Pray For Our Troops?

I realize that this will not be well recieved. 

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

-- From Mark Twain's War Prayer.

This was written during the propaganda mania surrounding the Spanish American War. I have prayed for our troops, but not this prayer. Jesus in the Bible passage I will quote next is not advocating pacifism; there is such a thing as a just war. It is just difficult to reconcile the Bible with the modern American War Machine. At the very least, Jesus is here advocating avoiding conflict. Can we listen to what He is saying? As the book of Revelation tells us: "Do we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church?" 

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies

    ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[i] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Hell Has Frozen Over

I can not title this blog post the end of the Constitution as that was ended long ago. To think I actually voted for this guy-a mistake I will not make again. 

Of course our first constitutional law professor president will protect us. 

Hell has frozen over, I agree with the ACLU. 

They are not even pretending anymore. 

An Eye On Newt

The Best Politician Money Can Buy? 

If you think this ad is bad, just think what Obama will do during the election! 

Newt's tax policy wuld have this unfortunate side effect:

The tax plan proposed by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would add $1.3 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit in 2015 alone, a new analysis shows, complicating his goal of balancing the government’s books.

One way he does this is to give tax cuts to the rich. Usually this is an unfair Democratic "talking point," but in this case it is accurate. Taken from the aptly named talking points site:

We need a simple tax structure with one rate with generous base deductions. This proposal is not even close to this. Gringrich complicates the tax code. 

So Newt is corrupt, plans to increases the deficit, and give tax cuts to the rich.  What is Newt's view on Civil Liberties? Newt proposes a subdepartment that ignores the constitution and civil liberties: 

Newt would look good in a brown shirt! 

I Endorse Romney

I know I said that I would never vote for a person who wore secret, magical, religious underware. However the combination of Romney's relatively good budget program and this impressive video has changed my mind. 

Let's Face the Truth, I Was A Hack

I am sure that some of my readers think I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I do not. While I see the same issues they see, the solutions they offer are naive to the point of being infantile. 

What I have been trying to point out is that many of the criticisms of OWS are unfair. I have been known to defend others that are unfairly condemned. For example David Limbaugh said this in his column on taxing the rich:

He wants to keep us preoccupied with greed and hating each other so that we won't have the time to focus on the real cause of our economic nightmare: President Barack Obama.

While I agree with much in the column, blaming Obama for everything is absurd. How can we blame 50 years of stupidity on Obama? The Republicans are making more effort than the Democrats, however they are just as clueless as to the scope of our troubles. 

The error that I am critiquing is group think. Wikipedia defines it for us:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, structural faults, and situational context play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process.

In Limbaugh's case it is Democrats bad, Republicans Good; Tea Party good, OWS bad. Just reverse this for the Democrats. 

I was a victim of group think in the past-that was when I was a "hack." I defended the denomination I was a member of, and to a small degree in leadership, even when it was headed in the wrong direction. Eventually I was forced to leave the group. Only then did I understand. If I had remained, I would still be a hack. 

I suddenly became the "bad guy." I was actually told this by a Lord High Mucky Muck of the denomination a few years later. He said something like this. "I thought when you left that you were the cause of the troubles, now I realize you were not." While I appreciate the change in opinion, he still is in the organization defending it. 

If we allow our membership in a group to tell us how to think, we are headed for trouble. Here is an example of group think in a Florida police department.