Want to post it for our hearts and prayers to fill in the details for Veterans Day.
God bless our veterans of all ages. May God bless America. And a good man with a good influence on other, younger men is hard to find.
Off the river, Out of the woods, and onto the wilderness of the Web
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S continuing weak dollar and tax and spend policies are going to take down more than Wall Street. Sadly they will take the American people down even further, before he and this insane, tooth-fairy Congress can be voted out of office and ridden out of town on the rails.
WITH THE DEVALUING OF THE DOLLAR sadly begun under Bush and now continuing under Obama, the price of gold and gold stocks is soaring again. I believe this uptrend of gold verses the U.S. dollar will continue for the foreseeable future. That continues to send the smart money into hard assets like gold, silver and commodities in order to hold value. This isn't just happening on the personal levels, but with many countries, most recently like India.OVER THE WEEKEND, I had the pleasure of having a cup of coffee with these guys early one morning. They're Knoxville men in the 278th division of the Tennessee National Guard and are about to go mobe and deploy to Iraq on December 1. Most have been there before and will leave their families and full-time jobs again to serve our country another year.
Their particular unit is assigned to protect the American Embassy in Baghdad. After talking to them, I feel better already. Below the photos they kindly agreed I could take (Again, I do not tell anyone I meet that I'm a blogger), I would like to give a brief synopsis---later today---of some of the politically incorrect things they told me. Meanwhile, may God bless these men and soldiers who serve our country so well.IRAQ 101 (none of this is new, but a fun review), IN A NUTSHELL, what they said:
Don't believe anything you read or hear in the news about Iraq, or Obama's War, cause they don't know what's really going on......There's been good progress in Iraq, but a lot more to do....not only more fighting, but rebuilding infra-structure and keeping things from going downhill.
All the other countries have pulled out, except us and the two-timing Saudis. We need to have a presence there for at least 10 more years so that some of the children who are now 9-10-11 can grow up with a sense of freedom and begin to take positions in the real world in business and government. These young people who've lived through the war and tasted freedom won't let it slide back again.
Basically, you've got the Sunnis who are like Old Testament pharisees going by the letter of the law of Islam and are really strict.
Then you have the Shi'ia who are more like New Testament people, not as strict and rigid as the Sunnis. The conflicts between the two sects of Islam in Iraq are ongoing.
Then you got the Kurds who just want their own land up north which is essentially a mountain range. (From the Wikipedia line above: As a major economic power in Iraq, Kurdistan has the lowest poverty rates and highest standard of living in Iraq.[3] It is the most stable and secure region of Iraq where not a single coalition soldier or foreigner has been killed, wounded or kidnapped since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[4] Maintaining its own foreign relations, Kurdistan hosts a number of consulates and representation offices of countries most notably those of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Israel and Russia.)
The Saudis act like they're helping us on one hand, but on the other, are sending radicals and terrorists into Iraq through Syria to destroy everything we're trying to do. Saudis know there are vast oil reserves in Iraq and they're very interested in them. It's more than the Saudis and Kuwaitis have together. There's a lot of money and oil money on the line in Iraq and that's the truth.
But we're going to make it a good year and progress will be made while we're there....
When I asked if any of them will return home to visit during the year away? they all said probably not except in emergencies. It was too upsetting and disrupting to their families to come and go again. But with cell phones and computers, they'll be in constant communications.
SO GOOD to be here, in the oldest mountain range in North America! Even though, I belong to--- am completely in love with--- another. It's only a weekend thing.
THE SUN CAME OUT Sunday and this week----after months and months of dreary, seeming endless rain---it's been about as perfect weather as any I've seen this year. Blue skies with cool, crisp air. It's all I could do to stay inside at all the past few days. Managed to barely do most house and office chores, but frankly, being outside has been too good to pass up.
THANK GOD FOR RENEWAL after a rough and rainy week! What a difference a couple of good nights' sleeps makes, as well as exercise, healthy eating, detachment and of course prayer. Thank you for your prayers. I'm back in business and will put a Sunday post below soon. Best of all---there must be some mistake---the sun is actually shining brightly early this Sunday morning!
I'VE NEVER BEEN A FAN of Dave, and liked him even less after his drubbing of Sarah Palin and her family. So when he revealed recently that he was being extorted for having an affair with a female staffer, I wasn't so much surprised by his confession as intrigued by its irony.Dave's world, like that of so many rich and famous, of course, is an enclave of specialness, secrecy and isolation from the flotsam and jetsam of the world. I can't imagine envying it in the least and also don't believe anyone could be shocked by reports of his infidelity and the many temptations he succumbed to over the years. I'm quite sure his life and his marriage---if not his ratings----are in deep crisis today. Only time will tell how it all plays out.
One thing is certain: Dave can no longer point his judgmental, witty finger at others with impunity again. That holier than thou attitude won't hold water with his audiences, if it ever did. I was never a fan of Dave. And now, I have zero interest in tuning in for his next ironic monologue.
After opening it, I tossed it on a pile of books on my bedside table, never intending to read it. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the trash heap: I woke up early the next morning and actually picked it up as a part of my early morning devotional. I read the first few pages. Then I ended up reading the whole thing over the next day-and-a-half.
It's a simply but clearly written, uncomplicated tale of two kids growing up in a small town America, working hard to be their best, falling in love and getting married. It's the classic story of going from middle-class America to fame, fortune, power and status beyond their wildest dreams when Alan became a mega-country music star after they moved to Nashville from Newnan, Georgia. Along the way the Jacksons had three daughters. To the outside world, their lives were perfect in every way, but on the inside the pressures of too many good things were causing cracks on the deepest levels of their souls.
I loved this book and can only say it reveals the age-old truths that ultimately nothing---no amount the of adoration, fame, fortune, star status or even family and friends can ultimately bring lasting happiness or satisfy the human heart outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sure, all the trappings may seem to make us happy for a while, but they are only illusions and never can---nor were designed to-- fill the empty hole in our hearts. Without Christ as the center of our lives, all that we hold most dear only become addictions, idols and shabby substitutes for the only real relationship that matters first and foremost.
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to have gone through the fires of brokenness and deep heartache and come out the other side, understand this. Others will. And all will be given the chance, though all will sadly not choose to take the gift of God's saving love and salvation.
The Jacksons reunited a year after they separated and are now living one day, one hour at a time within the Grace of God's will for their lives. I am so grateful that Lee introduced himself to me last week, and even more grateful that I picked up the inspirational book he sent me on the Jacksons' life story up to now. While their story is far from over and they certainly don't have the perfect lives, I know they will make it with their deeper commitment first to their walk with Christ and second their recommitment to each other. I ended up liking these people more than I ever thought I could. May God bless them--- their marriage. family and lives together. Each has given the other the forgiveness---painful as it's been---that Christ extended them, and both know the Grace that involves.

Think Al has met his match.
She's my kind of woman. Evidently Andrew Breitbart's kind too: I want to get her an RV so she can go around to every school in America with this message.
Breitbart hosted the event and panel discussion---with other notables including John Fund of the WSJ---at Heritage Sunday night and shone his new media breit lights on Ann and her message. She couldn't be more fortunate. Ann is as fortunate as ACORN and NEA were unfortunate to have Breitbart take an interest in what they were doing and how they were doing it---much to their detriment. I sure wouldn't want to meet Breitbart in a dark alley with my hand in the till or my pants down.
Meanwhile, Ann's PM dispenses the latest global warming hysteria.
*******
A brief critique of Not Evil Just Wrong:
This documentary film makes the much needed point that man-made climate change hysteria is based on science that's far, far from unanimous but has nonetheless been politicized into a green religion by many politically-correct scientists, educators, politicians and economists.
The movie contends that the current demonization of carbon dioxide emissions has its counterpart in recent history: the indictment of DDT in the 40s after the release of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.
It further argues that CO2 is the new DDT. When DDT was banned, mosquito-born malaria throughout the world, especially in Africa and under-developed nations, increased rapidly and resulted in untold misery and death. These claims against DDT were ultimately based on faulty science and reasoning. Today the World Health Organization has restored its rightful place on its list of safe, useful, life-saving chemicals that save lives and are not a threat to the environment.
The movie also shows how the banning of fossil fuel production and use in America will destroy countless middle-class jobs and upward mobility by sentimentally focusing on a working family in Vevay, Indiana who fears Cap-and-Trade legislation as much as it fears Al Gore.
The film provides a much needed antidote to An Inconvenient Truth, I would only point out a few criticisms to make it more effective and watchable.
1. The movie needs some more editing. Cutting here and there can only make it more effective.
2. The segment on family in Vevay, Indiana gets a little long and sentimental for my tastes. Basically its message is, please don't kill our jobs, Mr. Gore. The wife even drives to Tennessee and hand delivers a letter to Gore's home---right around the corner from me---in Nashville. One of his house staff opens the door, thanks her for concerns then closes the door.
OK.
3. A concurrent salient point that needs to be hammered in---along with the movies' claims that man-made climate change is based on false and refutable junk science---is that robust economies and low taxes always produce cleaner and healthier environments. This needs to be drummed into the the current lunatics in Congress and Obama administration, not to mention school kids around the world....it's called free markets 101.
Conversely, economies ladened down with gargantuan government regulations, taxes and spending---like the Cap-and-Trade being proposed here now--- are ineffective against CO2 and stagnate growth and prosperity. We have only to witness the deperate degradation in poverty-stricken African countries to know this is true.
There's more, but for now, I have only the highest regard for Ann and her husband's film. It has its flaws, but is a wonderful start in turning global warming hysteria around (if in fact anything can at this point) especially in our schools, where it is indeed being taught as religion.
Ann, let me know when your RV pulls into Nashville! I'll have a pot of greens and cornbread waiting....and I live just around the block from the false prophet, you-know-who!
While it wasn't easy leaving my children (who had no interest in going with me) or G-boy for the night and finding my way to Brooklyn on the subway from the upper East side, I have to say nothing prepared me for the absolute joy and spiritual grace I found there in the company of believers.
To be continued....
TUGS AT YOUR HEART STRINGS, DOESN'T IT?
AND YET. Yet.....could anything be wrong with this picture? Is more going on under the surface that warrants a closer look?
Copenhagen in December: We'd Better Educate Ourselves and Be Ready for a Continuing Push Towards A One World Government....with a new currency based on carbon credits or offsets. The biggest players are lining up for obscene profits and mega-power plays on a scale we've never seen before on planet Earth: Albert the Conqueror, The United Nations, the US Congress, Goldman Sachs and the world's biggest conservation organizations---The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International---along with many other groups and investment syndicates.
Why don't we connect the dots to see why the myth of man-made global warming is central and critical to forming new One World power base to those who are positioning themselves by getting out ahead of the carbon curve for profit and power. The rest of us will be paying the bills until the Second Coming.
IS IT NATURE + PEOPLE = SOLUTION?
OR
NATURE + PEOPLE + MASSIVE GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS/COERCION = HUBRIS?