Pro-homosexual book in Scholastic book fairs
From the Illinois Family Institute:
The famous — and soon to be infamous — Scholastic Books has decided to include the pro-homosexual book for 9-12 year-olds, Luv Ya Bunches, in its middle school book fairs. This troubling book is already in the Scholastic Book Club catalogue, which is distributed to elementary school children.
Meaning that at the very least public school children will have the opportunity to buy this trash.
No GOP proposals until now, AP claims from an alternate reality
The Associated Press, historically a great news service, tipped its hand Tuesday by letting through a story with wild-eyed inaccuracy, claiming in its lead that Republicans until now haven’t come up with any of their own health care proposals.
The story by Erica Werner says that
After months spent criticizing Democrats’ health overhaul plans, House Republicans have produced a draft proposal of their own. It’s much shorter and focuses on bringing down costs rather than extending coverage to nearly all Americans.
Actually, Republicans produced a “draft proposal of their own” as far back as May. That’s when Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Rep. Devin Nunes of California and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin offered their own version of health care reform, “Patients’ Choice Act.” It was introduced in both houses of Congress on May 20, 2009. Another bill was later offered by Rep. Tom Price of Georgia.
In his Sept. 8 address to a joint session of Congress, Barack Obama claimed that Republicans hadn’t offered any alternatives. He did this while Republicans held up copies of their health care bills. The news media couldn’t ignore this, at least not then. Apparently, they’re back to ignoring it, at least in whatever world Werner and Obama live in.
The AP inaccuracy was a result of one of the following:
- Werner really didn’t know that more than one GOP bill had been introduced, albeit ignored. In that case, what’s she doing writing about national policy debates?
- She knew, but wanted to mislead her readers. Hard to believe, coming from the great AP, but possible.
- The story was rewritten at the editing level and Werner’s name left on it.
At any rate, it’s hard to understand how such an inaccuracy survived the editing process. Everybody makes mistakes, but this is a doozy.
International Day of Prayer for my real heroes
At some point in my late 20s, I decided that I had three heroes: Roald Amundsen, the Swedish explorer who was first to read the South Pole; Bob Gibson, the Cardinals pitcher who had a fierce desire to win; and Bob Dylan, the best American poet of the 20th century (and the 21st, so far). You could probably throw in people like Golda Meir, the late prime minister of Israel, and Kenneth Starr, who bullheadedly led the prosecution of Bill Clinton.
And, after 2001, you could also include so many members of our police and fire departments.
I still admire these men and women for their accomplishments and courage, but my standard for “heroes” has changed.
Now my heroes are the Christians who endure persecution because they believe in Christ as savior and refuse to recant that belief. They end up in jails, prisons, torture chambers. They are beaten, raped, insulted. They are charged, enticed, lured. They are attacked, stalked, raided.
They are people like Asia Bibi, who was jailed in June 2009 after defending her faith to some Pakistani Muslim women.
They are people like Pastors Philip, Timothy and Siluvai Kumar who were injured when Hindu extremists barged in on a prayer meeting of 40 people and began beating Christians. (Also beaten were Pastor Philip’s pregnant wife and their 18-month-old daughter.)
They are people like Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh, Iranian Christians who are going to be charged with apostasy and “propagation of the gospel.” They have been in prison for months and are suffering from a variety of illnesses.
They are people like Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, who has been missing since being hauled away from his home in February by Chinese police. Reports indicate that he is undergoing brutal torture.
The Lord has strongly blessed our and other nations with freedoms and material wealth. It is our job to share that material wealth with those who are being persecuted, and to pray for them on a daily basis.
We can start by observing the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, being observed this year on Sunday, Nov. 8 (or Nov. 7 if you’re a Sabbath keeper like me).
We can continue by staying up to date on the persecuted church at sites like the Voice of the Martyrs, Compass Direct News and many other support organizations (listed here). That way we know what to pray for.
We can send Action Paks through VOM.
We can write letters to imprisoned Christians, in their own languages, through PrisonerAlert.com.
But if we do nothing, we are in direct disobedience to Scripture, which commands us to “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3, NASB).
Pelosi-speak: Mandate=choice.
Speakerette of the House Nancy Pelosi says that what Congress is really offering in its health care reform bills is a “consumer option,” not a public option:
“As we’re mandating that people buy insurance we are saying to them, you have leverage, you have another choice. This is your consumer option.” To back up her point, Pelosi said that the program would be self-sustaining and benefits would be paid for by premiums, not taxpayers.
Point 1: She actually managed to say that the government would both mandate insurance and offer a choice. Translation: We will remove your choice to buy insurance and offer you a choice of which insurance to buy. Take with one hand … well, take with one hand.
Point 2: The program will be “self-sustaining” and won’t be paid by taxpayers. Uh-huh, and Social Security will only put out benefits already paid in by the beneficiaries, and so will Medicare. Taxpayers won’t be affected by this at all. Nope, no way. Move on. Nothing to see here. Uh-huh. Liberal Democrats are going to institute a massive public insurance program that won’t affect taxes. And you can set up an ice cream concession in hell, too.
Where does it say the Torah will be abolished?
Aaron Eby of First Fruits of Zion has a great post up at ffoz.org, “The Double Standard of Abolishing Torah.”
Working from how the U.S. Constitution would continue to function even if a U.S. president perfectly carried out its mandates, Eby argues that
Likewise, the Torah does not include any provision that one may cancel it by keeping every law.
Indeed, I’m not aware of any provision in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament that the Torah would cease to function even if somebody perfectly lived it out, as Yeshua (Jesus) did. That teaching was developed by post-apostolic Christians.
Aaron concludes:
It is hypocritical to demand that Israel’s constitution [the Torah] be abolished and replaced by a few ethical sentiments, while at the same time devoting oneself to the preservation of your secular nation’s legal framework. How can Christians keep and enforce the laws of secular governments, which are the mere products of human reasoning, while abolishing the legal system established by God? Which one is more enduring, righteous, profound, and true?
White House critique of the news media
Not since the Nixon administration have we had a White House from which something like this could come:
“We’re doing what we think is important to make sure news is covered as fairly as possible,” a White House official told POLITICO, noting how the recent ACORN scandal story started because Fox covered it “breathlessly for weeks on end.”
The source is talking, of course, about the White House’s declaration that Fox News is not a real news organization. (A friend of mine pointed out that this could be said of all TV news outlets, but I digress.)
My question is, why in the world should anyone in the White House be worried about how a news org is covering something? Where in the Constitution does it say that the federal government is responsible for how a news organization covers something?
This is something that is normally discussed in a classroom or in the media, or on the Net. In other words, by private citizens. But it’s totally inappropriate for the White House to take upon itself the role of judging the validity of a news organization. And they know it, too. Witness this give-and-take between ABC’s Jake Tapper and the White House’s Robert Gibbs.
What’s next? Movie recommendations? CD suggestions?
This is another example of Barack Obama’s unfitness to govern.
3 or so questions: Seth Ben-Ezra
The first installment of RPG author Seth Ben-Ezra’s answers is up at 3 or so questions.
Pray for Chris Klicka of HSLDA
The sad news about Chris Klicka, attorney for Home School Legal Defense Association, is that he might not have long to live:
Chris Klicka, HSLDA’s first full-time attorney, who has been fighting multiple sclerosis for many years, became very ill at our National Leaders Conference in Colorado last week. Chris was admitted to St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs but has since been moved to hospice care.
His wife, Tracy, wrote the following this afternoon:
We want to give you an update on how Chris is doing. He is still with us, but is making a steady transition toward going home to be with our heavenly Father.
Yesterday morning, John and his daddy had a blessed reunion. He spent a long time on the bed with his dad, just resting his head on his daddy’s shoulder.
Later in the afternoon, with friends and family gathered around, we sang praises to the Lord at Chris’ request. Even in his reduced condition, he was spiritually leading us!
Chris has been a thoroughly dependable man at HSLDA (not that the others there aren’t). He has worked tirelessly to make sure homeschoolers are treated properly by governments and school districts in all 50 states. One of the reassuring things about being a member of HSLDA is that you know Chris Klicka has your back. The fact that he has had MS for so many years just makes his work even more amazing.
I pray for comfort for his family and comfort for Chris in these difficult hours. The good news is that Chris has accepted the good news and is a believer in Messiah. His departure, while sad for us, would be a time of joy for him.
If you want to send donations to Chris’ family, view here and scroll down a bit for instructions.
Give credit …
Earlier this year, I dogged George Stephanopoulos and other liberal media types for rolling over for a tummy rub from the Zero.
But Stephanopoulos showed he had some bite in his bark as the only interviewer on Zero’s 9/20 media tour who challenged him.
When President Barack Obama was confronted by ABC New’s George Stephanopoulos in regard to the excise tax, he continually tip-toed around an explanation. When Stephanopoulos read the definition of tax from Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, Obama provided an arrogant response that questioned Stephanopoulos’ reasoning for reading the dictionary.
The insanity
The Zero’s foreign policy is being revealed to be as insane as Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president of Honduras.
William A. Jacobson, a Cornell U law professor who blogs at Legal Insurrection, nails it in this post:
As reported in the Miami Herald, Zelaya’s insanity is seeping out. Zelaya claims he is the victim of radiation and mind control experiments and is being targeted by Israeli mercenaries.
This is the man the Obama administration has been trying hard to restore to power in Honduras. A crazy, power-hungry tyrant in the image of Hugo Chavez, Muammar al-Khadaffi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
By taking Zelaya’s side, the Obama administration has betrayed an ally and friend. More important, the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been revealed to be as insane as Zelaya.
We bully our friends, twist the concept of the rule of law to portray our allies as criminals, and impose sanctions and other get-tough tactics only against people who like us. A foreign policy gone mad, in which good is bad and friend is foe.
I really hope the Obama administration learns the right lessons from its failed love affair with the crazy Zelaya. But I won’t hold my breath on that one.
Obama’s central America policy is shaping up to be about as helpful as Jimmy ”I Surrender!!” Carter’s was.
