30 days hath September, April, June and November and February, Comrade

February 30 existed from 1930-1931 after the Soviet Union introduced a revolutionary calendar in 1929. This calendar featured five-day weeks, 30-day months for every working month, and the remaining five or six days were “monthless” holidays. The abolition of the seven-day week in favor of a five-day week was intended to improve industrial efficiency by avoiding the regular interruption of a non-working day.
However, the Gregorian calendar continued to be used in the Soviet Union during this period. This is confirmed by consulting the successive dates in daily issues of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, in which February had 28 days in 1930 and 1931, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The Soviet revolutionary calendar was eventually discarded as it was difficult to eliminate the Sunday rest tradition. The original seven-day week was restored in 1940.

Due to some fancy federal legislation called the Energy Policy Act of 2005 the end of Daylight Saving Time will conveniently take place two days before the presidential election, giving people an hour of refresh to ponder this exciting thing called democracy, and how much they'll enjoy the rule of Rodham.

It's enough to make me suspicious that DST is a Communist plot.

If Forrest had a choice, he'd ride this

Consider the Confederate Motors F131 Hellcat. 490 pounds of bike with aircraft grade aluminum radial engine, producing 145 ft./lbs. of torque to make the thoroughly equipped Southron soldier able to flank the enemy. Combined with a close ratio 5 speed transmission, this implement of war snaps the yankees' necks as they turn their heads to observe Confederate cavalry movements. The "Art of Rebellion" is such an inaccurate way of putting it, nevertheless these would've made secession so much more enjoyable.

By the way, don't bother wondering. The T-shirts are $75 a piece, so if you have to ask how much, you couldn't afford 'em anyway.

Rock star, Anti-Christ or Messiah.

Brenda Bladen was trying to explain why she liked Barack Obama so much—he was authentic, selfless, and inspirational. He was restoring her faith in politics. "I'm not comparing him to Jesus Christ but … " she said, before talking about the senator's humble beginnings.

*Just shakin' my head in disbelief*

To the South, my homeland

One thing it does prove...

...Never, ever, believe, trust in, let alone rely upon the government line.

At the Pentagon, Gen. James Cartwright told reporters it would be wrong to think that the satellite shootdown was done to demonstrate that the U.S. military has an anti-satellite capability.

"We understand ASAT," Cartwright said, using the military's acronym for anti-satellite weaponry. "There's no reason to go back and re-prove what we've already done." And he said the satellite operation required modifications to the SM-3 missile that do not translate to an anti-missile mission.

"It doesn't correlate," said Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Will I be able to convince everybody that that's the case? No."

If they're denying it's for demonstration, then it's for demonstration. The cynic knows that the government explanation is directly opposite of where the truth is to be found. I don't believe they weren't concerned about the satellite falling to earth on its own. I don't even believe the satellite was crippled or needed to be shot down because of hydrazine.

*Hydrazine is used in agricultural chemicals (pesticides), chemical blowing agents, pharmaceutical intermediates, photography chemicals, boiler water treatment for corrosion protection, textile dyes, and as fuel for rockets and spacecraft.
* Individuals may be occupationally exposed to hydrazine in the workplace.
* Accidental discharge into water, air, and soil may occur during storage, handling, transport, and improper waste disposal. However, hydrazine rapidly degrades in the environment and is rarely encountered.
* Small amounts of hydrazine have been detected in tobacco smoke.

If it rapidly degrades in the environment then how long would it last during a burning atmospheric reentry?

Why do it then? I think it's for the benefit of the Iranians, remember them?

The U.S. plan would install a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland -- both former Soviet satellites that are now NATO members.

It is part of a wider missile shield involving defenses in California and Alaska that the United States says are to defend against any long-range missile attack from countries such as North Korea or Iran.

Such a successful non-demonstration demonstration serves US government interests well. I just don't believe in their interests.

20 years ago today

But the shame of it still lingers.

On Feb. 21, 1988, Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to "a past sin" before his congregation of 7,000 in Baton Rouge and announced he would resign from his ministry. "I have sinned against You, my Lord. And I would ask that Your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain ... " Swaggart said.

I used to drive by the row of one night motels of Airline Hwy. where Swaggart reportedly had his "past sin". The guy must've been some kind of moron to show up in a late model pearl white Lincoln in that area. Talk about a car looking too good for the surroundings.

In one sense I'm grateful that Swaggart behaved the way he did because it shook the good sense back into my gullible mind of how money corrupts and lots of money corrupts absolutely. He, along with virtually all TV preachers, are the reason the term "televangelist" is as unflattering as it's become. Large numbers continue to flock to his "ministry", just as many other mega-churches draw huge followings to their show that they call church.

The persecuted church in the rest of the world grows and I've got a feeling that the American church is headed for some real persecution. God have mercy on us all, but the Swaggarts in the church will fall through the sieve and we'll see who the real believers are soon enough.

If you need a new reason to go on

Television is generally a mind number. I'll have it on a news channel for some background chatter or watch an occasional Mythbusters for the fun of it or maybe something decent like a Jane Austen flick, but generally it's all a waste of mind. By contrast, I find the following scene from the TV show ER evidence that by chance, isolated instances, Hollywood manages to hit the nail on the head.



Such is the empty handedness of the self-help, pop-psychological, secular philosophy. Handing the masses nothing, but making it feel good. Hold rationality and favor feeling by specializing in the self-gratifying answer.

"Sometimes it's easier to feel guilty than forgiven...Maybe your guilt over these deaths is become your reason for living. Maybe you need a new reason to go on." I wonder sometimes about the reasons. There are two kinds of people in the world. There's the people who conjure up the reasons for themselves, and then there's the people for whom the reasons have been provided. If you need a reason to go on, it shall be given.

Happy President's Day...

...Jefferson Davis

Our first and only president...so far.

Grandeur

"Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Maybe I should have more...difficulties, that is.

Department of Way Cool

This is just way cool.

Full screen panoramas of some of the "new" seven wonders of the world. The Roman Colosseum and the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio images are awesomely, awesome.

They might take a bit to load, so be patient, but seem to work better in Firefox, which I use habitually. Enjoy.

Alcoholics do it too

"McCain will be our nominee and he is starting to consolidate the conservative base, but as long as Huckabee stays in the race ... there will always be holdouts who find it easier to vote for Huckabee than to unify behind McCain," said Todd Harris, a Republican strategist and former Fred Thompson adviser. "The best thing for our party would be to start the healing process now and unite behind McCain, but Huckabee's campaign is standing in the way of that."

Todd Harris is like so many other party strategists and pundits. THEY just don't get it, as they try to take the bit of dust out of the eyes of conservatives before taking the splinter of wood out of their own. A good thing for the party would be for it to live up to principles and forget the crap about a "healing process". Nobody's standing in the way of McCain. The party's tripping over its own feet. They just don't want to believe it.

The best thing for the party is to let it shine like a morning sun in September and then go down in flames in cold November. Expect to see it happen and wait for the denials.

Sufferin' suffrage

You can see it in their flushed-face smiles and hear it in their screams. They say the phenomenon is difficult to describe, but once they experience it they tell their friends, sisters, mothers and daughters, and they come back for more if they can.

"He's very charismatic. It was a 'you-had-to-be-there' kind of experience," said Lolita Breckenridge, 37, after hearing Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama address a packed rally at the University of Maryland on Monday.

A dedicated supporter, she brought two of her friends to hear the Illinois senator deliver one of his much-talked-about speeches.

"Not too much of the speech was new to me," she admitted. "But hearing him live..." she trailed off, shaking her head and grinning.

It doesn't take much to be qualified to vote. Groucho Marx once said, "Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough." All you have to do to get the vote is be old enough. Intelligence is no prerequisite, as one can plainly see.

These are among those who will cast a ballot to determine government leadership. Now I ask, is democracy really such a good thing?

The conservatism that never was

An excellent piece from The Backwater Report on conservatism, carrying the following great quote from R.L. Dabney, chaplain to Lt. Gen. T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson during the War of Southron Independence.

What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader.

This is principally why I no longer consider myself conservative. The term, not to mention the movement itself, has been deceptive and ambiguous. Already we're hearing calls to endure McCain's non-conservative candidacy to secure a future for the Republican Party.

“John McCain is a patriot and devoted conservative leader,” Bush said in a statement released by McCain’s campaign. “Like no other candidate in the field, John McCain has made tremendous sacrifices for this nation. He is beholden to no interest other than that of the public good. He is determined and steadfast in his commitment to reducing the burden of high taxes, restoring the people’s trust in their government, and winning the war against radical Islamic extremists.”

As if anyone should trust Bush's estimation of a "true" conservative, whatever it might be. It's like the labels on food products touting them as "natural". It sounds good, healthy and beneficial enough for somebody to buy, but what does it mean. It's not just Bush being deceptive here. There are others, like Gary Bauer and Michael Medved, who enjoy waving that flag as if they were signaling the winner at a NASCAR race. The trouble is they cut the swath of conservatism so broadly it's meaningless, while Limbaugh, Coulter, et. al. who stand in the way of McCain as defenders of conservatism, will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

It all comes down to political party alignment and power, and here is where the issue really is. From the Backwater piece...

Republicans are not the ‘lesser of two evils’ since there are not two evils in existence for one to be the lesser of. Republicans and Democrats instead are a connected at the hip, two headed, Siamese monstrosity. When people vote either Democrat or Republican they are voting for the same Siamese monstrosity.

Conserving is to maintain a status quo, to retain desired, essential values. Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin, both enjoying the benefits of power and authority, while moving toward a compromised goal. There is no conservatism because there never were principles, values, essential enough to maintain. It comes down to just those who have power and those who want it.

Shangy's Blogroll update

Time to note a couple of new blogs arising in the blogosphere, placed on my roll for reading pleasure at those frequent times when the vast expanse of my readership, which number three, find themselves bored with my views, inadequate grammar and poor sentence structure. I find it's rather courageous of them to link to my blog considering my divergent political views from the mainstream of popular Christianity, and particularly my Southron pride as evinced by the battle flag at the header, which association might subject them to scurrilous jesting. Yet, this blog continues to be for me, at least, a reminder that the "objects in mirror are closer than they appear".

At "One's Imagination", which I've dubbed "One's imagination is a furious thing" due to his fearsome propensity for stories, you'll find a young squire's expression of, well, his imagination, and a curious one at that. Check the guy out. Take it from Elmo as someone who's been married for almost 29 years, "A Groom's Prayer" wasn't written by a married man. But then maybe it should've been.

The young maid at Break Through has just broken into the blogosphere. Be gentle. Seems she's learning how to cook as well. Plaudits go out to those adventurous, courageous souls like her who come to know how to answer the question, "What's for dinner?" with something other than the name of a restaurant chain. Pray she doesn't sprain an ankle stuffing manicotti.

Do nothing...get attention

It makes me wonder. Maybe if more Christians were just really Christian, instead of doing Christian things, then there would be more curiosity about Christians.

Mary of Mordor

More mileage

Senator Hillary Clinton confirmed at a press conference in Virginia this afternoon that she'd loaned her campaign $5 million, and said, "The results last night proved the wisdom of my investment.."

This will get her far more sympathy mileage than that repeat tearful episode the day before the primaries. The staff and campaign manager going without pay for the month will get them some good positions in the administration next year. The media making something of this and the tears is all part of the game.

Appropriate on Mardi Gras

Geaux Ron Paul!

Speaking of things perfect and good...

"We make no apology for suggesting that electability must be a prime consideration," they write. "The expected value of any presidential candidate for the future of the American judiciary must be discounted by the probability that the candidate will not prevail in the election."

The pair note that next January, when the new president is inaugurated, six of the nine justices on the Supreme Court will be over 70. Most of them could be replaced by the next president, they write, telling conservatives not to wait for a "more perfect candidate" than McCain to elect in 2012.

They warn not to make "the perfect the enemy of the very good."

A prime example of the short side of the contrasting views between the natural good and the spiritual perfect. It's the way of man, the way of the world system. It's why I do so detest politics, even though I do have some interest in the "car wreck" as it happens. The "vehicles" are in motion and the outcome can be plainly seen. Strange it is how Hillary will be elected as the candidate maintaining her liberal, Democratic base while drawing support from the moderate middle, even so called conservative Republicans. We get the government we deserve.

I'll vote Ron Paul tomorrow in our state primary. After that, who knows. I may just consider myself a Anarchist Libertarian for the general election.

The good is the enemy of the perfect

(An audio sermon by Art Katz called "Be Ye Perfect" inspired these thoughts.)

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." Voltaire supposedly made the statement in his Dictionnaire Philosophique. I wouldn't know for sure. I've never bothered to read any Voltaire. The thinking behind that statement apparently is that striving for perfection ultimately invokes the law of diminishing returns. Even though perfectionism is never gratified, the best that can be expected is good enough. In the current state of things, pragmatism has virtue. The perfect, it's reasoned, is unattainable, unreachable, so the perfect must not stand in the way of the good.

Perfect is defined as:

1 a: being entirely without fault or defect : flawless b: satisfying all requirements: accurate c: corresponding to an ideal standard or abstract concept d: faithfully reproducing the original;
3 a: pure total b: lacking in no essential detail.

Were there no pure absolute, i.e. God, there would be no concept of the perfect and no aspirations to it. Though there may be nothing in the natural realm which constitutes true perfection, the definition does describe the work of the Holy Spirit. God's life giving Spirit is "without fault" and is "an ideal standard". That same Spirit which raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in the believer (Romans 8:11) "satisfying all requirements" of holiness by God and "faithfully reproducing the original" image He had intended for mankind (Genesis 1:26), the image of Christ. The scripture states that we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10), "lacking in no essential detail."

Ephesians 4:11-13 reads, It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets,some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature ("mature" as from the Greek word, Teleios, meaning perfect, mature, or complete,) attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Bold my emphasis) The "whole measure" of the "fullness of Christ" seems lofty, yet this is what God clearly intends for the believer. It's not to suggest that man may attain godhood. We don't. But Jesus exhorts us to... "Therefore you are to be perfect (Teleios), as your heavenly Father is perfect (Teleios)." (Matthew 5:48) So how is the Christian perfect?

Counter to the Voltaire quote, Art Katz' statement, "The good is the enemy of the perfect", particularly caught my attention. In Genesis 3:6, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil seemed good, pleasing and desirous. The good appears innocuous enough, but even it can distract from having the fullness of the perfect Tree of Life. The difference in perspective between Voltaire and Katz is that natural man values the good while the Spirit values the perfect. The good can subtly stand in the way of the perfect just as much as evil obviously does. It is the natural mind fed from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that is at enmity with God (Romans 8:7). The Spirit leads us toward the Tree of Life and the perfect. God is perfect, His ways are perfect and the Christian shares in that perfection in Christ.

The natural man is spiritually dead unto sin, oblivious to the metaphorical choice of the Garden. Beliefs precede actions, and for the Christian believer the choice ultimately brings actions into question. Evil is certainly the enemy of the perfect. Clear and present evils should make decisions obvious for the Christian, but can the subtilty of good intentions get in the way of the Spirit of God? Sure. It's the wrong motive to give to the poor because it's good. Give to the poor because it's God's perfect will. Praying for healing is good but without the Spirit and the perfect will of God it's vanity. Worship isn't a good thing. Worship is the perfect will of God for His creation. Inasmuch as God ordains worship, He defines it; all mankind's feeble attempts at definition notwithstanding. It isn't as if there is a quality scale of worship, bad to good. It either is or isn't worship. Eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil leads to judgments of worship based upon our definition of it, instead of the wisdom of the Spirit of God.

Christ washes our minds "with the water of the word" (Ephesians 5:26) and by that washing we can be cleansed from the tainted fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The believer can't afford to settle for the good or they'll miss the perfect of God. Christians can't afford to settle for the best. Even that is but a natural measure which God abhors. (Luke 16:15). Perfection proceeds from the "heart" not the mind. The Christian must pursue and be perfect.

Like driving by a bad car accident...

...you don't want to look to appear unseemly, but you can't help yourself from looking because you're curious. That's the way it is with the Republican party these days. Some political pundits get it and some don't. Peggy Noonan, a Republican party loyalist, correctly identifies the issue while Rush Limbaugh, another Republican party loyalist, doesn't see the forest for the trees...

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Hugh Hewitt is too busy fawning over Romney. Curiously, Ann Coulter has an awkward approach to it all. From Ann Coulter's website:

The bright side of the Florida debacle is that I no longer fear Hillary Clinton. (I mean in terms of her becoming president -- on a personal level, she's still a little creepy.) I'd rather deal with President Hillary than with President McCain. With Hillary, we'll get the same ruinous liberal policies with none of the responsibility.
Also, McCain lies a lot, which is really more a specialty of the Democrats.

This video speaks for itself...



The Republican party's slide began even before Bush. The end began when conservative principles were traded for political expediency and power. I can hear the confusion and see the fears now when this November, those who voted for the better are instead realizing their worst. This is what you end up with when you vote with the "Anyone but _____" crowd. When it comes to the result of the coming presidential election, I've agreed with others for some time now and have become more and more convinced of it as time goes by. Get used to it, America, President Hillary. I personally think it's great how Shawn Hannitizes himself while Ann Coulter faces the logic of the choices squarely. The pundits are at the end of their choices and look stupid. Ann endorsing Hillary over McCain might appear to be the unthinkable, but it was never the sort of stuff of frozen things in hot places. It was the likely, logical slide down a frozen slope of choices faced while grasping onto nothing.