Archive for » 2010 «

Obama’s Justice: Assassinate American Citizens at Will

September 26th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

How date we question Obama’s right to assassinate American citizens?

How dare we suggest that evidence of wrong-doing and a trial might be required?

How dare the courts try to intervene?

The Obama Administration is fighting tooth and nail to kill a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of New Mexico cleric Anwar Awlaki, arguing that even though Awlaki isn’t charged with any crimes it “strains credulity” to argue that the US government needs to present evidence before assassinating the US citizen.

In fact the papers filed by the Justice Department attempting to quash the case argue that the court system should have absolutely no oversight over the administration’s sudden, bizarre claim that it can assassinate any American citizen it wants on the basis of nation security, arguing that such issues are “for the executive branch of the government to decide rather than the courts.”

Read the rest here, if you can stomach it.

Category: abuse of power, Bill of Rights, constitution, government thinking, justice, Obama, police state | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Kitties!

September 23rd, 2010 | Author: akagaga

The kitties three are now a full year old. In between bouts of racing around the house like wild pigs, they can often be found near the one sunny window they can get to. Like this:

Peanut & Princessa

and this:

Pumpkin & Peanut

But tonight we discovered why they also like this particular place:

Princessa

We watched them take turns sitting on the stove, staring up at the range hood. My hubby took the filters out and had a look around, but didn’t see anything, so we retreated to the computer room. A while later, I heard a low, serious growl coming from the living room. When I got there, Peanut was warning his sister Princessa to keep away from his mouse, so I will share the GaGa methods of removing mouses from cats that want to keep them.

Step 1. Get a small bucket or bowl and a piece of thin but sturdy cardboard.
Step 2. Follow the cat in possession of the mouse, until said cat releases said mouse.
Step 3. Quickly put the bucket upside down over the mouse.
Step 4. Slide the cardboard under, flip the whole thing over … and give it to your hubby to dispose of as he sees fit.

Alternate method if the cat refuses to let go of the mouse:

Step 1. Put on shoes, and warm clothing if it’s cold outside.
Step 2. Pick up the cat, complete with mouse.
Step 3. Take cat and mouse outdoors and set them on the ground.
Step 4. Stand over same until cat releases mouse. This part can take a while.
Step 5. Quickly, before he can grab the mouse again, pick up cat and return it to the house, saying, “Good kitty, good kitty.”

Tonight we could use the first method, although with this being their first mouse and all, it took us a while to get with the program. In the meantime, Peanut kept letting the mouse go so he could chase it again. By God’s grace, it didn’t find a good hiding place before my hubby returned with the bucket. It was a hoppy little thing, though we did manage to remove it.

I know, I know. We stole their birthday present. But I gave them all lots of kitty treats afterward, and that will just have to do.

And I am extremely grateful that this happened while we were still awake. I’m sure I would not appreciate a new furry kitty toy in bed with us.

Category: cats, nature, photos | 5 Comments

WFW: Downhill Skiing, Foreigners, and Christians

September 22nd, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Scenario I: You and your buddies Mike and Jim got up at oh-dark-thirty and drove three hours to your favorite ski resort. You got there before the sun, bought your lift tickets, and were really looking forward to a crisp, sunny day of racing down the mountain.

As you left the lodge for the lift line, though, three buses pulled up and disgorged a horde of foreigners — ignorant foreigners who mulled all over the place in their street shoes, ruining the snow pack at the bottom of the run. They obviously didn’t even speak the language, if you went by their confused looks when people started telling them to get off the trail. Great. Just great.

“C’mon,” you said to Mike and Jim. “Let’s get at least one run in before they figure out how to get up the mountain.”

You and Mike hustled to the lift line, and Jim said he’d catch up to you in a bit. You and Mike caught a chair, and you continued to grumble all the way up the mountain. When you got to the top, though, the sun was bright and the snow was fast, so you forgot about the foreigners as you set off down your favorite trail, Mike close behind. You forgot, that is, until you got down to the bottom and had to dodge around the foreigners who were still in the way and still wrecking the snow. Where was the ski patrol? Why weren’t they getting these idiots out of the way? This was getting downright scary. How many of them were there, anyhow?

As you tried to work your way back to the lift line, you realized you hadn’t seen Jim. You finally spied him heading toward … the beginner’s slope? Then you realized he was leading one of the foreigners, who had somehow acquired a pair of skis. They were laughing and Jim was obviously trying to teach the guy how to walk in skis.

Scenario II: If you substitute America for the ski resort, Muslims for the foreigners, and police for the ski patrol, I think you’ll have a pretty good understanding of what many American Christians think about the Muslims in our country today.

We resent foreigners that show up at our mountain, ruining our day.
We expect them to act like expert skiers, even when they don’t have skis.
We get scared when a lot of them show up.
We think they should know the language.
When they don’t “get it,” we want the ski patrol involved.

Expecting anyone to act like a Christian when no one has told them about Christ is ludicrous. Making laws to that effect not only violates the First Amendment, it exposes our selfishness in wanting to keep the “mountain” to ourselves, and our hypocrisy in focusing on outward behaviors instead of a heart filled and changed by the Holy Spirit.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4)

They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. (Matthew 23:4)

Category: Bible, Christianity, Islam, Word for Wednesday | 2 Comments

Phil Ochs: I Ain’t Marching Anymore

September 19th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Where are the protest songs for 2010?

Category: video, war, Words about War | Leave a Comment

WFW: How Can Good Truly Overcome Evil?

September 15th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Runnin’ late today. I’ll finish it and update here … sometime.

Saturday morning update: I finally had a block of time and some brain power, so here’s my Word for Saturday.

* * *

A few days ago a visitor to my blog was referred to last week’s WFW when they searched for today’s post title: how can good truly overcome evil? The question has stayed in my heart, and I’ve wondered about the person who asked it. I realized how far away from this viewpoint most Americans live, so I’ve decided, with a little trepidation, to try to answer. The question deserves an answer.

The question is based on scripture, so I’ll start with the relevant passages:

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For you will heap burning coals on his head,
And the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

Paul expands on the idea in his letter to the Romans.

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

When I first read this as a new Christian I didn’t understand it, but I really liked the part about heaping burning coals on someone’s head. “That’ll fix ‘em,” I thought. Even now, I hear Christians that think that this is a means of getting even or bringing down the wrath of God on someone, but I don’t believe that’s the attitude this verse is supposed to encourage.

Instead, by resisting the human urge for revenge, the “enemy” might feel shame for what he has done and might be brought to repentance and reconciliation with God, which should be the goal of every Christian. Resisting that urge is not an easy thing to do, of course, because our natural instinct when we are hurt is to strike back. If our child or another innocent is hurt, we want to strike back twice as hard. But here are some examples, so it can be done.

In II Kings, Chapter 6, the king of Aram was warring with Israel, intent on being its king. He would send war parties to attack, but Elisha the prophet would send advance warning, and the king of Aram was unsuccessful. So he sent a great army, but Elisha prayed that they would be blinded, so they were captured and brought before the king of Israel. We pick it up after Elisha has prayed for their sight to be restored.

Then the king of Israel when he saw them, said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” He answered, “You shall not kill them. Would you kill those you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” So he prepared a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the marauding bands of Arameans did not come again into the land of Israel. (2 Kings 6:21-23)

A more modern example comes from The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, p. 215. In case you’re not familiar with the story, Corrie worked as part of the underground who protected Jews during the Nazi occupation of Holland. She and her sister were arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where her sister died. After Corrie’s release, and then the end of the war, she traveled around Europe encouraging people to heal by turning to Jesus and forgiving their enemies.

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was empyting, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

And that, I think, answers the “how” of the question. How can good truly overcome evil? When the Holy Spirit enters our heart, He brings the goodness and love of God for us to dispense as needed, if we are lead by the Spirit and not the flesh.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (Galatians 5:16-17)

In that short passage from Corrie, I can see from the other side, as well. I strongly identify with the Nazi soldier’s statement, “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!” That sense of amazement is related in my testimony. I was subsequently filled with gratitude to God, which gave me the desire to be changed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ – who is, of course, the best example of good overcoming evil.

Here are a few more related verses, so I’ll leave the “last word” to God’s Word.

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.(James 1:17)

and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake. (Philemon 1:6)

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)