Free Speech For Churchill but Not For Summers

What I cannot stand about liberals is their absolutely unmitigated penchant toward hypocrisy and double standards. Yet another case in point is the difference in public protest comparing the speech issues of University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill and Harvard President Lawrence Summers.

In brief Churchill is known for his irrational viewpoints some of which came to light when he wrote an essay declaring that the people who died in the world trade center attacks were not innocent victims but were “little Eichmans” who got what they deserved; not by terrorists but by “combat teams” responding in kind.
Churchill’s essay is not merely offensive but is historically false. This is why this professor should be fired. Not for making offensive remarks, but for making remarks which are neither factual nor historical.
As expected, liberals are coming out of the walls waving the banner of free speech.
Contrast Churchill’s plight to Harvard President, Lawrence Summers who is also under fire for remarks he made in a speech. He had the temerity to identify the factual trend of under-represented groups noting that there aren’t many Jewish people in farming; there aren’t many Catholics in banking, and there aren’t many white men in the NBA. But then he posed a question—a simple, gee what do you think question—asking if possibly innate gender differences could explain why fewer women gain high-level careers in math and science. He’d have been better off detonating a dirty bomb in Manhattan.
A Harvard student, representing some raging feminist group sitting on Hannity and Colmes would not answer the simplest question, but just raged about the comments made by Summers. When Sean Hannity mentioned Ward Churchill in the same breath as President Summers he asked, “Isn’t this a free speech issue?” Her answer had nothing to do with the question so he asked it again and she finally yelled, “This isn’t about free speech; it’s about RESPONSIBLE speech.”
There ya go! Liberals can change any argument, vocabulary, and rational discourse to totally obliterate any semblance of reason. The only thing that matters is their opinion which usually rots.

Tell me again why it is that Christians are branded the unreasonable ones; the rabid ones; the hateful ones? Do not expect reason any longer in the market place of ideas. You will just set yourself up for disappointment.

Private Recordings Only Reveal President's Integrity

I am wondering how many of you Christians listening, much less, the rest of our politicians, pundits and popularizers of culture would have passed the test President Bush aced with superior marks?

I’m talking about the recordings of private conversations taped by one time Bush friend and confident Doug Wead who felt compelled to betray his friend for what seems to be a cheap stunt to spike his soon-to-be released book.

Wead, a Christian, said, personal loyalty was trumped by the need for historical accuracy so some such thing. Wead has since repented of his betrayal and has directed the proceeds of his book to be given to charity. Good for him, but it still gives Christians another black eye.

What I am truly astounded by though is the integrity displayed yet again by this president. How many of us would stand the test of being recorded in our private most trusted times and then would want those conversations, quips and remarks publicized? I know I wouldn’t. Talk about embarrassing?

When I came back from Washington last Spring having met with the President in what was a semi-private meeting off limits to the press, I said in a previous commentary that I was so impressed by the “what you see is what you get” manner of this leader. He is steady, consistent, and forthright whether the camera is rolling or not. All Wead’s tapes have done is buttress this man’s integrity.

Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “…the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. "The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. "And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the Day of Judgment. "For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." Matthew 12:34-37

Honestly, while I don’t know exactly what that time will look like, I rather think it will be profoundly embarrassing to most of us if not downright shameful, but not for the leader of our country. Mr. President, you are a rare breed in general and in Washington, your kind is unheard of. Well done!

Another Liberal Legislator Whose Loster Than Lost

How do you spell disingenuous? Maybe it would help to know what it means. It means insincere, not straightforward or calculating: Give up? You spell it Alvin Holmes; that’s right Alvin Holmes; Holmes, of Alabama is yet another liberal legislator who thinks he’s clever or cute or both.
During a House debate last week over a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, Holmes pulled $700 out of his pocket and said, “I’ll make it $5000 if someone can show me in this Bible where it says that marriage is between a man and a woman."
Numerous people took his challenge and one person noted 1 Corinthians 7:2 which says, “But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” This wasn’t the only information he had been given but responding to this passage in particular here is how he answered it. “OK, but what that says [is]... if two people should get married and if they are of the same sex then she becomes his wife and he's the husband."
In other words, Holmes’ reasoning says that unless you can show me a verse that says, “Marriage is between one man and one woman and no one or nothing else,” he simply refuses to see it.
This is not intellectual honesty nor looking for truth, but a disingenuous attempt to look reasonable and open-minded. But his reasoning is deeply flawed for if he were to deal with sundry other issues of life, issues I am sure he would validate, he would find his logic coming home to bite him.
If I were to take Mr. Holmes’ vehicle I am sure he would protest. He might even say your Bible teaches not to steal. But using his reasoning I could say the Bible talks about using unjust balances and thereby does condemn “steeling” in that way but it doesn’t say I cannot help myself to your car if have need.
No, Holmes has made up his mind and drawn his conclusion; I don’t believe anything presented will sway him for such is the recalcitrant spirit of sinful man. “Don’t confuse me with the facts” is their motto for life. God help me that am never so deluded.

Christian's Need to Stop Whining!

AFR radio news aired a story last Monday that really irked me. It had to do with some disgruntled members of a church (I’ll not name the church) in Texas who were supposedly kicked out for opposing the church’s vision.

What truly angers me is that the disgruntled members made this a national story; sort of an adult version of a big hissy fit. We didn’t get our way and we are mad; whaaaaaa! We’re going to blab it to anyone who will listen. Pathetically, USA Radio News thought it was news worthy. It wasn’t. And in my opinion, the news outfit participated in the sin of the parishioners who felt compelled to air their dirty laundry.

And what was the horrendous infraction committed by the church leadership? They were implementing Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven philosophy for church health and church growth. According to the news story, former member and whiner in chief, B.J. Moore said 2 Timothy 4:3-4 epitomized the church while they were there. Here’s what the verse says:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.”

Okay hold everything. There is a cataclysmic difference between teaching false doctrine which is what the Timothy passage refers to, and a pastor making his sermons more seeker friendly. I am not endorsing such a notion necessarily, but the point is that the issue here is a difference of opinion concerning the direction and philosophy of the church, not a matter of heresy which is what the complaining members are essentially charging.

I don’t know that they were literally kicked out as the story stated, but frankly, I have told a number of people over the years, “Look, this is our vision. If you’re on board, great; and if you’re not, find a church where you can support the vision. But you won’t cause a bunch of contention here over such a matter.” Case closed.

How unfortunate that Christians yet again, resort to such worldly tactics; if more Christians were as concerned about their neighbor going to hell as they were about their hurt feelings, or getting their way, we’d have a revival the like of which we’ve never seen. This is Pastor Bill Cripe Looking Up for heavenly perspective and healthy hope.

Cut Spending NOW! Just Don't Cut Mine!

Liberals in Congress continue to lose credibility; no let me rephrase that. The liberals in Congress are doing nothing to regain any credibility they may have had once. If there is anything to the law of averages, even if George Bush was ten times dummer and more despicable than the liberals portray him, he would have done one or two things right in the past four years. Even I can acknowledge that Bill Clinton had a few things going for him.

But today’s liberal are so pathetically weak and insecure that giving anything but condemnation causes their hearts to fibrillate and their eyes to roll up into their heads.

If you go back as far as you can remember, one of the constant refrains of liberals, conservatives, and moderates, is the need to cut spending. If you go back only as far as the past four years, the size of the deficit is a paramount concern to the liberals and it should be.

But not at all surprising, as soon as the President actually makes some cuts, the liberals start screaming epithets. One liberal governor likened Bush’s budget pairings to terrorism and then of course there is Nancy Pelosi. I think if she ever admitted that this President, against all odds, could even stumble onto something right, her face would crack off revealing some kind of alien lizard beneath.

The President has done what everyone in my lifetime has cried for. Cut government waste. And how do you determine that? You actually evaluate programs that suck up millions of dollars and see if they deliver. And one program called “Even Start” designed to help children be able to read was evaluated three times and flunked all the three times.

So why spend $250 million on a program that doesn’t work? It makes perfect sense unless you are a liberal whose heart beats by a pacemaker of criticism. Pelosi decried the defunding saying Bush discriminates against children and the public needs to know.

What the public needs to know is that this president is trying to do what no one else in my lifetime has dared to even try; to actually cut government waste. But predictably what people really want, is someone else’s program cut, not mine; no matter how wasteful it is.

After honest evaluation, would it kill a liberal to concede a point? Apparently so.
Apparently so…And they wonder why they lose elections.

Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance

When one abandons the standard of truth, truth will be determined by the changing standards of whoever is in control over whatever group of people. The intentions may be great, but the outcome, sooner or later, will be absurd. Great examples of such lunacy are the zero tolerance policies now in effect at many of our nation’s schools. Unless you keep your ear to the track of culture, you have no idea how insane this has become.

Let me give you a few examples.
According to Education World--
In Thornton, Colorado, a fifth-grade girl was arrested for sexual harassment after repeatedly asking a classmate if he liked her.
In Jonesboro, Arkansas, a first-grader was suspended for pointing a breaded chicken finger at a teacher and saying "Pow."
In Deer Lakes, Pennsylvania, a kindergarten student was suspended for bringing a toy ax to school. He was dressed as a firefighter for Halloween.
A Longmont (Colorado) fifth-grader found that her mother had packed a plastic knife in her lunch box. She turned the knife in to her teacher. The child was told that she'd done the right thing -- then was expelled.
And just last week a 6 year old Missouri student packed a plastic baggie full of dirt and rocks and gave it to a friend on the play ground as a present. The child was suspended for two days and told that such an act was serious and that if she had been older she would have been arrested; Why? Because the bag of dirt and rocks looked like a bag of marijuana…
Enough is enough. I’m a firm believer in “zero tolerance” rules at our nation’s schools, not for the innocent acts of childhood but for school administrators and teachers who’s IQ’s and common sense hover somewhere around that of Elmer’s glue.
I have to say it; the brilliant instigators of these zero tolerance inanities are liberal educators who are so bound to written policies that without them, they are functionally incapable of the most basic decisions of life. It is the foolishness of rebellion, a consequence of rejecting the wisdom of God. So long as God is ignored, a godless culture is inevitable and the consequences predictable. Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.

A New and Improved HIV

This is yet another time when I hate being right! For years as a columnist I wrote about the truth of HIV using the best-known research and statistics from the most respected sources. The truth was: HIV is a highly communicable disease and needs to be treated in the same manner as all other communicable diseases. That is common and logical medical sense--but that has never been the case concerning HIV. Where there is mandatory reporting of all other communicable infections, and information given to at- risk personnel—namely, patient care personnel who work with infected people--when it comes to HIV, it’s in a class by itself. And the reason is simple. It’s because the cash-laden homosexual lobby wants it that way.

And so under the guise of non-discrimination, anyone with HIV is specially protected from anyone knowing about it even at the risk of infecting completely innocent individuals like doctors and nurses.

Well, low and behold, now the government is talking about routine screening for HIV of everyone. Why is that telling? Because the sales pitch all along was that there was no need to panic about HIV.

· It was a frail virus, short lived in the environment, hard to transmit. That turned out to be false.

· That the only real route of transmission was through illicit sex, particularly homosexual sex and IV drug use. That turned out to be false.

· That condoms provided an effective barrier to infection. That turned out to be false.

So now there is a cry for routine screening of everyone. Which means what? Which means that everything I predicted, or at least cautioned against ten years ago about HIV is coming to pass.

Now how did I know? It is no secret and it wasn’t then. The research showed the truth of all of this but ardent pro-homosexual groups put enough pressure on the government and the legal profession to intimidate the masses into sacrificing common and routine medical sense for the sake of protecting the reputations and privacy of those who willingly jeopardize their own lives by engaging in high risk behaviors.

Many years ago I had a local high school utterly reject the latest information from the authoritative CDC because the information would have condemned their new aids program.

And now here we are. This is a scandal. How else do you interpret the cry now for mass testing of everyone if everything ever said about HIV and it’s transmission was right?

Still no one sees it but me. Sigh……….

Conscientious Objectors--The Time Has Come To Leave

How can you compare the character of a man like Pat Tilman who joined the Army walking away from the fame and fortune of an NFL career and gave his life for his country and a guy like Perry O’Brien who joined the Army, looking for a nice, safe paycheck. Now he’s a civilian out on a crusade as a “conscientious objector.”

During the days of the draft, our government acknowledged that there were people, who out of sincere, religious conviction, believed that war is always immoral. So the government accepted the religious convictions of what comprised a small minority of the population granting them status as a conscientious objector (C.O.) freeing them from military obligation. To force such a person to serve in an organization that exists solely to fight would essentially prohibit the free exercise of their faith.

Well and good, but when the draft ended, C.O. status should have ended as well being deemed irrelevant if not ridiculous. The reason is simple; if you have a conscientious objection to war, don’t join the military; it’s your choice.

How about a little reality check here: How can O’Brien object to a situation that he initiated and to which he agreed? Given the nature of an all volunteer military, what we have today are not conscientious objectors, but just more fruit of the “ME” generation that takes all it can until something is required in return. Then they sing the victim song, bolting to the next oasis of self-indulgence getting plenty of help on the Internet.

There you find predictably, that the real culprits are the recruiters who have the effrontery to visit high school campuses “feeding on the ignorance of the students.”

One teacher said, “If our students could hear (about the downside of war), it would be a bigger numeric consequence.” (Meaning fewer would join in the first place.)

Well I have a news flash for you. Students hear and see the downside of war every single day; it’s not like the media have been extolling the glamour and glory of military service.

So let’s be honest. This isn’t an issue of religious or moral conviction but about encroaching on someone’s comfort. This is an issue of personal integrity and the wanton breech of contract once the contract is enforced.

Liberals and their compassion...

On Monday I spoke of the liberal mind and its preoccupation with self in spite of appearance that often gives credit to liberals as being the compassionate ones, the tolerant ones, the brave ones. Once again, I will debunk that myth for what it is.

Judy Woodruff and Wolf Blitzer, are hacks for the not so fair and balanced CNN. Woodruff had visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the day of the Iraqi elections. Now pardon my prognostications if I am wrong, but based on history and example, Woodruff went on such a momentous day hoping—indeed--expecting to find angry, venomous, soldiers bitter about their pain and suffering and the wounds they carried in their bodies due to this President’s war for oil, war for revenge, war for a legacy; you know all the garbage we have been listening to from such networks from day one.

Seeing the cost of war, up close and personal would be great backdrop for what would surely be another blistering attack on the President’s foreign policy. Look at the wasted and suffering lives of America’s young men and all because of this President’s ego.

Ah, but sometimes, actually often times, no almost all the time, reality sneaks behind the liberal and bites them in the hind end. Woodruff had to shout ouch, as the pit bull of virtue sank its teeth deep into her liberal thigh.

She interviewed soldier after soldier and she didn’t find one angry young warrior. What she found were men who wanted to get back to the battlefield; men who were concerned about the friends back in Iraq, and yes, men were concerned about the Iraqi people who were so appreciative of their presence.

How could this be? This isn’t your back yard; these aren’t your problems; look what it’s cost you. The liberal, dumfounded at such valorous and self-sacrificing examples of genuine love and real compassion walks away blinded and unchanged knowing they have missed something, but no idea what.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” Jesus said. Lord how do we reach them with that truth?

For whom are you praying; is there one person you are pursuing in the love of Christ, not the love of man. One person at a time and then remember, there are plenty of conservatives who just as lost; somehow they managed to take hold of many of God’s truths even if not realizing from whom they have come.

Kennedy's Treasonous ramblings

The further along we get down this road of fighting for real peace, the workings of the liberal mind just gets clearer and clearer and what we see is deplorable. Ted Kennedy’s scathing remarks just a couple days before the elections in Iraq were nothing short of scandalous, hideous and, as far as I’m concerned, traitorous.

Kennedy was brutally critical of the President’s plan for Iraq. That is nothing unusual. What was way over the top though was his calling for an immediate pull out of our troops from this terrorized, oppressed land. Why is this treason? Well picture two heavy weight boxers fighting for the title. One is bruised, swollen and staggering; the other is merely scratched, bouncy and energized. If the match is known to continue until only one boxer is left standing, the beaten boxer will give it up and accept defeat. He knows he doesn’t have a chance.

But if the worn boxer is informed that there are only 30 seconds left and the match will be over with a draw, the beaten fighter will muster all his reserves and will just to make that final stand knowing that if he succeeds, he will recuperate to fight another day.

What Kennedy did was to inform the terrorists that at least one powerful, high-ranking American politician wants the match over in 30 seconds. This can only serve to bolster the will of the insurgents bringing further harm and death to American men and women. Kennedy ought to be censured if not prosecuted. Instead he’ll be reelected.

Why does Kennedy want our troops home so badly? Is it because he is so concerned about their welfare? That would at least be somewhat honorable but I’m skeptical of his motives. After all, he seems more concerned about the faceless soldiers fighting far away in an obscure land than he was for a personal friend sitting beside him in the front seat of his car. He wants a pull out from Iraq in less time than it took him to obtain help for his drowning passenger.

Kennedy’s comments are about nothing more than power; personal power and he doesn’t care what toll it takes on anyone else. The mind of the liberal assesses life, ethics, and morality on what he sees in his back yard. If it’s good for my back yard, or at least won’t intrude on my backyard, then, whatever it is, is good.
Only it’s not; it’s bad. There’s more to come…