Obama’s budget: huge ambitions, huge obstacles

If Obama’s budget passes, will the United States bubble of Capitalism break, and bring them into the modern era of Social economics?

It would appear that many in the U.S. are still unable to think past an ideological default – mainly, that somehow the rich deserve to prosper while the basic needs of human beings are being ignored (clean air, health care, etc).

Granted, one could argue that this budget is nothing more than a socialist ideological default – determined on usurping the plunder of the upper class.

Thoughts – excited or scared?

I recently read a fascinting exchange between Preston Jones, a Christian university professor, and Greg Graffen, lead singer of Bad Religion. The book was entitled, “Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?” 

Besides giving a concise and revelatory look into the two opposing worldviews, it made me sit and ponder seriously about what I believe as a theist. Throughout the book, Greg Graffen continually stated that the naturalistic worldview is entirely sufficient, and that theology or philoshopy can ofter nothing of relevant meaning. 

As I sat and pondered that statement, I wondered. 

I submit, that unless God exists, life is absurd, ethics are illogical, and science is counter-productive. 

I expect those reading the series to come to challenge my thoughts, submit your own, and enter in with me the pursuit of relevance.

Seriously? Is this honestly what Americana’s are afraid of? The culture of fear in the United States never ceases to amaze me. Fox news really goes a long way to make their country look absolutely retarded. I mean, Sweeden people! Come on, let’s all be afraid of those Swedes!

My personal favorite part of the “interview” was the quote from Karl Marx. That’s right friends. If Barack Obama becomes president of the United States of America, the streets will run red with blood, and the upper class will have to flee for their lives! That’s right, a “tax-break” is the catalyst for an ensuing communist revolution, in which Barack Obama and his ultra-left ring revolutionaries will execute the wealthy! Give me a break! 

But if that doesn’t work, Fox news could always break out the “Obama-Muslim” card.  I guess if they can’t make a few percentage of the people afraid of only having 9 wheelbarrows full of money instead of 10, they can at least promote extremist religious conspiracies! 

Only in the United States can people actually entertain, manufacture, and sustain fear and call in news. The only thing I think Americans really should fear are their waist-lines. 

It’s a sign of desperation from what I hope to be a dying bread. People who are so greedy and selfish, that the mere mention of giving the working class a break, will resort to outlandish, ridiculous, and whack-job prophetic predictions.

I mean, as much I find left-wing media a little annoying and a bit fear mongering themselves (think Michael Moore’s ironic thesis on fear in Bowling For Columbine, and then the blatant fear tactics of Fahrenheit 911), they at least try (or pretend to try) to sound rational. I would much rather put up with an honest although often misguided personality (Jon Stewart) than a pitch-fork bearing fear-monger (Bill O’Riley).

Here is a quote someone might think to share with Fox News:

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.” – Adolf Hitler

Something my professor mentioned last week washed over me like a gentle refreshing summer rain. 

“When God looks at you, and you are justified by faith, and faith alone, he no longer sees a name tag with the word sinner on it, he sees the word saint.”

How many times I have beaten myself up. The voice, the voice of my flesh crying out for my sins to be punished. How many times I’ve listened. If there is one thing I am absolutely aware of, it is that God is absolutely holy, and I am absolutely not. 

But something happened in my life. God reached down into my life, and offered me the gift of faith. When I responded, I began my life as a “child of God.” Jesus paid for my sins, and he paid for them in full. I am held by his loving, gracious hands, and no one can take that away from me. (John 10:28) So why do I continue to sin, and respond to sin with such hopeless and self-loathsome defeat? Why am I still walking around introducing myself to the world as a sinner. 

I am a saint. I am justified by faith alone. God is the author and finisher of my faith. I am a child of God. 

I am not a sinner. I do not work for my salvation. I do not walk this world alone. I am not abandoned in this lonely world. 

This is a peace that I cannot comprehend. To those of you, like me, that need to know God and his love, take heart! You do not have to be enslaved by a nature which was crucified. You were purchased with the precious blood of the lamb – step out in faith and live according the Spirit of Jesus Christ. If you do not know God, and feel lost, don’t lose hope! You can know something so wondeful and powerful, so transforming and real. Come and meet Jesus, repent and be saved from a dark world, of which you are a child of.

The trumpet calls Israel’s army to mobilize,
      but no one listens,
      for my fury is against them all.
There is war outside the city
      and disease and famine within.
Those outside the city walls
      will be killed by enemy swords.
Those inside the city
      will die of famine and disease.
The survivors who escape to the mountains
      will moan like doves, weeping for their sins.
Their hands will hang limp,
      their knees will be weak as water.
They will dress themselves in burlap;
      horror and shame will cover them.
They will shave their heads
      in sorrow and remorse.

They will throw their money in the streets,
      tossing it out like worthless trash.
Their silver and gold won’t save them
      on that day of the Lord’s anger.
 It will neither satisfy nor feed them,
      for their greed can only trip them up.
They were proud of their beautiful jewelry
      and used it to make detestable idols and vile images.
Therefore, I will make all their wealth
      disgusting to them.
 I will give it as plunder to foreigners,
      to the most wicked of nations,
      and they will defile it.
I will turn my eyes from them
      as these robbers invade and defile my treasured land.

“Prepare chains for my people,
      for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes.
      Jerusalem is filled with violence.
I will bring the most ruthless of nations
      to occupy their homes.
I will break down their proud fortresses
      and defile their sanctuaries.
Terror and trembling will overcome my people.
      They will look for peace but not find it.
Calamity will follow calamity;
      rumor will follow rumor.
They will look in vain
      for a vision from the prophets.
They will receive no teaching from the priests
      and no counsel from the leaders.
The king and the prince will stand helpless,
      weeping in despair,
and the people’s hands
      will tremble with fear.
I will bring on them
      the evil they have done to others,
and they will receive the punishment
      they so richly deserve.
Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Ezekial 7:14-27

I think perhaps I have discovered why I find it very hard to get into Christian Music. Ready?

I can understand the vocals.

Kurt Cobain, Thom York, Sunny Day Real Estate… OK, well, I guess Jeremy Enigk got saved (I think) but he was a non-believer when he made his masterpieces. I guess Christian’s actually want people to understand what they are singing. Most likely due to the fact, that many people in the Christian music industry feel it is their duty to use the word “Jesus” at least in every song. We used to call them “JPM’s.” Perhaps some people feel it’s blasphemous to sounds like you have a mouth full of marbles when you’re singing about the Kingdom. I mean, people have in the past chosen to die on much more absurd hills. You know, those age old arguments that drums actually have a moral conscious, that syncopation is from the devil, and that an electric guitar’s secret goal is to turn youth groups into acid dropping pot heads. 

Perhaps you can answer me his question: Since when did Christian culture hijack music as their battlefield? Why on earth is there even a dichotomy between secular and Christian music, and why are laws applied to this one area of art? I mean, do we run around telling kids they can’t read books that were written by pagans? What about that little American Boy, who wants to do a project on Thomas Jefferson: “I’m sorry little Billy, Thomas Jefferson was a deist and therefore what he said was malarkey.”

So that’s it. That’s my beef. I mean, Mac Powell you came close, but I still know what you’re signing. Too bad.

PS – Obviously Demon Hunter and Living Sacrifice kind of break the rule. I guess they have no option, they are death metal. But man, listen to Zao closely, and you can tell, that he really wants you to hear his words. I think Zao could have rocked it all the way up to 11 if he sang more like the dude from Napalm Death.

The following may cause a Communist to become a little bit Conservative:

1. Get a Job. This is certainly the first step to becoming a little less communist. Coming to know a thing known as “tax” is difficult, and most people will have an internal struggle when they want to have things such as: A dream of education. A home and a family. A reliable mode of transportation. Lowering such “taxes” seems to mean, getting more “stuff”. 

2. Meet another human being. In this, you will realize that many people are in fact jerks. You may note that many of these people live in a somewhat relaxed, educated, and comfortable environment. This will very much conflict with your pre-conceived notion that all educated people are free from evil. 

3. Stop ignoring the 1.3 billion people living without freedom. You know, the freedom that you’re using right now to look at blogs, or to speak out against your government, or to organize a church. You know, those freedoms that most people would kill for? Yeah, those ones. 

4. Know of union employees drinking and doing drugs while working only to keep their jobs and get raises. This, however, if you are a true socialist, will not cause you to abandon your absolute belief in unions. You know deep down, that they were needed, are needed, and will be needed. You want to just label these people “bad apples” that are “not the norm of the working class” and brush it off whenever your Conservative factory worker friend brings it up, but you can’t help but scratch your head and wonder if the whole system is flawed.  

5. Wait 2 hours in a waiting room with a serious condition (lets just say… a collapsed lung), while Doctors help a room full of cold and flu victims. Maybe letting the bourgeois have their clinics may work after all. This is very confusing however, because you secretly love the idea of a rich, Wall Street business man sitting with the masses waiting to get treatment just like you. 

If you are strong, you can resist the temptation to vote for a Right-Wing political party in an election, but it will be difficult if the above has happened to you.

This man should not be the leader of our country. Although I do not normally support the Conservative Party, I find it really strange that people are abandoning a straight-shooter like Harper for this weak, incompetent man. 

Thoughts?

Richard Dawkins – \”What if you\’re wrong?\”

I often have found it very interesting how people will respond to me when I present them the gospel. Like Dawkins, when challenged to face the consequence of unbelief (“What if you’re wrong about (insert belief here)) many people simply love to point out the cosmopolitan world in which we live. It must be comforting, almost blinding, to have this way of escape whenever you have a legitamte oppurtunity to actually argue something. What I find rather odd, is that Dawkins must know that the Judeo-Christian religion is a Middle-Eastern religion, founded by deeply rooted, pious, Jewish Apostles, and yet he simply likes to believe that people are simply born into faith. We all love to shift questions, and I must admit, that the question being asked is loaded, and when stretched out, is really a particullarly weak question. Dawkins answer to the question is typical however of one who exihbits a person insecure in their faith, or in this case, their lack of faith.

When I am asked the question, “What if I’m wrong?”, the answer is simple: I will die, rot, and become dirt worthless and rediculous. Dawkins cannot answer this question however. Admiting there is a possibility that Dawkins may be wrong forces him to open a door to an existence to which he knows far to well the consequence.

Let’s put this whole “you were born here”, or, “your parents were like this” notion aside and admit there a legitamte pilgramage for truth. Dawkins is on it, I am on it, and hopefully you are too.

if free will is flawed, isn’t democracy kind of like arming a bad person with a gun? only like, times a million?

if we didn’t have to vote, politicians wouldn’t have to lie. maybe we need a new system of politics. 

i think the Internet, specifically, the philosophy of the Internet, is going to rule the world one day. 

the Internet is public domain and one day will rule the media industry. you and i will one day be the sole distributors, promoters and creators of the entire media industry. this will be the stepping stone for a Utopian star-trek like society, where people not only exchange information for free over the Internet, but services and goods as well.