The latest strategy employed by those who wish to strangle Israel is called BDS. It may sound harmless, but do not be fooled. It stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, and not only is it poisonous for Israel, but for the world as well. Israel is one of the freest countries on earth, where everyone–including Arabs–benefit from that freedom. If Israel continues to be singled out by BDS and suffocated economically, the damage would ripple throughout the globe. In five minutes, learn about BDS and why it must be stopped.
Month: August 2014
The War on Work ~ Prager University (Michael Tanner)
The U.S. government has spent trillions of dollars in recent decades attempting to combat poverty, yet the poverty rate has remained virtually unmoved. Why? As social economist Michael Tanner explains, the “War on Poverty” has both discouraged work and ensnared people in hardship. The “War on Poverty,” it turns out, is actually a “War on Work.” In five minutes, learn the truth about government’s counterproductive efforts to eliminate poverty.
The Missing Tile Syndrome ~ Prager University
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I were ____”? Adjectives may have included: thinner, taller, smarter, etc. If so, you’re like virtually everyone else, and afflicted by “The Missing Tile Syndrome.” As Dennis Prager explains, we often focus on the missing tile(s) in our lives, which robs us of happiness. In five minutes, learn how to fix your focus.
Acuity Insurance Flagpole Is The Tallest Flagpole In North America
Flagpole Facts:
- 400-foot flagpole weighs approximately 420,000 pounds
- There are two versions of the 60- by 120-foot flag:
– 220 pound flag is flown during normal conditions
– 350 pound flag is flown during harsher weather - Each star is 3 feet high and each stripe is 4 1/2 feet wide
- 680 cubic yards of concrete used in foundation
- Over 500 gallons of paint cover the pole
- 11-foot diameter at base tapers to 5 1/2-foot diameter at top
- Three pendulum-style tuned mass dampers reduce movement and vibration
- Designed to withstand a low temperature of -42°F
For more videos, images, and information visit the Acuity Flagpole project page.
Gary Cobb (USC and Philadelphia Eagles) Running as Republican
Jake Tapper Calls B.S. on White House — ISIS Graduated
Obama’s “JayVee” team has gone pro, at least according to the State Dept, via Conservative Hideout 2.0:
According to Obama and his advisors al-Qaeda went from being “on the path to defeat” to having a standing army.
Via CNS News:
A State Department official who just returned from a seven-week trip to Iraq, said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – or the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) – is no longer just a terrorist group.
“ISIL is no longer simply a terrorist organization,” Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran at the U.S. Department of State, said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday. “It is now a full-blown army seeking to establish a self-governing state through the Tigress and Euphrates Valley in what is now Syria and Iraq.”
ISIS continues to expand its hold on territory in Iraq, including overtaking the city of Mosul on June 10. Since then, the Sunni extremists have targeted Christians who are reportedly being told they have three choices: Convert to Islam, pay a fine or be killed. As a result, most, if not all, Christians have fled the city.
We would be in a much better place, today, if Mitt were President. Why? Because he understood the importance of the long-term threat. JayVeee, please!
Beethoven’s “Fur Elise,” With a Twist (End w/Music from Titanic)
Via The Blaze:
Hearing the same song over and over again can get grating. Add having to be in an airport on top of that and you might just get pushed over the edge.
But while this would likely prove to be an unpleasant experience in most cases, one musician tackled the situation in such a way that he actually provided entertainment for travelers waiting for a flight in Prague.
Maan Hamadeh might have tickled the ivories to the tune of Beethoven’s Fur Elise for more than two minutes, but he kept changing up the style, showing that the song doesn’t always have to carry its typically classic tune….
“Jesus was an immigrant” ~ Nancy Pelosi & the Bible
(See also Bill Whittle’s video) This great commentary via Godfather Politics:
I am glad to see Pelosi endorses Moses, maybe she will follow his example and clear Biblical teaching on abortion now:
Exodus 21:22-24
“When men get in a fight, and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born [prematurely], but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment. If there is an injury, then you must give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,….”
What does this verse mean for the Judeo-Christian person in the real world — if we rightly shape our worldview according to God’s Revelation? Wayne Grudem explains with an excerpt from from his book, Politics According to the Bible:
For the question of abortion, perhaps the most significant passage of all is found in the specific laws God gave Moses for the people of Israel during the time of the Mosaic covenant. One particular law spoke of the penalties to be imposed in case the life or health of a pregnant woman or her preborn child was endangered or harmed:
When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Exod. 21:22-25). [footnote A]
This law concerns a situation when men are fighting and one of them accidentally hits a pregnant woman. Neither one of them intended to do this, but as they fought they were not careful enough to avoid hitting her. If that happens, there are two possibilities:
1. If this causes a premature birth but there is no harm to the pregnant woman or her preborn child, there is still a penalty: “The one who hit her shall surely be fined” (v. 22). The penalty was for carelessly endangering the life or health of the pregnant woman and her child. We have similar laws in modern society, such as when a person is fined for drunken driving, even though he has hit no one with his car. He recklessly endangered human life and health, and he deserved a fine or other penalty.
2. But “if there is harm” to either the pregnant woman or her child, then the penalties are quite severe: “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth …” (vv. 23-24). This means that both the mother and the preborn child are given equal legal protection. The penalty for harming the preborn child is just as great as for harming the mother. Both are treated as persons, and both deserve the full protection of the law. [footnote B]
This law is even more significant when we put it in the context of other laws in the Mosaic covenant. In other cases in the Mosaic law where someone accidentally caused the death of another person, there was no requirement to give “life for life,” no capital punishment. Rather, the person who accidentally caused someone else’s death was required to flee to one of the “cities of refuge” until the death of the high priest (see Num. 35:9-15, 22-29). This was a kind of “house arrest,” although the person had to stay within a city rather than within a house for a limited period of time. It was a far lesser punishment than “life for life.”
This means that God established for Israel a law code that placed a higher value on protecting the life of a pregnant woman and her preborn child than the life of anyone else in Israelite society. Far from treating the death of a preborn child as less significant than the death of others in society, this law treats the death of a preborn child or its mother as more significant and worthy of more severe punishment. And the law does not place
any restriction on the number of months the woman was pregnant. Presumably it would apply from a very early stage in pregnancy, whenever it could be known that a miscarriage had occurred and her child or children had died as a result.
Moreover, this law applies to a case of accidental killing of a preborn child. But if accidental killing of a preborn child is so serious in God’s eyes, then surely intentional killing of a preborn child must be an even worse crime.
The conclusion from all of these verses [many are discussed in Grudem’s book] is that the Bible teaches that we should think of the preborn child as a person from the moment of conception, and we should give to the preborn child legal protection at least equal to that of others in the society.
Footnotes:
A. The phrase “so that her children come out” is a literal translation of the Hebrew text, which uses the plural of the common Hebrew word yeled, “child,” and another very common word, yātsā’, which means “go out, come out.” The plural “children” is probably the plural of indefiniteness, allowing for the possibility of more than one child. Other translations render this as “so that she gives birth prematurely,” which is very similar in meaning (so NASB, from 1999 editions onward; similarly: NN, TNIV, NET, HCSV, NLT, NKJV).
B. Some translations have adopted an alternative sense of this passage. The NRSV translates it, “When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows …” (RSV is similar, as was NASB before 1999). In this case, causing a miscarriage and the death of a preborn child results only in a fine. Therefore, some have argued, this passage treats the preborn child as less worthy of protection than others in society, for the penalty is less. But the arguments for this translation are not persuasive. The primary argument is that this would make the law similar to a provision in the law code of Hammurabi (about 1760 BC in ancient Babylon). But such a supposed parallel should not override the meanings of the actual words in the Hebrew text of Exodus. The moral and civil laws in the Bible often differed from those of the ancient cultures around Israel. In addition, there is a Hebrew word for a miscarriage (shakal, Gen. 31:38; see also Exod. 23:26; Job 21:20; Hosea 9:14), but that word is not used here, nor is nēphel, another term for “miscarriage” (see Job 3:16; Ps. 58:8; Eccl. 6:3). However, the word that is used, yātsā’, is ordinarily used to refer to the live birth of a child (see Gen. 25:26; 38:29; Jer. 1:5). Finally, even on this (incorrect) translation, a fine is imposed on the person who accidentally caused the death of the preborn child. This implies that accidentally causing such a death is still considered morally wrong. Therefore, intentionally causing the death of a prebom child would be much more wrong, even on this translation.
Wayne Grudem, Politics According to the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 159-160.
How Is Obama’s Economic Recession the Worst? Larry Elder Explains
Larry Elder weighs in with an older article from 2011: Economy: Reagan Gets No Credit, Obama Gets No Blame
(Below) The C.A.T.O. Institute has been proven correct in their warning!
Breaking News: Acts 29 Asks Driscoll To Step-Aside (h/t ~ Warren Cole)
This is breaking news coming via a h/t from Warren Cole Smith, and more can be read of the article at World Magazine, entitled:
The church-planting network that Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll helped found has asked him to “step down from ministry for an extended time and seek help.”
The board of directors of Acts 29 sent Driscoll a letter expressing gratitude for the “leadership, courage, and generosity of both you and Mars Hill in not only founding the network but also sustaining it.” But the letter went on to say the board could no longer support Driscoll because of what its members consider “ungodly and disqualifying behavior.”
The letter was signed by Matt Chandler, Acts 29’s chairman of the board and the pastor of a large Dallas church, as well as Darrin Patrick, Steve Timmis, Eric Mason, John Bryson, Bruce Wesley, and Leonce Crump.
The board said it wrote the letter “in sadness and hope” and only after waiting to see what Driscoll and the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability (BOAA) would do to resolve what the letter called “countless shots and dozens of fires directly linked to you.”
But the Acts 29 board’s letter added, “We no longer believe the BOAA is able to execute the plan of reconciliation originally laid out. Ample time has been given for repentance, change, and restitution, with none forthcoming. We now have to take another course of action.”
In addition to asking Driscoll to step aside from ministry, the board also said it has “no alternative but to remove you and Mars Hill from membership in Acts 29….
Remember Driscoll’s wild interview from a while back: