So easy even a librarian could do it

Glenn Beck resettles Iraqi Christians in Slovakia

As I’ve said before, I’m all for resettling Christian refugees from the Middle-east. I think I read somewhere that so far, 53 Christians have been admitted to the U.S. even though they are facing genocide—we’ve probably admitted more Muslim terrorists than that. However, how to support this? 

Last night Glenn Beck showed video of his organization (Mercury One) taking 149 Christians out of a refugee camp in Iraq (I think they’d been in the camp 2 years). They contacted 11 countries, including the USA, but only Slovakia would take them. Iraqi Christians are probably descended from the apostles or someone who knew them, as are other Orthodox Christians, so it shouldn’t be an impossible job. They had their last mass with their priest, said good-bye to friends and family, and flew off to a new country, new language, new customs. It was really heart wrenching. 

These were not peasants, they are educated people with careers and homes, now all ripped away. Iraq has been their people’s home for centuries. Their community had a good life in Iraq (as I recall from pre-war days, they were protected by Saddam Hussein who was a secular Muslim). ISIS was threatening to behead them right up to the end, in fact, the first flight was delayed due to intelligence they might be attacked. (Several times Beck mentioned that ISIS was killing the handicapped, although I haven’t seen that report elsewhere. He has a physically challenged daughter, so he’s always very sensitive to that.) It was like watching the frantic flights out of VietNam after U.S. renigged on the treaty agreements. 

Anyway, we had talked before about who could we trust with money to do this? Mennonites? Brethren? Lutheran? Any of the groups we’ve supported in the past? No, plus they all cooperate with World Council of Churches for world relief, which if you’ve ever read their documents is very pro-Muslim (I saw that even in the 1970s). Beck had tried to raise $10,000,000 to do this with listener/member donations, but instead raised $13,000,000. So we knew where to send our help. God bless people like Beck who take enormous risks (he was also Iraq with the camera crew and all the people it took to organize this).

Incidentally, he said a crew from 20/20 went along to film it, but I don’t think he really trusts the MSM to get the story right. We’ll see if it gets more than a few minutes on another news show. It has been reported on Fox and in some Christian on-line publications.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/glenn-beck-johnnie-moore-evacuate-iraqi-christian-refugee-slovakia-152273/#!

A cloud of euphemisms

"Forgive us for looking through the legacy smoke, but if climate change really does imperil the Earth, and we doubt it does, nothing coming out of a gaggle of governments and the United Nations will save it. What will help is human invention and the entrepreneurial spirit. To the extent the Paris accord increases political control over human and natural resources, it will make the world poorer and technological progress less likely.". . .
"As we have learned from the Iran nuclear deal and so much else, Mr. Obama is not into winning democratic consent for his policy dreams. Mr. Obama plans to use Paris as a stick to beat Republicans even as he ducks a vote in Congress. We doubt the Paris climate deal would get 40 Senate votes once Democrats in Ohio, Colorado or North Dakota were forced to debate the costs."

Wall St. Journal

Who are the "deniers" the left ridicules?

Calling me a “man-made climate change denier” is very different than believing that climate changes over time. And yes, I have read the reports on both sides (or 3 or 4 sides, because there aren’t just 2). It’s just a lie and insult to say that those of us who don’t believe the Wizard behind the curtain and the leftist hype don’t believe in a clean environment. It’s also a lie that the president is talking about pollution. These are two different issues. All these climate change folks in love with the latest cell phones need to look what they are doing to the land in Africa where the precious rare earth elements come from for that technology. The U.S. used to have them, but they were over mined, and now all the orders go to China. I’ll believe they are serious about dangers to climate when thousands of globalist power folks give up using jet planes to get to conferences in interesting places like Paris and Hawaii.

 

Yes, climate does go in cycles. But that is change, right? There was the “little ice age” from the 16th-19th century. That’s not huge as time goes, but if you were living then and trying to grow food, it was pretty desperate times in some parts of Europe. If a volcano explodes on an island and sends dirt and ash into the air, it can cool some areas of the globe for years. But I don’t call that “man made climate change.” If there are solar flares that last a few decades and heat things up, I don’t call it man made climate change even if it creates new deserts and dries up lakes with changing jet streams. http://www.space.com/19280-solar-activity-earth-climate.html

 

“Welcome to [Obama’s] leaps in logic that would span the Grand Canyon. Apparently excruciatingly slow, contradictory, and sometimes nearly imperceptible changes in the atmosphere’s temperature are capable of spawning ideologies like communism, fascism, and now Islamic jihadism, although the president won’t use that term. Never mind all those historical details about what actually caused these ideologies to rise—social upheavals like industrialization, philosophical disputes unleashed by the Enlightenment, and the crises inside Islam. The president has got it figured out.”

http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/07/obamas-insane-history-lessons-on-climate-change/

 

 

Meet the neighbors--by guest blogger Septimus Sextus

Went to a Holiday Party last night in my neighborhood and talked politics with some interesting folks. Was told by several that Bernie is the man because he was going to take on the corporations, was going to push for single payer, and was going to take the money we spend on war and spend it domestically. Also spent some time discussing specific issues with some folks.

To recap... These are amazingly pleasant people who are great parents and good neighbors. But when I said single payer means Medicaid for all they claimed to not know much about Medicaid. I told them they were lucky.

When they talked about the high price of college and their student loans I asked them if they saw a correlation between a government loan program, the education lobby, and the rising cost of higher education.
When we discussed energy policy and I mentioned ongoing changes in the coal industry to make it cleaner and the overwhelming need to not mothball coal plants until a workable alternative is actually in place, they mentioned renewables.

When I said renewables wouldn't power heavy industry they didn't follow the logic. When we discussed the need to transition to nuclear power as an alternative and reminded them of the French nuclear success story they focused on waste byproducts. When I said those are buried in the ground in a desert miles from anyplace somebody would want to live they didn't understand. 

And finally when I said you can't not have a military and you have to blow up the really bad guys they didn't understand why we couldn't just wash our hands of international entanglements. And when I said that's fine then don't be surprised if we go back to covert operations and propping up somewhat crazy despots to keep the really crazy people in check, they mentioned human rights. 

So yeah... Quite an evening. And their votes count the same as ours.

Getting ready for Christmas

The brown couch wearing its festive pillows, and a dark sheet to protect it from the cat's sneezes.

With my "new" red dress (bought it in March at the spring sales) with one of the few pieces of jewelry from my mother, her necklace.

Is it perception, the pew or the pastors?

"Less than 1 percent of senior pastors and discipleship pastors told Barna that “today’s churches are doing very well at discipling new and young believers.” Six in 10 said that churches are discipling “not too well.” 

But those in the pews disagree. More than 9 in 10 said that their church “definitely” (52%) or “probably” (40%) does “a good job of helping people grow spiritually.”"

And how about this one?  Ah, the problem with polls. . . I'm doing OK, but that guy is really bad off.

 “Pastors give their own church higher marks than churches overall, but few believe churches—their own or in general—are excelling in discipleship,” the report stated

 http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/december/pastors-pews-vastly-disagree-discipleship-barna-navigators.html

Practicing Christians (attend worship, Sunday School) report "some spiritual progress" in the last 12 months, but 43% of Non-practicing Christians also report "some spiritual progress" in the last 12 months!  Must be that golf course meditation really works.

A writing prompt from Tweetspeak Newsletter--Home

“If, many years from now someone were to live in your home, what would you want them to know about it? What does house and home mean to you? Talk about its comforts and your favorite spaces. What might be different? What will always remain the same? Write your answer in poetry.” December 12, 2015

Memories of Home
Norma J. Bruce
December 12, 2015

Home.  Where is that located?
Is it Kenbrook where memories
Are daily, brief and quiet.
Where we moved in January
And I was then hospitalized?

Home. What would it look like?
Is it Abington with memories
Of babies, birthdays and weddings?
What will the current owners risk
And remodel beyond recognition?

Home. When a horse was pastured?
Is it Hannah where memories
Push a porch swing with Polka-dot,
When boyfriends stopped by for dates,
And we went to movies and dances.

Home. Why not a whole village?
Is it Forreston whose memories
Of  friends hold  to this day
Why when some have moved or died,
And we are always children.

Home. Would it be war time?
Is it Alameda’s bay area memories
With trips to the zoo and playground.
Would I hear White Christmas in fog
And walk to kindergarten?

New Christmas CDs

Can't beat the price.  $2.99 at Marc's for four. Actually it was the Red Army Chorus that grabbed me.  Copyright is 1999 when they made this, but Russia hasn't been "red" since 1990. When I played it I discovered a lot of female voices--well, I guess they've integrated, too.  You can tell it's phonetic.  Difficult to understand the words--but I know them.  I had one of their records in the 1950s. Very rich, folk, Russian and very male.    Songs 4 Worship is Integrity Music / Time Life, 2001.  The other is all the "old" favorites from the 40-50s like Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby. Probably won't be able to use the kid's music, but that's still $1 per disc.

The Pope, the Lutheran and the Eucharist

I have now found a good translation at a Catholic site of what Pope Francis said to a Lutheran woman about taking communion at her husband's Catholic church, although it doesn’t help much. “Talk to the Lord and then go forward” is why we have 35,000 different Christian denominations many with no authority higher than the pastor who organized the church.

 

”I can only respond to your question with a question: what can I do with my husband that the Lord’s Supper might accompany me on my path? It’s a problem that each must answer [for themselves], but a pastor-friend once told me that “We believe that the Lord is present there, he is present” – you believe that the Lord is present. And what's the difference? There are explanations, interpretations, but life is bigger than explanations and interpretations. Always refer back to your baptism – one faith, one baptism, one Lord: this Paul tells us; and then consequences come later.

I would never dare to give permission to do this, because it’s not my own competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. [Pauses] And I wouldn't dare – I don’t dare say anything more.” http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2015/11/life-is-bigger-than-explanations-to.html

 

I’m still left with the puzzle that what Lutherans call “present” and what Catholics call “present” have not been the same, and for many Protestants and those who came later like non-denominational denominations of the last 50 years, there isn’t even a “present,” just a memorial.

Former Homeland Security employee told to shut down a surveillance program

 He says he likely could have helped prevent the San Bernardino terror attack if the government had not pulled the plug on a surveillance program he was developing three years ago. Philip Haney's story has "holes" says government sources.  Yes, I'm sure.  He had links to Farook's mosque.  Malik would have been identified as she tried to enter the U.S.  Instead, she was "vetted" and found to be OK.

Political correctness run amok.

Malik ignored. 

"The attack by Farook, the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, a Pakistani native he married in Saudi Arabia last year, has heightened security concerns in the United States and become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign."

Hope for a terrible disease--Dengue Fever

Mexico has approved the world’s first dengue virus vaccine. Sanofi’s Dengvaxia will be available to children over nine and adults 45 and under. . . Sanofi spent two decades and $1.6 billion on the development of Dengvaxia. According to BBC News, about 40,000 people in Mexico will initially receive the shot. “With this decision, Mexico moves ahead of all other countries, including France, to tackle the spread of this virus,” the country’s health ministry in a statement.

The Scientist

The fun Christmas party for PDHC

Last night we attended a Christmas party for the volunteers of the pregnancy center. We save lives--one womb at a time. Saw a few friends I know from church, and some I've met volunteering. I was on a great gift wrapping team (but we could only use one hand) as a game. But what really warmed my heart (more than the delicious food that Abigail Colon's husband made) was the number of young women either volunteering or on staff. Wow. I'm so used to hanging out with retirees and senior citizens and imagining that it's all on our shoulders, it's so nice to know there are young people out there wanting to save babies and mentor women in crisis situations.

A grudge can be a heavy burden

There's a reason why it's called resentment.  You are re-sending the grief back to yourself.

Women in combat

On the Patrick Madrid show (radio talk, Dec. 9) the topic was the recent approval for women in combat. A career female military officer called in and said she disapproved for a reason I'd never thought of: In WWII the USSR lost about 10 million men in combat, but did not draft women, and their population recovered. China has lost females primarily in the womb (abortion, one child policy) and can't recover for many years, if ever. If women of child bearing age are killed in combat there is no way to replace your population. She also mentioned the different physical standards for women in the military, but that has been the case all along. In combat it could be a more serious issue.

The general consensus is that women in combat weakens the military.  There are many, many who call themselves Americans who would like to see this.

Zuckerberg, Facebook, and ISIS

Maybe this is the reason Zuckerberg is offering comfort and peace to Muslims on Facebook?

 In the past few years, the use of Twitter (as opposed to Facebook), on the other hand, has grown. ISIS supporters embraced the platform in the latter part of the last decade, Stalinsky says, when old-school web forums regulated by moderators remained popular among Al Qaeda members. According to research from the Brookings Institute, ISIS supporters used some 46,000 Twitter accounts between September and December 2014, though not all were active at the same time.

Mark Zuckerberg will offer Muslims peace and safety at Facebook

When do women with white hair and conservative views get to comment at the Facebook pages of The Daily Beast or Huffington Post or Vox without harassment, Mr. Zuckerberg? When do we get to have an opinion and not be called "old hag" or told to take a "dirt nap" because we're worthless because everyone knows if women aren't young and sexy they have no value? Where's my peaceful and safe environment free of sexual innuendos from weird ugly men and F words from female bar flies? And what about Arab or Syrian Christians on Facebook? There are millions in the USA and Europe, and a decreasing number in the middle-east. Are they safe from harassment? They've been in the U.S., the land that gave you and your immigrant great grand parents this opportunity, 100 years longer than Muslim Syrians. Where are their peace and safety on Facebook?

 Facebook is a free service to which we can unsubscribe at any time. I could ignore HuffPo and just post cat photos. But some are made more welcome than others, and some are held to higher PC standards. I know people who have complained to FB about obnoxious, hateful photos and comments, and nothing is done.  At other times, really innocuous comments gets someone banned. 

Zuckerberg made a huge fortune on a good idea at the right time using the capitalist system, and now he goes all soft and gooey for socialism and a religion whose radical adherents would kill him for no reason other than he is a Jew.

Zuckerberg reassures Muslims

More have slipped into lower income group under Obama

At the county level we've lost a lot of ground under Obama. "Based on poverty rate estimates for all 3,141 counties for all ages, 26 percent (820 counties) had a statistically significant increase in poverty between 2007 (the year before the most recent recession) and 2014. Only 1 percent of counties had a statistically significant decrease in poverty during that period."

The recession was "over" in June 2009, yet the middle class has lost out and some have slipped downward. Finger wagging (Obama), criticizing the GOP (Hillary) and creating additional expensive government programs (Bernie) won't take the place of sound economic policies.

http://www.census.gov/did/www/saipe/data/highlights/files/2014highlights.pdf

The Silent Scream

Parental guidance recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gON-8PP6zgQ

Obama violated federal law with his Bergdahl deal

"A House Armed Services Committee report set to be released Thursday accuses the Obama administration of misleading Congress and violating federal law during a controversial prisoner exchange.

The report compiled by the GOP majority charges that the administration did so when it bypassed Congress in negotiating the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was being held in Afghanistan. They suggested that the White House had put politics and expediency ahead of proper procedure in making the deal." (CNN)

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2015/12/10/house-armed-services-committee-obama-violated-federal-law-with-bergdahl-exchange