Sunday, February 28, 2016

The Bible Project Makes Learning the Bible Fun

AM CRAZY ABOUT THE BIBLE PROJECT! Take a look and see what you think. Ultimately, they're doing the entire Bible.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

How To Make Rich And Nourishing (Beef) Bone Broth

THERE'S SIMPLY NOTHING LIKE HOMEMADE, SLOW-COOKED BEEF BONE BROTH. Loaded with minerals, it's great to sip it as is, or added to flavor soups, gravies and even salad dressings---as mixed with olive oil, warmed and drizzled over wilted greens with a hard-boiled egg. Mark's Daily Apple today has all about the basics of bone broth as well as several variations.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Truman Show: Beware Crowds-On-Demand Hiring Actors to Protest In Public Meetings

UPDATE--DREHER:  LANDS END POLITICIZES ITS LATEST CATALOG

THIS DISTURBING TREND HIGHLIGHTED @ ZERO HEDGE IS HAPPENING IN NASHVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD MEETINGS AND ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.   These faux protesters are paid to come in and accuse everyone who doesn't agree with the developer of being a racist, or sexist, or....fill in the blank.

What  can you do about this practice at your next meeting? Be aware that it's happening.  Then get names, addresses and phone numbers if possible and ask  strangers you don't know if they are being paid to be there.  This is getting more and more a common practice used by developers to mow down private citizens and neighborhood groups who don't want their plan crammed down their throats.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Here’s a bothersome trend that seems quite fitting for the smoke and mirrors driven, celebrity obsessed, hologram society that America has become. A company known as Crowds on Demand is actually in the business of providing fake protesters for causes, fake entourages for wanna be celebrities and seemingly even fake supporters for unpopular corporate activities.

This just furthers my feeling that action is far more important than traditional protests in the 21st Century. They key to getting out of the mess we are in is to actively create a parallel economy and even monetary system adjacent to the current terminal one. That way, when this one blows up, we already have the infrastructure in place to move to another paradigm. One characterized by peaceful, voluntary human interaction and dominated by decentralization in virtually all aspects of human existence.

– From the 2013 post: Protesters for Hire: For a Few Thousand Dollars We’ll Buy
I first highlighted the company Crowds on Demand over two years ago in the above post. Turns out it’s much worse than I could have imagined.

From NBC News:

In Camarillo, citizens aren’t shy about expressing their opinions. But on a chilly Wednesday night in December, city officials say one man stood out.

For nearly three minutes, Prince Jordan Tyson is on camera telling city leaders what he later admits, is a lie.

In fact, Tyson, who is not from Camarillo, is a self described struggling actor from Beverly Hills and he now believes he was involved in a secretive new industry where actors are hired to try and sway public officials.
In this case, a construction project in Camarillo he says he was hired to criticize.

“It was scripted, they told me what to say,” Tyson told NBC4.

Some of those scripted lines, he says were provided by recent UCLA graduate Adam Swart, CEO of a company called Crowds on Demand, which will stage rallies and demonstrations for any almost candidate or cause.

Swart says he has employed actors to sway city officials in meetings across the country.

“I have worked with dozens of campaigns for state officials, and 2016 presidential candidates,” Swart told NBC4, adding that he won’t name any names.

“I can’t go in to detail… if I did, nobody would hire us.”

The California Political Practices Commission tells NBC4 political campaigns are required by law to report expenditures.

But, public records indicate only one committee in the entire state has ever reported paying “Crowds On Demand”, that committee is Six California’s, the campaign to split California in to 6 different states.

State officials say some campaigns and politicians who hire “Crowds On Demand”… and fail to report campaign expenditures, could be breaking the law.

Hiring actors is not illegal. Although, entertainment law attorney and USC professor Lincoln Bandlow says telling those actors what to do and say could lead to lawsuits, if someone feels harmed.

“Paying someone to go out there and make false representations to a city council is going to give rise to possible fraud claims, possible intentional interference with business relations claims, maybe defamatory statement claims.”

Swart would not confirm to NBC4 that he hired Tyson or gave him lines, but says he has hired actors on multiple occasions to try and sway city officials across the country.

Swart tells NBC4 he has 20,000 actors across the country and most are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
If there’s a hell, this guy’s going. Personally, I’d settle for prison.
You a Small Entourage.

ALSO TODAY: The most important abortion case in decades is about to be argued before the Supreme Court. It focuses on the health and safety of the mother. Read on.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Sunday---The Remarkable Faith of Monty Williams In the Depths of Suffering

15 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR HOME A HARDER TARGET FOR THIEVES

ALMOST A YEAR AGO, Monty Williams was fired as the head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans two weeks after his team was eliminated from the NBA playoffs.

Many thought he had done enough to keep the job, having just led his team to the playoffs for the first time in four years.

Reporters asked Williams about the somewhat surprising firing. He responded by thanking the organization and the fans, and then gave a reason for the surprising hope that was in him:
God has always been in control of my life. . . . Romans 8:28 is in my heart. All things work out for people who are called by Jesus Christ. . . . God’s brought me through too much to complain and be bitter.
Nine short months later, now an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Monty Williams found out last week that his 44-year-old wife had been killed in a head-on car accident. The other driver was driving 92 mph (in a 40-miles-per-hour zone) when she crossed the center line and careened head-on into Ingrid Williams’s SUV. Three of their children were in the car with her; each survived with serious injuries.
A week later, Monty Williams stood over the body of his wife of twenty years and mother of their five children — Lael, Faith, Janna, Elijah, and Micah — and delivered a powerful seven-minute eulogy.
Having only been a husband for ten months now, I watched with heartache and admiration. He seems to embody the promise of Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” In the end, I took away three lessons from Williams’s faith-filled words and example.

1. In every situation and circumstance, even the most serious and tragic, the most important things we can know or say are about God and his gospel.

Williams says,
What we’ve gone through is pretty tough, and it’s hard, and we want an answer, and we don’t always get that answer when we want it, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that God loves us, and that’s what my wife [lived to], and that’s what I try to, however badly, exhibit on a daily basis. . . . He loved me so much that he sent his Son to die for my sins.
Do you have news good enough to hold you when tragedy strikes? Will you have a tear-filled song of victory to sing when a wave of sorrow crashes into your life? Have you known a Love stronger than the worst grief this world might bring?
Williams went on to say,
The Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. America teaches us to numb that, and [says] that it’s not true. But it is true. This will work out. That doesn’t mean it’s not hard or painful. What we need is the Lord.
This man appears to have walked with God such that when his wife was suddenly ripped away, he had the resources not only to suffer well, but to summon the world to his Savior. His grief doesn’t resound with self-pity or bitterness, but with strong and resilient hope and selfless compassion.
As he clings to his God and to the gospel, his loss declares and displays the power and the beauty of the cross.

2. Those who have been forgiven by God are free to forgive in full.

Williams says,
Everybody’s praying for me and my family, but let us not forget there were two people in this situation. And that family needs prayer as well. And we have no ill will toward that family. In my house, we have a sign that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We cannot serve the Lord if we don’t have a heart of forgiveness.
Williams is living out the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21–35). The servant owed the king ten thousand talents (the equivalent of 200,000 years of work), and since he couldn’t pay, the king intended to sell him and his family into slavery. The servant pled with the king, and the king showed him mercy and forgave all his debt. Then the servant turned and refused to show mercy to someone who owed him just a hundred denarii (the equivalent of 200 days of work). The king heard of this and threw him in jail for his lack of mercy. Jesus says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:35).
Monty Williams had been forgiven too much to hold even his wife’s death against anyone. How much could someone possibly steal from you today? In Christ, God has forgiven us a million times more. Therefore, having been showered with his undeserved love and mercy, we have been freed to dumfound the world and forgive any debt in full.

3. God miraculously works in our worst suffering to tell the world about himself and his love.

Williams ends by saying,
Let’s not lose sight of what’s important. God will work this out. My wife is in heaven. God is love. And when we walk away from this place today, let’s celebrate, because my wife is where we all need to be, and I’m envious of that. . . .
We didn’t lose [my wife]. When you lose something, you can’t find it. I know exactly where my wife is. . . . I’m going to miss her. Let’s not lose sight of what’s important. God is important. What Christ did on the cross is important.
In the midst of the most terrible tragedy and immersed in one of the greatest potential distractions from God in human history — professional sports — the gospel has suddenly and brilliantly emerged. The loss silenced the media’s obsession with scores, trades, and championships long enough for us all to hear that Jesus alone is Lord, Savior, and Treasure. A God worthy of trust and worship in the death of a wife is a God worth hearing about.
It’s another reminder that God relentlessly turns our tragedies of suffering into triumphs of his glory.

A Song for the Suffering

Williams’s resilient faith and hope reminded me of a moving song by Shane & Shane, Though You Slay Me.
Though you slay me
Yet I will praise you
Though you take from me
I will bless your name
Though you ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need


At the 3:22 mark in this video, John Piper says,
Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain, from the fallen nature or fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that.
I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism. I don’t care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something! It’s not meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing. Don’t look to what is seen.
When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you’ve got cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say, “That’s meaningless!” It’s not. It’s working for you an eternal weight of glory.
Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.
Ingrid Williams’s death is not meaningless. We cannot now see all that God is doing, but I pray that he will sustain Monty’s faith in the difficult days ahead, reminding this bereaved husband and father again and again that he is infinitely loved and cared for by his Heavenly Father. May God protect Lael, Faith, Janna, Elijah, and Micah from the evil one as they mourn and miss their mom for years to come. And may God spread the beautiful testimony of this family’s faith throughout the NBA and throughout the world, bringing many to everlasting life through the tragedy and victory of this wife and mother’s death.

FROM DESIRING GOD

Thursday, February 18, 2016

The Fallible Pope Steps In It To His Great Detriment

HEAVEN KNOWS, I'M NO FAN OF DONALD TRUMP. In fact, I was getting ready to write here that if the vote goes down to Hillary verses Donald, I will probably abstain from voting this fall. Still, I have to say, I think the Pope just stepped completely out of his bounds with his statements today about Trump's Christian beliefs as he pondered a border fence with Mexico. It's widely known the Pope comes from a socialist background. His statement is total Pharisee thinking at its worst, even if Trump probably is a Christian in Name Only (CINO,) it's a terrible and inappropriate thing to say and a hole he--the Pope---will have a very hard time digging himself out of. I am aghast at this man's taking such liberties with the United State's political process. Truly aghast.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Sunday---Rosaria Butterfield On Alternatives to the Pro-Choice Mindset

DOWD NAILS WHY YOUNGER WOMEN REJECT HILLARY  

WE NEED TO BE THE HANDS AND FEET OF GOD IN THE LIVES OF DESPERATE WOMEN. We must use more than words to show women that they and their children are not alone.

This video is from a woman who was a former practicing lesbian and radical feminist whose life was dramatically transformed when she had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. She is now married to a Presbyterian minister of the Gospel.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Justice Scalia Is Gone---A Terrible Loss For Conservative Principles, Our Constitution and Country

GOD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL.

What a wonderful time and place to go to his Maker....at Cibola for a weekend of quail hunting. We should all be so fortunate!

 

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Word to the Fed: Do Nothing, Word to Investors: Gird Your Loins

STUART SCHNEIDERMAN: FRANCE NOW LEADS THE WAY IN THE WAR ON TERROR
THIS TOO SHALL PASS, but it may take a while to sort out. Stop looking to the Fed and MaMa Yellan who helped bring on this crash to begin with with QE, ZIRP etc for the past 9 years, along with all the other central banks of the world. Meanwhile, many traders think the Fed---and all central banks---won't be able to save stocks and it's out of bullets. Negative rates will not help, in fact are predicted to hurt.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Gartman Says Fed Should Shut Up and Do Nothing

UPDATE: WORLD  EQUITY  MARKETS  CRASH 6 TRILLION BELOW 2007 HIGHS

MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY.

Why does the Fed always respond by doing something?  It only makes things worse down the road as it forestalls the inevitable pain and normal market cycles---rather than letting markets sort things out with short-term pain then move on?

Markets are like seasons of the year with winter always coming after summer and fall. When the Fed and other central banks try to keep markets in perpetual summer, it's hubris. This is not rocket science, but the Fed---which has zero accountability to anyone, anything---keeps acting like it is the center of the universe.  What a sad, ridiculous joke.  

Meanwhile we fixate---like children looking for a father  figure--on the presidential candidates, or on ama Yellan, as if any one of them can do anything about this and save  us from ourselves.

I say,  abolish the Fed!  The sooner the better and let us grow up.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Peyton Celebrates, Drinks Bud, Cam Has A Tam


IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING, TRUE CHAMPIONS ARE NEVER MADE OVER-NIGHT. Champion Peyton Manning capped off his stellar, long career last night with a mediocre showing but a Denver victory, letting the Broncos defense carry the day to what may be his last NFL game.

Everything ended as it should  and today the world rejoices for and with Peyton Manning! Congratulations Denver!

Meanwhile Cam Newton sulked like a baby showing he's not the gracious champion we'd hoped. As my country denist in Dickson said to me today, 'Cam was brought down a few pegs last night....he's a rich, talented, nice looking boy. Maybe this defeat will help him start to grow up a little....'

We can only hope that Peyton retires on this one, and Cam matures a little so he won't go down the tubes with the likes of Johnny Manziel.  We won't even talk about Cam's arrogant disrespect of during the national anthem.  What a complete lack of class.

Andrew Klaven weighs in on Cam.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Sunday---The Line of Good and Evil Going Through Every Human Heart: Should Princeton Strip Honor From President Woodrow Wilson?



THIS IS A BALANCED, THOUGHTFUL PIECE BY TREVIN WAX AT THE GOSPEL COALITION ON WHETHER PRINCETON SHOULD 'DEMOTE' ITS ALUM, THE FORMER PRESIDENT, DUE TO HIS VIEWS ON RACE.  As is often the case in life, the over-simplified answer is not in touch with reality and the Biblical response to human nature---we all are 'deeply flawed':

“We owe nothing to people who are ‘deeply flawed’.”

So says Wilglory Tanjong, writing for the Black Justice League, to explain why Princeton University should strip its buildings and titles of any reference to one of the school’s most notable alumni, former president Woodrow Wilson. The Black Justice League believes Wilson’s achievements as president a century ago are overshadowed by atrocious views on race and segregation.

How has Princeton responded to the demands to demote Wilson?

According to Tanjong, the administration claims “we owe a great deal to people who are deeply flawed, and not many people can transcend the prejudices of the times they lived in.” Instead of sitting in judgment, the administration recommends we “assess ourselves with great humility because we, too, are flawed, and it’s likely that we will also be guilty of sins and prejudices that to future generations who look back on our own legacies will be very obvious.”

We could sum up Princeton’s position as an application of the Golden Rule in temporal terms: Do unto others (in the past) what you would have others (in the future) do unto you.

Tanjong’s response rejects that possibility out of hand: “We owe nothing to people who are ‘deeply flawed.’” Wilson’s sin in one area outweighs anything good he may have done in another. He is due no honor.

Who is right here?

Wax goes on to elaborate on the conservative as well as the progressive errors in reviewing history and complex human nature. He moves on with how we can best assess our forebearers in light of taking stock in our own human flaws.  It's a thoughtful read and quotes one of my favorite figures from the past:

Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn endured years of abuse in the Gulag for opposing the Communist regime. Solzhenitsyn recognized that most people cannot be easily categorized “good” and “bad.” Life is simply too complex. “The line of good and evil runs through every human heart,” he wrote. That insight comes not from a man of privilege, cloistered in an ivory tower, sheltered from suffering. It comes from someone who looked evil squarely in the eye, and yet was incisive enough to see evil lurking in his own heart. Well worth a thoughtful read.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Congratulations To Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio

MARCO RUBIO'S NOVEMBER ELECTABILITY PROBLEM
RED STATE--TWO WINNERS AND A GAGGLE OF LOSERS
DRUHER--TED CRUZ IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS
ABSOLUTELY,  TOP-NOTCH CAUCUS CAMPAIGNS!  Well done, gentlemen. Now, on to New Hampshire.

APPARENTLY, CRUZ IS A SERIOUS CONTENDER WITH A STRATEGY AND GRASS-ROOTS STRUCTURE THAT WORKS.  He's always been my favored candidate. Rubio definitely has improved his standing with his showing. And Trump gave a fairly humble concession speech. 

Anything can happen now.

I'm Calling It In Iowa For The Donald, Hillary (Barely) and At Downton Abbey For Lady Mary And Tom Bransom Getting Together

I COULD BE WRONG, BUT THAT'S HOW I SEE IT.