Disgusting

Payoffs for states get Harry Reid to 60 votes

By CHRIS FRATES 12/19/09 7:56 PM EST Politico

Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package.

Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade.

I just have one word for this; DISGUSTING.

Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda

Death penalty for gays? Uganda debates proposal

By KATHARINE HOURELD and GODFREY OLUKYA (AP) – KAMPALA, Uganda — Proposed legislation would impose the death penalty for some gay Ugandans, and their family and friends could face up to seven years in jail if they fail to report them to authorities. Even landlords could be imprisoned for renting to homosexuals.

Gay rights activists say the bill, which has prompted growing international opposition, promotes hatred and could set back efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. They believe the bill is part of a continent wide backlash because Africa's gay community is becoming more vocal.

I have often wondered why the peace loving Muslim community does not stand up in opposition to the terrorist's actions. Perhaps they do, but we do not hear about it.

In that same light, I stand in opposition to this proposal in Uganda. I will be the first to state my view that homosexuality or any sexual relations outside of marriage is sin. But I also believe that this bill goes way overboard in reaction to the issue. I reserve the death penalty for those who take another persons life. This proposal, in a word, is wrong and I pray will not pass.

Change we can believe in?

Is this the change we can believe in?

But Washington is a city that likes its traditions, and Ms. Rogers has raised a few eyebrows by trying to bend them. When former social secretaries gave a luncheon to welcome Ms. Rogers earlier this year, one participant said, she surprised them by suggesting the Obamas were planning a “non-religious Christmas” — hardly a surprising idea for an administration making a special effort to reach out to other faiths.

The lunch conversation inevitably turned to whether the White House would display its crèche, customarily placed in a prominent spot in the East Room. Ms. Rogers, this participant said, replied that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display — a remark that drew an audible gasp from the tight-knit social secretary sisterhood. (A White House official confirmed that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.)

Yet in the end, tradition won out; the executive mansion is now decorated for the Christmas holiday, and the crèche is in its usual East Room spot.

The White House wanted to make Christmas more inclusive by excluding that which represents the story of the birth of Christ, the reason for the season, as they say. More inclusive by excluding Jesus, hmmm, I don't get it. I am glad tradition, reason and common sense won out.

Hope and change. I am hoping for a change in 2012, if we last as a nation until then.

Litter Bug

Golf balls: 'Humanity's signature litter'
By Christina Macfarlane, for CNN


London, England (CNN) -- Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone, every year. It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem.


This just makes me want to go out to the range and hit a large bucket of balls. Give me a break.

My Man, Phil

He is looking a bit older (then again, who isn't) but he can still play that gui-tar. He is still the best.


Here is an interview from the 700 Club with his old friend Scott Ross.

Find God in 90 days

Chicago is KO'd in the first round

Olympics decision stuns Chicago crowd

Oct 2, 12:07 PM (ET)

By DEANNA BELLANDI

CHICAGO (AP) - Thousands of people stood in bewildered silence in downtown Chicago on Friday after the International Olympic Committee surprised everyone by dumping the city from the race for 2016 Summer Olympics in the first round of voting.

I guess the world doesn't like the O's (Obama and Oprah) as much as the U.S. media does. The IOC must be racists.

What does the city of Chicago and the IOC have in common? The answer - Corruption. I wonder how much money Chicago spent for this, let alone how much we taxpayers spent to send Air Force One there.

Three in a Row

Phillies beat Astros for third straight division crown

Wed Sep 30, 11:27 pm ET

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The Philadelphia Phillies clinched their third straight National League East title after a 10-3 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.


Three in a row. Hallelujah.

This is nuts!!

State to mom: Stop baby-sitting neighbors' kids

By JAMES PRICHARD, Associated Press Writer James Prichard, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 29, 9:41 pm ET

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.

This is nuts. What ever happened to common sense? I thought it took a village to raise children. I guess it must be a village with a license from the state. Next we will need a license to take care of our own children. Lord have mercy.

Bibi, you da Man!!

A world leader who speaks with moral clarity. Bibi, you da man!!

Outrageous

NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

LACONIA, N.H. — An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney filed motions with a New Hampshire court Monday asking it to reconsider and stay its decision to order a 10 year-old home-schooled girl into a government-run school in Meredith. Although the marital master making recommendations to the court agreed the child is “well liked,social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level” and that “it is clear that the home schooling...has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the...public school system,” he nonetheless proposed that the Christian girl be ordered into a government-run school after considering “the impact of [her religious] beliefs on her interaction with others.” The court approved the order.

This is outrageous and another example of the elitist government abuse of parental rights. As I have stated before, the mandatory government school system was the beginning of the end of the family unit as we knew it.

Currently reading

This book was first published in 1946. It reads though, as if it was written yesterday. Today's headlines of government bailouts and deficit spending are the subject of this book. According to Hazlitt, everything the government is doing today to try to "fix" the economy is exactly the opposite of what should be done.

To quote him, the one lesson is: "The art of economics consists of looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups".

In a nutshell, most of the spending government does may benefit one special interest group in the short term, but usually does not benefit all groups and may hurt other groups in the long run. Since this book was first published, I believe history shows that he is correct.

I highly recommend this book for anyone, conservative or liberal. However, this could be hazardous to the health of a liberal.

Christos Anesti

Christ is Risen

Tragedies like this we don't need

Doctor: Lack of medical helicopter cost actress

NEW YORK – As a steady stream of celebrities pay their last respects to Natasha Richardson, questions are arising over whether a medical helicopter might have been able to save the ailing actress.

The province of Quebec lacks a medical helicopter system, common in the United States and other parts of Canada, to airlift stricken patients to major trauma centers. Montreal's top head trauma doctor said Friday that may have played a role in Richardson's death.

"It's impossible for me to comment specifically about her case, but what I could say is ... driving to Mont Tremblant from the city (Montreal) is a 2 1/2-hour trip, and the closest trauma center is in the city. Our system isn't set up for traumas and doesn't match what's available in other Canadian cities, let alone in the States," said Tarek Razek, director of trauma services for the McGill University Health Centre, which represents six of Montreal's hospitals.

I live in a small town in Pennsylvania. There is a trauma center nearby. Helicopters fly in and out of there all of the time. Perhaps the outcome would have been the same here. But, there are those who want to have a healthcare system like Canada's. No thanks.

The outrage is interesting

Listening to the news this morning about the AIG bailout and the paying of bonuses, I was reminded of something Jesus said to the Pharisees:

Matthew 23:24 (New Living Translation)
24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel

The Congress gave AIG over $100 Billion (with a B). The bonuses paid out was over $100 Million (with an M). That is 1/10th of one percent. This is like getting upset if you give someone in need $10 and they put a penny in a slot machine. Yes, they shouldn't throw the money away like that, but let's be real. How is the other 99.9 % of the money being spent?

Plus, where is the outrage about the amount of money AIG contributed to members of Congress as campaign contributions? Senator Dodd and former Senator Obama (now our most holy President) head the list.

It is time to get real and stop all these bailouts. Cut government spending. Make Congress tighten their belts. Reduce taxes and we will see the economy take off.

A moral hazard

Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person's gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people's hearts first -- and then they will joyfully share their wealth. - St. John Chysostom

These words were attributed to St. John Chrysostom in the book "On Living Simply" combiled by Robert Van de Weyer. Unfortunately, Mr. Van de Weyer did not provide the citation and I have not been able to find exactly where this quote came from. Nevertheless, whether St. John Chysostom actually said these words or not, I find them to be very powerful. If I didn't know better, I would say he must have been reading today's newspapers. Wealth redistribution is the theme of the day. I think we should heed his words, "Far from bringing moral benefit, it would actually do moral harm." Stealing is stealing, no matter who does it, a person or the state.

A whole lot of shakin' going on

Thought for the day:

Hebrews 12:25-29:

25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For our God is a consuming fire.


The world as we know it is being shaken. The "change we can believe in", promised by our President, is shaking the very foundations of our society. The stock market is tanking. People are losing their jobs and their retirement funds. The age of Obama is getting off to a miserable start. (I won't say I told you so.)

So what is happening? To put it simply, those who built there house upon the sand are being shaken to the core of their being. Those who built their house upon the rock (Christ Jesus) will be able to withstand the winds that are blowing and the earth that is shaking.

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

Chrismation report

Last evening, prior to Vespers, my wife and I were chrismated into the Holy Orthodox Church.

I chose as my patron saint, St. David the King and Prophet. My wife chose St. Kasiani (Cassiane). Since we are both musicians and have written church music, albeit western contemporary music, they both seemed very appropriate. Our Godparents gave us each a beautiful cross and an icon of our patron saint. We were truly blessed.

Today, we both received our first communion as Orthodox Christians. It was a day we will never forget. To be able to partake of the heavenly food is such a great blessing.

Glory to God for ever and ever.

Countdown ....3....2.....1

Countdown .....3.....2.....1


This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.


Today, 02/21/2009, is the day my wife and I are to be Chrismated into the Holy Orthodox Church before Vespers. It has been a long road, but I know it is only the beginning of the journey.

If you ever read the "About me" to the right, you may have noticed the term (small o) orthodox. After today, I will be able to change it to a capital O, Orthodox.

Oh happy day!!!

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

Countdown ....3.....2.....

Countdown .....3....2.....

Continuing the countdown.

Clue: small 'o' to Capital 'O'.

Countdown ....3....

Countdown .....3.....

Counting down to a great event.

Clue : The Orthodox Church is evangelical, but not Protestant. It is orthodox, but not Jewish. It is catholic, but not Roman. It isn't non-denominational - it is pre-denominational. It has believed, taught, preserved, defended and died for the Faith of the Apostles since the Day of Pentecost 2000 years ago.