The Economy and November

August 28th, 2010

Yesterday, I let the cartoons do most of the talking, specifically on the really ludicrous statements coming from this White House regarding the “recovery.” While I don’t want to overwhelm you with cartoon after cartoon, there are just so many flooding the Internet right now on that specific topic. Take this one, for instance:

Note the calm demeanor of the president, while Uncle Sam is rattled—literally. Then there’s this one:

The image here is a president who is clearly out of touch and more focused on his free time. I’m hoping that the patient [the American economy] isn’t really quite as far gone as depicted.

This out-of-touchness [may I coin a term?] has given Democrats the jitters. They’re getting scared as the midterm elections approach. One of the best columns I’ve read on the current state of the Democrats in light of the upcoming elections comes from Jonah Goldberg. You can find his cogent analysis here. Goldberg recounts a conversation one Democrat congressman had with the president, reminding him of how the Republicans took over Congress back in 1994 due to unpopular policies being pushed by Bill Clinton:

Convinced that his popularity was eternal, Obama responded by saying, yes, but there’s a “big difference” between 1994 and 2010, and that big difference is, “you’ve got me.”

The funny thing is, Obama might have been right. Because things might be much worse for Democrats in 2010 than they were in 1994 — and the big difference might well be Barack Obama.

You need to read the entire article. It’s well worth it.

Meanwhile, there is a sense of doom hanging over the Democrats:

Those who feel that doomsday is approaching may be correct. Personally, I hope they are. The nation will be the beneficiary.

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The Economy Drags On

August 27th, 2010

The disconnect continues. As the economy gets demonstrably worse over time, the Obama administration tells us it’s getting better. Up is down, vertical is horizontal, wrong is right . . . and you need to believe them. By now, even the most non-analytical among the electorate should be noticing something. One would hope.

If Obama keeps on saying things that strain credulity, the reaction is going to be the opposite of what he wants:

He goes back and forth, actually. One day he’ll talk about how things are getting better, then when that doesn’t resonate, he’ll return to what he does best—blame Bush. But that can go only so far before people start noticing his “solution”:

This past week, the administration sent Joe Biden out to make happy talk while the president was vacationing in Florida Martha’s Vineyard. The vice president was particularly sunny in his economic forecast:

You know things are really bad when the message becomes:

Meanwhile, back at Martha’s Vineyard:

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Everyone’s Watching Florida

August 26th, 2010

The political scene in Florida is nothing if not fascinating. In the primary on Tuesday, one man did what no one expected. His name is Rick Scott. He has never run for public office before, but he is now the Republican nominee for governor.

Scott is a businessman who has been in the healthcare field for most of his adult life. What most people probably don’t know is that he was the force behind some very effective TV ads back during the Obamacare debate. He started a group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, which challenged the public option the president and Congress wanted to insert into the bill. Scott performed a valuable public service with that organization.

In April, he decided to run for governor. His one advantage was the deep pockets he possessed. As a multimillionaire, he began using his own money to fund statewide commercials outlining his philosophy and plans. I remember seeing those ads and wondering who that guy was. But he certainly sounded solid in his principles.

Now, just a few months later, he is the nominee. He had to beat the presumptive nominee, attorney general Bill McCollum, to get there, and the battle was bruising. Probably every Republican in the state assumed McCollum would be the nominee. When Scott came out of nowhere, and the polls showed he was taking a lead, a startled McCollum fought back. Frankly, the ads on both sides deteriorated over time. Both used wording in their ads that sometimes cast false aspersions on the other candidate. A rift has occurred in the Republican party that may be difficult to heal in time for November 2nd.

Scott’s task now is to reach out and unite with those who fought against him. That won’t be easy since most of the party leaders backed McCollum, who, in his concession speech, did not put out any semblance of an olive branch to Scott. I’m afraid bitterness may prevail.

Scott also has to be sure that his ads in the general election stay focused on the issues and don’t degenerate in the way they did during the primary. I believe Scott’s testimony that he is a born-again Christian. Everything I see about his personal faith indicates it is genuine. Now he needs to put that faith into action in the manner in which his campaign conducts itself. I pray for the best.

In the Senate races, there was no surprise that Marco Rubio won his primary against token opposition. The majority of Republicans seem to be coalescing around his candidacy. Rubio is charismatic and devoted to the original intent of the Founders. That would normally be a winning formula, but he has had to face an unusual circumstance.

This race is unique because current governor Charlie Crist broke from the Republican party and chose to run as an independent. Polls throughout the summer showed that Rubio might be in trouble as Crist could be pulling votes from both Republicans and Democrats. Personally, I have been perturbed by Crist’s apparent lack of principle. He shifts his views whenever expedient. As I’ve noted in a previous post, his primary principle appears to be doing whatever it takes to keep Charlie Crist in office.

Democrats, though, may have stemmed the Rubio bleeding and doomed the Crist candidacy by nominating Kendrick Meek as their Senate candidate. No political prognosticator believes Meek can win this election, but his appeal to the party base probably will siphon off votes that Crist thought he could win. The latest polls have shown that if Meek is the candidate, Rubio’s chances for victory are greater. That is now the reality.

The nation is watching Florida, a state that could help determine our future path.

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The New Academic Year

August 25th, 2010

I love this time of year. This is now my 22nd year of teaching full time at the college level. When a new academic year begins, I experience an emotional rush. I’ve experienced that for 21 of those 22 years [no need to talk about the exception---that's history]. Students also seem fresh and ready.

Yes, that early excitement will scale back as the semester wears on, but it never goes away entirely, particularly if you believe what you are doing is the will of God, and that the classroom is another form of ministry.

I am grateful to be able to teach at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, a Christian university that is not only very beautiful, but dedicated to infusing Biblical principles into all subjects. And why not? God is the author of all knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

We do face a multitude of problems, though, in modern education. Some of it has to do with ignorance:

Many students who show up for college as freshmen haven’t been taught well. They are especially ignorant of their own country’s history, the very subject I teach. Another big problem is the apathy of parents. They often just shuffle their children off to a school, happy that they can absent themselves from their children’s educational progress:

Parents used to believe they were responsible for their children’s education. That viewpoint seems to be more rare with each passing year.

Even more pernicious, however, is the blatant attempt to alter historical reality. In a recent column, analyst Thomas Sowell makes some incisive observations about what exactly is being taught in many classrooms:

The history of this country is taught in many schools and colleges as the history of grievances and victimhood, often with the mantra of “race, class, and gender.” Television and the movies often do the same.

When there are not enough current grievances for them, they mine the past for grievances and call it history. Sins and shortcomings common to the human race around the world are spoken of as failures of “our society.” But American achievements get far less attention — and sometimes none at all.

Our “educators,” who cannot educate our children to the level of math or science achieved in most other comparable countries, have time to poison their minds against America.

Why? Partly, if not mostly, it is because that is the vogue. It shows you are “with it” when you reject your own country and exalt other countries.

I don’t teach that America is perfect. I clearly point out the racial issues of the past. However, I also note that it is faulty analysis to reject everything about America just because there were some injustices. As Sowell says, where in the world do you not witness injustices? It’s the human condition; it’s called sin. America has done a pretty good job, compared to other nations, in rooting out many of those problems over time.

My perspective on American government and the policies we have followed, particularly in the past century, is often critical, but never in a way that makes students think they live in an awful place. Our Founders provided a system that can be corrected, but it depends on the character and the choices “we the people” make.

More than once, I’ve had students come up to me and say something similar to this: “Every president you praised was presented to me as bad in high school, and every president you criticized was highly praised by my former teachers. You’ve reversed everything and have made me rethink America’s history.”

If I am accomplishing that, I am satisfied. It’s time to continue that quest in this new academic year.

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Fantasy World

August 24th, 2010

One concern I heard expressed a few months ago was that Republicans had to be careful in talking about the bad economy and basing their election chances on it staying bad. I agree that a political party’s message cannot be entirely negative. If you want to hold office, you need to present a positive agenda.

The concern, though, appears to be unfounded for this year. In the short span before November 2nd, there is little hope that the economy is going to look much better. The policies that President Obama and the Democrat majority in Congress have put in place are doing exactly what they are designed to do—prolong the recession and stifle productivity. I don’t mean by that comment to insinuate that Obama wants things to stay bad; I just mean that his socialistic vision always leads to one destination—economic ruin.

I don’t expect things to get better under the current administration if the Congress doesn’t change hands. Some have speculated that Obama won’t mind a Republican-controlled Congress because it will give him somebody to blame. Well, he already has that technique down cold:

Some commentators—and not just those on the political Right—are predicting a doomsday for Democrats in the upcoming elections. They say the Democrat leadership will be stunned by the magnitude of the outcome and won’t be able to grasp why this has occurred.

Many politicians live in a fantasy world, it seems. The older I get, the more obvious that has become to me. I used to believe they knew what they were doing; now I know they’re just human beings, and the ones with massive egos have little connection to reality. Yet they continue to impose their “vision” on the rest of us.

American voters have only themselves to blame. They’re the ones who anointed these people and put them into office. They can reverse that mistake in 70 days. I just pray they will. I promise to do my part.

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Obama’s Religious Beliefs

August 23rd, 2010

A poll stunned the news media last week, and its reverberations haven’t ceased. Fully one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. Reaction from the White House and the news media has been identical: no, that’s mistaken—Obama is a Christian. Even conservative commentators and news media have taken up the same chant.

What’s the truth?

First, I don’t believe Obama is a Muslim. To be a real Muslim, he would have to be adhering to all the tenets of Muslim belief. Is he praying five times a day toward Mecca? I doubt it—unless he does it on the golf course. He’s obviously not an observant Muslim. Yes, he was raised as one as a child, but I don’t honestly think he is committed to that today. You can understand the confusion of the populace, however, since he definitely comes across as sympathetic to Muslim causes. He’s always praising Muslim influence in the world and, supposedly, in the United States.

But that doesn’t make him a Muslim.

So then he must be a Christian, right? After all, he went to a church for over twenty years. Is that what it takes to be a Christian? The problem with the political and media response—yes, he’s a Christian—is that it is based on externals only. And even those are abysmally weak.

What about that church he attended? Surely you remember the so-called Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of that church. He is an adherent of black liberation theology, which turns Jesus into merely a great man who came to set free those who are oppressed politically. He attempted to “save” them from the oppressor but was cruelly crucified for trying to do so. It’s a Marxist theology.

This is not the Jesus of the Bible. This is not the message of salvation.

Jeremiah Wright is a radical of radicals, devoted to the Palestinian cause, saying America, by supporting Israel, is sponsoring state terrorism. The terrorist group Hamas, on the other hand, has been given a voice in Wright’s church bulletins.

Wright’s other highlights: Jesus was black and was oppressed by white Europeans; the American government created HIV to commit genocide against minorities; America is worse than the Islamic extremists because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII; 9/11 was simply the “chickens coming home to roost” because America’s policies deserved that response.

This was Obama’s pastor for more than twenty years. There’s nothing orthodox Christian about him.

Obama himself, in a 2004 newspaper interview said, “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.” In other words, there is nothing unique about Christianity or the person of Jesus. All paths lead to the same place. That’s a direct contradiction of the Biblical dictum that Jesus is the only way and the only truth.

In that same interview, he stated,

The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to hell.

Notice he calls this a “difficult thing,” something he clearly doesn’t accept. Consequently, he doesn’t really believe the Christian message because he doesn’t believe someone will be separated from God if they don’t have faith in Christ, nor does he believe in spreading the message.

Obama is not a Christian.

We’re also told by Jesus that you will know true Christians by the fruit of their lives. This doesn’t mean that Christians will always be consistent with their confession of faith; they will do things at times for which they need to repent. However, if one promotes continually positions that are at odds with Biblical morality, how can one really be a Christian? Let’s look at the record:

Obama, as a state senator in Illinois, vocally and forcefully fought against allowing doctors to come to the aid of children born alive in an attempted abortion. This is infanticide, pure and simple.

Here are more:

  1. He is one of the foremost politicians in favor of paying for abortions with taxpayer money.
  2. He advocates embryonic stem cell research.
  3. He advocates repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.
  4. He advocates repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military.
  5. While saying he opposes same-sex marriage, his actions indicate just the opposite.

These are the most obvious issues. There are others I could point to, but they are derivatives of these.

Based on everything I know about Barack Obama, there is no way I can consider him a Christian. Yet like everyone else, he is a potential Christian. The path is the same for everyone: recognition of sin, genuine repentance over one’s sins, faith in the atonement of the Son of God [not just a great man sent by God], and a life that shows the fruit of that faith. Nothing short of that qualifies as Christian.

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Psalm 139:1-6, 23-24

August 22nd, 2010

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful form me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. …

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

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Mosque Matters

August 21st, 2010

Did you hear that the Associated Press has made a point of not referring to the proposed mosque near the WTC site as the “Ground Zero Mosque”? Rather, it is simply to be called the New York City Mosque. Kind of takes the bite out of it, doesn’t it? I think that’s the goal. By disconnecting it from the act of war that occurred on 9/11, the intent may be to make it a rather innocuous building. It is anything but innocuous.

President Obama of course supports the building of the mosque. It would be nice, though, if he were more consistent with that policy:

He says they have the right to build anywhere they wish since America is a land of religious liberty. Well, I agree with the last part of that statement, but the first part can be questioned. What will it take to make the president question it?

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is up in arms against those who oppose the mosque. She has even called for an investigation into the funding of the opposition. In her view, there must be something pernicious afoot—a conspiracy perhaps.

Well, if it is a conspiracy, her compatriot Harry Reid is in on it. He also has come out in opposition to its being built. I wonder when she’s going to start her investigation of the Senate Majority Leader. That would be fascinating to follow. Don’t expect it anytime soon.

The key proponent for this mosque is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. His organization has not said where the funding will come from but hasn’t ruled out accepting financial support from such liberty-loving moderates as the Iranian government. He pushes this project as an avenue of healing. Right now, it doesn’t seem to be bringing much healing at all. Could anything have been better orchestrated to cause a societal upheaval? What attitude could be behind this?

The Ground Zero Mosque is an in-your-face symbol of radical Islam’s “victory” on 9/11. It is an edifice devoted to triumphalism. Although only symbolic, symbols have significance. This symbol must not be erected.

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Drawing Racial Lines

August 20th, 2010

I’ve noticed there are some things that are very hard for people to do. For instance, once some individuals get into power, particularly political power, it’s fascinating how nothing they ever do wrong is their fault. They can always find someone else to blame. Charlie Rangel seems to be pretty good at this, as is Maxine Waters.

Listen to either of them speak about the ethics charges against them and you will come away believing they are victims of a massive conspiracy. In both cases, though, the evidence seems pretty clear—they are guilty of using their offices for personal financial benefit. If only they would simply admit it, but pride and arrogance forbid it.

Rangel and Waters are indicative of a whole species of political animals who can’t seem to see beyond a predetermined personal prejudice:

I’ve mentioned in previous posts the decision of the Justice Department not to prosecute the New Black Panthers who intimidated people at the polls and the atmosphere in the department that refuses to focus on any discrimination cases brought against blacks. All this does is undermine the rule of law.

Every person—black, white, and all the beiges in between—are accountable to the same law [I've always liked the title of one of Thomas Sowell's books, Pink and Brown People---it's more accurate].

Yet we continue to draw racial lines, as Harry Reid did recently:

Well, Harry, let me explain it for you: the Republican party [or at least a lot of people in that party] believes in helping individuals get off the government plantation, offering them security in their personal property, providing the liberty to achieve one’s dreams in life without undue governmental interference, and respecting the life of all unborn Hispanics. Many of those Hispanics are from Cuba, and they know how bad a socialist system can be. They appreciate American liberties.

Hope that helps, Harry.

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Losing Touch with Mediocrity

August 19th, 2010

As a new school season is upon us, I thought I would be short and quick today in my commentary:

To all students everywhere: excellence is the goal. Try it, you might like it.

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