BOMBER FATIGUE

It will NOT be too soon when we never see their faces again.  Or see that bomb go off again.  Or think of what it would be like to lose your limbs.

The bomber's whole dysfunctional family is tiring.  Fatigue comes from hearing their whiney mother covered incessantly in the media around the world, complaining about how awful America is.  That would be the same "innocent" lady who we now know (from a Russian wiretap) had jihad conversations with her older son.

Hey Mom!  What about using welfare dollars to pay your arrest warrant for $1,600 worth of clothes lifted from Lord and Taylor?  Or at the very least, pay for some acting lessons.

This family has a trail of sadness, but our country brought them in and gave them money to get them on their feet.  We were repaid most ingloriously; they are ingrates from hell.

And listen, media.  Don't put anymore hunky pictures of #1 in his boxing suit.  Don't put anymore pictures of #2, looking like he is thirteen.  What's the point?  Sixty Minutes, don't run anymore interviews of a girl from high school that talks incessantly about the younger brother...how she liked him because he was cute and sweet.  Alan Colmes, spare us the SYMPATHY for the grieving mother.

Our country is engaged in a life-and-death struggle; extraneous stuff (such as how sweet or cute they are) is ridiculous.  Their book gives them permission to lie as necessary to fool the infidel.  So what if they were good at lying?  We just need to know how they did what they did...and how we can work best to prevent a reoccurrence.

When America heard that the FBI had interviewed #1 but had found nothing, we were willing to cut the agency slack.  Perhaps #1's descent had not begun at the time the FBI came calling.

But then we heard Napolitano say the system "pinged" when #1 traveled, so we know they were aware of him and that he was on two different lists.  Russia gave us the first tip to check him out, and when the FBI didn't turn up anything, six months later the Russians called the CIA.  Knowing all this now...we wonder how AFTER the bombing...that family wasn't up at the top of suspects?  Why did the FBI have to publish their picture and ask for help finding the perps?

We are told that after twelve years since 9/11, the same problem (lack of communication) has happened again between "the suits and the spooks".  Could someone please fix that?

CAN I GET A BLESSING?

When the President spoke to Planned Parenthood's "gala" yesterday, he spoke for twelve minutes and three seconds.

According to Planned Parenthood's 2011 NUMBERS...they performed 333,964 abortions, or one every 94 seconds.  That means at least 7.6 abortions (if not more) were performed during the time he spoke.

The President is the first sitting president to ADDRESS the group.  His appearance seems to be a hail Mary because of two encouraging things:

#1.  States are passing new abortion RESTRICTIONS. Eight states now require an ultrasound prior to receiving an abortion.

#2.  The Gosnell trial.  The informed populace has been to the outer banks of disgust as the DETAILS of this trial unfold.

Truly, Gosnell and Planned Parenthood have a common link.  This TESTIMONY of the Planned Parenthood paid lobbyist boggles the mind.  The legislators asked her a good question; it was not a gotcha question, but a bottom-line question.  "What do you do with the baby born alive?"  And the PP spokesperson went into robotic mode, saying "That is up to the girl, her family, and the doctors."  That painfully illustrates how do no harm swerves into infanticide without a blink.  It did for Dr. Gosnell...

Planned Parenthood would defend themselves by saying that Dr. Gosnell exhibits aberrant behavior and bears no likeness to what happens in their clinics.  They cast themselves as being a helper for women.  They don't put infant feet in jars on display as the doc did.  They have cleaner standards and licensed personnel.

But the Gosnell trial has given America a look inside a death chamber for innocents. We've long heard words to describe procedures done to pre-borns...but now we've seen the gruesome pictures.

Gosnell has proven himself neither the friend of women, nor mankind.  And while PP might tout their righteousness while hiding behind the preventative screenings (as though there would be no other way for women to get those)...the Judge will hold them responsible.

Meanwhile, the country will feel judgment because of their actions.  Evil begets greater evil.  And the ones who do not go along with the President's "enlightenment" find themselves characterized as dinosaurs who refuse to evolve and want to go back to the 50's.

Mankind is called to live a live that put us in the position to receive God's blessing.  When Barack Obama closed his speech at Planned Parenthood, he said to the crowd "God bless you."  That was hair-raising.  The President trivializes the holy and minimizes costly mercy...while putting us beyond the place to be blessed.

It's possible to ignore what God says.  It's possible to reject His laws and smirk at their shelf life and boldly go where no man has gone.  But it guarantees a position where blessing becomes impossible.

CHOOSE LIFE!

THE BROTHERS TSARNAEV

It's pretty creepy seeing them in the crowd.

Mike and I were traveling yesterday and listening to Mark Steyn, hopeful of news of the capture of the second Boston bomber.  Steyn's great acerbic wit (delivered with a British accent) makes him a favorite.  He said that one side waits, sure the fugitive was a white, rightwing nutcase...while the other side waits, expecting a Muslim extremist.

In the end, he said they both were happy because the brothers were Caucasians (and you couldn't get more Caucasian than being from the Caucasus') AND they were Muslims.

Steyn went on to explain about a YouTube channel belonging to Tamerian Tsarnaev, which gives us a looksee into his head.  (That would be somewhat like looking at your Netflix history to see what is inside your head...except having a YouTube channel means you are promoting and not just viewing.)  Tamerian was promoting hateful radical Islamic videos.  He began posting them when he came home from six months in Russia.

This brings us to the reoccurring terrorism in our country.   Just a cursory look back tells us who our enemy repeatedly has been.  This administration has continued to play down the enemy, redefine the enemy, cleanse the nomenclature about the enemy, and choose not to pay benefits to soldiers at Ft. Hood who faced the enemy.  It's hard to know why.

Steyn sarcastically says:  "None of these guys, none of these lone wolves, none of these lone wolves stretching as far back as the eye can see, are ever typical of anything,” Steyn said. “We don’t know that any of these lone wolves belong to the United Amalgamated of Lone Wolves and Isolated Extremists. They’re all just one-offs — all jihad is local.”

Of course Steyn's sarcasm points out that they are NOT lone wolves and the common thread is their belief in the same worldview.  Contrary to tolerant pantheists, it matters what people believe.  The bumper sticker on the back of Tsarnaev's car said "COEXIST".  That's a good one.

We can connect the dots between the Ft. Hood shooter, the underwear bomber, the Christmas Eve bomber, the Little Rock Army recruiting station shooter, etc. etc. etc.  All are the product of global jihad; all have roots in hateful/harmful radical Islamic fundamentalism.

If Christianity can be reduced to the phrase "turn or burn", then that phrase is a plea to reason and a warning about destruction ahead.  But the believer is not the judgment agent.  

On the other hand, an Islamist says "turn or face the sword and Allah will reward me".  He's judge and jury and executioner...and thinks he will be a bountiful beneficiary.

Strangely, today people are hurrying to the microphone to illustrate their broad-mindedness and enlarge themselves as being viewpoint-tolerant concerning the Tsarnaevs.  Al Sharpton stepped all over himself in this LINK.

A more mainstream media example might be an essay from the NEW YORKER HERE.  Or the NEW YORK TIMES sympathetic piece about the brothers which later had words retracted ("far from war-torn homeland, trying to fit in").  HERE

These men were trying to fit in?  They pay back a government who welcomed them in and supported them...by putting a bomb beside a little boy and setting it off?  Does anyone believe the tripe that they had their feelings hurt and decided to become mass murderers?

No one is advocating a rush to judgment.  But so many things are already known about the Tsarnaev brothers that would put them in the suspicious file (their "religion" not being one of the reasons).  For starters, two years ago the Russians tipped the FBI about Tamerian and he was interviewed about a terror connection.  There was no evidence then to support the claim, but the claim red-flagged Tamerian's citizenship application.

It's very encouraging to see the way technology has come alongside law enforcement.  These pictures of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev getting into the boat are amazing...as well as the infrared picture of him hiding in the boat.

Government stands guard between us and global jihad.  I would feel more comfortable if they started acknowledging the enemy by using the correct words.  Take away the words "workplace violence" and lose the words "overseas contingency operation".  Say the words "radical Islamic terrorist".  It is NOT Islamaphobic to say America is in the crosshairs of radical Muslim fundamentalists.  We are.  And if profiling helps, profile!  Can't we be on our own side?  It's reverse profiling that Major Hassan put "soldier of Allah" on his calling card and no one called him on it.

The diluting of Al-Qaeda worldwide has resulted in smaller efforts centered on disaffected nationals to act as the new footsoldiers.  There may be no more big 9/11 operations, but it looks like with little money and a pressure cooker, the Tsarnaevs have put themselves on the front page.  Others will be attracted to do the same. 

Lord, make us alert and at the ready. 

RULES, RULES

I swim at a really nice pool at the Senior Citizens Center with multiple lists of rules posted everywhere.  They serve to make my eyes roll back into my head.  The only rule I like is the one about not getting into the pool with open sores.

But you know what I mean.  The place seems over-regulated and who reads 'em, anyway?  Besides, my fallen nature tends to hear what I can't do and chomps at the bits, wanting to do it.  What good is the law?

The book says God gave us the law as a tutor to bring us to Christ.  It sets God's standard (like a mirror) in front of our faces.  When I see I can't measure up to His standards, I know my need of a Savior.  Then I can (as Tim Keller says) "make peace with the wrath of God".

Our Father is the champion for cutting through the fat.  He made a concise list of ten commandments for man to keep, and then reduced those ten to only two (love God/love others).  Still...no.can.do.

Our church fathers had had much to say about the law over the centuries.
Reaching waaaay back to the man who wrote most of the New Testament, Paul said this in Galatians 2:19 (The Message).

"What actually took place is this.  I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work.  So I quit being a 'law man' so that I could be God's man."

Augustine (died 430):

"Through the law, God opens man's eyes so that he sees his helplessness and by faith takes refuge to His mercy and is healed.  The law was given in order that we might seek grace, and grace was given in order that we might fulfill the law."

Martin Luther (died 1546):

"The law and the gospel are given to the end that we may learn to know both how guilty we are, and to what again we should return."

Matthew Henry (died 1714).  When I need a commentary, I reach for Matthew Henry:

"There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin which is necessary to repentance, but by comparing our hearts and lives by the law."

The fiery Jonathan Edwards (died 1758):

"What good is it to have godly principles yet not know them?  Why should God reveal His mind to us if we don't care enough to know what it is?  Yet the only way we can know whether we are sinning is by knowing His moral law: by the law is the knowledge of sin."

Charles Spurgeon (died 1892):

"If men do not understand the law, they will not feel they are sinners.  And if they are not consciously sinners, they will never value the sin offering.  There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making him alive till the law has slain him."

D.L. Moody (died 1899):

"This is what God gives us the Law for, to show us ourselves and our true colors."

William Booth (died 1912).

William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army;  he preached and served the poor in London's slums throughout his life.  

When General Booth died, there were 40,000 mourners who turned out (see below).  Queen Mary slipped into the great hall and sat at the rear, unrecognized.  

General Booth made an interesting remark about our times when he said of the Law:

"The chief danger of the Twentieth Century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God...and heaven without hell."

A contemporary thinker who always challenges my thinking...the passionate John Piper (born 1946):

"If we don't understand why the law was given, we can kill ourselves with it."

Amen.