Religion, Politics, and Culture: Explained and Defined
Hugh Hewitt proved why I love his show today. He had on Fox News reported Major Garrett. To the amazement of everyone, we learned that the Red Cross was prevented by Louisiana’s Governor from entering New Orleans immediately after the hurricane.
In fact, they would have been at the Superdome before the levies even broke with food, water and other supplies!
Here is yet another example of failed leadership in this catastrophe.
Michael Osborne was a happily married man and the father of six children; four are still living at home. He was a minister in the Episcopal Church.
He was murdered driving his car in Hattiesburg Mississippi by flood thugs who were trying to rob him.
He was buried yesterday in Memphis and leaves behind two teenage boys and two daughters ages six and four.
It is a strange confluence of events that has lead to John Roberts being elevated from a nominee to Associate Justice to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Think about it. At least four separate events have all occurred to elevate this situation to the critic mass necessary to put Roberts in this situation. First was the announced retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor. Second was the selection of John Roberts to fill this vacancy. Third was the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. And fourth was the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
This has resulted in Roberts getting the nod for the Chief spot to insure continuity of leadership such as it is in the Court. I suspect that he will leave most on the existing staff in tact for him first term on the high court.
I am curious why Rehnquist chose to hold on to his spot until the very end. Did he have no other reason keep going other than his work? Was he a good soldier and trying to make it easier for President Bush to fill the existing vacancy? Did he have any issues or concerns about Roberts (who was one of his former clerks)?
Anyway, the whole situation is a good example of how Calvinists view the governance of Christ. God is in control and brings his will to pass in time and space; here not just in the hereafter. Yes, this would mean that Roberts would be Gods choice—if in fact he is confirmed.
In fact all government leaders are in office at the pleasure of the Almighty. Some we view as good and are thankful for their time in office but I don’t understand why God allows Nero or Napoleon or Hitler or Stalin. Others seem somewhere in between.
I have faith that Roberts is one of the good guys and will help turn our country towards laws and values that honor God. The Court has long been the institution most responsible for pouring-out Gods wrath and judgment on our nation. Perhaps when the Court is reconstituted it can be a vessel for healing our nation.
I have been quiet about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on this blog.
I did call the Feed the Children number at 1-888-58-CHILD today. They were professional, courteous and quick. I was able to go through the whole process of donating in about a minute.
My only additional comment on the aftermath is that the screeches of local politicians are way out of line. If they want blame then get a mirror. Louisiana politics has been one of the most corrupt and incestuous in the nation for decades. Single Party rule inhibits leadership and accountability.
In New Orleans, local officials had a near scare about this very scenario last year during hurricane season. The mayor and governor are the first and second lines of preparedness and they failed to plan.
Compare Rudy Giuliani and his reaction to 9-11 with mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans and his failure to lead his city. This politician is a failure as a man and a leader. Barney Fife would be an upgrade for this community in crisis.
In the September 2005 edition of the newsletter NEAtoday, is an appeal from the National Education Association (NEA) to its membership to boycott Wal-Mart over Wal-Mart’s labor practices.
What do Wal-Mart’s labor practices have to do with education? Nothing; except that Wal-Mart doesn’t want to become a home for labor unions. They are perfectly happy operating in the free market economy.
The NEA is urging members to visit the Wake-up Wal-Mart website which is a site operated by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The Union is threatened by the expansion of Wal-Mart Supercenters where a grocery store is combined with a Wal-Mart retail store. Most of these Supercenters are open 24 hours and employ 200 to 550 associates.
In addition, the NEA has its own mini site dedicated to bashing Wal-Mart.
The claims on the NEA site have little to do with education and more to do with bashing the retail giant because they don’t represent the party line of the Democratic Party.
The only claim even close to touching education is the assertion that parents of students working at Wal-Mart are poor and are low income workers. The biggest fallacy of this argument is that the NEA assumes that Wal-Mart’s wages are the best that these parents can possibly earn in their working lives. Even if that were true, at least Wal-Mart is an honest job for people who otherwise would be on the dole.
The main headings of the Facts about Wal-Mart are:
Wal-Mart profits fund the anti-public education movement.
The corporation has contributed to support of school choice including vouchers, private and charter schools.
Wal-Mart is a low-wage, low-benefit employer.
Wal-Mart pays sales associates an average of $8.50 (well above Federal Minimum Wage) and requires employees to pay one third of their medical insurance. Benefits are a benefit not a right.
US taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart.
Many associates are low enough on the wage scale that they are eligible for some forms of government assistance. So, many in our Armed Forces are in the same boat and I don’t hear them complaining.
Wal-Mart will do anything to stop its employees from unionizing.
It is their right to be a non-union company. If employees dont like it, they can work somewhere else.
Wal-Mart hurts local businesses and communities.
Maybe, but I never hear anyone complaining about the same thing when Home Depot comes to their town and they play hardball with small businesses and contractors in their community.
Wal-Mart’s low prices rely on low-wage Chinese labor.
I don’t see the NEA going after HP or Intel or Microsoft or Toyota or General Motors for utilizing non-union labor in other countries.
Wal-Mart violates child labor laws.
They accuse Wal-Mart of not letting students have breaks while working. So teachers don’t get breaks, I know, I’m married to one. I have never in my adult life had an employer that had a regular break schedule. If I need one I will take it.
Wal-Mart discriminates against women.
Ok, who takes time off to care for children? The spouse with the lesser benefits will usually care for children and prefer part-time hours, is it any wonder that men earn more than their female counterparts? It is logic not discrimination.
Wal-Mart hires undocumented workers.
No they don’t. Some work that they contracted out was done by illegals. If you have bought a house then you have paid for work done by illegal aliens. Get over it.
Wal-Mart has a negative effect on the environment.
I’ve seen more violations of health, safety and sanitation codes at my local school district than the NEA can compile against Wal-Mart for the same number of employees.
The Looney Left definitely has their claws into the teacher unions. I look forward to the Passage of Paycheck Protection in November.
In 1989, a chemical tanker car on a Southern Pacific train that derailed poisoned most of the Upper Sacramento River—the river between Dunsmuir and Shasta Lake. Although the river has been gradually opened to fishing over the last several years, it was a move viewed by some as premature and a political move to boost the local economy and not a decision based on sound environmental reasoning.
I spent the last five days along this river and was very happy with what I had observed. There were large numbers of “case worms” (a type of larva) that is a food source for the trout in the river. There were a large quantity of fish from very small fry to mature adults and all stages in between all along the river.
These are the best conditions that I have seen in the river since the spill. My observations are even more remarkable in light of the fact that some small feeder creeks and ponds near the river have been treated to kill mosquitoes as a response to concerns about West Nile Virus. I think it is safe to say that the river is back.
Liberal Anglicans are using the English government to force gay marriage into Church Law by bypassing normal procedures and just rewriting key sections of Church Cannons. They are going to replace the word “spouse” with “civil partner” according to an article in the August 12th edition of Church of England Newspaper. This change will take effect on December 5th, 2005.
Needless to say a firestorm has been ignited by this action. There is not much coverage of this conflict or others raging within the Episcopal Church but things are really boiling. I will periodically give you some glimpses of this conflict on my blog.
Below are a few reactions to the current state of the Episcopal Church:
65 of 490 girls at Timkin High School in Canton, Ohio are in a family way. That’s right, over 13 percent of the young lasses have reported the consequences of promiscuity. This is double the teen pregnancy rate of the rest of Ohio.
If you add in a factor of one in three pregnancies ended by abortion, then the actual pregnancy rate would be closer to 20 percent of all females in the school. This is outrageous!
The school website contains this excerpt from a letter by the principal.
Our students have the opportunity to focus their academic careers through the Arts, Services and Technology academies. These in turn produce natural opportunities in extracurricular activities. It is an exciting concept, and this is an exciting time in our school’s history.
Yeah, they must have lots of unsupervised extracurricular activities; and this might very well qualify as school history, but not the kind that makes alumni write big checks.
The school mascot really is the Trojans!
Now if we could prove that Planned Parenthood wrote their sex ed curriculum, we could close the circle on this failed institution.
Hugh Hewitt stole some of my thunder about this subject on his radio show today but this the type of story that is too good to pass up. Thanks to Matt Drudge for giving this article the attention that it deserved.
In a victory for local parishes, an Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez said the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles had not shown that it was likely to prevail in a property dispute with a local parish, St. James Church.
Under current bylaws, the Episcopal Church claims ownership of all real property in the denomination; even if the local parish paid for their buildings without any assistance from the denomination. No local parish in the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) owns their church buildings, parsonages or any other property!
Centralization of assets appears to be invalid based on this ruling. A similar case in the Methodist Church also was ruled in favor of St. Lukes; a local parish in Fresno.
It appears that the end of ECUSA’s monopoly is drawing nearer. Those parishes that still adhere to the Christian faith may at last be allowed to go in peace to serve the Lord taking both their people and real property with them.
After taking office a year ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the State to conduct an audit of vehicles owner by the state. The State estimates that it owns about 70,000 vehicles. However, a physical inventory of vehicles by various state departments yields a count of 40,000. Where the rest may be located is unknown.
* One state agency spent four million dollars on vehicles but has no records of where they were purchased.
* The state has no idea what it costs to operate its fleet of vehicles.
* There are no state agencies that are adequately tracking their vehicles.
