Thursday, December 17, 2015

Act15v39to40 Neocons gone astray

Acts 15:39-40 KJV And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; 40 And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.

Ted Cruz Is Right to Attack the 'Neocons'

pjmedia.com [/] By David P. Goldman December 16, 2015 [/] Article printed from Spengler: https://pjmedia.com/spengler [/ Article url:] http://j.mp/0CruzOK1 or https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2015/12/16/ted-cruz-is-right-to-attack-the-neocons


Hillary Clinton has no record to run on. Family income is lower and the world is more dangerous. Donald Trump nailed it when he told Chris Wallace, "Hillary calls me 'dangerous'? She's killed hundreds of thousands of people with her stupidity." Trump was referring to the Obama administration's campaign to overthrow Arab dictators like Libya's Qaddafi and Egypt's Mubarak, which contributed to the chaos in the Middle East after the so-called "Arab Spring." Marco Rubio can't attack Hillary's disastrous foreign policy record because--as Ted Cruz observes--Rubio supported all the same stupid policies. Picture a Cruz-Clinton presidential debate: Cruz denounces Hillary's incompetence in promoting chaos in the Middle East. Hillary remonstrates, "But most Republicans supported me!" Cruz counters: "That's right--I'm running against you and against the Establishment in my own party." Game, set, match.
Here's a word of consolation for my neocon friends: It's not personal, just business. I'm a neocon too, an ex-lefty who went rightward with Reagan and carried my spear in the final phase of the Cold War. I was chief economist at Jude Wanniski's supply-side consulting firm Polyconomics, which is as neocon as you can get, and I give the neocons all the credit for Reaganomics. I've published in Commentary Magazine and Irving Kristol's Public Interest.  I traveled the world promoting the Reagan model between 1988 and 1993--Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, and most of all Russia--and learned firsthand how Quixotic was the conceit that our model could be exported.
Every ideology has a use-by date and you're long past yours. Henry Kissinger did great service to this country by opening relations to China, a necessary if not sufficient condition for winning the Cold War. But Kissinger couldn't see past the dull calculus of detente, while Reagan foresaw unconditional American victory over Communism--and without you neocons, he never could have done it. You made a Gargantuan error, though, when you assumed that the Reagan Revolution could be exported to the Middle East, Russia and China, and you misplayed the strongest hand that any world power ever held. America went from only-hyperpower status when George W. Bush took office to a playing second fiddle to Vladimir Putin today. No-one wants to hear your claim that we really won in Iraq in 2008 and lost it all because Obama wouldn't leave a few divisions there. And when the "Arab Spring" came along, you mistook the oncoming express for the light at the end of the tunnel. You and the Obama crowd played "Dumb and Dumber." You both bought into the idea that Muslim democracy would arise from Islamist opposition to the old dictatorships.
So Ted Cruz has thrown you under the bus, just as you threw Henry Kissinger under the bus when Reagan came to office in 1981. Tim Alberta and Eliana Johnson record your outrage in National Review:
So when Ted Cruz, on the campaign trail in Iowa and again in an interview with Bloomberg News, recently pointed the finger at “neocons” in an attempt to defend his own understanding of American interests abroad, the response among some conservative foreign-policy experts — many of whom the term has been used to disparage — was of shock, anger, and dismay. “He knows that the term in the usual far-left and far-right parlance means warmonger, if not warmongering Jewish advisers, so it is not something he should’ve done,” says Elliott Abrams, a former Bush administration National Security Council official and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
That's chutzpah (like the man who murdered his parents asking the judge for clemency because he's an orphan). "Neocon" became a term of opprobrium because it represented a coherent and well-defined body of thought that produced bad results. To suggest that Ted Cruz is stirring up bigotry against Jews is just nasty.
No, Cruz is doing the right thing: Just as Reagan sacrificed Henry Kissinger, Cruz will sacrifice you. It's all for the greater good. For the past eight years the Republican Party has worn the sins of the George W. Bush administration like the chains on Marley's Ghost. The American public doesn't easily forget that it was stirred to sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan and has nothing to show for it. A break with the Bush past vastly increases the odds for a Republican victory. Rubio can't do this, but Cruz can. Like Kissinger, you should glory in your past contributions and let other people take charge. Go with God. But go.
I2C 151217aa Act15v39to40 Neocons gone astray | I2C | 151217 1407 et

Monday, December 14, 2015

Jos7v8 Leftie Impotence

Joshua 7:8 KJV O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
_ Equality of culture is a silly idea.
_ Proper criticism of a culture, including its religion, does not judge creatures made in God's image.
_ The adherents of a false religion are victims of their culture and ought to benefit from exposition of the true source of their ills.
_ Love Muslims, but oppose a poisonous religion.

Islamic Jihad: Symptom of a Western Cause

As someone specializing in Islamic jihadism, one would expect I’d have much to say immediately after jihadi attacks of the sort that recently occurred in San Bernardino, or Paris, or Mali, with a total of about 180 dead. Ironically I don’t, as such attacks are ultimately symptoms of what I do deem worthy of talk: root causes. (What can one add when a symptom of the root cause he has long warned against occurs other than “told you so”?)
So what is the root cause of jihadi attacks? Many think that the ultimate source of the ongoing terrorization of the West is Islam. Yet this notion has one problem: the Muslim world is immensely weak and intrinsically incapable of being a threat.
That every Islamic assault on the West is a terrorist attack -- and terrorism, as is known, is the weapon of the weak -- speaks for itself.
This was not always the case. For approximately one thousand years, the Islamic world was the scourge of the West. Today’s history books may refer to those who terrorized Christian Europe as Arabs, Saracens, Moors, Ottomans, Turks, Mongols, or Tatars[i], but all were operating under the same banner of jihad that the Islamic State is operating under.
But today, the ultimate enemy is within.
The root cause behind the non-stop Muslim terrorization of the West is found in those who stifle or whitewash all talk and examination of Muslim doctrine and history; who welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants while knowing that some are jihadi operatives and many are simply “radical”; who work to overthrow secular Arab dictators in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” only to uncork the jihad long suppressed by the autocrats (the Islamic State’s territory consists of lands that were “liberated” in Iraq, Libya, and Syria by the U.S. and its allies).
So, are Western leaders and politicians the root cause behind the Islamic terrorization of the West? Close, but still not the right answer.
Far from being limited to a number of elitist leaders and institutions, the Western empowerment of the jihad is the natural outcome of postmodern thinking -- the real reason an innately weak Islam can be a source of repeated woes for a militarily and economically superior West.
Remember, the reason people like French President Francois Hollande, U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are in power -- three prominent Western leaders who insist that Islam is innocent of violence and who push for Muslim immigration -- is because they embody a worldview that is normative in the West.
In this context, the facilitation of jihadi terror is less a top-down imposition and more a grassroots product of decades of erroneous but unquestioned thinking. (Those who believe America’s problems begin and end with Obama would do well to remember that he did not come to power through a coup, but that he was voted in -- twice. This indicates that Obama and the majority of voting Americans have a shared, and erroneous, worldview. He may be cynically exploiting this worldview, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s because this warped worldview is mainstream that he can exploit it in the first place.)
Western empowerment of the jihad is rooted in a number of philosophies that have metastasized into every corner of social life, becoming cornerstones of postmodern epistemology. These include the doctrines of relativism and multiculturalism on the one hand, and anti-Western, anti-Christian sentiment on the other.
Taken together, these cornerstones of postmodern, post-Christian thinking hold that there are no absolute truths, and thus all cultures are fundamentally equal and deserving of respect. They hold that if Western people wants to criticize a civilization or religion, they must instead look “inwardly” and acknowledge their European Christian heritage as the epitome of intolerance and imperialism.
Add to these a number of other sappy and silly ideals: Truth can never be uttered because it might “hurt the feelings” of some (excluding white Christians, who are free game); if anything, the West should go out of its way to make up for its supposedly historic “sins” by appeasing Muslims until they “like us”; etc.
All together, we have a sure recipe for disaster -- which is the current state of affairs. [My emphasis. (Earlier emphasis and internal links in original.)]
I2C 151214aa Jos7v8 Leftie Impotence | I2C | 151214 1825 et

Friday, December 11, 2015

2Ki9v30to32 Trump OK Buchanan

2 Ki. 9:30-32 KJV And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. 31 And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? 32 And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.

An establishment unhinged

Calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” Donald Trump this week ignited a firestorm of historic proportions.
As all the old hate words – xenophobe, racist, bigot – have lost their electric charge from overuse, Trump was being called a fascist demagogue and compared to Hitler and Mussolini.
The establishment seemed to have become unhinged.
Why the hysteria? Comes the reply: Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration tramples all over “American values” and everything we stand for, including the Constitution.
But is this really true?
The Constitution protects freedom of religion for U.S. citizens. But citizens of foreign lands have no constitutional right to migrate. And federal law gives a president broad powers in deciding who comes and who does not, especially in wartime.
In 1924, Congress restricted immigration from Asia, reduced the numbers coming from southern and Central Europe, and produced a 40-year moratorium on most immigration into the United States.
Its authors and President Coolidge wanted ours to remain a nation whose primary religious and ethnic ties were to Europe, not Africa or Asia.
Under FDR, Truman and JFK, this was the law of the land.
Did this represent 40 years of fascism?
Why might Trump want a moratorium on Muslim immigration?
Reason 1: terrorism. The 9/11 terrorists were Muslim, as were the shoe and underwear bombers on those planes, the Fort Hood shooter, the Times Square bomber and the San Bernardino killers.
And as San Bernardino showed again, Islamist terrorists are exploiting our liberal immigration policies to come here and kill us.
Thus, a pause, a timeout on immigration from Muslim countries, until we fix the problem, would seem to be simple common sense.
Second, Muslims are clearly more susceptible to the siren call of terrorism and more likely to be radicalized on the Internet and in mosques than are Christians at church or Jews at synagogue.
Which is why we monitor mosques more closely than cathedrals.
Third, according to Harvard’s late Samuel Huntington, a “clash of civilizations” is coming between the West and the Islamic world. Other scholars somberly concur. But if such a conflict is in the cards, how many more millions of devout Muslims do we want inside the gates?
Set aside al-Qaida, ISIS and their sympathizers. Among the 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide are untold millions of followers of the Prophet who pray for the coming of a day when Shariah is universal and the infidels, i.e., everyone else, are either converted or subjugated.
In nations where Muslims are already huge majorities, where are the Jews? Where have all the Christians gone?
With ethnic and sectarian wars raging in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria and Somalia, why would we bring into our own country people from all sides of these murderous conflicts?
Many European nations – Germans, French, Swedes, Brits – appear to regret having thrown open their doors to immigrants and refugees from the Islamic world, who have now formed unassimilated clusters and enclaves inside their countries.
Ought we not explore why, before we continue down this road?
In some countries of the Muslim world, Americans who embrace “Hollywood values” regarding abortion, adultery and homosexuality can get their heads chopped off as quickly as converts to Christianity.
In what Muslim countries does Earl Warren’s interpretation of the First Amendment – about any and all religious presence being banned in public schools and all religions being treated equally – apply?
When is the next “Crusade for Christ” coming to Saudi Arabia?
Japan has no immigration from the Muslim world, nor does Israel, which declares itself a Jewish state. Are they also fascistic?
President Obama and the guilt-besotted West often bawl their apologies for the horrors of the Crusades that liberated Jerusalem.
Anyone heard Muslim rulers lately apologizing for Saladin, who butchered Christians to take Jerusalem back, or for Suleiman the Magnificent, who conquered the Christian Balkans rampaging through Hungary all the way to the gates of Vienna?
Trump’s surge this week, in the teeth of universal denunciation, suggests that a large slice of America agrees with his indictment – that our political-media establishment is dumb as a box of rocks and leading us down a path to national suicide.
Trump’s success tells us that the American people really do not celebrate “globalization.” They think our negotiators got snookered out of the most magnificent industrial machine ever built, which once guaranteed our workers the highest standard of living on earth.
They don’t want open borders or mass immigration. They want people here illegally to be sent back, the borders secured and a moratorium imposed on Muslim immigration until we fix the broken system.
As for the establishment, they are saying pretty much what The Donald is saying. To paraphrase Oliver Cromwell’s speech to the Rump Parliament:
You have sat here too long for any good you have done here. In the name of God, go! [My emphasis.]
I2C 151211aa 2Ki9v30to32 Trump OK Buchanan | I2C | 151211 0736 et

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Gen15v16 Trump vs eunuchs

Gen. 15:16 KJV But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

_ The good news is that low birthrate is on track to greatly diminish both the progressive West and the Muslim population in the next four generations.

Ann Coulter - Happy Birthday To Me!

For my best birthday gift this week, Donald Trump called for blocking Muslim immigration to the United States. If he throws in all immigration, it will be my merriest Christmas ever.
By contrast, the eunuchs running against Trump went mental.
Marco Rubio called Trump's proposed moratorium on Muslim immigration "offensive and outlandish."
Rubio's idea for stopping Muslim terrorist attacks on U.S. soil is something simple: Launch several wars to clean up the entire Middle East.
Chris Christie called Trump's plan "ridiculous," saying, "This is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they're talking about."
People with "experience" say things like: Walls don't work and are "too expensive."
Ted Cruz said he disagreed with Trump and instead would focus on "radical Islamic terrorism." Cruz will have a lot more radicals to focus on if we keep importing a quarter million Muslims every year.
And these were Republicans. MSNBC acted as if the nation had come under terrorist attack (by a Muslim immigrant) with its round-the-clock, breaking-news coverage of Trump's proposal, rife with images of dangerous demagogues from George Wallace to Hitler.
People without real arguments call anything they don't like "racist" or "unconstitutional."
Trump's proposal is neither -- I won't waste space mentioning 100 years of constitutional law and practice, but of course our country has absolute authority to decide who gets to immigrate here.
In the 14 years since Muslims killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11, this country has admitted another 1.5 million Muslims. So we're xenophobic, bigoted racists if we don't make it 2 million? Three million? When will we have enough? How many murdered Americans is an acceptable number before we can shut off the spigot of Muslim immigration?
The amazing thing is that no one (except the American people) wants any pause in Muslim immigration -- even after more than a dozen Muslim terrorist attacks on our soil in the last 15 years.
House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he will refuse to consider cuts to Muslim immigration, saying, "That's not who we are."
Republicans are totally copacetic with Pew's recent finding that white Christians are now a minority in America, but furious with Trump for suggesting we take a break from importing Muslims.
Can we move them to Ryan's district? According to Pew, only 11 percent of Muslims are Republican or "lean Republican." They may not make the "best Americans" -- as Ryan claims -- but at least they'd get rid of him.
The hysterical demand for never-ending Third World immigration has gone beyond the rich's need for cheap servants and the Democrats' need for voters. It's a mass psychosis.
Everyone acts as if Pakistani pushcart operators are the same as American blacks, and we're required to bring them here to make up for the legacy of slavery.
Foreigners aren't the descendants of American slaves! The rest of the world does not have a civil right to move here. We're under no moral imperative to allow any immigration at all. We don't owe citizens of other countries anything.
But as long as you brought it up: They owe us. America runs around saving other countries from tsunamis, earthquakes, pirates, disease, starvation, warlords, dictators, Nazis, communists -- then their citizens show up full of grievances, as if we owe them.
Angry Muslims have been popping up all over TV to denounce Trump and complain about anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S. If they'd prefer a country with a larger Muslim population and no white devil oppressors, low-rent mud huts are available in any of about 50 Muslim countries around the world. First month free; after that, two goats a month.
In addition to the thoughtful policy objection that Trump is a racist, we've been treated to an endless stream of stunningly stupid arguments against Trump's proposal.
Fox News' Dana Perino complained that Trump's policy doesn't "distinguish the peaceful from the radicals."
Yeah, nor can our government.
Given the devastation caused by only two Muslims in San Bernardino, eight Muslims in Paris, two at the Boston Marathon, one at a Chattanooga military recruitment center, one at Fort Hood, 19 on 9/11, etc. etc. -- it's really irrelevant whether "most" Muslim immigrants are peaceful little lambs. It doesn't take a lot of them to create havoc.
I don't know why we need any.
While it's fantastic news that most Muslim immigrants aren't terrorists, as Samuel Johnson said, "A horse who can count to 10 is a remarkable horse, not a remarkable mathematician."
We want remarkable Americans, not immigrants whose selling point is: "hasn't blown anything up yet." What's the upside of admitting 250,000 poor, culturally backward, non-English-speaking Muslims every year? When are we allowed to talk about what's good for America?
San Bernardino shooter Syed Farouk's mother described his father -- the original immigrant -- this way: "My husband is mentally ill and is on medication but is also an alcoholic and drinks with the medicine."
Fantastic. So glad we got him. The father, who has been here since 1973 -- thanks, Teddy Kennedy! -- told an Italian newspaper that he preached moderation to his son, saying it's not worth fighting Israel, because Russia, China and the U.S. "don't want Jews there any more." In "two years," he assured his son, "Israel will not exist any more."
So after four decades in American culture, these highly integrated, model immigrants are still clinging to their insane magic potion fantasies.
The senior Farouk didn't come here to work in some highly complex technical field, like nuclear physics or cell extraction biology. He's a truck driver. So one American lost his job as a truck driver and 14 Americans lost their lives because of Ted Kennedy's 1965 immigration act.
How else have the 1.5 million Muslims admitted since 9/11 made our country better? Their massive welfare use? Overburdening our schools and hospitals? The machete attacks? The clitorectomies? The honor killings? The occasional terrorist attack?
Currently, there are more than a thousand active investigations of ISIS in all 50 states. Here's an idea: Instead of paying for an ever-expanding federal workforce to track, wiretap and investigate immigrants with possible terrorist sympathies, let's stop bringing them in!
Beginning to sense the public's fury, a number of Republican politicians have been trying to talk tough on immigration. This week, Trump proved that that's all it is: talk. [My emphasis.]
I2C 151210aa Gen15v16 Trump vs eunuchs | I2C | 151210 1023 et

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Rom8v29to32 Darby on Free Will

Rom. 8:29-32 KJV For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 ¶ What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

_ This is truly, Good News!
_ Those who have, explicitly or implicitly, accepted Christ Jesus as Lord as well as Savior, have also renounced, explicitly or implicitly, free will.
_ Proper acceptance of the Gospel is irrevocable.
_ Praise the Lord!

Letter on Free-will
STEM Publishing: [/ By ]J. N. Darby. [(John Nelson Darby /] <10009E> 185 [/] Elberfeld, October 23, 1861. [/] http://j.mp/0Will1Darby or http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/darby/DOCTRINE/10009E.html

Very dear brother, [/] I had a little lost sight of an important subject of your last letter but one, solely through the multitude of my occupations. This fresh breaking out of the doctrine of free-will helps on the doctrine of the natural man's pretension not to be entirely lost, for that is really what it amounts to. All men who have never been deeply convinced of sin, all persons with whom this conviction is based upon gross and outward sins, believe more or less in free-will. You know that it is the dogma of the Wesleyans, of all reasoners, of all philosophers. But this idea completely changes all the idea of Christianity and entirely perverts it.
If Christ has come to save that which is lost, free-will has no longer any place. Not that God hinders man from receiving Christ — far from it. But even when God employs all possible motives, everything which is capable of influencing the heart of man, it only serves to demonstrate that man will have none of it, that his heart is so corrupted and his will so decided not to submit to God (whatever may be the truth of the devil's encouraging him in sin), that nothing can induce him to receive the Lord and to abandon sin. If, by liberty of man, it is meant that no one obliges him to reject the Lord, this liberty exists fully. But if it is meant that, because of the dominion of sin to which he is a slave, and willingly a slave, he cannot escape from his state and choose good (while acknowledging that it is good, and approving it), then he has no liberty whatever. He is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be; so that those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And here is where we touch more closely upon the bottom of the question. Is it the old man that is changed, instructed, and sanctified? or do we receive, in order to be saved, a new nature? The universal character of the unbelief of these times is this — not the formally denying Christianity, as heretofore, or the rejection of Christ openly, but the receiving Him as a person, it will be even said divine, inspired (but as a matter of degree), who re-establishes man in his position of a child of God. Where Wesleyans are taught of God, faith makes them feel that without Christ they are lost, and that it is a question of salvation. Only their fright with regard to pure grace, their desire to gain men, a mixture of charity and of the spirit of man, in a word, their confidence in their own powers, makes them have a confused teaching and not recognize the total fall of man.
186 For myself, I see in the word, and I recognize in myself, the total ruin of man. I see that the cross is the end of all the means that God had employed for gaining the heart of man, and therefore proves that the thing was impossible. God has exhausted all His resources, and man has shewn that he was wicked, without remedy, and the cross of Christ condemns man — sin in the flesh. But this condemnation having been manifested in another's having undergone it, it is the absolute salvation of those who believe; for condemnation, the judgment of sin, is behind us; life was the issue of it in the resurrection. We are dead to sin, and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Redemption, the very word, loses its force when one entertains these ideas of the old man. It becomes an amelioration, a practical deliverance from a moral state, not a redeeming by the accomplished work of another person. Christianity teaches the death of the old man and his just condemnation, then redemption accomplished by Christ, and a new life, eternal life, come down from heaven in His person, and which is communicated to us when Christ enters us by the word. Arminianism, or rather Pelagianism, pretends that man can choose, and that thus the old man is ameliorated by the thing it has accepted. The first step is made without grace, and it is the first step which costs truly in this case.
I believe we ought to hold to the word; but, philosophically and morally speaking, free-will is a false and absurd theory. Freewill is a state of sin. Man ought not to have to choose, as being outside good. Why is he in this state? He ought not to have a will, any choice to make. He ought to obey and enjoy in peace. If he ought to choose good, then he has not got it yet. He is without what is good in himself, any way, since he has not made his decision. But, in fact, man is disposed to follow that which is evil. What cruelty to propose a duty to man who has already turned to evil! Moreover, philosophically speaking, he must be indifferent; otherwise he has already chosen as to his will — he must then be absolutely indifferent. But if he is absolutely indifferent, what is to decide his choice? A creature must have a motive; but he has none, since he is indifferent; if he is not, he has chosen.
Finally, it is not at all thus: man has a conscience; but he has a will and lusts, and they lead him. Man was free in Paradise, but then he enjoyed what was good. He used his free choice, and therefore he is a sinner. To leave him to his free choice, now that he is disposed to do evil, would be a cruelty. God has presented the choice to him, but it was to convince the conscience of the fact, that in no case did man want either good or God.
187 I have been somewhat oppressed with sleep while writing to you, but I think you will understand me. That people should believe that God loves the world — this is very well; but that they should not believe that man is in himself wicked, without remedy (and in spite of the remedy), is very bad. One does not know oneself and one does not know God
. . . The Lord is coming, dear brother; the time for the world is departing. What a blessing! May God find us watching and thinking only of one thing — the One of whom He thinks — Jesus our precious Saviour. Salute the brethren. [/] Your very affectionate brother, J. N. D. [My emphasis.]
I2C 151209aa Rom8v29to32 Darby on Free Will | I2C | 151209 1401 et

Monday, December 07, 2015

Ecc2v11 Leftie Emptyness

Eccl. 2:11 KJV Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

_ God gave Solomon the means and inclination to explore fully all the ways of fallen man, that is, man separated from direct spiritual revelation of the LORD God.
_ God gave Solomon the spiritual inspiration and skill to fully summarize his lifelong experience of the results of merely worldly wisdom.
_ God has directly and spiritually inspired the writing of Ecclesiastes.
_ God has preserved the integrity of this writing, through both miraculous and providential means.
_ In our times, God has provided the technology that makes Ecclesiastes, and other, more directly helpful. God-breathed writing, freely available to us.
_ And yet, we, like pigs, return to mire, and, like dogs, devour our own vomit ( 2Pe 2.22 ). *
_ Praise the Lord, that, nevertheless, He has made complete and eternal salvation available to those who would rather spend eternity with Him than without Him (Isa 55.3; John 5.24; Rev 22.17 ). *

Liberal Nihilism in a Nutshell
pjmedia.com [/] Article printed from Works and Days: https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson [/] By Victor Davis Hanson December 7, 2015 [/] URL to article: [http://j.mp/0BubbleHeads or] https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/liberal-nihilism

Barack Obama entered office in 2009 with overwhelming popular goodwill and solid majorities in both houses of Congress. He chose not to translate that political heft into passing “comprehensive immigration reform” (i.e., open borders and amnesties) or more gun control.
He opposed gay marriage. He warned that he could not use presidential fiats to grant amnesty, close down Guantanamo, or remake the EPA in his own image. He borrowed as never before, in vain hopes of kicking-starting a natural recovery that he would soon abort through his own anti-business jawboning, more regulations, growth in government, and tax increases.
So far Obama’s legacy is a sudden crash in energy prices and an unforeseen huge expansion in U.S. oil and gas production that came despite -- not because of -- his efforts.
Indeed, Obama scarcely succeeded in ramming through Obamacare — and only through untruths that it would lower costs and premiums, expand coverage, and ensure continuance of existing plans and patient doctors — and then wisely quit trying to strong-arm other legislation that could have cost him the 2012 election.
Lies about a renegade video maker causing the deaths in Benghazi, an Al Qaeda “on the run,” and “leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant” Iraq after the U.S. pullout, as well as calcified “Bush did it” smears, relieved just enough voters of their unease over a growing mess abroad.
In other words, Obama and his party wanted to keep winning elections, and therefore apparently felt that they would not if they openly pushed a liberal agenda that was unpopular with the American people.
Obama had been elected in 2008 not on what he stood for or wished to accomplish — indeed voters had no idea of what "hope and change" actually meant — but largely for his iconic status as the first mixed-race president, and because of a perfect storm of events that favored his nontraditional Perot-like candidacy: the September 14, 2008, financial meltdown that at last saw him take a permanent lead in the polls, unhappiness over the Iraq war, the absence of an incumbent vice president or president in the race (the first time since 1952), and John McCain’s lackluster campaign whose central premise was to avoid any negative campaigning that might be libeled as racially driven. The result was that voters did what they had never done in the last half-century: elected a liberal from north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Obama’s dilemma was the same one facing the new nihilistic Democratic Party. Its agenda, once equal opportunity was achieved, became an equality of result, engineered and coerced by the federal government — an ideology opposed by a majority of Americans. The natural expressions of that nihilism were symbolically expressed in the strange careers of "Mattress Girl," Sandra Fluke, Ahmed the clockmaker, Eric Holder, the National Council of La Raza, and Jonathan Butler, the multimillionaire’s son who went on a hunger strike in Missouri. Its iconographies were the Pajama Boy ads, the "Life of Julia" video, and the hockey-stick climate graph.
The ideological success of Obama-ism, to the degree that it exists, rests largely in using sympathetic media, universities, foundations, the entertainment industry, and billionaire progressive activists — in the other words, the small but highly wealthy, influential and powerful coastal populations — to convince Americans that it is hip and cool to support agendas that they otherwise suspect, and to scare them that the alternative is a racist, sexist, homophobic America run by wealthy, cruel white male Christians.
The goal of mass migration, open borders, and an expansion of the welfare state was to create new voters, who would be both dependent on those who administered and promised greater government largess and yet enraged at those privileged enough to pay for it. The message was embedded within the non-ending administration disparagement ("spread the wealth," "you didn’t build that," "no time to profit," "punish our enemies," "nation of cowards," "my people") and presidential incitement in the Ferguson and Travyon Martin cases.
Otherwise, there is no Democratic agenda per se that is workable. Progressivism has become as nihilistic as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the cry-bully movement on campuses—all liberal children that devoured their parents while winning zero support among the populace.
Note how Hillary has no real blueprint and will end up trimming Obama-ism. What might she advocate?
More deficit priming to go beyond the $20 billion debt?
Years more of zero interest rates?
An expansion of Obamacare?
Mandatory cap-and-trade?
More open borders and sanctuary cities?
Greater withdrawal from the world abroad? Another reset? Much needed reductions in the defense budget?
More of the same from the GSA, EPA, Justice Department, IRS, NSA, Secret Service or VA?
Obama-ism accepts that intrusive government, fueled by equality-of-result ideology and pop multiculturalism, has few answers to today’s existential crises. Will we really stop terrorism by banning semi-automatic weapons (as well as box cutters, pipe bombs, and remote-driven toys?), on the theory that taking away guns from those who follow existing gun laws will make us safer from thugs and terrorists [and crazies off their meds] who don’t?
Since the government could do nothing about enforcing the ban on the transference (illegal without re-registration) from friend to friend of weapons used by terrorists, or the illegal modification of weapons, in the San Bernardino shootings, can it at least achieve psychological penance by outlawing some other models used by law-abiding citizens who might comply?
Perhaps the liberal solution to ending the threat of jihadism is to further expand government indoctrination about the dangers of Islamophobia?
Or let in more refugees from the war-torn Middle East to expose them to the benefits of pluralistic democracy and multicultural tolerance and thus to mitigate radical Islam by hearts-and-minds outreach?
Or eliminate coal burning to stop global-warming-induced Middle East terrorism?
Or do we need still more presidential speeches damning the Crusades and high-horse Christianity, while apologizing for slavery, racism, genocide, climate change, and inequality — to convince radical Islam that their furor has a “rationale” and “legitimate” basis and thus we understand why we are their enemy?
Or change more vocabulary to mask reality, to build upon terrorism as workplace violence, jihad as a personal odyssey and the Muslim Brotherhood as largely secular? On the theory that gravity did not exist until the post-Newtonian world found a name for it, so too Islamic terrorism will perish if we banish its nomenclature. Is that why President Obama called the San Bernardino violence the result of generic “extremist ideologies"?
At last Obama has no more elections to worry about and can begin “to fundamentally transform” America in a way his electoral worries restrained him on four prior occasions. His dilemma is that he has lost all legislative and popular support for his agenda, and now relies either on executive orders or public petulance to demonize, slander, or otherwise reduce his critics and opponents to caricature. The president gets away with it due to the media stereotype that a) Obama was a constitutional law “professor” (once upon a time part-time lecturers claiming that they were full professors was a pedantic campus sin) who would correct past Bush legal overreach, and b) Obama was once a healer and so would never do what he now precisely does.
So we are left with liberal nihilism for the next 13 months. A self-described constitutional law professor will seek to unravel the Constitution in ever more ingenious ways, and as a "hope and change" healer he will tear the country apart through as many fault lines that he can leverage as possible.
What is the alternative to such nihilism? A new liberal agenda that will win over the American people, jumpstart the economy, pay down the debt and restore solvency, keep us secure here and abroad, and unite the people?
It [(for those in Rio Linda, a non-suicidal leftie agenda)] does not exist, because it could not exist. [My emphasis.]

N.B. The term “bubble head” which I have used in my custom designed bitly.com links in this post/email (their sidebar/popup tool is particularly useful) does not primarily imply that lefies are empty-headed. Bubble head, analogous to pot (marijuana) head or (Grateful) Dead head, refers to their addiction to existence within the leftie/liberal/progressive/Marxist/fellow traveler/useful idiot/etc. bubble that our big ed/big media/big gov/ big finance/big psych pointy headed pseudo-intellectual elites have carefully constructed to keep them free from contamination by common sense, non-PC notions, and other dangers to the delicate sensibilities of men without training in normal fertile and generous emotion, our new castrati.
* - Text of verses cited above:
2 Peter 2:22 KJV But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Isaiah 55:3 KJV Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
John 5:24 KJV Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Revelation 22:17 KJV ¶ And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
I2C 151207aa Ecc2v11 Leftie Emptyness | I2C | 151207 1055 et

Sunday, December 06, 2015

Lev19v9to10 Automated gleaning

Lev. 19:9-10 KJV ¶ And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Full Disclosure
One. I have long believed that our biggest social problem is the obsolescence of human labor.
Two. With a relatively minuscule developmental effort machines can be programmed to outperform humans in most present employment categories, from street cleaners to medical practitioners.
Three. In the age of automation it is absolutely absurd to regard full employment as a valid social goal.
Four. The state guarantee to its citizens (and to residents that the citizens accept) of a sufficient income for a comfortable existence will be as practical and morally correct as the provisions for the poor and for strangers were in the Law that God gave to His earthly People, Israel.

Finland is considering giving every citizen €800 a month

Under proposals being draw up by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela), this national basic income would replace all other benefit payments, and would be paid to all adults regardless of whether or not they receive any other income.
Unemployment in Finland is currently at record levels, and the basic income is intended to encourage more people back to work. At present, many unemployed people would be worse off if they took on low-paid temporary jobs due to loss of welfare payments.
More than 10 per cent of Finland's workforce is currently unemployed, rising to 22.7 per cent among younger workers.
According to research commissioned by Kela, close to 69 per cent of the Finnish population favours the idea of a national basic income.
Detractors caution that a basic income would remove people's incentive to work and lead to higher unemployment. Those in favour point to previous experiments where a basic income has been successfully trialed. The Canadian town of Dauphin experimented with a basic income guarantee in the 1970s and the results - both social and economic - were largely positive.
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä supports the idea, saying: “For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system.”
The basic income will cost Finland roughly €46.7 billion per year if fully implemented. Kela's proposals are due to be submitted in November 2016.
The Dutch city of Utrecht is also planning to introduce a basic income, albeit solely for welfare recipients. From next month more than 250 unemployed residents of the city will be given a monthly sum to live on, with researchers monitoring the outcome to determine what effect it has on employment.
Switzerland is also considering introducing a national basic income. In September the Swiss parliament voted, with a large majority, for a motion calling on the Swiss people to reject the Popular Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income. However, a nationwide referendum on the issue is slated for 2016 and, according to a recent online poll, 49% of the Swiss would currently vote in favour of its introduction. [My emphasis.]
I2C 151206ba Lev19v9to10 Automated gleaning | I2C | 151206 2030 et

1Jo4v3 O for Treemas

1 John 4:3 KJV And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Rev. 3:6 KJV He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. [N.B. This admonition in these words is given to each of the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 3 and 4.]

_ All of us, at times, can be in the wrong spirit, but ...

President Obama Leaves Christ Out of Christmas

This year, the ABC network television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (which first aired on CBS) turns 50, and ABC had a party to celebrate. When it was Obama’s turn to speak, he explained Christmas by saying -- and I quote -- “tiny trees just need a little love, and that on this holiday, we celebrate peace on earth and goodwill to all.”
Good Grief! Even Christmas is about the environment? Is nothing sacred from politicking? Granted, conservatives sometimes go overboard when it comes to the “War on Christmas” -- with the non-scandal of Starbucks’ Christmas cups as an egregious example. What Donald Trump was thinking by giving it legitimacy, no one knows. But this statement by Obama -- this really is a travesty.
Obama’s Statement
Here is Obama’s full statement, in case a patriotic American hoped that our president did not just remove Jesus Christ from the “true meaning of Christmas”:
President Barack Obama: “Hi, everybody! We’ll be brief because we know that adults all sound like “wa, wa, wa, wa, wa,” especially here in Washington.”
First Lady Michelle Obama: “Good Grief!”
Obama: “But, we want to wish a happy 50th Anniversary to one of our country’s most beloved traditions, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.'”
Michelle: “For half a century, people of all ages have gathered around the TV to watch Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and the rest of the gang, teach us the true meaning of Christmas.” (HERE IT COMES, FOLKS)
Obama: “They teach us that tiny trees just need a little love, and that on this holiday, we celebrate peace on earth and goodwill toward all.”
Michelle: “Because, as Linus knows, that’s what Christmas is all about.”
The Charlie Brown Version
Oh really, Miss First Lady, Linus would beg to differ. Here he is, on the first Christmas Special, telling Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about:
Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights please!”
And there were, in the same country, shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night,” Linus narrates, quoting from Luke 2, the old King James Version. “And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.”
And the angel said unto them, fear not! For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord! And this shall be a sign unto you -- ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
Linus continues, “And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.'”
Simply and humbly, Linus concludes, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
The True Meaning of Christmas
There it is. The true meaning of Christmas, according to the Christian tradition, is Jesus Christ. This remarkable person is the reason for the season -- the Son of Man, who is fully God and miraculously fully a human being, like you and me. Christians celebrate Christmas (the Mass of Christ) because we believe something truly incredible -- that God became Man, and dwelt among us.
Next to the Resurrection, this is the most important doctrine in Christianity. It is the reason why Christmas hymns celebrate “Joy to the World - the Lord is come,” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing - Glory to the Newborn King!” In a little stable in the backwater town of Bethlehem in the outskirts of the Roman Empire, a baby was born. That baby is the Creator of the universe, the one true King of all humanity, the Word by which God spoke all things into being.
In Christian doctrine, all men and women have sinned and deserve death and hell. God, by sending his Son Jesus Christ, and by allowing Him to die upon the cross, gave sinful human beings a way to atone for their sin, and live forever in heaven with Him. Only a perfect sacrifice could atone for sin, and so the redeemer had to be perfect, and He was.
Christmas for over 1,000 years has been about the miracle of Jesus Christ’s birth. “Peace on Earth” and “Goodwill to Men,” as Linus said, are made possible through the birth of Jesus. And even the Christmas tree is a celebration of Jesus, not nature.
Obama, by contrast, emphasized the tree, the peace, and goodwill, without one mention of God, Jesus, or the story that clearly inspired “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” While the TV special quotes scripture in detail, the president mentions one tradition or two, and then his wife triumphantly declares “that’s what Christmas is all about!”
No, Mister President, Christmas is not about green energy, your efforts at world peace, or the politically correct replacement of the Anglo-Saxon word “men” with the Norman word “all.” The trees, the peace, and the goodwill have one source -- and that is none other than Jesus Christ. Obama says he’s proud to be a Christian, but statements like this make him seem ashamed of the Gospel, and encourage Christians to feel ever more isolated in the political realm. [My emphasis.]
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