The Sand is Deep Today

I just watched CNBC for a bit. Apparently the world really IS coming to an end. Thought you might want to know.

The Dow went down over 700 points earlier today. At the moment, it’s down about 500. And suddenly that looks pretty good.

They’re saying the Fed is going to cut at least half a point off the prime rate. Will it matter? I don’t know.

I can’t help wondering if deflation is headed our way. The dollar is pummeling foreign currencies, and a lot of things are getting cheaper here, and because people are jittery, things that used to sell very freely are going to have to be marketed aggressively. We’re looking at cheap oil and cheap metals, except for gold. Real estate continues to drop in value. Unemployment is increasing, so presumably, people will be willing to work for less, and wages will drop. If wages drop, things just plain have to cost less, don’t they? I’m no economist, but it seems to me that consumers can’t spend money they don’t have. Okay, I suppose they can, but won’t that be harder to do as credit tightens up?

I suspect that Jim Cramer helped cause this. He went on TV and told people to sell stocks. He said that if there was any money they thought they might need during the next five years, it was time to pull it out. Over the last few years, this man has become extremely popular. He’s like Obama; a “rock star.” Fate raised him to a very lofty place, and this weekend, he dropped a very big rock on us from up there. Maybe he was right to say what he did, but I’m sure he scared millions of people to death.

The Pope says obsessing on money is vain. Here’s a Reuters quote:

The pontiff, using a biblical metaphor, said people who ignored the word of God to pursue wealth had effectively built their homes on sand instead of on a solid foundation of faith.

That is true. I have known a lot of prosperous people, and the impression I have formed is that things go badly for them unless God is in their lives. Their families fall apart. They get caught up in spirals of senseless self-destruction. Sometimes they lose everything. Sometimes they get richer, and it somehow leaves them even worse off.

Godless people with money remind me of socialists in places like China and the old USSR. A few things go right, and they become convinced it’s all coming together. If they just keep headed in the same direction. If you have money, you have power, and if you have power, you can fix your problems. Right? But the horizon keeps receding. They never catch up with the mirage.

I’m with the Pope on this one. I’m saying that publicly, because I’m sure he worries about my opinion. God really is up there, and if you turn toward Him sincerely and persistently, and if you submit, He’ll get you through your problems. Maybe He’ll fix them, and maybe He won’t, but you’ll come out on the other side in one piece, and you’ll be able to bear the journey.

I’m not suffering the way a lot of people are right now; the exposure isn’t there. But I feel very low anyway, knowing what hundreds of millions of people are going through. I’m so grateful that God woke me up and prepared me for this kind of thing.

Thursday is Yom Kippur. This is a great week to try to turn things around.

Luntz has Spoken

I know I should try not to be so obnoxious to swing voters. I am working on it. I need to stop making references to animals like monkeys and flatworms.

These individuals may not be giant brains, but I’m sure that many, many of them are fine people. You don’t have to be brilliant to be a good person. People sometimes criticize Christianity because you don’t have to be very smart to be a Christian. Judaism, for example, is much more cerebral. For a long time, I’ve believed that the accessibility of Christianity is part of its design and one of its great virtues. I think it bolsters the argument that Christianity is God’s creation.

Surely, there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand debates, yet who are morally superior to me. I am going to try to keep that in mind. Really.

I’m not saying it will be easy.

With those prefatory remarks, let me direct you to Frank Luntz’s swing voter focus group.

You know what this proves? It proves Sarah Palin won the debate. Overwhelmingly. The debate wasn’t a test to see who knew the facts better, or whose reasoning skills were better. It was a test to see who could make people want to vote for them. By that standard, there can be no doubt. Sarah Palin won.

I see Sarah Palin as a champion provided by God. Sort of like David. She’s not merely religious; she is part of a very sincere Christian movement. We’re not talking about a Catholic who goes to mass twice a year, or a Baptist who has forgotten the way to the church. Sarah Palin appears to be about as devout as politicians get. I see Obama as a huge threat to Christian values, and I think his judges and executive appointees will be hostile to the church. I think God brought us Sarah Palin as an antidote to Obama. As I have said before, and as others have said, Sarah Palin truly is what Barack Obama only pretends to be. A fresh-faced, sincere Washington outsider who will govern with a conscience and try to bring reform.

The Bible says God chooses our leaders. So when I see a candidate I can approve of, I pray for that candidate to succeed. And I prayed before the debate. When it was over, I thought things had gone badly, and I reminded myself that sometimes we get the leader we deserve, instead of a leader who will be a blessing to us. We are becoming a nation of perverts, self-worshipers, and pagans. We celebrate greed and selfish ambition and empty fame. I can’t say we deserve a good President or Vice President. Many of us would simply turn on a person like that, the way the BDS crowd turned on George Bush. The way the PDS crowd has already turned on Sarah Palin, her husband, and her children.

Oddly, I now find that my prayers were answered. I am sure tens of millions of Americans were praying for Sarah Palin last night, and clearly, we were heard. Never criticize God’s patience to my face. It’s not that you’ll make me angry. I just don’t want to be standing near a person when he says something that ungrateful and offensive. I don’t want people to think we agree. Hundreds of thousands of convenience abortions every year, an official policy of slicing Israel up and selling her to her enemies, a judiciary which seems bent on eradicating all public mention of God, churches which tell us Jesus was just a philosopher, churches which tell us the Jews are no longer God’s people…there are plenty of reasons to abandon us and let us rot. But we have not been scrapped yet.

It’s funny that this happened during the Days of Awe, which include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the days between them. At this time of the Jewish year, Jews are supposed to reflect and repent. These things still matter, regardless of whether Christians are required to observe the Jewish holidays. They still have significance. The Jewish holidays were never abolished. We ought to be thinking about the way we act, at this sensitive, pivotal moment. It may not be mandatory, but it certainly can’t hurt.

I wish Governor Palin hadn’t agreed that the “two-state solution” is the answer to Israel’s problems. I don’t like the use of the word “solution” in the context of Jewish issues; see if you can guess why. And it isn’t a solution; it’s a concession to the Arab strategy of whittling Israel down until there is nothing left. But unless she is a very strange or superficial representative of modern, Bible-believing Christians, Sarah Palin is not happy about giving away Jewish land, and she will work hard to minimize the damage. Contrast this with Obama, who favors dividing Jerusalem. One day he said Jerusalem should be undivided. The very next day, he said he didn’t mean it wouldn’t be portioned out and governed by different authorities. I.e., that it wouldn’t be…divided. And remember, Palin belongs to a movement known for its unwavering, fanatical support of Jewish Israel, while Obama spent twenty years in an openly anti-Semitic church, becoming so close to the pastor that he chose the pastor to officiate at his wedding.

I think she answered that way because there was no way to avoid it. And “two-state solution” is pretty vague. It leaves her a lot of wiggle room to exploit. In any case, she’s a better choice than a close associate of a prominent anti-Semite.

Increasingly, conservatives dismiss religious issues as inconsequential and tangential. That’s wrong, and it will hinder us in the long run. In fact, the things that happen in the natural world are just reflections of what goes on in the spiritual world. The natural is like a tree, and the supernatural is like the roots. Bad things that happen there eventually produce bad consequences here.

No candidate is perfect, but McCain and Palin are clearly the least offensive choice, by a wide measure. I hope we are not so far gone that we will not be permitted to put them in the White House.

Funny how Obama is still running against McCain’s Vice Presidential pick. But then Goliath was killed by David, not Saul.

What’s Next? Romulans?

I am horrified by what I’m hearing on the radio. I have Rush Limbaugh on. The market dropped almost 700 points earlier today. One reason? Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor, and she made a number of partisan remarks that offended Republican Congressmen. Very nice. What kind of person has priorities like that? When will the public make a connection between a 9 percent approval rating and the party of the House and Senate leadership?

More disgusting news: Obama sought a rape victim to appear in a TV ad. Rush credited Politico. Here is the story.

Remind me again why people are voting for Obama and the other Democrats. Oh, that’s right. Because they get their political education from Jon Stewart and Michael Moore and P. Diddy.

Here is more fun: a tornado has been spotted a few miles from me.

I’ll let you know when the Miami River turns to blood.

It’s Inevitable

I have that peculiar sensation again. I wrote about it last week. I feel as though I’m winning my battles. As though I have broken through some sort of threshold. When I had this feeling last Monday, I hoped it would never go away. It waned to some degree, which worried me. But it seems to return. I wish I knew another Christian who had experienced the same thing, so I could ask about it.

I am so glad my life has changed. It could not have happened at a better time. Well, that’s wrong. It would have been better if it had happened when I was two. But I believe the human race is headed in the direction of trial and difficulty, and it would have been very bad had I not come around before we reached this precipice.

I suppose it’s provincial of me to say the human race is headed for problems. In most countries, misery and failure are normal. Take a look at a world map, pick a location at random, and ask yourself what life is like there. South and Central America? Poverty, crime, endemic corruption, extreme politics, and a stifling caste system. China? Oppression, brutality, and low wages. Africa? Don’t get me started. India? The only nice thing you can say about it is that a lot of Africans wish they lived as well as Indians. It may be that we’re moving toward a global crisis, but in most places, it’s hard to tell a crisis from the usual run of luck. What’s unusual is that America is getting sucked into it. Usually, this country is an oasis.

America-bashers don’t get it. They squirm and seethe when patriots praise this abundantly blessed nation, and when we claim God is the source of our affluence. But we’re right. This country is a preview of heaven; it was raised up to serve God. For as long as any of us can remember, we’ve had stability, peace on our own soil, unparalleled freedom, and a level of prosperity very few nations could approach. God has gone beyond mere generosity and patience. He has spoiled us. And we are responding not with gratitude, but by becoming a nation of tattooed and pierced self-worshipers.

We did it all ourselves! Thanks, but no thanks, God. We obviously don’t need your help. Things are going swell, so we’d rather do our own thing. We’re so powerful and so in charge of our own destinies, we can take drugs and sleep around and experiment with humanism and atheism and weird, chic religions, while remaining prosperous and strong. We can have socialism as well as wealth and freedom, even though no other nation has ever managed it. We’re EMPOWERED. We can do anything. We don’t need your help, because we have something way better: self-esteem. Who needs Moses or Jesus when you have Anthony Robbins and Eckhart Tolle?

That’s not how life works. The universe has a ruler, and it has laws. God and believers contribute to the supply of power and harmony in the universe, and everyone else depletes it. It’s a spiritual welfare state, and when things get bad enough, the rolls get purged. I am very grateful that my thick skull is absorbing that, so I can set myself aside and get out of the current, before our country hits the rapids. I wish I could say I figured it out on my own, but it had to be beaten into me. I don’t know if believers will be spared the turmoil that looms, but I do know that God makes problems easier to bear.

I feel like I’m accumulating spiritual tools, and I have to wonder what purpose this armament is supposed to serve. Is it intended to be used in the course of ordinary life, or is there an especially tough job ahead? Given a choice between fighting or facing peace in an overarmed state, I’d choose the latter. I would hate to see this country descend into a three-dimensional remake of East of Eden, complete with the false hope of the simplistic God-hater Marx as messiah.

In the past, our problems seemed to take care of themselves. Pretty well, anyway. Now they seem to be unwilling to go away and unresponsive to our best efforts to tame them. My explanation: God has always limited our misfortunes and ordered our lives for us, and when He chooses to stop, the result is entropy. The humanist explanation is just like the party line of the socialist apologists: we can fix it; we just need another try.

I don’t think we’re smart enough to fix or even understand really big social problems. I think the orderly, peaceful way life usually proceeds in the US is due to divine supervision, period. I think God co-wrote the Constitution. I believe He quietly prevents catastrophe after catastrophe. And we are inviting Him to stop. If we’re ever truly on our own, our best efforts will yield nothing but grief. And without God, even apparent success is eventually revealed to be failure.

I am thinking about these things because it’s Rosh Hashanah, and our financial institutions are in big trouble, and we are contemplating electing a socialist whose advisors caused the problems we are having now. Christians like to say they don’t live under the law of the Old Testament, but the Jewish holidays are eternal. They still mean something. And Rosh Hashanah is about choices. Sometimes people are supernaturally compelled to make choices that will lead to misery. I hope that’s not the situation in this election. I hope we still have a chance to put John McCain and Sarah Palin in the White House and move farther from, not closer to, godless, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian Europe.

They’re Counting on You

Leah Friedman just had surgery, and they had trouble reviving her. They expect her to be in the hospital for five more days.

Mish Weiss is (I hope I read this right) scheduled for the beginning of her bone marrow procedures on Tuesday.

Pray! They really appreciate it.

Wish I had checked Mish’s blog sooner.

Divine Algebra Eventually Demands Balance

Rosh Hashanah is upon us, to be followed immediately by eight days of introspection, which are themselves followed by Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

Funny, how our future as a nation is being determined at this time.

Aaron directed me to a video you might find interesting. It features a bit of Jewish Rosh Hashanah liturgy. The idea is this: God reviews mankind at this time. And He decides what kind of year each of us should have.

Is this a good time for America to receive an evaluation? We abort hundreds of thousands of babies each year. We are selling Israel, piece by piece, to a mob of murdering liars who couldn’t keep their promises even if they wanted to. We are trying to force young girls to be vaccinated for VD, on the assumption that they will have sex in high school. We have decided that self-adoration is a virtue, which is the precise opposite of the Bible’s take. We actually teach it in schools! We teach it to prison inmates, whose brainless, unconditional, doting self-love is what landed them in the klink to begin with!

There are a lot of good things to point to. Privately, American Christians (and some Jews) provide a great deal of support for Israel and Jewry, with no concessions required. Many millions of Americans have humble, faithful relationships with God, in a time when such relationships are social and financial liabilities. A lot of Americans are horrified by our popular culture and our political sins. Many Americans help the poor and support good ministries. Rosh Hashanah is a period of repentance–a week of tshuvah, or returning to God–and many Americans are fortunate enough to enter that period while actively engaged in repentance.

As for the world in general, I am not hopeful. Leftist sentiment the world over is increasingly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian, and we are seeing things which, if they are not warnings, certainly seem like warnings. Burma has a policy of eradicating Christianity, and about twenty Jews live there, and look what happened. Haiti mingles Catholicism and demon worship, and it was hit by three major storms this year, in a period of a few weeks. Kim Jong-Il the atheist Nuclear Nork is dying, and we have no idea what kind of nut will replace him. An anti-Semitic communist maniac controls Venezuela and is helping the Russians start a new Cold War. Financial markets all over the world are parked on the edge of a cliff. And no one seems to see it as a religious issue.

I feel like we’re being offered a choice, here in the US. On the one hand, maturity, experience, time-tested ideas, and faith in God. On the other, an MTV messiah with no experience, discredited 1960s ideas, a tendency to self-worship, a thin skin, proven hostility to Caucasians, and a crush on Karl Marx. I don’t say we have a perfect candidate, but it’s a clear choice: the wisdom and morality of the old, versus the empty flash and arrogant stupidity of the young.

In an instant message, I told Aaron, “Humanity is being weighed, I think. Obama is the blue pill.” If we can elect this dilettante after the socialist ideas of his economic advisers destroyed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we deserve whatever we get, because we are too stupid to know what to do with prosperity.

God is up there. He’s as real as you are. I know. He proves Himself to people all the time. And what we do matters. Some punishments and rewards are for the afterlife, but others are for the here and now. And when God is on your case, there is nobody who can help you.

Most Americans don’t save significant amounts of money. Thank you for the myth of Social Security, politicians. It freed us from the desire to prepare for hard times. If we are judged economically and people lose their jobs, look for bread lines to start forming in one month. Then look for hoboes, begging for food and sleeping in your yard. Expect to have to keep a loaded gun by your side.

Here’s what I think. If you believe, as I do, that our nation is in danger of judgment, try to avoid that judgment, in your own right. God doesn’t always paint with a broad brush. Some people are always spared.

We need a second bailout, and not the kind that comes from Man. That’s my opinion. Even if I’m wrong, correcting your own life is still the right choice, and you will be rewarded.

But Keep Your Cargo Shorts

I got an email from a reader today. She pointed me to Sermonaudio.com. I already knew about this resource; I’ve listened to preachers I like. She directed me to a Georgia preacher named John Weaver. The link above goes to the sermon I listened to today. It’s a two-part series; I’ve only heard the first part.

I picked it because the subject was something of special interest to me. The right to self-defense. The Jews believe they have an obligation to defend others, even if they have to use deadly force; I’m not sure if they believe a Jew has an obligation to defend himself. It’s a slightly different question. Jesus told his disciples to buy swords, and he meant actual swords; there were two in the room when He said it. Still, it’s a question worth researching. There is a colorable argument to be made for refusing to kill someone who, like most violent criminals, does not know God.

The sermon was good. There were a few remarks about Indians which people might consider insensitive, but they were made in reference to times when Indians were the biggest danger Americans faced. Pastor Weaver says he keeps loaded guns in his home, and that he considers himself obligated to defend himself and others. I feel a lot more comfortable about the issue after listening to him.

It may be odd to say it in this age of disposable babies, but I think we sometimes value life too much. We often behave as though every life has infinite value, but that’s not true. We put a surprisingly low value on our own lives every day. I can give examples. We are supposed to put our lives on the line for our country. Every time a huge construction project is undertaken, the people behind it know it is nearly certain at least one worker will die. We ride motorcycles. We dive. Our diets aren’t perfect. Many of us risk death by treating people who have infectious diseases. The truth is, we are willing to risk death for many reasons, and a good number of them are trivial. And that’s okay; it’s healthy. Death is part of every life. It’s like puberty or menopause. It’s difficult, but it’s wrong to treat it as though it were a catastrophe. You can’t live in a bubble.

God drowned the Egyptian army as it pursued Moses. He killed a hundred soldiers of Israel’s army with fire from heaven. He killed every person and animal in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the flood, all but eight people died. Samson killed a thousand people in one day, and it was actually God within him, doing the killing. And God directed us to kill home invaders on sight. He directed us to kill witches and perverts. Life is important, but it’s not really priceless.

Pastor Weaver also talked about the way the self-defense obligation, as it applies to animals. He says that the Old Testament requires Jews to rescue animals belonging to strangers. This is a subject that has always bothered me. Every so often, I see a dog wandering around on the street, and I know it’s in trouble, but I’m usually in a roadster with nice leather seats. So I keep driving, and I’m sure people have lost beloved pets because of my selfishness. I thought about it while I listened to the sermon, and I realized there was an answer. I can keep a rope in my trunk. I can tie a dog by the side of the road and call the county. Simple, right?

What if I can’t tie him? Well, if I can’t tie him, how was I supposed to put him in the car?

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. Maybe it will be of use to some of you.

Incidentally, on a related note, I have been reading about the K31 rifle. People on the web claim they’re pretty consistent, so I’m wondering if my accuracy problems are my own fault. I’m shooting about a 5″ group at 100 yards. I can’t figure it out. I don’t like the trigger; it seems like you have to pull very hard to make it go off. But surely I should be doing better than this, if the gun is okay. I’m using Swiss GP11 ammunition, which is supposed to be excellent. Maybe I should take off the stock and see if there’s any crud between it and the barrel. My .17 HMR shoots groups half as big, and it’s not nearly as easy to aim and hold as the K31.

If I could get real accuracy out of the K31, I’d buy a second one and put an aftermarket stock and maybe a 16x scope on it.

My spring set for the Smith & Wesson 27-2 arrived, so I’ll be installing it. I couldn’t get a thinner trigger from Brownell’s. Maybe someone else makes one, or maybe when the springs are fixed, the trigger won’t matter. I only shoot single-action, so the springs are important. I figure anyone can shoot a cocked revolver, so the smart thing is to shoot single-action, which is harder.

Considering buying Old Navy cargo shorts, but worried that the pockets aren’t deep enough for concealed carry? Relax. I have had no problems putting a small Glock in my pocket, with a Sidekick holster. If you have something like a Kel-Tec or a Kahr, it should be even easier. It’s actually better than a deep pocket, because you can get to the gun easier. I really like these shorts. Super comfortable, cheap, and practical.

Those Poor Cows

Mish Weiss continues violating her vegan code by drinking dairy-based protein shakes. Somewhere, an oppressed cow is suffering the torment of sore nipples.

If any of you have tips to help cancer patients beat nausea and put on weight, please let me know, or put them in the comments at Mish’s blog.

Her white-cell count is up, which may indicate a cold or something. Say a prayer that it will pass. And don’t forget Leah. She’s still recovering from paralysis and brain damage.

Stolen from Leah’s site, a video. While you watch it, remember Joshua. Remember Gideon. Remember that before a nation can have a Solomon, it may have to have a David. Somebody willing to pick up a sling and use it.

That principle applies to people, too, as they face their own battles. Call that a heavy-handed hint.

Blogger Bane has passed away. His family has some financial problems; you might say a prayer for them. Keep an eye out for an upcoming fundraising effort.

Do me a favor and don’t post any negative stuff here.

Sick Palin Humor Highlights National Disease

I don’t watch Saturday Night Live. It’s on too late. I’m not a big TV-watcher. And bad episodes have conditioned me to avoid the show. Some people have managed to live through the really bad SNL years without quitting. I haven’t been a regular watcher since the Eddie Murphy days. Probably not even then, now that I think about it.

I used to wonder how SNL could have bad seasons. They have a whole lot of money to buy writers and actors, and it’s hard to think of a job a TV writer would find more alluring. That’s me, guessing. For all I know, it’s a miserable job. I don’t know what the atmosphere on the set or among the writers is like; maybe good writers jump ship as soon as they can. Still, to an outsider, it’s difficult to understand how the SNL crew ever managed to do their job badly. But they pulled it off, many, many times.

At my advanced age, with my burgeoning Christian sentiments, I can’t imagine sitting up past eleven p.m. to watch anything, let alone a disappointing, often tedious show that reinforces all of my worst traits. So I am not a fan. Sometimes they do something really funny, and I catch it on Youtube, but that’s about it.

I wasn’t watching this weekend, when they did a sketch about Sarah Palin. I can’t find it on Youtube, either. I guess their attorneys are pulling material so fast, it doesn’t survive the weekend. I can’t give an informed critique of the sketch. But I feel like I’m on firm ground when I say they had no business joking about her husband committing incest. The Palins have kids. Those kids have friends. I’m sure many of those friends watch SNL. This is not something they needed inside their young minds. Imagine your kids’ friends, joking about your family and incest. Not wholesome. Then imagine actors joking about it on national television.

SNL is like flavored malt liquor, or clove cigarettes. It’s supposed to be for adults, but the nature of the product makes it appealing to children and to adults barely over the age of majority. It’s a little sad, if you think about it. An ensemble of not-so-young people, dedicating their lives to producing material which many grown people find too sophomoric and crude to enjoy. There is a certain dignity in doing kids’ programming, like Captain Kangaroo or Misterogers Neighborhood, because everyone knows you’re acting, and that when the cameras are off, you’re a regular grown-up. But when you’re in your thirties and forties and you’re doing SNL humor for high school and college kids, it’s a different story. You stoop to the level of the audience, in a way that infects your life. You may end up clinging to the adolescent mindset, at least in the public eye, long after you should have moved on. It’s one more example of the perversity of modern culture, in which adults take their moral cues from the benighted young. I think that explains the astoundingly broad and clumsy toilet jokes in the Austin Powers movies. Shakespeare gave us a subtle pun about a petard. Mike Myers gave us an overflowing bowl, on camera.

I’m not sure who is insulted more, by that kind of humor. Is it the audience, because it suggests they’re too stupid to understand anything smarter, or is it the writer, because it demonstrates that he believes he lacks the talent to write intelligent material?

I read about the incest sketch. It appears that the intent was to mock provincial East Coast journalists, who assume the worst about the backward folks in Jesusland. Still, wouldn’t it have been better to avoid the subject? Even if they were trying to defend Sarah Palin, in their own way, they probably ended up adding to the layer of slime which had already accumulated on her and her family, thanks to leftist slanders.

We ought to declare the Animal House/Porky’s era dead, once and for all. We should make an effort, as a nation, to get past adolescence. You can be funny without cruelty or obscenity. You can do it without driving a wedge between the generations. Writers shouldn’t be looking for ways to inject shock into their work. They should be looking for ways to remove it. I think about this a lot, with regard to my own work. When I see people like Sandra Bernhard and the SNL bunch blowing it, I think about things I’ve written, and I cringe. I’ve been trying to improve, but when you’ve become jaded by repeated exposure to obscenity and cruelty, it takes time to wear off. It affects your ability to perceive your own crassness. There are things I wrote last year that I would not publish today.

I let myself be duped by a corrupt popular culture that convinced me that in order to do well, I had to pull out the stops. That was stupid. Artists thrive on restrictions. They make you work harder, and you end up producing things that make your audience work harder, and they are rewarded for it.

The other night, I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for a while. There are two romances in the film. One is between two career martial artists, and the other is between a governor’s daughter and a thief. The first involves only glances, touches, and loaded remarks. The other involves a lot of groping and simulated sex. And which is more powerful? The first. The thwarted lovers who can only express their feelings obliquely burn up the screen. That’s what happens when an artist makes his audience do some of the work. An artist who deals in the obvious and the sensational is a sort of slut. He hits the audience with everything he has, right away, because he doubts he has the ability to hold their interest if he restrains himself.

God bless Sarah Palin and her family. They should not have to endure this, simply because a comedy writer in Manhattan hasn’t gotten it together yet.

Drinking Disgusting Canned Shakes

More good news about Mish Weiss, the young IDF soldier who is fighting leukemia in Jerusalem. Even though she’s a vegan, Leah Friedman has convinced her to drink Ensure, which is a liquid meal substitute that helps people gain weight. I don’t know what the objection to Ensure is; maybe it has animal-derived B12 in it. When Mish gets better, I think we should all chip in and ship her and her family some prime steaks for a barbecue. I know we can convert her! Hmm…might be tough to locate prime kosher beef.

Unless things have changed since I lived there, the beef situation in Israel is not rosy. When I left Israel and flew to Athens, my top priority was locating beef. Athens was full of New York-style diners, and food was very cheap. I sat myself down at the first place I could find and had a cheeseburger platter, with a second cheeseburger on the side. I probably paid a dollar-fifty (Reagan dollars) for that meal.

Mish is having problems with nausea. I wonder if they have fresh ginger over there. Japanese longliners chew it instead of taking seasickness pills.

Says Leah, on Mish’s blog: “Thank you so very much for the prayers, they work!”

They most certainly do. Thanks, everybody. As Aaron is fond of saying, God is near to all who call on Him. The rest of the verse: “to all who call upon him in truth.”

Things continue to go well here. I still feel as though an invisible but oppressive layer of clouds had lifted. I attribute sensations of oppression to supernatural opposition, and I’m not the only one. I hope the change lasts, and that I can help my family find what I’ve found.

My psalm-memorizing campaign goes well, although to be honest, I’ve only been re-memorizing psalms I committed to memory long ago. I have 1, 23, and 63 under control. I may get ambitious and shoot for 37 next.

Things are Getting DONE

It’s amazing, what I got done today. I will bore you with a list.

Hung my grandfather’s gun rack on the wall. Lots of drilling and patching. Glued the felt on the gun supports back in place.

Round-Upped every plant on the property that even looked at me funny.

Put a latch on the patio TV cabinet doors.

Mulched.

Removed a worthless oak tree.

Prepared a concrete slug for its date with the tow chain. I decided to let it cure overnight instead of trusting the epoxy packaging. I don’t want to have to glue that rebar in there a second time.

It may not sound like a lot, but it was more work than you would imagine. I also had to clean up a lot, put tools away, and so on. And I made a heavy-duty Home Depot run to prepare for all this.

Tools used:

1. Impact Driver
2. Hammer drill
3. Vise
4. Vise Grips
5. Level
6. Screwdriver
7. Shop-Vac
8. Tow chain
9. Proxxon
10. Shovel
12. Angle grinder
13. Claw hammer
14. Punch

I love having tools. Every time a problem came up, I had the right item to fix it. If you don’t have an impact driver and a hammer drill, you should qualify for handicapped parking, because you are helpless.

I want go fondle my shiny new tow chain.

I’m thrilled with the stuff I got done. These were nagging jobs I thought I’d never get around to. Sometimes I think one sign that you have problems you need to take up with God is that you can’t finish things you need to get done. You make plans, but somehow, things don’t work out. Today I got some things off my back, which had been bothering me for eons.

I feel as if some kind of blockage in my life has broken loose.

I think I’m also going to get a new cage for Marv. His cage is very nice, but he has been getting territorial about it, and I think the answer is to make the birds switch cages every day. The problem with that is that Marv’s cage is smaller than Maynard’s, so Maynard gets the shaft. His wingspan is bigger. Marv’s cage isn’t really adequate for him.

I can’t even guess what I’ll do with Marv’s cage. Ebay or Craig’s List, I suppose. I wish I knew a bird that needed a better cage. Actually, I do, but his owner would never go for it.

Some people think height is more important than square footage in a bird cage. I disagree completely. Narrow cages get dirty faster; there is less room for the poop. And wide cages let birds move around more, and you can put more toys in them.

I’m going to put together some kind of hinged perch for the patio, so these little goofs will have a proper place to hang out, instead of sitting on the back of a chair.

It was a beautiful day, and tomorrow is Sunday, so I get to relax, attend to my religious obligations, and pay a visit to Man Camp.

Not bad.

I am Not a Portion for Foxes

The craziest thing happened today. Last week I found myself thinking about the way wildlife was disappearing around here. I hadn’t seen a coon or a fox in a long time. They used to be all over the place. As I was watering the peppers this morning, I noticed a reddish cat walking away from me on the patio, about ten feet away. Something about it didn’t look right; it was very skinny and had a funny gait. Then I realized it was a fox. I guess it had been lying in the shade. I must have disturbed it. It wasn’t scared at all. It walked across the patio, turned and stared at me for a while, and then went under the deck. I guess it’s still there.

It wasn’t much to look at. Its tail was about as big around as a thick broom handle.

I don’t know why it wasn’t afraid. Usually it’s hard to get close to a fox. Our suburban neighbors may be handfeeding it out of ignorance. Or it may have rabies.

I have good news about Mish Weiss; I asked people to pray for her last night. She has leukemia, and yesterday she started to despair. Her friend Leah Friedman emailed me this morning. Mish has a more positive attitude this morning. They have found a bone marrow donor for her. That’s very good. Prayer works; God listens. The bad: she’s a vegan, and she refuses to eat or drink animal-based products that will help her get strong enough for a transplant.

Leah says she’s trying to get her to drink Ensure, a high-calorie drink for people who need a lot of nutrition without much effort. I guess it has animal products in it; Mish won’t touch it. If I had a cold, I’d gladly eat Bambi to get rid of it.

I remember begging my mother to drink Ensure when she was dying from lung cancer. My mother’s death was hastened by starvation. When she received radiation therapy, they burned her esophagus, and she was never able to eat properly after that. And the cancer made food disgusting to her; it does that to some people. I don’t know if Mish understands how lucky she is that she could make herself drink that stuff if she wanted to. There are many cancer patients out there who wish they could eat, but can’t.

I talked to Aaron about her situation last night. He said that Jewish law would require him to eat pork ribs, if he had to do it to save his life. Require.

Please keep Mish in your prayers. Leah, too. She still has lingering effects from her respiratory arrest.

I’m having an unusually good day. Might as well write about it.

Like most Christians, I have persistent sins I have to fight. Last night, I felt like I was having a big setback. And I prayed for God to turn it into a triumph. A few minutes later, as I prayed about other things, I realized my attitude had completely changed. I had forgotten my frustration and discouragement. I felt full of faith, and I was taking advantage of it by praying for other people. My prayer for a triumph had been answered almost instantly. Sometimes you have to be really alert, or else you won’t notice when God gives you exactly what you asked for.

I had a peculiar but uplifting thought. God gives different people different things to share with others. One example is wealth. You can use it to feed people and educate them and buy medical care and so on. You can finance ministries. You can use your money to help poor Jews fly to Israel. Last night I realized faith is like wealth. God distributes it unevenly. Presumably, people who have a lot of it are obligated to use it to help people who have less. Faith, then, is a kind of wealth. Because I know that, I have a better understanding of Acts 3:6.

I’m generally pretty pleased with the amount of faith I have. But until last night, I never thought of it as a gift I was supposed to share with other people.

Ever since I became aware of that, I have felt different. I feel as though the sun had risen inside me. Very odd, but I’ll take it. It’s a little bit like mania, which I am familiar with, because of the nature of my personality. But somehow it seems cleaner and healthier and more sustainable. I hope it lasts.

I feel energized. I feel like I can get things done. I’m usually pretty upbeat in real life, regardless of how I come across here, but today I have a powerful sensation of looking forward to whatever comes. I want to get up, get out there, and DO things.

Many times, I’ve read about Christians who claim to live in joy. I’ve always hoped I could reach that state. I feel good most of the time, and my faith has made things better, but I have never really reached a state which seemed to match the happiness so many Christians proclaim. Maybe I’m starting to see a piece of it. If it’s real, it would be a wonderful thing to help others achieve. One of the big drawbacks of Christianity is that potential adherents see it as a bunch of sacrifices with no reward until you die. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. A good life is supposed to be a better life.

I have stuff to do. Thanks for listening.

Ask Others to Pray

I have very sad news, via Jeffro. Leah Friedman’s friend Mish Weiss is not doing well, and she claims she wants to be allowed to die. She has acute myeloid leukemia, she has gone from 125 pounds to 90, and she is very depressed.

I you don’t remember Leah, she’s the girl in Jerusalem who went into respiratory arrest a while back. She had a heart condition, and somehow that is the cause of what happened. I asked my readers to pray for her, and so did other bloggers, and she has recovered well, although she still has some paralysis and some lingering mental symptoms.

Mish is in the IDF. She likes to shoot. She’s a vegan, which is probably unfortunate at this moment, when her body needs so much help. But she refuses to sacrifice her principles.

The situation is a little confusing. I don’t know much about this disease. Wikipedia paints a discouraging picture, but a post on Mish’s blog says the treatment she took works about 60% of the time, so cures do occur.

I have gone over her blog. If I understand the situation correctly, chemo didn’t work, so they are treating her with arsenic. That causes a lot of problems; it’s a poison, after all. From what I’ve read, it’s not clear that the treatment isn’t working. It may be that it’s so unpleasant, she no longer cares whether it works, and she simply wants to quit.

It’s not clear who wrote the last post on her blog, but here is how it ends: “All of you who have faithfully followed please pray for strength we certainly need it. And for us to make the right decisions.”

Here is what I ask. Pray that the treatment will work. Pray that she will find the strength to bear it. Pray that her loved ones will find ways to help. And pray that her relationship with her creator is right, at this pivotal time. And if you have a blog, pass the word.

And go to Mish’s blog and leave an encouraging comment! Let her know people are thinking of her, far away in America.

It’s late on Friday; it will be hard to get observant Jews in on this. Christians, pitch in!

Also: Rabbi Speaks Well of Moose Hunting Alaskan

The stock market is crazy. Half of America still hasn’t seen through Obama yet. And gas still costs almost four dollars a gallon. Sometimes it seems like life is hopeless, and that our country is headed straight down the toilet of godless socialism.

But some things are getting better. Important things. Here’s one: the relationship between American Christians and Jews who actually care about Israel is firming up nicely.

I was all excited when Moxie pointed this out to me: recovering liberal David Zucker recently said:

I know that liberal Jews regard evangelical Christians as persecutors, but they’re actually the best friends Jews have. They are loyal supporters of Israel, along with wanting lower taxes, smaller government and a strong defense. To me, they are my best allies.

Zucker is Jewish. And he’s a well-known film producer, known for Airplane! and Leslie Nielsen’s Naked Gun films. At some point, he realized liberalism was not going to preserve Jewry or Israel, and he came over to the dark side. You probably know about his next movie, An American Carol. It’s a satirical look at post-911 America, where liberals believe terrorists get a bad rap, but a working mother who shoots an occasional moose is Satan incarnate. I would kill to write screenplays for this guy. And I’d like to marry Tyra Banks, right after she becomes a Republican. Enough about my unlikely dreams.

He has figured it out. Some Christians support Israel, and it’s counterproductive for Jews to fear them. We don’t do pogroms. We’re increasingly considerate about proselytizing. The biggest threat from us is that we may annoy you. So the smart thing is to partner up with us and take our cash and vote for the candidates we like.

Oh, man. Zucker’s film site links to another site you may like: MooveAlong.org, a fine site where you can learn about all the nuances of liberalism.

Here’s another nice news item. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, just published a piece in which he points out that Sarah Palin may just possibly be a friend of the Jews.

Here’s a piece of his glowing quasi-endorsement:

During last week’s highly-publicized interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, Palin also voiced in no uncertain terms her support for Israel. Responding to a question about the proper U.S. reaction to a potential Israeli military strike to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Palin said, “First, we are friends of Israel, and I don’t think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves, and for their security.”

Are we finally making headway here? Sure seems like it.

By the way, she said that without a teleprompter.

Life is full of problems at the moment, but thankfully, there are little bits of hope embedded in the muck. I hope Zucker manages to spread his open-mindedness.