So, I can't pass up an opportunity to comment on Bill Clinton's whinny rant against that harbinger of conservative media sniping, Mike Wallace. You probably know the story: when asked, "Did you do enough to get bin Laden?", Clinton went off!! It was a like that wimpy kid on the playground who was called a name by a bully and all he could muster was, "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off of me sticks to you!"
But, the one main comment I have to make is a reaction to this quote taken from the midst of Clinton's loony lecture: "We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody's gotten since." Two comments:
First, taking the latter part - that sure seems convenient to him, doesn't it? Moreover, I'd like to see some hard evidence to back that up. I don't think it counts as "close" to bomb an abandoned training camp or former aspirin plant. Nor do I think it is "close" to refuse to take the Tall One into custody when offered on a silver platter because he did not have sufficient "legal grounds." Blah! Clinton is covering his exposed, milky-white derriere!
Second, "we contracted to kill him?" Are you kidding me? Did an avowed liberal just say that he contracted with an assassin to - gasp - assassinate someone? Seriously, this goes against all things left wing! We can't torture proven terrorists, but we can assassinate them? We have to provide non-uniformed jihadists with all the "rights" of the Geneva Convention, but we can pick them off by the use of a mercenary? Were is Chuck "Smile-for-the-Camera" Schumer decrying such activity?! Were is Ted "Hiccup" Kennedy bemoaning the humanity of it all?! Where is Nancy "Botox" Pelosi calling for impeachment?! (Oh, wait, he already was.)
The media can't help but play these sounds bites over and over, but the one they key in on is where Clinton tells Wallace to wipe the smirk off his face. Wonder why they skipped over the "contract" to kill UBL comment?
Poor Bubba.
Edit (9/27/06): For an excellent side-by-side comparison of what Wild Bill claims now, compared to what was said by him and about him during his presidency, follow this link.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
Human Depravity
I see a lot of it. I work in the legal field and so, I've seen mothers 6 months pregnant hooked on crack and heroin. I've seen murderers laugh at their actions of which they stand accused. As one grand juror was heard to remark after hearing and returning "true bills" for a round of 70+ indictments, "I've lived here more than 30 years; I had no idea there was this much crime here!"
Are we really all that surprised? I didn't think I could be. I thought I was more calloused.
Today, a couple of news stories caught my eye. The first is entitled "Harlem Baby Dies After Falling In Bucket of Vomit". If you follow the link, you'll see a story about how an 18 year old mother, left her daughter (in the care of an unknown or, worse, no one) and went out for a night of partying. Coming home drunk, she wisely placed a barf bucket beside her bed and, unwisely, fell asleep on the bed with her 3 month old baby girl. She awoke to find that her daughter had drowned in mommy's vomit.
The second, also from abcnews.com, is "Mom of Boys Tossed in Bay Pleads Insane". I'm not making this up, click the link! Apparently, the mom, Lashuan Harris who, according to the news report, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, tossed her kids in the San Francisco Bay because God told her to do so. The reporter says it better than I could:
Another report out of St. Louis, I heard on the radio (but I can't find the link to the story). It was of a woman who cut her cousin -- her cousin -- open and removed the baby developing within. She then attempted to pass the baby off as her own. No mention was made of how the mother - the real one - is doing now.
Anyone want to argue that man is generally good? Didn't think so.
We are lost, we have been since Adam and Eve sampled the wrong fruit at the insistence of a slimy serpant. As the Bible says, our "heart is deceitfully wicked, above all things." What wretched humans we are!
We appear to be horrible beings, but wrap your cabeza around this: In comparison to the evil that has been banished to hell, this is nothin'! By the grace of God, we are kept from experiencing the onslaught of evil that our wicked hearts deserve. Evil cannot entertain God and so is eternally separated from him. Eternally separated from him - can you imagine that?
Think of a lifetime and add infinity to that, then you're close to how long eternity is. And, apart from the saving work of Christ, we would spend that length separated from the only Good that there is. No, that wasn't a mis-spelling. God is THE only true good in life; to be separated from good means that we we are in the company of its antithesis: evil.
What's that? You say that you've lived your whole life as a human here, but you had no idea there was this much evil around you?
What is being done about your depravity?
Are we really all that surprised? I didn't think I could be. I thought I was more calloused.
Today, a couple of news stories caught my eye. The first is entitled "Harlem Baby Dies After Falling In Bucket of Vomit". If you follow the link, you'll see a story about how an 18 year old mother, left her daughter (in the care of an unknown or, worse, no one) and went out for a night of partying. Coming home drunk, she wisely placed a barf bucket beside her bed and, unwisely, fell asleep on the bed with her 3 month old baby girl. She awoke to find that her daughter had drowned in mommy's vomit.
The second, also from abcnews.com, is "Mom of Boys Tossed in Bay Pleads Insane". I'm not making this up, click the link! Apparently, the mom, Lashuan Harris who, according to the news report, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, tossed her kids in the San Francisco Bay because God told her to do so. The reporter says it better than I could:
In her videotaped confession to police, Harris described how she struggled with two of her boys as she stripped them and plunged them from Pier 7 in an area where tourists stroll along the waterfront. Her youngest boy laughed, thinking it was a game.A game? Are you kidding me?
Another report out of St. Louis, I heard on the radio (but I can't find the link to the story). It was of a woman who cut her cousin -- her cousin -- open and removed the baby developing within. She then attempted to pass the baby off as her own. No mention was made of how the mother - the real one - is doing now.
Anyone want to argue that man is generally good? Didn't think so.
We are lost, we have been since Adam and Eve sampled the wrong fruit at the insistence of a slimy serpant. As the Bible says, our "heart is deceitfully wicked, above all things." What wretched humans we are!
We appear to be horrible beings, but wrap your cabeza around this: In comparison to the evil that has been banished to hell, this is nothin'! By the grace of God, we are kept from experiencing the onslaught of evil that our wicked hearts deserve. Evil cannot entertain God and so is eternally separated from him. Eternally separated from him - can you imagine that?
Think of a lifetime and add infinity to that, then you're close to how long eternity is. And, apart from the saving work of Christ, we would spend that length separated from the only Good that there is. No, that wasn't a mis-spelling. God is THE only true good in life; to be separated from good means that we we are in the company of its antithesis: evil.
What's that? You say that you've lived your whole life as a human here, but you had no idea there was this much evil around you?
What is being done about your depravity?
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
All I Needed to Know About September 11, I Learned From Reading Dr. Seuss
Well, it's true!
Yesterday, one could not flip a channel, turn on a radio, or pick up a newspaper without being reminded that it was the 5th anniversary of September 11, 2001. Probably each of us spent some time, be it at 8:46 am or later, quietly remembering those who perished on that fateful day while also reflecting upon the utter import of the day. It was, after all, Patriot's Day.
As for me and the wife, we watched the second half of "The Path to 9/11," the much debated, and wonderfully depicted, mini-series. We were horrifically moved by what the writers, directors, and actors so poignantly displayed to us. Personally, I teared as one of the passengers on board United 93 said his goodbye's to his wife and daughters.
But, frankly, I have not needed the time to remember what happened 5 years ago. Neither did the President. As he so aptly reminded us in prime time, the war on terror, begun in force on 9/11, is ongoing and we are winning. In essence, I heard the President say once again: you cannot kill the American spirit.
He must have read Dr. Seuss.
You have probably read it too: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It is one of my favorites, made even more memorable by the deep, surly voices of Boris Karloff narrating and Thurl Ravenscroft (think Tony the Tiger, saying, "They're Grrrrrreat!") singing, "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch...." It's an American Christmas tradition, to be sure!
So what does the Grinch have to do with September 11? Let me explain.
If you recall, the Grinch, who had a physical malady (tiny heart-itis), hated Christmas. It was his stated goal to stop Christmas from coming. He planned and connived, fumed and fussed. He assembled a team of n'er-do-wells (ok, Max was more of an innocent pawn, but....you get the point) to help him destroy the Whos down in Who-Ville's Christmas.
So, in his Grinchy way, he sloshed down the mountain, stole all the Who toys and even the Roast Beast!! He took every aspect of what he believed to sustain and create the spirit of Christmas for the Whos (who, if you remember, lived down in Who-Ville. Including, Cindy-Loo Who, who was no more than two!).
Yet, when he returned to the top of Mt. Crumpit, as the Whos assembled in the courtyard now, thanks to him, sans decorations, tang-tangas, checkerboards, pop-guns, and, of course, Roast Beast, the Grinch was taken aback by the song that arose to his Grinchy green ear.
"Dah who door-ray, fah whoo for-ray...Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer..."
After all his efforts, after all his terrorizing of Who-Ville, the Grinch failed to stop Christmas from coming.
So too Bin Laden. It has been his stated goal to destroy America and the freedom it represents. For years, the Tall One planned and connived, he jeered and mocked, he fumed and he fussed. He assembled a team of n'er-do-well's - who were not nearly as innocent, nor as loveable as Max - to learn how to fly a plane (not take off or land, just fly). He hid money, stole money, and funneled money to a handful of Saudi radicals who then bought box cutters and plane tickets and changed air travel forever.
But, as the center of the economic world, as two symbols of freedom, of Americanism, of democratic ingenuity lay in a heap, without the human adornments of beauty and patriotism walking its floors or ringing its phones, the Grinch...er...UBL heard a different sound reach his grinchy ear:
"God bless America! Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night, with the light from above. From the Mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam! GOD bless America! My home, sweet home. God bless America! My home, sweet home."
The Great Bearded One, in all of his machinations and rantings, plannings and ponderings, had failed to stop freedom's advance. America, so it seemed, was without it's dollars and cents, it's stocks and bonds, it's 401(k)'s and Roth IRA's. In a smoking pit laid the bodies and ruins of a great segment of American society. America's defense was even questioned by the attack on the Pentagon. America, the great invulnerable superpower, had been humiliated. By all accounts, America as we knew it should have imploded.
But it didn't.
You see, our freedom, like the Christmas spirit of the Whos, is not something we wrap in a package and tie on a bow; it is not something to be hung from a tree, or carved at the table; freedom is endowed to us by our Creator. With it we are given certain inalienable rights; meaning, they were given by no man, and by no man can they be taken.
Today, 5 years and 1 day on from September 11, 2001, I remember that our freedom is a gift that cannot be taken by even the vilest of humans. And, if you will join me, we resolve to recognize that evil does exist in this world and it must be opposed.
You see all the American's down in the United States, the large and the small, must all remember that we understand freedom in America only in human terms. But the One who instilled within us the desire to live free is the only One who can make you free indeed.
Mr. Bin Laden, you're a mean one. You're cuddly like an eel. You're a toadstool and artichoke sandwich, mixed with arsenic sauce. And, I wouldn't touch you with a 39 and a 1/2 foot pole!! Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the seasick crocidile!
But I pray your heart will grow 3 sizes this day.
[Copyright: Jeremiah G. Dys, 2006. For permission to re-print, please contact the author directly.]
Yesterday, one could not flip a channel, turn on a radio, or pick up a newspaper without being reminded that it was the 5th anniversary of September 11, 2001. Probably each of us spent some time, be it at 8:46 am or later, quietly remembering those who perished on that fateful day while also reflecting upon the utter import of the day. It was, after all, Patriot's Day.
As for me and the wife, we watched the second half of "The Path to 9/11," the much debated, and wonderfully depicted, mini-series. We were horrifically moved by what the writers, directors, and actors so poignantly displayed to us. Personally, I teared as one of the passengers on board United 93 said his goodbye's to his wife and daughters.
But, frankly, I have not needed the time to remember what happened 5 years ago. Neither did the President. As he so aptly reminded us in prime time, the war on terror, begun in force on 9/11, is ongoing and we are winning. In essence, I heard the President say once again: you cannot kill the American spirit.
He must have read Dr. Seuss.
You have probably read it too: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It is one of my favorites, made even more memorable by the deep, surly voices of Boris Karloff narrating and Thurl Ravenscroft (think Tony the Tiger, saying, "They're Grrrrrreat!") singing, "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch...." It's an American Christmas tradition, to be sure!
So what does the Grinch have to do with September 11? Let me explain.
If you recall, the Grinch, who had a physical malady (tiny heart-itis), hated Christmas. It was his stated goal to stop Christmas from coming. He planned and connived, fumed and fussed. He assembled a team of n'er-do-wells (ok, Max was more of an innocent pawn, but....you get the point) to help him destroy the Whos down in Who-Ville's Christmas.
So, in his Grinchy way, he sloshed down the mountain, stole all the Who toys and even the Roast Beast!! He took every aspect of what he believed to sustain and create the spirit of Christmas for the Whos (who, if you remember, lived down in Who-Ville. Including, Cindy-Loo Who, who was no more than two!).
Yet, when he returned to the top of Mt. Crumpit, as the Whos assembled in the courtyard now, thanks to him, sans decorations, tang-tangas, checkerboards, pop-guns, and, of course, Roast Beast, the Grinch was taken aback by the song that arose to his Grinchy green ear.
"Dah who door-ray, fah whoo for-ray...Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer..."
After all his efforts, after all his terrorizing of Who-Ville, the Grinch failed to stop Christmas from coming.
So too Bin Laden. It has been his stated goal to destroy America and the freedom it represents. For years, the Tall One planned and connived, he jeered and mocked, he fumed and he fussed. He assembled a team of n'er-do-well's - who were not nearly as innocent, nor as loveable as Max - to learn how to fly a plane (not take off or land, just fly). He hid money, stole money, and funneled money to a handful of Saudi radicals who then bought box cutters and plane tickets and changed air travel forever.
But, as the center of the economic world, as two symbols of freedom, of Americanism, of democratic ingenuity lay in a heap, without the human adornments of beauty and patriotism walking its floors or ringing its phones, the Grinch...er...UBL heard a different sound reach his grinchy ear:
"God bless America! Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night, with the light from above. From the Mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam! GOD bless America! My home, sweet home. God bless America! My home, sweet home."
The Great Bearded One, in all of his machinations and rantings, plannings and ponderings, had failed to stop freedom's advance. America, so it seemed, was without it's dollars and cents, it's stocks and bonds, it's 401(k)'s and Roth IRA's. In a smoking pit laid the bodies and ruins of a great segment of American society. America's defense was even questioned by the attack on the Pentagon. America, the great invulnerable superpower, had been humiliated. By all accounts, America as we knew it should have imploded.
But it didn't.
You see, our freedom, like the Christmas spirit of the Whos, is not something we wrap in a package and tie on a bow; it is not something to be hung from a tree, or carved at the table; freedom is endowed to us by our Creator. With it we are given certain inalienable rights; meaning, they were given by no man, and by no man can they be taken.
Today, 5 years and 1 day on from September 11, 2001, I remember that our freedom is a gift that cannot be taken by even the vilest of humans. And, if you will join me, we resolve to recognize that evil does exist in this world and it must be opposed.
You see all the American's down in the United States, the large and the small, must all remember that we understand freedom in America only in human terms. But the One who instilled within us the desire to live free is the only One who can make you free indeed.
Mr. Bin Laden, you're a mean one. You're cuddly like an eel. You're a toadstool and artichoke sandwich, mixed with arsenic sauce. And, I wouldn't touch you with a 39 and a 1/2 foot pole!! Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the seasick crocidile!
But I pray your heart will grow 3 sizes this day.
[Copyright: Jeremiah G. Dys, 2006. For permission to re-print, please contact the author directly.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)