Month: October 2013

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Our Daily Thread 10-7-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1765 nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”

In 1918 the Georgia Tech football team defeated Cumberland College 222-0. Georgia Tech carried the ball 978 yards and never threw a pass. 😯

In 1968 the Motion Picture Association of America adopted the film-rating system that ranged for “G” to “X.”

 In 1981 the Egyptian parliament, after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, named Vice President Hosni Mubarak the next president of Egypt.

And in 1985 the United States announced that it would no longer automatically comply with World Court decisions.

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Quote of the Day

“I never considered myself a fall guy. I know what I did. I know why I did it. I’m not ashamed of it.”

Oliver North

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Today is Jon Micah Sumrall’s birthday.

It’s also Michael W. Smith’s.

And another from Kutless.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 10-7-13

Who has a request or praise to share today?

Psalm 52

¹ Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.

2 The tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

3 Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:

7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

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News/Politics 10-7-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The shutdown continues. And so does the petty nonsense and closings.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Most of the furloughed Department of Defense civilian employees will be recalled, according to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who acknowledged that government lawyers interpreted a Pentagon funding law passed on the eve of the shutdown too narrowly.

“Today I am announcing that most DOD civilians placed on emergency furlough during the government shutdown will be asked to return to work beginning next week,” Hagel said Saturday.”

“House Republicans passed the Pay Our Military Act to the Senate on the eve of the government shutdown in order to insulate the Pentagon from the effects of the lapse in government appropriations.

The Senate passed and President Obama signed the measure, but the Pentagon furloughed about 400,000 civilians anyway.”

Of course they did. This is supposed to be painful because that’s what Obama wants.

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Boehner continues to refuse a stand alone CR.

From Bloomberg  “U.S. Speaker John Boehner said the House can’t pass an increase to the U.S. debt ceiling without packaging it with other provisions — a nonstarter for President Barack Obama.

“We are not going to pass a clean debt limit,” Boehner said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program. “The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit.”

“Boehner said he believed the country could end up in default if Obama doesn’t negotiate. “That’s the path we’re on,” Boehner said.

Boehner’s comments came as the stalemate between the White House and House Republicans showed little sign of thawing just 11 days from when Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew told lawmakers the U.S. will exhaust measures to avoid breaching the debt ceiling. The House and Senate aren’t scheduled to be in session today and there are no meetings planned between the two sides.”

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Say it with me now….. Most transparent administration evah! 🙄

From HotAir  “Remember when the media rushed to talk about transparency in the Barack Obama “Hope and Change” era? Good times, good times.  Leonard Downie, who once worked as the executive editor of the Washington Post and wrote a novel about Washington corruption and the Iraq War, finds a bigger and non-fictional problem in the successor to George W. Bush.  Downie gives the Post a preview of his report from the Committee to Protect Journalists which outlines the Obama war on reporters and their sources:

“A memo went out from the chief of staff a year ago to White House employees and the intelligence agencies that told people to freeze and retain any e-mail, and presumably phone logs, of communications with me,” Sanger said. As a result, longtime sources no longer talk to him. “They tell me: ‘David, I love you, but don’t e-mail me. Let’s don’t chat until this blows over.’ ”

Sanger, who has worked for the Times in Washington for two decades, said, “This is most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered.”

Many leak investigations include lie-detector tests for government officials with access to the information at issue. “Reporters are interviewing sources through intermediaries now,” Barr told me, “so the sources can truthfully answer on polygraphs that they didn’t talk to reporters.”

Nice.

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And a new term of the Supreme Court is about to start. Should be some interesting cases to follow.

From TheLATimes  “The Supreme Court term that opens Monday gives the court’s conservative bloc a clear opportunity to shift the law to the right on touchstone social issues such as abortion, contraception and religion, as well as the political controversy over campaign funding.

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Our Daily Thread 10-5-13

Good Morning!

It’s Saturday! 🙂

On this day in 1813 Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Indians was killed at the Battle of Thames when American forced defeated the British and the allied Indian warriors. 

In 1921 the World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first  time. The game was between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees.

In 1930 Laura Ingalls became the first woman to make a transcontinental airplane flight.

In 1969 “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” debuted on BBC television.

And in 1974 American David Kunst completed the first journey around the world on foot. It took four years and 21 pairs of shoes. He crossed four continents and walked 14,450 miles.

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Quote of the Day

“Opinion is that exercise of the human will which helps us to make a decision without information.”

John Erskine

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Today is Wayne Watson’s birthday.

And it’s Steve Miller’s birthday.

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

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Prayer Requests 10-5-13

Who can we pray for today?

Psalm 51:7-15

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

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News/Politics 10-5-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up, I’d like to say I’m shocked. I’d like to….

From TheDailyCaller  “In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they  celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal  government shutdown.

“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests  who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work  – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the  Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it  is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they  attempt to do so.””

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Republicans are continuing their efforts to fund some govt departments. FEMA could be an important one if the hurricane in the Gulf causes widespread damage. Let’s see if the obstruction on piecemeal bills continues from the Senate and White House.

From FoxNews  “The House voted Friday to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as Republicans cast the bill as an emergency measure to help Americans threatened by the approaching tropical storm.”

The bill was one of several House Republicans have pushed in recent days to fund chunks of the government amid the partial government shutdown. 

They’ve been pressuring Democrats, with little success, to support these mini-spending measures while the budget impasse drags on. Republicans upped that pressure on Friday, saying disaster response is critical as Tropical Storm Karen tracks toward the Gulf Coast and is poised to hit this weekend. 

“When you’ve got a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, this is not a time for partisanship,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said after the vote, flanked by Gulf state lawmakers. Scalise called on President Obama to remove his veto threat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the bill in the Senate. “

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Meanwhile the firm responsible for the ObamaCare implementation has been identified. And no offense to our Canadian friends, but couldn’t we have found a US company instead of outsourcing to Canada?

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “A Canadian tech firm that has provided service to that country’s single-payer health care system is behind the glitch-ridden United States national health care exchange site healthcare.gov.

CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.

The “CGI” in the parent company’s name stands for “Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique” in French, which roughly translates to “Information Systems and Management Consultants.” However, the firm offers another translation: “Consultants to Government and Industry.”

The company is deeply embedded in Canada’s single-payer system. CGI has provided IT services to the Canadian Ministries of Health in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan, as well as to the national health provider, Health Canada, according to CGI’s Canadian website.”

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And the last one from me today is this. The founder of McAfee speaks out about the lack of security with the ObamaCare sites. Still needin’ that face palm smiley. 🙄

From TheDailyCaller  “For starters, McAfee said the way it is set up makes it possible for fake  websites be set up to fool people to think they’re signing  up for Obamacare.

“It’s seriously bad,” McAfee said. “Somebody made a grave error, not in designing the program but in simply implementing the web aspect of it. I mean, for example, anybody can put up a web page and claim to be a broker for this  system. There is no central place where I can go and say, ‘OK, here are all the legitimate brokers the examiners for all of the states and pick and choose one.’”

“According to McAfee, there’s not a quick fix — and as long as it set up this  way, it could be a playground for computer hackers.”

““Here’s the problem: It’s not something software can solve,” McAfee continued. “I mean, what idiot put this system out there and did not create a central  depository? There should be one website, run by the government, you go to that  website and then you can click on all of the agencies. This is insane. So, I will predict that the loss of income for the millions of Americans who are going  to lose their identities — I mean, you can imagine some retired lady in Utah, who has $75,000 dollars in the bank, saving her whole life, having it  wiped out in one day because she signed up for Obamacare. And believe me, this  is going to happen millions of times.”

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Our Daily Thread 10-4-13

Good Morning!

It’s Friday! 🙂

On this day in 1535 the first complete English translation of the Bible was printed in Zurich, Switzerland.

In 1648 the first volunteer fire department was established in New York by Peter Stuyvesant.

In 1881 Edward Leveaux received a patent for the player piano.

In 1927 the first actual work of carving began on Mount Rushmore.

And in 1931 the comic strip “Dick Tracy” made its debut in the Detroit Daily Mirror. The strip was created by Chester Gould.

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Quote of the Day

“Political correctness is tyranny with manners.”

Charlton Heston

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Now when I think Charlton Heston, I don’t think Moses, or the NRA…. it’s always one line. You know the one, from Planet of the Apes. But I’d have to break the rules to post it, so you get Moses instead. 🙂

Today is Steve Swallow’s birthday, so here’s a duet with Carla Bley.

That one is pretty low-key, so this one, which was released today in 1943, should liven things up a bit.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 10-4-13

Who has a request or praise to share?

Psalm 51:1-4

¹Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak,And blameless when You judge.

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News/Politics 10-4-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

It’s been an interesting few days hasn’t it? In the past few days the perceived enemies of the President have been called extremists, terrorists, jihadists, murderers, un-American, hostage takers, arsonists, accused of being anarchists, and of holding a gun to the country’s heads.

And yet actual terrorists, jihadists, extremists, murderers (and the rest of the list) who actually do these things, are labeled as moderate rebels, and freedom-fighters by the same people. And the same RINO’s too. Go figure. Actual enemies of this country are treated better than the Republicans. Very sad, not to mention cowardly.

New tone? Anyone?

From TheWashingtonTimes  “Democrats, who have long posed as the party of peaceniks and doves, have been  anything but during the great rhetorical war of 2013. In fact, the party of  George McGovern and Jimmy Carter has been mad as hell as of late, leading an  offensive of bombastic insults and rhetorical bullying that has dominated the  government shutdown. It’s a perfect storm, with Democrats leading the pace.

President Obama called Republicans “reckless and irresponsible,” casting the  Grand Old Party in the role of villain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,  Nevada Democrat, referred to Republicans as “anarchists,” and House Minority  Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, deemed Republicans “legislative  arsonists.””

““Democrats have hurled every insult imaginable, such as ‘terrorist,’ ‘arsonist’  and ‘murderers’ against Americans who differ with President Obama. Despite their  threats and childish behavior, the speaker has been steadfast in his vision to  reduce the size and scope of government and treat everyone fairly,” Mr. Stockman  said.”

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Liberal religious leader Jim Wallis gets in on the act as well. He says these “political extremists” are acting in an unbiblical manner. Thoughts?

From TheBlaze  “Progressive faith leader Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, is joining a chorus of Americans who are frustrated over the government shutdown. In a video monologue this week, he unleashed his views on the matter, calling the closure “unbiblical” and hitting back at the “political extremists” he believes are responsible for it.

While most of the debate surrounding the shutdown is partisan in nature, Wallis argues that the conundrum is deeper than mere strife between the parties; in fact, he says it’s spiritual.

“There is a deeper problem here than politics. There’s a theological problem,” he proclaims in the clip. “As a Christian I want to say shutting down government is unbiblical. Yes, that’s what I’m saying — it’s unbiblical.”

“Wallis goes on to instruct readers to explore what the Bible has to say on the matter and specifically cites the 13th chapter of the Book of Romans, which discusses the importance of complying with government.”

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Harry Reid yet again shows himself to be “anti-veteran” by even his low standards.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Senate Democrats blocked four resolutions to fund government programs, including paying the National Guard and opening national parks, as Republicans offered the limited measures in an attempt to win the government shutdown fight by financing popular programs and leaving those they oppose untouched.

“Unbelievably, today Senate Democrats went on record to oppose funding for National Guard and Reserve salaries, veterans’ services, lifesaving medicine and cures, and national parks and museums,” Senate Republican Conference chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in a release following the procedural battle.

“Congress unanimously passed a bill to ensure active-duty military personnel are paid during this lapse in government funding, and it’s unclear why Senate Democrats wouldn’t pass similar measures to fund these important services,” Thune said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asked for unanimous consent to pass funding for the Veterans Affairs Department and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, requested unanimous consent to pass a bill funding the national parks and monuments. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., rejected both.”

He won’t fund veteran services to try and force people to give in to his wishes, but they’ll fund terrorist rebels in other countries with no strings attached.

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Folks on the Gulf Coast are preparing for Tropical Storm Karen, which appears to be turning into a full-fledged hurricane.

From AccuWeather  “Tropical Storm Karen has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and will move into the southern United States this weekend with heavy rain, gusty winds and rough seas.

Karen will continue to move along a curved northward path over the central Gulf of Mexico through Friday. During Saturday, Karen will begin to turn toward the northeast and will make landfall along the upper Gulf Coast from southeast of New Orleans to west of Panama City, Fla.

There is a chance Karen becomes a hurricane prior to making landfall. Shortly after being officially named a tropical storm, Karen’s maximum sustained winds had reached 65 mph. The threshold for a tropical system to become a hurricane is sustained winds of 74 mph.”

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