Global Rich List

This is interesting, and roughly in line with what I thought.

Ethical Decision Making

It looks like it didn’t take long for this campaign to get ugly. The Democratic challenger in my congressional district, Coleen Rowley, is already calling the Republican, John Kline, a Nazi. She has photo-shopped images to support her position. Powerline has a screen cap and some background information here. Even the Star Tribune has reported this. The article is here, although they don’t show the picture and dedicate a good portion of the article defending Rowley’s position.

Powerline stated it best. “If Rowley really doesn't understand the impact of depicting a Congressman and 25-year Marine Corps veteran in a Nazi uniform, she is not ready for prime time, to put it mildly.”

Funny thing is, Rowley’s campaign slogan is ‘Ethical Decision Making’. How ironic.

If Only ...

Now that Alito is about to be confirmed, I think it would be good for us not to forget that the process is really messed up. Kennedy spent most of the time reading from an article that Alito didn’t write in a magazine he never saw – and demanded the candidate to explain. Funny thing, I believe this article that Kennedy took so seriously was actually intended as satire.

Anyway, Robert ‘KKK’ Byrd actually made a good speech on the subject. It’s a very good read, and you can find it here.

Byrd says “… Mrs. Alito … as she fled the hearing room in tears, fighting to maintain her dignity in response to others with precious little of their own?

WOW! Kennedy is completely marginalized now. Even Byrd can’t take it any more.


Then a friend sends me the piece below. Too funny.

Subject: If Only

Wouldn't you like to see Judge Alito and Chief Justice Roberts questioning the Democrat Senators to determine their qualifications for Public office?
Just imagine matching the IQs of the Senators and the Judges!

The questions might go like this:

Judge Alito (JA): "Senator Kennedy, I see from your official resume that you attended Harvard University..."

Senator Kennedy (SK): "Yes, your honor, I certainly did."

JA: "Did you graduate?"

SK: "Your honor, I respectfully ask that you not pry into my personal life..."

JA: "Is it not true that you were expelled from Harvard for violating the honor code, to wit, you hired someone to take an exam for you?"

SK: "Mr. Chairman, I want to go on record that I disagree with this line of questioning. I ask the chair to order the Judge from asking questions about my private matters.."

Senator Specter, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee: "Answer the Judge's questions. He answered all of yours.."

JA: "Senator Kennedy, we have on hand a transcript of the session of the university's honor council attesting to your fraudulent examination and subsequent expulsion from the university..."

SK: "I have had all I can take of this line of unreasonable questioning.
I am going to ask Al Gore how he managed to keep his early departure from Vanderbilt University Divinity School away from the eyes of you religious nuts..."

JA: "Wait, Senator Kennedy, I want to ask you about the 26 phone calls you made from a motel room the night Mary Jo Kopecne drowned in your car at Chappaquidik, when you said you were asleep all night..." [ Kennedy flees the hearing room ]

Senator Specter: "Chief Justice Roberts [CJR] will now interrogate Senator Biden [SB}, Democrat of Delaware..."

CJR: "Senator Biden, is it not true that you were expelled from law school for plagiarizing another student's work?"

SB: "Wait, Ted, I am going with you..." [ Biden flees the hearing room ]

Senator Specter: "Judge Alito will now interrogate Senator Feinstein, Democrat of California..."

JA: "Senator Feinstein [SF], why did you vote for the former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan of West Virginia [Robert Byrd] to be the Democrat Senate Majority Leader in 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1992?"

SF: "Wait, boys, I am going with you..." [Feinstein flees the hearing room ]

[ end of hearing ]

Missionary heroes

Finally got to see the movie ‘End of the Spear’.  If you are not familiar with the story, you can get a preview at that site.  I like the summary here better.

The movie was good for the following reasons:

1. Missionaries were shown as martyrs...  heroes.  (As stated below, anytime Christians are portrayed in a positive light by film makers is a miracle in itself.)


2. Missionary wives were shown as strong, capable, brave, and independent.


3. Tribes people were shown as they really were – savage, lost, and miserable.


4. The message of the missionaries is credited with changing lives for the good.


5. Cinematography was very good.

I loved the movie and would consider it a must see – at the theater.  Do not wait for the rental.  However, there was one disappointment.  The power of the Gospel, God’s Word,  and the Holy Spirit are not credited.  The omission of this leaves a confusing gap in the story.  To the credit of the makers, they did not redirect the motivation of the missionaries in some sort of PC fashion.  They just left it out.  As a Christian, I knew, and so the movie still worked.  These people bought an opportunity for someone to hear the gospel with their blood.  And it was worth it, because they have assurance in their salvation.  An emphasis on this aspect would have made the movie even better.    

Uganda Girl

This week brought me to Europe.  I visited Ireland and Germany.  On the long flight back from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, I sat next to a very interesting person.  This was a young (college age) girl from the mid-west returning home.   She is perhaps the most independent person I’ve ever met.  She had no use for peer pressure or anything that one would typify for her generation.  As part of this independent spirit, she had decided to take a break from school and go to Uganda.  Alone.  She dropped out of college, sold her car to pay for the trip, and just went.  Her stories were fascinating as she described conditions and experiences there.  Her trip ended up getting cut short due to a bout with Malaria where she could have died.  In hind site, she decided going along was not the wisest move, and that she was lucky to have survived.  

I couldn’t help but relating her experiences to my own as a short term missionary.  There is a fulfillment that is difficult to explain related to such an experience.  However, I think she was missing something compared to mine.  I’ve tended to go with a team of people that have a purpose, which is to share the love of God.  She didn’t build any houses or share the gospel.  She did not appear to be a person of faith, just an amazing person seeking something more in life.  

We also talked about other things, mostly goats and dating.  She hasn’t found any guys that she felt were as interested in her as they were themselves, and didn’t know how she would every go about meeting anyone that was.  I told her about the courtship model as an alternative to dating, and suggested she find a church where people believed in such things.  

Overall, I don’t think she got lucky to survive the trip.  I believe God has a plan for her life.  This plan will give her more meaning in life than she could ask or imagine.  I pray that she begins this adventure soon, so that God can use her in mighty ways.  Somehow, I believe this will happen.

Exorcism

We’ve been getting movies after McDonalds at the Red Box there.  $1 is a good price for a DVD rental.  My wife had taken one daughter to ‘End of the Spear’, and my younger boys wanted to rent “Star Wars III” again because “It has the most and best light saber battles”.  Therefore, I was left with the opportunity to get a movie that only my older daughter and I would want to see.  The answer, ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’.  

This movie was good for several reasons:

1. It was a ‘thinking man’s’ horror movie.  OK, I like horror movies, but as I’ve got older, they’ve been a little harder to swallow.  This one fit the bill.


2. It was generally clean.  No language or sex.  Just an interesting story.


3. It portrayed a religious person in a positive light.  (A miracle unto itself).

Yes, the key figure, a Priest, is on trial – and the movie leaves the question open if all this is real or not.   However, the Priest is portrayed as caring, upright, and sincere; not a nut job.  He is willing to sacrifice himself and his career for what is right.  Supporting a major label release that shows something like this is worth $1 alone.  The scary stuff was all bonus material.  

The Blood of the martyrs

The Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

The movie ‘End of the Spear’ opens tomorrow, and I’m going.  If you are not familiar with the story, you can get a preview at that site.  I like the summary here better.

I heard Nate’s son on the radio today.  He was only 5, but remembers his Dad going to visit the Huao tribe.  Although they had guns, he told his son that he could not use them on the Huao, even if there was a problem, because they did not yet have Jesus.  However, the missionaries did have Jesus, so if would be OK if they died.  They were ready, the Huao weren’t.    Something always good happens when someone lives their faith.

Chocolate and Nuts

Being a web site called Chocolate Acres commenting on religion and politics, I’d be remiss if I left out a case where chocolate, politics, and religion (sort of) all come together. Check out the excerpts of the New Orleans mayor’s MLK speech here.

Seems to me that lots of people like NUTS with their chocolate, and there are plenty of them in this mix as well. Nagin even does a ‘Pat Robertson’, saying the hurricane is punishment from God for liberating Iraq. Go figure. The talk of chocolate being a mix of black and white were backtracking comments AFTER his speech.

Overall, I do NOT think MLK would have been impressed with the speech. MLK preached of a ‘color-blind’ society, where people are judged by their character, not their color. Let’s test this. Let’s say a majority vanilla (or insert whatever flavor you want) city with a vanilla (or insert whatever flavor …) mayor had a disaster that struck the vanilla (or insert …) neighborhoods. This leaves the majority thinner, or perhaps now a minority. So the vanilla (or …) mayor says “We will make this city a majority vanilla (or … ) again, because that’s what God intends.” If this happened, there would be an outcry. But then again, this is what just happened. Where’s the outcry.

We used to think ... but now we know ...

OK, Here is a good one. Turns out trees are bad for the planet and pollution is good. The article reminded me of the song by the band Rush, called ‘The Trees”.

Overall, there is a problem with science. There is always an assurance that today’s understanding is right on – while yesterday we were confused. Think about it. Didn’t they say that yesterday as well? Won’t they find out tomorrow that what they are telling us today is wrong? I call the “We used to think … but now we know …” syndrome.

Viva la Venezuela

I have a new post on Stones Cry Out that you can see here. Read the news article first, it is unbelievable. I sent the Foxnews.com version to a couple people. The ‘scrappleface’ commentary is a little humorous. Obviously, I take this one seriously. I have no sense of humor on this one.

Kennedy vs. Alito

OK, my wife asked me this a.m. if I’ve given up on my blog, so I better get on my horse (as we say here at Chocolate Acres). The Judge Alito hearings are all the buzz, and much is being blogged. My favorite character is Kennedy. As usual, he is embarrassing as usual. He is funny in that he is (or should be) embarrassing to liberals. However, it is sad in that he is an embarrassment to the country. You can listen to his speech here. There are many places you can read it as well. I found the section particularly interesting that is time stamped 3:30-3:00 (amount of time left in his speech). If you can’t ‘stomach’ the entire speech, just listen to that part. Note that Kennedy (purposely?) mispronounces his name. That cheap trick aside, the statement was otherwise a complete lie. Below I’ve listed a little information from the ‘Committee For Justice’ website/blog. You can read it here. (Hat tip to TL for his post here - there is also humorous content there ).

Seems like there is a recipe for ‘Borking’ a judge, and one ingredient is allegations of racism. Since there were no prior allegations, Kennedy had to manufacture some. Apparently, the facts do not matter, it’s just part of the process. This behavior is wrong, and Kennedy is more than embarrassing. He is damaging an important governmental function and needs to be corrected. I hope the MSM takes the time to do so. However, I suspect that this story is moving too fast, and Kennedy will get away with his lie, and adding this ingredient to the receipe.

Anyway, for the record, here's the truth.

· In Reynolds v. USX Corp., Judge Alito ruled that a black woman whose co-workers and supervisors regularly made racial and sexual slurs against her and denied her training opportunities was entitled to $124,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

· In Zubi v. AT&T Corp., Judge Alito authored a lone dissent, arguing against a stringent limitations period in which civil-rights plaintiffs must file their claim. The Supreme Court unanimously vindicated Judge Alito’s position four years later.

· In Smith v. Davis, Judge Alito held that the district court was wrong to dismiss the African-American employee’s claims of discrimination. Judge Alito found that there was evidence to support a finding that the employer’s stated reasons for firing the plaintiff were not genuine.

· In Goosby v. Johnson & Johnson, Judge Alito ruled that the plaintiff, a black woman, was entitled to a trial on her claims of employment discrimination. Judge Alito concluded that there was evidence that the employer was willing to overlook problems with white, male employees that it held against the plaintiff.

· Judge Alito's dissent in Sheridan v. DuPont, 100 F.3d 1061 (3d Cir. 1996) (en banc), is a principled balancing of the interests of employees and employers, and the Supreme Court later vindicated it.

· Judge Alito interpreted the Supreme Court's holding in a previous case as requiring that a Title VII plaintiff who produces certain evidence ­ i.e., that the employer's stated reason for the employment decision was false ­ should "usually" but not necessarily "always" be permitted to go to trial.

· The Supreme Court agreed with Judge Alito's Sheridan dissent in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133 (2000). Reeves was a unanimous opinion signed by Justice O'Connor ­ whose seat Judge Alito is poised to take.

· In Bray v. Marriott Hotels, 110 F.3d 986 (3d Cir. 1997), Judge Alito would have affirmed the trial court's ruling for the employer because the plaintiff, an African-American woman, had failed to meet her burden of proof under relevant Supreme Court precedent.
· Marriott explained that it promoted a white female instead of the plaintiff because the white female had a higher objective employee rating, had superior experience, and had participated in more seminars and training sessions.
· Judge Alito argued that discrimination claims of require evidence of actual discrimination, not just evidence that an employer failed to comply with its own internal procedures.

· Judge Alito has held that prosecutors' efforts to exclude African-Americans from juries is unconstitutional discrimination.
· In Jones v. Ryan, 987 F.2d 960 (3d Cir. 1993), an African-American defendant was convicted in Pennsylvania court of robbery and criminal conspiracy; at trial, the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to exclude three African-Americans from the jury. Judge Alito joined a unanimous opinion holding that the prosecutor had discriminated against the potential jurors on the basis of race, and granting the defendant habeas relief.
· In Brinson v. Vaughn, 398 F.3d 225 (3d Cir. 2005), an African-American defendant was convicted of first-degree murder in Pennsylvania court and sentenced to life in prison. The prosecutor had used 13 out of 14 peremptory challenges against African-American potential jurors, and Judge Alito held that this pattern raised an inference of discrimination.