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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Church security for pacifists
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Australia to apologize to its aboriginal people
The Rudd Labor government will formally say sorry to members of the indigenous stolen generation when federal parliament resumes in Canberra next month.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will deliver the apology on February 13, more than 10 years since the Bringing Them Home human rights report recommended the government say sorry for the policy of removing indigenous children from their parents.
It will be the first item of business for the new parliament.
An Aboriginal welcome to country ceremony will take place as part of the opening proceedings for parliament the day before. -The Age
For background information I recommend watching Rabbit Proof Fence which I reviewed two years ago..
Love on Spring Break: Song of Songs 2:8-17
The Beloved about Her Lover:
2:8 Listen! My lover is approaching!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills!
2:9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the window,
peering through the lattice.
In the previous verse Beloved warns the maidens not to awaken love until it so desires. It seems that Lover has desired and is coming to visit. There is a sound he makes that excites her. It probably isn't a gastro-intestinal sound either. Perhaps it is the sound of his royal chariot. He is undeterred by the obstacles that hinder his goal of her company. She has waited for him and he comes to find her at full throttle. As mentioned earlier, gazelles and young stags are symbols of virility and love, see an example found in Egyptian poetry here. Solomon is virile and nimble and unswayed in his focus, Beloved. He seems to have come to the common room of his maidens. She says it "our" wall with a window and a lattice. If it's possible to draw a modern day application it might be that he came to her job to take her out for a surprise lunch and he is impressing all her girlfriends.
The Lover to His Beloved:
2:10 My lover spoke to me, saying:
"Arise, my darling;
My beautiful one, come away with me!
2:11 Look! The winter has passed,
the winter rains are over and gone.
2:12 The pomegranates have appeared in the land,
the time for pruning and singing has come;
the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
2:13 The fig tree has budded,
the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance.
Arise, come away my darling;
my beautiful one, come away with me!"
Lover did not say, "Whoever is up for a trip to the country and a good time, hop in." He spoke specifically to his darling Beloved. He sneaks in another complimentary pet name, "Beautiful One." Complimentary pet names get a great deal of mileage in this marriage. They are a symbol of unique intimacy and commitment and safety and should be used liberally. His inspiration for a trip is that spring has arrived, the time when the aphrodisiacs are in bloom and everybody is singing from the farmers to the love birds. Pomegranates appear a few times in the Old Testament in the context of intercourse. His intentions are clear though hidden in allusions. He promises beautiful sights and wonderful smells. Then he repeats his request for her company with complimentary pet names.
The Lover to His Beloved:
2:14 O my dove,
in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places of the mountain crags,
let me see your face, let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
"My dove" is another pet name given by Solomon to his Beloved. He knows that this woman who handled herself well in her brothers' vineyard and in his own pasture, who had her skinned toasted under the hot sun, who can handle hundreds of competing wives, is still a tender person. He adores her. He doesn't want her to hide from him. Maybe she is trying too hard at playing "hard-to-get." He requests her face and voice then tells her why, because of her sweetness and loveliness. The poem is full of affirmation and unashamed admiration. There is no concern about swelling the other's ego. It's an adolescent crush between two married adults. This kind of marriage is still around and can make others uncomfortable as no one can believe someone could be that infatuated for someone so gray, fat, bald, wrinkly, etc. But that's a lie. Love is blind and it blinds one to another's imperfections. There is a love for the total person that no attack by old age can quench. Familiarity only stokes the fire instead of quenching it. Your spouse will never tire of hearing your admiration. Don't stop.
The Beloved to Her Lover:
2:15 Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards –
for our vineyard is in bloom.
2:16 My lover is mine and I am his;
he grazes among the lilies.
2:17 Until the dawn arrives and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved –
be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges.
It is doubtful that she is ordering Solomon out into the vineyards to trap literal foxes. This vineyard is their marriage. Those little foxes are the little things that put a marriage at risk. This tough country woman is like a dove in the hiding places. There is a hint of fear. She is concerned. We don't know exactly what concerns her. Each marriage has its own little foxes, those neuroses and quirks and temptations and ghosts. When we "forsake all others" shall we not also forsake those foxes that follow us into this vineyard? The hardest problem is letting our spouse name the foxes. For some reason we are so insecure and need to defend the animals and call them red dogs, or funny raccoons, or ugly cats, but not foxes. "Please don't ask me to toss this furry creature out of our marriage," we plead. Old letters from old flames, drinking buddies, cigars, myspace or facebook pages, attractive co-workers; all are likely foxes. Foxes aren't beautiful or lovely or sweet or worth holding onto in a marriage. They are part of your identity but your identity is now part of a new creature, united in marriage. That married creature doesn't need that junk.
Solomon must have answered in the right way because she declares their mutual belonging. She considers him all hers and consequently she is all his. Since she gives herself completely to this "gazelle" she lets him graze among her "lilies" and implores him to graze all night in the mountain valleys! Security in marriage opens up panoramic vistas of physical love. Make your spouse secure.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Christian Apologetics Search
Government incentives to prevent abortion
Part of Wilberforce's anti-slavery legislation was payment to slave holders for the value of their "property" as compensation for their horrid practice. Was it rewarding evil to pay slave owners? Yes, but it made life without slavery "normal" in a generation.
What if the US government paid women for the inconvenience of being knocked up for 9 months? This is no longer a partisan issue. It becomes bipartisan because more children is good for the country. Say all abortion clinics and hospitals are required to have a staff member offering a cash reward for staying pregnant through delivery. All who sign up get free Ob/Gyn care for 9 months and food stamps or a stipend to supplement their clothing and food needs. Upon delivery, the cash payout will depend on whether the child is given up for adoption or not. If given up, she'll get a check and a thank you for her patriotism If not given up, she will receive additional free health care for the child up to 5 years. Adoption laws need to be changed also. Adoptions are so expensive because the privilege was abused terribly by a few, much like foster care still.
How much of a cash layout? Perhaps the poverty line income level.
It won't stop all abortions. But what if it stopped 250,000? At some point a tipping point will be reached when abortion will be as frowned upon as walking through Boston with your slave in tow in 1859. At that point, it would not be hard to legislate protection for all ages and sizes.
Just an idea. How expensive is this? More young workers could save Social Security.
3000 year old guide on love and romance: Songs 2:4-7
The Beloved about Her Lover:
2:4 He brought me into the banquet hall,
and he looked at me lovingly.
Lover is at work in his romancing. "Banquet hall" is a translation option. As the NET Bible notes a literal translation is "house if wine." Now "house of wine" can refer to a vineyard. Back in 1:14 she referred to the vineyards in the oasis of En Gedi and this location has provided a source of the recent foliage and flower poetry. Thus, perhaps, we are not at a new location but still in the vineyard. She could be saying, "He brought me to the vineyard…" which fits in with the metaphorical activity before these verses and the explicit activity forthcoming. Regardless of location her husband is gazing at her with love. The traditional refrain here is "his banner over me is love" (NIV), but the Hebrew word translated "banner" is a tough nut. The latest scholarship results in more explicit poetry. In fact, "looked" could be "desire" or "wish." Hence the explicit translation can be "His wish regarding me is lovemaking." But this states explicitly what was said poetically the past 7 verses. Together, a re-translation of verse 4 could be, "He brought me to the vineyard and he desired to make love to me." Solomon, the brilliant romantic, takes his beloved wife on a romantic getaway and he hits paydirt. She is faint with love.
2:5 Sustain me with raisin cakes,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
The NET notes that both raisins and apples were ancient Near East aphrodisiacs. What wasn't? She is love-sick and the only cure for her sickness is his love. She has invited him to make love to her with some erotic metaphors, and he didn't miss the opportunity. Some guys only understand initiative when it's made in a nude tackle. But her approach plays along with his invitation by excursion. They are like well rehearsed Tango dancers. My wife and I took dance lessons last year and worked very hard at learning simple steps TOGETHER. It's one thing to know the steps but it is an entirely different dimension stepping together. But when we got it right we walked together passionately. If you have no clue what I am talking about I suggest taking formal dance lessons together with your spouse. (more after picture)
2:6 His left hand caresses my head,
and his right hand stimulates me.
Gulp! Can you believe this is in the Bible? Yet it is so helpful to newly married men who are exploding with testosterone and can't think past their own groin. Those sweet touches permitted while dating need to continue after the wedding. His left hand lets her know he still enjoys those public parts of her while his right hand proves his pleasure with the private and erotic areas of her body. He lets her know that he is pleased with all of her. Husbands, try stroking your wife's hair once in a while. You just might make her love sick.
The Beloved to the Maidens:
2:7 I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields:
Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases!
Is Beloved backhanding the girls in the harem? Are these "maidens" the same ones in chapter 1 or are these virgins in Jerusalem's general population? Whichever audience she addresses she wants them to make a promise. Her witnesses are the wild animals in their open air bedroom. Unsurprisingly, gazelles and does are symbolic of fertility in ancient Near East literature. The oath is somewhat mysterious. Didn't she start out in this poem hoping for the Lover's kisses? Didn't she seek him out in the fields? So if she is talking to the harem, maybe she is throwing them off the trail to a great night of passion by telling them to wait around. Alternatively, she is calling the young virgins to save themselves for the bands of marriage before partaking of physical love. In God's creation, love is pleased when consummated after a public commitment ceremony. The most freedom, the most passion, the most satisfaction in a sexual relationship can only be found within a holy marriage. All other circumstance are only a hint of the best conditions for lovemaking.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Yurts and domes
3000 year old guide on love and romance
The previous verses left them laying together intimately under the cedars. As she adores the nature around them she notices the flowers…
The Beloved to Her Lover:
2:1 I am a meadow flower from Sharon,
a lily from the valleys.
Remember her self-confidence? She believes her Lover's compliments and abides in them. Yet she doesn't overshoot and step into vanity. She considers herself one flower among a meadow. Not that a flower is any less beautiful because it keeps company with a million others. Sharon is a well watered area and vegetation including flower meadows would be found there. The NET Bible notes a proposal for the sole member of the lily family that grows in Palestine, Israel's chamomile.
There is a neat photography blog called the Flowers in Israel and here is a picture of this flower.The Latin name for geek research is Anthemis palaestina.
She knows that the palace is Solomon's meadow and he can pluck whatever blossoms he wants. But she also feels her position is valid in his harem. She isn't a fluke although she stands out for her dark skin and difficult, non-regal background. Yes she's a hill-billy girl, a daisy from the valley, but one who can tend a vineyard or a flock of sheep. It's partly this atypical background for a princess that intrigues Solomon and elevates her status in his eyes. In response to her humble assertion, he affirms her tremendously.
The Lover to His Beloved:
2:2 Like a lily among the thorns,
so is my darling among the maidens.
"Dear," he says, "you aren't 'just' a lily, you are the only lily, not growing in a meadow surrounded by similar lilies, but by ugly brambles." He was calling her "one-in-a-million" in a fresh way and not a hackneyed, throw-away expression of little worth. Not is she "one in a million" but she is the one among the 1,000 chosen maidens (700 wives and 300 concubines) for his harem. Certainly, men have used assertions like this to get a woman into bed, but he is working his skills on his wife. The wedding band does not free a husband from romance. In fact, a virginal wedding provides new material to wax eloquent on. Later on in the poem they cover some of that more erotic material.
The Beloved about Her Lover:
2:3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
Beloved returns the compliment. The NET Bible notes that apple trees are not native trees. Finding an apple tree in the forest there would be akin to finding a lily among the thorns. Because the maidens are mentioned in the poem, and they are plural, I think it is safe to presume Solomon is not such a youngster anymore. Surely she isn't number 700, but even if she wasn't but, say, only number 100, he isn't a young buck anymore, but she caresses his ego by holding him above all the kingdom's strapping young men. Men may not display insecurity, but usually because they don't realize they are insecure. A little preventive affirmation will keep them running smoothly and away from mid-life crises and the accompanying insanity that may endanger a marriage. Husbands and wives need to be pro-active instead of reactive in affirming their attraction to the other. Not only does he stand out in the forest of young men but she loves being in his shade and partaking of his fruit. Umm, that's a metaphor for their physical intimacy. Think about it. He's between her and the sun…
Update: Perhaps, dear reader, you accuse me of over-sexualizing this epic poem. I can accept the accusation but I have a rebuttal.
Fertility worship abounded in that time as much as it does in this day. However, there is only one true God and he created sexuality with all its pleasures. Sex within the bounds prescribed by its inventor is the superior experience described in this massive poem. Sex is not encumbered by romance and foreplay and fidelity and longevity, it is enhanced by these things, which this Scripture emphasizes in every paragraph. Hence, I see it and note it in every paragraph.
Addendum: Great quote at Acton Institute on freedom that I find helpful in the context of sexual relations, noted at the EO.To this I add, true sexual freedom is found within the sphere of marriage.The Word of God teaches that the Christian is a free man and should "stand in the freedom which Christ has made him free." What is meant by Christian freedom? What is freedom in general? We answer: it is not the right and the ability to do as one pleases, but the ability to move without constraint in the sphere for which God made us. Freedom therefore is not inconsistent with limitation and law. The bird is free only when it can move in the air unhindered. A worm is free when it is not prevented from moving in the ground--in a sphere which would mean bondage and death for many other creatures. A locomotive is not free unless its motion is confined to the two rails on which it was made to run. Man was made in the image of God to be like Him and to reflect his holiness. Consequently he is free only when he moves without constraint in the sphere of holiness and obedience to God's law.From "Christian Liberty," in "Report of the Committee on Worldly Amusements," Agenda: Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, To convene June 13, 1928 at Holland, Mich., p. 22.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Top 10 posts 4th week Jan 2008
1- Original language Bible texts on line. Link to the free stuff by Hall Harris at Bible.org
2- Mormonism and abortion...pretty liberal.
3- Whole life evangelism.
4- A native american civil rights activist long before MLK.
5- An interesting video series on YouTube about marriage called When Sinners Say "I Do"
6- How much do you know about abortion law in the U.S.?
7- Obama in his own words on faith and abortion.
8- Rich Mouw likes church shopping. It gives him perspective.
9- Orthodox perspective on abortion.
10- Being pro-life doesn't make you a nutcase.
see other posts on greek, Bible, mormons, native americans, marriage, abortion, church.
Yurt and Cinema review: Cave of the Yellow Dog
Friday, January 25, 2008
Alternative housing research rundown
Straw bales.
Good: bales are cheap and renewable and DIY
Bad: Humid summers might be a problem. Plastering 3 layers inside and out is a 2nd job. Eventually, the per square foot cost vs. benefits is about the same as a regular house. Mice sometimes move into the walls.
Good: great insulation
Bad: steep learning curve for builders. sometimes the skin, which is strustural, gets wet and delaminates. Quality control by mfrs has been hit-or-miss. per square foot cost vs. benefits is about the same as a regular house. Mice sometimes move into the walls.
Good: External disaster proof. Quiet. Very insulated.
Bad: Fires turn house into crematorium. Concrete and rebar are expensive. Concrete production makes too much greenhouse gas. Additions and adaptations are complicated due to penetration of concrete walls.
Fiberglass composite structures. (CBS Homes)
Good: Stronger than steel. Can bend under strain but will rebound.
Bad: Technology too new. Company responses very slow.
I've also explored the pre-fabricated methods. The great thing about these is the modern architecture that can be found. It's also usually the modern pre-fabs that contain more greener technologies.
Good: Quick. Modern designs.
Bad: Real expensive.
So I thought about alternative structures to achieve low cost living as well as reduced earth impact.
Dome homes
Good: Heat circulates very effectively.
Bad: So do smells and sounds. So many joints make leaks inevitable. Resale population limited.
Fiberglass shell homes
Good: Cheap and strong.
Bad: Trailer living interior. Unattractive. Limited resale population.
Earth sheltered homes
Good: Strong and warm
Bad: Expensive, dark, damp, lots of concrete. Limited resale population.
Round homes (Deltec, Yurtworks)
Good: Tight and strong.
Bad: Expensive.
I ended up buying another house but it is much smaller than my previous house. It turns out a family of 5 can live in less than 1100 square feet which is also cheaper to heat. In a full day below freezing I kept it at 72 degrees with a fireplace insert wood stove with a blower all day. The furnace never came on. I'm happy with this house but I'd still like to live on a big patch of land within a bicycle commute to work.
What I want is a simpler life. Less impact on land. Less taxes out of my wallet. Less money for heating. No mortgage. A stable structure. But a cool structure. I have a new idea.
What if permanency wasn't required? What if you didn't like your site location and wanted to move to a better part of your land? What if building and rebuilding was easy and cheap? What if close quarters were OK? What if additions were cheap and easy? What if your home cost less than your car? Imagine how drastically that changes your family budget.
What am I talking about?
See all these links and these links, too.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Iriquois communists in the 17th century America
In European cultures, wealth could be transformed into capital and so breed more wealth. But Indian cultures resisted formation of capital because of their strong sharing ethic. Among Indians, wealth was accumulated only briefly by individuals, and quickly passed on. Indians of the early trading era did not become rich. (80)As an aside, Jennings illustrates this contrast elsewhere with the picture of tribal chiefs sharing in his people's poverty and going without as much as his people are without unlike any "civilized" king across the Atlantic. Imagine, a servant-king.
The net effect of Indian appetites for European implements, weapons, cloth, and that luxury firewater was to make Indians dependent on trade and therefore on European trading partners. Of late there have been efforts to psychoanalyze those Indians to discover some sort of weird kink in Indian mentality that I can only interpret as a revival of savagery mythology; but Indian dependency was the outcome of rational decisions by rational persons caught up in an objective situation that limited choice. The Indians simply could not foresee the implications of their initiative for the trade in guns. By the time its effects in dependency became clear, the Indians had lost their power of choice. (81)This is eerily prescient of Americans today dependent on Chinese manufacturing. As Europe became a tar baby to tribes so likewise today China has become to the US. Unfortunately, human nature is consistent across all ages, which is why we need a savior to save us from ourselves.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
cinema review: Cloverfield
Some of the scenes are very poignant in light of recent recent disasters. As the monster destroys New York City great billows of smoke and dust rush down the avenues followed by sheets of paper drifting down just as in 9/11 footage. This was followed by looters in an electronics store as in New Orleans after Katrina hit. Hence, the unseen monster can represent man or nature in this movie. It is something new and unforeseen. We never find out if it is defeated either.
book report: The Shack by William Young
As the word echoed in the chamber, panic rose inside Mack like a swelling tide and slowly he sank into his chair. Instantly he felt guilty, as memories spilled through his mind like rats fleeing the rising flood. (157)I have one more. This is more of a theologically appealing passage.
Mack's chest and muscles instinctively tightened. He didn't like remembering Josh and the canoe, and the sense of panic that suddenly rushed back from the memory.Jesus is used as a personal name and not as an epithet. ;-)
"It's extremely hard to rescue someone unless they are willing to trust you."
"Yes, it sure is."
"That's all I ask of you. When you start to sink, let me rescue you."
It seemed like a simple request, but Mack was used to being the lifeguard, not the one drowning. "Jesus, I'm not sure how to..." (180)
I enjoyed the character development, especially of each person of the Trinity. It was a good read. It moved me emotionally and challenged me theologically. It doesn't solve the problem of evil, but presents some helpful ideas in a narrative format.
The author hopes it will be made into a film, but he needs more people buying it. Therefore, I recommend you visit the website of The Shack and order yourself a copy, it's worth the investment. It's also available at Amazon and other stores.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Another year another million babies lost to abortion
French approach to mixed marriages in 1600s Americas
With a very small resource of ethnically French population, the French colonies amplified their manpower by tolerating and assimilating the children of intersocial liaisons. These offspring of mixed unions became especially valuable in the basic French strategy of controlling large native populations by planting a network of forts and trading posts among them. By the end of the seventeenth century the French had created and mastered a politico-economic empire extending over the vast regions of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes environs, precisely the territories where the bulk of commercial peltry originated. (79)
Monday, January 21, 2008
MLK day 2008
Here's a round up of MLK posts from my favorite blogs.
St. Paul's has a few videos and another one and another one.
John Piper notes King's most powerful words in Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.Fred Sanders lauds him a round-about way.
I have many posts on history and African-Americans.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Top 10 posts 3rd week Jan 2008
1-The Tall Skinny Kiwi broke down the 5 models of the emerging church back in the last century and now he's reposting his analysis, which is good fun. Enjoy.
2-A widow describes her painful transition with and without the church's help at Christianity Today.
3-The white wife of a bi-racial couple describes the racism her husband lives with constantly, in the context of Obama's pastor's Afro-centrist stand.
4-I blogged about induction stoves before. Here is one person's new and pleasant experience with his own.
5-A Canadian journalist defends his right before a government agent to publish the controversial Mohammed cartoons.
6-A conversation with the boys on their bikes by a Christian who wants to know what the good news is that they are restoring.
7-A yurt kit that can be set up in 45 minutes, the Yurta.
8-Randy Alcorn talks his sadness and remarks on the fact that we weren't made for this world.
9-For greek Bible geeks, how about a question mark at Romans 5:15-16?
10-John Mark Reynold's finds a biblical lesson for American Christians in Rehoboam's "give 'em scorpions" folly.
More posts can be found here on emerging church, church, african-american, conservation, human rights, mormons, houses, theology, Greek, bible, politics.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Book report: The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire by Francis Jennings 1984
The first massive fact about the European invasion of America is that physical contact between the societies of the two continents took place almost wholly on American soil. Only a handful of visitors traveled from the Americas to Europe, and most of those went involuntarily. Europe had the initiative, and Europeans never had to worry about retaliatory invasion from America.
The North and South American frontiers differed significantly therefore from the engagement of peoples in the Old World, where Christian Europeans faced Muslim Asiatics and Africans who could and did send massive invasions into Europe. The Spaniards who sailed with Columbus had inherited the seven hundred-year tradition of the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors. The implications of the difference between Old World frontiers and those of the New World have never been systematically explored. Certainly they must have included a respect by Europeans for Muslim power and culture that was withheld from the cultures of the natives of America. St. Thomas Aquinas tried to assimilated into his theology all that seemed valuable in Muslim science. Bartolomé de Las Casa confined himself to demanding Christian justice for people who, though barbarous were teachable.
The crusaders who fought so long to create Spain might hate Moors but were not apt to underestimate them. These crusaders appreciated much of Moorish culture, as the survival of the Alhambra beautifully evidences. Their descendant conquistadores, however, vaunted a crucial military advantage, marched where they pleased, took what they wanted, and destroyed Tenochtitlan utterly, a city greater than any in Spain. The evidence of the Moors in Spain is in Spain. The evidence of the Aztecs before Spanish rule is largely under ground. Such differences inspired among Europeans generally a sense of absolute superiority over native Americans that expressed itself more usually as contempt than outright hatred. Its effect was a morally and intellectually corrupting on Europeans as it was destructive physically to native Americans.
In the Americas, Europeans had the initiative in conceptualizing and explicating the processes of invasion, and they used the advantage to create rationalizations favorable to themselves. The terminology so developed took its place in the arsenal of conquest. Sovereignty, for example which had been invented to justify kings' conquests of their own peoples, lent itself readily to export. The legal implications of the one-way traffic to America did not escape Francisco de Vitoria, who once remarked that an Indian "discovery" of Spain would not have justified Indian sovereignty over Spain. But he lost the argument. (3-4)
I'll have more quotes through the week but much shorter. Unfortunately, I need to return this before the library starts fining me and I haven't finished it yet. In the past, I wouldn't report on books I hadn't finished, but now I want to remember what I attempted and take out of it what I could. I really enjoyed it, but it was very dense. I hope to read his first book, The Invasion of America. He was an innovative historian. This obituary is enlightening, with paragraphs like this.
Jennings's career took another unexpected turn in 1975 when, at the age of 57, he published his first book, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest. A collection of essays on specific topics in colonial history--Indian population, the Pequot war, popular images--the book was a frontal attack on the generations of scholars who, he argued, had internalized the racist language of the seventeenth century and overlooked the violence and brutality of European settlement. By insisting that America began not with "discovery" but invasion, Jennings set himself apart from those who viewed the fate of the continent's indigenous people as somehow inevitable or natural. Jennings's angry, forceful prose still touches readers a quarter century after its publication.See my other posts on native americans, history, book reports and human rights.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Why does Huck support the confederate flag in SC?
"Governor Huckabee understands that all the average guy with a Confederate flag on his pickup truck is saying is he's proud to be a Southerner," the ad states. "Mike Huckabee understands we value our heritage and why."
The flag, long seen as a symbol of racism by some and as an emblem of Southern pride by others, once flew atop the Capitol in South Carolina. A 2000 compromise removed it from the dome, though it remains on the Statehouse grounds and flies next to a Confederate soldier memorial.
Campaigning in South Carolina on Thursday, Huckabee said the government should stay out of disputes over the Confederate flag.
"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," Huckabee told supporters in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole, that's what we'd do."
Similar story at CNN. Does he support a Nazi flag flown by German Americans who are proud of their heritage? Whatever good each culture produced, it's impossible to ignore the atrocities committed under those flags too. I wish Huckabee would repent of such idiotic pandering.
Song of Songs 1:12-17 The idiot's guide to flirting with your spouse
The Beloved about Her Lover:
1:12 While the king was at his banqueting table,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
Perhaps Beloved is relating a past experience. She reveals her method of non-contact, long-acting foreplay. It helps to understand what "nard" is. The NET note indicates it is an aromatic drug from a Himalayan plant used as a perfume of seductive charms. So this was an imported perfume with erotic implications. She spent her money on the good stuff and then she left at his dinner table a suggestive fragrance to distract him the entire banquet. She is creative and determined in her goal of sleeping with him. Remember, competition exists to get in Solomon's bedtime schedule, and she is playing to win.
1:13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh
spending the night between my breasts.
Again, the NET notes are big help here.
It was an expensive luxury item, which had to be imported into Israel. In liquid form it could be carried in small bottles like nard, but it was also used in solid form in which it was carried in a small cloth pouch or sachet worn next to the body. The myrrh was mixed with fat and shaped into cones and as the fat melted from the body heat, the aroma of myrrh and the anointing oil would perfume a woman's body. Because it had a very strong aroma which would last for long periods of time, women often wore it to bed to perfume themselves for the next day. Because of its beautiful fragrance, it is associated with romance (e.g., Isa 3:24) (R. K. Harrison, Healing Herbs of the Bible, 45-46).
So it was something she would wear all night to smell good all day. But she is comparing him to this romantic fragrance. His fragrance of romance, figuratively and maybe not not literally, stays with her all day after a night on her chest. Whatever the details are, he is on her mind, romantically, all day.
1:14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En-Gedi.
The next two notes in the NET Bible inform us that henna is not only used for temporary tattoos but also for perfume. The blossoms smell good and look nice. It strikes me that these flowers are growing in a vineyard. Vineyards are not flower gardens. They are places of serious agriculture. They are weeded and tended, but Solomon, in her eyes, is like a burst of fragrance and color amidst all the dark leaves and vines. He stands out visually and smellfully. Some guys stand out smellfully for all the wrong reasons, not Solomon, though.
The other helpful tidbit from the NET notes is the description of En Gedi. It's an oasis in the desert south of the Dead Sea. Not only does he stand out among the vines, but in a place that stands out in a bleak wilderness. In other words, to her, he is the Bomb, and one that smells really nice to boot.
The Lover to His Beloved:
1:15 Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved!
Oh, how beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves!
The poetry never stops, which makes sense since this is an epic poem. We don't express ourselves with an "oh" very often these days in this sense. I think it's equivalent to exclaiming "WOW!" I'm sure her gorgeousness is enhanced by the aroma of her nard that tantalized him at his banquet. He is so bowled over he repeats himself. His knees are practically knocking together, weak with love in her presence. Then he demonstrates his extraordinary love by focusing on her soul through her eyes.
Husbands take note, if you stare into your wife's eyes and compliment them she'll swoon some more. Why? It affirms her entire being, not just the temporary physical things. Not that affirming those things aren't bad either, he does it later on, but when you gaze into her eyes and tell her how beautiful they are and how beautiful she is, you pack an intense compliment in a few words and actions. What's the deal with doves though? I've never owned doves or birds, but perhaps he kept them in his menagerie. They do soothe people. You should see this ESPN episode with Mike Tyson showing off his pigeons. This fierce fighter finds solace in his birds. Doves are like stress therapy. The king is busy, but her eyes bring him peace like his doves do.
The Beloved to Her Lover:
1:16 Oh, how handsome you are, my lover!
Oh, how delightful you are!
The lush foliage is our canopied bed;
1:17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber;
the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.
She returns the double "WOW"s to him. She affirms his handsomeness and her pleasure while in his company in words and in deed. Perhaps they are rolling in the grass in this oasis. They are rolling together in the woods and she calls it their bedroom. I think they are doing something more than napping. They have seized the opportunity. Young love is full of spontaneity. Every opportunity is maximized, which is why we have teen pregnancies. If there's a chance for a kiss, she takes it. If there's time and enough privacy for intercourse, they take it. Exceptionally, even at the end of this epic love poem she is still calling him to join her in other outdoor bedrooms. If you have been married long enough that your passion is well-contained to one room in your house, consider flirting with your spouse all day like this couple does.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Now this is what a bike should be...Green Machine
I've been biking on my upright Trek while my recumbent is getting a tune-up and my rear end is so sore. It's hard to go back once you've experienced a recumbent. Nevertheless, my recumbent can not handle the ice on part of ride but what skinny tire road bike could. But there are recumbent trikes....
building houses in Alaska
See my other posts on conservation and houses.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Illegal immigration
- Robert Orben
Song of Songs 1:5-11 - Erotic Poetry in the Bible
The Beloved to the Maidens:
1:5 I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Qedar,
lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah.
1:6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
for the sun has burned my skin.
My brothers were angry with me;
they made me the keeper of the vineyards.
Alas, my own vineyard I could not keep!
After deflecting the compliments of the maidens toward Solomon, Beloved, puts her attention on these city girls. Solomon's first wife was an Egyptian princess (1 Kings 3:1). According to 1 Kings 11:1 his "love" extended to women of many nations, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and perhaps Sheba. Perhaps he liked variety, and surely the selcted came from upper class if not royalty, but Beloved feels the need to assert her skin color and difficult family history and she comes out swinging. "Yes I am dark, but my darkness is lovely, so quit staring!" Presumably their staring was the derisive kind and she wouldn't have it.
She had paid some dues to achieve that dark skin and would wear it with pride. Perhaps this woman is the inspiration for the woman found in Proverbs 31, especially v. 16, who buys land and plants her own vineyard for additional income. She didn't find a silver spoon in her mouth but she is unashamed of who she is or what she went through.
A secure woman has a force in her that beautifies every feature that God and life have given her. It is something more powerful than hair coloring, clothing, body mass index, or age. Self-confidence can turn charcoal into diamonds. Not only does it enhance but it makes a woman a treasure to hold onto for a lifetime for her husband. There is something sticky about security.
The Beloved to Her Lover:
1:7 Tell me, O you whom my heart loves,
where do you pasture your sheep?
Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat?
Tell me lest I wander around
beside the flocks of your companions!
Beloved addresses Solomon in dramatic terms, "you whom my heart loves." She has worked in the vineyards and she demonstrates her comfort in the man's world by heading out into his territory. She gains access to him that all the city girls won't. She is ready to wander to find him, but would prefer him sooner than later. She has no interest in hanging out with the guys. She only wants his company.
The Lover to His Beloved:
1:8 If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,
simply follow the tracks of my flock,
and pasture your little lambs
beside the tents of the shepherds.
Finally, Solomon speaks, and he's flirting. First he responds to her dramatically. A compliment like that can get a man tremendous good will in his marriage. The epic starts out with her pleading to be brought into his bedroom chamber (1:4), but he's busy so she seeks him at work. He is happy to be interrupted and plays with her. Notice this example of nonsexual foreplay. He is playing hide and seek with his Beloved. He interrupts his work schedule to accommodate his wife.
He seems to invite her to leave her work with his guys so she can join him without any cares. He is a smart man. If a man works from sun to sun but a woman's work is never done, the wise man will find a way to give her a break, and reward her diligence. He serves her in compliment and in siesta. Now he pours on the compliments.
The Lover to His Beloved:
1:9 O my beloved, you are like a mare
among Pharaoh's stallions.
1:10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments;
your neck is lovely with strings of jewels.
1:11 We will make for you gold ornaments
studded with silver.
??? Perhaps a modern horse lover can appreciate this metaphor, in fact don't cowboys in westerns refer to beautiful young women as fillies? So there might be modern cultures that still compliment their women by comparing them to horses. Nevertheless, even this non-cowboy can perceive a couple things.
Stallions are full of testosterone. Pharaoh's stallions are the strongest, bravest, fiercest stallions and were world-renowned. One of Solomon's businesses was buying horses in Egypt and reselling them on the international market. He was an international arms broker (1 Kings 10:26-29). He knew something about quality horses. He owned 12,000 horses and knew something about horse breeding. I'm sure a lone mare in a field of Pharaoh's stallions generated a great deal of interest from those stallions. Therefore, he's telling her she's the only thing worth looking at, which is a fine way to affirm your wife's beauty.
He proceeds to notice the jewelry she wears. Attention husbands, jewelry for women is not like wearing a watch for guys. The jewelry has been selected to complement her outfit. It is a component in her self-presentation. He generates so much good will by noticing her choices and pointing out what a great job she did in the selections she made. If you told your wife that she is the only thing to look at in the room and complimented her selection of jewelry and specifically noted how her jewelry enhanced her beauty she would swoon. Additionally, you would enhance her security, which makes her even more attractive to you.
The icing on his compliments is the promise to give her even more jewelry. Jewelry is part of a woman's beauty toolbox. Buying her more jewelry is equivalent to her buying you really nice tools. As you know, the better the tool, the easier and more distinct the project. Telling her wearing jewelry is overdoing it is like her telling you cutting wood with a saw is overdone because you are strong enough to break it with your head. That may be true, and a nice compliment, but it's nicer with a saw. Therefore, go forth and buy your wife some nice tools!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
awesome house builders
See my other posts on conservation and houses.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Song of songs: Erotic poetry in the Bible, introduction
1:1 Solomon's Most Excellent Love Song.
The Desire for Love The Beloved to Her Lover:
1:2 Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately!
For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine.
1:3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful;
your name is like the finest perfume.
No wonder the young women adore you!
1:4 Draw me after you; let us hurry!
May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers!
The Maidens to the Lover:
We will rejoice and delight in you;
we will praise your love more than wine.
The Beloved to Her Lover:
How rightly the young women adore you!
(NET) (italicized parts are editorial additions)
I don't know if this is foreshadowing, aspiration, or flashback, but it is intense. The intensity of it suggests experience. Can someone assume the exceptional lovemaking of another? She doesn't compare his abilities to another man, but to wine.*
This love story starts with Beloved's longing. She violates so many conservative Christian dating guides. It's almost as if she is initiating. That rocks too many Calvinist typologies so this can not be a dating scene. She must be speaking from experience.
She doesn't want a peck on the cheek. She is on fire for him and wants do some serious necking.
Attention husbands reading this. "Serious neckin'" is also known as foreplay. A wedding band no longer exempts you from these details. Intimacy occurs when the TV is turned off. Intimacy needs time. If the spark is lost in your marriage and assuming you are at least treating her as you want to be treated and you are not sure where to go from there, try some "neckin.'" Perhaps pouring a couple glasses of wine (quality grape juice if you are a Baptist or in recovery) wouldn't hurt either. Try to smell nice too. Skip the baked beans for a couple days. Take a shower AFTER work. Wear deodorant and clean clothes and the cologne she bought you one Christmas (that was a hint).
Beloved is thrilled to be married to someone respected in public, with a name that is delightful to the ears. Solomon was exceptional and he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). He "loved" and was "loved" by many maidens. But she is The One singled out for permanence in the record of God's communication to us.
God made sure in His story we read about love in a marriage. One that is passionate, erotic, stormy, complicated, messy, strained but never broken. Marriage is such a powerful contract. God initiates the mystery of marriage in Genesis 2 in the garden of Eden when he shows us how we come out of each other and together become "one flesh" (2:24). God returns to this metaphor in the New Testament when Paul compares the Church to a bride of Christ (Ephesians) and our entrance into heaven a wedding reception (Revelation) and Jesus himself compares himself to a groom who comes in the middle of the night (Luke). In a similar vein, Beloved can't wait till Lover can take her away to his bedroom chamber. We get snippets into her history throughout this epic poem suggesting that her life wasn't an easy one. Then we come to appreciate her solace in time with him. When strife enters the bedroom, and it does in a later chapter, that precious solace escapes until the hard work is put into restoration. When the metaphor of Christ's return for us is applied though, I agree with Beloved so much. Life here can be good at times and awful at times and I can't wait to go be with my Savior, where there will always be peace and every tear will be wiped away. (Come quickly Lord Jesus. Let your kingdom come and your will be done).
The choir makes an awkward statement. If these are from Solomon's harem then you get grossed out. Are they competing with Beloved? Are they trying to drown out her voice? Will Solomon pay attention to Beloved? But like an advanced Judo fighter, she turns their attacks into a force on her behalf. She continues to adore her husband and is not swayed by the confusers. She keeps her jealousy in check as well as the competitors.
[FWIW: I enjoyed this brief summary of the book by David Malick at bible.org]
*Ah wine, it brings a flush to the face, warms the body, liberates the inhibited, and brings a smile to the drinker. Wine occurs as a metaphor seven times in this eight chapter book, twice in these first four verses. This is a wine drinking culture. As an aside, these metaphors don't make much sense if they are only drinking grape juice. Alcohol abuse was an issue in Bible times, see Solomon's Proverbs, but it's only a thing that gets twisted in our broken world. Just as it is the love of money that's the root of all evil and not money alone, so the abuse of alcohol is the root of all sorts of misery but not alcohol alone.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Top 10 posts 2nd wk Jan '08
1-That announcement that the Lakota nation is withdrawing from its treaties with the U.S. would be worth taking seriously if the 8 tribes that make up the nation decided it and not 3 people out for publicity.
2-The Old Testament is a story of a balance between ideals and reality, but that doesn't mean the ideals aren't there. I would add to Paul Copan's examples that Solomon writes a great love story even though he had 300 wives and 500 concubines.
3-Miracles amidst the atrocities in Kenya. More info.
4-A former embryo writes a book on behalf of other embryos.
5-An inspiring, familiar video of the autistic basketball star at Stories of Cultural Vertigo. Even though you've seen it before, it's still good.
6-Socket wrench vs. paintbrush.
7-Nutrition for 2008 at Sans Auto, more plants less meat less cars.
8-JM Reynolds explains the division that Huckabee brings to the Republicans. He's not channeling Reagan, he's channeling Roosevelt.
More posts can be found here on native American, theology, missionary, abortion, autism, food.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
New series for January: erotic poetry in the Bible
Friday, January 11, 2008
Forgiveness and reconciliation at New Life Church, Colorado
Forgiveness is one of the foundations of Christianity. It's so awesome to see it being practiced in such difficult situations. I had several posts on this tragedy last month. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.The pastor said he invited the Murrays to visit the New Life campus after praying over the holidays. The family immediately accepted his invitation and was given a guided "step-by-step" tour of where the rampage took place and shown where their son died.
"It was extremely emotional. They wanted to hear the details. I kept telling them I would stop with details, but they wanted to hear them," he told CNN in a phone interview this week.
At one point, the parents also met with security guard Jeanne Assam, who shot their son in the leg before he turned his gun on himself. The parents thanked Assam for her swift action and for helping save more lives, said Casey Nikoloric, a Murray family spokeswoman and long-time friend.
"They told Assam that they were so deeply sorry she had to do what she did," said Nikoloric. "There were tears, lots of embraces, prayers."
The visit, she said, was "very, very, very important" in the healing process for the Murrays as they deal with the loss of their son and the terror he inflicted.
last quote from The Last Days of the Incas
The behavior of Pizarro and his entourage had thus far followed standard conquest procedure. First, evidence of a native empire had to be discovered. First, evidence of a native empire had to be discovered, one civilized enough to include a mass of native peasants who were used to paying taxes to an elite. It was of no use to find "wild" Indians who didn't farm or had no experience with civilization. The Spaniards, after all, had come to create a feudal society over which to rule, and a feudal society, by definition, required a tax-paying peasantry. (92-93)
There is no question that Inca morals were not quite contemporary. However, the Christian conquerors never seem to have worn those WWJD bracelets. What would Jesus do if he arrived in a new country? No wonder the priests Pizarro brought had a tough time evangelizing. What was the good news of a culture that turned a blind eye to raping and pillaging and plundering?
See my other posts on atrocities, human rights, genocide, history and book reports.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
uprising because of depredations
The context for this quote is the plea of the Incan people to throw off the yoke of the Spaniards, Manco was their king.
"We cannot spend out entire lives in such great misery and subjection [while being] treated even worse than the Spaniards' black slaves," they told Manco. "Let us rebel once and for all and die for our liberty, and for our children and wives, who every day they take from us and abuse." (178)
The amazing thing about this quote is its timelessness. Hence the non-specific title for this post. This could be said by native americans or irish or palestinians.
See my other posts on atrocities, human rights, genocide, history and book reports.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Hesco wall house
cinema review: Super Size Me
Monday, January 07, 2008
Book report: The Last Days of the Incas by MacQuarrie
…when Friar Garcia learned that the emporer had more than one wife, "the servant of God castigated him [Titu Cusi] with apostolic zeal." Apparently, the zeal of the apostles not only went unappreciated by the emperor, but greatly annoyed him as well.
Friar Diego Ortiz, by contrast, was much more relaxed in his missionary style and, as a consequence, Titu Cusi is said to have taken an immediate liking to him. Unlike his compatriot, Ortiz was affable and flexible and generally more congenial. Within a short while, two tiny Christian churches began to operate in the Incas' hidden kingdom… (360)
Later on the two priests set ablaze an Inca shrine, which got the zealous friar kicked out of the Inca capitol, but the more congenial, Ortiz, was allowed to stay. However, Ortiz died a martyr's death shortly thereafter in retribution for the offense. There must be a lesson in there somewhere but I'm not sure what it is...any suggestions?
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Top 10 posts first week of 2008
- Loving your neighbor by giving them coffee, two perspectives on an inner-city outreach. Nate's and Jason's.
- John Mark Reynolds, a Romney advocate, gives Huckabee the props, sort of, for Iowa and last night's debate in New Hampshire.
- Christmas attacks on churches in India pre-planned and coordinated.
- Russian couple flees to UK to escape pressure to selectively abort. All five babies successfully delivered.
- A car with a tank of compressed air instead of gas.
- The Crunchy Con likes Huck's remaking of the Republican party. He also notes Obama's autobiography and its notes on life in Kenya, prescient of the tragedy happening there now, a missionary's perspective.
More posts can be found here on missional, politics, cars, african-americans, India, persecution, human rights, abortion, and conservation.
Resolution report: Read your Bible
- I recommend everyone read through the Bible. I'm following through the M'Cheyne plan again. The neat thing with his plan is private readings and family readings. For the family readings, we are listening to the Bible Experience together. It is so well-read, my kids give me grief for stopping it at the end of the chapters, 2 a day as a family, 2 in private.
- I recommend reading through (or listening to) the entire Bible as fast as you can at least once so that you can see the how the NT and OT play a harmony, Hebrews and Leviticus, Revelation and Ezekiel, Matthew and Isaiah.
- Include your family in your reading travels too.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Earth Sheltered Home research
Friday, January 04, 2008
Weight loss and the New Year
I didn't give up fish or dairy products (or insects). So that makes me an icthy-ovo-lacto-ento-vegetarian. In the beginning, I ate rice and beans at dinner almost every night and a whole grain cereal for breakfast such as Ezekiel 4:9 brand with almond or rice milk. I learned how to use my pressure cooker and tried all sorts of spices to provide variety. I also practiced eating when I was hungry, but only small portions at a time. I lost weight. I kept the fast for the most part after Lent, except for the roasted lamb on Easter. Yummy.
I didn't stay completely land meat free, though. For example, Easter lamb was great. I tried a free-range-steer hot dog over the summer. That was disappointing. When visiting, I never declined a meat dish offered to me out of consideration towards my hosts. The only other intentional partaking was at Thanksgiving, when I ate with my family at a community meal. Turkey with gravy is nice.
As I look back over that past 11 months I think I've only missed variety, but only a little. I can still enjoy Mexican night with my family. My grocery bill has remained steady despite the rise in meat prices. My kids have to eat the same meat leftovers for much longer now. The only thing I really miss is a big pulled-pork sandwich. It's a treat I could rarely find here in New England anyway, so I'm not that deprived. I'm a picky eater of a sorts now. When I wasn't picky, I could, and I would, eat everything at the Christmas parties. But now I have increased my vegetable intake a great deal. I have fallen off the small portion wagon though, especially in December, when every plate of cookies I see makes me hungry. I still have a sweet tooth, but my weight gain is not as bad as I feared.
I will be back on my recumbent soon and I actually bought a pair of Nike Frees (3.0) for winter running.
In conclusion, I highly recommend the mantra of all successful diets, EAT LESS EXERCISE MORE. Additionally, I recommend the lower global impact diet (minimal land animal protein) with smaller portions and the lower global impact cycling life (recumbent especially). It's cheaper, it's healthier, and it gives you something to blog about.


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Israel appears on the verge of accepting a "cease fire" while its jihadi enemies are already saying they will keep firing. But who in the real world believes this will bring a "lasting peace"? You can't cease firing while the war rages on.
Case in point: Mark Steyn provides another chilling but brilliant warning of the threat posed by Pan-Islamism to traditional governments.
And this week we saw jihadis seeking to make America and the world forget 9/11 by foisting even greater horrors upon us.
Where is this all going? It depends on who you ask. It depends on what you believe. The ideological divide is great.
An entire American political party has officially made retreating from the war against Islamists its central article of faith.
Still another American political party realizes what is at stake, but it seeks to summon the courage and resolve necessary for the fight.
But Americans who have seen the enemy face-to-face, once again, are finding the courage necessary and are defeating the enemy in every engagement. They will not fail.
But will we fail them? For the central fronts in this war are the mind ... and the heart.
Once again, as Thomas Paine observed nearly 230 years ago when the republic was in great peril, "These are the times that try men's souls."
In looking over Paine's essay, I was struck by the application of certain passages to today's circumstances:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.Then, as now, challenging times revealed the character of those involved. But freedom then, as now, was worth it. Still, one wonders if we have become so complacent, so lavished with the the comfort and trappings of our modern world as to "esteem too lightly" the blessings given to us. If we do indeed esteem them too lightly, they will be taken from us.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet.The conduct of wars has always been second-guessed, and it was no different in the Revolutionary War. In fact, every war has been filled with mistakes -- by the victors. The point is to dwell on the objective -- defeating the enemy. Paine knew this instinctively because he loved his country. Do today's perpetual critics of America's every move in defending itself love America? If so, then their actions are explained only by either gross incompetence or almost wifull ignorance.
Voltaire has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.Then, as now, ultimately our success will depend upon the character of those standing against the enemy. One man, George Washington, made a pivotal difference then. The same can happen now.
Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! What is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.Those who deny the character of the struggle ensure the increased presence of warfare by the comfort given to America's enemies. Paine recognized, as we must, the necessity of changing these "sentiments" in order to prevail.
But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him.
Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.We who love life and liberty must be able to smile in trouble in order to do what is necessary to preserve our freedom. Can we gather strength from distress? Are there enough free citizens to pursue their principles unto death? If we dig deep to rediscover the source of our character and principles, as our founders did, the answer will be "yes".
There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.The leftist mind today assumes that all are as weak-willed as they are; this projection of self-doubt is potentially fatal. History shows that those seeking to avoid conflict not only fail to do so, but they also draw others into conflict by their inaction and weakness.
By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope ...The choice is simple -- We submit or we fight back. The consequences of either course are evident, if not for us, then for our children.
It's better to struggle to remain free, regardless of the outcome.
But as for me, I agree with Paine: "I thank God, that I fear not."

subset: commoncrawl


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Climate Change
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This website is an accumulation of research, information and material gathered by people working at the grass roots level for over 40 years. Use this information to effectively BUST GLOBALISM in your neighborhood.
Michael Shaw on Agenda 21 at Freedom Force International
Learn How to Become a Citizen Ninja in Your Neighborhood
Citizen Ninja, Mary Baker explains to the late Dr. Stan Monteith how to recognize Sustainable Development, Agenda 21, Globalism in your neighborhood. Listen here:


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No Oil Mattar Paneer (Low fat) by Radhika Vasanth // April 12, 2013 // 20 Comments Fresh green peas and soft home made paneer (Indian cottage cheese) adorn this rich and succulent Onion Tomato sauce made without Oil. This could become your goto Mattar Paneer Recipe Continue reading →
Muli Paneer Paratha Recipe | Indian Flat bread by Radhika Vasanth // June 16, 2011 // 39 Comments Make this protein rich Muli Paneer Paratha with the goodness of radish, paneer and Indian spices. It makes a balanced meal for your family. Serve it with Raitha/Pickle or Dhal. Continue reading →
How to make [Organic and Fat Free] Paneer at home? by Radhika Vasanth // August 14, 2010 // 61 Comments With these step wise pictures, you can now make fat free paneer at home. Continue reading →
Assorted Bhajji (Potato-Paneer Sandwich bhajji, Potato bhajji, Paneer bhajji & Onion Pakoda) by Radhika Vasanth // August 12, 2009 // No Comments Assorted Bhajji (Potato-Paneer Sandwich bhajji, Potato bhajji, Paneer bhajji & Onion Pakoda) Besan / Chana dhal Powder / Kadala mavu – 3/4 cup Rice flour / Arisi mavu – 2 tsp Chili Powder – 1 tsp Hing / Asafoetida –... Continue reading →
Chili Paneer by Radhika Vasanth // August 8, 2009 // 1 Comment My friend wanted me to post something vegetarian. So I kind of tweaked the chicken fry recipe and prepared Chili Paneer with almost same ingredients except those non-veg components. I had few guests last night, they said it was just... Continue reading →
Paneer Masala by Radhika Vasanth // October 21, 2008 // No Comments This is a very simple dish and do not require any grinding like conventional panneer masalas/kurmas. We had this for our dinner meal and my hubby enjoyed it thoroughly :-)) Serves 2 Ingredients 170 gm or 6 oz Panneer 1... Continue reading →


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Now I know that every diva has those days where she either wakes up late or just can't part with that much need beauty rest. I started thinking I always for get maybe one, two or bunch of things when I'm in a rush. So I put together my on diva on the go kit.
DIVA ON THE GO KIT! For that diva in a hurry.
Item 1. Mascara - mascara is must in this kit. If I could only have one thing out of my kit it would be this. Mascara helps open your eyes up or to widen the eye.
Item 2. Lip gloss or lip balm - We all know that sometimes after we brush our teeth and don't have time to put on the lip gloss our lips will look especially dry. So I make sure that I keep a couple just for days like that.
Item 3. Spare earrings - I always keep at least a pair of studs or a pair of hoops in my bag. I totally hate not having earrings on. Even if its just jeans and a t-shirt earrings help complete the look.
Item 4. Travel size deodorant - I'm not the only one who has done this left out the house without putting any on. So anytime I see the travel size I pick up one or two. Diva must be fresh.
So here are four items for your kit. If you have items you must have let me know. I love hearing you!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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Friday 24 March 2017
Cycling is booming in the UK. Why not join the 15m who take part? Check out this site for articles, videos and ways to get involved, and follow the progress of Sir Bradley Wiggins's new road racing team as they prepare for the Olympics in Rio


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I am actress, still trying to make my foothold strong in Bollywood. I had made a debut in Bollywood in 2004 but that went unnoticed and I moved on to south industry.
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Dates to Remember.....General Annual Meeting
The Friends will hold their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. This is your chance to have a voice in our future and meet the board members. More info.... Winter Program 2017
It's hard to believe that winter is already here. Once again, the Friends of the Sanctuary bring you the winter program each weekend from January until the end of March. Click here for additional info… Volunteer
Opportunities If you are looking for a rewarding volunteer opportunity then look no farther than joining 'the Friends'. info@ friendsofthesanctuary.org |
Clicking on the 'donate now' button will take you to the CanadaHelps website for donation processing. CanadaHelps is a registered charity that processes secure, online donations on behalf of over 80,000 registered charitable organizations. For more info on CanadaHelps please visit their website at: www.canadahelps.org/InfoPages/FAQHome.aspx
Quick Links
What's happening at the Sanctuary?
Phase II of the Redwing Trail boardwalk system is under construction and will be installed in the near future. Stay tuned for more information
Girl Guide and Brownie troupe come out for a visit. See more.
A class from Rothwell Osnabruck school in Ingleside come out to the Sanctuary for the day. See more...
Bob-o-Link and Meadowlark rehabilitation in partnership with South Nation Conservation. Read more...
We are located off County Road #2, 11 km east of Morrisburg between Upper
Canada Village & Ingleside
take Hwy 401, exit 770 South at Ingleside to County Road #2, travel West for 2 km and follow the signs.
Visitors Interpretive Centre GPS coordinates
44 58.087 – 075 01.446
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