What corrupts politics more: Millionaires and billionaires? Or the rules that intend to limit the influence of wealthy donors? George Will, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post, explains who designed campaign finance reform and why Congress’s solution to the problem may actually be the bigger problem.
Month: November 2015
Liberty’s Secret ~ Excerpt
I have already been challenged on this topic, to wit, the challenge and my response will follow the excerpt.
This following excerpt from Liberty’s Secrets is one that squarely displaces the typical secular attack on Jefferson being a man of faith to some degree. In this excerpt Thomas Paine’s position on Christianity and God is dealt with as an extra bonus, as well as some of the Founders predictions of the then young French Revolution. This is a really good read, and I highly recommend the book.
Before the excerpt, I want to share a favorite sentence that I think best defines the Founders accomplishments in the Constitution. Here it is:
- The Constitution is the integration of ideals with reality, the ideal being human liberty, the reality being human nature. (p. 69)
If that isn’t the best definition in one sentence of the Constitution, I don’t know what is!
Challenges
I posted a link to this at a friends “counter-atheist” page on FaceBook. I posted the following that included a link back to this page:
For those interested, before I head out to drink wine in Cambria, I posted an excerpt from a book I am reading… and it deals with both Jefferson’s, Madison’s, Hamilton’s, Paine’s, view of faith and/or atheists and creation vs. evolutionary thinking (the basis of which reaches back to Greece)
Almost immediately after this was posted this was posted.
- Fascinating!! I never knew Jefferson died before The Origin of Species was written!!
I believe Tim, the author of the above challenge, meant to say “died after” Darwin’s seminal work, not before.
Per the modi operandi of the atheists on this site, they do not read and inculcate what was said. Forgive me as I take time with a though. After reading four books on marijuana addiction and the latest studies (one that followed over a thousand people for 25-years) showing the deleterious affects of this drug (a 8% decrease of the amygdala, and 12% reduction in size of the hippocampus). During this time of reading, a story came out about what amounts to brain damage in a controlled setting by “targeted magnetism” — making more people unable to “believe” in God… by about thirty-percent.
One commentator said it must be embarrassing to the atheist because “the specific part of the brain they frazzled was the posterior medial frontal cortex—the part associated with detecting and solving problems, i.e., reasoning and logic.”
I often wonder aloud to my wife if these guys smoke weed! But I digress… continuing.
I respond:
Tim responds:
- What’s your point?
This is one of those “bang your head on the keyboard” moments. You see, Tim challenged my statement. I corrected his challenge. He then feigns like I just waded in, off topic. Like I started talking about MPG for city buses where I live. You will notice this is Paley’s watchmaker argument almost 1800-years before Paley lived! Paley pre-dated Darwin. Were there no naturalistic origins hypothesis of his day either? Paley was just “preaching to the quire”? Dumb. Here is my response:
For more context on defining “evolution,” see my debate with some atheists about the General Theory of Evolution.
L.A. City Controller Says Turf Removal Wasteful
Here is the story in part via the Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles’ turf rebate program saved less water per dollar spent than other Department of Water and Power conservation programs, an audit released by the city controller said Friday.
Auditors found that money spent for rebates on items such as high-efficiency appliances yielded a water savings almost five times higher than turf replacement. They also found that the DWP does not prioritize water conservation projects based on which are the most cost-effective.
City Controller Ron Galperin called on the water provider to focus its conservation programs in order to achieve more sustained and cost-effective water savings.
“If money is no object, turf replacement rebates are a relatively expedient way to save water,” Galperin said. “But, of course, money is an object.”
In fiscal year 2014-15, the DWP spent $40.2 million on customer incentive and rebate programs, Galperin’s office said. Nearly $17.8 million of that went to turf rebates. Each dollar invested in turf rebates is expected to save 350 gallons of water over the estimated 10-year “life expectancy” of residential turf replacement, the audit said.
In comparison, the department spent $14.9 million on rebates for high-efficiency appliances and fixtures. Those rebates yield a per-dollar savings of more than 1,700 gallons of water over their estimated lifetimes of up to 19 years, Galperin’s office said.
The turf rebate program “had value as a gimmick that … probably spurred a heightened awareness,” Galperin said at a news conference, adding: “It’s the job of my office to look at return on investment.”…
When the government of L.A., or for that matter our one party state, uses tax-payer monies… “money is no object.” The California boondoggles of solar power and trains come to mind. Or even the Democrats teaming up with eco-fascists to create water shortages! (See the “drought” posts here)
A Reminder Of The Peaceful Religion Being “Peaceful”
The shocking story comes via Jihad Watch:
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying:
- “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57).
The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated:
“The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Sharyl Attkisson ~ “Obama Won’t Read Reports on Terrorist Groups”
Via The Blaze
Footage From A French Cafe During Shooting
The video is via The Daily Mail. The Blaze points out that some women out in front of the cafe had a miraculous intervention:
- A particularly chilling moment in the video appeared to show the Islamist gunman aim his AK-47 point blank at a woman hiding under an outdoor table. After trying to fire unsuccessfully – either because the gun jammed or ran out of ammunition – the gunman walked away, allowing the woman to escape.
Wow.
Conversations with Lemmings: Did God “Create” Evil (Isaiah 45:7)
I won’t get into the long back-and-forth that preceded this exchange. As much as I am confident it shows my own close attention to giants of thinkers that p[receded me as well as the clarity of the theistic position and the inherent implausibility and self-refuting nature of atheism… you can go to the discussion yourself and decide (you would have to be on FaceBook and “like” the group this took place in for the link to work).
Here Daniel said the following:
To which I respond in part:
Daniel retorted with…
This verse, ISAIAH 45:7 — for context — reads:
- I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. (ESV)
- I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, Yahweh, do all these things. (HCSB)
- The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these. (NASB)
- I form light and create darkness, I make harmonies and create discords. I, God, do all these things. (The Message)
Here is the Hebrew:
(Click to enlarge)
Note that Daniel used the KJV, whereas most versions since 1611 translate this word/thought (“and create evil“) better due to communication and modern access to many more manuscripts. Really, the context of the preceding verses should be included… you can read it here. I reference a previous discussion of this person [probably young man] coming at any ancient text with some parameters. He made it clear that his viewpoint is the only one that mattered (implicitly at least).
I responded
Previously I noted his view of Consciousness was ill-placed:
At any rate, here is my response to Daniel’s verse he quoted most-probably from an atheist website:
Honorable mentions of resources on this verse:
Here are a few commentaries on the verse[s]:
Dinesh D’Souza vs. the “Christian” Hitler (Nuremberg Day 28)
The Above Video Description:
Lois Patrice Griffin For President
Hat-Tip: Gay Patriot
Larry Elder Puts Democrats “War on Terror” In the Bastille
This is classic Larry Elder! He takes us on a whirlwind tour of Democratic hypocrisy and dangerous foreign policy positions for political expediency.
Here is the Bush “quote” used in the audio.
[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/TheKellyFile/videos/1541262019421991/” width=”698″ height=”540″ onlyvideo=”1″]
42% of “French” Muslims Agree w/Suicide Bombing
Conservative Treehouse has this GRAPHIC photo listed under “Climate Change”
(Photo via Sharia Unveiled)
Gateway Pundit noted the radical nature of a large percentage of Muslims:
Pew Polling found that a large percentage of Muslim youths in the West support suicide bombing.
The higher levels of support for suicide bombing seen among young American Muslims resembles patterns found among Muslims in Europe, where Muslims also constitute a minority population. In Great Britain, France and Germany, Muslims under the age of 30 are consistently the least likely to say that suicide bombing is never justified.
In other words, the share who think suicide bombing against civilians can ever be justified, even if rarely, is higher among those younger than 30 compared with those who are older. About a quarter (26%) of younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombing can at least rarely be justified, 17 percentage points higher than the proportion of Muslims ages 30 and older (9%) who share that view. The age gap is about as wide in Great Britain (18 percentage points) but somewhat narrower in Germany (12 points), France (11 points) and Spain (7 points).
See also: 25 Governors Including One Democrat Refuse Obama’s Syrian Refugees
An AWESOME National Review Video of Morning Joe!
Television gets it more right than the Obama admin! Hat-Tip to Cyril!
[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/nationalreview/videos/10156321613335093/” width=”698″ height=”580″ onlyvideo=”0 or 1″]Aaand, ISIS is J.V., aaaand ISIS is weak… Clown Shoes is what the Obama admin is. And Bernie and the other Democrats aren’t any better.
- About 20 minutes earlier, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta confronted Obama over his claim during the press conference that he “had not underestimated ISIS’s abilities.” Acosta pointed out that “this is an organization that you once described as a J.V. team that evolved into a force that has now occupied territory in Iraq and Syria, and is now able to use that safe haven to launch attacks in the other parts of the world.” He then asked, “How is that not underestimating their capabilities and how is that contained, quite frankly?…I guess the question is, and if you’ll forgive the language, is why can’t we take out these bastards?”