Confessions of a Pilgrim

News continues to trickle in about the fate of the occupants of the MH-47 crash in northeastern Afghanistan. At present it looks like 8 SEALS and the crew from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment(SOAR) have perished at the hands of the enemy.

Froggy has more and asks that we recognize these Warriors by helping out the Navy Special Warfare Foundation and\or the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

[UPDATE: Joel said it was alright for me to publish his name here. The post that started this is here.]

Joel Esler posted some questions on his blog the other night about Christianity in general. I had started to respond on his site but thought I might respond to his questions here so I can refer back to them. They are some interesting questions…

This post will be an attempt at answering the questions from *MY* Christian Perspective.

Here are the questions…there will be a quiz tomorrow…

Things I am confused about

1. If Jesus is God’s son, how are Jesus, God, and they Holy Spirit, one person? Isn’t that physically impossible? And when Jesus died, he said “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”. So Jesus Died. Gave his spirit to God, who again, is a different person. But I thought they were one?

Ah yes, the question of the Trinity(No Joel…not Carrie Moss). I never attended Seminary so you won’t see those $64 dollar words here that I’m sure Singlemind will chime in with.

The best Earthly analogy I can come up with for the Trinity is that of a Board of Directors. A Board of Directors are a collection of individuals that function as a single entity. When “The Board” says jump, the employees say how high on the way up. When a Board member walks through the halls of a company the employees offer that person great deference.

The Christian Trinity is essentially the Board of Directors for the Faith. There are three members and they are all “The Chair”. Every vote of the Christian Board of Directors is tallied and the totals come up as 1 FOR and 0 AGAINST. I know it doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t it make sense? Because God created us and there is no way for the creation to ever fully understand the creator. When the created begins to understand the creator then the created BECOMES the creator…and thus capable of utterly destroying itself.

To think of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the human sense you are taking away the very thing that sets them apart from us…their divine nature. So when you say:

If Jesus is God’s son, how are Jesus, God, and they Holy Spirit, one person? Isn’t that physically impossible?

you are mixing two completely different realities. In our physical world, yes…it is impossible. But God CREATED the physical world and can do with it as He pleases. In Heaven it will be quite clear as to how the three entities are one Entity. As long as we are living and part of this world we have no hope of fully understanding what makes the Trinity the Trinity….but I think the Board of Directors is about as close as it gets.

2. Who is the Pope?

I’m going to push this off for another post I think. Big HUGE things to comment on with this and I touched on them in the comments of Joel’s post.

3. Who is right?

This one is tough to deal with and stay Politically Correct…but since when have I concerned myself with being PC? Seriously though, the answer to this question is a matter of Faith. If you have two people arguing over their fate if they jump from the top of the Sears Tower and one claims he can start flying before he hits the ground and will land back on top of the tower while the other one claims she will fall to her very messy death and then bounce about 3 feet into the air…who is right? Clearly the wise lady is right. She doesn’t have to jump to prove it because she has total FAITH in her decision. Her friend may tell her that if her faith was strong enough she could fly like he can but it won’t shake her Faith because she simply believes.

The Christian simply believes that the only way to Heaven is through Jesus. Nothing will shake their Faith…not even a good rant by Tom Cruise! We believe we are “right” and try like the dickens to bring other people to Faith because we don’t want to see anyone go to hell. Some folks take this whole evangelism thing to the extreme and they are wrong in doing so. Our task as Christians is to be here with answers for those who ask. We can’t bring anyone to faith in Christ. All we can do is try to live life as Christ would have us live it and let the non-believers see Christ in our daily lives. While we believe we are “right”, we should ALWAYS defer to the “seekers” judgement because it is THEIR decision to make. If it were my decision to make for others then everyone I meet would become Christian upon my laying eyes on them.

To see just how strongly we believe we are “right” you should just read this(and in the spirit of Fairness, here’s an counter point to Cassie Bernall’s story that I have to admit is intriquing and makes the same point).

Now then…all that being said…I’m sure that you will find Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, and any other religion followers claiming they are ALSO right. Debating the “rightness” of a religion or faith can lead to big nasty fights so I try to stay away from that. If it comes down to it I’m willing to simply say, “Well, we disagree then.” and leave it at that. I would rather maintain the relationship than to have the friend thinking I’m a pushy little twit and then inflating that perception to apply to ALL Christians. Unfortunately, there are some who do not hold my view.

4. Should we stop interpreting the Bible and start following it?

This question is a personal favorite of the entire list and I have to answer with a RESOUNDING YES! When I read the Bible I follow a very simple rule. If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. That way there is no interpretation to do. It has been said that the Bible contains many contradictions, that the Bible was written by men and therefore mistakes should be expected, that the Bible has many great stories but those stories have no real power. I disagree with all of the above because I have complete FAITH that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. No one is going to convince me other wise. My next post is going to be what we Christian’s like to call my “Testimony” or the story of how I came to Faith. I’ll give a little spoiler here I guess.

From about 1988 to 1998 I was a practicing Gardnerian Witch. I never killed a single baby or sacrificed a single virgin. Never killed any livestock for the purposes of a “spell” or anything silly like that. I didn’t believe in a “devil”, “heaven”, “hell”, or any of the other Christian concepts except for the idea of a supreme higher power. While a Witch I saw and experienced many MANY things that were of a “spiritual” nature. I watched over days as bones were healed well ahead of their normal healing time. I have also felt the power of Scripture holding me back and changing my behavior. Wild allegations? I can see where some would say that but I say it’s the truth.

Why the spoiler? I use it to illustrate how Scripture was used against me with direct and immediate effect. No hollywood special effects or anything but when that guy quoted Jesus my breath was taken away. He didn’t scream or make a wild gesture…he just said it. For those that say the Bible has no power I say bullcrap because I’ve felt it.

5. How does the Bible fit into modern society? For example, Abortion.. Bible says it’s wrong… Okay… Well Someone rapes your 11 year old daughter, and she becomes pregnant.. is it wrong then? If you say, “Well the Rape should have never taken place in the first place” Good point. I agree.. But it happened… what now?

To answer this one could fill a library. I’ll take a stab though.

The Bible is essentially a book on relationships. How we are to interact with other individuals. I think “society” has twisted the Bible into a harsh rulebook with harsh penalties for breaking the rules. There are a few, a very few, folks who read harsh rules and punishments INTO the Bible and they are ROUNDLY condemned by the rest of the Christian Faith. Those bone heads that kill doctors who perform abortions is an excellent example of those who read harsh rules into the Bible. It’s these people that give “society” a reason to pigeon hole the Bible and Christians in general. Pity that. I don’t believe we can apply the Bible to any social strata because, again, it’s about individual relationships and not how groups of people should function. Now, if an entire group of people BELIEVE then each individual will interact with the other individuals as the Bible would have us interact and therefore by extension the entire group will function in accord with the Bible. To my knowledge there has NEVER been such a group of people that could pull this off without some trouble coming from somewhere.

To answer your direct hypothetical situation I have to give my own personal opinion. The 10 Commandments say do not murder. Killing an unborn infant is murder. Therefore allowing the 11 year old rape victim to have an abortion would be murder. That’s very legalistic and I believe it is extreme. If it’s my little girl we get the abortion because she isn’t ready to be a mother and her mother couldn’t raise both the little girl and the little girl’s baby alone(with me serving multiple life sentences because I hunted the bastard down and slowly skinned him alive). I will have surely sinned in doing this(my feeding the rapist his own genitalia is obvious but the abortion would be sinful as well). The Bible would call me to forgive the rapist and therefore set an example for my daughter….but I just don’t think I could do that. If it’s me, I pray for forgiveness earnestly…probably while I’m removing the rapists spine one vertebrea at a time.

Okay okay…the bottom line to this is that at least in America we DO have to draw a line between our Civil and Criminal Law and the Scriptures. There is no way that I would expect my friend Deepa(from India and a Hindu) to bow to the laws of Deuteronomy in this life. I certianly will never bow to Sharia Law. The Bible applies only to CHRISTIANS as far as “Society” is concerned. As a Believer I would say the Bible applies to EVERYONE but ONLY in the sense of how people should relate to God and each other.

This whole flap about the 10 Commandments in public settings is a waste of bandwidth. It’s an attack on the Judeo-Christian beliefs that formed English Common Law and therefore the American system. I don’t want SCOTUS making decisions that effect EVERY citizen of America based on Biblical concepts. But I also don’t see a problem with recognizing the foundation of our legal system.

Good talk all things considered. Both my wife and I jumped when the Officer stepped forward about brought the crowd to attention. It made sense but it isn’t something I’ve seen before on TV. I wonder if the Gitmo bashers would consider it torture…I mean he raised his voice and placed EVERYONE in a “stress” position…but anyway…

For the first time since…well…EVER I heard the President make the statement that Iraq is another battlefield in the War on Terror. Had he made this a theme since day one, a talking point for all his administration to crow on, I wonder what Mr. Kennedy et al would have to say. The same drivel no doubt.

It’s amazing to me how anyone could think we could toss out a dictator, fend off the partisans and foreign barbarians, rebuild the war torn and 30 year neglected country, and establish a Democracy in 2 weeks…which is what Mr. Kennedy et al were chanting. The dust had hardly settled at the kick off point in Kuwait before the drunken Zeppellin(copyright Froggy) was screeching “QUAGMIRE!” from under his swollen red nose.

Soon there after the Quagmire wing of the Democrat Party was calling for an exit strategy…which had the President followed their advice would have been more aptly called an exit tragedy. The President detailed his “exit strategy” this evening. As the Iraqis Stand UP, we will stand down. To put that even shorter we could say, “When we WIN, we’ll leave.”

I haven’t read the “loyal” opposition’s take on the speech…not sure I have to really. “NO LEADERSHIP! HE LIED! BABY KILLER! GITMO! NO WMD!!!” etc etc etc etc.

This was a bad day for history geeks like myself. There were two people who opened my eyes to the American Civil War. The first was Ken Burns and his incredible documentary. Mr. Foote was featured throughout the piece doing commentary as well as reading the many quotes. I was intrigued by Mr. Foote’s ability to tell of the events in such a way as if he had lived them. When I purchased Foote’s 3 Volume Civil War work he quickly became the single most important person in my REAL Civil War education. What I saw in the Burns work was amplified 10 fold in Foote’s Civil War work. I had grown used to reading scholarly Civil War treatments and found them dry and difficult to wade through. Shelby Foote’s work read like a story that was impossible to put down. I remember ripping through the first book in a day and half.

I am a reenactor and know many more reenactors who became one after reading Foote’s work. If Shelby Foote has a legacy beyond his children and grandchildren, it has to be the dedicated living historians who use his work as an example of what Civil War research and scholarship is all about.

A loss felt by all who study the American Civil War. Rest in Peace Shelby Foote.

Kentucky lost a great man this morning with the passing of Thomas D. Clark.

By the flip of a coin, Thomas Dionysius Clark intertwined his life and career with the vast history of Kentucky. In 1928, Clark received scholarships to both the University of Cincinnati and to the University of Kentucky. Kentucky won the coin toss, and the claim to one of the South’s greatest historians.

That coin flip gave Kentucky one of her greatest adopted sons and provided future Kentucky historians a wealth of information through his research and staunch support for Kentucky’s library system.

Rest in Peace Dr. Clark.

If no one else understand’s this statement I’m sure he would… Here’s a Half Horse – Half Gator for you sir.

I love Joel Esler. Great InfoSec mind, great sense of humor, and he’s at the core of BASE and we all love BASE right?

He stumbled across some curious Google Ad placement that you just HAVE to see! Leave comments on his site since he was the lucky “finder”.

SCOTUS – bite me.

TEN COMMANDMENTS Exodus 20:1-17

I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.

IV. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother.

VI. Thou shalt not kill.

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII. Thou shalt not steal.

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X. Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Okay…so let’s think about this for a moment. If the Smith family lives in their house and does not have any small business activity in the house, then the tax base for that bit of real estate is only what the Smith family earns over and above the minimum deductions. SCOTUS seems to be saying that if Mr. Entertainment Developer wants to raze the house of the Smith Family to replace it with his entertainment complex then it is clear that the increased tax base created by Mr. Entertainment Developer falls into the “Public Use” area of the 5th Amendment. Hmmm…

Justice Stevens explains this convolution thusly:

Indeed, while many state courts in the mid-19th century endorsed “use by the public” as the proper definition of public use, that narrow view steadily eroded over time. Not only was the “use by the public” test difficult to administer (e.g., what proportion of the public need have access to the property? at what price?),7 but it proved to be impractical given the diverse and always evolving needs of society.8 Accordingly, when this Court began applying the Fifth Amendment to the States at the close of the 19th century, it embraced the broader and more natural interpretation of public use as “public purpose.” See, e.g., Fallbrook Irrigation Dist. v. Bradley, 164 U.S. 112, 158—164 (1896). Thus, in a case upholding a mining company’s use of an aerial bucket line to transport ore over property it did not own, Justice Holmes’ opinion for the Court stressed “the inadequacy of use by the general public as a universal test.” Strickley v. Highland Boy Gold Mining Co., 200 U.S. 527, 531 (1906).9 We have repeatedly and consistently rejected that narrow test ever since.10

So it’s no longer “Public Use”, it’s now “Public Purpose”? I see.

My father’s family has attended the same church for most of the last century in a very depressed part of Kentucky. This little church exists at a cross roads. Several families, including the Pastor, lives in the immediate area as in within shouting distance of the little church. If I wanted to put a business on that lot that would employee most of the people in the little community wouldn’t that serve a “Public Purpose”? It would certainly raise the tax base for the plot of land since the Church pays no taxes whatever. It would provide both employment for the community as well as provide a service (whatever the business is selling). It seems this would meet all the criteria in Stevens’ opinion. Is your Church in danger?

In Lexington Kentucky Hustler was trying to get some land to put up one of their smut shops. Applying the Tax Test(Public Purpose) arguement, “Her Majesty” Teresa Issac, Mayor of Lexington, could have DRAMATICALLY increased the tax base for a depressed area of town by taking say, St. Paul’s Church and School on Short Street. How about that? A Hustler store replacing one of the oldest churches in Lexington. Before yesterday this was laughable. Today, is your Church in danger?

The real question now is what to do in the event a local government decides they need your house for a Walmart or your Church for a strip club…er…Adult Entertainment Complex. Can’t tell you what to do but I know what I do.

It’s clear that SCOTUS has made up its mind and absent STATE legislation to defend local homeowners and places of worship(yes, synagogues and mosques are threatened too) there is very little we can do short of what my friends in the radical environmental movement calls “direct action”. You wanna take my house and land for a shopping mall? Well, unless you can run faster than 833 feet per second I don’t suggest you try. You will take down my house with me in it.

Okay, so they didn’t come right out and SAY it but they got really close.

The Supreme Court today effectively expanded the right of local governments to seize private property under eminent domain, ruling that people’s homes and businesses — even those not considered blighted — can be taken against their will for private development if the seizure serves a broadly defined “public use.”

For my regular readers(thanks Mom), you may remember what I said about the War on Christianity in America. How the opposition uses vague terms that are self defined so that they can paint Christians with the brush while offering a pass to others? That’s what the majority did in this case. “Public Use” could mean anything.

I’m going to be reading the opinions and come back to it this evening. What I will say is no one is going to condemn my home so some schmuck can make another dollar. They will bury me in my house with their bulldozers.

As Singlemind has told me essentially it’s the 5th Amendment that makes us a Free Market Economy. With no private property there is no private enterprise.

Yesterday Mr. Durbin apologized for his outrageous remarks comparing American Soldiers’ methods at Gitmo to those of Pol Pot, Hitler, and Stalin. There were tears, a Lincoln quote, and sufficient repentence so he covered all the bases. It’s the best we’re going to get so let’s just drop it.

Smash and I seem to be part of a minority voice on this issue. I can understand that folks are fed up with this kind of rhetoric coming from a supposed leader of the “loyal” opposition or anyone for that matter. We can continue to pound on this, reminding everyone and their Islamofascist Assassin what Durbin said, and the two day delay before issuing a weak response. We can demand Durbin’s resignation. Hell, why not just demand his public beating and 2 days in the stocks on the Capital Steps! We may as well if we are going to demand anything else of Durbin or his party. This is all we are going to get. If we, the Republicans, continue to beat up on this *WE* will be labelled the obstructionists and we clearly are not that.

There is some background here that is important to understand before we get to the meat of this thing.

I’ve been following the reports coming out of Colorado Springs for about 6 months. From what I have read and heard there does indeed seem to be something going on out there and the Academy, if not the big boys at the Pentagon, should be looking into it.

Unfortunately, the US House of Representatives decided to jump the gun today when Section 9012 of the Defense Appropriations bill which read in part:

Congressional Record for June 20, 2005 (See link on right column for the searchable Congressional Record)
[Page: H4759]

(1) PLAN.–The Secretary of the Air Force shall develop a plan to ensure that the Air Force Academy maintains a climate free from coercive religious intimidation and inappropriate proselytizing by Air Force officials and others in the chain-of-command at the Air Force Academy. The Secretary shall work with experts and other recognized notable persons in the area of pastoral care and religious tolerance to develop the plan.

(2) REPORT.–Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report providing the plan developed pursuant to paragraph (1). The Secretary shall include in the report information on the circumstances surrounding the removal of Air Force Captain Melinda Morton from her position at the Air Force Academy on May 4, 2005.

was read and quickly amended by Representative Duncan Hunter(R-CA) to read:

Amendment offered by Mr. Hunter:

Strike section 9012 (page 115, line 14, through page 117, line 5) and insert the following:

SEC. 9012. SENSE OF CONGRESS AND REPORT CONCERNING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND TOLERANCE AT UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY.–

(a) Sense of Congress.–It is the sense of Congress that–

(1) the expression of personal religious faith is welcome in the United States military;

(2) the military must be a place where there is freedom for religious expression for all faiths; and

(3) the Secretary of the Air Force and the Department of Defense Inspector General have undertaken several reviews of the issues of religious tolerance at the Air Force Academy.

(b) Report.–

(1) RECOMMENDATIONS.–The Secretary of the Air Force, based upon the reviews referred in subsection (a)(3), shall develop recommendations to maintain a positive climate of religious freedom and tolerance at the United States Air Force Academy.

(2) SECRETARY OF AIR FORCE REPORT.–Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report providing the recommendations developed pursuant to paragraph (1).

which essentially allows the Academy to continue their reviews and supply their recommendations to the Congress before any thing more was to be done. The original language of the bill would force the Academy to halt their ongoing investigation and comply with the “sense of the Congress”. Mr. Hunter was correct in suggesting allowing the Academy and the Air Force to continue their investigation.

During the ensuing debate Mr. Hunter clarified why he added the amendment:

[Page: H4760][emphasis added]

My point is this, there are a number of reviews that are ongoing right now at the Academy, and in this letter that Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary Michael Dominguez, sent to me, I think the crux of our amendment is laid out and I think justifies. He talks about the work that is ongoing to make sure that the Academy has religious freedom and religious tolerance. He says, As this work progresses, and I am quoting the Secretary, our work and critics of that work will generate news stories. It was a news story that generated this base provision that is in the bill. I ask that you reserve your opinions on this matter until I can get to ground truth through the objective processes now ongoing.

That is what he asks for. He has got lots of reviews, and what we say is, we reestablish, revalidate that there should be both freedom of religion and religious tolerance, and we set a date for a report to come back after the reviews are done, for the Secretary of the Air Force to report back to us with the reviews and with recommendations.

Amen and Amen Rep. Hunter! We cannot continue to allow the media to determine policy for our military whether that is on the battlefield or the classroom. Unfortunately for the House this debate took a decidedly bad turn. Mr. Hunter took exception to the “coercive religious intimidation and inappropriate proselytizing” portion of Section 1 of the portion of the bill in question.

[Page: H4760]

The word “proselytizing” could possibly be applied to what they were doing in that battleground in Iraq[Pilgrim: A Church service Mr. Hunter was forced to enter during a mortar attack] . I have always thought that when I argue religion I am making reasoned judgments and the other guy is proselytizing, and the problem is with that word. With establishing that as a standard, that people in uniform have to adhere to, the average person in uniform is going to say, what does proselytizing mean? Am I proselytizing, and if they are not sure whether or not their statement is proselytizing, you know what they are going to do? They are not going to say anything, and we are going to put a chill on what we have heretofore for our entire history welcomed, and that is, expression of religious views by our uniformed personnel.

Representative David Obey (D-WI) entered into the discussion:

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, the language of the committee amendment does nothing whatsoever to discourage proselytizing. What it does is make clear that the Congress of the United States is opposed to coercive and abusive proselytizing. I think it would be good to go back and look at the history of this problem.

This is a classic tactic of the left, inserting some fairly harsh words(coercive, abusive) but still vague enough that ANY definition could be applied to them. Is inviting a fellow cadet to a Bible Study coercive? Is denying to laugh at a crude joke or correcting religiously offensive behavior abusive? We are so worried about offending Mohammed at Gitmo yet a Christian can’t say, “Don’t say that around me” when someone says “goddamnit!” because it’s coercive or abusive.

This is probably what set Representative John Hostettler (R-IN) off a bit later when he said:

[Page H4763]

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, the long war on Christianity in America continues today on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. It continues unabated

[Page: H4764]

with aid and comfort to those who would eradicate any vestige of our Christian heritage being supplied by the usual suspects, the Democrats. Do not get me wrong. Democrats know they should not be doing this. The spirit of, if not the exact, language in the underlying bill added by the Democrat ranking member, the gentleman from Wisconsin was offered by a Democrat in the Armed Services Committee during consideration of the fiscal year 2006 DOD authorization bill.

The author of that language in the authorizing committee, the gentleman from New York, has suggested since that time that “extremist groups” are behind the removal of language similar to his. I and others who spoke in opposition to that amendment had never even heard of the notion of such an amendment until the gentleman from New York actually offered it during the committee markup. And so I am curious as to who these extremists are that the gentleman from New York spoke of.

Mr. Chairman, we may never know because that is the nature of this debate, name-calling of unspecified people and groups who hold a world view different than many of these Democrats. And, as I said, Mr. Chairman, Democrats know they should not be doing this. Following the overwhelming opposition voiced at the DOD markup, the Democrat ranking member of the committee requested the gentleman from New York to withdraw the amendment, which he did. *.*.*

The last sentence of Mr. Hostettler’s remarks were stricken from the record at HIS OWN REQUEST roughly an hour later.(Mr. Durbin, take note of this please) Mr. Obey saw fit to make sure they made there way into the record however:

[Page: H4764]

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, I move that the gentleman’s words be taken down.

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will suspend.

The Clerk will transcribe the words.

[Time: 16:26]

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the last sentence I spoke.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Indiana?

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, reserving the right to object, I think the House needs to understand why I objected to the language of the gentleman.

As I understand it, the language that the gentleman is saying he will withdraw is the following: “Like moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians.”

The reader will notice the time marker in the above quote. This denotes a suspension of the transcription while a minor brawl erupted on the House floor. No punches or the like of a Sumner-Brooks fight on the Senate Floor but rather a rhetorical brawl where Mr. Hostettler was threatened with censure if he didn’t have his own words stricken. To his credit, he didn’t take two days and issue a weak statement…he did the right thing and had his overly heated rhetoric stricken from the record. Not because he thought what he said was wrong, but because the work of the House had to continue and he wanted to be part of it. You can go to the Congressional Record and read Brer Obey’s attempt to extricate himself, and his party, from the tarpit Representative Hostettler had tossed them into. The fact remains that Hostettler was right in what he said but perhaps he could have used different words so he didn’t have to remove them from the record later.

There is a war against Christianity and the opposition uses veiled words with intentionally vague definitions. Any attempt to offer a Christian prayer at a public function is met with severe and immediate reactions by the opposition claiming the mythical “seperation of Church and state”. Let someone wish to offer a Muslim prayer at a public function and it’s called Diversity.

Today in a local radio interview Senator Jim Bunning(R-KY) offered his thoughts on the Dick Durbin(D-AQ) rant. I just heard it on the radio so I’ll have to paraphrase until I can get it in print somewhere. Basically he said that Durbin should apologize to the Senate and the American People. He went on to say that Illinois, home of the greatest president ever, should reconsider the kind of representative they send to Washington.

Happy Father’s day Pop.

My father comes from humble beginnings where keeping the farm working was far more important than the War, Politics, or even school. Before school every morning my father and his brothers and sisters had to take care of the farm first. Feeding the hogs, chickens, and cows. Gathering the eggs from the chickens and milking the cows. Checking the string beans and tomato cages for overnight damage and repairing said damage if some were found. Without the garden and livestock they would go without because a mechanic for the L&N Railroad (my grandfather’s job) didn’t really pay that much. He gave up on school at the end of the 8th grade because he had other things that simply had to be done.

Father left the farm at the age of 16 and came to Lexington where he drove a truck. He eventually found his way to the Maintenance department at Eastern State Hospital where he met a striking red headed gal who after 4 years he married. Another 4 years later I came along and Dad’s life changed. He sold the motorcycle that had helped define him and walked away from a wilder side. He was a father now and he took the role seriously.

Money was tight and Dad was determined to keep me from the life he lived in the depression. We kept a garden but it was he working the garden in the mornings and not me. Having no recognized education, dad had to do what he could do to keep the mortgage paid and food on the table. He drove trucks as a small business owner for many years. During the summer he would win contracts from the city and state to haul for the various road projects. During the winter he would remove the dump bed from the truck replacing it with a fifth wheel so he could haul tobacco. One winter he kept the dump bed on the truck and spent weekdays and nights in West Virginia hauling Coal. That was the winter that Mom and I played monopoly every night. I knew why dad was hauling Coal and respecting him more and more for that decision as I get older. I will never have children have to feed, nuture, and protect. I think that just amplifies my respect for him because I know that if I had a child it would be almost impossible to leave them for any real length of time. Yet there he was.

Many years later, I was married and had a home of my own. My salary was more than he and mom combined had ever made. Still, when I would leave from a visit Dad felt compelled to give me alittle money. “You may need this.” or “You got some money?”. I learned that there was no point in saying, “No, Dad…I’m fine”. That both hurt his feelings and pride.

There is nothing in the world I won’t do for this man. He has given me more than I will ever fully know or understand. As he said when I was a child I will repeat it. He will never go without and he will never even want for anything. If I have to work 24/7. He did at times work 24/7.

I love you Dad. Happy Father’s Day.

This morning I started the run on the Political talkhead shows beginning with Face the Nation. Senator Biden was on. He explained that Mr. Durbin *HAS* apologized for his idiocy and reminded us all that Senator Frist has yet to apologize for the Schiavo case. What?

Senator I’m not sure we are in a tit-for-tat match here. Mr. Durbin has assaulted the integrity of our armed forces. Senator Frist made a terrible POLITICAL decision of making a diagnosis over the friggin television. If we were playing tit-for-tat, Senator Frist has a few more screw ups to go before he catches up with Mr. Durbin. Let’s not get into that adolescent behavior of, “Oh yeah? Well HE said…”. Bottom line is Mr. Durbin has once again made headlines on Aljazeera and given moral aid to the barbarians.

More links dancing on Durbin’s head:

A classmate of Smash’s Dad at Annapolis