Two Kinds of Christians

Baiting the Right 79 Comments

I was raised as a Roman Catholic. Up until my late teens I was a very strict follower of the faith, went to church every Sunday, etc. But then I gradually fell away from the Church. There were several reasons for this but here’s a recent story that reminded me of one of the most significant ones.
There have long been two distinct trains of thought within the Christian faith. One involves always turning the other cheek and providing constant handouts to whomever asks, no questions asked. The other involves holding transgressors accountable for their misdeeds and acts of charity more in line with “a hand up”. Ayn Rand’s philosophy is definitely connected with the latter. While I don’t agree with everything she has written, there’s absolutely no doubt that Atlas Shrugged had a profound effect on me when I read it in late 1993.
The earlier referenced news story refers to a group called American Values Network (AVN). Within the article, AVN is exposed for the frauds they actually are:

While the AVN is officially a non-partisan organization that wants to see Christians at the helm of both political parties, they’ve been vocal supporters for a number of Democratic initiatives, such as health reform and the anti-nuclear START treaty. They also focus on non-political initiatives such as medical aid for impoverished populations and housing aid for veterans, and advocate for morality-based policy solutions to climate change.

Reading between the lines, they’re mostly just a Leftist front group. The problem with that is that Leftism is, in practice, a religion (read “cult”) all on its own. Its precepts always supercede those of any formal religion. Leftists (aka “cult members”) can talk all they want about being Christian but in point of fact, that’s almost always just a talking point.
Getting back to the difference between a hand out and a hand up, Dennis Miller explains it another way: The Clueless versus the Helpless

Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?

Equine The One 41 Comments

CNS News;

In his weekly address released Saturday, President Barack Obama called for a campaign of “nation building here at home,” citing as an example of what is needed to rebuild the American economy an initiative he announed Friday to “invest” tax dollars in what he called a “partnership” between the federal government and an initial group of 11 major corporations.
The administration’s corporate partners in this venture include Caterpiller, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ford, Honeywell, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Allegheny Technologies, Stryker and Proctor and Gamble.
Obama is not seeking new legislation from Congress to authorize his government-corporate partnership program–which he is calling the “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership”–and he did not say how the corporations in the partnership had been chosen.

What We Really Need Is Democracy

Religion Of Submission 25 Comments

With a totalitarian head-chopping party to vote for;

Hundreds of Muslim extremists surrounded a church in central Egypt and threatened to kill the local priest, the Assyrian International News Agency reported. The extremists began targeting the church in a village 7 kilometres south of the city of Minya in March after renovation work began, threatening to demolish the church.
Hundreds of Muslim extremists surrounded a church in central Egypt and threatened to kill the local priest, the Assyrian International News Agency reported. The extremists began targeting the church in a village 7 kilometres south of the city of Minya in March after renovation work began, threatening to demolish the church.

Arab spring!

2011 Fraser Institute Global Petroleum Survey

Gopher News 12 Comments

We don’t need no stinking giant fans;

Saskatchewan has overtaken Manitoba as the No. 1 place in Canada for oil and gas investment, based on the opinions of petroleum executives and managers in the annual Global Petroleum Survey, released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.
But Saskatchewan fell just short of finishing among the top 10 jurisdictions globally, ranking 11th overall in the survey of 136 jurisdictions. Last year, it placed second in Canada and 17th in the world, out of 133 jurisdictions.

The 2011 Fraser Institute Global Petroleum Survey

We Are Winning?

Uncategorized 20 Comments

Such an approach to emissions control by Ottawa would be more interventionist than the government’s previous positions on climate change regulation, which have been widely criticized as lax. But the government is now facing intense criticism from Europe and the United States over its growing emissions from the booming oil sands, and is eager to show that it is acting.

Big Gov.

Uncivil Behaviour Hits Home

entitlement generation 56 Comments

I’ve mostly avoided posting any links to my own blog but, in the wake of the Vancouver Riots, when you’d like to think that most everyone in the city would be trying a little harder to be a good citizen, this event occurred right outside my home Sunday evening. Priceless!

If you’ve ever wondered who has the arrogance and disregard to do this and this and this you might want to consider the “upstanding fine citizens” next door.  Do you think such Bonnie & Clydes ever talk about such transgressions at their cocktail parties or Greenpeace rallies or Prius car club meets?  I doubt it.
I’m not remotely suggesting that what went on here is on the same level as the criminal acts during the Vancouver Riots but a similar psychopathy appears to be at work, namely: “If we can get away with an illegal, immoral action and not get caught, then it’s all fine.”  Incidentally, this mindset is a close cousin to the excuse many criminals use to justify stealing from others: “What’s the big deal?  They have insurance.”

Canada Post: What Next?

entitlement generation 35 Comments

With apologies for this editorial reference being a few weeks old but I only read it in Maclean’s today.
What struck the greatest chords with me were what was written at the beginning:

Rain or snow or sleet or hail can’t disrupt the mail. But what rhymes with seven weeks of annual paid vacation, out-of-whack pay scales or infinitely bankable sick days?
While the rotating strike by workers at Canada Post has proven to be a hardship for many Canadian businesses, it is also shining necessary light on the massive disparity between postal employees and workers in the private sector. Outside of bureaucrats in France, it is hard to imagine a more coddled, out-of-touch and overcompensated group than postal workers.

And also written at the end:

Of course the current postal dispute has significance far beyond the future of letter mail or the ambitions of Canada Post and its union. The gap between private and public sector compensation has now reached crisis proportions, and must be addressed for the sake of equity, affordability and coherent labour peace.
One example of how large and untenable this gap has become can be found in Statistics Canada’s recent observation that public sector employees now constitute a majority of all pension plan participants, despite being outnumbered more than three to one in the workforce. This suggests two types of retirement in the future: one of carefree luxury for public sector employees, and one of reduced expectations for everyone else. A similar dichotomy is at work with Ontario’s practice of paying a bonus to every corrections staffer who takes fewer than 23 sick days per year.
A postal strike seems as good a time as any to start imposing a new sense of reality on the public sector.

So SDA readers & commenters, if you were Stephen Harper, what would you do with Canada Post and how quickly would you do it?

Continue reading →

Get Our Pilots Out Of There

The One 53 Comments

Charles Krauthammer;

Is the Libya war legal? Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, it is not. President Obama has exceeded the 90-day period to receive retroactive authorization from Congress.
But things are not so simple. No president should accept — and no president from Nixon on has accepted — the constitutionality of the WPR, passed unilaterally by Congress over a presidential veto. On the other hand, every president should have the constitutional decency to get some congressional approval when he takes the country to war.
The model for such constitutional restraint is — yes, Sen. Obama — George W. Bush. Not once but twice (Afghanistan and then Iraq) did Bush seek and receive congressional authorization, as his father did for the Persian Gulf War. On Libya, Obama did nothing of the sort. He claimed exemption from the WPR on the grounds that America in Libya is not really engaged in “hostilities.”

A Bullet to the Heart?

Uncategorized 55 Comments

If Sarah Palin doesn’t run for president, the operatives in the media and Beltway establishment will have learned a fool-proof method of destroying any political opponent. The leftist media will have confirmed they can destroy any political opponent they choose with a vitriolic, obsessed campaign to destroy not only their career as a politician, but also as a person (“Palin is an idiot”, “I can see Russia from my House”, Trig is Bristol’s, Trig’s position as the only retarded baby in history who it is legally permissable to publicly insult, etc.)
If Palin doesn’t run it will also be a disaster for the Republican Party and quite possibly the country.

Pity the Poor Boys of Today

Uncategorized 61 Comments

It wasn’t until I was about 26 or 27 that I had an a very important epiphany while teaching economics in college. What triggered the epiphany was a group of loud, obnoxious, misbehaving 20 something female students. They were rude, arrogant, but above all else, immature. They would talk while I was lecturing. They would whine about the difficulty of math involved. They would plagiarize and then whine when I caught them. No sane man would ever date these shrills.
Then it dawned on me, “Wait! When I was their age, I was slobbering all over them! Did I just NOT NOTICE???”
Of course when you’re in the thick of it, boys or young men have no clue just what a lion’s den they’ve entered. They have no context, they have no hindsight, and worst still, they are misinformed forcing them to operate from incorrect premises. I was taught by my mother that women wanted nice boys to do nice things for them. I was also taught that girls matured faster than boys, let alone, I could not personally believe young women could have such attitudes, be so petty and be so childish. Cementing all this was a simple, nearly impervious logic;
“What is statistically more likely? I’m having trouble with women because there’s something wrong with me? Or I’m having trouble with women because there’s something wrong with all 150 million of them?”
Ergo, there HAD to be something wrong with me, and any kind of notion or theory about “a society-wide entitlement princess problem” was surely laughable.
Of course, as time goes on, you look back and empirical evidence builds, you finally permit yourself the arrogance to say
“No, there’s nothing wrong with you, there is actually something wrong with society.”
not because you are arrogant, but because that’s the sad, depressing reality of the situation.
Now, the price young men and boys must pay to inevitably come to this epiphany is uncalculable. The financial costs of going to night clubs to meet girls, the opportunity costs of time wasted pursuing these 20 something entitlement princesses, not to mention the sheer mental costs boys and men suffer as their brains cannot reconcile this childish behavior with logic or just common decency cannot be tallied. Heck, some guys NEVER figure this out. Thankfully, the “manosphere” and various web sites are slowly coming around to the rescue to provide some kind of guidance or wisdom to young boys and men today so they do not have to suffer the inanity we did and can live better lives. But there is a problem.
It’s getting worse.
And I can only imagine the hell the poor boys of this upcoming generation are going to suffer when their natural male hormones kick in and they’re told;
“There’s something wrong with you, not society.”
“Girls mature faster than boys.”
“Oh, girls your age love flowers and poetry and being treated nice.”
“You’re just not going to the right places to meet girls.”
“Open doors for girls.”
“Girls like sensitive caring men.”
hat tip

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