Profiles in Courage Circa 2013

Phew! NYC is safe. Eliot Spitzer, voted Best John of 2008, has announced that he won't vote for The Weiner.  Character does indeed count!

abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/eliot-spitzer-i-wont-vote-for-anthony-weiner/

Republican Thinking on Obamacare

Currently in vogue among Republicans is the idea that Obamacare will fall apart from its own weight. Wishful thinking.

The Democrats sole objective is control. They are not interested in solving problems, efficiency, or anything else that matters to most people. They have already shown that they will throw massive amounts of money at ideas that don't work (think solar energy) because they should work. How much more so when it is a program that extends their grip into every fiber of the American being? Democrats are already busy placing their minions in cushy taxpayer-funded jobs in the state insurance exchanges mandated by Obamacare and in a multitude of new Federal agencies tasked with running the program. Patronage and control: mmm, mmm, mmm!  No big Federal program since the 1930s has ever gone away and there is no reason to think that this one will either. Repeal it or learn to live with it. 

The Liberal Heritage

A picture sometimes is worth more than a thousand words, as the pictures here are. Detroit has recently been in the news for its bankruptcy, but these pictures show that the city was bankrupt in almost every other sense before it formally filed the legal paperwork. This is what liberal politics and runaway unions can do, There are literally miles and miles of these ruins in Detroit. The same cancer is at work in California, Illinois, and other blue bastions. Most importantly, it is at work at the national level in a way never seen before. I hope that you will take a moment to look at these photographs. We ignore this at our peril. There is real destruction, real shattered lives, real hopelessness. 

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the-ruins-of-detroit/2672/

A Reflection on Art

Let's go in a different direction. Too much of the political stuff rots your teeth, not to mention your mind. Let's do art.  

Eric Metaxas co-authors Breakpoint, the daily column started by the late Chuck Colson, and his column yesterday on God the Arts and Us was a good one. Going to a symphony concert with his daughter triggered his thoughts about God as the Great Creator and the fact that because we are made in His likeness, the same creative spark resides in us, in the mundane as well as the spectacular.

Metaxas quotes theologian T.M. Moore extensively about the meaning of art and what it signifies and it is worth repeating:

"... the grandeur and beauty we encounter in great art all speak of Him.

That’s one of the main thrusts of T. M. Moore’s ViewPoint study series on art. For Christian artists, T. M. says, art absolutely should be a “testimony to the grandeur and pleasure of God” in all settings—sacred or secular.

T. M. tells a wonderful story about Johann Sebastian Bach, the great eighteenth-century composer. Now Bach loved his coffee. And in honor of his passion, he wrote the “Coffee Cantata,” which involved a funny drama about a father and daughter arguing over the daughter’s love for the bean. The music itself, T. M. says, is as rich and beautiful as any of Bach’s famous sacred pieces.

And that was on purpose. “For Bach,” T. M. writes, “even the most ordinary things of life could convey a message of divine glory and pleasure, even your morning cup of coffee. Great art functions like this, taking as its focus common . . . subjects and using them, in the setting of a big, sweeping vision, to communicate a simple message.

“In Christian art,” T. M. continues “whether the images are saints and martyrs or a parental dispute with a daughter over the supposed evils of coffee, the message remains the same: Life has meaning and beauty when it is lived within the framework of the overarching majesty, goodness, and love of God.”

Think about that folks, the next time you’ve got an opportunity to see, hear, or read a great piece of art—at a gallery, in a concert hall, or in a book of poetry."

Good advice. 

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/22905

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phillippians 4:8

The Obama Starship

Breitbart has a great picture and column this morning to illustrate how the President is going to lead us to economic new tomorrows that pretty much sums up his 87th "pivot" on the economy. Yes indeed, the President is a Whirling Dervish when it comes to pivots which is probably why even much of the liberal media such as Dana Milbank of the Washington Post and Chuck Todd from NBC News were unimpressed with his effort at Knox College. It was same old, same old. You know we are in trouble and he is out of ideas when the President concludes with - as Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro says - this "glittery" line:

America, we have made it through the worst of yesterday’s winds. And if we find the courage to keep moving forward; if we set our eyes on the horizon, we too will find an ocean of tomorrows, a sky of tomorrows – for America’s people, and for this great country that we love.

Oyvez! This line aches for a response a la Three Amigos and Shapiro provides it: 

How will we reach these glorious seas and heavens of the future? By taking the Barack Obama Starship!

Of course! Fasten in all you Trekkies and follow the guy on the unicorn to the oceans of tomorrow! Hi Ho Silver - Away! Is the economy better yet?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/24/Obama-skies-of-tomorrow

Dirty Dems

Wiener, Spitzer, Filner. It's not the Dirty Dozen yet but they are working on it. The first two are running respectively for the mayor and comptroller of New York City. Today even the New York Times bailed on Wiener, who hinted that even more X-rated peccadilloes of his are on the way. Great. 

Then there's Spitzer. Eliot "No Shame" Spitzer. I remember when the story first broke about his midnight romps with prostitutes and he shamelessly mounted the podium with his wife as a stage prop. She looked so very sad. 

Finally, Filthy Filner, the Mayor of San Diego. At last report he was urging select females in his office to report for work without panties. Unbelievable. What ever happened to embarrassment?  Shame has been extinct for a while.

More importantly, what has happened to the voters? We get the statesman or bums that we deserve because we can vote for or against them. San Diego in particular used to be a relatively conservative city but Filner has always had a rep as very liberal and a horn dog. In much of the country, it appears that the cultural climate and the political climate mirror each other. Excuse me, I need to go take a shower. 

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Street?

Why did the chicken cross the street? Well, in this case, they didn't in Salem but got smacked instead and PETA now wants to erect a roadside memorial statue (see picture - I am not making this up) to all these AWOLs from Col. Sanders. Fortunately, Salem's city fathers and mothers (and LGBT or whatevers) put a stop to all this and there will be no Angry Birds glaring at us from the city's lovely byways. It's summer - enjoy!

www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/07/chicken_statue_could_ruffle_fe.html#incart_m-rpt-2