Maggie's Farm

Galatians 5:15-26 (NIV)

16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Paul's letter to the argumentative and self-righteous Galatian Christians was my mens' group study on Friday. "Resist the flesh by nailing it to the cross," says Martin Luther on this passage. Hmmm. Right now?

A comment at Bible Gateway says this about Galatians:

Moral failure in the church should not be a surprise, nor should it be considered fatal to the life of the church. What is important is the church's response when such failure occurs. The church may respond with harsh condemnation under the law. That response will crush the sinner and divide the church. That seems to have been what was happening in the churches in Galatia. The zealots for the law were merciless to sinners. But Paul wants to show that the occasion of sin is the opportunity for Spirit-led people to display the fruit of the Spirit in order to bring healing to the sinner and unity in the church.

and this:

In order to bring healing to the sinner, we must have a compassionate view of the one who has sinned. Paul does not define the kind of sin, but he does describe the consequence of sin. He views the sinner as one who is caught in a sin. When a person sins, other people are hurt; other people are victims of that sin. But we must remember that sinners themselves are also in some sense victims of sin. Abusers have also been abused. They have been overtaken, ambushed and seized by sin. Paul is not excusing the sinner of personal responsibility. But he is recognizing the terrible captivating force of sin. Just as Jesus said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34), so now Paul says that the one who sins is trapped by sin. When we view moral offenders as those who are enslaved and entrapped, we have a compassionate attitude toward them. We will want to help them break the bondage of sin over their life.

I tend to avoid the f-word in polite company, but that is what this celebratory season of the birth of our Savior can bring out in anybody if we aren't careful. Shopping, when one should be hunting.

I journeyed forth out into the cold with the puppy in the front seat (dog driving, natch) to fetch a special antique item, finally found after 5 years of searching. A 5' long, shallow-depth gen-u-ine Queen Anne hunt table. A Christmas season addition to the Farm pile of heirlooms.

They sold the thing yesterday. I thought times were tough. Maybe not. Wasn't cheap but not expensive either: $1450. A fine but phony-looking repro could cost triple the real deal.

Got a nice happy tree on the way back, but I am still still f-ing right now, which I do not wish to be doing today.

I tried to teach my kids that life's opportunities are an endless, but non-repeating, conveyor belt of chances. Life keeps reminding me of that fact. To tell the truth, I really did like that table, dings, sags, cracks and all, but not quite worn-out yet. It contained many stories of Olde England.

Of course, it's not really important...just a bunch of black 1690 oak which some barbarian might start a fire with. But perfect for the open spot, and perfect for pre-hunt rows of sherry glasses and a hearty toast to our huntsman, the stalwart Col. Reggie Smythe.

Lady at the antique consignment store said biz is great. But why the f- didn't Mrs. BD take the plunge and just buy it when she first saw it?

She must know by now that I like anything Queen Anne. F-.

Anchoress:

Getting some hate mail from my piece up at Pajamas Media. I’m being accused of wanting an “American theocracy”. Not at all. I simply am pointing out that a determinedly secular mindset will not make much of a dent against an equally determined supernatural mindset, and so the West should not be so dismissive of the power and usefulness of the vocabulary of faith. And I can’t be completely wrong since, as we see here at Hot Air, most Americans are open to that vocabulary.

An annual repost:

The Beeb decided to censor this classic 20 year-old song by The Pogues (with Kirsty McColl) last year. Lyrics here. Due to presumably overwhelming pressure, the Beeb reversed itself.

via Vanderleun:

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, with the Boy's Choir of Harlem:

THE BELL
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ.  (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God  (2 Cor 1:21-22 )
I am assured all things work together for good  (Rom. 8:28 )
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16).   I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 50I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)

I belong to God

The EU Mandarins still planning to create a nation

Was NYC the original Mumbai target?

What does Colin Powell mean by "polarizing"?

Hot young housewives at The Max Planck Institute. Where else?

What is an American car, anyway?

What does "property rights" mean? Wilkinson

Gateway is all over the Obama-Blago story today.

Is Obama vetting a new Chief of Staff?

Watch out. Here come Obama's Carbon Busters in the WSJ. One quote (in a week of record snows):

The EPA long ago became the government arm of the environment lobby, but Ms. Browner was especially political. During her EPA salad days, she put out air-pollution standards that even the agency itself said would have no measurable impact on public health, purely as antibusiness punishment. She forced GE to dredge the Hudson River of PCBs that posed no threat to the public. Ms. Browner also rewrote a law called New Source Review so that power plants, refineries and other industries were always breaking the particulate emissions rules.

But her most pernicious inspiration was the idea that the EPA could by itself classify carbon as a "dangerous pollutant" under current clean-air laws and thus impose new taxes and restrictions on all types of energy. Under Ms. Browner's orders, EPA general counsel Jonathan Cannon prepared a 1998 memorandum concluding that "CO2 emissions are within the scope of the EPA's authority to regulate," even though Congress specifically declined to include carbon when it last amended the Clean Air Act in 1990. Now a law professor, Mr. Cannon serves on the Obama transition team.

Indeed, that is an arrow aimed at the heart of the American economy. Would they dare go further?

We hate dealing with the concept of race, mainly because race does not exist in any  meaningful way. It's a socio-cultural concoction, we feel, born of the natural (and not evil) human tendency towards tribal affiliation.

Still, we must deal with it sometimes because it seems to matter so much to people, despite MLK Jr's insistence on categorizing people on their characters. I am 1/16th Iroquois. Am I an Indian? Can I open a casino and get rich ripping off Whitey?

The Arkansas Times takes a look at From Octoroon to Other.

Well, probably soon if global cooling continues.

Here's the real story: Among Scientists, Resistance to Global Warming Hoax Spreads

Image from Moravec's cool Prehistoric World Images of Wooly Bullies in New Jersey, not very long ago. As we always say here, we should all pray for Globalistical Warmening and maybe it will happen.

Is a Christmas Tree a fire hazard?

Yes, if it's near flame or frayed wires (as in photo).

No, if it's kept watered, and you use common sense.

Here's the one we were half-remembering, with a number of memory errors:

Christmas Dog

 Hannukah Venison Deer

Years ago there was an excellent Calvin and Hobbes toon. In it, Calvin was either writing a journal and/or taking photos or drawing pictures. Hobbes asks him why he's doing it. Calvin replies that he is pre-shaping his past for his eventual run for the Presidency. As I recall it, it entails a portrait of a noble young Calvin, studying a book.

If any reader can find a copy of that toon, we'd love to see it again.

The reason it came to my mind today is obvious.

Gateway. Here's the proof. We were right earlier: Axelrod told the truth to cover his own ass and to protect his own credibility. A day later (yesterday), he said he misspoke. Now, it's clear that he was right the first time. What a tangled web we weave... Despite the stammering, you cannot deny that Obama lies with authority. Still, everyone must be wondering what else he lies about: it's only natural to wonder, because pols typically try to sanitize, if not mythologize, their pasts - but usually not their pasts of four weeks ago. The internet is a relentless truth-detector.

Time and reality grind away. Thus does the bloom come off the rose.

A quote from JR Nyquist on Negative Numbers and the Road to Serfdom:

The only way the economy can heal is through the market. However painful the healing process, only the market can bring about full recovery. Government cannot do it. Friedrich Hayek offered a remarkable explanation of this in The Fatal Conceit. He wrote: “The creation of wealth is not simply a physical process and cannot be explained by a chain of cause and effect. It is determined not by objective physical facts known to any one mind but by the separate, differing, information of millions, which is precipitated in prices that serve to guide further decisions.” In other words, wealth is created by the market. Hayek further warned: if you do not trust the market, then you no longer believe in freedom or capitalism. In that event you are a socialist on the road to serfdom.

This is an annual re-posting

These wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest parts of the state.

Quite remarkable. Hippos are not known to be friendly beasts -

This from our guest poster Bruce Kesler, who has a long history of writing about Vietnam:

The election of Vietnamese refugee Joseph Cao as a Republican in the most heavily Democrat congressional district in America (11% Republican), drawn to elect a Black (2/3rds Black population), comes as a surprise to some.  Reasons given center around his community service record in post-Katrina New Orleans, the utter corruption of incumbent William Jefferson, and the reduced turnout of Blacks in this ballot postponed because of Hurricane Gustav.

Various lessons are being proposed: Republican leadership call it an example of the results of a broader ethnic base and better ethics, calling for more.  BlackVoices blog says a new generation of Black politicians cannot just count on racial solidarity but must demonstrate better ethics and effectiveness.  Democrats expect a better candidate to reclaim the district in 2010, but expect a fight.

While probably just a temporary balm to bashed Republican egos, this election of the first Vietnamese to Congress is notably ignored in all the state-run Vietnam news agencies which usually never miss an opportunity to herald the many accomplishments of refugee Vietnamese as if its own.

Like refugees from communist oppression in Cuba or Russia, the Vietnamese in the US lean heavily Republican, the Vietnamese by 2-1.  The lesson they’ve learned is that American ideals and policies are more to be valued than among many US natives who take them for granted or, even, denigrate the US compared to tyrannical regimes and ideologies.

I’m probably unique among bloggers in writing many dozens of detailed, well-documented blog posts over the past few years about the ongoing political and religious repression in Vietnam and its ethnic cleansing brutality toward its minorities.  And, probably nothing else I’ve written about has generated less interest.  I won’t belabor the reader here with a repetition, but point those interested to a few good, brief introductory sources: Human Rights Watch “Speaking Up for Vietnam,” (many, many reports and analyses at HRW’s website); Former USAID worker and POW in Vietnam, tireless human rights advocate Mike Benge’s latest summary; the Montagnard Foundation’s report on ethnic cleansing (and ongoing tracking of it);  and denuding of its and neighboring Laos and Cambodia’s rainforests.

The Bush administration, focused on the Middle East imbroglio, has been relatively weak in challenging Vietnam’s oppression, while encouraging the import trade from Vietnam that generates a $10+ billion deficit but enriches some US firms and entrenches the political rulers of Vietnam by creating a more prosperous, mostly quiescent urban class.  Still, some in Vietnam are not so easily bought off, leading to labor strikes against more exploitive wages and conditions than even in China and the majority Buddhists and the Catholics refusing to buckle under to the state churches that are allowed.  Tensions will increase as the international economic tanking slows Vietnam’s export-driven growth.

Returning to Joseph Cao, he has been heavily involved in Boat People SOS, founded to help Vietnam’s refugees.  One would expect him to be a voice in Congress for Vietnam’s oppressed.  But, one should expect him to concentrate more upon his district’s domestic concerns, especially if he is serious about an uphill re-election in 2010.

The new Obama administration, looking to relax US pressure on another communist relic in Cuba, is not likely to take up Vietnamese human rights more strongly.  If Cao’s voice on Vietnam’s suffering population is to be magnified, it will require more Americans and Congressmen taking an interest in Vietnam’s oppression.  The Vietnam Human Rights Network has easy links to most every international report on Vietnam, including from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Reporters Without Borders, and many more, all condemning Vietnam’s continuing oppression.

Another worthy cause is the Vietnam Healing Foundation run by my good friend R.J. DelVecchio, former Marine combat photographer in Vietnam and frequent visitor since.  It is the only one that tries to aid severely wounded and destitute former South Vietnamese soldiers who continue to be denied basic food or medicine by Vietnam’s regime.

Whether Joseph Cao’s election promises any lasting relief to the US from more ethical Republicans or Black politicians is open to serious question.  More important to Americans’ ethical relief would be more support for Vietnam’s long-suffering people.

From a piece at Moonbattery:

Democrats have learned their lesson from the HillaryCare debacle: don't give the voters time to figure out what you're doing to them.

Precisely. It's the same old story: Manufacture a crisis, create noise for gummint to step in, and before you know it you have lost more freedom and choice. And money, too.