Monday, June 30, 2008

June End of Month Roundup

In the past, I used this as a collection point for things I had not gotten to in the month, but that isn't the right thing to do. In the future, I will use it to rehash some recent (maybe more than a month) discussions, and maybe to add something to them.


Without a doubt, the biggest news this month has been the Supreme Court ruling on the 2nd Amendment. There has also been stories of persecution of Christians in Canada, under the guise of Human Rights Tribunals. A little more on the subject.


Fuel prices continue to be high, and speculation is part of the cause. But the biggest cause is China's steadily increasing usage. When you want to blame someone for the high price of gas, some of the blame has to go to our willingness to trade with a nation that has no qualms about persecuting Christians and poisoning us. I would expect the price to stay near $4 a gallon for the rest of the year, then rise to over $5 a gallon next spring. This is just some preliminary forecasting.

I recently added some information on my policies for copying articles from this blog, and have begun a section on permanent links to that and other articles of enduring interest. The Ephesus Project is still on hold, but should be getting under way again soon.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Anemic ruling may be sufficient

Less than a week after the release of the ruling by the Supreme Court on the handgun ban in Washington DC, thousands of articles and blogs have already presented analysis of it. Many will have good analysis and some will be tripe. I have read virtually none of it, but I have put in some time looking at the ruling itself, and therefor will add my two cents to the growing mountain of analysis. I only pray that I may be clear and accurate.

The US Supreme Court ruling on the 2nd Amendment is overly narrow and shallow. After 99 days of deliberation (and apparently, some infighting) they came to a 5 to 4 decision, with the minority providing not just one, but two, dissenting opinions. Despite Justice Scalia writing 63 pages of well defined logic, the resulting majority opinion is downright anemic.

But it may be sufficient.

The actual ruling only applies to Washington DC. And only to the encroachment of a total ban on any working firearm. And only to those kept in the home. And it leaves an opening to force registration and licensing of ALL firearms.
(I must admit, at this point, that some of these limitations on their ruling are inherent in the underlying case brought before them - especially that the plaintiff sought ONLY permission to own a handgun in his own home for self defense, and was content to allow the District of Columbia to regulate and license that right as if it were a permission.)

But it decouples the first and second clauses of the 2nd Amendment. And that may be the key. It also clarifies that the word "people" means people, and does not have some cryptic satanic reverse meaning that can only be seen by liberals.

Already, several suits have been filed, attempting to force other cities to
grant those rights which are granted by God, and guaranteed by our Constitution. Many of these will be successful. Especially in the Fifth Circuit, where I live. Some of them will fail. Quite possibly, the Ninth Circuit might find some cryptic satanic message in the writings of the Supreme Court that allow it to ignore the plain meaning of Justice Scalia's writings.

But the decoupling of the first and second phrases in the Amendment and defining the word "people" to mean citizens, will dispel a lot of the liberal tripe that surrounds this subject.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/dc-v-heller-round-up/

Supreme Court Decision, pdf format

May it please be sufficient.

And if anyone wishes further analysis from me, I will try to oblige.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Supreme Court, Busy Day

Well, it is looking like a busy day in the blogging and talk radio worlds. The Supreme Court is supposed to return several decisions today, possibly the most important of which is the case of DC v Heller, that they deliberated on for apparently 99 days (since March 18th). Could they really be this slow? Most of their cases are resolved in 2 to 4 weeks, and this could only mean they are somewhat scared to make a ruling.

My previous entry on this subject and the article on the Supreme Court's simi-official news outlet provide details of what could be so difficult in this case.

Frankly, I could have saved them 3 months work by sending each of them copies of Webster's Dictionary and Black's Law Dictionary. Nonetheless, they will of course, try to hedge and limit the scope of their judgement. They always do. Maybe it's job security, but they always try to reach as narrow a judgement as possible.

The Supreme Court, and the Appellate Courts (about nine of them, known as the Circuit Courts) act like the keel of a boat - forcing the boat to keep as straight a line as possible, and keeping the Law of the Land as constant as possible. Without these courts, the country's laws could be very different every 4 years.

The Supreme Court news site is expecting a lot of traffic today, so I might wait an extra day to look into this. Then of course, it will take a few days for me to analyse it, so I will probably comment again on this in a week or so.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Persecution comes to Canada

Some who know me know that I support the Persecuted Church through some (admittedly, very small) donations to the Voice of the Martyrs.


One of the items they mailed me a while back, is a map showing in which countries and regions persecution takes place on a major or nationally sanctioned level. With only a couple exceptions, persecution of Christians in all parts of the world can be credited to Muslims or Communists.


Muslims try to cozy up to Christians in the US, by telling the public that we are not that much different, and that they are no threat to us, but anyone who looks at Muslims around the world knows better.

In addition, even while trying to cozy up to us, they try to undermine Christianity by trying to undermine the Bible as Truth.

But it seems persecution is happening closer and closer to home. In the US, the attacks are more subtle, such as Hollywood portraying us as weird, and the
occasional school administrator using Political Correctness to attack Christianity

However, in Canada (and several countries in Europe) the PC attack has gained an unprecedented foothold in the legal system. Much like the ACLU has been hostile to Christianity in the US, and gets paid - to be - hostile, there are so called government watchdogs in Canada who are being paid to persecute the Church under the guise of Political Correctness.

These are tribunals, kangaroo courts really, supposedly set up to help people get along in polite society. But in reality, they are being used to persecute Christians for practicing their religion. Yes, I know the article references a government sponsored attack on a Roman Catholic Priest, and that I always have very little good to say about that religion, but an attack on them by Muslims or Gays, (more here) sponsored by the Canadian government, is still an attack on all Christianity.

The pen is reputed to be mightier than the sword -- and probably is, over the longer stretches of history. Over the shorter stretches, the sword is definitive; or, as that great Leftist sage, Mao Tse-Tung, expressed it: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

So, if you think it can't happen here, just remember, it is already happening in Canada.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Red Cross

Well, the Red Cross disaster relief fund is all tapped out. Had to happen sooner or later. There has been, and will continue to be an upwards trend in disasters. And in some of those disasters, the "victims" have been freeloaders for years and will be freeloaders in the future.

Does that mean we shouldn't help? Of course not. But while I won't tell you not to give to the Red Cross (this is in contrast to my opinion on the United Way and the CFC where I said people should not give), I will say there are others who you might want to give to first.

The Red Cross will not get my money, but that is because I will give it to the Salvation Army first. There are three reasons. First, the Salvation Army is a Christian organization, second the Salvation Army tends to help people faster, and for a shorter period of time, third is the involvement of the Red Cross in Lebanon with Hezbollah (it was only a singe chapter, but that indicates they have loose moral restraint on where their loyalty lies).

I still tell people that charitable giving is not an option for a Christian (unless you are completely broke) but to be careful who you give to, lest your own generosity undermines the work Christians are here for.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

China

While all the world oooh's and aah's over China's civilised facade for the Olympics. Let us not forget what a barbaric totalitarian regime they really are.

This is the 19th anniversary of the massacre at Tienanmen Square. There is now a concerted effort to rewrite history to remove the massacre from encyclopedic references. Some of the references I made to the massacre in an article three years ago have disappeared, and others have been rewritten.

However, the wikipedia article is still mostly there, although enough "related stuff" has been added to it that much of it is difficult to read.

There has been an ongoing campaign by Chinese sympathizers to rewrite the wikipedia article, as this quote shows:
"At present, the Western world still uses this event, which occurred almost two decades ago to break down the Chinese unity. This is a propaganda still used by the West. It is clearly obvious that China is the world's next superpower and has changed a great deal since 1989. However the West still insists that nothing has changed, even though an immense change has taken place."

If anyone thinks that China is becoming nice, think about this (especially the first half of this quote:
9 House Church Christians in Henan Detained for Helping Quake Victims; Two Bible Teachers in Shandong Sentenced to Criminal Detention
Then go to China Aid Association and read the rest of the article.
Here is another quote from the article:
"6 remain in detention under a charge of sending money to a disaster area in the name of a house church"
Note that this article is dated June 3rd. Yesterday, not ancient history.

Not that I am a real big fan of Hal Linsey (I do like him), but from time to time he puts things in a real good perspective.

For those too young to remember the massacre:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58605
China's Olympic blacklist
Targets 43 'types' of religious infiltrators, media employees, 'cult' members
November 10, 2007
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com


http://ads.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43789
Beijing's 'new' patriotism fuels anti-Americanism
Dissident Harry Wu: Communist leadership as tyrannical as ever
---Posted: April 14, 2005