Hearts Are Changing

There have been some studies released recently showing that more youth are against the aborting of the unborn. Of course where are my facts to back up my statement there, somewhere around here or on the internet where I read it. Interestingly enough though, I get some of that information from the Alan Gutmacher Institute which is the research arm of Planned Parenthood. I am not sure, however, if that particular study was theirs, even though they do many studies regarding abortion.

It gives me hope for my nation when I read the results of these studies and even some of the statements some of these dear young people make. Every single one of them was born into a society that considers the aborting of an unwanted pregnancy as some kind of given, right, God given or constitutional. That is why to hear that hearts are turning away from that vein of thinking and beginning to acknowledge the most vulnerable of our society gives me great hope indeed.

Soon I will return to the crisis pregnancy ministry and once again see some of the youth of our nation, mostly inner city, on a regular basis. I have missed it these last few years and look foward to returning. The top two things that I miss about it is sharing God's love with these young people and the young people themselves. When I think on my years there and those I have met, I can recall situation after trying situation, dire, fear-filled, despair, crying uncontrollably, and too often, laughing in the face of some of the facts about abortion and the risks teens are exposed to when they chose to have sexual relations. For sure I cannot recall many faces, but I can recall their stories and how they touched me and changed me. Working with them and knowing the love of Christ in my own heart has firmly established in my heart that it is hearts that should change, not laws, though I of course do believe laws should protect the unborn just as surely as they are supposed to protect the born child from an abusive parent. It is the heart change though, that ensures that it is by their own free will they come to the truth and it changes them forever. A law can make you do something you don't want to do, but a heart change, oh a heart change, makes you free from the law, in the spiritual sense, that is. I wouldn't want anyone reading this to think I am an advocate for lawbreaking.

So, anyway, before my ramble gets too rambly and I end up deleting the entry, It is good that I will be returning and that my return will be during a time when the death mentality of the young is beginning to turn to life, good indeed. 8-)

Oh yes, and when I locate those studies I will surely be back to post the information.

Some Myths And Facts

Yup! Here it is. Some of that stuff I had hanging around to post here. Arrrgh, I couldn't remember where I put it. And then, I didn't feel like writing! Why? Mostly because I hit that backspace key way too much because I am a lousy typist. Always have been. Imagine failing typing two years in a row and passing stenography with the top speed in the class!!

Well, this is why the Democrats are the worse deceivers that I have seen in my time involved in current events as pertains to politics. This filibuster madness that they childishly have grabbed a hold of and haven't let go of yet, mentality-wise is at the top of the list. Never mind how qualified the candidates that the president rightfully is allowed to appoint, never mind that the candidates would pass on an up and down vote, never mind that the right thing to do is to allow that vote, the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate today is the bottom of the barrel ethically.

I have written to my senators about this issue and their letters are always returned to me and worded in such a way as to make me feel my lack of experience in their world. However, I recognize that they utilize that advantage so as to be 'right' and me be wrong.

For instance, my senators, in response to my complaining of the filibuster is to point out that only ten of the president's 214 judicial nominees were filibustered.

The real truth is that almost all of those confirmed were to lower federal district courts. You see, the big deal is the President's nominees to circuit courts of appeal. Here is the most telltale piece of data: Ten of the president's 34 appeals nominees were filibustered!

There are quite a few other revelations I have discovered hidden beneath the rhetoric of the Democratic leadership as well as the letters I receive from my representatives, but I will post one more before I sign off, which is, to me, the most telling of them all.

The Democratic leadership made such a big deal about the 'constitutional option' as if it were a horrible thing that the Republicans were trying to do by invoking it. They played it up, the media played it up, hyping that these Republicans were power crazed, and perhaps even anti-constitution or something and labeled the threat to invoke this option as a Republican Power Grab!

However, when a minority of senators prevents an up and down vote on the very well qualified and majority supported if given a vote judicial nominees, that is the real power grab. And if our media were doing the job that they are supposed to be doing, the American public would be reading about it in the papers and hearing it on the news, instead of the Big Media becoming nothing but a megaphone and sounding board for the agenda of the Democratic leadership.

Up And Down Votes

I have some information somewhere here. Let me get it. But first let me say that what the Democrats are doing and have been doing during the Bush Administration, and with the full blessing of the media, is indeed unprecedented in their not allowing an up and down vote on the president's nominees to the various posts he has nominated them to. The reason for the filibuster and the ridiculous demands for documents are all geared to not allowing someone who doesn't pass their limitus test into any position that they thing important to those with a particular agenda. Never mind that what they are doing is unconstitutional or undermines the purposes of their offices in the way our government should be run. The truth is that there are enough votes to confirm, so they do not allow the vote to happen by whatever tactic on hand. They are denying the process.

To me the Democrats who are behaving like this are the epitome of hypocrisy. How they can sleep at night with anything remote near a clear conscience is beyond me. There is no limit to their justification for all that they do when it is clear that they are doing wrong. I don't think they are fooling anyone either, in that I have never, not once, heard any of those arrogant men and women admit they are wrong about anything! No one is that perfect, no one!! We the people could indeed have one of the most unique ways of self-governing if we didn't constantly in our history encounter self-serving, self important, power mad, the hell with everyone else people not caring about the country, but only about their own advancement.

I'll be back with that stuff after I find it. 8-)

Human Behavior Revisited

See? A laptop computer giveaway (practically a give away) in Virginia brings out the real us in the crowd and is another example of what I see as the behavior of the masses that proves my point that people are not basically good, but basically self-centered and well, not good. 8-)

They were lined up hours before the Apple iBooks, at fifty dollars a piece, saw the doors open to be sold to 'first come, first served'. The crowd crushed, stampeded, knocked others on the head, kicked others who were down (which were probably knocked down) drove a car through the crowd and wet their pants rather than give up their place on line. No Apple personal put a stop to it, no police arrested anyone, and except for a few people who, when interviewed were disgusted at the behavior of their fellow man, the rest justified the stomping, shoving, whacking as their right because of people trying to take force their way into the line.

It is in our nature to think of ourselves first, and lest this post come off as my seeming to place myself above such behavior, who of anyone of us has not had their ire rise when someone passed them in the emergency lane while they themselves were stuck in traffic and doing the right thing? Who has not wanted to whack someone, place an obstacle in said someone's way, or otherwise prevent a line cutter, a person without scruples taking something that doesn't belong to them, from getting away with such a thing, especially if it is something of ours, be it property, our place in a line, or anything else that makes our mercury rise in indignation at the gall of another! I know I have felt my temperature rise, and rather quickly, when encountering any manner of such persons acting in such a way. It is with great effort that I have put myself down (most of the time) to avoid acting the very same way as the offender as I try to stop them from violating my rights or taking my place! And I do mean most of the time. It is one of my prayers that it become all the time, by the grace of God, so that I do not harm someone else because I want a 'thing' so badly, whether it be a laptop, my place in line, or anything at all that is supposed to be mine and is taken by another.

I daresay that the way I try to be is the exception rather than the norm and my proof continues to make headlines, as did this Stampede story. The reason why of course is that innate thing called sin, the thing we don't like to acknowledge as a human reality. We prefer to think that people are basically good. Sure we are, if you catch us on a good day and not in the middle of a crises of any kind. I reiterate, the only reason why I am able to avoid the same behavior is that I recognize and believe that sin is a reality of my flesh, is in my heart, and is desirous to have me. Therefore I have decided to trust in the Lord to help me to address this problem of sin and He is faithful to do so. Indeed I cannot even take credit for rising above the fracas and rioting masses who've no regard for their fellow man because it is the Lord who does it for me.

I am sure that what I have just written may seem sermony, but that is not my intent. Truthfully I am just stating the facts of how I (try to) live my life and sharing in my blog what living is like for me and how I react to things and what I do about different matters, etc., and no one has to be offended because I am just me being me. 8-) I promise to, by the grace of God, extend the same courtesy to others. The golden rule is a good one: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It works because it prevents me from giving others what they deserve when they walk all over me, disrespect me or violate my rights. If I didn't love Jesus so, if I didn't believe that God's love for me was worth His Son giving His all on my behalf, I wouldn't bother. It is love that motivates even when the return of my fellow man may be to trample me while I am on line for a fifty dollar laptop that they are intent on getting to before me; me, who was on line for hours and rightfully was in place way ahead of them. I can be indignant, I can be offended and hurt, but most of the time I don't give back what they deserve because it just isn't worth it.

Apple staff certainly could have done the sale differently to prevent injury to their customers, but judging by their comments, they just didn't seem to care. The crowd of people reacted predictably as far as I am concerned. A first come, first served, almost giving it away sale is a lethal combination that no respectable person should subject themselves to. The crowd, the masses, the riff raff; these are the people that justify the presence of such words in our vocabulary. But it usually isn't the people one may think of when they think of those words. Check out the cars some of these people drove to the sale, check out the jewelery of others; it isn't who we might think because greed, ignorance and selfishness are not atttributes of any particular class of people, not at all. It is a heart condition, which knows no social status.

I better stop now, because I truly rambled. But I simply have to post, I have to write, I have to vent, I have to share and let the words flow. Hey! Can you imagine what it would be like listening to me speak all these words aloud???? hahahaha

That is the way of people though, and each day there is an article in the news of an incident that drives the truth about how we really are, home. I hope to write about other things though, and not just this, but I couldn't resist a post in this category after reading of the stampede. And I also want to make good on my committment to utilize my blog, even customizing it like some blogs of others that I have perused during my membership here.

Lord willing, I will be back tomorrow to post another ramble. ;)

A Vigil That Dishonors

A war protestor who lost a son in Iraq says she will not be satisfied till she can meet with President Bush, for??? She and other parents who lost their loved ones in this very important war on terror and terrorists (the mideast is the hotbed of all such activities) already met with the President but that wasn't enough. Indeed no! For soon after, she received information (credible I am sure) of some faulty intelligence and the like. I guess she did all things pefectly in her life and more than likely is able to run the country and deal with the fallout from 9/11 in a much better way than anyone in the White House or on staff there today. :(

The trouble is that bringing the troops home will do what bringing the troops home has done far too often in years gone by: It will cause many, many innocent people to be tortured and brutalized by the evil that will overrun them when the allies do leave. Just as they were in Iraq after the liberation of Kuwait and as happened in VietNam when we, losing too many, many unnecessary lives because of idiot politicians and the politics of various self-serving leaders caused us to not be able to fight the war as we should have in order to fulfill our obligation to our South Vietnamese allies to keep communism frrom overcoming and brutalizing them.

The thing is that she will never be satisfied, because nothing she can do will bring him back. That is the heartbreaker of the entire situation. Just to listen to what she chooses to say indicates that she has no respect for the President, at least no more than the major newspapers gleefully grabbing onto her story have. Why should the president meet with someone who just wants to blast him? Who knows? Maybe someone will make a movie out of it and buy the rights from her to do so. So we can have another "America is crap" movie to tear down the morale of those who serve in the military in our nation.

I don't have all the answers any more than anyone else does, but it seems to me that when those serving in Iraq, allies and American troops, see the news, especially our media who aren't interested in reporting a blip of good coming out of Iraq due to our presence and sacrifice there, they are bound to be dragged down, saddened, depressed and get the wrong picture of what many of the nation does feel: that what they are doing in Iraq is noble, no, not perfect, but noble. The Iraqi people, especially the women, want the freedom that we have, need the freedom that we have, and deserve the freedom that we have. We are there, let's do it!

It seems to me that there is no other nation quite like ours and I wouldn't ever want to take away our right to speak our mind just like this mom is doing. However, I do feel that though such things are our right to express, we don't always have to express them, especially when it could cause someone else to stumble and fall and lose heart.

Sorry mom, but anger won't win the day. Pointing the finger won't win the day. Pulling the troops out and continuing to live for ourselves as if 9/11 never happened or as if we deserved it for being such a scum and lowlife country (I am being sarcastic) will not win the day. What will win the day is pulling together and supporting our president, our troops, our country and stopping feeling as if we have to apologize for ourselves all the time.

My heart breaks for her loss, but this is the wrong outlet. Sacrificing her marriage also dishonors the memory of her son. It would have broken his heart to see what has happened to his mom and dad after his untimely departure from this earth. There is a better way and it is so sad that it is not the way that has been chosen.

Plane Crash/Human Behavior Comments

Yesterday a jet airplane crashed in Greece killing all aboard. Turns out that a third of the victims were children, which always makes a disaster of any kind much more horrible. Relatives of the victims, according to news reports, crowded the ticket counter of the airline calling those there 'murderers'.

There were a few things which came to my mind when I was reading this account, regarding irrational behavior, misplaced anger, as well as the blame game. This is why I end up not writing on my blog too, because I read something or hear something and all these things go through my mind and I cannot get them down fast enough, losing quite a bit of what I would have liked to say. Also at times I just don't feel like writing, or start to obsess over whether I have paragraph unity or cohension or if when I reread it I find that I seemed to have rambled, which causes me to delete what I wrote and let days and days go by without making any further attempts to write. But since I am keeping this blog, I really should make the attempt to post entries and let the chippies fall where they may. 8-)

In any case, as always with a tragedy like this, I feel so sad and so sorry for the people left behind. My thoughts linger on the people who died as well, but it is hard to feel sorry for them because they are no longer of this world, so instead I think about their final panic stricken moments and then eternity staring them in the face at the end of it all.

Being human beings, anyone who is honest must admit the capability of us all to make mistakes, for equipment to fail, and disaster sometimes occurring as a result of said mistakes or failures. The blame thing is also quite a human trait as well in that we somehow maybe think we will feel better in our hearts at facing the loss of someone we loved so dearly if we can have an agenda of anger towards those responsible for our pain. Of course I am not overlooking the fact that far too often someone causes this pain purposely through their callous disregard for other people's welfare or by deliberate attack on someone's person, but I am addressing here the fallacy of humanity as well as mechanical failures (the mechanical things created and maintained by humans) and the tragedies such as this plane crash that can result because of these truths.

First off everyone who gets on a plane must know that the possibility exists of its crashing. Also, you average everyday person must know that the ticket agent was not piloting the plane and is therefore not deserving of being yelled at and called a murderer. Finally, and this the scariest of all that comes into my mind, the behavior of crowds of people who are angry and feeling justified about it is appalling and inexcusable.

I realize that I have never faced the death of a loved one via a plane crash, but I have watched my brother, my father, my aunt and my grandmother die, two of them at home. I have watched as the doctors and the hospitals made some misdiagnoses along the way as well and have felt quite angry with those people for those mistakes. I have spoken curtly with those that were there and had nothing to do with the doctor who had said or done the wrong thing. The thing is though, that I was aware that I was wrong to vent on the person like that, and ended up apologizing.

We have all seen it or read about it, I'm sure, a fire and mass hyteria for the exits, with a complete disregard for anyone else, resulting in the deaths of more people than there would have been had the crowd not freaked out. You can always count on the crowd to react that way in the event of such situations. I am sure, scattered here and there throughout the crowd are pockets of people who would not behave so appallingly, but for the most part the masses push through and right over those righteous folks. I find the masses scenerio much more frightening than the actual disaster scenerio.

That is the attitude possessed by those at the airline ticket counter in Greece now. Confronted with the horrific death of their loved ones they have no regard for anyone else but themselves and their pain. Should these people be face to face with the pilot, say for instance he was to survive and face the loved ones of the victims, he would be dead in a matter of moments, beaten to death by the masses. Selfish and self centered to a fault are we, always demanding to be understood and tolerated and refusing to extend the same courtesy to another. It is only by a willingness to admit this capacity in myself that is in every other person that I feel I am able overcome it and avoid behaving like the masses. Oh, that the masses would begin to individually look to themselves honestly and vow to change their ways, we would not have to fear the rioting behavior of the crowds in the future.