Chicago Style Gangster Politics Has Gone National

It's not too hard to connect the dots.

• On March 1, 2012, after six months of investigation, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was preparing for a press conference to discuss his department's release of substantial evidence that Obama's birth certificate (and other documents) may be forgeries.
• Andrew Breitbart (who also claimed to have "damning Obama footage" of his own) called Sheriff Joe Arpaio only four or five hours before he suddenly dropped dead of "natural causes" (presumably a heart attack) in the early hours of the morning of March 1.
• Does the federal government have a secret CIA heart attack gun that uses an undetectable poison that mimics a heart attack?  Watch the video and then you decide.
•  Early in the morning of April 20, Michael A. Cormier, a forensic technician at the Coroner's Office,  (who is believed to have had a significant role in the autopsy of Andrew Breitbart) suddenly turned up dead at his home in North Hollywood.  
• LAPD Lieutenant Alan Hamilton reported that hospital staff think Cormier may have died under "suspicious circumstances."  Arsenic poisoning is suspected.
•  A few hours later on April 20, Coroner spokesman Craig Harvey released the official Coroner's report that Breitbart died of heart failure.  He said that a negligible amount of alcohol was found in Breitbart's system.  Foul play is not suspected and the case has been closed.
• We won't know, for at least five to six weeks, what really killed Cormier until the same LAPD Coroner's office that investigated Breitbart's death, gets through with the autopsy and toxicology testing.

But hey, I'm no conspiracy theorist!
I trust the Obama administration.
I believe that LAPD is honest.
And I believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Just because it looks like a mouse 
doesn't mean it's a mouse.

It could be a duck.

Watch your back, Joe Arpaio! 

It’s Zero hour, I am Zonked and Zapped; lost my Zeal; no Zippy or Zany ideas for Zees; I have Zip, Zero, Zilch; I think I’ll Zone out and catch some Zzzzzs.

(Title Translation:  I'm Done; Good Night! )

Here I am right down to the wire.  It’s late and I’m tired.  This A to Z blog challenge has been interesting and fun but always challenging.

But for this post, I have nothing.  No ideas, No inspiration, No interest.  Nothing sarcastic.  Well I don't feel so badly because even Dr. Seuss had to invent words for the letter Z in His ABC book. 

 "Big Z, little Z, what begins with Z?

I do. I'm a zizzer zazzer zuzz, as you can plainly see." 

This year I did something really unusual.  I have attempted to alliterate all my titles and that has proven to be more challenging than writing articles.  Some letters were easy; others like this one for the letter Z was ridiculous. 

The longest title was for the letter I with a total of 59 words.

Here are all 26 blog titles in one place.  Enjoy!! 

Angry Abortion Advocates And Amoral Activists Are Always Anxious to Avow Any Anal Arguments for the Assassination of Amorphous Anthropoids.

Barack O’Bama’s Banal B-man and Big time Bloviater, Biden, Belches a Buffet of Bloopers, Blunders, Boners, Boo-Boos, and other Blustery Bozo-like Blurbs of Bunk, Balderdash, and Buffoonery.

Clueless, Condoning mom Cannot Control Crass, Criminal Child as he Cops a Cache of Candy at the Checkout Counter to the Consternation of the Cashier and the Customers, without Correction or Consequences.

Dainty Dishes Damaged and Defected as Dad Drops Delicate Dinnerware During Domicile Displacement.

Enuff with the Evangelical Eco-freak Elementary Educators and Eccentric Entertainers Endlessly Endorsing Earth Exalting, Environmental Extremism Encroaching Everywhere.

Free Food and Foolish Falderal For Fallow Folks and other Feral Freeloading Freaks.

Good Grandfathers Give Girly-Girl Granddaughters the Gift of Gun control by Guiding them in the Grasp, Guardianship, and Gratification of Garands, Glocks and other Great Guns.

The Hoi Polloi who Hold to Heterodoxal Happycrap, and the Hoards of High Heralds of their Heretical Hype are not of His Holy Household and Have no Hope for Heaven’s Hallowed Halls.

Illustrious, Intimidating, and Influential Insiders Imagine some Individuals to be Inconsequential and Incredulous Imbeciles and Idiots whose Interests are In the Investigations and Interviews that Indicate or Imply Illegalities, Illegitimacies, and Impostures; and who Insist In Inquiries and Indicia regarding the Indubitable Inconsistencies and Intentional Irregularities of the Imperial’s Infamous Instruments Including Indications of Inception and other Identifying Information.

Jillions Joke as Jay, the Jester, caJoles and Justifies Juvenile Judgments of the Jackanapes Jabbing at the Judiciary and challenging the Jurisdiction and Jurisprudence of the Justices to the Jocular Jeering and Jousting of Journalists.

Kate’s Kindly and Kissable Kitten Killed when Kooky Know-it-all Kinsman puts the Kibosh on Kinesis to prove Kitties always Keep upright when dropped.

Lonely Little Lady Lavishes Her Long Life in Liberal Liturgy and Loving Labor for Her Lord.

Many Multifarious Marriages, Multiple Mates, and a Myriad of Mixed up, Morally Mad, and Menial Mismatches Make for a Massive Maze of Matrimonial Mayhem.

No way, No how; Nodular, Nasty, or Nauseating Nerds with Nose and Nipple rings or Noggin Nails will Never be Numbered among the Nominees for any Nine-to-five Niche and Need Not apply.

Oops!  Overcoming all Odds, Obama the Omniscient Organizer Of Obamacare; the Obliterator Of Osama and Obesity; the Obnoxious Opposer Of Oil Operations; the Omnipotent One who Overpowers Oceans and Ozone; the Opulent, Overspending and Oppressive Occupier Of the Oval Office, is Ordained to become a One term Obamination.

Providence Purposefully Provided the letter “P” so Pastors could Preach Profound and Provocative three Point Propositions to their People with Pop, Pizzazz, and Polish.

Question; are we being Qaddafi’d by our unQualified, Quixotic Quaestor and His Queer Quantity of Quran-Quoting al Qaeda colluders and other Quirky, Quacksalver acQuaintences in His Quadrenial Quest to Quell the Quality of our Quintessence?

Resembling Raunchy Reprobates, a Rash of Reprehensible, Raging, and Ravenous Renegade Reverends Ridicule Rightness, Resist Reconciliation, Reject Reason, Recklessly Rouse Racism, and Rate no Reverential Respect.

Selecting, Suitable pSalms, Spiritual Songs, and other aSSorted, Scripturally Sound Sacred Strains that Support the Shepherd’s Sermons for the Singing Saints in their Sycophancy of the Sovereign Savior on Sundays is my Service.

Teens Tend To Trifle away Too much Time Tweeting, Texting, or Twaddling with Twerps and Turn Too little Thought To The Treasure Troves of Truisms, Training, and Trials That come Through Table Talks with Their Teachers, Tenders, and Tutelars.

Undulating Upside down is Understandably Unnerving and seems an Unreasonable, Unbalanced, and Ugsome Undertaking; but for the Unafraid, it is Undeniably Uplifting, Uniquely Unparalleled, and Ultimatly Unforgettable.

A Vast Variety of Vulgar Villains and Vacuous Vagrants Vehemently Voice Venom and aVow Violence to aVert the Verification, Validation, and Veracity that is Vital to aVoid Voter Vexation.

Warning!  When Wise, Witty, and Wonderful Words are Wasted and Wrecked by Witless Wingnuts, and Wacky Wonks Who Would Wrest and Wrench them from our Working Wordstock and replace them With Worthless Weasel Words, our Writing is Weakened, our Wisdom Wanes, and We are Worsened.

X is for - EXcuse me; Your eXperience and eXpertise aside, I am Xenophobic and not eXtremely eXcited about the eXcrable eXposition and eXpansion of my eXcremental eXit to eXtend a flexible instrument of eXamination on an eXplorative and eXpeditious eXcursion and to eXecute the eXcision and eXtraction of eXcrescence.

In Youthful YesterYears of Yore, under Yonder Yoke of tyranny, Young colonies, united by their Yearnings for a union under Yahweh, in the Year, 1776, Yoemanly Yielded unanimous Yeas but for the Yellow Younkers of New York.

It’s Zero hour, I am Zonked and Zapped; lost my Zeal; no Zippy or Zany ideas for Zees; I have Zip, Zero, Zilch; I think I’ll Zone out and catch some Zzzzzs.   

Good Night!

Y is for - In Youthful YesterYears of Yore, under Yonder Yoke of tyranny, Young colonies, united by their Yearnings for a union under Yahweh, in the Year, 1776, Yoemanly Yielded unanimous Yeas but for the Yellow Younkers of New York

(Title Translation:  I Always knew There Was Something Wrong With New York.)

This week I accompanied all eight of my grandchildren at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Ca.  On this occasion we visited the reproduction of Independence Hall.  A highlight of the visit was a 20 minute program that reenacts some of the meetings of the Second Continental Congress leading up to the drafting and ratification of the Declaration of Independence.

Entrance to the Independence Hall and the taped presentation is free and is well worth the visit, especially for those who are homeschooling and want a riviting, hands-on field trip experience for U.S. history.  And, occasionally one might encounter one of our founding fathers walking around inside the park.  A couple months ago we met John Adams and had a great time visiting with him and learning more about our history and heritage.

The text of the Declaration of Independence appears in the Journals of the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

Additional references to the Declaration of Independence can be found in the Journals of the Continental Congress on the following dates in 1776:

• June 7 - Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution urging Congress to declare independence from Great Britain.
• June 11 - Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence.
• June 28 - A fair copy of the committee draft of the Declaration of Independence was read in Congress.
• July 1-4 - Congress debated and revised the Declaration of Independence.
• July 2 - Congress declared independence by adopting the Lee Resolution.
• July 4 - Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
• July 4 - Congress ordered that the Declaration of Independence be printed (Dunlap Broadsides).
• July 19 - Congress ordered the Declaration of Independence engrossed (officially inscribed) and signed by members.
• August 2 - The engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence was signed by most of the delegates. Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton all signed on a later date.

At the roll call vote to ratify the Constition on July 4, 1776, there were 12 affirmative votes.  That's right, only 12 Ayes.  New York abstained.  But later, when it was being signed, New York changed its abstention and voted yes to make it unanimous.

X is for - EXcuse me; Your eXperience and eXpertise aside, I am Xenophobic and not eXtremely eXcited about the eXcrable eXposition and eXpansion of my eXcremental eXit to eXtend a flexible instrument of eXamination on an eXplorative and eXpeditious eXcursion and to eXecute the eXcision and eXtraction of eXcrescence.

(Title Translation:  They're My Polyps And I'm Gonna Keep 'em.)

My former pastor and I used to joke about our personal health care practices.  Neither of us was wont to run to the Doctor often for our ailments but occasionally we would concede that, in the event of a perceived serious problem above the waist, we might go.  But if it involved anything below the waist, we were just gonna die.

After I turned 50 my health plan provider started bugging me regularly about the need for a preventive colorectal examination.  At least once each year they would send me a do-it-yourself, mail in stool sample kit.  Yeah, right.  Somehow that seems so wrong.  Imagine standing at the post office counter in front of a line of people with your little package when the postal clerks asks, “Anything fragile, liquid, or perishable?”  What are you going say? 

I never did send a sample.  I just tossed all the kits in the can.  Kaiser hounded me for several years.

So one year they called me and insisted that I should attend an informational meeting regarding the procedure.  I finally gave in and showed up at the appointment.

The room was well-filled with dozens of people my age (50+).  I don’t like most people my age.  My generation is weird and most of them have never gotten over the psychedelic drug/ anti-establishment/free love stuff of the 60s.  There they all were; a bunch of old hippies with long grey pony tails.

One thing I have noticed about my generation and their “issues” is that they love to show and tell.  The room was full of people who had never met and most of them were comparing their operations, diseases, maladies, and prescriptions (they’re still on drugs but they’re legal now).  My grandparents’ generation was not like that.  If they had medical problems or ailments, they kept them to themselves.  It was personal and confidential and not something to be discussed in polite company.

So this female health care professional enters the room and begins the meeting.  We all got to introduce ourselves (I really didn't want to introduce myself.  It's not like I was there to make friends.).  After the introductions the first thing she addressed was the stool sample kit.  (Now remember, she is an educated professional and she is addressing 50-60 year old adults.)  “When you receive your kit,” she said, “you need to collect a small sample of your ‘poop.’”  That’s right, she said "poop" as though she were addressing a bunch of four-year-olds.  I’m thinking that probably most of those brain-dead hippies wouldn’t know what “stool sample” means.  

A little further into the session she was describing the events that would occur after the colonoscopy procedure.  We would all be sent to the “fart room.”  I’m not making this crap up (pardon the pun), honest.  She said “fart room.”  You see it is necessary to inflate your intestines with air before they run the 5’ long flexible tube, with the little camera on the end, up through your colon from the bottom.  The bloating is painful so when they’re through, the air must be evacuated.  And that occurs in the fart room where all the recovering patients are gathered together without privacy or dignity until they are fully relieved.

I was so outta there.  If I have any polyps, I'll just keep them. 

I never went back.   

W is for - Warning! When Wise, Witty, and Wonderful Words are Wasted and Wrecked by Witless Wingnuts, and Wacky Wonks Who Would Wrest and Wrench them from our Working Word stock and replace them With Worthless Weasel Words, our Writing is Weakened. We are Worsened When our Wisdom Wanes,.

I remember one day about 40 years ago when I was a partner in a contracting business with my father.  We were sitting on the ground having lunch when he told me that a new law had just been enacted that made employers personally responsible and liable for the “hate speech” of their employees while at work.

I told him he was crazy. This is America and we have freedom of speech. There’s no way that we could be responsible for what our employees say.  Well, he wasn’t crazy; he was right.

All this Politically Corrected stuff has me freaking out. Think about how nutty it is. Today we are all allowed to say, “the N word,” but we are not allowed to actually say the “N” word (that is unless you ARE an N word, then it’s okay.  It’s like the Q word.  We aren’t allowed to use the perfectly good word that, for at least a couple hundred years, meant strange or odd in reference to something or someone that is "strange or odd."  Instead, we are now forced to use another word that used to mean happy or merry but has been stolen from us and redefined.  However, if you are a person who is now described as happy or merry (even though you probably aren’t really happy or merry), then you are allowed to use the Q word in reference to yourself and other strange or odd people. Get it?  I didn’t think so; neither do I.

The result of modern, Politically Correct speech, regardless of all the good intentions, is that we are losing our language and our ability to communicate effectively. It has been estimated that William Shakespeare had a working vocabulary of about 54,000 words. In comparison, most people in America today have a vocabulary of fewer than 2500 words (and I think that might be a very generous overstatement). A dumbed down system of education coupled together with a dumbed down language has resulted in a plethora of perfectly good words being lost.

A couple decades ago, David Howard, head of the Office of Public Advocate for D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, made the national news for describing his own administration of a particular fund as "niggardly" in the presence of two of his staff members. The dumbed down products of our dumbed down system of public education came unglued. The race-baiting reverends piled on and exploited the opportunity to turn the comment into hate speech. In the end, Howard lost his job, and the English language lost a perfectly good word.

Was the word, niggardly, a racist word?  No, it just sounds like another word. The word "niggard" predated the N-word in the English language by at least a couple hundred years. The most speculated origin is Scandinavian, and the root is conjectured to imply closing, tightening, or pinching.  That could be related to the origin of phrases like “tight fisted” or “penny pinching.”

Regardless, truth doesn't matter much to the PC crowd and Howard’s intentions (along with the fact that he is not racist) were irrelevant.  The word has been redefined, senselessly and incorrectly, and is now considered hate speech and can get you fired simply because some illiterate people are always looking for some reason to feel offended.

And the list of words, banned by the PC Nazis, continues to grow.  When you begin to imagine how thin-skinned, and uneducated people might “feel offended,” there is no end to the nonsensical speculations about insensitive words. A few years ago, a New York public school educator named Dennis Walcott, compiled a new list of 50 words that He wants banned from public school tests. The word list contains really, REALLY awful, hurtful words like “birthday, vacations, swimming pools, rock and roll, television, and video games.”  Fortunately, for the time being, public outrage thwarted his attempt to vilify those words. Ironically though, the vulgar F word and the S word, among other shocking vulgarities are not outlawed.

Personally, I have made a deliberate decision to reject PC speech as much as possible because "Words Mean Things."  And if that offends some people, I don’t care.

Probably the biggest problem is that much Truth from and about the Word of God has been deemed to be offensive and therefore inappropriate, and in some cases, illegal speech.

Don’t be fearful. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”  Colossians 3:16

 

(Ralph M. Petersen and his wife, Kathy, are the owners of the OLDE TOWNE EMPORIUM at 212 E. Main St. in Rogersville, Tennessee.  Your comments are welcome. You may contact him at ralphmpetersen@gmail.com or by phone at (951) 321 9235.)

 

 

V is for - A Vast Variety of Vulgar Villains and Vacuous Vagrants Vehemently Voice Venom and aVow Violence to aVert the Verification, Validation, and Veracity that is Vital to aVoid Voter Vexation

(Title Translation:  Vote Early; Vote Often.)

Denny’s restaurants’ “Free Breakfasts For Your Birthday” promotion is discriminatory against Mexicans and blacks Democrats.

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday so I took her out for a free breakfast.  At the end of the meal the waitress brought our check to the table and the price of her breakfast was added to the total.  When I took it to the cashier, she made my wife show her identification to verify her birthdate before she adjusted the total.  Can you imagine that?  How rude!  We have to show I.D.s to get a stinkin’ free breakfast. 

Where is Obama on this one?  Where is Eric Holder?  Where are the Black Panthers?  Everyone knows that requiring an I.D. to vote constitutes racial discrimination so what about this breakfast thing?  Don’t we all have a “right” to a free meal?  If I don’t have an I.D. and I am forced to get one first, the cost of the I.D. might be more than I can afford so then I would be denied the opportunity to exercise my right to a free meal.  Denny’s should just take each of us at our word, that it is our birthday.  After all, nobody will cheat!  No one would think of claiming more than one free meal per year.

All I want is a fair election; one free (actually counted) vote for every real, living, eligible voter. 

And I want to be able to cast my vote without intimidation.  I don’t want to see union thugs, or any other collection of armed, jack-booted goons of any color standing guard at the entrance of my polling place. 

I hate the fact that, our current administration (which is sworn to uphold our constitution and enforce our laws) denies me my Second Amendment rights to self-defense by outlawing weapons at polling places.  And yet the Black Panthers are allowed to wield weapons and assault voters without consequence.

By the way, there is a reason that so many walking canes are made with heavy brass knobs on the tops.  Some people call them dog sticks.  Take you cane with you when you vote and remember, some of the most dangerous dogs walk on two legs.

And I also hate that, regardless of the abundance of objective evidence, the lefties, with the blessings of this administration, will not concede that there is a voter fraud problem in this country. 

I am a conservative and I want what most conservatives I know want; we want fair practices when it comes to elections. 

On the other hand, it seems like the liberal objectives are “Vote Early, Vote Often” and “Win At All Costs, If Necessary, CHEAT.”   

Oh, yeah, and one more, "Make sure you get your free birthday breakfast at least once a week."    

Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy!   You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless.  You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.  And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor.  Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.   Now the Lord has sworn this oath by his own name, the Pride of Israel:
“I will never forget the wicked things you have done!"   Amos 8:4-7

U is for - Undulating Upside down is Understandably Unnerving and seems an Unreasonable, Unbalanced, and Ugsome Undertaking; but for the Unafraid, it is Undeniably Uplifting, Uniquely Unparalleled, and Ultimatly Unforgettable.

(Title Translation:  Go Jump Off A Bridge.)

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In 1989, for our 20^th anniversary, our older daughter, Dawn, gave us a gift that we have never forgotten.  She arranged for us to experience the awesome thrill of bungee jumping. 

It occurred to me then, that the experience had many parallels (in type) to our experiences as to how we come to be saved.

The Cost

The price she paid was $80.00 per person which was rather pricey at the time; for her it was a great sacrifice.  But it was something she really wanted to give us and it was motivated by her love for us. She gave up all she had.   She used all the book money she had for the entire school year and managed her studies that year by using the library and borrowing books from her classmates.

That act of loving sacrifice reminded me that my salvation is a free gift.  Even though it came at no cost to me, it was very costly to God.   ^“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

Dawn’s resources were limited.  But God’s unlimited love toward us motivated Him to redeem us.  The word, “redemption,” means to be bought with a price.  Jesus purchased us with His own blood.  (1Peter 1:18-19)

 

The Opportunity

After the crane lifted us to a height of 80 feet, the attendant swung open the door and he afforded us the opportunity to jump with the countdown, “3-2-1- JUMP.”   No one was ever forced.  There was no coercion or begging.  We watched others go before us.  Some of them jumped right away; others lingered for as much as fifteen minutes.  And some decided not to leap at all and were returned safely to the ground.  Everyone received the same invitation to jump but the opportunity was limited.  For those who did not jump, there was no refund.  The price had already been paid and there was no credit for another chance later.

The Gospel invitation is like that.  It is for NOW.   "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Cor. 6:2).  God offers some people more time than others but everyone has an opportunity.  Nobody will ever miss Heaven because of God.  If a man dies in his sin and outside of God’s favor, it will be because he did not accept God's gift of salvation by faith.  The time will come when it will be too late.  There will be no second chance.

The Faith

Jumping from that cage was an act of complete trust.  But we had seen others go before us and we had heard their own accounts of their experiences.  Before we entered the cage, the attendants worked through a checklist of procedures to ensure that everything was right.  They selected the proper sized cord that corresponded to our weight.  Then they fastened the cord to our ankles with primary attachments and secondary attachments as a fail safe.  They visually examined every inch of the cords, as they passed it through their hands, for flaws, cuts, or breeches.  When they reached the end of the cord, they attached it to the cage with a primary attachment and a secondary backup. They told us everything they were doing as they were working through their checklist.  And every detail of the preparation was carefully observed and double checked by the attendant’s supervisor.

So the faith we placed in the equipment was not a foolish, ignorant kind of “hope so” faith.  Based on the experience and testimonies of others, the integrity of the equipment, and the qualifications of the operators, we had substantial evidence upon which to base our faith.   It was a “know so” faith.

I was fully convinced that the equipment would not fail.  But real faith requires action.  There’s an old story about a tightrope walker who walked a line across Niagara Falls.  When he reached the other side, he turned around and then pushed a wheelbarrow back across.  Then he turned to the crowd of observers and asked, “Who believes I can push this across with someone sitting in the wheelbarrow?”  

They all raised their hands.  Then he asked, “Who believes enough to get in the wheelbarrow and go with me?"

All the hands went down and no one would go. 

Christian faith is reasonable because the object of that faith is a reliable, trustworthy and the all-powerful God.  Many will be skeptical and disbelieve but He has proven Himself able and reliable.  If you want to get to the other side, you have to get in the wheelbarrow.

The Safety

I was called stupid, irresponsible, and foolish.  Some people also say that about my faith.   But if the object of our faith is sure and reliable, there is no need to fear.  We've all heard stories of fatal accidents.  Shortly after our jumps, a veteran bungee jumper fell several hundred feet to his death when he jumped from a hot air balloon.  He fastened his own ankle straps and checked his own equipment and when he was confident in his own preparations, He jumped.  But the problem was that no one had secured his cord to the gondola. 

People with great faith make deadly jumps all the time.  My grandmother was one.  She was a Christian Science practitioner and was not anchored in Truth.  When she got very sick, she exercised her faith and she died. 

The Thrill

It was indescribable, exhilarating, thrilling, and fulfilling.  But one can never fully appreciate it unless it is personally experienced.  And it cannot be experienced without a whole-hearted commitment.  You have to take that step of faith when the gate is open. 

The jump was incredible but before it was over, we stretched the cord to the limit and then there was the recoil.  Back up we flew and then down again several times until we finally stopped.  Then the crane operator slowly lowered us toward the waiting arms of the attendant who received us and gently lowered us to the landing pad.

We do not achieve perfection in this life.  Even Christians have their ups and downs.  We struggle with sins and we rejoice in victories. We mourn our losses and praise God for blessings.  Jesus said, "I am the Door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."  John 10:9-10

And then finally, at the end of our lives we are safely delivered into the open arms of our Savior who takes us to our rest. 

Teens Tend To Trifle away Too much Time Tweeting, Texting, or Twaddling with Twerps and Turn Too little Thought To The Treasure Troves of Truisms, Training, and Trials That come Through Table Talks with Their Teachers, Tenders, and Tutelars

(Title Translation:  Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be....Grown Ups.)

When I was a boy, my friends and I all wanted to grow up and become adults.  I remember when I was in the fourth grade and got my first job.  My mother didn’t even know I was selling newspapers until she bumped into me in the grocery store.  After the initial shock she mellowed out and allowed me to continue because she knew it was good for me.  It wasn’t much but it was my job.  I earned my pay and I used it to pay for my stuff.

Even at that age, I had a bicycle that afforded a great deal of freedom and mobility around town.  And as a Cub Scout, I was learning all kinds of skills I would need to survive and be productive; we learned how to fix things, shoot things, cook things, and make things.  Everything we did was with a view toward self-reliance, personal responsibility, and maturity.  

We learned, in the school of hard knocks, that “sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.”  We learned how to defend ourselves from bullies.  We learned that boys don’t cry and that wounds heal without the doctor.  We learned that life has winners and losers; we kept score.  We played dodge ball.   We learned that our self-esteem was not important; our self-respect was.  We rode our bikes without helmets and we drank water from the garden hose or from a stream.  We learned that boys never hit girls, that men open doors for ladies, that you don’t steal, and that you respect other people’s property. 

We were boys in training to become men.  And we learned the art of manliness from our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, scoutmasters, pastors and other men in our lives whose collective purpose was to launch us out of dependency and into maturity.  Every kid I knew had a father at home and each of them was partly responsible for my upbringing and discipline. 

When I married, my wife and I were both 21. That was in 1969 and, in those days, that was typical.  Not long ago Dennis Prager was doing a segment on his radio show about the failure of young people to mature.  He noted that the average marrying age in the U. S. is now about 30 and, even at that age, the women are marrying boys.  Now we even have a president who thinks it wise that kids can stay on their parents' health insurance policies until age 26.  What’s up with that?  Throughout history, in most cultures, boys were considered to be men by age 12 or 13.  But today we have a newly invented age category called adolescence which is a lame excuse for immature, ignorant, foolish, children who have not grown up.

And the problem is identifiable.  It is a lack of necessary and beneficial socialization.  One day my oldest grandson was talking to a lady who complimented him on his manners and maturity.  When she learned that he was home schooled, she raised the typical, ignorant, and inane objection to homeschool, “What about socialization?”

Well what about that?  Kids today are socialized.  But they spend most of their time with their peers and very little time with adults.  As a result, most don't know how to carry on an intelligent conversation with an adult.  The real question is, “Why do we think it is a good thing for our foolish, immature, delinquent children to be socialized by foolish, immature, delinquent children?”  After all these years, we still haven’t learned that IT ISN’T WORKING. 

The good news is that there are some pockets of safe and sane socialization in our 21st century American culture such as Home Schooling, Scouting, and Family Integrated Churches.  If you want your boys to grow up to be real men, you need to have real men in their lives (even elephants know that).

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.  Proverbs 22:15

S is for - Selecting, Suitable pSalms, Spiritual Songs, and other aSSorted, Scripturally Sound Sacred Strains that Support the Shepherd’s Sermons for the Singing Saints in their Sycophancy of the Sovereign Savior on Sundays is my Service.

 (Title Translation:  I’m the Song Leader In My Church.)

I’m not skilled or trained in the art of choral directing.  This ministry has fallen on me, not because I can; but only because I was available and willing when there was no one else to do it.  So on Sundays, I simply stand in front of the congregation, announce the song selections, and then we sing together.

But that’s really the easy part.  Selecting the music each week takes much more time and effort. On Mondays, I receive the scripture reference and outline of my pastor's sermon for the next Sunday. After I read the text and his outline, I attempt to identify key words or teachings and then I search through the hymnbook to find appropriate music that supports and augments the message.  

If the church has a biblical mandate with clear instructions from God about what we are to do in our worship services(which it has) then, certainly, those instructions must also apply to what we do with our music. 

What instructions do we get for assembling ourselves together?  We come together primarily to be built up in the faith and equipped to do the work of the ministry.  And that comes by way of hearing the Word of God through the vehicle of preaching and teaching.  So then music, being an integral part of our worship service, is not to be performed for our enjoyment or our entertainment.

The use of music in worship was instituted and is ordained by God and He has given much instruction in His Word regarding its use.  Among others, music should glorify God, edify (or build up) God’s people in the faith, and point others to Christ.  Hmmm, seems like those objectives are pretty much the same as those given for the ministry of pastor/teacher.   The Apostle Paul gives this instruction on how the church should conduct itself in wisdom; “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father…”Ephesians 5:19-20

The first interesting thing to note is that he tells us that we are to “speak to each other” with our music.  That implies that there is something important and substantial to communicate to each other and we do that with words.  The words are important.  Words mean things.  So, just like the words from the mouth of the preacher, the words we sing and hear in our music are important in our worship. 

The Apostle then goes on to identify three kinds of written music that we must use in our worship.  It is not our prerogative to insist that we only like hymns or that we will only use contemporary “praise and worship” choruses.  We have God’s written word of instruction; we are to speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Psalms are the actual words of scripture set to music.  With psalms, God is glorified with His own words sung back to Him; words that speak of His character and nature and all His superlative attributes.  And His words are higher and greater than the very best we could ever compose ourselves so they are the highest and greatest compositions that we can set to music that will focus our attention on Him for His glory. 

Then there are hymns which, by definition, are songs composed by men and primarily used to praise God.  One of the secondary benefits of the use of hymns is that much of our doctrine is written into poetic text.  That’s a good thing if the doctrine is correct.  But there is a lot of false doctrine in Christian music too, and that is where pastors/shepherds need to be on guard so that the flock is not deceived.  But when the doctrine is correct, much of what we know and believe about our faith can be learned or caught through our music.

Spiritual songs are what we usually think of as choruses and songs that speak of our personal relationship to Christ.  Spiritual songs contain elements of personal testimony as we share, through music, who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Therein are the elements.  With psalms we glorify God; with hymns, we build each other up in the faith, and with spiritual songs, we point others to Christ.

Someone has said, "If the music doesn't preach to you, then there is no sense in having it."

Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Psalm 100:2

R is for - Resembling Raunchy Reprobates, a Rash of Reprehensible, Raging, and Ravenous Renegade Reverends Ridicule Rightness, Resist Reconciliation, Reject Reason, Recklessly Rouse Racism, and Rate no Reverential Respect.

(Title Translation: I said, "Feed My Sheep," Not "Eat My Sheep."  )  

Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, Jessie Jackson, and Louis Farrakhan are all renowned racists, race baiters, and purveyors of hate.  Each of them prefaces his name with the title, “Reverend.”  And they all claim to be Christians.  Yes even Louis Farakhan who also claims to be a Muslim.  How does that happen?  I don’t know.  I once heard of a Baptist Buddhist so I guess anything’s possible. 

{Come to think of it, Barack Obama claims to be a Muslim and a Christian.  He’s just not a “Reverend” although He might think He’s some sort of a messiah.}

rev•er•end     adjective

1.   used as a title of respect applied or prefixed to the name of a member of the clergy or a religious order.

2.   worthy to be revered; entitled to reverence.

As pertaining to Christian members of the clergy, the title, “Reverend,” is generally reserved for those who hold the office of pastor or shepherd (a leader of the flock). 

So let me say first that Christian pastors have a biblical job description.  Anything short of that is illegitimate.  

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul makes this statement to the church at Ephesus, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Eph. 4:11).

From that passage we see that this office of pastor is a gift from God to the Church.  Real pastors are called, equipped, and ordained by God and it is He who places them in their position of leadership. 

The next verse tells us why God has placed him there.  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”  (Eph. 4:12).

He has been placed in the Church by God to put everything in order so that the people are fully equipped to do the work of the ministry so that the body of Christ may be built up and strengthened.  If a pastor is faithful to his calling, his people will be at work in the world proclaiming the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whereby sinners can be reconciled to Holy God.  

The pastor (shepherd) has two primary responsibilities.  They are to feed and protect his people (sheep). 

• First, a pastor has the responsibility to accurately and truthfully preach and teach the Word of God. 

• Second, the pastor has the responsibility to protect the Church from false teaching.

Church leaders who neglect those responsibilities are false teacher's (ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing).

It’s not my intention here to minimize or oversimplify the office of pastor, however, those two responsibilities are by no means simple and they keep most pastors very busy.  And those who are faithful to that job really don’t have time to traffic in deceipt, make death threats, lead marches, participate in demonstrations, stir up racism,  or incite hatred. 

Out of respect for real Christians, their pastors, and the Most High God, I refuse to attach the title, “Rev” in front of the names of these men and others who profane the title and don’t seem to understand that they should be in the business of reconciliation, not racial division.   Do the job or drop the title.

And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart."  Jeremiah 14:14

Q is for - Question; are we being Qaddafi’d by our unQualified, Quixotic Quaestor and His Queer Quantity of Quran-Quoting al Qaeda colluders and other Quirky, Quacksalver acQuaintences in His Quadrenial Quest to Quell the Quality of our Quintessence?

(Title Translation:  What’s up with all the Muslims  in the People’s House?)

Obama is the first president ever to have any Muslim consultants or advisors in his administration.  

Do you know these people?

Valerie Jarrett

Jarrett is the White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison.  She is His “Right Hand Woman.”  He makes no important decisions without consulting her.  During His 2008 campaign, Obama said to The New York Times, “I trust Jarrett to speak for me particularly when dealing with delicate issues.”  Yet some would argue that she is His worst advisor and is responsible for most of His “blunders.”

We don’t know much about her.  Jarrett was born in Iran and once was declared to be the “Iranian of the Day.”  But we don’t know if she is a practicing Muslim or if she has dual citizenship.  Much about her, including her actual place of birth, was deliberately obscured during the 2008 presidential campaign and still remains a mystery.

Valerie he has had a very close relationship with the Obamas.  She consulted with Michelle about Barrack before she married him.  She vacations with the Obamas in Hawaii, Cape Cod, and anywhere they go, she is always there.

Ingrid Mattson

Mattson is the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was labeled last year by the U.S. Justice Department as an un-indicted co-conspirator in U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, a Hamas terrorism financing, money laundering case.

Mattson continues to surround herself with radicals.  Aside from her current role as President of a group tied to the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, in December of 2006 and January of 2007, she participated in ‘Live Dialogues’ on Islam Online, a website that supports suicide bombings, mandates attacks against American troops, prescribes murder for homosexuals, and discusses how to behead human beings.

In 2009, at Obama’s request, she delivered a prayer at the National Prayer service.  It seems curious that He would invite her yet He has prohibited General Jerry Boykin and Rev. Franklin Graham from participation in national prayer services.

Tariq Ramadan

Tariq's father, Said Ramadan, a well-known Islamist, founded the Islamic Geneva Center in 1961, which is currently headed by Tariq's brother Hani.  The center became "a launching pad" for Muslim Brotherhood expansion.  His grandfather, Hassan al Banna, was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.  

In the mid-1990s, Tariq Ramadan was banned from entering France for suspected links with Algerian extremists.  The Department of Homeland Security revoked Ramadan's visa in July 2004.   Ramadan once made a financial contribution to a French charity, linked to Hamas, which was blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury in 2003.

Ramadan also drew criticism for a televised debate with current French President Nicolas Sarkozy.  Sarkozy challenged Ramadan for an opinion about whether adulteress Muslim women should be stoned to death, as Islamic law dictates.  Rather than condemn the practice, he advocated a moratorium in order to "open a debate and to show that there is a great deal of disagreement between the scholars."

After being banned from the U.S. for six years, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed an order allowing Ramadan to obtain a visa.  He remains a controversial figure both in France and the United States.

Tariq Ramadan travels the nation giving speeches that are favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Huma Machmud Abadin

Huma is a practicing Muslim.   Her mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen, is associated with the Muslim Sisterhood or the International Women’s Organization (IWO) which operates within the Brotherhood in Egypt and other Arab nations.  

These women, who are the wives of some of the highest-ranking leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood are being recruited to smuggle secret documents, to spread the Brotherhood’s ideology by infiltrating universities, schools and homes, and to fulfill the global interests of the Brotherhood.

She also has a radical brother, Hassan, who is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) at Oxford University in England where he is associated with a number of Muslim Brotherhood members, of whom some have incited violence against Jews and Israel on numerous occasions.

So, the problem with Huma is that her association with a parent who is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, and a brother who is closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood raises serious questions about our national security.  As Deputy Chief of Staff and Aide to U. S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, she holds an important and sensitive position in one of the highest echelons of the federal government.  She has been called Hillary’s body woman.  They are very close and Huma is in a position to leak sensitive information to our enemies.

Arif Alikhan

Alikhan once participated in a fund-raiser for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) which has links to the Muslim Brotherhood. The MPAC has been documented to be consistently opposed to virtually every domestic anti-terror initiative of Homeland Security.

Just two weeks after his MPAC fundraiser, in April, 2009,  Alikhan was appointed Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security by Obama.

Dalia Mogahed

Egyptian born Dalia is Obama’s first veiled appointee.  Prior to her appointment in October, 2009, she helped craft the human rights speech Obama delivered in Cairo in June, 2009.

Dalia is a pro-Sharia Muslim and a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.  She is Obama’s chief adviser on Islamic affairs and a member of His Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 

Rashad Hassan

There are at least three Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood operatives at work in the Obama administration.   The Brotherhood’s credo is “Jihad is our way and death in the cause of Allah is our dream.” 

One of them is Rashad Hassan, who was appointed in 2010 as the American ambassador to the 52-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Hassan is part of the Muslim Brotherhood Student Association (the first group to establish a significant toehold in the U.S.) and from the University of Illinois, the Brotherhood spread throughout the United States.

He works in the Whitehouse on national security, news media, and science and technology issues.   But his appointment is not without controversy.  The OIC is a thuggish international organization that is engaged in a full-scale campaign to intimidate Western governments into adopting hate speech codes that will effectively quash criticism of Islam – including jihad violence perpetrated in its name.   Rashad Hussain is an apposite choice for this position, since several years ago he defended Sami Al-Arian, a notorious, convicted terrorist and former U.S.-based leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Azizah Yahia Muhammad Toufiq al-Hibri   

Al-Hibri was appointed 6/7/2011, by Obama, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.  She is a Muslim professor of law at the University of Richmond, Virginian.  (One of the primary goals of the Muslim Brotherhood is to infiltrate American schools.)   

She is a granddaughter of a Sheikh, who claims that the Koran inspired Thomas Jefferson and the Founders and that the Saudi criminal justice system is more moral than the American one because it accepts blood money from murderers.  A major focus of her career has been to sanitize Islamic law and present it as superior to American law.   According to Al-Hibri, “Islamic fiqh (sharia law) is deeper and better than Western codes of law.”  

Rather than trying to bring Islam in line with the modern world,  Azizah Al-Hibri pushes for the modern world to be brought in line with Islam.  Rather than reforming Islam, it is America that she would like to reform to Islamic standards.

In Al-Hibri’s distorted view of history, the wave of genocides and conquests that turned the Middle-East into a desert of brutality governed by Islamic ideology, was actually a wave of enlightenment.  And the massacres of the region’s Jews and the purge of all other religions from the area never occurred.

So What About O?  Is He a Christian? or a Muslim?  He says He's a Christian.  But He also says He is a Muslim.   

“The U.S. has been enriched by Muslims; I know because I am one.” B.O.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8