From Green to Red (Special Thanks to Fox News' The Five)

Did you hear this one?  Probably not.  It was discovered that a hospital in the UK was shoveling children into the incinerator.  This wasn't cremation.  This was the incinerator used to heat the hospital.

The media isn't covering this, because they get money from groups like Planned Parenthood, and they don't want to "hurt" the business of murder.  I learned about this story from my favorite new show, Fox News' The Five, which features Five opinion people from across the political spectrum, who discuss the news.  They range from and advisor for Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter, to a W. press secretary to libertarians.  If you have access, watch it.  It has become one of my favorite shows.

Back to the topic, a woman had a miscarriage and asked for the body of her baby, to give him/her a proper burial.  She was informed that her baby would be thrown into the incinerator, "like the rest of the garbage."

I'm sorry, why is executing McVeigh or bin Laden evil, but an innocent child is garbage?  Why do we wonder while childhood suicide rates are so high while telling them they are garbage, to be burned like the box your Big Mac came in.  Wonderful. 

This is disgusting.  The hospital has vowed to stop the practice, but this is too little to late for me. 

They've turned Green to Red.

In trying to save the planet and use less electricity, they decided to burn unborn children.  This lady who lost her child would love nothing more than to have one, and other people kill theirs.  It's not just the practice that is disgusting.  It's the principle.  Somewhere people decided that what has become a false, cultish belief that human beings destroy the earth by existing, is more important than humanity.  They'd rather not kill a petunia, so let's kill a few million people instead. 

Hey, Auschwitz must have been really green!  Look at how many people they burned?

People who promote, profit from, and practice abortion have blood on their hands.  The Earth was created for us.  God told us to care for it.  He created this wonderful thing to show us Him.  Why worship the creation when we can worship the creator?  This is almost as if you liked a painting so much, you killed the artist.  That is insane.

So is burning innocent babies.  It's insane.  Detestable.  An abomination.  A real-life nightmare.

Playing with Fire

Sorry for the long-time-no-post.  Moving will do that to you.

So yesterday I spent a day burning a brush pile.  A big, old one.  I, being a responsible person, watched the fire all day, making sure it didn't get out of control or light up the neighbor's yard.

I had a lot of time to stand and think.  Two things went through my mind.  The first of them was all those survival shows.  Second was all those places in the Bible where God chose to represent Himself with fire.  Those things combined into some interesting thoughts.  So here are some ways how God is like fire.

Fire is powerful.  Some might even say dangerous.  And God, well "He's not tame, but He's good." (C.S. Lewis)  God has terrible destructive power, which is not to be underestimated, just like a fire, or it will consume you.

We depend on fire for nearly everything.  Those survival shows (even Survivor) talk about how fire is life.  Cooking, clean water (boiling), warmth, protection, even transportation.  Yet it's something we take completely for granted (until it isn't there).  In the same way, we depend on God for everything, yet we take Him for granted as well. 

Fire is very fickle.  Fire is tough to get going.  I started the brush fire in five places, and only one of them worked.  Some of them were too wet.  I needed wind (but not too much).  I needed fuel.  I had to babysit it all day, or it wouldn't work.  Ok, God isn't like that.  But our relationship with Him is.  It is tough, like most relationships.  If we let it, sin, laziness, or even busyness will take us away from God.  It will put out that fire before we have a chance.  We have to work hard at it, or it simply won't work.

Backpacking

I love the great outdoors. Indoors has comfort. Outdoors had adventure, challenge, freedom, and fresh air. Indoors has TV shows about nature. Outdoors had the full beauty of creation. Indoors has the internet. Outdoors has real life.

Yeah. I wish I had time to be outdoors.

I wish a had a place to be outdoors.

I'm househunting right now. I wish I had property. You know, a place with grass and trees. A place that I could just spend the night outside without having to locate a partner and go somewhere. Maybe that's just a guy thing.

Don't get me wrong. I love backpacking trails with friends (or even foolishly alone). I've bought a bunch of gear just for that purpose. But then I'm limited by schedules and other stuff that means I just don't get to do it, even though buying the gear makes me feel optomistic. Well, as much as I get anyway.

Sigh.

I've got to get outside or I'm going to blow.

"2011 sucks"

That is a quote from a friend of mine. This came when I called him with yet another prayer request. My notebook of requests has a longer list then usual. The particular request comes with a story.

My mother works at the same elementary school that my sister and I attended. One of the teachers there is a lovely lady, whose oldest daughter was a classmate of mine. They both came to the visitation when Dad passed. Dad had always kidded with everyone. This lady was a second grade teacher when I was a student there. Dad always told the kids that she was his second grade teacher too, even though she was younger than he was (kids aren't good at guessing ages, and always believed him). He even told my entire class that while accompanying me on a 2nd grade field trip.

Anyway, her husband Danny passed away suddenly from streptocaucal pneumonia, which is strep that turns to pneumonia (and no, I have no idea if that is spelled correctly). In a little country elementary school, she is the third lady to lose her husband since Christmas, all of whom I knew to one degree or another. One, named Ken (aka "Little Ope" to people who went to NHHS), died of cancer, Dad of heart, and Danny of strep. This was followed shortly by one of mom's best friends (who also works at this school) learning her mother had cirosis of the liver even though she has one drink of champagne at a New Years' party each year, and that's the only alchohol. Then the music teacher's mom died suddenly over the weekend. "What is going on here?" my mom asked in frustration.

Add into that my friend, that I was telling this to, whose car started having alternator problems, serpentine belt snapped, and started leaking coolant. His hours were cut back at work, his pregnant wife lost her job, and has been unable to find another. After all, no one is going to hire a very pregnant woman.

These may seem relatively small, but are fairly damaging to the people involved. Japan however, is large relative to... pretty much anything you want to compare it to.

Matthew 24:4-8
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
NIV

As Kyle Idleman pointed out, there is a funny thing about birth pains. As it gets closer to time, they get more frequent and more intense.

Jesus said no one knows the day and the hour when he would return, so don't even try to figure it out. But, we know that the time is getting closer, so be ready. Have you fully committed yourself to Jesus? Have you shared the gospel with those around you who haven't accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord? Who do you want with you in heaven? What have you done to get them there?

Wilderness

This weekend, I got to relax. How? By loading as much camping gear as I could carry and hiking into the wilderness. My friend and I called it "Man Weekend." This was the second year we had done this. Last year, another friend of ours was able to come also.

As men, it is important for us to go out in wilderness. We got away from choked cities and breathed fresh air. We hiked trails through untamed wilderness. We chopped firewood and made fire. We peed on trees. We saw stars without light pollution to hide them. We heard two owls vying for territory. We slept outdoors. We filtered water from mountain streams and ate jerky.

There is something deep in us that is called to the wild. Because God may move in the cities, but He met us in the woods. God created Adam in the wilderness and brought him to the garden. Eve was made in the garden. God met Abraham on a mountain. He wrestled Jacob under the stars. He met Moses alone on a mountain. God strengthened David in a cave. He fed Elijah by and open stream, and passed by him in an open cave. He worked with John in the dessert. He sent Jesus to the wilderness, and to a mountain grove. And he appeared to Paul not in the city, but along the road.

You do not fully appreciate Beethoven until you hear his music. You do not appreciate Michelangelo until you see his sculptures or murals. How can you appreciate the Creator without experiencing creation?

Gulf Oil Crisis

Day 50. Wow. Time for me to post.

First, let me say I am in the minority of people on this issue. I think Pres. Obama isn't doing as bad of a job as people say. He's responding at the level that a President should. There are two camps of critics: those that believe that the government is the answer for everything and those that are just mad because Bush got so much crap for Katrina (By the way, according to federal law before a president can intervene, the governor has to request help. Bush actually broke to law to send in FEMA without request.) His response is adequate for his responsibilities.

The problem is the age old problem, greed. BP, instead of plugging the "d%@# hole" as our president so eloquently put it, is still trying to get all that oil. They don't want to stop it. They want to control it so they can get the money. I'm about to the point that I think they should award a contract to any company that wants to drill a relief well and get some competition to get there fast.

Another problem is with the freaking tree huggers. This well is in water that is so deep, it makes everything more difficult. If they were allowed to drill off Alaska where the waters were shallower, they could have stopped this. Trying to be ecologically sound, they actually made the problems worse. Irony of ironies.

Moving to a related topic: gas prices. This seems like the perfect excuse for price gouging, but prices aren't moving up. Why? For starters, with the bad economy and people cutting back, they would actually cause people to cut on travel, even get rid of vacations. Second, and more importantly, by keeping prices low, (with people already boycotting BP over anger from the spills) they force BP to keep prices low when expenses are high. They may actually be able to force British Petroleum to cut things, maybe even close down from American shores. Don't think that hasn't crossed Exxon or Marathon's minds.

Baby Its Cold Outside

There used to be a lot of talk about Global Warming. "By 2020, Boston will be underwater." -John Kerry. Melting of the polar ice caps. Holes in the Ozone. All caused by polution?

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but political entities are not reporting all the facts, either to get reelected (Pelosi) or to make money (Gore). Bottom line is, its a load of crap.

In Tennesee, companies are allowed so many "credits" that represent the amount of polution they are allowed to create. Unused credits are allowed to be sold. Al Gore's business has and sells plenty of unused credits... to Al Gore! His house uses more electricity and creates more pollution than most small towns in America. He doesn't believe and doesn't follow the same rules he makes a buck off of, now that's the incovient truth!

Diane Saywer in an interview with Gore pointed out that meat processing plants are one of the big polluters in America, and quoted a scientist who said that any true enviromentalist would be a vegetarian. She then asked him if he would give up cheeseburgers. He simply said, "No." He should smell what he's shoveling, because it sure ain't truth!

Nancy Pelosi would also tell you that she cares for the enviroment and the poor. Yet she recently decided she could not fly in her private Gulf Stream jet anymore, because it had to refuel in Kansas City. Instead, she bought a Boeing 757, which gets half the fuel economy, but has larger tanks so it doesn't have to stop to refuel. Tell you what, you want me to believe this crap? Fly Delta like the rest of us.

Now many would try to convince you that I am some right-wing Republic tool, who believes that the moon landing was faked and Elvis went back to his homeworld, but I'm not. I learned recently that in northern Greenland, where the ice caps are melting, they have found Viking settlements dating back to the Dark Ages, showing that Global Warming has happened before. They also noticed that plant life in general has been growing better since the warming (gee, imagine that, its actually GOOD for the enviroment) allowing them to track similar patterns in history. This seems to be a thousand year cycle of warming and cooling.

Couple that with the fact that the earth has COOLED since 2000. That's why you don't hear Global Warming anymore. Its now called "climate change." As I said, I am no conspiracy theorist. I just heard about the global cooling and the Viking settlement discoveries and started to dig. I don't care what they can make money on, I want to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I dug and found this. I'll keep digging, and keep believing this until I find something else. Until then...