Stick a Fork in Me

I am ready to declare this blog officially done, just weeks after I started it.

I’m moving back to Idle Ramblings. Maybe some of this stuff will show up there. Most of it won’t.

Disappointing Sermon

The sermon to be broadcast this week on Day One (formerly the Protestant Hour) is by Lutheran pastor The Rev. Dr. Patrick Keen. I am usually quite happy when fellow members of my denomination are asked to preach, but after reading the sermon transcript, I am incredibly disappointed by both the political grandstanding and lack of logic exhibited in the sermon. You can read the sermon itself here. The crux of my complaint rests in passages like this:

We, again, have the numbers to come out against this powerful gun lobby of the NRA and to get these weapons out of the hands of our children. But the reason the church can’t overcome the lobby of the NRA is because many of our members are also members of the NRA. God has placed this matter so very strongly in my spirit that even though I may not want to speak to this issue, I find that I must. As the prophet says, “If I say I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in and I cannot.”

I lived in New Orleans for almost 13 years. I know how bad the crime can be and is, especially post-Katrina. The National Rifle Association is not the reason that kids are being killed in the streets of cities. They are not the reason that violent crime exists. They are not even proponents of giving everyone a gun. They are proponents of a wildly unpopular and oft challenged notion known as the Second Amendment. The NRA was the one protecting gun owners’ rights against the unlawful search and seizure methods perpetrated by the federal government in the days just after Katrina.

Gun violence is terrible, but I would like to ask the good reverend how many of the guns used in the commission of the crimes he mentions were legally purchased guns. How many of the people who used a gun in the act of taking the life of another human being were members of the NRA? How exactly is the NRA to blame for the gun violence? I mean, do you honestly think that NRA members (among which I count myself) think that gun violence is acceptable? This type of reasoning sounds more like what I expect from Michael Moore than from a respected pastor in our tradition. The NRA seeks to promote safe, responsible gun ownership, and offers all sorts of training and safety programs to prevent the kind of violence Pr. Keen accuses them of.

How do we really address the problem of violence in our cities? By striking out against poverty, by ending the so-called war on drugs, by finding ways to educate and empower future generations to become all that God would have them to be. What is known about Pr. Keen is that he has been a tireless advocate for the poor and downtrodden in our society. I would have loved to have heard more about this type of work that he is engaged in and has been for years. Empty rhetoric against the NRA doesn’t do anything.

Is Al Gore a Hyprocrite?

Well, only if you consider that the former VP and advocate for reducing energy consumption uses enough electricity at his home in one year to power 232 average American homes for one month. Read more about it here.

Of course, I own two vehicles with V8’s, some who am I to judge…

Tip of the hat to Strike the Root.

Who Has the Rights?

Interesting story on NPR today about the burgeoning conflict of gay rights and the right to practice religion freely.

So, where does one person’s rights begin and another ends? Should religious groups that believe homosexual activity to be sinful be made to share resources, facilities and services for homosexual couples? Or is it messier than that?

Hat tip to the Lutheran Zephyr, who posted this article on his facebook page.

The Mortgage Crisis, Personal Responsibility, and Obama

In the interest of fair time, I thought I would smack Obama around for a minute since I have done the same to McCain and Barr.

Barack Obama seems to thinks that Countrywide is to blame for the current mortgage crisis. He has even suggested that the federal government needs to step in and hyper-regulate financial lenders in order to protect people from predatory lending. But is there another side of the story?

While foreclosures are at an all time high, we have to realize that home ownership is at an all time high as well. Companies like Countrywide do in fact loan money to folks who may not be able to get a mortgage elsewhere for a variety of reasons, thus actually granting the possibility of home ownership to people who may not have had a chance before. When I borrow money for a mortgage, for a car loan, for anything, I do my homework and make sure I can afford the payment. I hate to sound harsh, but many of the homes being foreclosed upon in this country are the result of people borrowing more money than they could afford to repay. I don’t mean people who got laid off or lost jobs or had catastrophic circumstances such as illness or death that may have led to being short on money. I am talking about people who took out interest only loans on half a million dollar homes, knowing that they had to pay the piper in five years and couldn’t, and have lost their home because of that, or because they were negligent in paying their variable rate mortgage and the interest went up just like their terms of agreement stated it would. Instead of encouraging personal responsibility, Obama and his ilk are playing a blame game with hopes of consolidating federal power and overtaking the financial industry with undue regulation.

The end result of more government regulation against so-called predatory lending will result in fewer people owning their own homes, amassing their own wealth, and becoming more self-sufficient. It is the perfect ploy of the Nanny State to keep people passive and dependent.

A Vote for McCain is a Vote for Imperialism

Did you catch this yahoo on the Today Show? His plan is to occupy Iraq in the same way we have occupied Germany, Japan, South Korea, with permanent military installations. The Republican spin doctors have been hard at work trying to downplay his answer to a question about bringing home troops, to which he responded, “…but that’s not too important.” Spin it how you  like, but he said bringing the troops home is “not important” and that we would be an open ended occupying force.

When is Dirt Worth $420 Million?

Apparently when it comes from Mars. Somebody explain to me why our tax dollars fund NASA (to the tune of $17.6 billion next year) without overly emotional appeals to “bold space missions” and “pioneer spirits” and “in the name of science.” For $420 million we get dirt and maybe discover some water, which, I guess, gives us cosmic mud.

Fun with Google

I ran a quick search today on google using the search term “church as community of resistance.” The vast majority of what I turned up were articles about the Church of England suing the maker of the video game “Resistance” for depicting a cathedral in the game. And Christians can’t figure out why we are considered irrelevant in today’s society…

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Libertarian Party

Why I love the Libertarian Party (from their platform):

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

We support the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons, homes, and property. Only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be termed crimes. We favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.

Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property. Criminal laws should be limited to violation of the rights of others through force or fraud, or deliberate actions that place others involuntarily at significant risk of harm. Individuals retain the right to voluntarily assume risk of harm to themselves. We support restitution of the victim to the fullest degree possible at the expense of the criminal or the negligent wrongdoer. We oppose reduction of constitutional safeguards of the rights of the criminally accused. The rights of due process, a speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, and the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty, must not be denied. We assert the common-law right of juries to judge not only the facts but also the justice of the law.

The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the right to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty.

Why I hate the Libertarian Party:

How do you nominate Bob Barr as a Libertarian when he is just a big government loving Republican? I lost what little respect for and hope in the Libertarian Party.

Government Goes After Amazon.com Records

Read about it here.