Keller on Idols, Spiritual Life Preservers and The Myth of Control

COUNTERFEIT GODS

JONAH AND THE NINEVITES: WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE

AT A TIME OF UNPRECEDENTED POLITICAL, FINANCIAL AND CULTURAL upheaval in our country and world --- as people of all stripes become more polarized along racial, national, ideological and religious lines---it might behoove those of us professing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and even those who don't, to review a chapter from Tim Keller's recently released book called The Hidden Idols of our Lives.

Here, Keller unpacks the staggering story of Jonah in the Old Testament. Be forewarned, it's not your 1st grade Sunday school myth of a man who falls out of a boat into the sea during a storm, spends three days in the belly of a big fish and is finally belched safely onto dry land after disobeying a direct order from God. No, the story speaks to the reasons for Jonah's disobedience and to the deep idols in his heart that caused him to run from God in the first place.

Jonah had been commanded to go preach God's impending judgment to Nineveh, the world's most powerful city and seat of the Assyrian Empire, so its people might repent and be saved. This didn't suit Jonah's idea of how things ought to be. How dare God do such a merciful, kind thing to Israel's enemies!

Jonah would have none of it so he ran away in disobedience. Needless to say, God stepped in to discipline Jonah in supernatural ways. Jonah's illusion of control, superiority and desire to leverage God's will to suit his own little agenda was soon turned upside down several times.

But the story doesn't end there. A great struggle ensues between Jonah and God after Jonah goes to Nineveh and the people there end up repenting. Jonah gets furious with God---furious enough to die--- because God, the God of the Jews, would dare show such compassion and mercy on the Ninevites whom he hated. His religious and national pride, all good things in and of themselves, had become ultimate things---idols---which Jonah had put before loving God.

Jonah is a large, deep book of the Bible which could aptly be titled Advanced Idol Worship of Grownups--- or When Good Things Happen to Bad People--- which under Keller's eye-popping commentary takes a piercing look at both the personal and national idols that intersect every human heart, including yours and mine. Jonah had multiple idols, and God dealt with all of them, albeit very slowly over time.

It's a shocking and poignant tale for today's turbulent times and arrogant peoples when Keller gets his skilled hands on this famous Bible story.

Keller writes of Jonah: His fear of personal failure (of preaching and ministering to the Ninevites), his pride in his Jewish religion and his fierce love of Israel had coalesced into a deadly idolatrous compound that spiritually blinded him to the grace of God. As a result he did not want to extend that grace to an entire city that needed it. He wanted to see them all dead.....

Racial pride and cultural narrowness cannot coexist with the gospel of grace. They are mutually exclusive.....Because of the self-justifying nature of the human heart, it is natural to see our own culture or class characteristics (or our own political or economic ideologies, I might add) as superior to anyone else. But this natural tendency is arrested by the gospel.

This is not an over-night job for God with either Jonah or you and me. Keller quotes Richard Loveless on spiritual life preservers from The Dynamics of Spiritual Life:

Those who are not secure in Christ cast about for spiritual life preservers with which to support their confidence, and in their frantic search they cling not only to the shreds of ability and righteousness they find in themselves, but they fix upon their race, their membership, their familiar in a party, their familiar social and ecclesiastical patterns and their culture as a means of self-recommendation. The culture is put on as through it were armor against self-doubt, but it becomes a mental strait-jacket which cleaves to the flesh and can never be removed except through comprehensive faith in the saving work of Christ.

The story of Jonah is a story I can identify with. It convicts me of the multiple layers of my idolatries and asks me to examine my heart early and often for racial, political and ideological pride that would cause me to look down in superiority and marginalize people with differing views. It calls me to do what I can in any situation yet know in the depths of my heart that in the beginning, middle and end, God is in control. There's a much bigger picture unfolding than I can see. I, like Jonah, may not like what I see unfolding in our country. After all's said and done, I'm called to obey God and leave the results up to Him without taking on a false sense of superiority, thinking my position is always right or that I'm in control.

More in the weeks ahead. Love this mighty little book!

(Please note, I intended to write today about the idols of family---my personal favorite--- in Keller's book, but with the news late last night the health care bill ( which I oppose on many grounds) passed its first hurdle in the Senate I decided this was a more timely subject for me to focus on today. It's something I need for continuing to look at my own idol of moral superiority of being a fiscal conservative on the political right. We often read and write what we need to learn. )

Senator Bob Corker's Assessment Of Reid's Healthcare Bill

MORE SINISTER THAN THE HOUSE BILL AND TERRIBLE FOR OUR COUNTRY

HATE TO KEEP POSTING VIDEOS HERE, yet listening to this is the most important thing I can publish today. Please call your Senators. Their numbers are found by clicking the Capitol icon at the top right.

We are in the throes of a liberal, mega-lawyer takeover of our country which seeks to change it to its foundations at a time of unprecedented federal insolvancy and economic instability. This country's fiscal situation is unsustainable. If this bill passes, it will accelerate our downhill slide.



In spite of the odds Corker predicts, Intrade on my right sidebar under links gives more encouraging odds for those opposed, at least for this year. All bets are off for January 2010. Keep an eye on it because markets can be wiser than individual opinions.

Why Terrorists Should Not Be Tried In Federal Civil Court with Miranda Rights

A QUICK AND DRAMATIC study on why the War on Terror should not be criminalized and relegated to Federal Civil Court rather than Military Tribunals. Senator Lindsey Graham grills Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday in a one-on-one in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Every thinking American should watch this and be edified. If you don't come away discomforted and wondering what in heaven's name the Obama administration is thinking trying these terrorists in NYC as criminals---with the same rights as U.S. citizens---rather than enemy combatants--- then we're in worse trouble than I think. As Graham reiterates to Holder this decision would be a major perversion of justice and set a dangerous precedent. Graham lays it out and tells Holder in no uncertain terms why. I get the feeling Holder heard things he'd never heard before.

Either way, the decision by the Obama administration is ill-advised and very poorly thought out. It makes them look more sophomoric and wreckless than ever.And we won't even begin to talk about the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars the taxpayers--you and I---we be required to shell out in this high population density venue. As if we don't have enough monetary distress already.

Thanks to Neo for calling our attention to this. She's at her best.

Sen. Lindsey Graham

Miranda rights/warning

KSM

Stunning Re-Creation of US Air Flight 1549 Into the Hudson In January

DO TAKE TIME to watch the latest re-creations of this white-knuckle flight, its long glide down and perfect landing by Captain Sully (aka Cactus) in the Hudson River last winter. Amazing. Professionalism, coolness exhibited by all. Still, only by the Grace of God.

The moral of the story: Life can change on a dime. And often does. In millisecond. For all of us. Everyday. Are we ready?

In watching this again, I notice how quickly the captain realized---almost within seconds of the strike-- the plane was going down in the Hudson even even though he briefly considered going back to LaGuardia. Cactus inquired less than a minute later about Teterboro, but there was never a question that the only sane option for him was to glide his plane down over water where there were no buildings to crash into and land on the river. A quick decision that worked out, to say the least.

Kas Osterbuhr, an engineer at K3 Resources, has taken all the data released by the NTSB and used it to create -- recreate, actually -- the entire incident with an obsessive dedication to accuracy, and in astonishing detail, too.

When you're done, head over to Osterbuhr's website to view all the different videos and graphics he's made, using the information released by the feds. H/T

An Idea: Where To Send Our Troops Instead of Afghanistan

UPDATE: Coming home! No imminent decision on Afghanistan before Thanksgiving.

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SAY THIS. Even as President Obama grapples with whether to send more troops to Afghanistan and assures us he's getting closer and closer to a decision, I have another proposal to offer:

Send in U.S. troops to invade China, capture and bring home our president before he can do any more damage on his now famous excessive deference tour. Surely he can be intercepted on land somewhere between the Great Wall gift shop (first try the CD department featuring digital biographies of the 20th Century's World's Greatest Tyrants) and the Peninsula Hotel having tea while Michelle refurbishes her silk shantung wardrobe in Hong Kong. If that doesn't work, some of our Drones can spot him from several miles above the mainland. He's the one in perpetual bowing and scraping mode, so he shouldn't be too hard to find, even in the dark of night.

There's more to this story. Nobody says it more elegantly than Richard Wolffe at The Daily Beast:

He bowed to Japan. He treaded lightly with China. And then Israel thumbed its nose at Obama’s calls to freeze settlements.

To the president’s critics, this week’s White House trip to Asia has largely failed because of excessive deference. Obama bowed to the Japanese emperor, and he metaphorically genuflected to the Chinese leadership by refusing to confront them publicly about human rights.

Yet the president’s biggest foreign-policy setback of the week—by several orders of magnitude—came on the other side of Asia. And its negative impact was worsened by an administration policy that started with public confrontation, not compromise.

To sum this trip up, President Obama is far too obsequious with our enemies with whom he and we have human rights issues, too offensive with our allies. And for that I think he needs a troop intervention that will bring him home for a while, before he can do any further damage through deference.

Please don't misunderstand. There's nothing wrong, and lots to gain, from humility, admission of mistakes and a sense of humor on the world stage, or anywhere for that matter; however when deprecation and shaming of our country and its bedrock principles are our president's primary MO, then I draw the line and think our citizens should also. This is not about left verses right. It's about upholding the Constitution and representing the interests of freedom and human rights both here and abroad. President Obama is doing neither, in my opinion.

Until he does, for the next few years, forget the phrase Bring Our Troops Home! instead memorize this new one: Send in the troops! Bring Our President Home!

Let's hope he learns at least how to treat world leaders as equals rather than subordinates or higher-ups. If this excessive deference doesn't stop, one day Obama may be curtsying to Osama. While he's learning, it might behoove him to practice saluting our flag (the American one, that is) when it passes by. God bless America and our president too.

Name That Penitentiary

HERE'S A LITTLE QUIZ: Name that penitentiary, where it is and why you and I should care. Do you know what makes it unique and what could make it even uniquer in the years to come? We need to know these things, because you and I own it. I'll be back with answers later tonight, or if it's too late, early in the morning.

Scarlett Does It Right

I NEED A CHANGE OF PACE THIS MORNING. Don't want to discuss the mediocre Palin/Oprah interview or that I think the best that Sarah can now hope to be is a political celebrity/fund-raiser/operative----if we'll have her---par excellence for the right. She'll never be president, even as she enjoys her newly-minted fame in the lower forty-eight. So be it. And I don't want to talk anymore about Democratic lawyers, Obama in Mao-land, the falling dollar or the continuing rise in unemployment. What debacles and it may get worse!

Instead, I want to focus on perfume and how good the curvaceous Scarlett J. looks in the Dolce & Gabbana ad above. Love her hair, dress, pose. There's neither too little nor too much of her showing. She's carrying just the right amount of weight and hasn't been photo shopped out of existence. And that unfussy, little black dress will take her anywhere. She's alluring, yet restrained in a lady-like way and showing us how to be ready for a sensual night on the town or an intimate one at home. Add a little (and I do mean little) fragrance and she's rules the night and any man fortunate enough to be in her company. Nice. I also love it that the ad is in black-and-white. Very classic and classy.

Democrats Party of Lawyers

WHICH COMES FIRST, LAWYERS OR THEIR LAWS?

WHAT I'M POSTING HERE IS NOT NEWS. Yet, I think it bears repeating and along the way begs a few questions---even if they're rhetorical. Ready?

OK. The Democratic Party is made up of lots and lots of lawyers who don't make anything; they'd rather pass things like laws. Many elected Democrats in Washington are lawyers. To review, here are a few from the Democratic Legal Complex:

Barack Obama is a lawyer.
Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer.
Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
John Edwards is a lawyer.
Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.

You know all this, but are you nonetheless dizzy yet? I'm not done.

Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.

Now let's look at current Democratic leaders in Congress:

Harry Reid, Democratic leader of the Senate, is a lawyer.
Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House, is a lawyer.

So let's stop for a minute and ask our most important question: SO WHAT?

This surfeit of Democratic lawyers means they want to change our country and world through laws and law-making and expanding government. That's what they do, and all they know how to do. Lawyering, law making and laws are their focus, job description and meaning in life. So why do we keep electing these lawyers? They wouldn't be caught dead passing term limits, btw, which would limit them staying forever in office and passing even more laws. No law will ever be passed by Democrats that expires or limits a Democratic lawyer or law maker.

Democrats view the world and change exclusively through the lens of laws, rather than of innovation in the free markets, economies and other creative private sector enterprises. Liberal Democratic lawyers believe ALL THINGS are possible by the power of writing, passing, enforcing bill for every aspect of our lives. Once passed, Democrat lawyers love to play the blame game of suing for massive damages. The Democratic ACLU loves to sue and divert precious resources for frivilous suits for anything and nothing. Making trouble is its job.

Currenty, Obama and his Democratic lawyer-led Congress believe they can remake America by passing two huge laws: First, healthcare reform law which makes big government bureaucracy hugely bigger while invading every American's life and health care process from cradle to grave.

Ever wonder why one of the most obvious ideas to revamp health care and bring down costs--tort reform and limiting a doctor's liability--- is wantonly and consistently overlooked by Democratic lawyers and law makers? Look no further than Democratic lawyers who refuse to pass tort reform because then they couldn't sue the daylights out of doctors and hospitals, taking millions of dollars in awards for themselves and their clients.

Democratic lawyer and presidential candidate-with-a-mirror John Edwards made his fortune lawyering, suing and feeding off doctors through predatory medical lawsuits which had no limits to liabilities and which lined his pockets beyond handsomely--pun intended.

Again, it's all about the Democratic party of lawyers making laws which help lawyers make more laws and more money so more can run for office, win and make even more laws and money.

The second big-ticket item on Democratic lawyers' agenda is man-made climate change laws they want passed on the national and international levels. Such laws would enlarge big government and regulation to unheralded proportions (and One World government) putting the heavy burden of paying for these laws on the shrinking backs of taxpayers.

Climate change laws would help Democratic lawyers make gazillions of dollars by suing law breakers, so then running for office in order to make even more laws, raise taxes and continue to help "solve" all our problems through more laws and bigger government and law suits.

Ever wonder why Al Gore, a would-be lawyer who never graduated and also a wanna-be theologian, wants to have all these climate laws passed? It's because these laws will help him and his investors make trillions upon trillions of dollars in alternative energy and carbon-based products they damn well expect better be mandated through these new laws. (That's why Goldman Sachs and The Nature Conservancy--both private corporations---want massive climate change laws passed. They stand to make a monetary killing on these new laws and are backing them and the Democratic lawyers with all the resources they have at their disposal.)

Make no mistake, the Democratic Lawyer Party wants to reform America through making laws that will be hard on us taxpayers, but good for them politically and monetarily. It's not rocket science that with all these lawyers in Washington today, WE, the American people, are in a heap of trouble.

Now let's contrast this with the Republican Party made up mostly of non-lawyers:

President Bush is a businessman..
Vice President Cheney is a businessman.
Newt Gingrich, leader of the Republican revolution, was a history professor.
Tom Delay was an exterminator.
Dick Armey was an economist.
House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.

Gerald Ford was the last Republican president who was a lawyer. He left office 31 years ago and barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976.

The Republican Party is made up of professionals and real people doing real work who are often the targets of lawyers---liberal Democratic lawyers. Doctors are also major target of lawyers. The ACLU's Democratic lawyers sue any and every thing that has even the slightest tinge of Christian religious overtones.

The bottom line for now is that Americans have now elected so many Democratic lawyers who are leading this country that we may never recover from the onslaught of new laws most people don't want and government growth and taxes that will sap more and more money its unhappy citizens.

Isn't it time we sit down and have another cup of tea and start to figure out our next move to get these liberal Democratic lawyer criminals out of office?

(Thanks, Steve in Grand Junction.)

Keller's Counterfeit Gods Is Not for the Faint-Hearted

TAKEN THE WAY I BELIEVE it's written, Tim Keller's most recent book Counterfeit Gods on idols found in every human heart---the worship of family and group, children and grandchildren, romance and sex, approval, power, influence, money, power, politics---is not for everyone because it's a panoramic treatise on sin. And reading it begs the question of our willingness to look within to excavate the idols of our hearts.

To review, idols are things---even good things---that we make ultimate things in our hearts and lives. They replace God at the center of our hearts and if we lose them, our loss can shatter and embitter us for the rest of our live.

I would not recommend reading this book to anyone who's not on the spiritual journey in earnest and seeking greater maturity in Christ. That's because taking down idols is only a temporary game at best---in which we get rid of one thing only to replace it with another---and impossible at worst unless it's replaced permanently by God.

Replacing these idols embedded in the deepest layers of our hearts can be a shocking and painful and emotional process and the work of a lifetime. There are no quick fixes in this journey withint. In the end, only the explosive power and love of God can move into those holes of our hearts for restoration and redemption.

Anyone who does therapy, prays and worships in ways that focus primarily on changing others and things outside of ourselves, rather than focusing on what's going on inside probably can't yet understand the stinging relevance of Keller's book. It would be like water rolling off a duck's back.

The immature---and we're all immature to varying degrees---want and demand ourselves and the outside world change to meet and fulfill the idols of our heart. The maturing Christian understands that real change comes first from within as we let the Holy Spirit break down and destroy strongholds so we can begin to live life on God's terms, rather than our own.

That doesn't mean we have to like this process or that it's a quick and easy transformation. Seek ye first the Kingdom and all things will be added, is not a fairy tale, but a bedrock, fundamental Truth of the Bible from beginning to end.

This is not the prosperity gospel.

Keller's book, if used that way I believe it's intended, is a shocking handbook for growth that can be read and worked for the rest of our lives. It's based on Bible stories of people with idols like you and me as it maps the idol-making factory of the human heart and its only and ultimate redemption. There's no escaping the fact that we've all made good things into ultimate things and replaced God as our Center.

The greatest secret in the world is: Try as we might, nothing can or will ever fit into the center of our hearts except the Triune God.

Yet we keep hacking away, trying, hoping to do it our way. Don't our lives and experiences and brokeness finally bear witness to the futility of our incessant attempts to serve our idols, no matter how often we fail? Mine certainly has.

I'll be back in the weeks ahead with more on this book.

Michelle Obama's Dwindling Appeal

FROM HEALTHY VEGETABLES TO PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS

EVEN AS HER POLL NUMBERS DROP, Mrs. Obama is getting herself mixed up in the same political issue that defeated the Democratic first lady before her. Linda Hirshman at the Daily Beast explains:

Despite the clear lesson from Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated venture, health care is a siren song for any first lady—because it looks like such a womanly thing. Taking care of sick people, especially sick children, fits perfectly into a traditional female caregiver role.

But it’s a trap. Health care is big, big business—15 percent of the economy, some say. Big insurers, Big Pharma, the AMA, big boys play health care. And as the tea bag summer went by, the political stakes got unimaginably high, too. As Michelle Obama turned her attention from healthy veggies to pre-existing conditions, pundits speculate that the “fall” in her approval ratings—from a high of 72 to 61 percent in the latest Gallup poll—may indeed be due to her venture into the politics of health care.

But theories about her dwindling appeal abound. Maybe she’s not too blue but too red: The mom-in-chief thing has gotten really old as the economy tanks and the president plays basketball with the boys. We know there’s a Harvard law degree in there somewhere; why is she appearing with kitty ears and Halloween treats?

Six months ago, all the first lady coverage was a just-right purply hue. What happened? The obvious answer is that everything was never just right. Just like regular politics, red and blue gender politics can’t be magically wished away, not even by the Obamas. And the gender challenges of being a first lady, 40 years after feminism, are darn near insurmountable.

A quick learner, Michelle Obama found out during the campaign that she’d be better off seen than heard. When asked what she’d do in case of the dreaded 3 a.m. emergency phone call, she answered that she’d hand the phone to Barack and go back to sleep. The more she embodied a conservative concept of “ladyship,” the more the most vocal parts of the country, especially the media, liked her. Why, they even compared her to the sainted Jacqueline Kennedy.

That's enough. I don't want to go down the Michelle-Jackie road again today. But the point is well taken that the American people want a first lady who's a lady in the White House. For many, the often (false) nostalgia of the Kennedy days embodies that sense for liberals.

Me, I don't have to look any further back than Laura Bush a lady's lady whom I miss greatly. One thing's for sure, she'd never have worn that ghastly cat outfit, looking like a wildcat siren on Halloween. Her venturing deeper into the wilderness of healthcare reform can only take her poll numbers deeper down.

Ignoring the Obvious

Veterans Mentoring Young Vets

I LOVE THIS PHOTO. It was taken recently on the American River in northern California. If you look a minute, it's easy to figure out some of what's going on in it.

The veteran on the right is a retired airline captain who once was a top gun Navy fighter-pilot, flying from aircraft carriers off Vietnam. When he and his generation of heroes came home, theirs was not a warm welcome. In fact it was downright hostile. Many of these veterans nevertheless recovered, got on with their lives---though some did not----became successful at what they did.

However, they never forgot the chilly reception they received when they returned to America as veterans of an unpopular war that was essentially lost in the mainstream media.

Today as a result, some of these men of Vietnam and earlier wars, are making concerted efforts to help many soldiers, especially the physically and emotionally wounded, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their support has taken many forms, like Wounded Warriors Project. It's turning many dreadfully lonely, lost young veterans into men who find fresh opportunities, new skills and interests and experience a fresh sense of camaraderie and mentor relationships with their elder vet brethren.

No one does this better than the man above, along with other Vietnam vets who are still young and active, yet have decades of life experiences after coming home in the 60s and 70s. The veteran above, aside from his other accomplishments, has become a master fly fisherman. He and several groups he works with takes young vets out on rivers and lakes teaching them to cast, fly fish and tie flies. These trips reacquaint them with the healing qualiities in the great outdoors. The young guys love every minute.

Recently, they went to the American River where they fished, camped and did guy-things for three days.

No injury, no false prosthesis, no emotional trauma excludes any young vet from such an event if they want to attend. Getting these kids outdoors, refocusing their pain or hostility or lostness to fishing and hiking has proven extremely beneficial to their healing processes.

I respect men who use their talents, time and resources---and even their past pain and rejections--to help others have an easier time of it, than they did.

And a good time was had by all.

God bless our veterans of all ages. God bless America. And a good man who uses his good influence well is hard to find.....but not last week on the American River.

A Little Antedote On the Muslim Killer At Fort Hood

COMPLIMENTS OF THE BLEEDING HEART NEW YORK TIMES

DOES this surprise you about the lunatic Muslim gunman at Fort Hood? Does it soften your heart?

An uncle who lives in Ramallah said Major Hasan chose psychiatry over surgery after fainting while observing childbirth during his medical training. The uncle, Rafiq Hamad, described Major Hasan as a gentle, quiet, deeply sensitive man who once owned a bird that he fed by placing it in his mouth and allowing it to eat masticated food.

When the bird died, Mr. Hamad said, Major Hasan “mourned for two or three months, dug a grave for it and visited it.”

How quaint. Get out the violins. Let's keep those humanizing articles coming in the NYT. I shudder to think what's next.

Funny, Yet Not So Funny

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.

As John Tamny says below, every single day this administration is tied up in gridlock and experiences delays of all kinds is one day closer to the 2010 mid-term elections. Now that's something we can really hope for.

Preparing to "GO MOBE"

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.

Monday, Let's Start the Week With An Ode to Political Incorrectness

A GOOD FRIEND in Wyoming emailed me this today. I like it. It's supposed to be written by Andy Rooney for 60 Minutes but who knows. I'll attribute it to him anyway and if he didn't say it, then attribute it to me, cause I agree with everything that's in it. While I don't usually don't put stuff from emails on Webutante, I'm making an exception here.

I feel rebellious and very politically incorrect this morning, and it fits my kick-the-can mood. So without further ado, take it away whoever-you-are:

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers.

The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.

Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America ; and see what happens.

Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE ?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.. I have the right 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English! My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

think the police should have every right to shoot you if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word 'freeze' or 'stop' in English, see the above lines..

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich I don't pity the poor I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building...."

----Andy Rooney

Sunday, Tim Keller On Idols of the Heart

MOST PEOPLE SPEND THEIR LIVES trying to make their heart's fondest dreams come true. Isn't that what life's all about, "the pursuit of happiness?" We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our heart's desires might just be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.

My wife and I once knew a single woman, Anna, who wanted desperately to have children. She eventually married and contrary to the expectations of her doctors, was able to bear two healthy children despite her age.

But her dreams did not come true. Her overpowering drive to give her children a perfect life made it impossible for her to actually enjoy them. Her overprotectiveness, fears and anxieties, and her need to control every detail of her children's lives made the family miserable. Anna's oldest child did poorly in school and showed signs of serious emotional problems. The younger child was filled with anger. There's a good chance her drive to give her children wonderful lives will actually be the thing that ruins them.

Getting her heart's deepest desire may end up being the worst thing that ever happened to her.

THE INEVITABILITY of IDOLATRY

Why is getting your heart's deepest desire so often a disaster? In the book of Romans 1, Saint Paul answers that the human heart fashions these desires into idols, and summarizes saying, "They worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25).

Every human being must live for something. Something must capture our imaginations, our heart's most fundamental allegiance and hope. But, the Bible tells us, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, that object will never be God himself.

If we look to created things to give us the meaning, hope and happiness that only God himself can give, it will eventually fail to deliver. And it will break our hearts.

The woman, Anna, who was ruining her children's lives did not "love her children too much," but rather she loved God too little in relationship to them. As a result, her child-god were crushed under the weight of her expectations.

The Bible is filled with story after story depicting the innumerable forms and devastating effects of idol worship. Every counterfeit god a heart can choose----whether love, money, work, success, sex or power has a compelling biblical narrative that explains how that particular kind of idolatry works itself out in our lives.

-----Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

I'm There!

UPDATE: Absolutely fabulous day, people, weather, views and most of all camaraderie! The hike was very strenuous and pushed us all, if not to our limits, close to them. Only wish I could do it once a week, forever! What a workout!

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.
At the top, some of us just take a nap and enjoy the peace and exhaustion, happy we made it.

Sunshine in Spades

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.

Friday, I leave for East Tennessee to join hikers in the Smokies. Saturday there's a mountain to climb with my kind of elevation gain. All to say, I'll be doing some short posts for a while. Getting out in lots of fresh air and exercise is at the top of my list right now. We all need it, but I really do.

My dear family member who spun out of control several weeks ago after going through a very difficult bout of insomnia---having suffered with this for years, but after Michael Jackson died recently has gone into utter and debilitating terror/hysteria over it---has gone to a month-long treatment program to hopefully break the cycle and her paralysing fear---and negative self-speak--that she'll never be able to sleep again. Even when she gets 4-5 hours sleep, it's not good enough. The need and demand for perfection is destroying her sanity.

My prayers are for her to get help and relief and learn to connect and get reassurance whenever she needs it--and to learn to sooth and reassure herself sometimes through these panic attacks---before it gets to this completely dysfunctional and dire (in her eyes) place again. My solace is that God is in control and I'm not. I wish I could fix this, but she has to find her own way and I believe she will by the Grace of God. My job is to pray and stay sane and centered and do what I can. But it's been tough.

Anyway, I'm going hiking this weekend. Praise God!

Intrade Lowers Odds and Boom on Health Care Reform Passing This Year

ODDS DROP FROM 14% to 6% OVERNIGHT

SOME FUNNY, HOPEFUL THINGS are happening on the way to Nancy Pelosi healthcare-land: Monday's elections of two new Republican governors AND our continued protest of the government's attempted take-over of a huge, mammoth part of our economy. Please keep the heat on Congress. We can't get lax and let this Faustian thing sneak by. Nancy knows no shame and will do absolutely anything to get her way with this. And we need to keep the heat on so as not to win the battle and lose the war.

More on this later.

WANNA BET? Go here.

H/T

From Mere Narcissism to Sociopathic Epidemic?

I BELIEVE, as did the late Dr. Murray Bowen who pioneered family systems/differentiation-of-self theories (The Bowen Center) of human behavior, that our country and culture---are in a massive societal regression. I also think there's no end in sight for our downhill spiral. We live in coarse and vulgar times, to put it mildly.

Anyway, Robin of Berkeley has just written a piece at American Thinker that's well-worth reading entitled Sociopathic Epidemic. This shows in shocking focus where we're probably heading and parts of society have already arrived.

Of course, her perspective is from the way-liberal, left coast and highlights some extreme and tragic behavior out in Pelosi-land., where empathy flows like honey.

In this piece, Robin makes the distinction between our being a nation of mere narcissists who nonetheless have in-tact consciences which can feel shame and remorse, to being a nation of sociopaths who have totally separated from all moral constraints and the ability to know right from wrong.

It's no surprise, in such a sociopathic world, black is white, up is down and evil is good. Everything in life is relative and divorced from all spiritual, moral and founding principles as individual omnipotence and its concomitant adoration of self-esteem is raised to dizzying heights and staggering proportions.

In the beginning, middle and end though, only profound, individual spiritual renewal can save us from ourselves. This is something we can seek and pray for.

I want to come back later with my short list of individual behaviors that I think lead us from narcissism to sociopathtic nihilism and endemic to individual behavior today. None of this is new, yet I want to reiterate it.

What do I mean when I say we're living in a societal regression? I'll be posting various thoughts during the day. But here are a few for starters:

***We live in a constant feeling state of anxiety which comes from our lower reptilian brains and mistake this feeling state for reality.

***Living out of feelings demands that we spend most of our waking hours and much of our sleep time managing and medicating our feelings from what we don't want to something we do. We want stimulation and then relief. Drugs, tobacco, alcohol, sex, shopping and all kinds of addictive behaviors---where we get less and less or a kick even with more of the substance---are part of this syndrome.

****Loyalty to tribe, family, friends, groups and significant others---even despicable ones in the face of cruel behavior---is mandatory and more important than living from principles and doing what's right. Taking a stand against group think is not OK and risks expulsion from the lower functioning immature group. Bowen called this fusion. The only way out is differentiation of self and such a process requires higher functioning brain power.

***Projection takes the place of human introspection which naturally leads to taking responsibility and making changes where changes are called for.

****The inability to either make an amends or receive and acknowledge another's amends comes with increasing narcissism.

****An irresistible attraction to drama and adrenaline in greater and greater amounts.

***The need to be right rather than authentic, especially when being authentic conflicts with our need to be loyal/fused to our group. Authenticity is not letting every crass emotion fly; it comes from having processed our emotions and then getting to the real issues underneath the rawness of feelings.

****A sense of entitlement---which is a lack of appreciation and gratitude---goes with increasing narcissism. In working the 12 steps a sign of recovery is always a sense of gratitude and of personal responsibility. Conversely, falling in the hole goes with ingratitude and narcissism.

All of us to some degree possess many these traits, and we must choose whether we take up the long and arduous spiritual journey of recovery and from narcissism to sanity and maturity. It is always a journey from living, working and recreating in the lower reptilian realms up into the saner neo-cortex and higher brain. It takes courage, humor and patience.

It's never a straight line up, but filled with many fits and starts and detours. I can tell you from experience. Still our recovery into sanity is the only hope for a regressed society. We can't even begin it without a belief in God which hopefully sooner rather than later becomes a belief in the redeeming power of Christ.

House Call in Washington on Thursday

ACCORDING TO AN EMAIL I received last night from Rep.Marsha Blackburn, thousands of people are so concerned about the Pelosi healthcare reform bill that may be passed in the House on Friday, that they're getting in their cars, hopping planes, buses and trains to arrive in Washington Thursday afternoon to demonstrate and protest against it.

It's called a House Call. Not a minute too soon either. Pelosi and her liberal band of thieves are hell-bent on passing this travesty. We all need to get on the band wagon and protest by phone, email, in person commiting ourselves to doing whatever we can to keep this bill from passing in the House.

Let's Start The Week With Only One Word: NO!

UPDATE: When No Means No!

LET'S BE HONEST: Sometimes the best way to start the week is with a resounding NO!

NO THANKS, NOT TODAY, NO WAY, JOSE! OVER MY DEAD BODY! There are many reasons to say NO this Monday---Nancy's stem winder health care monstrosity that is again being attempted to be rammed down our throats whether we like it or not for our own good, for starters. But, if the reason for NO! could be linked to so-called fashion pics, then look no further than the ladies below! These outfits are so bad, it's an effort to say the very word.

Go Fug Yourself has lots of clever copy on these ghastly get-ups--like sad starlet wearing grandma's curtains. However, it's late and we're all way too tired to read and laugh at them anyhow. So in the interim, all I can say is NO! And if you have to ask why, then you need a good night's sleep and maybe tomorrow you'll wake up and understand.

Sunday

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!

*********

FROM TIM KELLER'S NEW BOOK, COUNTERFEIT GODS:

Money can become a spiritual addiction, and like all addictions it hides its true proportions from its victims. We take more and greater risks to get an ever diminishing satisfaction from the thing we crave, until a breakdown occurs. When we begin to recover, we ask, "What were we thinking? How could we have been so blind?" We wake up like people with a hangover who can hardly remember the night before. But why did we act so irrationally?" Why did we so completely lose sight of what is right?

The Bible's answer is that the human heart is an "idol factory."

When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues---or the next pop star anointed by Simon Crowell. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places in the world, internal idol worship, within the heart, is universal.

In Ezekiel 14:3, God is saying that the human heart takes good things like success, love and romance, material possessions and even family, and turns them into ultimate things that come before God. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.

The central plot device of "The Lord of the Rings" is the Dark Lord Sauron's Ring of Power, which corrupts anyone who tries to use it, however good his or her intentions. The ring is what Professor Tom Shippey calls a "psychic amplifier," which takes the heart's fondest desires and magnifies them to idolatrous proportions.

Some good characters in the book want to liberate slaves, or preserve their people's lands, or visit wrongdoers with just punishment. These are all good objectives. But the Ring makes them willing to do anything to achieve them, anything at all.

The Ring turns the good thing into an absolute that overturns every other allegiance or value. The wearer of the Ring becomes increasingly enslaved and addicted to it, for an idol is something we cannot live without. We must have it, and therefore it drives us to break rules we once honored, to harm others and even ourselves in order to get it.

Idols are spiritual addictions that lead to terrible evil, in Tolkien's novel and real life.

---Tim Keller

I'll continue to post on this book next weekend and several weeks after.

Dr. Thomas Sowell's Superb Series on the True Economics of Healthcare

READ THE WHOLE THING AND ALL OF ITS PARTS

FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS and several to follow, Investor Business Daily is featuring an editorial series on the economics of healthcare, written by Dr. Thomas Sowell, of the Hoover Institute, and taken from his recently published book, Applied Economics. These daily writings are from a chapter in his book on the economics of healthcare. It is neither shallow nor easy reading.

I would like to say that every thinking American needs to read Sowell's long and extremely well-written series in IBD. It presents compelling argument after argument against nationalizing medicine which so far exceeds anything written in the MSM about the true costs of such government run programs.

For now, I'll link to the separate pieces, including Friday's, and continue linking as they come out in IBD. Later, I'll discuss what I consider the most salient points. It is well worth the read for anyone willing to put the time and effort into the whole series.

Part 4. Monday: Costs of Malpractice Insurance Go Beyond Doctors' Premiums

Part 3. Friday: How Payment by Third Parties Distorts Health Care Decisions.

Part 2. Thursday: How Quantity of Medical Care Is Influenced By Price Controls.

Part 1. Wednesday: The Economics of Medical Care.

Wednesday, The Darkening Time of the Year Is Upon Us

TODAY, I'M IN A STATE OF COMPASSION FATIGUE.
I could tell you some stories, but mercifully won't. For now, let it suffice, rather than blogging, I'm using all my excess life-energy to keep from being pulled into someone else's black hole. It never helps and always hurts when we let ourselves go down with them. We think getting dragged down is love and compassion, but it's anything but.

We can love someone---especially a family member---with a passion and want the best for them and their life, but when their black hole wants to eat our emotional sobriety, then we--I--have to let it go, sooner rather than later. I'm no good to anyone if I'm not coming from a fairly steady state of emotional, physical, sexual and spiritual sobriety. I'm a goner when I get hooked and take the bait. When someone makes me or not-me the answer to their life and problems, then I know I'm in a no-winner. When they ask me to do something I firmly believe is not in their best interest at the moment, and I refuse to go along to get along then I have to step back and let them get someone else to do their bidding. That's when prayer is the greatest gift we can give, and letting go.

Have you noticed the light is changing and every one and every thing is becoming more intense, and it's just the beginning of the season?

Welcome to fall and the darkening time of the year. We all need to do our own work and be more than willing to do specific things to help others when they ask or when we see a need we can meet. Sometimes we can only give a token of what's a much greater need, wishing we could much more. In the end, only God can fill that hole and there are simply no substitutes.

It's been one of those days, and it's still not over, though a good night's sleep will go a long way.

The Official ObamaCare Sports, Er, "Pace" Car

WE CAN only hope this portends things to come for ObamaCare, Cap and Trade and other morbidly expensive and moribund ideas from the left.

The Devil In David Letterman

UPDATE: Former staffer for Dave on why she resigned from working for his show
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.

Here before our eyes was a pot who'd been calling quite a few kettles black for years.

Tonight, while cruising the Web after being away today, I saw a link at Big Hollywood to this piece on the saga of Dave, and ended up reading the whole piece in New York Magazine. It's well written and frankly I found it fascinating.

So I thought I'd link to it here: The Devil in David Letterman.

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.

Monday, Thought For the Day

The only positive thing about the 'Cash for Clunkers' program is that it took 700,000 Obama bumper stickers off the road.

----Unknown (Thanks, C, for sending this brilliant insight and glory hallelujah for this small blessing!)

Sunday, It's All About Him

(TODAY, I'm happy to link directly to Tim Keller at Redeemer and his most recent sermon: Hope for the family. Not sure it plays all the way through, but am linking anyway.)

LAST SUNDAY, after attending McLean Bible Church, in Virginia outside D.C., I was chatting with some friends in the lobby when a man named Lee Vaughn introduced himself to me. Lee is now working to complete the mega-project called Jill's House that McLean---under the tutelage of Brenda and Lon Solomon who have a very handicapped and special needs daughter named Jill. He and his staff are now in the final stretch of completing and opening this facility next year to help families and children of severe disabilities.

My conversation with Lee took several twists and turns and included a lament about a couple I know whose marriage is currently in deep crisis. When Lee found out I'm from Nashville, he asked if I knew of the Jacksons, that would be Denise and Alan. I told him they were not exactly in my inner circle, but I certainly knew who they are. I had to confess, I know almost nothing about the country music industry here in Middle Tennessee, except to occasionally listen to something I like on my car radio or see the occasion star in Whole Foods Market. (Usually I just hear they passed me in the lettuce aisle.... Mom, did you see....that was Nicole Kidman that just walked past you!!!) I never see them....I'm too focused on the fennel.

Lee went on to tell me that his wife Ellen had co-authored a book with Denise Jackson several years ago about the Jacksons' life, love story, marriage and near collapse of their union after Alan's mega-success left him empty and tempted to call it quits with Denise after 19 years together. Alan moved out from his family and later told Denise he was involved with another woman.

The story of the Jacksons' life and relationship with all its ups and downs is a hopeful and inspirational one, Lee said as he then introduced me to his wife and co-author Ellen. May I have your address and send you a copy? I'm on my way to Israel next week with Lon, but will get it in the mail to you before I leave.

I gave Lee my address, thanked him, though I wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as I could have been.

This week, sure enough, only hours after arriving back to Nashville, the UPS man was at my door carrying the promised package from Lee Vaughn, the book on the Jackson's life together and marriage, It's All About Him, Finding the Love of My Life.

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.