Toubabou

The words of the children’s song, "I’m a Little Teapot," were running through my head, recently, perhaps because they had been sung at a recent church service I attended. I began to think about the motions that accompany the song and I paused when I got to "Tip me over and pour me out". I began to think of the tea kettle I received as a gift last year. It’s a beautiful thing, lacquered white with a cap that can be closed to provide a whistling when the water boils. It’s also nearly impossible to tip over, especially if it’s full. It resembles a hemisphere with the flat diameter at the bottom.

I began to consider why my kettle would be so different than the one in the song. Then I realized that the song was written in a pre-litigious time. The song’s writer was familiar with kettles balanced to be easily poured (and easily spilled). We have come to an age where that type of kettle seems dangerous - unsafe. And so we have traded ease of pouring for perceived safety. ("Think of the children scalded by unstable teapots!")

Is there a metaphor, here, for our whole society, so desperate for security that we will give away our freedoms - to pour tea, or make healthcare decisions - for a perceived safety? 

We remember. Do you remember, Britons? We cannot defeat an enemy whom we have forgotten.

Well, okay, so I haven’t blogged in a while. Anyway, today’s topic is discernment, and the lack thereof. If someone is going to a church, where he believes he has a ministry, and it is pointed out to him that the church teaches falsehood, what should he do? That the falsehood is pointed out to him indicates that he lacks the discernment to spot it. He is thus unqualified for the ministry, since he can’t steer people away from error if he can’t recognize it. If he stays in the church he will be likely to fall under the false teaching, since he isn’t equipped to recognize it without help.

I think it’s pretty clear that he needs to leave.

But what about his friends and loved ones in the church? How can he help them to see the error being taught in that church? By leaving, he can show how serious it is. By staying, he will only be able to help them as he, himself, is helped by outsiders who have the necessary discernment. By staying, he says that the problem is "not so bad". 

Le Hamas étouffe toute contestation à Gaza - lesoir.be

Well, I’m not above being hard on the Belgians when they deserve it, and they usually do, but I have to give them props for this one. Despite the raging antisemitism in Europe, Le Soir has a nice story about how Hamas is killing their rivals, in some cases under the cover of calling them Israeli collaborators. Since this type of story generally doesn’t make the US press (except on sites like Jawa) I was surprised to see a proper covering of the story in the French-language Le Soir, out of Bruxelles.

 Is there hope for Europe? Probably not, especially given stories that they’ve just realized that the average age of their military service-people is too high, but it is nice when they remember who the enemy is once in a while.

deredactie.be - English - 400 Illegals occupy ULB University

The best thing about this story is the confusion of the liberals who gave the illegals permission to stay in the sports complex. These people who are breaking the law by being in Belgium when they shouldn’t be won’t leave our facility, even though we only gave them permission to stay the night! Well, duh!

People who don’t respect the laws of the land are not going to respect requests or common courtesy. They have shown that their first priority is themselves, period. The failure of many in Belgium (and elsewhere) to understand this is common failure of the liberal mindset.

Looking at the value of the Euro today, I was reminded of the joke of the two men hiking in the mountains. When they met a bear, one of them instantly crouched down and changed his hiking boots for running shoes. The other exclaimed, "You fool! You can’t outrun a bear!" The first man replied, "I don’t need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you."

It seems to me that the US economy doesn’t need to outrun this bear market. We just need to outrun the European and Asian markets long enough to be the last ones standing. That is looking easier every day. 

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Jerusalem car ‘attack’ hurts 10

La Shawn Barber’s Corner » Sarah Palin: Why?

 I like La Shawn’s perspective, and I think she makes some good points. However, when we close with "It stinks, the whole thing. But that’s politics." we underscore the primary reason that Palin is not a bad pick for McCain.

Palin is a conservative. She’s not perfect, and she’s got some struggles at home, but she is a conservative. She has done a good job of dealing with corruption in Alaska, even inside her own party.

Does this make me want to vote for McCain? No. Unless he’s planning on cashing it in, it doesn’t have a lot to do with voting for him, imho. On the other hand, it makes me far less likely to vote against the whole system than if he had picked Graham or Lieberman or someone of that ilk. In any election we have to wait and see how the promise (and promises) will play out, but I will much prefer Sarah Palin talking with McCain about Supreme Court Justices and legislation than Mike Huckabee or Richard Lugar. 

BBC NEWS | Business | Sterling continues to lose ground

"The US was the first economy to hit trouble," said Tim Clayton, chief strategist at currency advisory consultancy Investica. The US is still cheap, it’s still a good holiday, but it’s got a lot more expensive David Bloom, HSBC Sterling vs the dollar Euro vs the dollar Q&A: dollar rise "Now people are realising that the UK has the same problems, if not more so, as the US."

Will we finally get stories in the American press acknowledging that the American economy is, in fact, stronger than the European economies, and that the attempts of the Democrats to "lift" the economy will, in fact, cause it to more closely resemble those of Europe?

I doubt it. 

RFI - Esclavage : un premier mea culpa fédéral

Part of the problem here is the mechanism. I hope every member of Congress representing a majority black district recused himself/herself from the vote, since the descendants of slaves apologizing for slavery lacks a certain something. In addition, I hope that the representatives from Massachusetts voted no, since their state was highly implicated in the abolitionist movement. Ditto Ohio, with its long involvement in the Underground Railroad. Did Kansas abstain, its soil still stained red with the blood shed to keep slavery from encroaching upon it?

 I might like to ask when the states of North Africa are going to apologize to the United States and Europe for their enslavement of our nationals, illegally taken at sea? When the Turks are going to apologize for their long history of enslaving Christians? When the West African states are going to apologize to dark skinned Americans whose ancestors were sold to the slave traders by their ancestors? Where does this end? Well, of course, it doesn’t end. It continues because it is a stick for the powerless to use to beat the powerful. It is the guy with glasses provoking a fight. It is the girl punching a guy in the stomach and then saying, "A gentleman never strikes a lady."