Other Favorite Place I Call Home

MUST READ ON UNDIE BOMBER AT JAWA REPORT
DAWN'S EARLIEST LIGHT ON MORAN

THERE'S NOT THAT much snow there now, but there will be. Though I'm happily elsewhere at the moment, my mind often wanders to this wild and wonderful place I've grown to love and also call home.

Many people around the Internet rave on about what a terrible decade this has been, and granted, it's had it's ups and downs. Still when I look at the past ten years in review, my many blessings clearly out-weigh the difficulties and pain. I hope the same for you. While our country remains under attack both inwardly---through our moral decay and the insidious creeping of government into our un-enumerated affairs---and outwardly through Islamic fundamentalism and godless forces that ridiculously believe our greatness just happened without our strong Judeo-Christian bearings, I believe the greatest days of our country remain ahead of us, and that we, as a free people, are strong, resilient and tenacious beyond even our current understanding....

Just finished making homemade chicken/vegetable soup and black-eyed peas that I'll take to a friend's tonight. May post some food pics later. Meanwhile, Happy and Prosperous New Year to you!

Enduring Economic Lessons of the Past 10 Years

FINANCIAL WISDOM AND SANITY AT THE INOCULATED INVESTOR.

It's long and somewhat laborious reading, but well worth the efforts for keeping our feet solidly on fiscal ground and learning from our many mistakes of the past decade. I agree with most everything he says. A sampling follows but hopefully we'll all read the whole thing:

As the ‘naughties’ (what a perfectly descriptive name for the 2000-2009 period) come to a somewhat anti-climactic close, it is important for those of us in the investment community to take stock of what new lessons have been learned, what immutable laws have been reinforced, and what changes in policy, strategy and execution need to occur in order to avoid a repeat of the booms and busts of the last decade. The reason I think such an analysis is critical is that I do not believe most investors are cognizant enough of the dangers lurking in the world’s financial markets. Memories are very short and despite suffering through a number of serious market downturns over the last 10 years, I worry that we have already started a snowball rolling that has the potential to cause even more lasting damage than the dot com bubble or the real estate bubble and subsequent financial collapse. Therefore, it may be true that only by understanding the past can we hope to avoid such a fate.

As Promised, Another Farouktoria's 'Secrets' Revealed

ROBERT SPENCER: Flight 253 and the Failure of Counterterrorism

IOWAHAWK: NOT-TO-BE-MISSED PARODY

THE CIA WAS tracking a nameless man called "The Nigerian" whom it suspected of being a potential terrorist attacker to the United States as early as last August, but they didn't have a name for him.

The connection between the nickname "The Nigerian" and the person named Farouk Abdulmutallab was still not made, even after the 23-year-old's Nigerian father contacted the U.S. embassy (in Nigeria) in November to warn them of his son's radicalization.

Sometimes after that the CIA connected the dots enough to give "The Nigerian" his real name. Around that time, he was then listed on a large database watchlist of some 550,000 individuals, called TIDE (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment). However, he was still not listed on America's NO FLY LIST (which would not have allowed him to board a plane to enter the country) which has only 4,000 names on it.

I cannot imagine that the CIA and American intelligence could have acted more slowly or recklessly in this grave matter. The fact that he was allowed to board flight 253 in Amsterdam is astounding. Again, it's a miracle that this airliner wasn't blown to smithereens on Christmas day over Detroit and with it hundreds of passengers.

It's time the Feds expand the NO FLY list by thousands, if not tens of thousands of names. We've been warned and warned and warned.

It's time for various federal agencies to share critical information to secure this country and its travelers.

It's time Congress and the president filled the head job at TSA with an American patriot qualified to head the agency who takes the threats of radical Islam and jihad seriously.

And finally, it's time that the U.S. government get serious about this--as commenter Tregonsee pointed out in a previous post--- and start profiling passengers---especially Muslims wanting to enter the U. S. from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for religious reasons--- to screen out the most likely terrorist suspects, instead of over-reacting by treating all U.S. citizens like criminal terrorist chattel on domestic and international flights.

Kudlow and Altucher on 2010 Market Predictions

IS GOLD THE WORLD'S GREATEST TRADE EVER FOR THOSE HOLDING AND TAKING LONG POSITIONS NOW? IT'S CERTAINLY BEST INVESTMENT OF 2000s


BULLISH FORECASTS FOR 2010 including markets up, unemployment down, dollar rising and the need to restock depleted inventories worldwide. Not sure what I think of this, nor does Kudlow after the first quarter. Nevertheless, it sounds rather interesting for now.

Farouktoria's Secrets

UPDATE: PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS TUESDAY ON CATASTROPHIC BREACH
IT'S A BIRD....IT'S A PLANE.....IT'S.....IT'S....
......EXPLOSIVE UNDIE-WEAR MADE WITH P.E.T.N. FOR Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab BY THOSE EROTIC YEMEN TERRORISTS KNOWN FOR THE SOFT TOUCH IN ALL THINGS JIHAD

BECAUSE I DON'T FEEL long-winded tonight, I'm going to give you the 'secrets' straight up tonight as I see them. It is only by the Grace of God that this plane wasn't blown to smithereens on Christmas day no matter what Ms. Napolitano said about the system working, before she un-said it:

1. The Fruit of the Loon terrorist evidently was allowed to board the plane, Delta/Northwest flight #253 with no passport. This from Larry O'Connor at Big Government:

While waiting in the holding area in the Amsterdam airport, in a room designated for only the passengers of Flight 253, Mr. Haskell saw a well-dressed man of apparent Indian descent accompany a young, poorly attired man of African descent to the boarding gate. What Mr. Haskell saw and heard next is of seemingly great significance:

“I could clearly hear the conversation… the Indian man said: ‘This man needs to board the plane, he doesn’t have a passport….’ The ticket agent responded, ‘you’ll need to see my manager…’. That was the last time I saw the Indian man and it was the last time I saw the black man until later in the day when he tried to blow up our plane.”

2. Farouk had severed ties with his family in Nigeria and his father had been concerned enough to contact U.S. authorities warning them of his son's growing radical tendencies. Evidently U.S. authorities did not take these warnings seriously until it was almost too late.

3. At least two terrorist prisoners recently released from Gitmo to Yemen in 2007 helped plan the foiled attack.

4. The Amsterdam Schiphol airport is notoriously lax in its security procedures which al-Qaeda operatives undoubtedly are aware of. Our enemies also knew chances for U.S. federal marshalls to be on this international flight were small to none.

5. In the year since Obama was elected president, he has failed yet to appoint an administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) the agency charged to weed out potential terrorists seeking to fly into the United States to do us harm. This is inexcusable and undoubtedly a fact that has not gone unnoticed by our Muslim radical enemies.

6. Our Nigerian Undie bomber's name was not on the United States' terrorist “no-fly” list, which to date has fewer than 4,000 names, though he had already been barred from entering Britain last year.

His name is, however, on a larger database of some 550,000 individuals, called TIDE (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. But it seems it was only entered here a month ago, even after his father's warning that his son had become a radical fanatic potential terrorist. Why was this man allowed to enter the United States at all? And why are there so few names on the NO FLY list?

These and other 'secrets' have yet to be revealed in the MSM because they seem insignificant. Furthermore, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said the system worked fine before recanting and saying it didn't work. This is a farce and only points to the unprofessionalism of the current administration in protecting our homeland which is one of the enumerated powers of the Constitution.

More is forthcoming to be sure.

Meanwhile and Elsewhere

UPDATE: Mr. Obama Breaks His Silence
ALOHA! LOOK, I'M ON VACATION SO DON'T COME SCREAMING TO ME ABOUT NO AIRPORT SECURITY OR NO DISSIDENTS IN IRAN MAKING TROUBLE FOR THE MULLAHS....

Quiet Sunday After Christmas

OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, I want to finish Tim Keller's new book Counterfeit Gods on idols and their relentless hold on our lives by writing about how we begin to identify and end their myriad domination. Today, I take a quote from chapter seven of Keller's book, The End of Counterfeit Gods:

NOTHING IS MORE COMMON

The seventeenth-century English minister David Clarkson preached one of the most comprehensive and searching sermons on counterfeit gods ever written. About idolatry he said, "Though few will own it, nothing is more common." If we think our soul as a house, idols are set up in every room, in every faculty." We prefer our own wisdom to God's wisdom. our own desires to God's will, and our own reputation to God's honor. Clarkson looked at human relationships and showed how we have a tendency to make them more influential and important to us than God. In fact, he showed that "many make even their enemies their god......when they (we) are more troubled, disquieted and perplexed at apprehensions of danger to their liberty, estates and lived from men" than they are concerned with God's displeasure. The human heart is indeed a factory that mass-produces idols.

Is there any hope? Yes, if we begin to realize that idols cannot simply be removed. They must be replaced. If you only try to uproot them, they grow back; but they can be supplanted. By what? By God himself, of course. But by "God" we do not mean a general belief in his existence. Most people have that, yet their souls are riddled with idols.

What we need is a living encounter with God.

More on this next week.

Fishermen's Christmas Tree

BE BACK SUNDAY.

SUGARPLUMS DANCING IN THEIR HEADS? Think again if it's fishermen. Dreams are all about catching big trout, strippers and bass, to name only a few, for friends at the Golden Gate Casting Club in San Francisco! I'm not quite the maniac as some of them, but I can appreciate their fervor. Merry Christmas to all fishermen and non-fishermen alike!

Will post more pics as I can.

Today, the Winter Solstice Followed Soon By the Incarnation of The Light of the World

TAXPAYERS' CASH FOR CLOTURE ; WRECKLESS BILL

John 8:12 (KJV)
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Photo H/T Space Weather

More on Idols from Keller

AM SHORT ON TIME today and will have to continue this another Sunday, so I will post a quote from Tim Keller's new book on idols, Counterfeit Gods:

Idolatry distorts our feelings. Just as idols are good things turned into ultimate things, so the desires they generate become paralyzing and overwhelming. Idols generate false beliefs such as "if I cannot achieve X, then my life won't be valid" or "since I have lost or failed Y, now I can never be happy or forgiven again." These beliefs magnify ordinary disappointments and failures in to life-shattering experiences.

A young woman named Mary was an accomplished musician who once attended my church. For many years she had battled mental illness and checked in and out of psychiatric institutions. She gave me permission as her pastor to speak to her therapist so my pastoral guidance to her could be well-informed. "Mary virtually worships her parents' approval of her," her counsellor told me, "and they always wanted her to be a world-class artist. She is quite good, but she's never reached the top of her profession, and she cannot live with the idea that she has disappointed her parents." Medications helped to manage her depression, but they could not get to the root of it. Her problem was a false belief, driven by an idol.

She told herself, "If I cannot be a well-known violinist, I have let down my parents and my life is a failure." She was distressed and guilty enough to die.

When Mary began to believe the gospel, that she was saved by grace, not my musicianship, and that, "though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord shall take me in (Psalm 27:10), she began to get relief from her idolatrous need for her parent's approval. In time her depression and anxiety began to lift, and she was able to reenter her life and musical career.

There is legitimate guilt that is removed through repentance and restitution, and then there is irremediable guilt. When people say, "I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself," they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important to them than God's. Idols function like gods in our lives, and so if we make career or parental approval our god and we fail it, then the idol curses us in our hearts for the rest of our lives. We can't shake the sense of failure.

When idolatry is mapped onto the future---when they're threatened---it leads to paralyzing fear and anxiety. When it is mapped onto the past---when we fail our idols---it leads to irremediable guilt. When idolatry is mapped onto the present life---when our gods are blocked or removed by circumstances---it roils us with anger and despair.

Coming soon: How we discover what our idols are? I'd say there's no better time to start the search than during the Christmas season when expectations and those Norman Rockwell pictures in our minds are at their most powerful. This is why this book is more a handbook for growth than just a book.

Mr. Obama: Calling A Miserable Flop A Success in Copenhagen Only Continues to Diminish His Dwindling Credibility

THERE ISN'T A SOUL who thought President Obama's appearance at the AGW climate confab in Copenhagen was anything but a complete dud, a flop of the highest order, a disgrace. His performance was dissed by proponents and opponents of a climate treaty alike.

Calling Mr. Obama the man who killed the treaty in Copenhagen, the New York Post writes this morning:

After a day spent frantically darting around Copenhagen trying to locate world leaders, getting snubbed by China's premier and crashing a meeting where he had initially been kept out, President Obama heralded a last-minute, largely toothless UN global-warming summit deal that drew fast fire from all sides as a sham.

Almost no one was happy with the outcome of the two-week confab and even the president, who was slammed by liberals and Republicans alike, along with other world leaders, admitted that the pact doesn't legally commit any of the nations involved -- the point of the summit in the first place.

Obama may become known as "the man who killed Copenhagen," said Greenpeace US head Phil Radford, one of many activists to rap the president for the flimsy agreement with India, South Africa, Brazil and China, which thwarted the president throughout the conference.

The deal, which would have to be accepted by all nations to be adopted, asks all parties to list how they'll cap emissions by set amounts, among other general goals.
But critics say it pushes any legally binding steps into the future.

It was roundly blasted as a farce from all quarters. The president has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming," said Bill McKibbon of the progressive group 350.org. "It may get Obama a reputation as a tough American leader, but it's at the expense of everything progressives have held dear."

Of course those of us who see this whole scandal of AGW as a farce to begin with, who believe warming and cooling on earth have gone on since the beginning of time and are caused by forces much larger than mankind see this whole fiasco as a blessing in disguise. However, the forces for AGW still have great momentum and we have to continue beating the drums for sanity and real science in the pursuit of a cleaner, better environment rather than one world government shepherded by the Al Gores of the world.

Blogging The Season - Less Words, More Gratitude

SOMETIMES LIFE SPEAKS for itself and best unfolds in greater silence, without much explanation. Prayers, however, are never optional and always appreciated in my corner of the world. For the next week or so, I'll be posting with some daily photos though with far fewer words. I'm allocating my energies elsewhere for now. God bless as we come into the darkest hours of the year before the dawn begins anew, yet again, by His Divine Grace.

Hate To Keep Bringing This Up, But

LESSONS ON TIGER'S FALL AND SIN FROM TIM CHALLIES

YOU KNOW, I've really wondered about Tiger Wood's father and what he must have modeled to his son in the arena of martial fidelity/infidelity. Wondered whether Tiger had learned some of his philandering tricks from Daddy Earl who died in 2006.

Now, it seems, there are reports that Tiger was indeed hurt by his father's serial unfaithfulness when he---Tiger---was a teenager. Former high school girl friend Dina Parr is telling news sources that Woods used to call her from the road and confide about how upset he was that his daddy was with another woman. Woods would call Parr when he was away during high school and college tournaments.

Somehow this doesn't surprise me at all in view of this awful scandal, though I'm disappointed. We don't realize how we carry those wounds from childhood, or model some behavior we think our children will never notice yet later mimic. Then years later the pattern is repeated amplified in the next generation and the next, like alcoholism. Very sad and a lesson that should be well taken.

Festive Rain Walk

OBAMA'S GREATEST EGO TRIP FOR HEALTH CARE
UMBRELLA STROLLS MAN along walkway with lighted Christmas trees in Skopje, Macedonia, earlier this week. Love this photo from WSJ photo.

Feel like I just came up for air after much activity this week. When not in motion, I was deep within a very intense book that I could not put down. Will write more about it at some point. Lighter than usual blogging during this time because I leave soon to go cross country for the holidays and will be reporting in as I can.

Keller: More on Idolatry

CANNOT STRESS how much I value Tim Keller's new book, Counterfeit Gods, The Empty Promises of Money, Sex and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters. It's memorable not just because of the fascinating Bible stories from Jonah to Jacob to Naaman and Nebuchadnezzar (each high-lighting a different form of human idolatry and how God deals with it) and religious poignancy that Keller brings so crisply and clearly alive in its pages. Rather, it's because I consider it a mighty and indispensable companion for growth and maturity for any Christian taking the arduous spiritual journey back to the likeness of and redemption by Christ Jesus. Perhaps it's the best book---or should I say handbook--- of its kind I've ever seen.

As textbook for true and enduring change, it's not a book to be read once and discarded. Rather it can be read, re-read and accompany each of us in prayer, therapy---wish I'd had this perspective 20 years ago though I might not have been ready for it--- and go through trials and tribulations and the inevitable relationship difficulties that plague us.

For me, it's the mother lode of psychological and spiritual direction and plunges me deeply into the roots of my sin and suffering. Want to know why bad things happen to good people? Look no further as Keller shows how 'good' people make good things into ultimate meaning and then sooner or later suffer hellish consequences from putting them in the place of God.

I've said it before, this is not the prosperity gospel of health, wealth, happiness and getting all our wishes gratified in ten easy steps. It's not a recipe for a quick fix. To the contrary, the book undoes our wish mentality and sets us on the difficult path towards the only real hope that can sustain us----a living relationship with God The Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Idolatry in all its infinite forms blocks, distorts and distances us from the Grace of God. And only by beginning to identify, then dismantle our idols can we come back into right relationship with God first and then each other and the outside world.

According to Keller, idols (materialism, power, romance, family, group, work, our moral performance and good works) can distort our thinking and emotions and blind us to ultimate reality. In speaking of idolatry and its effects on our lives, he writes,

Idolatry distorted Jonah's thinking. He goes on a tirade that most people would think insane. How could Jonah be furious that God is a God of compassion and love and patience?! For the same reason that lovesick Jacob could be so easily dupeed and greedy Zachaeus (the tax collector) could betray his country and everyone around him. They were all blinded by their idols.

When an idol gets a grip on your heart, it spins out a whole set of false definitions of success and failure and happiness and sadness. It redifines reality in terms of itself. Nearly everyone thnks that an all-powerful God of love, patience and compassion is a good thing. But it, because of your idol, your ultimate good is the power and status of your people, then anything that gets in the way of it, is by definition, bad.....

In the end idols can make it possible to call eveil good and good evil.

More next week.

Next To Cinderella....

AND THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD, THIS WAS MY FAVORITE story when I was a little girl. My parents must have read it to me hundreds of times until I memorized every word and read it for myself.

Tonight I went with a friend to see The Blind Side--- a wonderful and true story----and this same book was read by the Tuohys in Memphis to their children. Then to their adopted son, Michael Oher. It was one of the highlights for me. BTW, this is book makes a great Christmas gift idea for your child, grandchild or any wide-eyed kid youo might know.

A Picture Worth......

....a thousand captions at the Nobel banquet for America's novice laureate, Pinot-loving chief-of-state, who said war can be morally justified, as long as it's his---and not his filthy, dirty, rotten predecessor's---war.

Meanwhile, was Hillary right saying last year that Mr. Obama was not ready to be president?

WSJ photos

John Nolte Bursts the Big, Dull, America-Hating, PC Revenge Balloon of 'Avatar'

THE GRANDEST LEFT-LIBERAL MOVIE THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

POST-HASTE,

AND IN ONE FELL SWOOP, John Nolte's review at Big Hollywood ruined any last hope for me of magic for James Cameron's mammoth, half-billion dollar production of Avatar. It took me one loooong week of press-pummelling to rethink Tiger Woods, and only ten minutes of reading Nolte's review to realize one big, amazing thing: Nevermind! No way, Jose!

All the money, special effects, blue-skinned aliens, political correctness and 3-D in the world don't buy this love in my book.

Now: Me On Clooney's New Movie 'Up In the Air'

THIS TIME PLAYING A PHILANDERING 'PARENTHESIS'

IT'S ALREADY GETTING OSCAR BUZZ for best picture, but I think it's just another film that George Clooney gets to play George Clooney----hip, handsome, depraved as ever--- for fun and profit..... I'll have a little more to say about it---and what it says about our equal opportunity, gender-neutral moral decay and Gotcha! mentality----later.



LATER: While some women may cheer uproariously that the plot-line here is one of infidelity and recreational sex which now puts the proverbial shoe squarely on the other foot and this is vastly entertaining, I say, that foot and its mate are nonetheless so diseased and depraved they're maimed beyond recognition.

In fact, so crippled are the glamorized feet that star in this movie I can only add wrong is still wrong is still wrong is still wrong. Wrong is wrong no matter who does the wronging and who is the wrongee or how beautiful they are; it's an equal opportunity de-moralizer. Same song, umpteenth verse---airport security-blackberry-board room-to bedroom edition. This movie is entertaining and no doubt we'll see ourselves in the traveling scenes as well as those of people getting fired by the cool hand of Clooney the tough-love professional jerk who always has the I-get-the-last-word/please hand over your office keys then hurry up and get on with your life upper hand.

Still, I shudder to think how many kids will go to this movie, not recognizing the desperately sad isolation and detachment it glamorizes and pursues. It's a movie of the compassionless lost leading the compassionless lost to even greater lostness. A movie where people meet, interact and never change, grow or grow up. Rather, like rats on a wheel, they seem to go on endlessly imprisoned into taking the easy, quick fix way out, digging themselves deeper into graves of their own making. This is not freedom, folks.

Slavery and depravity, thy 2009 movie is Up In the Air. It will be wildly popular this season. My nomination for What-Goes-Up-Must-Always-Come-Down-with-a-Thud award.

Canadian Patients Come to Oklahoma For Surgery, Often After Years of Waiting

WITH PRIVATE HEALTH CARE there are little or no wait times. Profit incentives and free market mechanisms provide higher quality, more efficient and affordable choices here in the United States. So why would we ever want to change our system to be more like Canada's? Oh wait! We don't. It's our government elites, hijacking our system for power and expanded government control in our lives from cradle to grave, who want to change it to an unrecognizable degree. Are we going to allow this?

If Congress succeeds in destroying free markets for medical care and insurance here, a black market will explode, fueled by bribes and under-the-table deals. Medical tourism is and will also blossom even more into a growing industry for people willing to go to abroad for treatments and surgeries sometimes at a third the cost.

H/T

Funny Or Sad?

NOT SURE WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY

Let's Change the Subject

TUESDAY UPDATE: Climate Conference in disarray after yet another leak, this time the Danish text leak. Also, is green the new Marxism?
TRUE BELIEVERS FROM 192 countries got the man-made climate change propaganda Monday in Copenhagen. But mostly this conference is preaching to the choir. Meanwhile many mainstream Americans are defecting and turning their backs on the religion of AGW. However, that does not mean we are turning our backs on being good stewards of the environment and the earth. It also does not mean we don't think the earth may be going through a warming cycle. On the other hand, some think we're moving into cooling temps.

WSJPhotos

Gender-Neutral Silliness: Female Therapists/Writers/Lawyers Hoped To Make Tiger Woods Into A Kewpie Doll of Male Victimhood

UPDATE: A Christian view on Tiger Woods

MANUFACTURING GROWN MEN INTO VICTIMS OF GROWN WOMEN'S PHYSICAL BRUTALITY IS THEIR PARAMOUNT GOAL---THE SOONER THE BETTER FOR BUSINESS

A DAY OR SO AFTER Tiger Wood's infamous run-in with a fire hydrant and wreck into a next-door neighbor's tree, pieces of circumstantial information were pieced together by the rumor-gossip mill that came up with the story that poor Tiger had been run outta his house terrified by his violent and abusive Nordic wife wielding a nine-iron.

Their story continues, so weak and unhinged was Woods that he subsequently wrecked his car trying to escape her wrath. Several days later after Tiger took responsibility for the accident, the rumor mill already decided Tiger was covering up for his wife's spousal abuse out of fear. (A little projection going on here?)

Gender correctness hoped to make Woods into the poster boy male victim overnight and worried that he might cover up for Elin, only to return home and get into battered man syndrome. They yammered that Elin needed to face the kind of justice, even jail time that any of her (equality of all gender outcomes!) male counterparts would have to face. Some of them opined gleefully that Tiger had erroneously saved Elin from being carted away in hand-cuffs. They demanded gender-neutral justice. And they wanted it now, even though none of the facts had even begun to come clear.

Give me a break.

One of the real kickers was when a well-known female therapist/ blogger wrung her hands in over-concern on her site and asked with a straight face the weightiest of questions:

"I wonder if Tiger Woods will get the same treatment Rihanna got when it came to domestic violence? Somehow, I doubt Diane Sawyer will be interviewing him on Good Morning America about his injuries--at least, not with any sympathy."

If I were a man, I'd have been insulted as hell at her patronizing question.

Glad she went on to answer it in the very same breath so the rest of us don't have to: No, we guess Diane Sawyer would not be interviewing Tiger with any great degree of over-sympathy now or ever. And to be brutally honest, it's doubtful that Tiger would be interested in submitting to Diane's form of public inquiry for less money than say a billion dollars up front.

Actually no self-respecting man I know, or have ever known would want to be interviewed as a victim by Diane Sawyer,or any by any other of the maternalistic elites of daytime TV.

Most self-respecting men I know would rather do jail time than be on Oprah or Diane's shows. And I admit that's just the men I know. It appears that there's a growing slew of put-upon men flocking to sites like her for validation and justification. I'm sure there is a need out there and that's fine and good.

This therapist on a later post---still operating under the same hoped-for illusion wondered again with all seriousness: Was Tiger hiding something?

Well yes, my dear, we think he was. Only not what you hoped for. Not by a long shot down a long fairway with lots of hazards.

In the aftermath of all this silliness, I want to say a few things that are gender and politically incorrect.

******

I believe male and female physical violence are very different and should be treated differently no matter how politically incorrect it is. That does not mean that I'm advocating for physical violence against men. No man nor woman is outside of the rule of law. I also think domestic violence comes in many, many forms other than mere physical violence and abuse: violent silence and cut-off, violent infidelity and the possibillity of infecting one's spouse with STDs , violent nagging, violent gossiping and emotional unfaithfulness. Most people never learn how to deal with normal anger---which can get rough at times--and inevitable conflict, fleeing instead from it until it becomes violent for lack of venting and normal expression.

I also make a huge distinction between sex inside and outside marriage---and a covenant relationship with God. That too is not correct in the secular world, but that is what I think. Infidelity within marriage has much more serious consequences in the eyes of God and the church.

Life and marriage---even the best ones---are messy. And they need the space to be messy outside the confines of the thought and equality police who want to remake society into their busy body image.

I'm done now. I pray for Tiger and this family now in deep crisis and distress.

2009's Most Embarrassing People

UPDATE: ELIN NORDEGREN MOVES OUT OF THEIR HOME.

2009 HAS YIELDED A BUMPER CROP OF chumps doing very embarrassing things, if not down-right despicable damage to themselves, their reputations and to others. None of us is immune to bad behavior and all of us have done embarrassing things we regret. Still this year's field is so crowded with indiscretion that we'd be hard-pressed to choose a winner who's managed to bring the greatest destruction and shame to himself, his family and career in the least amount of time.

From Gov. Mark Sanford's, John Edwards' and David Letterman's sordid marital infidelities to Kayne West's music-award hijacking, Carrie Prejean's ups then fall from grace after the Miss USA contest, Levi Johnson's baby daddy publicity stunts and finally the couple who broke through security at the White House state dinner recently---just to name a few---our heads spin as we see ourselves and our own cultural and moral depravity paraded before our eyes 24/7. The Daily Beast today gives a graphic panoramic slide show of this year's top contenders, most notably leaving out David Letterman (Why?).

For me however, 2009's hands down loser-winner is a no-brainer. The main contender has to be someone I basically liked and respected in the first place, even from a great distance. Since many contestants are people I simple didn't know existed much less cared about, most of these embarrassing people can be eliminated quickly---though not for their lack of trying.


But if there's one person that takes my breath away this year, whom I've lost all respect for as a man, a husband and father and finally a professional, it's Tiger Woods. He has managed to so out-do himself in shattering his own image so drastically that I cannot imagine his life will ever be the same again. Some say the public has a very short memory and he'll be fine long-term. But I doubt he will with me. Or I should say, he can only recover in some way by the painful process of the Grace of God. My heart goes out to his wife, his little children and to his family. Can't imagine that daddy Earle isn't twirling in his grave, though I don't know much about his own lifestyle choices back when he was raising Tiger.

Whether you're surprised or just sad and disgusted, Tiger is my loser chump of the year, decade. His life is clearly out-of-control and I can't read any more. Shallow, devoid of integrity and most of all devoid of sex appeal---that's what I think of this golfer named Tiger Woods.

Sunday, Forgiveness Seven Times Seventy

HERE'S A LINK TO LON SOLOMON'S series on People Jesus Met: The Unforgiving Servant.

Will be back next week to continue writing about Tim Keller's new book on idols, Counterfeit Gods. Meanwhile, a small clip from Keller on why he wrote the book. There needs to be far, far more of these YouTubes from this fine pastor and teacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that his teachings can be heard and seen farther and far wider than New York City and blessed enclaves of the PCA church.

I'm extremely fortunate I can attend Redeemer when I'm here in the city. God bless on this second Sunday of Advent as we wait to celebrate the birth of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Light of the world.

Rockefeller Center 12/4, The Christmas Season Has Commenced!

IT'S HERE AND I'M THERE---- happy and grateful---during Advent, one of the most wonderful and difficult and intense times of the year!

Gore Cancels 'Cash for Shakers' Fundraiser in Copenhagen

ASIDE FROM suddenly cancelling his big speech scheduled for next week in Copenhagen, Al Gore has cancelled his fundraising event---Cash for Shakers--- which would have allowed his adoring fans and AGW followers to shake his hand for only $1,200 a whack. Plastic smile and brief eye contact were to have been included and considered tax deductible. However, due to unforeseen man-made events beyond his control, Al said this event has been cancelled until further notice or f-o-r-e-v-e-r, whichever comes first.

Oh well, guess we'll have to let Jerry Lee the first, last and greatest shake man of all time step in to console us as best he can. Take it away Jerry:

Man-Made Global News: Al Gore Cancels Speech and Appearance in Copenhagen Next Week

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

FOR A MAN LIKE AL GORE---who's been prepping for several years to speak and appear at the grand Climate confab on AGW in Copenhagen--- to suddenly cancel and throw in the towel because of unforeseen circumstances...... it really tells us how severe the climate fraud scandal really is.

We're in major climate meltdown and heads are rolling everywhere.

NOT SURE WHICH is more embarrassing: Tiger Woods caught red-handed with his pants down or AGW scientists caught with their pants off---buck naked with no place to hide. WOW, what a week of bare behinds.

Habledash reports:

It seems that the tables have turned for the self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet, Al Gore. As "climategate" exposes the lies of man made climate change, the complete mess, Al Gore has cancelled his appearance and speech at the highly anticipated event in Copenhagen on December 16th. Gore cited unforeseen changes in his schedule as the reason for the cancellation. Yup, the event Gore's been preparing for over a year suddenly has a scheduling conflict.

It's more than evident that the "climategate" issue is causing some panic for the people that would reap billions from any laws based on the phony science of man made global warming.

Great Christmas Gift Idea, Unlocking the Mystery of Life

THIS DVD IS NOTHING SHORT OF AMAZING. Even people who don't think they want to watch it---who think they know all there is to know about how the world came about---come away almost speechless and not nearly so convinced of Darwin's theory of evolution. And it's made in its entirety by scientists.

Something that I've always wondered: Everything we use on a daily basis--- chairs, hair-dryers, computers, airplanes, cars, toothpicks etc----each and every one of them had some intelligent designer who thought it up, drew it out on a drawing board, engineered and re-engineered it before finally bringing it into existence. Not one of these things just sprung up or evolved on its own from nothing without a designer and a builder.

Was a chair I'm sitting on just an ottoman before it spontaneously evolved into my Pottery Barn catalog, then my house? Was an ottoman just a stump of wood before it evolved into a footstool on its own? I'd be considered a lunatic to make such an argument with a straight face.

Yet, we modern sophisticates have the audacity to think the intricacies of the universe and man evolved from amoebas and salamanders without a designer! We not only say it, we say it with dour conviction and reverence. We say it with the same conviction that we say that the science of man-made global warming is overwhelming and closed to further discussion. I mean, how utterly ridiculous it that? How arrogant? How realistic? In my book it's the silliest of sillies.

I'll take my Holy of Holies any day. He's the Ultimate Designer of everything and the Ultimate Designer of me. Unlike all those dark, dull darwinians, My Creator has a wild sense of humor.....after all he made me! He made laughter and he made the French roast half-and-half coffee I'm charging myself with right now.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to run brush my teeth with that tooth brush of mine that just evolved from a racoon's tail totally on its own. But I need to hurry before it morphs into a broom too big to fit into my mouth! We won't even talk about where my toothpaste evolved from.....way too early in the morning to go there!

Health Care Reform Using Lasik To Expand Access, Cut Costs

YOU GUESSED IT: NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE

COME ON IN...PULL UP A CHAIR, make yourself a cup of coffee and watch every minute of this, then watch it again if you haven't already. The only problem with this video is it's too rational, sane, simple and inexpensive for our spendthrifts in Congress to take seriously. All they know how to do is complicated and laborious. But that doesn't have to stop the rest of us from promoting health care sanity and sobriety.



With CVS and Wal-Mart now getting into the routine clinic business, market-based solutions for affordable health care have never looked better or been within reach of so many, many people.

H/T

Tennessee Dem Rep. John Tanner to Retire in 2010

UPDATE: The Dangerous Dozen House Races of 2010
THIS IS GOOD NEWS for swing state Tennessee and conservatives everywhere. While, Tanner is a blue dog Democrat and mostly fiscally conservative, there is new blood in the wings that many of us are excited about. How about a farmer and gospel singer going to Congress? I kinda like the ring of it:

Tanner was almost certain to have a tough election. GOPers are thrilled with the prospects of Stephen Fincher (R), a farmer and gospel singer who raised more than $300K in his first several weeks campaigning. Though Tanner has nearly $1.4M in the bank, he may not have wanted to deal with what would have been his first tough race in years.

An open seat has the potential to attract big fields on both sides. Fincher may have the benefit of a strong head start, but he may soon find company in such an attractive race for the GOP. Still, GOPers believe he's the real deal, and his warchest may scare others away.

Tiger Woods, From World-Class Golfer to 3rd-Rate Caddy In Just One Week

AND SLAVE TO APHRODISIAC OF FAME, FORTUNE

I SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED Tiger Woods has clay feet, but am deeply sadden nonetheless for his wife, Elin, and their wee children. She obviously married a cad when she thought she was getting more or less a grown man who plays very good golf. I can't image the confusion, sense of abandonment, betrayal not to mention the public humiliation she must be going through right now. Oh wait! Maybe I can. Yes I can, even if just a little. Meanwhile, the song below is for Elin this Christmas. In spite of it all, she will make it through this hell and hopefully be better one day and even laugh. With God's help. Still someday can seem a very long time away.

Hopefully Elin already knows that the minute, the second, she's sure she's lost total respect for Tiger---she'll probably never stop loving the cad and maybe one day will forgive him--- it's totally and completely over, cause men need respect from women as much, if not more than they need sex. When respect goes out the window, there's very little hope for real reconciliation in a marriage. It's up to her to search her shattered heart and ultimately come clean with herself about this. May God help them---and us--- all right now. The depths of our moral, national and societal depravity and arrogance is shocking and seemingly without bounds these days.



MEANWHILE, LARRY KUDLOW TO TIGER: FESS UP, MAN. OWN IT CAUSE IF YOU DON'T, YOUR BOTTOM WILL BE LOWER THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE! Larry knows of what he speaks.