There is an saying, attributed commonly I believe (without resorting to Wiki or Google) to the Chinese, “May you live in interesting times.” Well … It was offered at work because of snow conditions in Northern Indiana perhaps I should postpone my drive a day or so. I Googled, and didn’t see much.

Well, Northern Indiana was OK. Central Indiana not so much. That part of the drive was “interesting” but while traffic slowed to 40 or so for about 20 minutes of the drive the three or four cars in the ditch were unoccupied, indicating that the occupants had already been eaten by bandicoots. Uhm, I mean that traffic safety personnel marked the cars and transported the affected individuals to warmth and safety. Eastern Ohio and Western Penn on the other hand with night falling and lots of blowing snow was a bit more ridiculous. Lots of cars off the road, many still with occupants. I have driven longish distances on snow covered roads (Green Bay to Chicago in a storm for example). This was some of the worst conditions I’ve experienced. In the blowing snow the roads were mostly OK in Pennsylvania on I-80 (in Ohio prior to Youngstown on there was significant buildup on the roads) but the visibility was quite bad. Most of the traffic on the roads were trucks. One thing I’ve never seen, the truckers all kept flashing their emergency lights when conditions got bad. Most of us car drivers followed suit. 

Anyhow, I’ve stopped a little West of where I’d planned to be … but will be in Jersey in the late morning. 

The deficit commission that President Obama convened agrees that most of ObamaCare should be kept.  Unfortunately, they believe in order to keep it fiscally sustainable is for it to include Death Panels.  They laughed at Sarah Palin for predicting this.  I don’t hear anyone laughing now.

Speaking of Sarah Palin, Richard Cohen (no conservative, he) just can stop reading about (and apparently, can’t stop writing about) the former Alaska governor.  And in writing about her and her beliefs, he includes this bit of honesty:

The left just doesn’t get America. I say this as a fellow-traveler of liberalism and as one who recognizes that many liberals fear the heartland. They see it as a dark place of primitive religions and too many guns. For such a person, Palin is the perfect personification of the unknown and feared Ugly American who will emerge from the heartland to seize Washington, turning off all the lights and casting America into darkness. The left does not merely disagree with the right; it fears it.

Hospitals closing or ridden with crime.  Doctors quitting the medical practice or leaving the country to find greener pastures in which to practice.  Shortages of medical supplies.  While these are predictions of what will come with ObamaCare, we have yet another example of where socialized medicine is failing.  Mr. Obama, call Mr. Chavez to find out how well it’s working in Venezuela.  (Hint:  It’s not.)

The Christmas song “Silver Bells” was inspired by the sound of Salvation Army bell-ringers outside department stores.  But apparently familiarity breeds contempt.

The character of Aslan in the Narnia series of books, as well established in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, is an allegory for Jesus Christ.  That was C. S. Lewis’ purpose.  But Liam Neeson, who provides the voice for Aslan in the movie series, has apparently been infected with the political correctness syndrome that pervades Hollywood.

Ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next Thursday, Neeson said: ‘Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

‘That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.’

Mohammed and Buddha died for your sins?  Really?

Does Romans chapter 1 condemn homosexuality?  Some interpret it in such a way that it doesn’t, in spite of the words chosen.  John Stott takes apart such interpretations.

Bryan Longworth had an interesting tweet the other day.  “Comprehensive sex ed has been taught in schools 4 over 40 years. The results? Epedemic #STIs. How’s perversion working 4 U?”  Not so well, judging by the results.

And finally, Chuck Asay has some words for Democrats who are ostensibly fighting for the workers.  (Click for a larger version.)

Good morning.

Education.

1. US and not-US.
2. Spending and results.
3. Economics. (HT: Mankiw).
4. Advice for parents.

Furren Affairs

1. Islam and fear in the US.
2. Next up for Mr Assange’s projects.
3. Killing.
4. Movement.

Theology and thoughts

1. I think “happy, friendly” are not very good adjectives in that sentence.
2. Three friends.
3. Numbers and proof.

Humor.

1. Heh.
2. Awwwww.

Unions were among the big proponents of the health care ‘reform’ bill that the Democrats passed in a ‘unipartisan’ manner.  Now, some of those unions are opt-ing out of it.  Nearly 50 unions at this point have decided that this ‘reform’ is just not for them. 

And some of the country’s larger companies, covering over 1.5 million people, are opting out as well; Waffle House, McDonald’s, Universal Orlando theme park, Ingles supermarkets, Cracker Barrel, DISH Network, Aetna and Jack in the Box, not to mention the health care companies on the list. 

Now, it’s reasonable to understand that not every company is going to save money with this ‘reform’.  To which I say, that’s the reason a one-size-fits-all solution, doesn’t.  And can’t.  And shouldn’t be forced on anyone who doesn’t have the clout to opt-out.

Good morning.

1. Examining big government in a “follow the money” sort of manner.
2. Maximally bad payroll tax cut.
3. A problem with many popular macro-economic models is they have no spatial dependence.
4. A long criticism of Keynesian stimulus. (Update: missing link added)
5. Our government stimulus in action. Or not.
6. A curious notion, that after the new class goes to Congress the GOP will have effective control … seemingly in a way that exceeds the control that that the Dems exercised they controlled both houses and the Presidency.
7. Wildlife highway.
8. A government break in … and a moral drawn. It seems to me one missing moral (not drawn) is that when you decide to own a gun and aren’t in wartime you never ever ever ever [repeat] fire at a target you can’t see and fully identify.
9. People doing stuff.
10. Liberals hoisted (yet again) by their petard. Hmm, I thought the more significant petard hoisting regarding the left is that after decades putting barriers to industrial expansion they suddenly find that there are no “shovel ready” projects for their vaunted stimulus.
11. A duel re-imagined.
12. Wikileaks and WMD.
13. Election tech.

They existed, and probably still exist, though in other hands.  Again, this comes to us from the Wikileaks espionage, but it at least confirms what we already knew (and what the media wouldn’t tell us nor the Left believe).

The release by Julian Assange’s web site Wikileaks of classified documents reveals that U.S. military intelligence discovered chemical weapons labs, encountered insurgents who were specialists in the creation of toxins, and uncovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, Washington, DC officials and the news media have ignored this information.

One of the WikiLeaks document dumps reveals that as late as 2008, American troops continued to find WMD in the region.

Granted, this was not the huge weapons program that many national intelligence services thought was going on, but it wasn’t nothing, either.

WikiLeaks documents don’t reveal evidence of a massive weapons program by Saddam Hussein — the Bush administration’s leading rationale for invading Iraq — or some enormous stockpile of WMD, but do reveal that chemical weapons did vanish from the Iraqi battlefield.

According to the latest WikiLeaks document "dump," Saddam’s toxic arsenal, significantly reduced after the Gulf War, remained intact. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict and may have brewed up their own deadly agents, according to the WikiLeaks web site.

During that time, former Iraqi General Georges Sada, Saddam’s top commander, detailed the transfers of Iraq’s WMD. "There [were] weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."

The shift to Syria has long been discussed, but now at least we see more evidence that the diplomatic and intelligence communities all believe this.

Worth a read to see what other things our troops found in Iraq, especially if you didn’t see any of that reported in the media.

Good morning.

1. Why was that man arrested? 
2. Unimpressed by Mr Assange.
3. The tax deal and one economist. More here.
4. Of Ms Rhee and the unions.
5. Teeching cids goodly and the effect.
6. Widely? Widely!?! I doubt it. I’d bet that better than 99% of the US and 99.99999% of the world don’t even notice.
7. Scam.
8. Marriage and church and moving demographics.
9. To have your prayer heard.
10. A parent moment.
11. Racial inequality which will go unnoticed by the left, because their notions of racism and response are already fixed.
12. Talking with a Democrat.

As much as I was upset with the espionage perpetrated by WikiLeaks, there has been some interesting information that has come out from it.  In addition to the revelation (to some) that the Palestinian situation isn’t the topmost priority for Arab states in the Middle East, and that they recognize sanctions don’t work with Iran, there is also some peek inside climate change horse trading.  The Evangelical Ecologist highlights items from Anthony Watts and the Guardian showing that it’s not really all that much about climate. Watts concludes:

What really strikes us is the fact that all this Copenhagen/Cancun stuff has nothing to do with the Climate, or saving the World. It’s about political positioning, money, and plain old fascism cult promotion. But as referred before, this is only the tip of the iceberg. More is to come, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re going to be answered about who is behind Climategate, or Al Gore’s Nobel nomination, or the facts behind all the IPCC mess. Stay tuned…

The EE also notes headlines from The Guardian:

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord

Go to his page to get these links.  The EE is a good read.  And then we get his conclusion about all this.

Why am I so thoroughly disgusted about this?  Because so many thousands of hardworking folks are out there actually managing habitats and caring for critters and cutting pollution and encouraging creation care, and we who have been following or leading this movement in the Christian Church the past half-decade or so have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked by such a collosal [sic] hoax. And I imagine how many people could have heard the Gospel during this same time if we had put as much time, energy and money into saving souls as we did getting people to cut their "carbon footprint."

Indeed.

Good morning.

1. Sin and the church … continued here.
2. Saint Nicholas and cinema.
3. Unemployment.
4. A suggested tactic for Mr Obama.
5. State budgets.
6. Taxes on the ‘wealthy’ and one view of the left from the right.
7. A view of the left from the libertarian perspective … on property rights.
8. The tax compromise viewed from the center.
9. Logic fail.
10. Supersymmetry and India.
11. Jews and fear.
12. Jesus and Paul.
13. Ozone and the south pole.
14. Secrets and critical weaknesses.

Catholicism and Protestants have as one of their primary disagreements the roles of Scripture and Tradition as authority in the Church. Metropolitan John Ziziolas writes in Lectures,

From the Reformation on, Western theologians asked whether divine revelation has one source or two. Protestants rejected the authority of tradition of the Church and introduced the principal of ‘sola scriptura‘, Scripture on its own, without the experience of all previous generations of the Church in expounding that Scripture. […] The West tends to regard Scripture and doctrine as two distinct sources and tries to arbitrate between what it understands as their rival claims.

There are two reasons why Western churches saw the relationship of Scripture and doctrine as a problem. The West tended to regard revelation as primarily rational or intellectual, and the Scriptures and the Church simply as repositories of truths, available as individual units of inert information. In the Orthodox tradition, however, Scripture and the Church are regarded as the testimonies of those prophets and people who have experience the truth of Christ. But truth is not a matter of objective, logical proposals, but of personal relationships between God, man, and the world.

St. Siluan was quoted as saying that if Scripture were lost, the Athonite monastics and the Church itself could and would recreate it without loss. Why and how? Because Scripture is a record of relationships between “God, man, and the world.” These relationships are not historical or accidental and frozen but living and vibrant in today’s world just as recorded in Scripture. 

I think as well that the misunderstanding of what mystery means is important here, where the Eastern view is that mystery is something that you experience but cannot put into words and the West regards it as a part of their belief/faith which cannot be understood and therefore must be kept at arms length. 

Well, weekends are, uhm, busy these days. Links?

1. Feminism flashback.
2. The estate tax.
3. Raich and Obamacare.
4. A unicorn.
5. Just dance.
6. Cuteness.
7. Cinema.
8. Unemployment insurance.
9. Saint Sabbas and his lavra.
10. Human and enemy.
11. The EU and state debt.
12. Openness and Mr Assange.
13. Eclpise on DVD? Huh? Eclipse has been a free download for years.
14. Between the educational laws restricting my choices for my daughter and crap like this, I think the next person who talks “childhood obesity” in my presence is going to receive a free snarl. 

The Left considers honest disagreement as "hate", redefining what should be a rather well-defined term.  This leads Tom Gilson at First Things to feel compelled to state that he does not hate homosexuals, despite his having signed the Manhattan Declaration.  Apparently, being associated with that stereotypes you as some sort of Westboro Church member.  Love that "tolerant" Left.

That promise from Obama that you could keep your existing plan and not be forced to change under ObamaCare(tm) has already been broken.  But now even unions realize they won’t be able to afford coverage for children, so they’re dropping it.  (But since they are unions, after all, they have to put forward a good face about this whole government takeover.)

The cost of the War on Poverty, since its inception is more than the cost of all of the actual wars in US history.  Annual spending, in 2008 and adjusted for inflation, was 13 times what it was in 1964.  Imagine if this money were to be given to private charities who waste far less of each dollar than the government does.  Imagine how much less it would cost.  It’s easy if you try.

Hmm, I feel a song coming on.

Good morning.

1. Faith and Math?
2. The ironic predator.
3. What goes on in Washington.
4. This struck me as at the very least linguistically odd, “the use of force is not the last resort …” Doesn’t that mean that the writer thinks that there are things at come after the use of force then? That are more extreme or final?
5. When business and the GOP administrations cross pollinate, the Dems object loudly. Just sayin’.
6. Not agreeing with Mr Greenwald.
7. Well, it’s not like the economy needs new jobs anyhow right now.
8. Forgiveness in action.
9. Bucking the dogmas. 
10. Politics and science.
11. Modders, XBox and the law.
12. How many of those rights do you think are really rights?

A song inspired by a 4-year-old’s question, after seeing the line to see Santa.  From the website:

While at the mall a couple of years ago, my then four year old nephew, Spencer, saw kids lined up to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, he asked his mom, "where’s the line to see Jesus"? My sister mentioned this to my dad, who immediately became inspired and jotted words down to a song in just a few minutes.

And thus began a year-long try to get someone in the music industry interested.  Failing that, Becky Kelley recorded it herself and the family created their own video for it. 

Since then, they’ve done the recording up better, with full instrumentation, and created a new video for it.

And now you can buy it in iTunes.  Wonderful song.

Good morning.

1. Remembering Aleksander.
2. Defense and health.
3. Housing price index.
4. 33 martyrs.
5. Wikileaks and gitmo.
6. Suicidal liberalism.
7. The man himself.
8. 570.
9. Fanciful thoughts on stuxnet.
10. Dodd-Frank assessed in brief.
11. Three Christmases, perhaps it would help to give them three distinguishing names, like Nativity, the Winter Holidays, and the Decembrist Greed-Wagon. … hmmm perhaps the last needs work.
12. For the Palin fans. Here’s another … and geesh, Mr Sullivan is a truly reprehensible bigot. 
13. 10-4.
14. Obamacare working fer U.