I recently saw the most amazing video....
Mr. Wentley Phipps gave the most inspirational and musically interesting presentation I have heard in many a year....
I will let the Youtube video which went truly "viral" speak for itself. I think you will be impressed...
Christian or not, it is the best 9 minutes I have spent online in a while...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Foreign aid: It isn't aiding America.....
In response to an article in the Reuters News alert dated 20 July, 2010 at http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/56091/2010/06/20-134522-1.htm .
One of the activities I always enjoyed in the Navy was the opportunity to visit ports around the world and to participate in volunteer aid ventures like fixing up a school or helping build a playground for kids in impoverished areas, or even helping orphans.
It has become clear to me however that what was once an individual effort from well meaning crews on a visiting ship to grateful recipients has become industry that is not only unappreciated but even counterproductive.
The attempt to "win hearts and minds" seems pointless if the people it is intended to help are resentful and even hostile to the efforts made. Since the people conducting aid operations (people like U.S. military) can't remain permanently to reinforce the commitment of bettering a situation in a given area, when they leave, there may be feelings of resentment or abandonment at the perceived lack of commitment. In my opinion, foreign aid rarely has the intended effect as it is seen as a "pay-off" or an attempt to curry favor- insincere at best, an insult at worst.
When we sailors went to do a project, it was done though local contacts made by our chaplains with local leaders who had specific needs and wants and who were appreciative and who understood that this activity was being done by men who were volunteering their time and efforts. It was understood that these men could be doing something else with their time but were willing to forgo well earned time off and the "usual and customary" activities of sailors on liberty, to help them. Going where we aren't wanted giving people "help" they don't want, need or appreciate is a complete waste of time and resources we as a nation can no longer afford anyway. What I did with my shipmates was always appreciated and when we arrived, did the work then left, we always felt we had done something meaningful and worthwhile; the work as meaningful to us and the community. Going into a situation with the specific, engineered purposes of winning "hearts and minds" is a very bad idea.... If the Kenyans need help with something, let them do the work themselves and if help is needed from us, let them know that it will be rendered if they ask for it. The same goes with supplying money and materials. If they want it, let them make the request.
Otherwise, butt out.
We can't really afford to be rebuilding latrines in Africa anyway. America is broke and we need to worry about our own situations and circumstances here at home.
One of the activities I always enjoyed in the Navy was the opportunity to visit ports around the world and to participate in volunteer aid ventures like fixing up a school or helping build a playground for kids in impoverished areas, or even helping orphans.
It has become clear to me however that what was once an individual effort from well meaning crews on a visiting ship to grateful recipients has become industry that is not only unappreciated but even counterproductive.
The attempt to "win hearts and minds" seems pointless if the people it is intended to help are resentful and even hostile to the efforts made. Since the people conducting aid operations (people like U.S. military) can't remain permanently to reinforce the commitment of bettering a situation in a given area, when they leave, there may be feelings of resentment or abandonment at the perceived lack of commitment. In my opinion, foreign aid rarely has the intended effect as it is seen as a "pay-off" or an attempt to curry favor- insincere at best, an insult at worst.
When we sailors went to do a project, it was done though local contacts made by our chaplains with local leaders who had specific needs and wants and who were appreciative and who understood that this activity was being done by men who were volunteering their time and efforts. It was understood that these men could be doing something else with their time but were willing to forgo well earned time off and the "usual and customary" activities of sailors on liberty, to help them. Going where we aren't wanted giving people "help" they don't want, need or appreciate is a complete waste of time and resources we as a nation can no longer afford anyway. What I did with my shipmates was always appreciated and when we arrived, did the work then left, we always felt we had done something meaningful and worthwhile; the work as meaningful to us and the community. Going into a situation with the specific, engineered purposes of winning "hearts and minds" is a very bad idea.... If the Kenyans need help with something, let them do the work themselves and if help is needed from us, let them know that it will be rendered if they ask for it. The same goes with supplying money and materials. If they want it, let them make the request.
Otherwise, butt out.
We can't really afford to be rebuilding latrines in Africa anyway. America is broke and we need to worry about our own situations and circumstances here at home.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Another immigration story........
I walked into my home one evening and found that I wasn’t alone….
Sometime during the day, a visitor came calling while I was at work and made himself at home in my house without my knowledge or consent…
I am a peaceable fellow most of the time, but finding my home violated by this intruder really annoyed me as you can imagine, but I recovered my composure and approached the fellow who was seated on my couch enjoying a beer and some chips while watching my television.
A soccer match was on and the announcer in very loud and excited Spanish was calling the game, and my “guest” seemed not even to pay me much attention as he was the game. He was scruffy, and unkept. He looked as if he had had a rough time on the road - like one of those hobos one would see in an old movie or in old black and white pictures of “Okie’s” from the “Dust Bowl” in the 1930’s.
I walked over and stood a few feet from him, amazed at his calm demeanor and his seeming lack of concern at my presence.
His eyes shifted to me after I cleared my throat loudly as one is apt to do to get another’s attention.
I nonchalantly asked him who he was and what he though he was dong in my house.
His reply was that his name was Juan and that he had just arrive in the U.S. a few hours earlier and that he saw that my house, which was nicer than his house in Mexico, and decided that he would just come on into my house and take up residence. After all, he needed a place to live and a job because there were none to be had back home. Everyone in Mexico knows there was work here to do, and since he needed a place to live, it was only right that he should be allowed to be wherever he wished, as it was his “human right”, and since we “stole” the land from Mexico in the 1840’s anyway, he would stay here, in my house.
To say that I was dumbstruck by this litany would be an understatement.
He then informed me that he had already done a couple of chores around the house as a way to solidify his claim to be there: “to do the work that Americans won’t do”, like taking out my trash and washing the few dishes in my sink in the kitchen. He then said that since he had done all this work, he now had even more right to be there, and oh, by the way, he felt entitled to make himself a sandwich and have a cold beer too since he was hungry and hadn’t had a decent meal in days since before leaving his homeland.
Morbidly curious, I inquired as to what he planned to do.
He said that he liked my house and reiterated that since it was so much nicer than his in Mexico and since he had done work for me, that he felt entitled to continued occupation of my home and entitled to free food and beer, all this in exchange for doing a few chores around the place. It was after all only fair. Of course, he continued, I should also pay him for the work he had already done too, and if I would be so kind, would I please put him on my health insurance so he and his family, who would be joining him soon, could go to the doctor free when they arrived.
Incredulous, I then asked if there was anything else I could do for him and he gave a considered look.
“Si”, he said, “I want my 6 bambinos to have a better life than me so they must have an education…. I want them to go to your schools and because they don’t speak English, you must ensure that they get their education in Spanish, after all, they must have the best education possible and it would be racist to insist they learn English since they are Mexican… It would be culturally insensitive….”
“So let me get this straight” I asked with a certain note of sarcasm in my tone
“You have come here into my home without invitation. You, in fact, broke in. You think that this land where my house sits was stolen from Mexico 150 odd years ago, so by extension or by right, you feel that you are entitled to be here in this country paid for with the blood of America’s fighting men, and in the home that I built and paid for with my sweat and hard earned money. You feel that because you have done some work here or that because you are willing to do some work in the future, that you can just come here without so much as a “by your leave”- that you can just trespass here, that you and yours can just take up residence in violation of the law? Then you insist that I pay to educate your illegal alien children in Spanish because it is racist to insist they learn English, and then you demand that I provide you with medical care just because you are here and need it? Does that sum it up? Is there anything else I can give you?”
He sat there and thought it over for a long minute considering my question.
“Si, there is something else….” He replied
“I want to vote in the next elections so we can have a say in your affairs and in redistribution of your wealth so that we can keep getting all these great things we want from you and your country… I want amnesty for me and my family so we don’t have to stand in line to get our green cards and then get citizenship so we can then bring in all our relatives so they too can get a nice place to live, free education and medical care and so we can get all the other things we can’t in Mexico….”
“So why not just go the American consul in Mexico and begin the immigration process and do it right?” I asked.
He laughed and said “Why would I do foolish thing like that?!!”
“It takes months and month and you must fill out many papers and pay mucho dinero to go to Estatos Unitos that way…. Only a fool would do that!!!” he laughed.
“Many of my friends, millions of them in fact , have already come under the wire and they are not having to mess with silly papers or having to pay to be here…. They say Obama will give amnesty to us…that the Republicans will give it to us….why should we do it the hard way?”
"Only idiots and chumps do it the hard way... America is very forgiving of such things..." he said with a smile. "I know this because I have been caught and let go many times before."
I could hardly argue with him. He had a point.
”Anything else?” I asked, tired and sobered by the litany.
“Si, senior… Next time you go to market, would you get some Coronas and limes instead of Budweiser? I prefer a good Mexican beer….”
Sometime during the day, a visitor came calling while I was at work and made himself at home in my house without my knowledge or consent…
I am a peaceable fellow most of the time, but finding my home violated by this intruder really annoyed me as you can imagine, but I recovered my composure and approached the fellow who was seated on my couch enjoying a beer and some chips while watching my television.
A soccer match was on and the announcer in very loud and excited Spanish was calling the game, and my “guest” seemed not even to pay me much attention as he was the game. He was scruffy, and unkept. He looked as if he had had a rough time on the road - like one of those hobos one would see in an old movie or in old black and white pictures of “Okie’s” from the “Dust Bowl” in the 1930’s.
I walked over and stood a few feet from him, amazed at his calm demeanor and his seeming lack of concern at my presence.
His eyes shifted to me after I cleared my throat loudly as one is apt to do to get another’s attention.
I nonchalantly asked him who he was and what he though he was dong in my house.
His reply was that his name was Juan and that he had just arrive in the U.S. a few hours earlier and that he saw that my house, which was nicer than his house in Mexico, and decided that he would just come on into my house and take up residence. After all, he needed a place to live and a job because there were none to be had back home. Everyone in Mexico knows there was work here to do, and since he needed a place to live, it was only right that he should be allowed to be wherever he wished, as it was his “human right”, and since we “stole” the land from Mexico in the 1840’s anyway, he would stay here, in my house.
To say that I was dumbstruck by this litany would be an understatement.
He then informed me that he had already done a couple of chores around the house as a way to solidify his claim to be there: “to do the work that Americans won’t do”, like taking out my trash and washing the few dishes in my sink in the kitchen. He then said that since he had done all this work, he now had even more right to be there, and oh, by the way, he felt entitled to make himself a sandwich and have a cold beer too since he was hungry and hadn’t had a decent meal in days since before leaving his homeland.
Morbidly curious, I inquired as to what he planned to do.
He said that he liked my house and reiterated that since it was so much nicer than his in Mexico and since he had done work for me, that he felt entitled to continued occupation of my home and entitled to free food and beer, all this in exchange for doing a few chores around the place. It was after all only fair. Of course, he continued, I should also pay him for the work he had already done too, and if I would be so kind, would I please put him on my health insurance so he and his family, who would be joining him soon, could go to the doctor free when they arrived.
Incredulous, I then asked if there was anything else I could do for him and he gave a considered look.
“Si”, he said, “I want my 6 bambinos to have a better life than me so they must have an education…. I want them to go to your schools and because they don’t speak English, you must ensure that they get their education in Spanish, after all, they must have the best education possible and it would be racist to insist they learn English since they are Mexican… It would be culturally insensitive….”
“So let me get this straight” I asked with a certain note of sarcasm in my tone
“You have come here into my home without invitation. You, in fact, broke in. You think that this land where my house sits was stolen from Mexico 150 odd years ago, so by extension or by right, you feel that you are entitled to be here in this country paid for with the blood of America’s fighting men, and in the home that I built and paid for with my sweat and hard earned money. You feel that because you have done some work here or that because you are willing to do some work in the future, that you can just come here without so much as a “by your leave”- that you can just trespass here, that you and yours can just take up residence in violation of the law? Then you insist that I pay to educate your illegal alien children in Spanish because it is racist to insist they learn English, and then you demand that I provide you with medical care just because you are here and need it? Does that sum it up? Is there anything else I can give you?”
He sat there and thought it over for a long minute considering my question.
“Si, there is something else….” He replied
“I want to vote in the next elections so we can have a say in your affairs and in redistribution of your wealth so that we can keep getting all these great things we want from you and your country… I want amnesty for me and my family so we don’t have to stand in line to get our green cards and then get citizenship so we can then bring in all our relatives so they too can get a nice place to live, free education and medical care and so we can get all the other things we can’t in Mexico….”
“So why not just go the American consul in Mexico and begin the immigration process and do it right?” I asked.
He laughed and said “Why would I do foolish thing like that?!!”
“It takes months and month and you must fill out many papers and pay mucho dinero to go to Estatos Unitos that way…. Only a fool would do that!!!” he laughed.
“Many of my friends, millions of them in fact , have already come under the wire and they are not having to mess with silly papers or having to pay to be here…. They say Obama will give amnesty to us…that the Republicans will give it to us….why should we do it the hard way?”
"Only idiots and chumps do it the hard way... America is very forgiving of such things..." he said with a smile. "I know this because I have been caught and let go many times before."
I could hardly argue with him. He had a point.
”Anything else?” I asked, tired and sobered by the litany.
“Si, senior… Next time you go to market, would you get some Coronas and limes instead of Budweiser? I prefer a good Mexican beer….”
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
NAACP vs. The TEA Party....
What we see with this diatribe by the NAACP is a pathetic attempt to remain relevant by demanding that a group with little or no central leadership control the actions of every person who may just show up at one of their events... Their complaint that signs showing the President in an unflattering or insulting way are "racist" is a totally bogus. History of protests in this country shows that cartoons and charactitures of political and public figures is normal and certainly not unprecedented. How many times have we seen demonic or even NAZI imagery used against Presidents like Ronald Reagan or the Bush’s? That sort of inflammatory imagery has been a regular staple of politics in America since colonial times when early Presidents might have been depicted as kings, animals or even women (something seen as a great insult at that time). It seems that the NAACP is hyper sensitive and over-reacting to protests against the man they perceive as “their guy”... their anointed one. They seem willing to play the "race card" at the drop of a hat even when he comes under what some may see as a legitimate scrutiny for his ill-conceived and badly executed policies. Perhaps the NAACP needs to take a step back and re-evaluate its mission statement. Maybe they should be more concerned with raising the standards of conduct and discourse within their own ranks and in the black community in general, and stop worrying about what others beyond their control are doing. Perhaps they should be more concerned with improving the status and condition of black Americans by advocating high character and by preaching personal integrity, personal honor and responsibility rather than getting mixed up in the political debate that is ever present. It is my personal opinion that the NAACP, realizing that they are loosing relevancy, has contrived this little tantrum of theirs to get back in the spotlight. Like all the others who rely on the industry of racism such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, et al, the NAACP needs to keep finding fault and fanning the flames where and when they can, and lacking any legitimate or useful contribution, has contrived to create this incident to get back their seat at the big people’s table; to be once again the leading advocacy group in the eyes of their fellow black as well as the leading voice in racial issues in America. It is truly pathetic that an organization founded to better the futures of people who were desperately seeking their place in the world should conduct themselves in such a base and tawdry fashion.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Appeals panel considers whether Obama is even American
Appeals panel considers whether Obama is even American
I would love to see what would happen if the court rules that Obama is NOT a "natural born citizen" as is required by the constitution.....
What would happen with all the laws he has put into place and all the executive orders he has issued? More importantly, what of all the appointments he has made including Supreme Court justices? Would all of it become "null and void"?
I would argue that he would be guilty of treason for assuming office illegally and perpetrating a fraud on the American people by illegally assuming power in full knowledge that he was not qualified to assume. I would also like tho know who in the Democratic Party knew he was ineligible to run.
So many possible scenarios.....
I would love to see what would happen if the court rules that Obama is NOT a "natural born citizen" as is required by the constitution.....
What would happen with all the laws he has put into place and all the executive orders he has issued? More importantly, what of all the appointments he has made including Supreme Court justices? Would all of it become "null and void"?
I would argue that he would be guilty of treason for assuming office illegally and perpetrating a fraud on the American people by illegally assuming power in full knowledge that he was not qualified to assume. I would also like tho know who in the Democratic Party knew he was ineligible to run.
So many possible scenarios.....
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