I read this article today that really ruffled my feathers. For those of you not willing to read it, the article informs us that eHarmony, an online dating service for anyone to use, though created by those who claim Christianity (whether they are or not is not the issue to be dealt with here; I'm just trying to share what I do know, and not pretending to know what I don't), is settling a lawsuit that a New Jersey man filed against them because they didn't offer a choice for him, that choice being 'men seeking men.' There are two big problems that I want to address here, and if they're not obvious to you, let me make them clear. I'm not suggesting there aren't other problems, but just two that I want to address.
The first is more political in nature. eHarmony is a business. It seeks to help people find others that they could potentially date and maybe even marry that they may never have met otherwise through the wonders of the internet. They provide this service to its customers at a price, in hopes to turn a profit. Now, I know there are a lot of things that I may not understand about this case in particular, but if I'm wrong here, I wish those presenting us with the news would give more detail, because the lawsuit itself seems utterly ridiculous.
I work for a music store. It's a business, of course, and we provide products and services related to music at a price in hopes to profit, as any business does. But what would you say if I told you that a person walked into our store one day and said, "Do you carry karyoke machines?" Our reply would be "No, sorry, we don't." This sounds like a conversation that would happen fairly often. Maybe not over the exact item, but it happens on a regular basis that we must tell people that we don't carry certain products. But what if the conversation continued with the customer saying, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to sue you for discriminating against karyoke singers. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves...see you in court!" The customer can't do that. Why? Because as a business, we have every right to sell whatever we want. You can't tell us that we have to sell karyoke machines if we don't want to sell karyoke machines. But this is exactly what has happened to eHarmony. There are plenty of other places I'm sure this New Jersey man could have gone to seek men. But instead, he thought he'd sue, and now gets $50,000 and is looking forward to utilizing the new service that will be offered by eHarmony for men seeking men and women seeking women.
This brings me to my second point. In the face of such a ridiculous claim, why is eHarmony the one that is folding (not closing up shop, folding, but compromising, folding)? Again, I don't know any more than this article stated, but not only do they have a right as a business to sell whatever services they want, but as Christians, should they not be standing up for the truth of the Word of God inspite of whatever "punishment" may come their way? I also know it's easy for me to sit here behind my computer and say this, but I pray that I won't compromise the truth of God's Word in the face of persecution.
I'm sitting here with my friend Jarrod watching the presidential election results come in, and it looks like America is leaning towards Mr. Obama. The democratic candidate (and quite probably, president-elect, when you read this) has run on the platform of "change."
Unfortunately, I don't believe he will bring "change we need." All we've heard about is change, change, change, but none of it will make a lasting difference. However, I know of change that does make a lasting difference. In fact, it makes an eternal difference. The only one who can make real, lasting "change we need" is Jesus Christ. Let's continue to pray that the Lord will change hearts and lives in our country, as that's far more important than who the president of this country is.
Unfortunately, I don't believe he will bring "change we need." All we've heard about is change, change, change, but none of it will make a lasting difference. However, I know of change that does make a lasting difference. In fact, it makes an eternal difference. The only one who can make real, lasting "change we need" is Jesus Christ. Let's continue to pray that the Lord will change hearts and lives in our country, as that's far more important than who the president of this country is.
Tonight was the first beggar's night my wife and I had in our new neighborhood. We passed out all sorts of candy and saw all sorts of interesting costumes as the night progressed, but I must say, tonight I saw the scariest costume I've ever seen.
Not only did it scare me, but it made the hair on the back of my neck crawl, sent shivers down my back and almost brought me to tears. It wasn't the witch or the ghost; the goblin or the spider. It was the kid dressed up as...
Barak Obama.
I cringe just thinking about it...come to think of it, I wonder if he made the other kids share their candy with the kid who got the least...you know, spreading the wealth. *shrug* Happy Halloween.
Not only did it scare me, but it made the hair on the back of my neck crawl, sent shivers down my back and almost brought me to tears. It wasn't the witch or the ghost; the goblin or the spider. It was the kid dressed up as...
Barak Obama.
I cringe just thinking about it...come to think of it, I wonder if he made the other kids share their candy with the kid who got the least...you know, spreading the wealth. *shrug* Happy Halloween.
I read this today in the Wall Street Journal, and it was so well written and thought out, I just had to post it. I hope everyone will take a moment to read this. If you can read this, and this is what you want from our government, then go ahead and vote for it by voting for the people who wish to implement these things. If you read this and are the least bit concerned, don't vote for these folks. If you read this and can't say that you understand the implications of these issues/policies, please don't take the easy way out and 1.) stop reading and/or 2.) ignore this. Putting your head in the sand about these issues will not make our country better. No matter what happens in the next few weeks, I'm thankful that God is completely in control.
A Liberal Supermajority
Get ready for 'change' we haven't seen since 1965, or 1933.If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.
Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on.
The nearby table shows the major bills that passed the House this year or last before being stopped by the Senate minority. Keep in mind that the most important power of the filibuster is to shape legislation, not merely to block it. The threat of 41 committed Senators can cause the House to modify its desires even before legislation comes to a vote. Without that restraining power, all of the following have very good chances of becoming law in 2009 or 2010.
- Medicare for all. When HillaryCare cratered in 1994, the Democrats concluded they had overreached, so they carved up the old agenda into smaller incremental steps, such as Schip for children. A strongly Democratic Congress is now likely to lay the final flagstones on the path to government-run health insurance from cradle to grave.
Mr. Obama wants to build a public insurance program, modeled after Medicare and open to everyone of any income. According to the Lewin Group, the gold standard of health policy analysis, the Obama plan would shift between 32 million and 52 million from private coverage to the huge new entitlement. Like Medicare or the Canadian system, this would never be repealed.
The commitments would start slow, so as not to cause immediate alarm. But as U.S. health-care spending flowed into the default government options, taxes would have to rise or services would be rationed, or both. Single payer is the inevitable next step, as Mr. Obama has already said is his ultimate ideal.
- The business climate. "We have some harsh decisions to make," Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned recently, speaking about retribution for the financial panic. Look for a replay of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, with Henry Waxman, John Conyers and Ed Markey sponsoring ritual hangings to further their agenda to control more of the private economy. The financial industry will get an overhaul in any case, but telecom, biotech and drug makers, among many others, can expect to be investigated and face new, more onerous rules. See the "Issues and Legislation" tab on Mr. Waxman's Web site for a not-so-brief target list.
The danger is that Democrats could cause the economic downturn to last longer than it otherwise will by enacting regulatory overkill like Sarbanes-Oxley. Something more punitive is likely as well, for instance a windfall profits tax on oil, and maybe other industries.
- Union supremacy. One program certain to be given right of way is "card check." Unions have been in decline for decades, now claiming only 7.4% of the private-sector work force, so Big Labor wants to trash the secret-ballot elections that have been in place since the 1930s. The "Employee Free Choice Act" would convert workplaces into union shops merely by gathering signatures from a majority of employees, which means organizers could strongarm those who opposed such a petition.
The bill also imposes a compulsory arbitration regime that results in an automatic two-year union "contract" after 130 days of failed negotiation. The point is to force businesses to recognize a union whether the workers support it or not. This would be the biggest pro-union shift in the balance of labor-management power since the Wagner Act of 1935.
- Taxes. Taxes will rise substantially, the only question being how high. Mr. Obama would raise the top income, dividend and capital-gains rates for "the rich," substantially increasing the cost of new investment in the U.S. More radically, he wants to lift or eliminate the cap on income subject to payroll taxes that fund Medicare and Social Security. This would convert what was meant to be a pension insurance program into an overt income redistribution program. It would also impose a probably unrepealable increase in marginal tax rates, and a permanent shift upward in the federal tax share of GDP.
- The green revolution. A tax-and-regulation scheme in the name of climate change is a top left-wing priority. Cap and trade would hand Congress trillions of dollars in new spending from the auction of carbon credits, which it would use to pick winners and losers in the energy business and across the economy. Huge chunks of GDP and millions of jobs would be at the mercy of Congress and a vast new global-warming bureaucracy. Without the GOP votes to help stage a filibuster, Senators from carbon-intensive states would have less ability to temper coastal liberals who answer to the green elites.
- Free speech and voting rights. A liberal supermajority would move quickly to impose procedural advantages that could cement Democratic rule for years to come. One early effort would be national, election-day voter registration. This is a long-time goal of Acorn and others on the "community organizer" left and would make it far easier to stack the voter rolls. The District of Columbia would also get votes in Congress -- Democratic, naturally.
Felons may also get the right to vote nationwide, while the Fairness Doctrine is likely to be reimposed either by Congress or the Obama FCC. A major goal of the supermajority left would be to shut down talk radio and other voices of political opposition.
- Special-interest potpourri. Look for the watering down of No Child Left Behind testing standards, as a favor to the National Education Association. The tort bar's ship would also come in, including limits on arbitration to settle disputes and watering down the 1995 law limiting strike suits. New causes of legal action would be sprinkled throughout most legislation. The anti-antiterror lobby would be rewarded with the end of Guantanamo and military commissions, which probably means trying terrorists in civilian courts. Google and MoveOn.org would get "net neutrality" rules, subjecting the Internet to intrusive regulation for the first time.
It's always possible that events -- such as a recession -- would temper some of these ambitions. Republicans also feared the worst in 1993 when Democrats ran the entire government, but it didn't turn out that way. On the other hand, Bob Dole then had 43 GOP Senators to support a filibuster, and the entire Democratic Party has since moved sharply to the left. Mr. Obama's agenda is far more liberal than Bill Clinton's was in 1992, and the Southern Democrats who killed Al Gore's BTU tax and modified liberal ambitions are long gone.
In both 1933 and 1965, liberal majorities imposed vast expansions of government that have never been repealed, and the current financial panic may give today's left another pretext to return to those heydays of welfare-state liberalism. Americans voting for "change" should know they may get far more than they ever imagined.
I'm not normally this charged about politics, but I just can't get past what has gone on during this campaign. A friend of mine wrote a nice little piece on how Barak Obama plans to create jobs and help our economy, and it fired me up enough to write some stuff I've been agitated about for a while now.
He wrote about how poor Obama's plan was, but I had heard Obama tell the American people just the other day that he is going to lower capital gains taxes for small business. How exciting! There's just one small problem: small businesses don't pay capital gains taxes. He doesn't even know what they are...exactly the kind of man I want leading our country.
My friend also mentioned that Obama is "eloquently convincing you to accept the initial stages of socialism." May I go so far as to say Marxism? He uses words and phrases like, "brother's keeper," "fairness," and "everyone should have health insurance," among other platitudes that sound so good, but in reality, it's Marxism with make-up on. He wants to make wealthier people, most who have worked hard and earned every penny, do what Joe Biden said the other day was the "patriotic" thing to do, pay more in taxes so they can reallocate it to poor people, many of whom have chosen their lifestyle (school dropouts, don't try to work more than they have to in order to still qualify for government handouts, etc.) and would simply continue to live off of their expectation that the government is obligated to provide for them instead of getting off their butts and earning an income.
And I'm so tired of watching the media drool over the man. I have lost all respect for our media. The media sent droves of people to Wasilla, AK to drudge up any dirt they could find on Sarah Palin. All they can come up with is the media-created "Troopergate." They air people who just a few months ago stood up with fellow feminists who fight for working women, who now bash Palin because she is everything they wanted to be a couldn't become (which ultimately backfired, thankfully, as it exposed the hypocrisy within the feminist movement). She's bashed as 'unqualified,' when in fact, she alone has far more experience than Obama. No one in the media cares to mention that he has only spent 140-some days working in the Senate, and most of the time he voted "present" so that people couldn't bash his voting record.
How many people have investigated Obama? How many people know who Saul Alinsky is? Or how about William Ayers? Father Flager? Franklin Raines? Why is no one investigating Obama and his relationship with all of these people? What about his relationship to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meltdown? The only reason anyone knows about Jeremiah Wright is because he opened his big mouth, and the media did everything they could to put that fire out. Or what about his support of infanticide while an Illinois Senator? And you don't hear much mention of his plan to reduce the number of abortions in this county (which also sounds like a noble goal, until you realize he wants to teach sex ed to kindergartners and help fund Planned Parenthood.) Shame on the media for spending more time and asking harder questions about a pregnant 17-year-old than Barak Obama, who only happens to be running for President of the United States. Oh yeah, they do know all that...they just don't want us to.
And I just have to say that he dug himself a real hole, in my eyes, with the mocking of McCain in the commercial where he makes fun of the fact that McCain doesn't know how to use e-mail. Is he so out of touch that he doesn't even know that McCain's arms and hands don't function correctly because he served our country in the most honorable of ways, or does he know and just has the audacity to mock him, anyway? I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, that was just wrong.
The man does tug at the heartstrings of believers because he talks of helping the poor and looking out for each other. The problem is that as Christians, we too often want the government to do those things for us. But it's not the responsibility of the government...it's the responsibility of the church. It's our responsibility. It's also our responsibility to love our Lord with our minds, but far too often we disengage and believe whatever is told to us instead of investigating for ourselves and knowing what's at stake.
He wrote about how poor Obama's plan was, but I had heard Obama tell the American people just the other day that he is going to lower capital gains taxes for small business. How exciting! There's just one small problem: small businesses don't pay capital gains taxes. He doesn't even know what they are...exactly the kind of man I want leading our country.
My friend also mentioned that Obama is "eloquently convincing you to accept the initial stages of socialism." May I go so far as to say Marxism? He uses words and phrases like, "brother's keeper," "fairness," and "everyone should have health insurance," among other platitudes that sound so good, but in reality, it's Marxism with make-up on. He wants to make wealthier people, most who have worked hard and earned every penny, do what Joe Biden said the other day was the "patriotic" thing to do, pay more in taxes so they can reallocate it to poor people, many of whom have chosen their lifestyle (school dropouts, don't try to work more than they have to in order to still qualify for government handouts, etc.) and would simply continue to live off of their expectation that the government is obligated to provide for them instead of getting off their butts and earning an income.
And I'm so tired of watching the media drool over the man. I have lost all respect for our media. The media sent droves of people to Wasilla, AK to drudge up any dirt they could find on Sarah Palin. All they can come up with is the media-created "Troopergate." They air people who just a few months ago stood up with fellow feminists who fight for working women, who now bash Palin because she is everything they wanted to be a couldn't become (which ultimately backfired, thankfully, as it exposed the hypocrisy within the feminist movement). She's bashed as 'unqualified,' when in fact, she alone has far more experience than Obama. No one in the media cares to mention that he has only spent 140-some days working in the Senate, and most of the time he voted "present" so that people couldn't bash his voting record.
How many people have investigated Obama? How many people know who Saul Alinsky is? Or how about William Ayers? Father Flager? Franklin Raines? Why is no one investigating Obama and his relationship with all of these people? What about his relationship to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meltdown? The only reason anyone knows about Jeremiah Wright is because he opened his big mouth, and the media did everything they could to put that fire out. Or what about his support of infanticide while an Illinois Senator? And you don't hear much mention of his plan to reduce the number of abortions in this county (which also sounds like a noble goal, until you realize he wants to teach sex ed to kindergartners and help fund Planned Parenthood.) Shame on the media for spending more time and asking harder questions about a pregnant 17-year-old than Barak Obama, who only happens to be running for President of the United States. Oh yeah, they do know all that...they just don't want us to.
And I just have to say that he dug himself a real hole, in my eyes, with the mocking of McCain in the commercial where he makes fun of the fact that McCain doesn't know how to use e-mail. Is he so out of touch that he doesn't even know that McCain's arms and hands don't function correctly because he served our country in the most honorable of ways, or does he know and just has the audacity to mock him, anyway? I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, that was just wrong.
The man does tug at the heartstrings of believers because he talks of helping the poor and looking out for each other. The problem is that as Christians, we too often want the government to do those things for us. But it's not the responsibility of the government...it's the responsibility of the church. It's our responsibility. It's also our responsibility to love our Lord with our minds, but far too often we disengage and believe whatever is told to us instead of investigating for ourselves and knowing what's at stake.
I'm sorry to all of my avid readers out there (Stan) that it's been so long since I last wrote. My wife and I just purchased our first house and I've been going nuts with very little free time since, so needless to say, things have been hectic. But I've found a little time, so I'll just apologize and move on...
I've been thinking lately about the issue of homosexuality, especially in light of what's happened in California in recent days. Why is this debate so polarizing? Why is it likened to the civil rights movement? What makes this different than so many other issues?
I think it has to do with a case of mistaken identity. Let me role play for a moment...
Does anyone else see a major problem here? In this scenario, the person has taken their sin and made it their identity...they've made it who they are. This, to me, is what makes this issue of homosexuality so polarizing. When one speaks against homosexuality, it becomes nearly impossible to separate it from the person. Speaking against it is speaking against the person themself. It's easy to say that lying is wrong because there aren't people, on a large scale, who've made it their identity. It's the same for a myriad of other vices. But not so with homosexuality. This is the challenge we are faced with...
I've been thinking lately about the issue of homosexuality, especially in light of what's happened in California in recent days. Why is this debate so polarizing? Why is it likened to the civil rights movement? What makes this different than so many other issues?
I think it has to do with a case of mistaken identity. Let me role play for a moment...
I'm nervous, so bear with me. There's something I want to tell you. In fact, I need to tell you. It's something I've known for a while now, but just been too scared to admit. I've been afraid of what people would think of me if they knew, so I've just kept it to myself. But after lots of thought, I've realized that I shouldn't really be worried about that. Who cares what other people think of me?! That doesn't change who I am! So, I've decided that I need to tell someone, I've got to come out of the closet and just let it out. So here I go...
I am...............................I'm a liar.
I know you're thinking, "No, not my son!" But, you don't have to worry. In fact, you're just going to have to get over it. You should be proud of me for discovering this about myself. It's who I am!
You're probably also wondering how long I've known. Well, I started realizing it when I realized that I could get away with things that I didn't want others to know I did, like the one time I broke your antique vase when I was six...yeah, that was me...and I grew to understand this more fully when I realized it would also help other people think better of me than I really am, and it just grew from there.
The frustrating thing about it is the complete injustice I've endured because of this. It's not my choice, it's who I am, but people just don't seem to get it. They look at me funny when they find out who I am. The judicial system doesn't tolerate me or others like me. Neither does the church...I can be a good Christian and still be a liar! There are plenty of lying clergy! Yeah, yeah...the Bible does say, "Thou shalt not lie." But that's not really what it means. Those ten commandments are all outdated anyway. They were for people a few thousand years ago. They obviously aren't meant for today. I get churched folk coming up to me all the time telling me I'm going to hell, but they just don't get the fact that God made me this way.
There are some good things happening though. I've started a group for liars...all different kinds, from little white liars to people who tell the most amazing kinds! It's great...we're all really supportive of each other and have been able to organize rallies and get publicity to help further our cause! We're even working hard to pass legislation to legalize lying. Just the other day, I was contacted by a scientist who heard about us, and he told us he was working on getting a grant so that he could begin looking for a lying gene that would prove this is just a part of who we are, and he's pretty sure it exists based on past studies! Isn't that exciting?!?!
Does anyone else see a major problem here? In this scenario, the person has taken their sin and made it their identity...they've made it who they are. This, to me, is what makes this issue of homosexuality so polarizing. When one speaks against homosexuality, it becomes nearly impossible to separate it from the person. Speaking against it is speaking against the person themself. It's easy to say that lying is wrong because there aren't people, on a large scale, who've made it their identity. It's the same for a myriad of other vices. But not so with homosexuality. This is the challenge we are faced with...
...I just don't understand! I continued to hear things as we approached today, the Florida primary election day. I mentioned in a previous post that some of the concepts being thrown around by the average 'Joe' politically are unbelievable. They hear stuff on TV and buy it hook, line and sinker. The problem is, people stop thinking for themselves, as if they have handed their brain to someone they think they like and said, "Here you go. Stuff anything in there you'd like!" The more I've heard as we approached today, the more I've scratched my head...
Talk was being thrown out by a television show (sorry, I can't recall the station or the show...I know, that's bad) that argued that it was perfectly legitimate to compare President Bush to Adolph Hitler! Their reasoning? Well, Guantanamo Bay, of course! Just like Hitler had concentration camps for the Jews, Guantanamo Bay is like a concentration camp for Arabs...don't you see how precise the comparison is? Is it just me, or does anybody else realize that, even if it is conceded that inappropriate treatment of inmates is occurring at Guantanamo (which I'm not so sure I believe either), isn't there something to the fact that they are people who would destroy us if we didn't try to stop them first? And not only that, but they've already taken steps to do so, or they wouldn't be in Guantanamo in the first place. The Jews were innocent, folks...
Oh and of course, "the health care system is going down the wrong path! Who better to fix it than the government??!!" Really?!?! You really want to be giving more money to the same government so many of you already complain don't spend it wisely? You really want some bureaucrat you don't know telling you who your doctor will be? You really want the government to decide if your surgery, which your life depends on, is covered or not?
Thankfully, we know a God who is bigger than all of this. It's just too bad that so many people are determined to leave him out of the affairs of our country.
Talk was being thrown out by a television show (sorry, I can't recall the station or the show...I know, that's bad) that argued that it was perfectly legitimate to compare President Bush to Adolph Hitler! Their reasoning? Well, Guantanamo Bay, of course! Just like Hitler had concentration camps for the Jews, Guantanamo Bay is like a concentration camp for Arabs...don't you see how precise the comparison is? Is it just me, or does anybody else realize that, even if it is conceded that inappropriate treatment of inmates is occurring at Guantanamo (which I'm not so sure I believe either), isn't there something to the fact that they are people who would destroy us if we didn't try to stop them first? And not only that, but they've already taken steps to do so, or they wouldn't be in Guantanamo in the first place. The Jews were innocent, folks...
Oh and of course, "the health care system is going down the wrong path! Who better to fix it than the government??!!" Really?!?! You really want to be giving more money to the same government so many of you already complain don't spend it wisely? You really want some bureaucrat you don't know telling you who your doctor will be? You really want the government to decide if your surgery, which your life depends on, is covered or not?
Thankfully, we know a God who is bigger than all of this. It's just too bad that so many people are determined to leave him out of the affairs of our country.
2008 has only just begun, but I'm already growing tired of the political banter leading up to an election that is still 11 months away. But I suppose it isn't the actual banter I'm tired of. I'm tired of the fact that so many people have uninformed opinions but spout off as if they have CIA-level intelligence of the issue. Here are just a few of those things:
- Embryonic Stem Cell Research - People like Michael J. Fox get in front of a camera and say that if you don't support embryonic stem cell research then you're against finding a cure. How can you be against finding a cure?! But so many have failed to notice that there are other types of stem cell research, like studying adult stem cells. This doesn't harm an embryo and has proven to cure diseases, while no one has ever been cured through the use of embryonic stem cells. Few have failed to notice, also, that the reason embryonic stem cell research is still being pushed hard isn't because it works, but it is largely because of - you guessed it - money!
- S-CHIP - This stands for State Children's Health Insurance Program and it was/is trumpeted as the only answer for those who can't speak out for themselves - children - who need health insurance. If you aren't for S-CHIP, you aren't for children! How can you be against children!?!? What many don't understand is that it's a program that's already been in place and was in need of being renewed. But under the program, many adults were getting free health care (approximately 10% of SCHIP health care recipients...I thought it was for children), children in a family whose income was less than $72,000/year were eligible for the program (are you telling me that someone who makes that much a year can't afford to have their own children, who are their responsibility, on their own health plan?), and that's not everything. No, were not against children...we're against a poor system in favor of a better one!
- Evolutionism/Creationism in school - If evolutionists are so sure that evolution is hard, scientific fact, then shouldn't they welcome dialog about the issue? What are they trying to hide?
