The Catholic Church seems to be increasingly taking the position that voting for The Obamessiah was/is a sin.

I have been unable to determine so far if it is a mortal sin or merely a venial sin. Perhaps this will be clarified later.

In Modesto, California, Father Joe Illo, the pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, told his parishioners in a letter that they should go to confession before receiving communion, if they voted for Barack Obama:

"If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously."

Illo himself is unable to identify the degree of sin by casting a vote for The One:

"In Catholic teaching, you have to go to confession when you have committed a mortal sin," he said. "Now, what is a mortal sin? It's somewhat complex. No one can say, 'You committed a mortal sin.' I can only say, 'It's a grave matter.' It's my job to look after my parishioners.

A Greenville, SC priest told his parishioners essentially the same thing. He was supported by the Diocese. This guy was quite specific about the degree of sin involved in voting for Obama. Here is a copy of that letter:

Priest Calls Vote for Obama a Mortal Sin

The religious right, including the Catholic church, have really missed a bet with their hard-nosed anti-abortion position. Their intransigence allows for no dialog. Politicians who share Obama's views are, it would seem, in the same league as the Anti-Christ.

But do people like Obama encourage abortion? Does Planned Parenthood actually encourage abortion?

Will overturning Wade v. Roe really put a stop to abortions?

Actually, all it will do is return the option to the individual states. Even John McCain said that, several times during the campaign. Does anyone really think all of the states are going to go to a strict 'no abortions' position? It's been well over thirty years since the Wade v. Roe decision, and the most rabid of the Christian Right, combined with the full weight of the Republican Party, has been unable to achieve an overturn. One wonders just how hard the Repubs have really tried, and if the truth be known, it's not very...but that's another story.

Obama has supported increased prenatal support, and income support (why not? we're providing billions in the way of 'income support' to obscenely overpaid CEO's; why not spread some of that cash out to pregnant women?); paid maternity leave; greater access to effective adoption processes. Would that be more effective in reducing the number of abortions?

Meanwhile, the Religious Right continues to go nuts over the idea of condoms in the schools, of sex education in the schools, shrilly screeching about 'abstinence'. The fact of the matter is, they aren't reaching a lot of people with that 'abstinence' thing. They can't get people into the churches, and most people really don't want to hear their self-righteous crap about how others should behave.

Priests like Illo and the fellow in South Carolina, and the higher ups who support them, are just one of many, many reasons I got out of the Church of Perpetual Guilt a long, long time ago. That doesn't even touch upon the multitudes of Protestant pastors who thunder mightily from the pulpit about abortion, offering no solutions, offering nothing but hellfire and damnation while driving home the message that they and their ilk are the worst kind of self-righteous, judgmental, finger-pointing modern versions of the Pharisees.

The Ay-rabs are whining that the price of oil should be higher than it is right now.

The Saudi king says he thinks $75 a barrel is a fair price.

Really.

Where was that thinking earlier this year when it was over $140 a barrel?

The Middle Eastern thought processes and logic, or lack thereof, are a continual source of amazement.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Saudi Arabia's king says the price of oil should be $75 a barrel, much higher than it is now, but his oil minister indicated Saturday that no measures will likely be taken until OPEC meets again next month.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will "do what needs to be done" to shore up falling oil prices when the cartel meets Dec. 17 in Algeria.

Naimi did not entirely rule out the chance that the cartel would slash output at a hastily convened meeting of OPEC members in Cairo Saturday, but he said the bloc needs to wait until the Algeria meeting to assess the impact of earlier production cuts.

His comments came after Saudi King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah in an interview published Saturday that oil should be priced at $75 a barrel.

"We believe the fair price for oil is $75 a barrel," he said, without saying how the price could be raised.

The price of crude stood at about $147 a barrel in mid-July. On Friday, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was trading at about $54 per barrel.

So, CitiBank has been bailed out by the taxpayers.

One might reasonably presume that some of those taxpayers are CitiBank customers.

CitiBank, having received piles of money and guarantees in the hundreds of billions of dollars from the government, has responded by hiking the interest rates on credit card accounts:

CitiBank tells cardholders to take a hike

and here is another one:

Citibank to raise interest rates

So what we have here is the Federal government holding down the taxpayers...or holding up the taxpayers...and letting CitiBank screw them not once, but twice. The Federal government is an accomplice to all this.

While CNN and the rest of the mainstream media have been swooning over the Obamanomics team, an interesting little tidbit has floated to the surface.

This one has to do with Article I, Section 6 of the United States Constitution:

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time: and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

On the face of it, that means that the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is...unconstitutional.

That statement is not some bit of tinfoil hattery.

It has come up before, at least twice, in recent history.

Please examine the drama surrounding the appointment of then-sitting Senator William Saxbe to be attorney general. The clause cited above kicked in, and a very questionable bit of maneuvering took place to circumvent it.

Also examine the appointment by President Jimmy Carter of then-sitting Senator Ed Muskie to be secretary of state. That sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Another bit of slight-of-hand came about to make it stick.

So while the outright appointment of Hillary Clinton is unquestionably unconstitutional, you can bet your last dollar (make it quick, before AIG or CitiBank or one of the Big Three gets it) that 'the fix will be in' on that one, too.

The mainstream media is missing this one, and only one opinion piece in the LA Times seems to have brought it up. Any bets on whether or not you'll see it any time soon on CNN or MSNBC?

Meanwhile, for starters, see:

The Saxbe Fix

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday it’s going to take some time for the financial markets and the economy to improve.

Speaking during a press conference to outline the Treasury and Federal Reserve’s plan to finance the issuance of non-mortgage asset backed securities in order to back lending to consumers and small businesses, Paulson said “it will take time to work through the difficulties in our markets and our economy, and new challenges will continue to arise.”

He said this as he announced that he - they - whatever - are pumping yet another huge chunk of tax dollars into saving the pirates and thieves who are running America's corporations. Whether this helps any of The Little People remains to be seen. CitiBank, run into the ground by 'the Rubin constellation' now being put together as The Obamanomics Team, is still laying off somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 people. Have you heard anything about that changing since the Feds gave the Rubin Crew the $300 billion guarantees? I haven't.

Happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas. You can bet that Robert Rubin and Chuck Prince the Third and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Frank Raines and all those bandits are going to be having a great Christmas. And all the while, half of America is going to be worshipping at the altar of The One, while CNN and most of the rest of the Mainstream Media is gushing all overthemselves over The Wonder Of It All.

Meanwhile, back to the kitchen, where I have a most delicious Salciccia Toscano with smoked Tuscany basil and other herbs, simmering away. We are going to have it over linguine.

You must realize that it is important that the fresh tomatoes be crushed in the same manner as are grapes for Tuscan wine...that is, Tuscan virgins squish the tomatoes between their delightful toes. The basil, before it is hung up in the smokehouses of Tuscany, is rolled between the thighs of those Tuscan virgins, much in the same manner as are the fine tobaccos used in Cuban cigars. Though of course that is accomplished by Cuban, not Tuscan, virgins.

We proceed apace. Thank you, Lord, for what we have, and offer comfort and solace to those who are being screwed by corporate America and our beloved politicians.

Here ya go:

Obama should think twice about his economic team...oops...too late!

Here at Blogger Central, we have been less than enthusiastic about the Clintonistas and other party hacks that The Obamessiah has been appointing. It reeks and stinks of cronyism and Chicago political machine back-scratching and payoff.

James Pinkerton has been doing some digging. Here are a few exerpts about the Obamanomics Team:

Back in October, right here on FOX News, I noted that the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, was in the room when the bailout decision was made—a decision which, according to The New York Times, protected a $20 billion Goldman Sachs position with AIG. And, of course, Goldman Sachs is the Wall Street firm once headed by the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. I compared that incestuous financial relationship to the Teapot Dome scandal of the 20s, but the Obamans don’t seem to agree.

Meanwhile, in the words of the Competitive Enterprise Institute economist Jon Berlau, Geithner means “More of the same… more bailouts, more lack of transparency in the bailouts, and more corporate welfare. … In choosing Geither, Obama might as well have nominated Hank Paulson to another term!”

So when Obama said today of the man he’s nominated to lead the Treasury Department, “He will start his first day on the job with a unique insight into the failure of today’s markets,” the President-elect was more right than he knew.

Geithner, like the rest of the Obamanomics team, has been up to his ears in the entire fiscal mess for a long time. He is part and parcel of it.

What America has done, by not paying attention to all the connections and by allowing itself to become mesmerized by the smooth glibness of The One, is give the keys to the kingdom to the very people who set the whole fiasco in motion, then blustered and bamboozled regulators and other whistle-blowers in to silence. Or, they shoved it all into the deep background.

That the Republicans allowed this to happen is a testimonial to why they do not deserve to be in charge. They are just too stupid and just too unfocused. They are venting their energies on useless Christian fundamentalist garbage while the Democrats, having sucked Fannie and Freddie dry, now prepare to help themselves to the really good stuff.

But there is one figure that looms above them all, a man who was once the boss to both Geithner and to Larry Summers (who was named today to chair the National Economic Council inside the White House) and is the leader of the dominant political-economic school of thought in the Democratic Party today. And that man is Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary for Bill Clinton and currently the Chairman of the Executive Committee at Citigroup.

As The New York Times puts it this morning, “It is testament to former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s star power among many Democrats that as President-elect Barack Obama fills out his economic team, a virtual Rubin constellation is taking shape.” A “Rubin constellation“—how ‘bout that?

How about that indeed. While CNN's 'political strategists' and 'political analysts' are gushing over The One's Obamanomics team, the reality totally escapes them:

Here’s a sobering assessment from an article in Sunday’s New York Times, “As chairman of Citigroup’s executive committee, Mr. Rubin was the bank’s resident sage, advising top executives and serving on the board while, he insisted repeatedly, steering clear of daily management issues.”

But as the Times noted:

“While Mr. Rubin certainly did not have direct responsibility for a Citigroup unit, he was an architect of the bank’s strategy. In 2005, as Citigroup began its effort to expand from within, Mr. Rubin peppered his colleagues with questions as they formulated the plan. According to current and former colleagues, he believed that Citigroup was falling behind rivals like Morgan Stanley and Goldman, and he pushed to bulk up the bank’s high-growth fixed-income trading, including the C.D.O. business. … Once the strategy was outlined, Mr. Rubin helped [former CEO Charles] Prince gain the board’s confidence that it would work.

And then, asked if he had made any mistakes at Citigroup, he answered, “I’ve thought a lot about that. I honestly don’t know. In hindsight, there are a lot of things we’d do differently. But in the context of the facts as I knew them and my role, I’m inclined to think probably not.” [emphasis added]

Meanwhile, Citibank has received over $300 billion in guarantees from the Federal government. As a result, there has been a 50 percent increase in the price of their stock.

So while Obama sets up his "Rubinesque constellation", and we shovel more and more money into the pockets of those who are actually responsible for the problem in the first place, let me ask you this:

What's in your wallet?

Wallet? Are you lucky enough to even have a job? And Obama, bless his heart, is telling us that he will allow the middle class to keep more of its own money.

Thankee Massa Barack, thankee suh.

"So We the Taxpayer have bailed out CitiBank to the tune of billions and billions," noted DinkyDau Billy as he slurped a Holy Land Quickee's cappuccino, dunking leftover chocolate chip cookies while The Bicycle Lady sat at the other end of the table, watching the cookie-dunking.

"Yep," I agreed.

"And those guys who were in charge were all advised by Rubin, the Clintonista SecTreas," he went on.

"Yep," I agreed.

"And he was pulling down $17 million a year for this 'advising'," Billy continued.

"Yep," I agreed.

"And now The One has set up his 'economics team' with a bunch of Rubinesque clones," he said.

"Yep, though be careful with that 'Rubinesque'. Some people might confuse it with 'Rubenesque', which is a whole other ball game," I pointed out.

"Yeah. Yeah. Point is, the top dogs of the Obama 'economic team' all have strong ties to Bob Rubin, who has his fingerprints all over the CitiBank failure," he insisted.

"You have it exactly right," I said, "They might as well put Frank Raines in charge of economics over there, and Jim Johnson and all the rest of the blood-suckers who raped and pillaged Fannie and sodomized Freddie. They are all the same crew."

"So..."...

"How come We the People aren't noticing this?" I asked.

"Yeah. Yeah."

"Some of us are, apparently, but there's a whole bunch of Democrats who just don't care. Check today's opinion piece by Borger. For a 'senior political analyst' she sure is missing the boat on this," I told him, "she either needs to do her own research or fire the kids she has researching for her. This stuff isn't at all hard to find."

"But do you think she wants to find stuff like that? Fit it together?"

"Oh, of course not. There are political whores and there are media whores. I think Borger probably falls into both categories. Pass me another cookie. While you're at it, ask The Bicycle Lady if she wants one."

"Yeah. Yeah."

"Hey! Hey!" shouted DinkyDau Billy, sliding his Ghisallo to a stop at the car wash by Our Lady of Perptetual Guilt, "howzit doon?"

"Pretty good," I replied, flipping the nozzle a bit so the mist covered Our Stalwart.

"Hey! Hey!"

It was just chilled enough so that the mist frosted his dreads. The sun defrosted him almost immediately. But the instant effect was like something out of a Brothers Grimm story. The Frost Beast or somesuch. Tookie would have loved it but she was busy over at the primary school learning to count beads or some other activity that would keep her and the country economically viable in the New World Order.

"Didja go to the meetin' last night?" he asked, in reference to the joint meeting between council and urban renewal.

"I did. It was interesting. You should have been there. They had ...cookies. Oatmeal raisin cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Snickerdoodles."

Billy was inconsolate. He loves snickerdoodles. Me, I prefer the oatmeal raisin items and rather shamelessly snuffled same during the meeting.

"You like that alliteration, doncha?" he asked.

"Yes, I do. Anyway..."...

"I heard da mayah and Mistah Johnson support fixin' up old houses and such rather than payin' attention to First Street and downtown," he said.

"Ummmm...I dunno about that. I think pretty much everyone is in agreeance that downtown is pretty important. But the TID runs city limit to city limit, east to west and west to east and there's a lot of blight along First Street and at both highway entrances to the city. I think those are a much higher priority than a bunch of dumps scattered around town," I replied.

"Ain't a lot a them dumps outside the TID?" he asked.

"Yes, they are. I can think of several in my old neighborhood, which, come to think on it, isn't that far from the mayor's 'hood," I explained.

"Huh. What happened to The Front Porch?" he asked.

That was a good question. That project had to do with improving the aesthetics, among other things, of the town as seen from the AmTrak platform. It even included a sign so people would know where they were.

"That's a good question," I replied, "I don't know. Beverly Babb and her cohorts have those little decorative cardboard houses placed around town to gather donations. So far as I know, that's where it stands."

"Huh. Huh. Ain't that sumthin Urban Renewal could git into?"

"I would think so. By cleaning up some of the mess visible from the train platform...well, you would think that would be cleaning up blight and improving the economic environment somewhat. I don't know. That's another good question."

"I bin through some podunks in the rawest, poorest parts a the South, ya know. Comin' in on First Street from east or west is kinda like that," Billy observed.

He had another good point with that. From the west it didn't seem so bad. There were the empty Gibson's and old Ace, both of which often look like weed propagation laboratories, and the Gibson's in particular is looking quite rough. But then there's Fairview along the highway, and the WipeOut, which especially in the summer when it is full of patrons, looks pretty positive and presents well. Even the old Pickles, though having that bare industrial look, are at least cleaned up and in good repair for the most part. KFC looks like crap; that has to be one of their worst looking places. But the pickles people did a good job with the area along the highway and that can look pretty good.

"An' that Swartz guy has Pike's Park lookin' a lot better cuz they did a lotta work on it this past summer," Billy chimed in.

"Yes, that's true. It doesn't really look bad from the west unless you turn on Grant, or until you get past Pike's Park. Then it starts looking like a thousand other dumpy little podunks. There's nothing to indicate otherwise," I added.

Coming in from the east is another story. That's a study in small town urban blight.

"So you think Urban Renewal is on the right track?" Billy asked.

"I think so, so long as they keep the focus on First Street and the highway portals. Downtown is a given, I think. The disagreement seems to be over the rest of it."

"Got any chocklit cookies?"

"What? You think I took 'em home with me?"

"Dint the mayor say for someone to take 'em?"

For someone who doesn't attend a lot of meetings, Billy often seems to have an uncanny knowledge of what went on.

Well...

The Headless Chickens of Wall Street seem to have quit running around in blind panic, at least for a couple of days, with the announcement of "The Economic Team".

Here is an excerpt from a FoxNews article:

Timothy Geithner, Obama's choice for treasury secretary; Lawrence Summers, who will head the National Economic Council; and Orszag all have links to Robert Rubin, who as President Clinton's treasury secretary pushed for a balanced budget.

Robert Rubin. We've heard of him. Remember the Citi bailout? From yesterday? If not, here it is again:

Robert Rubin, after his stint as SecTreas under Bill Clinton, took his Golden Parachute not into Fannie and Freddie, but into CitiBank. At CitiBank, he has been pulling down at least $17 million a year serving as an advisor to...the CEO's of CitiBank. He was the chief advisor to Charles O. Prince the Third, the defrocked and shamed former CEO of CitiBank who absconded from the CEO-ship with his $38 million pay package intact. Rubin advised Prince's predecessor as well. Those guys were the ones who were at the helm of CitiBank while the current failure of the company was being set up. Having raped the company, they they took off for greener pastures. They "took the money and ran".

Meanwhile, 75,000 former and soon-to-be-former employees of CitiBank, victims of Rubin's advice, will be facing very grim holidays. So while Prince is sunning himself in the south of France or wherever he is hiding these days, sipping his fine wines and snuffling fine foods brought to him by his StepNFetchit staff, 75,000 of our fellow Americans are wondering how they are going to feed their kids, much less have anything in the way of a holiday season.

This kind of crap is why half of America's voters went for a socialist for the Oval Office.

No wonder the Headless Chickens are feeling better. They are seeing a gang that will pad their paychecks and take very good care of them.

Where that leaves the rest of us is anyone's guess, but so far, it doesn't look very good.

Hope and Change? This is Hope and Change?

This time for the incompetent moron who is the CEO of CitiBank, one Chuck Prince the Third. The only good thing about this story is that Prince has already been canned, having been deep-sixed late last year. Of course, he still got his $38 million pay package as he went out the door, which is far more than you can say for the 75,000 CitiBank employees who are about to go on the dole.

This clown had been sucking down millions upon millions in salary and bonuses, yet back in September last year - that's right, just over a year ago - this Clown of Capitalism 'discovered' that CitiBank owned about $43 billion in mortgages. Now, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and our President-elect, and Nancy Pelosi and all the rest have been working overtime to convince you and the rest of the American taxpayers that it's all Bush's fault...but that's not true. Remember back in the earlier days of the Cold War, when the Rooshin Commie propaganda was referred to as "The Big Lie"?

The smoke and mirrors our new Gang of Four are wielding is the new "Big Lie". And while We the People, or at least a really significant number of us, are buying that nonsense, people who run these big corporations know better. Chuck O. Prince the Third appears to have known better.

"Is the bank alright?" he asked, when discovering these 43 billion little factoids last year. Implicit in that statement is the obvious knowledge that all that mortgage paper was not a good thing. But think about it. Here is the guy who is running the show, clueless about something as significant as questionable holdings of that magnitude. And that guy he asked? Well...now we are getting into the real dirt. That weasel either didn't know (more incompetence) - or didn't state (surely there is criminal negligence there) that the losses the bank was then beginning to bleed were at least 50 percent higher than indicated.

But wait! It gets better!

Who do you think is advising this collection of Clowns of Capitalism?

None other than a former Secretary of the Treasury, one Bob Rubin. Rubin is not a Republican. He is not part of the Bush regime. Nope.

He was SecTreas under...Bill Clinton...and he took his Golden Parachute, not into Fannie and Freddie, but into CitiBank, where he has been pulling down at least $17 million a year as a senior director of CitiBank. He was advising Chuck Prince. He was also advising Chuck's predecessor.

And...today's headlines have us bailing out this gang of fiscal thugs. Once again, we the taxpayers are left holding the economic barf bag, while people like Rubin, Prince, and all their friends kick back and take life easy, rolling in their millions and laughing all the way to their off-shore banks.

Well, Sarah Palin pardoned one turkey and then gave an interview while another turkey was being...prepped...for Thanksgiving in the background.

The turkey interview

Naturally, this is being held up as another example of what a whackjob Palin is.

People are aghast. Shocked. Disbelieving.

"How can she give an interview like that!"

"What is she thinking!"

"Turkey killer!"

"Eeeeewwww...how disgusting!"

and much, much worse. I guess Thanksgiving turkeys pop into the universe nicely and cleanly packaged, and probably already roasted. Those Big Macs entered into this world as frozen patties. Same thing for those Outback steaks. Welcome to the real world, goofballs.

BTW...that isn't a grinder.

Circles of Hell

We were watching reruns of STNG. Jeri Ryan was in the episode as Seven of Nine.

"So...I gotta ask," asked DinkyDau Billy, "is the name 'Seven of Nine' a play on words, from Dante's Inferno? Rodenberry was known to make references, some quite subtle, to earthly religions in his shows."

"Good question," Tookie replied, "I'm not sure. She is Borg, but she was born human. Would you not consider that a human consigned to the Borg collective would not be in one of the circles of hell?"

We sat there thinking different things. I was wondering, "How does a second grader come up with this stuff?"

"The seventh circle is the one reserved for the violent, the violent against people and property, suicides, and blasphemers against God," she went on, "I don't think that fits someone who is involuntarily assimilated."

"Good point. I agree," interjected Leece, "I'm thinking that given the circumstances of her assimilation, the First Circle would be more likely. So while Roddenberry may have been making reference to Dante, I doubt that he intended it to apply to Seven of Nine."

Tookie and Leece nodded sagely. Tookie licked her spoon, which she was using for her strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Blue Bunny, of course. We had splurged and gotten the good stuff, figuring we might as well fly high before the entire country went belly up. We were no longer optimistic. There were too many pessimists in charge. There were too many incompetents making all the decisions. Or maybe not incompetents. Just plain old crooks. A crook in a suit may be genteel, suave, and polished, but he's still a crook. Or maybe just a moral coward. The Eunuch of the Treasury came to mind, as did the Big Three executives jetting around begging for money. I wondered if they had gotten down on their knees before Pelosi. It seemed to work for Paulson.

"But I do think that most CEO's and a lot of other Big Shots are going to end up in the last four Bolgia of the Eighth Circle," Toot Sweet observed.

We all agreed. Yep. That sure did fit. And hopefully sooner rather than later.

"There's going to be some disappointed people in the Sixth Bolgia, too," Billy tossed in. "Quite a few church people, I think."

The Sixth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell is reserved for Hypocrites. He probably had a point.

Tookie had fetched Leece's copy of The Inferno. It was part of the Saunders/Birk Divine Comedy boxed set. It had a number of very nicely done color plates, which she was looking through.

"This is pretty cool", she said, "This plate depicts the Falsifiers in the 10th Bolgia, which is the repose for all sorts of Falsifiers. I think these guys right here are Dodd, Frank, Raines, Johnson...and I think this one might be Pelosi."

It sure looked that way to the rest of us.

Here are some excerpts from a very good opinion piece from "850 Words from Relevant". "850 Words from Relevant" is a newsletter published by Relevant magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine and/or the newsletter here:

Relevant Magazine: Covering God, Life, and Progressive Culture

We’ve been known for boycotting Disney, decrying the Teletubbies and rallying behind pet legislation. Christianity and the culture wars have been synonymous now for a long time. When it comes to media attention, Christians most often seem to get it for something we’re against. The last few decades of the Church seem to be ones in which we’ve taken an adversarial relationship to the culture around us. We’ve spearheaded protests, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns. If Christians are against it, we’ve done a decidedly good job of making the public aware of it. It seems we have made it our mission to loudly denounce those things in society that don’t match our worldview, and find ways to pressure the culture into rejecting them. As such, evangelical Christianity has developed a reputation in society for being angry, boorish and self-righteous.

and

Ultimately, though, the absolute most countercultural role a Christian can take is that of truly loving our enemies rather than treating them to our usual show of angry saber-rattling. This is hard for a people who have spent so much time viewing those who would tear down God’s Kingdom with such vitriol. But Jesus did not suggest this—He commanded it. He told us: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38-42).

and

This is a revolution born not of anger or discord, but of unmitigated love. It is one that confounds culture by showing resilient mercy and charity at times when it makes the least sense to do so. How would society be impacted if, instead of staging counter-protests when we disagree with a group of pro-abortion demonstrators, we showed up and served them in humility and love? What kind of reputation would we gain if we quietly showed love to our homosexual neighbors instead of putting signs in our yard touting our political views on their relationship?

Are we at war with the culture? Yes. But we’ve been fighting the wrong battle. Ours is not a war of taking shots at things we deem offensive to the public sensibility. It is one of standing against the tide of selfishness, wrath, vainglory and cynicism that surrounds us. It is a battle of refusing to be swept up in the idea of consumerism. Of fighting the concept that we should avenge every wrong done to us. Of taking up arms against our culture’s mindset that the rich, famous and powerful are to be admired and the poor despised. This is a war of loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us and speaking God’s abiding truth with genuine compassion for those whose ears it falls upon. Now is not the time to back away from a fight. It’s time to actually engage the true enemy.
Author: RELEVANT

Speaking of 'culture wars', Focus on the Family just came out with its 'approved' list of stores. Those that are 'Christmas-friendly', those that are 'Christmas-negligent' and those that, in The Judgment of the Most Righteous, He Who Sitteth at the Right Hand, the Self-Annointed....Doc Dobson...are 'Christmas-negative.'

"Real" Christians, of course, will not shop at places like Old Navy (on the latest Dobson hate/hit list). After all, would Christ shop there? Of course not. Christ would be working, like Doc Dobson, to drive them into bankruptcy and then dance on their corporate grave. That must be true, because that is what Christians do, isn't it? Remember the fit "Christians" like Dobson threw over Walmart's "Christmas-negative" position awhile back? Remember the threats of boycotts? So. Now that Walmart and others have "re-embraced" Christmas so sincerely and genuinely (the threat of losing money is so...spiritual...don't you think?) they are back on the Dobson "approved" list. There is nothing like a genuine coming to Christ to fill one with warm fuzzies, especially when it is accompanied by the "cha-ching" of "pro-Christian" cash registers. And Dobson and those of his ilk wonder why people flee the so-called "Christian" churches...

"So, whaddya think about the Dick Cheney/Al Gonzales indictments?" asked DinkyDau Billy, as we walked along Road CC. Billy had run over a huge goathead and had suffered an almost instantaneous flat. He was having a 'purist' moment and had removed his thorn-resistant tubes and tire liners. We were all paying for it, as he had also forgotten his flat kit.

"Well, the presiding judge hasn't signed the indictments yet," pointed out Tookie. She was sort of riding her Hot Rock along, using her feet to push along the ground rather than pedaling.

"They seem to be kind of strange," observed Leece, "how can you be charged with assault without having physically taken part in the action?"

"Good question," replied Tookie, "I'd like to see the Texas statute they are citing."

"The presiding judge has thrown out several other indictments from this grand jury," noted Leece, "and the whole thing reads like something out of a bad rewrite of a 'Dukes of Hazard' episode. They're all being indicted and un-indicted down there. It's a circus."

She was right.

We pushed our bikes into the Holy Land Quickee's parking lot, and went into the store for some ice cream. It was a really beautiful evening. We couldn't believe how nice it was this late in the year.

So it would appear.

Mr. Obama has apparently selected Eric Holder, former Deputy AG under President Clinton, as his first choice to be his Attorney General.

Holder doesn't have near the baggage as we see with Gorelick. In fact, at first glance, the only stink seems to be his role in the infamous pardon of Marc Rich. Rich was/is a commodities broker who did a lot of running from the IRS. In fact, he was a fugitive, albeit one who with his billions was a 'fugitive in comfort' when Clinton pardoned him. As if that wasn't enough, Denise Rich, the fugitive's then estranged wife, was a high-dollar donor to Bill Clinton's campaign(s). In other words, the deal, like so many others, stinketh greatly.

Holder admits now that he should have given more attention to what was a snap answer to his views on the pardon. He said at the time that he was "neutral, leaning towards favorable" on the deal, and Clinton later said this influenced him considerably in granting the pardon.

Holder was a prosecutor in DoJ, in the Public Integrity Section. He did a good job prosecuting Democrat John Jennrette, a slug who was exposed when the ABSCAM rock was turned over. He also supervised the end of the prosecution of Chicago Democrat Dan Rostenkowski, whom we have already discussed. President Reagan appointed him an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of Washington, DC, from which he resigned to accept appointment as the US Attorney for Washington DC under Clinton.

Holder opposes the death penalty. We have that in common. I am not sure why he opposes it, but I oppose it because there are too many errors in the judicial system. In Illinois alone, for example, there has been about a 6% exoneration rate among death row inmates. That is enough of a question, in my opinion, to at least hold it in abeyance if not do away with it altogether.

OTOH, he supported the Washington DC handgun ban that was challenged in District of Columbia v. Heller. Given Mr. Obama's rather virulent anti-firearms position, supporting Holder's nomination is an assault against the Second Amendment. I can't go along with that.

But at least he doesn't seem to be an outright self-serving weasel.