Coming soon to a country near you

It is just a matter of time for any entitlement state.  People will vote for free money (well, free to them, at least) and would rather see the country go down in flames (literally and figuratively) than give up some of their extravagant benefits.  Via Greek lawmakers approve austerity bill as Athens burns.  (Hat tip: Lone Wolf Archer
)

The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.

Yep.  That’s what unions and entitled people do.  Remember Wisconsin?

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.

. . .

“Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won’t be tolerated,” he told parliament as it prepared to vote on the new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a chaotic bankruptcy.

Papademos told lawmakers shortly before they voted that they would be gravely mistaken if they rejected the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts, as this would threaten Greece’s place in the European mainstream.

Too late, I’m afraid.

“It would be a huge historical injustice if the country from which European culture sprang … reached bankruptcy and was led, due to one more mistake, to national isolation and national despair,” he said.

It will be a greater historical injustice if politicians on both sides succeed in destroying the U.S. because they were too gutless and/or incompetent to cut entitlements while we still have time.

“We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down,” conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.

The air in Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs.

Remember this important graph.  The real purpose of government — defense, keeping an orderly society and manage a reliable currency — could be more than paid for with our current tax receipts.  But the entitlement spending dwarfs those costs and ensure that entitlement spending will grow.

 

Remember the cycle: Politicians and public sector unions funnel cash to each other — cash that they got from taxpayers.  They have no reason to change anything, and every reason to grow.

We need to elect some adults who will do something about this.

Roundup

Beatles fans will totally get this.  I’m pretty sure that song was Yoko’s fault.

Question evolution — a terrific overview of the problems of Darwinian evolution.  Even many atheist scientists concede how the evidence opposes it.

This is more of a time saver than a money saver, but my daughter’s Chase checking account lets you scan checks with an iPhone app to deposit them.  That is very convenient.  I hope my credit union does the same as well.  Just another example of technology doing more to save time and energy (think of all the trips to the bank!) than Greenpeace ever dreamed of.

From the “That’s going to leave a mark!” category, see How to think like a Roman Catholic.  Here’s a sample:

Now, let’s begin.

To see if you think like a Roman Catholic, what is your response to each of the the following pictures (the “proper” Romanist responses are indicated below each image).

Pagan idol worship condemned by scripture.

_______________________________

Veneration.

_______________________________

Pagan idol worship condemned by scripture.

_______________________________

Veneration.

Good points by James about the reasoning for a believer’s baptism rather than infant baptism.

10 Reasons to Believe in a Historical Adam – It is more important than many people realize.

“Christian Yoga” = oxymoron – My former church had yoga classes.  I think it is great to encourage believers to fellowship and exercise together, but there are only about a thousand other workout programs one could use besides yoga. There is nothing wrong with some of their specific moves.  I’m pretty sure that if cats and dogs had lawyers they would have copyrighted the cat stretch and upward / downward dog moves a long time ago.  But taken as a whole yoga is explicitly religious.

 

Obama is anti-choice?!

Yes — about school vouchers for poor kids, that is.  See No money for D.C. voucher program in Obama’s gigantic new budget, of course; Update: Meanwhile, White House to boost subsidies for Chevy Volt.  And I’m sure that he isn’t just doing that because of all his union donors.

Oh, you thought I meant anti-choice to crush and dismember innocent but unwanted human beings?  Don’t worry, he is still pro-choice on that.

 

Any correlation between “Facebook Jesus” and real Jesus may be a coincidence

Life is tough, so I can see how inspirational devotional messages can be comforting.  But I’m also a big fan of the truth, and I think that if anyone claims to speak on behalf of Jesus then it is helpful if whatever comes out of their mouth (or keyboard) next involves a quote from the Bible, in context.  All sorts of mischief, whether well meant or not, can result when we start putting words in the mouth of Jesus.

Lately I’ve seen people (Facebook) liking some of the things addressed by Marie in Musings from a Theo-Geek: “Jesus Daily” Seems to Be Another Jesus….

“Jesus Daily” is some sort of daily devotional Christian group, who posts status updates in the first person…as if coming personally from Jesus Christ. Probably half the Christians I know are subscribed . . .

This “Jesus” seems big on “Friend suggesting” Himself to your Facebook friends. (Cringe). “Friend suggesting” Jesus seems to be symbolic of everything that’s wrong with modern evangelism, in a manner of speaking. 

A sampling of the “wisdom” coming from “Jesus” in the last few days:

YOU AND I CAN DO EVERYTHING TOGETHER! Remember when I promised you, “With God all things are possible”? Well I was serious. What problem do we need to work on today? Like or type Yes if you believe My Words.

DO YOU GIVE ME YOUR PROBLEMS TODAY? I’LL SOLVE THEM.

(This demands some comment — since when do we share the Gospel with people, promising that Jesus will solve all their problems?? This is a dangerous half-truth.) 

. . .

I KNOW YOU MADE A MESS. I’M READY TO FIX IT.


Umm….this one needs no comment. 

Moral of the story: if you want to hear from the Lord Jesus, open your Bible. You’re probably not going to hear from Him on Facebook. Social media is a tool to be used wisely in sharing the Truth, but not by telling the masses soothing, positive words devoid of any context.

Yes, if you want to hear from Jesus, open the Bible!  Or at least ensure you are giving equal time to it in addition to whatever devotionals you are reading.  It is the best way to know if what you are getting is being interpreted properly.  And you are much more likely to stay in balance.  My guess is that non-believers reading the “Facebook Jesus” posts are unlikely to ever feel convicted with the need to repent and believe.

The Constitution: You’re readin’ it wrong

This seemed timely given recent comments by the President and Justice Ginsburg minimizing the importance and value of our amazing Constitution.  One of the obvious things that Liberals miss is that if they don’t like what is in the Constitution they are welcome to have it changed — provided that they go through the process outlined in the document.  But that is hard work, so they just “amend” it by fiat.  They pretend that because it is old and imperfect that they can just ignore it.  Such people are unfit for public service.

Matt made an excellent point in a comment with the first item, so I thought I’d see what else people might think of.  If anyone thinks Conservatives are inconsistent on the Constitution they are welcome to offer examples, but be sure to support them with facts and logic.

Liberals think the Constitution enshrines the right of a woman to have her innocent but unwanted unborn child destroyed, but not to protect that same life with a firearm.

Liberals think the Constitution has a right to “same-sex marriage” but not a right to criticize the concept (“Haters!  Hate speech!”).

Have fun!

Case study: How the administration uses false teachers to manipulate “religious” people

False teacher Chuck Currie* offers us a glimpse into how the President manipulates useful idiots into advancing his agenda in President Obama Will Announce Contraception Accommodation That Expands Coverage.

President Obama will speak at 9:15 am to announce an accommodation that expands contraception access for women and meets the needs of religious employers with objections to offering coverage.  I’ve been briefed by senior White House officials and the plan is sound.

It has been obvious that much of what Chuck writes is simply a copy/paste job from Obama talking points, but I’m surprised he admitted it.  He appeared to do that with the Giffords shooting, ghoulishly and falsely blaming Sarah Palin before the bodies were cold, and he does it regularly on whatever the latest topic is.  I’m surprise he outed himself, though.

The parallels to the Nazis are so creepy: Fake Christians being mouthpieces for the culture-of-death government.

Religious employers will not be required to offer insurance plans that cover contraception. But those insurance companies will be required to provide free contraception to women.

A fact they never mention: This “contraception” includes abortifacients that kill human beings after fertilization.

Also not mentioned: Those sentences contradict each other and thus mean nothing.  It is still a requirement of making employers pay the costs.  Only in the fantasy world of Liberal economics is there such a thing as “free” health care.  Let’s see: The insurance companies “have” to give “free” health care in the form of contraception, but they would never, ever make up the costs anywhere else, would they?  Because that would mean the employers were still paying.

Fact: Either Chuck & Co. are failures at economics (that is what studies show) and/or they think you are an idiot.  It really shows how much contempt they have for people who value life and freedom of religion, when all they did was repackage the same mandate into allegedly more flexible language.

Note how they can — and probably will — do the same thing with abortion funding (“You don’t have to pay for it, your insurer just has to give it for free.  And they will gladly do so because it is cheaper than childbirth.”)

The religious angle is part of it, but I think what they are really trying to do is conflate contraception (very popular) with abortion (increasingly unpopular).  They know they are losing the stand-alone battle on abortion, as young people (i.e., Roe v Wade survivors) are becoming more pro-life.  But those same people want there to be access to birth control.

By merging the issues they think they have a better shot at winning the abortion battle.  And they may be right.  Like I say, Satan is evil but not stupid.  The end game is taxpayer-funded abortions, because they truly believe that one of our problems is that people are killing enough innocent but unwanted human beings.

Insurance companies would prefer to offer free contraception than to cover the costs of an unwanted pregnancy or diseases that contraception can help prevent.

This is creative thinking by President Obama and his staff.

Really?  Then why don’t those businesses do that already?  Why does the government have to force them to do it?

Creative?  Evil?  Whatever.  There is no right to health care.  A right to health care would mean that someone else has a moral obligation to provide it.

And people can buy all the contraceptives they like.  No one is proposing that they be illegal.  The cries about “access” are simply lies.

And the disease reduction bit is nonsense.  Graph the growth and Federal funding of Planned Parenthood and the exponential increase in STDs and don’t be surprised at the correlation.  Condoms prevent some diseases, but give a false sense of security on others.  And most other contraceptives increase the spread of disease because they perpetuate the sex-without-consequences fantasy.

Sister Carol Keehan, President of the US Catholic Health Association, and Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards support the compromise.

The CEO of the largest baby killer in the country supports it?!  That’s all I need to know.  Read all about the founder of Planned Parenthood here, and how her dream of eliminating blacks and other “unfit” people is being fulfilled by people like Chuck and Cecile.

Many Christian denominations – the United Church of Christ included - strongly support contraception and have applauded the president’s efforts to expand coverage.

Many apostate denominations, that is.  You know, the ones that think they don’t need religious freedoms because their views are indistinguishable from those of the world.

Any opposition to this new proposal will be partisan politics, pure and simple.

Wow, what an amazing preemptive rhetorical move!  Now why doesn’t it ever occur to us to just start debates by saying that.  We’d win every time, right?

Finally, note the hypocrisy in all this.  Why aren’t the ACLU et al blasting religious people like Currie and Obama for forcing their religious views on others?

More on this at Jill Stanek’s blog

———-

* Some views of the “reverend” Chuck Currie and nearly all other theological liberals:

  • Jesus is not God (so he denies the Trinity).
  • Jesus is not the only way to salvation.
  • Jesus is pro-abortion, including partial-birth abortion and taxpayer-funded abortion.
  • The original writings of the Bible were not inspired by God, but you should believe. that the Holy Spirit told him and the other Liberals in the UCC that God has changed his stance on marriage, parenting and homosexual behavior (now that’s blasphemy!).  But it is still OK to quote any verses out of context if they seem to support your case for expanded government.
  • Asking “Caesar” to take by threat of force from neighbor A to “give” to neighbor B counts as charity on your part and really pleases Jesus.
  • It is acceptable to take 6 yr. old girls to gay pride parades.
  • The book of John doesn’t belong in the Bible.  Actually, most of the Bible doesn’t belong in the Bible.
  • The Gospel of Thomas does belong in the Bible.
  • It is more exciting to do sermons on Charles Darwin more than Jesus.
  • It is acceptable to lie and libel people on blogs as long as you think you won’t get caught.
  • It is acceptable to try to “out” commenters on public blogs as “haters”  to their employers when they point out how bad your arguments are.
  • Christians have as much to learn from other religions as they do from Christianity.
  • and so much more!

But he’s totally a Christian, because he’s a “reverend!”  And you know that because — unlike nearly every other reverend I see blogging — it is in his blog title and everything he writes.  It is almost as if he thinks you wouldn’t “know” he’s a reverend if he didn’t keep reminding you . . .

“The Holocaust was probably less than 3% of Germany’s budget” and other responses to Planned Parenthood distortions

Much has been made of Planned Parenthood’s marketing spin about “only” 3% of their services being abortions.  This is one of their lead arguments and it has been quickly swallowed and advanced by their supporters.  It is part of their effective campaign to conflate abortions (which are increasingly unpopular — especially with young people) with birth control (which most people reflexively support).  Yes, it is deceptive, but remember that Satan is evil, not stupid.  They could separate the businesses tomorrow and have zero problems getting funding for the contraceptive side, but that will never happen.

Here are some quick responses to make when you hear the “only 3%” line.

1. So?  The Holocaust was probably less than 3% of Germany’s budget.  If part of an organization’s charter involves killing innocent but unwanted human beings, then I don’t really care what other good they allegedly do.

2. I didn’t notice a wedge in the pie chart for systematically hiding statutory rape and sex trafficking.  How much of their resources are dedicated to those well-documented activities, and shouldn’t those who perpetuate those crimes be in jail instead of getting massive Federal funding?  [Note: Human sex trafficking is one of those rare issues that unites Liberals and Conservatives, so this is a great topic to focus on.]

3. The 3% figure deliberately understates the situation.  Just do some simple math: They did 329,000 abortions for 3,000,000 clients.  That means 11% of the people walking through the doors got abortions (or, more specifically, 11% of the people came in carrying an innocent but unwanted human being but left alone).  And it is very likely that abortions consumed even more services than average.

4. HP’s PC Division sells far more accessories than computers, but which is their primary business?  You need to look at where PP gets most of their revenue, which is from abortions.  PP doesn’t pay these salaries based on how many condoms they give away, they get it from performing 329,455 abortions. (P.S. They are the 1% so I hope the Occupy Crowd protests them.)

President Cecile Richards $353,819
Chief Operating Officer Maryana Iskander $288,886
Chief Financial Officer Maria Acosta $263,443
VP of Medical Affairs Vanessa Cullins $257,115
VP of General Counsel Barbara Otten $251,379
VP of Public Policy Laurie Rubiner $248,438
VP of Operations Karen Ruffatto $247,932
VP of Affiliates Lisa David $245,322

——

Please commit a couple of those responses to memory and don’t let people get away with the “only 3%” distortion.  Feel free to copy and paste without attribution.

P.S. Yes, I’m familiar with Godwin’s Law.  I’m also familiar with Simpson’s Law, which says that I’ll make all the appropriate Nazi references I like without apology.