Wit or Wisdom

This will be the year that we take our freedom!

Salah al-Lami, a 27 year old singer who performed at a New Year’s Party in downtown Baghdad.

Now tell me that the Iraqis do not want to be free.

Yes, I recently heard this argument from a Ron Paul supporter as a reason we should not stay in Iraq, and a reason we never should have gone in at all. I nearly lost it. They do not want freedom, he said, and so we should not force it on them. They do not want democracy, so we should not force them to have it.

How stupid can you be? First of all, whether they know that they want to be free or not has nothing to do with whether they should be or not. Secondly, I point you to the issue of voter turnout. In Iraq, every time they have any sort of election, the voter turnout smashes that of the U.S.’s all to pieces. Not only that, but every person who votes in Iraq, up until now, was putting their life, and the lives of their families, on the line. They were willing to die for freedom, and now it’s finally coming to fruition.

The anti-war crowd cries out that it is too hard. Well, they were warned. President Bush said the fight for freedom would be difficult, way back when we got attacked by the Taliban. He said it would take a long time, which is apparently a foreign word to some people. Perhaps soon he can again say that the mission truly is accomplished. Let’s remember something about good, though. The path of good is not followed because it is easy, in fact, most often, the easy path is the wrong one. The road in Iraq has certainly not been easy, but it is clearly emerging to have been shown the right one, time and time again.

Some people say the Iraqis will never get along, and they don’t even want to. Neither did the founders. I will remind you that the current form of government was not instituted until several years after the American Revolution. And furthermore, many times during the formation of the United States, the country nearly fell apart. Do not speak to me of difficulty, ye of little spine.

And furthermore, never again tell me that the Iraqis do not want freedom. Neither did one fourth of Americans when the American Revolution was fought. Neither did the Japanese in World War II. But somehow, miraculously, today, they are free.

And Happy New Year to all who have the common sense to recognize that freedom is the thing all the oppressed peoples of the world would desire. To the rest of you, Happy New Year to you, too, in the spirit of New Year-ness.

Great post by mpinkeyes on Hillary Clinton’s unbelievable reaction to Bhutto’s Assassination.

This is my second-favorite holiday of the year, with only Easter ranking before it. Yep, I’m spiritually motivated in that department… of course, without Christmas there would be no Easter.

I’ve found, over time, that gifts have little satisfaction. Whether they are birthday, or Christmas, I’m a hard one to please. I don’t particularly care for clothes, because I can buy my own… and, well, being a stereotypical guy in this regards, I don’t really care too much about my clothes. As long as I look decent, I’m happy. The only toys anyone could get me anymore that I know to ask for are out of the price range of a lower-class family on welfare with five kids and a mentally ill father. The other people that are close enough to me to want to spend that much money on me are too poor as well, or have too many other people to give gifts to. Money has a strangely vacant effect on me… I just feel like it’s not really a gift. That and the fact that money means nothing to me. Really, I know this is probably a shock, but I couldn’t care less about money. Unfortunately, other people care whether I have it or not, because they don’t do things for free, but I myself… if there was no such thing as money, or if I could get by, support a family, etc. for the rest of my life with none or the minimal amount, I would be very happy. It doesn’t particularly thrill me if I have a large amount, and doesn’t particularly disappoint me if I have little.

In fact, the thing that excites me most about any holiday is the chance to relax and see people I don’t see often. This year, at church, we’ve been experiencing a lot of that. Our Christmas program was more laid-back than normal, and a lot of old friends have returned to town. Those include missionaries in language training school and a young man in the service. I’m seeing other friends and family members who I have not seen for a while, and it’s a comforting thing. Some people get caught up in a bustle this season… I’ve resolved never to do that. In fact, I haven’t given a single Christmas gift yet, don’t have half of them bought, don’t care either. I intend to reflect, relax, and remember Christ. Always remember Christ.

Sanctimonious? Perhaps. Proper? Maybe. The way I’m doing things? Yep.

Merry Christmas everybody.

From the first page of Chapter One of Max Lucado’s book, For These Tough Times.

When tragedy strikes, whether personal, national, or global, people wonder how God could allow such things to happen. What can he be thinking? Is God really in contorl? can we trust him to run the universe if he would allow this?

It is important to recognize that God dwells in a different realm. He occupies another dimension. “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8-9)

Make special note of the word like. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are they even like ours. We aren’t even in the same neighborhood. We’re thinking, Preserve the body; he’s thinking, Save the soul. We dream of a pay raise, He dreams of raising the dead. We avoid pain and seek peace. God uses pain to bring peace. “I’m going to live before I die,” we resolve. “Die so you can live,” he instructs. We love what rusts. He loves what endures. We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confessions. We show our children the Nike star with the million-dollar smile and say, “Be like Mike.” God points to the crucified carpenter with bloody lips and a torn side and says, “Be like Christ.”

Our thoughts are not like God’s thoughts. Our ways are not like his ways. He has a different agenda. He dwells in a different dimension. He lives on another plane.

Ben Stein filmed a documentary on science and the way “big science” is “expelling” intelligent design from the classroom. You won’t hear about it from the media, except possibly as a passing, snide remark.

The reason: they’re scared out of their wits. They aren’t confident in their pet theory at all. If something like this gets out, it’ll show them to be the oppressors they really are.

Go see the site for the movie here.

“Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”

~ Ronald Reagan

dec27th.com

This is a spam comment I had today on the blog…

A very interesting site with top design and contents!

“Top design?”

*dies laughing*

The Cardinals just traded one of their greatest players ever, without question. Old and in decline, Jim Edmonds is gone for San Diego. So long, Jimmy.

So, the screaming headline on drudgereport.com today is that the Democrats want Mike Huckabee to win the Republican because he’d be an easy defeat for them. Apparently he has unnamed sources inside the Democratic party who were foolish enough to let him know this, despite the fact that Matt Drudge’s opposition to Huckabee is becoming more and more obvious every day, as each headline gets more and more desperate and loud in its attempt to knock off the man who is in a dead heat with Guliani for the Republican nomination, and has reduced Romney and Thompson’s campaigns, especially Romney’s, to exercises in futility at the moment. The problem is, the DNC claims they’ve been “tracking Huckabee for over a year” and this:

The Romney campaign should take heart in the fact that the Drudge Report is buying their spin hook, line and sinker because nothing in that story came from us.

The truth is that while Huckabee does have tough questions to answer, he’s demonstrated pretty effectively so far that he can answer them straight and continue to gather momentum. Also, it’s been repeated numerous times on Democratic blogs that Huckabee is the man they fear and respect. Honestly, can you imagine what would happen to Hillary, or even more laughably, Obama, in a head to head debate with Mike Huckabee? It’s tough to handle a man who actually has one position on each issue and sticks to it. Romney, meanwhile, would be the Republican version of John Kerry. “Flip-flop, flip-flop.” I can just hear them now…

Stories from drudge… and the statement from the DNC on politico

So, in the endless pursuit that everybody and their brother is engaging in to find dirt on Mike Huckabee, it seems that they have discovered an AP questionnaire from way back in 1992. He said that AIDS victims should be quarantined, which is admittedly peculiar, though perhaps is attributable to the lack of knowledge about AIDS at the time. However, one wonders if they should not be kept from sexual activity, as they then become threats to other people, and threats to create children who are born with a mark upon their head of sorts.

However, much hay is being made of the fact that he views homosexuality as “aberrant” and “sinful.”

*cough, cough* Ahem, excuse me Mr. Media-Man, but you are aware that the majority of the country agrees with Mr. Huckabee? And you do realize that the people of the United States have time and time again voted for state marriage amendments. Right?

So this would be a good thing, it would seem. Not a bad thing. It’s certainly good in my book.