Winning arguments is not the same as winning souls. Very few, if any, have lost a quarrel and found themselves converted. But we all know the impulse deep down, when engaging with unbelief, to lash out in an effort to show ourselves right rather than win the unbeliever.
If we genuinely are willing to take our cues from the New Testament, rather than instinct, we might be surprised to find the way the apostles would have us to engage with our society. Paul points to kindness, patience, and gentle correction (2 Timothy 2:24–26), and Peter lays out the way of “gentleness and respect” and compelling hope. …
… You might wonder whether someone with his (Don Carson) ecclesiological pedigree and breadth would dream nostalgically about the 1950s and join the fight to reclaim the golden era that seemed so much more conducive to Christianity. Carson, however, is much less worried about the broadening gap between church and society — and much more eager for Christians to learn to engage with humility and kindness.
We are all products of our age, in some degree, admits Carson, and in the days ahead, evangelicals desperately need to take their cues from Scripture, rather than engaging with society on its own terms, in its own tenor. …
___________________________
There were never any real moderates here, just different degrees of radical. And now many of these US trained soldiers are spreading their new knowledge, and in some cases, heavy equipment, among our enemies. This is a total failure of policy and tactics.
” Throughout the fiasco of the Pentagon’s $500 million effort to train and equip a force of Syrian rebels to take on the Islamic State, one small group endured.
The New Syrian Army completed the U.S. training course in Jordan, infiltrated into Syria and then, in March, without fanfare or publicity, seized a pinprick of territory from the militants at the remote Tanaf border crossing with Iraq in the far southeast corner of the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour.
There they have remained, holding their ground without deserting, defecting or getting kidnapped, unlike many of the other similarly trained rebels whose mishaps prompted the temporary suspension of the program last year.
Even this modest success is now in jeopardy, however, following an Islamic State suicide attack earlier this month. An armored vehicle barreled into the rebel base shortly before dawn on May 7, killing a number of them and wounding several more, said Lt. Col. Mohammed Tallaa, a Syrian officer who had defected and is the group’s commander.”
“”I’m not saying the Americans let us down, but there is dereliction of duty. They are not doing what they could,” he said “We don’t want the Americans to disrespect the lives of our men.”
A U.S. military spokesman said warplanes responded to a plea for help when the base was bombed, but did not arrive in time because the attack happened so fast. A number of airstrikes have since been carried out against Islamic State positions in the area and new supplies of weaponry have been delivered, said U.S. military spokesman Col. Steve Warren. He said the U.S. military believes the group will survive.
“They still have Tanaf, they have been resupplied, and we think they can hold,” he said. “We think they have enough firepower, and we are providing support with airstrikes as available.””
———————————–
I want to see if there is a correlation between professional wrestling fans and Trump supporters. However, the Springer analogy isn’t bad either.
I don’t view Sanders anywhere near Castro. His positions are standard Social Democratic ideas elsewhere and in the tradition of FDR and Johnson.
Cruz on the other hand is no Reagan. He is further to the right of Reagan. Obama might even be closer to Reagan than Cruz.
The American political spectrum is fairly tight without much diversity. Stylistically, Trump is unusual but his economic positions aren’t that far off the Republican party. Sanders, however, is different from current Democratic positions especially when compared to Clinton who isn’t much different than Romney. In fact, when the other Republican pretenders dropped out, Clinton, ignoring the vast number of independent Saunders supporters, veered to the right to appeal to Bush, Kaisch and other “business” Republicans. Clinton’s strategy appears straight out of 1992.
Is it me or is Palin’s voice getting worse? Or is it just the words emitting from her mouth that grate on me? Now there’s a ticket; Turmp/Palin.
The two single most important economic issues are healthcare and trade. This is because healthcare is now almost 20% of our economy and a trade war would lead to a depression and a high tariff on imports would impoverish Americans used to cheap foreign goods.
On healthcare, Castro, Sanders and Springer (Trump) all favor a single payer government program. On trade, Sanders and Trump both favor the type of protectionism that contributed to The Great Depression.
HRW, I agree with your comment about Palin’s voice. It reminds me of a comment Chas once made about the grating nature of Hillary’s voice.
Let us listen to the pleasant voice of a female politician who explained the differences between socialists and conservatives such as Reagan and herself:
I see on TV that JFK would be 99 today.
I’ll bet some of you don’t remember JFK.
Senator Kennedy spoke at my graduation from U South Carolina.
I could tell he was politicking for something in 1957.
The British accent made Thatcher’s voice palpable it definitely wasn’t the content. I sometimes wonder if there’s a subtle sexism which makes Palin or Clinton’s voice annoying. In terms of male politicians I wonder if its the content or the actual voice which makes me cringe. I do think in terms of Trump, its both. His delivery, vocabulary, content , and actual voice make me cringe. In 2008, I don’t remember Clinton’s voice as annoying but now it grates on me. I think the entitlement and frustration are apparent in her tone.
I don’t think Trump has a consistent position on anything especially health care. He has said he favours single payer but then has changed his mind several times since. Single payer is the simplest and easiest solution so he may have found it appealing until he was told otherwise by donors, Republicans, and business friends. I don’t think Sanders was inspired by Castro here more likely the Canadian experience where even Conservative politicians publicly proclaim they favour single payer.
Protectionism did not cause the Great Depression. Monetarist (Friedman) argue it was the money supply others argue it was the lack of regulation etc.. Protectionism however may have contributed to its length, depth and severity. Free trade however doesn’t really exist. All politicians and economists argue for regulation, its just a question of what regulation and for whose benefit.
The Amish don’t read Donald Trump’s tweets and can’t watch his television appearances, and voting is practically against their religion.
But that’s not stopping a group of Trump allies with ties to Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich from mounting a campaign to turn them out anyway. …
__________________________
“Protectionism however may have contributed to its length, depth and severity.”
Author Amity Shlaes makes the case that FDR’s constant changing of his mind, and laws, rules and regulations, inhibited recovery. This was a great and easy read.
I feel so sorry for that woman. I have seen her called a moron, lazy, neglectful, & white trash, among other things.
It is so easy to proclaim that one’s own children would never do such a thing because of what a good parent one is, but children can slip away all too easily, even from an attentive parent who is distracted (& we can all get distracted, whether we admit it or not). The lady was attending to another child. A woman who witnessed the incident said she did not think the lady was being negligent.
The debate on the New Deal and its effectiveness has really heated up in recent years. The standard view of economic historians is that the New Deal was insufficient and military spending for WWII pulled the US out of the depression. The mini-recession in ’37 when FDR cut back spending is usually cited as prof. Recently, various classical liberal economist have argued against this interpretation. The standard explanation still stands well and even contrary economists admit that spending and gov’t programs alleviated unemployment and increased economic activity. They argue instead that economic recovery could’ve been more robust if neoliberal policies were followed (tax cuts, balanced budgets etc). This is all supposition and if one uses the economic performance of these polices at other times and places, the case against the standard view is weak.
FDR’s policies are open to criticism as is his alphabet soup of programs. However, I would argue its the lack of universalism in the programs that reduced their effectiveness and increased the confusion.
I don’t think I’m going out on limb to say if Trump was to expound on Two Corinthians with the Amish, he would lose their vote.
Children used to be taught to mind, to obey their parents. Reports say the mother in this case told the boy “No”, and he paid her about as much attention as Putin pays Obama. My son says that spanking is now as out of style as heterosexuality and premarital chastity. As the moron who wants to be president likes to say: “Sad.”
Wandering Views 
A little different for the political thread, but it was mM=y morning dose of conviction for today (and a theme upon which our pastor often speaks):
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/we-are-not-entitled-to-the-world-s-respect
____________________
Winning arguments is not the same as winning souls. Very few, if any, have lost a quarrel and found themselves converted. But we all know the impulse deep down, when engaging with unbelief, to lash out in an effort to show ourselves right rather than win the unbeliever.
If we genuinely are willing to take our cues from the New Testament, rather than instinct, we might be surprised to find the way the apostles would have us to engage with our society. Paul points to kindness, patience, and gentle correction (2 Timothy 2:24–26), and Peter lays out the way of “gentleness and respect” and compelling hope. …
… You might wonder whether someone with his (Don Carson) ecclesiological pedigree and breadth would dream nostalgically about the 1950s and join the fight to reclaim the golden era that seemed so much more conducive to Christianity. Carson, however, is much less worried about the broadening gap between church and society — and much more eager for Christians to learn to engage with humility and kindness.
We are all products of our age, in some degree, admits Carson, and in the days ahead, evangelicals desperately need to take their cues from Scripture, rather than engaging with society on its own terms, in its own tenor. …
___________________________
LikeLiked by 3 people
Told ya.
There were never any real moderates here, just different degrees of radical. And now many of these US trained soldiers are spreading their new knowledge, and in some cases, heavy equipment, among our enemies. This is a total failure of policy and tactics.
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/last-remaining-pentagon-trained-rebel-group-in-syria-is-now-in-jeopardy-1.411831
” Throughout the fiasco of the Pentagon’s $500 million effort to train and equip a force of Syrian rebels to take on the Islamic State, one small group endured.
The New Syrian Army completed the U.S. training course in Jordan, infiltrated into Syria and then, in March, without fanfare or publicity, seized a pinprick of territory from the militants at the remote Tanaf border crossing with Iraq in the far southeast corner of the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour.
There they have remained, holding their ground without deserting, defecting or getting kidnapped, unlike many of the other similarly trained rebels whose mishaps prompted the temporary suspension of the program last year.
Even this modest success is now in jeopardy, however, following an Islamic State suicide attack earlier this month. An armored vehicle barreled into the rebel base shortly before dawn on May 7, killing a number of them and wounding several more, said Lt. Col. Mohammed Tallaa, a Syrian officer who had defected and is the group’s commander.”
“”I’m not saying the Americans let us down, but there is dereliction of duty. They are not doing what they could,” he said “We don’t want the Americans to disrespect the lives of our men.”
A U.S. military spokesman said warplanes responded to a plea for help when the base was bombed, but did not arrive in time because the attack happened so fast. A number of airstrikes have since been carried out against Islamic State positions in the area and new supplies of weaponry have been delivered, said U.S. military spokesman Col. Steve Warren. He said the U.S. military believes the group will survive.
“They still have Tanaf, they have been resupplied, and we think they can hold,” he said. “We think they have enough firepower, and we are providing support with airstrikes as available.””
———————————–
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Why did both chickens cross the road?
To avoid debating Bernie Sanders.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Feelin’ the bern, are we? 🙂
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I’ve been extremely impressed by his campaign and by the response its received. I never thought he would be this close.
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HRW, I think a race between a socialist and the lunatic might have been more interesting than the mud fight we are about to witness.
Here is an interesting article that explains how the spiritual blindness of American leaders makes it impossible for them to understand Russia:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/russia_solzhenitsyn_and_the_reset_button.html
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A race between Cruz and Sanders would have allowed Americans to choose whether they wanted to live in Reagan’s America or Castro’s Cuba.
Now we are forced to choose whether we want to live in a more corrupt version of Obama’s America or on the set of The Jerry Springer Show.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Palin: “It’s not stupid to vote for Trump.”
After you stop laughing, you think: They should have picked a better messenger. Then again, Is there such a thing as an intelligent Trump surrogate?
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/sarah-palin-donald-trump-rally-california-223675
This is going to be very funny. I think Hillary may be a bad enough candidate to keep the thing close.
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I want to see if there is a correlation between professional wrestling fans and Trump supporters. However, the Springer analogy isn’t bad either.
I don’t view Sanders anywhere near Castro. His positions are standard Social Democratic ideas elsewhere and in the tradition of FDR and Johnson.
Cruz on the other hand is no Reagan. He is further to the right of Reagan. Obama might even be closer to Reagan than Cruz.
The American political spectrum is fairly tight without much diversity. Stylistically, Trump is unusual but his economic positions aren’t that far off the Republican party. Sanders, however, is different from current Democratic positions especially when compared to Clinton who isn’t much different than Romney. In fact, when the other Republican pretenders dropped out, Clinton, ignoring the vast number of independent Saunders supporters, veered to the right to appeal to Bush, Kaisch and other “business” Republicans. Clinton’s strategy appears straight out of 1992.
Is it me or is Palin’s voice getting worse? Or is it just the words emitting from her mouth that grate on me? Now there’s a ticket; Turmp/Palin.
LikeLike
In church today, we had a video honoring those who died in service to our country.
What struck me as being a sad thing, They had to go all the way back to Ronald Reagan to find someone to do it.
Think about it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The two single most important economic issues are healthcare and trade. This is because healthcare is now almost 20% of our economy and a trade war would lead to a depression and a high tariff on imports would impoverish Americans used to cheap foreign goods.
On healthcare, Castro, Sanders and Springer (Trump) all favor a single payer government program. On trade, Sanders and Trump both favor the type of protectionism that contributed to The Great Depression.
LikeLike
HRW, I agree with your comment about Palin’s voice. It reminds me of a comment Chas once made about the grating nature of Hillary’s voice.
Let us listen to the pleasant voice of a female politician who explained the differences between socialists and conservatives such as Reagan and herself:
LikeLiked by 3 people
I see on TV that JFK would be 99 today.
I’ll bet some of you don’t remember JFK.
Senator Kennedy spoke at my graduation from U South Carolina.
I could tell he was politicking for something in 1957.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I was 14 months old when he was assassinated. My brother was 1 month. You’re right, Chas, I don’t remember him. 🙂
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I was in 7th grade when he was assassinated, I definitely remember him although I obviously didn’t follow politics back then. 🙂
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The British accent made Thatcher’s voice palpable it definitely wasn’t the content. I sometimes wonder if there’s a subtle sexism which makes Palin or Clinton’s voice annoying. In terms of male politicians I wonder if its the content or the actual voice which makes me cringe. I do think in terms of Trump, its both. His delivery, vocabulary, content , and actual voice make me cringe. In 2008, I don’t remember Clinton’s voice as annoying but now it grates on me. I think the entitlement and frustration are apparent in her tone.
I don’t think Trump has a consistent position on anything especially health care. He has said he favours single payer but then has changed his mind several times since. Single payer is the simplest and easiest solution so he may have found it appealing until he was told otherwise by donors, Republicans, and business friends. I don’t think Sanders was inspired by Castro here more likely the Canadian experience where even Conservative politicians publicly proclaim they favour single payer.
Protectionism did not cause the Great Depression. Monetarist (Friedman) argue it was the money supply others argue it was the lack of regulation etc.. Protectionism however may have contributed to its length, depth and severity. Free trade however doesn’t really exist. All politicians and economists argue for regulation, its just a question of what regulation and for whose benefit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
An election like no other.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-amish-voters-223669
__________________________
The Amish don’t read Donald Trump’s tweets and can’t watch his television appearances, and voting is practically against their religion.
But that’s not stopping a group of Trump allies with ties to Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich from mounting a campaign to turn them out anyway. …
__________________________
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Poor dim-witted old Carson is working for the devil. Hopefully, the Amish will ignore him.
Donna J, I liked this article on how Trump has “destroyed the interview”.
how donald trump destroyed the interview
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Let’s try that again:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-donald-trump-media-journalism-interview-tv-213922
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hwesseli
“Protectionism however may have contributed to its length, depth and severity.”
Author Amity Shlaes makes the case that FDR’s constant changing of his mind, and laws, rules and regulations, inhibited recovery. This was a great and easy read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Man:_A_New_History_of_the_Great_Depression
It is good to hear from you again. I always find your comments interesting. Please keep popping in now and then.
Bob Buckles
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I’m waiting with great anticipation for the Amish to join Twitter
LikeLiked by 2 people
OK, I’ll go out on a limb and say that it will be hard for the Dems or Republicans to top the Libertarian convention.
2016 will go down as something in the political history books. And it’s not even over yet.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/is-the-libertarian-party-serious.php
LikeLiked by 2 people
My wife and I have been joking that the gorilla might have made a better parent than the boy’s mother, but Matt Walsh put us in our place:
http://themattwalshblog.com/2016/05/30/crying-dead-ape-125-thousand-babies-just-murdered/
So I won’t be defacing Cincinatti’s monuments with any pro-gorilla grafitti.
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The internet furor does remind one of the Cecil-the-Lion episode.
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Church friend happens to have the same name as the mom in the gorilla incident, people are finding her on FB and think she’s the mom. Oy.
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I feel so sorry for that woman. I have seen her called a moron, lazy, neglectful, & white trash, among other things.
It is so easy to proclaim that one’s own children would never do such a thing because of what a good parent one is, but children can slip away all too easily, even from an attentive parent who is distracted (& we can all get distracted, whether we admit it or not). The lady was attending to another child. A woman who witnessed the incident said she did not think the lady was being negligent.
LikeLike
The debate on the New Deal and its effectiveness has really heated up in recent years. The standard view of economic historians is that the New Deal was insufficient and military spending for WWII pulled the US out of the depression. The mini-recession in ’37 when FDR cut back spending is usually cited as prof. Recently, various classical liberal economist have argued against this interpretation. The standard explanation still stands well and even contrary economists admit that spending and gov’t programs alleviated unemployment and increased economic activity. They argue instead that economic recovery could’ve been more robust if neoliberal policies were followed (tax cuts, balanced budgets etc). This is all supposition and if one uses the economic performance of these polices at other times and places, the case against the standard view is weak.
FDR’s policies are open to criticism as is his alphabet soup of programs. However, I would argue its the lack of universalism in the programs that reduced their effectiveness and increased the confusion.
I don’t think I’m going out on limb to say if Trump was to expound on Two Corinthians with the Amish, he would lose their vote.
LikeLike
Children used to be taught to mind, to obey their parents. Reports say the mother in this case told the boy “No”, and he paid her about as much attention as Putin pays Obama. My son says that spanking is now as out of style as heterosexuality and premarital chastity. As the moron who wants to be president likes to say: “Sad.”
LikeLike