin' odds? 

It's very simple, folks. 

God hates Jerry Jones.  The Lord God Jehovah hates Jerry Jones with the white hot passion of a thousand dying suns.  And Jerry must atone.  Now.  Unless he wants to spend another decade with fewer playoff wins than any current NFL General Manager over a ten year period. 

Here's the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, speaking out on the subject of Jerry, The Cowboys, and Arlington:

Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

I don't think there are any Eagles, Redskins, Giants, or Packers fans who could've said it any better.
So what do we do? 

Here is a purification ritual that Jerry could undergo.  This comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary. 

A cleansing agent (to atone for sin) was required: water, blood, or fire (Numbers 31:23). Water, the most common purifying agent, symbolized cleansing and was used in the rituals related to a waiting period. The person was to wash the clothes and bathe the body (Leviticus 15:7). Blood was used to cleanse the altar and the holy place (Leviticus 16:14-19). It was mixed with other ingredients for cleansing from leprosy (Leviticus 14:1) and contact with the dead (Numbers 19:1).


The final element of the ritual of purification is sacrifice. Purification from discharges required two pigeons or turtledoves, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering (Leviticus 15:14-15,Leviticus 15:29-30). A lamb and pigeon or turtledove were offered after childbirth (Leviticus 12:6). Sacrifice in the purification ritual for lepers was quite complicated, indicating the seriousness of leprosy as a cause of impurity (Leviticus 14:1). The priest also touched the person's extremities with blood from the offering and with oil, cleansing and life-renewing agents. The poor were allowed to substitute less valuable animals for use in their sacrifices.

To cut to the chase:  If we're ever going to have a succesful NFL franchise in Tarrant County, Jerry Jones must strip down to his skivvies, wash one of his suits on the 50-yard line of his gaudy Temple Of Baal, mop the field with the blood of Wade Phillips, and perform a ritual sacrifice by slaughtering some of his worst draft picks in the City Of Arlington's luxury suite. 
That should do it. 

But what about all the little people, Jerry's victims, the refugees who were dispossesed by Eminent Domain ? 
Once again, let's see what the Holy Scriptures have to say:

Leviticus 6: 1-7 :   "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt. ... "

It's fairly simple, isn't it?  Jerry and Arlington must determine the current value of the stadium, the parking lot, the team, along with the value of having God on their side.  They must give that amount of money, plus 1/5th, to the people they stole the land from. 
Until that happens, we will labor under an Old Testament curse. 

YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE DECREEES OF GOD, JERRY JONES, AND.... YOU.... WILL..... ATONE !!!!!

Dallas Cowboys 24, New York Giants 31 - December is the cruelest month

Without nearly enough apologies to the works of T.S. Eliot....

December is the cruelest month, breeding
Defeats out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Fumbles in the Meadowlands.
Autumn kept us warm, covering
Earth with easy wins over lowly Oakland, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Eli surprised us, coming over the top
With a shower of passes; though we stopped not one,
Romo and Whitten set records; into the end zone
Giants returned punts, and treated us like losers.


LET us go then, you and I,
When the stadium is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through Arlington's half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of bulldozed houses near one-night cheap hotels
And bad chain restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room libertarians complain
Cursing both Jerry, and Eminent Domain.

The yellow curse that rubs its back upon the uniforms,
The yellow December curse that rubs its muzzle on the gray and blue uniforms,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the end zone,
Lingered upon the Cowboy drives that failed to move the chains,
Let fall upon its back the hopes that falls from gullible fans,
Slipped by the defense, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft December night,
Curled again about the Meadowlands, and fell asleep.


We'll soon see New Orleans riding Brees-ward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water gold and black.

We will linger in the Dome of the damned,
By cheerleaders wreathed with fabric gold and brown
Till the ref whistles wake us, and we drown.

And I have known the eyes already, known them all,
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To explain the theft of land and homes?
And how should I go on?

For I will show you fear, fear in a handful of dust....

Pics came from here and here.

US Air Rescue Cartoon - Please discuss

Please discuss this cartoon. Be thorough. All religions, communities of faith, bodies of believers, and skeptics are welcome.
Did God intervene in the US Air jet landing and rescue operation on the Hudson river?
If God does intervene, why didn't he do something about the 25,000 or so people who died of malnutrition on the same day as this rescue?
If God intervenes, why didn't he simply intervene to save the geese?
Why are there no rescue tugboats in the cartoon?
Are we terrified to admit/affirm that we've been in an unbroken chain of cause and effect ever since The Big Bang?

The Theological Implications of Hurricane Gustav

I had an interesting conversation tonight with a friend of mine who is a retired judge. He's a partisan of The Mommy Party (D), and we were sitting with a few guys that lean toward The Daddy Party (R).
The judge asked my opinion on the theological implications of Hurrican Gustav.
He may or may not have read my rant about Focus on The Family's Stuart Shepard asking people to pray for torrential rain on the night of Obama's nomination speech in Denver, but he figured I'd be aware of it.
The judge offered up the following, somewhat tongue in cheek:

1. Since God declined to mess up Obama's nomination speech, but sent Gustav to New Orleans during the Republican convention ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA, it was a sign that God has turned his face away from the Republicans, and toward the Democrats.

2. I countered with this: Since failing to render aid during two consecutive New Orleans hurricanes would be unbelieveable even for this lame administration, Gustav gives The Daddy Party (R) a perfect excuse to avoid a Bush/Cheney appearance in Minneapolis. Who knows how much planning took place trying to minimize the effect of those two albatrosses at the convention. This gave Bush/Cheney justification to gracefully bail on the event, and deprived the Democrats of some wonderful sound bites.

Therefore God is smiling on the Republicans with the appearance of Hurricane Gustav. A hurricane hitting a major city would do far less damage to the city than Bush would do to the Republicans at this point.

3. God controls the weather, but it's not about politics. He's trying to teach us that we shouldn't build cities below sea level.

4. Here's another possibility. God controls the weather, but it's not all about us. Just because CNN and Fox and MSDNC are obsessed with conventions, that doesn't mean the creator of the universe is. There might be some catfish stranded in a stock tank that need to make their way to the Mississippi River, and Gustav was sent to do the job. Who knows.

4. God set everything in motion at the time of the Big Bang. We've had nothing but cause and effect relationships since then. What happens is what God wants. Do a Google search on "Calvinism". New Orleans is getting the hurricane that God wanted.

5. God set everything in motion at the time of the Big Bang. We've had nothing but cause and effect relationships since then. Whatever happens is inevitable, but not "predestined", since God doesn't care, intervene, or look in on things. Do a Google search on "Existential Theism". New Orleans is getting what was bound to happen, but God didn't cause it.

6. There is no such thing as Divine Intervention. We are on our own. God isn't going to protect us or turn back the storms. Therefore, we shouldn't build cities below sea level since they tend to flood. We shouldn't build cities along the gulf at the mouth of a major river. Those cities tend to flood. They are hurricane magnets, and we'll have to rebuild those cities every couple of decades if we stubbornly continue rebuilding.

But if God really did want to teach us these simple facts, how would he/she do it, short of coming down from heaven and issuing a declaration?

Probably by sending some hurricanes.

Pictures courtsey of here and here and here and here.