Letter From The Editor: EPA OVERREACH

I HAVE NOT WRITTEN HERE FOR A WHILE. THERE IS JUST SO MUCH HAPPENING AND SO FAST THAT IT IS HARD TO KEEP UP. Even when I have thought I could have been confounded, amazed, astonished and infuriated to the limits of human tolerance, a new outrage has come along seemingly daily if not hourly. I must add that one bright spot was seeing "president" Obama accepting his Nobel Peace Prize and then lecturing the idiot peacenik Norskers about the necessity of warfare in defense of liberty. Oh, I do not believe for a minute that he believed - or possibly even understood - a word of what he said (except the parts wherein he praised himself). But Obama is all about which way the wind blows, and right now the wind is not blowing his way. However it was worth watching the Nobel Committee sit and listen to a speech basically telling them that their pacifist attitudes need to be adjusted to reality; and seeing the looks on their faces that said (as many Americans now also feel) "Why in HELL did we vote for this TOOL??"

And then there was Tiger Woods, who evidently only uses the big head on the golf course and is guided at all other times by the little head of Mister Wiener. But really, who gives a damn about Tiger Woods? Some guys canoodle and lose everything, and everybody knows some schmoe who has done exactly that. Tiger could split the community property with his wife, pay off anyone who needs to be paid off, and still have enough dough to live very well indeed. So fuck him.

But the Left keeps throwing sucker punches; and a few days ago one came out of the blue: The Environmental Protection Agency has decided to take what they like to call a "Supreme Court Mandate" concerning regulation of CO2 and run with it.

The (Director?) of the EPA is some goddamned bitch who is a fanatical environmental wacko. She has announced her intent to agressively implement controls on CO2; which by the bye is what every living thing exhales every minute of every hour of every day. The way this Leftist battleaxe looks at things, she has the power to come into your bathroom and shut off the hot water because heating it requires burning fuel and "producing" CO2. And I am not kidding either, she is just that unhinged.

Now this obsession with so-called "greenhouse gases" is ostensibly to protect you, me, and the Planet. But in reality what this Leftist - words fail me - cunt wants is what Obama and Reid and Pelosi want with their "cap and trade" and Obamacare crapola. They do NOT give a good god damn about sick little kids, "The Uninsured", "The Environment", melting ice caps, cute little 10-foot-tall maneating polar bears (who are doing just fine thank you, "global warming" or no), or anything else save for POWER and CONTROL.

So the EPA wants to tell me I cannot have a hot shower?? FUCK YOU. I will have you know, Little Ms. Bitch; that not only do I shower every day in water hot as I can stand (The better to get the diirt off) but I also stay in there a long time with the water running at FULL BLAST thanks to the fact that I have surgically removed the idiot flow restrictor on my shower massaage unit (and now the massage is dandy!) AND I shave at the end while my beard is nice and soft.

And since I have a couple of guitars, I keep the AC on all day and night 24-7 in the summer so as to have a constant temperature so they won't warp. How you EnviroNazis like THAT shit? HUH??

The time for these jokers is short, indeed. But we in the meantime nust resist with everthing we have. If we do not, there may not be an America to have an election in come November 2010.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER

TODAY IS DECEMBER THE SEVENTH 2009. IT IS THE 68th ANNIVERSARY OF THE JAPANESE SNEAK ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR WHICH CATAPULTED THE UNITED STATES INTO WORLD WAR II. Yet how many remembered this sometime within about four hours of rising?

When we watched the attacks of 9-11 take place, we felt a similar shock as our parents did on hearing the news of Pearl Harbor. Now we are at war with an enemy even more fanatical and a shadowy one at that.

But no mention of this from the floor of the House or the Senate. It would be an inconvenient reminder that one does not read the enemy his rights and try him in a civilian court in a war. In a war one kills the enemy until the enemy surrenders. The present government, full of weaklings, traitors and cowards, does not want to remind the sheeple of what war is. They want to pretend that we are conducting some sort of criminal investigation. Besides, they are busy trying to engineer a device called "Obamacare" which will do NOTHING to benefit the citizenry but which will open a door to total abrogation of almost every individual right we think we have.

Remember Pearl Harbor. And repulse these DemonRat sneak attacks on our freedoms.

God's Gift of Baptism

It's been a while since I've posted anything. This semester has been a hectic one. Below are some thoughts on baptism from Martin Luther's Large Catechism. The citations refer to the page and paragraph numbers in the Book of Concord.

Baptism’s necessity is an issue I have had to struggle with. In Palestine, while working with Muslims who wanted to follow Jesus, the question arose whether one could follow Christ without being baptized. We (who were not Lutheran at that time) concluded that it was not, yet today, I bump up against Luther’s teaching in the Large Catechism that the corollary to the Great Commission is “whoever rejects baptism rejects God’s Word, faith, and Christ…” (460.31). These adults were not rejecting it, but had not yet understood the need. It was not something we made an issue of. For one’s salvation it may not be essential, but to know the fullness of God in one’s life, to have the daily reassurance of God’s presence, to grow into all God has for us in Christ Jesus, it is absolutely necessary for us. This is demonstrated in Luther’s Large Catechism, the manual for pastors.

For Luther, baptism was essential because it was instituted by God and not by human beings. It was God’s idea not made up by the church (457.6). It was God’s command as well (461.38). If God had so ordained it, then such a command should be obeyed.God not only commands baptism, but God is the baptizer (457.10). God enacts what God decrees. What we are incapable of doing, God does for us. We do not have to worry about some mistake in the liturgy or our own doubts invalidating God’s activity. As well as God’s agency, even the very baptismal water is God’s as well (458.4).

Luther cites Jesus’ baptism to illustrate how God confirmed by miracles (459.21) the weightiness of baptism as the heavens opened and the Spirit descended. If the Son was baptized, then Christ’s followers should be if we follow his example. To reject God’s gift is to reject God.

Besides being baptized in obedience to God’s command, baptism brings a multitude of blessings. God desires to give good gifts to God’s children and baptism is that initial, chief means of grace. It is a gift of such magnitude that it is referred to as a “treasure” that God gives us (460.34, 461.37). The very image that conjures up in our minds can give but a glimpse of its true worth. Unlike earthly treasure, baptism is with us forever as a symbol of God’s grace (466.77).

Baptism is received by faith, not dependent upon it (463.53, 464.60). This is comforting that its benefits are independent of our understanding or goodness. God graciously gifts us. Baptism, bringing us regeneration and new life (460.27, 466.75) is like clothing which we can put on daily (466.84). By it we are made holy and blessed (462.46). Unlike some denominations, where it is simply a symbol, we may daily refer back to our baptism for comfort, strength, and reassurance (462.44). An ontological change was made in us, in God’s eyes, by this sacrament.

God gives us victory over the devil and death (461.41, 462.43) through baptism. It also aids us in the daily battle of faithfulness to God and sanctification. Our selfish nature still struggles to rule us, but our baptism helps us in the daily killing of said old nature (465.65).

Baptism is never invalid according to Luther. Even those baptized by priests that were drunkards, adulterers etc. were not required to be rebaptized. The sacrament depends upon God, not the one administering it, even if there is not complete faith present (464.60). This helps me appreciate my own infant baptism, even though we rarely attended church as a family.

On one level, baptism may not be essential to follow Christ, but one would be foolish to disregard this wonderful gift and means of grace, salvation, blessing, and communion with God. The issue of baptism was never promoted to our Muslim young adults, but those that committed themselves to follow Jesus as Savior, not just a prophet, each at some point, requested baptism. By their hearts' conviction, it was necessary as well.

picture from http://www.bayareacommunity.org/media/baptism-image-only.jpg