The Holy Ghost knocks on the human heart. We share words or whatever, but the Holy Ghost prods - truly.
I've known devout Christians unequally yoked in marriage to atheists. The atheist spouse just can't let go of something - pride, identity, or is unable to imagine beyond his understanding.
Our walk in life is our witness. And we speak the truth along the way to others - or not - in lovingkindness and boldly.
If you read (or listen) to Penn's political beliefs and moral compass, I think there is definately a seed of God in his soul. I have also found that most atheists seemed to actually want to be proven wrong and want to believe but as was already stated cannot commit to the leap of faith in something beyond themselves....most (as do other exteme types) really just need to be shown what love truly is...God's love not human love...
Argentina is struggling with a crisis of it's own -- no spare change:
Why the shortage? Argentina's central bank blames it on "speculators," meaning everyone from ordinary citizens, who stockpile coins, to Maco, the private cash-transport company (think of Brinks) that repackages change gathered from bus companies to resell at an 8% premium. But those explanations ring false. "Black marketeering" would not exist if coins were easy to get in the first place. After all, Argentines could just as easily hoard razor blades or matchbooks. Yet there's no shortage of those. What's so special about coins?
The answer is that coins are supplied by the government alone. "Put the federal government in charge of the Sahara desert," Milton Friedman said, "and in five years there'd be a sand shortage." If Argentina wants to end the coin shortage, it ought to give up its monopoly.
Crazy? Not if history is the guide. Over two centuries ago, Great Britain faced a coin shortage more severe than Argentina's -- so severe that it threatened to stop British industrialization in its tracks. People struggled to get coins for everyday use. The average worker was lucky to make 10 shillings a week, while the smallest banknotes were for 10 times as much. So the coin shortage even prevented factories from paying wages.
The article goes into the history of private firms issuing their own coinage or script as a solution. Hard to imagine this sort of crisis in an era of digital money, though.
And after eight years in which the home front, untenably, became the southern front line, on Saturday night the IDF was finally ordered to assert its obligation: to fight a vicious enemy and to safeguard the people of Israel.
For Israelis, and for all those who recognize the threat to freedom everywhere posed by the death-cult Islamist extremism of which Hamas is only a part, it now remains to hope that the IDF's actions in the coming days restore peace to the South, and restore the tranquility that all civilians have the right to expect.
Barak's tone has been quite different than the tone of Israeli leaders during the 2006 invasion of Southern Lebanon. In contrast, while Barak has been neasured, the IDF has been wildly successful on the ground thus far.
War is an extension of politics, and what was not achieved at the negotiating table (if Hamas dared to actually sit with the Israelis) will now be concluded by force of arms.
The families of Sderot, having lived under the terror of Hamas rockets without the concern or sympathy of the world press for years, will at least sleep easier knowing the battle has been carried elsewhere.
UPDATE: Just to show you what the Israelis in Sderot were living through:Look at those, and compare the reaction of the press and so-called humanitarian organizations to the Gaza incursion today with the months and months of terror inflicted by Hamas on southern Israel.
UPDATE x2: Or perhaps, it's not Hamas after all... but the al-Asqa Martyr Brigades seeking to destablize Hamas?(h/t to the UK Guardian)
UPDATE x3: For the latest, or just to know what the citizens of Sderot have lived through, visit their media center.
10,046 missiles. They have a Qussam counter, for crying out loud...
Face it, Barack Obama's web team did not beat John McCain. John McCain (and the GOP baggage he carried) beat John McCain. If McCain and Obama had swapped their web development teams, Obama still would have won.
Consider that you are constructing a building. While the building can't be built without the right tools for the job, it takes a lot more than tools (even neat hypothetical power tools like the "rightroots") to get the job done.
It takes people, and lots of them. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, delivery drivers, equipment operators, investors, supervisors -- and someone in charge to make key decisions and direct the operations. Without people to operate the tools, the tools themselves are relatively worthless.
It takes architectural drawings and blueprints. Without a coherent plan which everyone can follow, the result will be a disaster. The Republican Party could build a socially conservative and fiscally liberal house. Alternately, the GOP could decide to build a socially tolerant but fiscally conservative house, or even a socially liberal and fiscally liberal house. However, fiscally conservative fixures built upon a socially conservative foundation only lasted a generation or so. It might be time to rethink the concept of fusionism.
It should also be noted that if the leaders provide reasonable plans but immediately deviate from them, the workers will quickly lose confidence in their bosses. It doesn't matter whether it is a project manager substituting a lower grade steel or a congressman voting for an increasingly bloated federal budget.
Eventually the workers are either going to stay home or find work on a liberal or libertarian project.
It takes a winning plan. It takes people willing to work together to develop the plan. It takes leaders -- but many of them will emerge from those developing plans or working to make the plan reach fruition. Then we can start purchasing tools. Otherwise, we are putting the cart in front of the horse.
I'll stop there. The rest follows as a long digression about nuts-and-bolts campaigning, but mostly on substance and much on getting away from style, echoing many of my comments about the Virginia Republican Party earlier in December.
Definitely worth the read, because radically few people in Virginia are getting this job done on the right.
Every year since the extended version of the trilogy came out, my family and I manage to watch "The Lord of the Rings" over a three day period over Christmas.
Not a bad deal, especially if your are a Tolkien fan. I won't bore you with any of the details, the Catholic references, the moralistic prose or how much better the book really is than the movie (if that can be imagined).
The short version is that as a family, we'll sit down and enjoy about three hours of collective story-telling an evening. I probably enjoy that more than anything else over Christmas, with the exception of a Sunrise Mass.
The best part of inflation is that it avoids the need for the government to embrace vast spending initiatives and micromanage capitalist enterprises it is not equipped to run. And unlike government programs, inflation doesn't last forever.
One of the historic evils of inflation is that by reducing the value of debt, it rewards borrowers while punishing lenders. But this time, both sides may gain from a rising consumer price index -- borrowers because their properties will be worth more than they owe, and lenders because their customers will find it easier to meet their obligations.
Once inflation has performed its useful role, it will have to be tamed. But the Fed has a lot of experience doing that. What it doesn't have is experience bringing the economy out of a deep recession or a depression.
An interesting theory, though such a solution would absolutely destroy the value of the dollar overseas. Deflationary pressures would encourage savings, reduce the cost of many items, and force firms to innovate better products and methods.
Inflationary pressures allow the same mediocre system to persist.
Of course, the real elephant in the room -- a vast reduction of government spending -- hasn't even been discussed much less contemplated.
Might not be the best titled post in the world, but take about five minutes of your time and watch how a single good example can make a difference:Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) is probably the hardest of the hard core when it comes to atheism. That he was this visibly moved tells me a lot, not just about the character of the man proselytizing, but also about Jillette's character as well.
Now this was the effect of just one good example. Imagine if it were hundreds? And do you and I live our faith in this way?
In my brief experience in this world, I have discovered atheists to have just a devout "search for God" as some of the holiest of men and women I've met. Rarely do I meet the "lazy atheist" (more properly termed an agnostic) who just doesn't believe in at least the idea of a higher being. I have found more often than not that otherwise well-intentioned yet rigid individuals will present their faith in terms of fanaticism, which has more to do with coercion than anything else.
I think this video is quite awesome. That Jillette had the courage and intellectual honesty to post his reflections is pretty amazing unto itself. Let's hope it leads somewhere interesting.
Senator Louise Lucas’ two corporations, Victory Conference Center LLC and Victory Conference Center Hotel LLC, have filed a lawsuit against the City of Portsmouth for failing to give her access to 38 million dollars in bonds for a business venture.
She is claiming, oh wait, I’m sorry, the corporations are claiming that City Council denied her, oh wait, I’m sorry again, the corporations access to the bonds because she is, darn, I did it again, the corporations are primarily African-American owned.
Did I mention that Victory Conference Center Hotel, LLC is owned entirely by Senator Lucas and only Victory Conference Center, LLC is owned by the investors and Senator Lucas?
That's a pretty damned hardcore strongarming tactic if you ask me. Let's hope the MSM gets to the middle of it (before the blogosphere does anyhow).
Jim Hoeft muses on modernity, liberty, and it's untimely (and perhaps exaggerated?) demise:
Long after Merchant’s Square had turned their last deadbolt, we sojourned after dinner into the colonial city. Each little house and each little window had a candle. In front of the governor’s mansion burned cauldrons welcoming guests for an evening of dancing and dining. And, the streets were as silent as the crunch of our footsteps on pea-gravel.
This got me to thinking (uh-oh, here it comes).
In this beautiful city of liberty, where a man (and woman’s) virtue is tied to self-sufficiency, individual ingenuity, and personal accountability, why (and where) have we strayed so far?
Great post, and better conversation in the comments section.
So what's the catch? Well... they cost $600. Furthermore, while there are all sorts of pictures online, there are no plans for these pictures... and a Google search tantalizes you with plans that lead you to site with malware. Wonderful.
Of course, if anyone stumbles across plans...
P.S. -- Doogman: You got an address? svkenney -at- shaunkenney.com -- got an Xmas card for ya!
Americans for Prosperity in Virginia started this campaign a week ago to record subcommittee votes for the House of Delegates. Looks as if a combination of this effort and the new 15-bills only rule in the House has effected change, as noted by the WaPo:
Americans for Prosperity, a group that supports limited government and free trade, had pushed Republicans to make the switch and submitted hundreds of signatures of those who supported a change.
"This is a great victory for government transparency and a great victory for people in Virginia,'' Ben Marchi, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said today.
The rule was primarily designed to get bad legislation off the books quietly and without embarassment. Unfortunately, some of the legislation was designed specifically to do this.
Think back to the "Motions to Recommit" in the U.S. House regarding body armor for the troops that were essentially a Catch-22. Vote for it, and it's a vote to send the bill back to committee (a vote against the troops); vote against it, and the bill fails on the floor of the House (and troops really don't get body armor that year).
The Democrats used the tactic masterfully in 2006 through 527s like MoveOn.org to embarrass Republicans. And because you couldn't boil it down to a five-second clip, it sticks.
House leadership reacted with closed door meetings. Damn shame at the time. Transparency kills off so many bad things... including this deplorable tactic.
In 2007, the Democrats resorted to videotaping every subcommittee vote where they thought they could catch a contested candidate in the House of Delegates off-guard. Now, the work is done for them.
Hopefully a more skeptical electorate will be wise against the tactic, and in the end, who knows? Folks just might be a bit more knowledgeable about how their state legislature works. In 2009, too many people would love to play politics with the ignorance of others.
Lee True, Chairman of the Fluvanna Taxpayers Association, passed away today:
I have the terrible duty of telling you that our wonderful leader, Lee True, died today of a sudden and fatal heart attack. I want to assure you that his work will not die with him. We are going to continue with the FTA and try as best we can to advance the Mission and Vision that were Lee’s creations.
Our community has lost a truly good and decent fellow today. I did not know him personally, but professionally he was about as decent and giving a person as you could have met. There aren't too many people who give of their time during their retirement to fight as hard as he did for taxpayers' rights. Lee did it all, and will be remembered.
If you subscribe to the idea that the lowest, most base offenses create the most buzz, then this latest stunt should probably have taken the cake.
Of course, its OK to offend Catholics. The line about comparing it to offending any other group -- Muslims, homosexuals in the Castro district of San Francisco, or challenging a adamantly secular viewpoint -- is both valid and extraordinarily old hat.
Naturally, you can't force anyone to be good. Even if you could accomplish this, the results would be artificial, a methodical response to right action that drains the life out of most things, be it faith or law or rules.
That images such as the Mexican edition of Playboy evoke something contrary to what typically happens in the world. There were no riots. No one was harassed. No child was expelled from a publicly-funded school.
Yet the Catholic response typically results in a respectful yet forceful condemnation, one built around an example. That it is uniquely set apart from an otherwise worldly response says more about our faith than it does about anything else.
Images like these (or at least stories about them) trouble me intensely. Setting aside the respect Catholics reserve for the Blessed Mother, the intent is disrespectful to both Catholics and women alike. Those who hate the Catholic Church (and there are many) will continue to poke, prod, cajole, criticize, offend, and provoke the faithful.
To what ends do they provoke us? Well... to behave and react as they would and do.
That Catholics do not riot at offenses such as these is a testament that -- at least in the quarters where the faithful still believe -- we are indeed set apart.
As Christians we have something the rest of the world wants, but easily. And because Christianity is not bought, turn on at the flip of a switch, or done in any other way other than through a little something called grace which is a gift from that all-too-forgotten being called God -- too often it's discarded for the strum und drang of things; gifts, gossip, money, investments, feelings, holiday lights, or worse just tearing something beautiful down.
So friends, take it in stride. It's called Advent for a reason, you know.
Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell has just unveiled his new website, and boy does it look good.
Already there are a handful of stories up. For instance, did you know that McDonnell scored a touchdown against the Titans while he played at Bishop Ireton?
ShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's
oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public
life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.
James Atticus Bowden 
