Tuesday 30 April 2019

Saul Alinsky's Faithful Pupil

"I’m a Jew. Stop Calling Me an Antisemite."

Joe Biden's Silly Slur

Joe Biden (Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty)


Joel Pollak 


I am a Jew — an observant Jew, raised in Skokie, Illinois, a town that resisted neo-Nazi marchers and which, at the time, was home to the largest population of Holocaust survivors in the world outside Israel. Nazis murdered many of my grandfather’s relatives in Poland.

Today, former vice president Joe Biden trivialized the suffering of Jews and exploited the memory of the Holocaust for personal and political gain — and he used a lie to do it.  
 
Biden suggested that President Donald Trump, and the nearly 63 million Americans who voted for him, support the rise of a new wave of antisemitism and white nationalism similar to Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Biden claimed — falsely — that Trump called neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 “very fine people” — when, in fact, Trump said the neo-Nazis “should be condemned totally,” as the transcript proves.

Daily Meditation

Yearning for God

In a sense we are fortunate that we cannot see God. If for one second the veil were removed and we caught a brief glimpse of the face of God, we would perish instantly. His effulgence is so brilliant, His glory so dazzling, that in our present corrupted state we could not bear the sight of Him. He remains invisible both as a curse and as an act of protecting grace. As long as we remain infected by sin we are doomed to wander in His world sightless with respect to Him. We may be comforted by His Word and healed by the secret ministration of His Spirit, but we cannot see the supreme beauty of His face.
But we have a dream; nay, more than a dream. We have the sure and certain promise that someday we will see Him face to face. The heart of every Christian longs for the face of Christ. We yearn to look directly at God Himself without fear of being consumed. That deep yearning will be fulfilled one day.
The future vision of God is called the “Beatific Vision” because it will bring in its wake the consummate blessedness for which we were created and redeemed. One of the Beatitudes spoken by Jesus was, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). In heaven we will be pure in heart. In heaven we will see God.

Coram Deo

Do you yearn to see God? Reflect on His promise: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Passages for Further Study

Reflections on a Bloody Season

Every Day is A Precious Gift

'Tis the season of suicidal, mass murderers.  The latest is the murder of hundreds in Sri Lanka, mostly Christians, gathering together to worship God and His Christ on Easter Sunday morning.  In this case, the perps have been declared to be Islamists.

In New Zealand just over a month ago, there were 50 dead at the hands of one murderer.  The dead were Muslims, peacefully gathered for religious services on a Friday morning.  The perp was a solitary malefactor, twisted into such a mess that he (apparently) believed murdering Islamic men, women and children was somehow a righteous thing to do.  In his case, he believed he had a bunch of  anonymous cheerleaders on the dark web who would celebrate his courageous deeds.

It seems reasonable to expect that within another few weeks there will be another mass killing of innocents at the hands of vulpine murderers.  'Tis the season.

Secularists and atheists appear to join with every body else in condemning such an evil.  We are not sure why since their secularist religion has no ultimate truth--no "Thou shalt not kill".  As Sartre once put it, if the existentialist is driving down the road and a pedestrian steps out in front, it is an entirely neutral or irrelevant as to whether the existentialist chooses to avoid the pedestrian or accelerates to run him over.  When there is no ultimate meaning, life is cheap.  Thus the recent mass murderers have displayed their faith.

Monday 29 April 2019

Desperate Measures By A Radical Justice

Father Gagged

Found Guilty Of ‘Family Violence’ For Calling His Trans Daughter A ‘She’

British Columbia's Supreme Court declared a father guilty of 'family violence' for giving interviews to publications including The Federalist in which he used female pronouns for his daughter.

Jeremiah Keenan
The Federalist


Last week, Justice Francesca Marzari of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada, declared a father guilty of “family violence” against his 14-year-old daughter on the sole basis that he had engaged in “expressions of rejection of [her] gender identity.” These “expressions” revolved entirely around his polite refusal to refer to his daughter as a boy in private, and his steady choice to affirm that she is a girl in public.

As previously reported, the BC Supreme Court ordered in February that 14-year-old Maxine* receive testosterone injections without parental consent. Accordingly, Maxine began regular injections at British Columbia (BC) Children’s Hospital over the course of the last two months.

Her father, Clark*, strongly objects to this treatment and immediately sought to reverse the decision in the BC Court of Appeal. Hoping to raise awareness of his case, Clark gave a number of interviews to media outlets, including The Federalist. In these interviews, he repeatedly referred to his daughter as a girl, stating to The Federalist that “she is a girl.  Her DNA will not change through all these experiments that they do.”

While many might take this to be an honest statement of biological fact, Marzari quoted it as a prime example of Clark’s “family violence of a public denial of [Maxine’s] gender identity.” Marzari convicted Clark of this violence, and issued a “protection order” preventing him from speaking to journalists or the public about his case.

While the main thrust of Marzari’s ruling focused on Clark’s public statements, Marzari also ordered that Clark be enjoined from “exposing” Maxine to any materials that might “question whether [her] gender identity is real or the treatments [she] seeks are in [her] best interests.”

Daily Meditation

Seeing God

Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18KJV). We hear this verse quoted frequently in order that we may be inspired and challenged to move with intensity toward a future goal. We applaud the leader who is a visionary, one who can paint a picture of a better future and show us the way to attain it. We are a goal-oriented society. We need a dream, a target to aim for if we are to get our adrenaline moving and our passions stirred.
Every goal, every short-range vision must be measured against the supreme and final norm of all future Christian visions. We must keep before us the ultimate vision of the people of God. We cannot see God because He is holy and we are not. I have never seen God. I have felt His presence and reasoned through His existence. I have read His Word and heard of dazzling displays of His glory. But I have never seen Him. He is invisible. Not only have I never seen Him face to face, but no one else has seen Him either. The creation heralds His majesty; the stars declare His handiwork. We can view the work of the Artist, but the Artist Himself remains unseen.
Why can’t we see God? It is not because He is a spirit, nor is it because He is not present. He is here; there is no question about that. We live in a world of real entities that we cannot see with the naked eye. What is invisible to our eyes can have dramatic effects on us.
The forces of electricity and nuclear power affect our daily lives though we do not see them. Our bodies may be invaded at any moment by life-threatening microorganisms. The sophisticated instruments of telescopes and microscopes reveal a dimension of reality that escapes our naked glance.
There is no microscope powerful enough, though, to penetrate the veil that covers the face of God. There is no lens capable of magnifying our weak eyesight to the level of seeing God. Our problem is not a weakness of visual strength. It is not the optic nerve that is deficient. The deficiency is in our hearts, not our eyes. We cannot see God because He is holy and we are not. It is because of sin that we are told, “No man can see God and live.”

Coram Deo

Read and compare the visions of God seen by Isaiah (Isa. 6:1–5) and John (Rev. 1).

Passages for Further Study

Rabid Corbanite Socialist and Party Hack Not Welcome Here

An Extremist, Radical Left Winger Is In Position to Attack Human Rights in NZ


Should a person steeped in British Left-wing activism be shaping our human rights policy?


Karl du Fresne
Dominion Post

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Professor Paul Hunt is in a powerful position to influence laws that could affect the quality of New Zealand democracy at its most fundamental level.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Professor Paul Hunt is in a powerful position to influence laws that could affect the quality of New Zealand democracy at its most fundamental level.


I did something a couple of weeks ago that I've never done before. I made a request under the Official Information Act.  I suppose it might be seen as shameful, as a journalist, to admit that I've never previously had recourse to the OIA, but there you are. I never felt I needed to.

My request was to Justice Minister Andrew Little and asked for information about the appointment of the Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt.

Hunt is in a powerful position to influence laws that could affect the quality of New Zealand democracy at its most fundamental level. We can assume that he will be very closely involved in the fast-tracked review of our "hate speech" laws, which has serious implications for freedom of expression.

Yet before his appointment last October, virtually no-one in New Zealand, outside a narrow political and academic elite, had heard of him. Even now, he's largely an unknown quantity. But what we do know about him isn't reassuring.

Saturday 27 April 2019

Phillip Jensen on the Australian Rugby Imbroglio

Israel Folau and Three Myths of a Changing Society
Phillip Jensen
Talks, Articles Resources

As Australians celebrate Easter, I want to assert, as a Christian, that because of his love, Jesus died and rose again to bear the sin and judgement of we sinners who deserve his condemnation. So, with all Christians, in obedience to our Saviour, I would call on all to repent and find forgiveness while they may.
However, I write this article not as a Christian but as an Australian citizen and lifetime rugby supporter, who happens to be a Christian, seeking what I see as the good of society. Furthermore, I am writing simply on the basis of public media information, without knowing the full details of Israel Folau’s employment. As a Christian, I don’t expect the Government or anybody to defend me, or my preaching of the gospel. They crucified my Lord and I am not to be surprised by any hostility towards his people. But as an Australian rugby supporter, I do think it is in the best interest of everybody to identify the issues behind this present imbroglio and do something about them, in order to protect our society and the game of rugby.
Whether you agree or don’t agree with Israel Folau, his sacking is a test case revealing the deep unresolved problems of our changing society. It’s much more than simply breaking a contract.

Daily Meditation

Affirming God’s Sovereignty

Our God remains incomprehensible and retains His simplicity. He tells us in His Word that He is not a God of confusion but of order. He is not at war with Himself. He is altogether good, altogether holy, and altogether sovereign. Thus we must affirm to maintain a biblical concept of divine sovereignty. Yet we must always balance this understanding with a clear understanding that God always exercises His power and authority according to His holy character.
He chooses what He chooses according to His own good pleasure. It is His pleasure that He does.
He chooses what is pleasing to Himself. But that pleasure is always His good pleasure, for God is never pleased to will or to do anything that is evil or contrary to His own goodness.
In this we can rest, knowing that He wishes for, and has the power to bring about, all good things for us His children.

Coram Deo

What difficulties are you currently facing? Reaffirm your trust in the sovereignty of God, who is working all things together for His good pleasure.

Passages for Further Study

Hypocritic Hypotheticals

When Will They Ever Learn?

Over the past few weeks we have been regaled with oodles of hypocrisy being dolloped on one rugby team after another.  How can team managements ,be so stupid?

At the top of the pops has been the Israel Folau affair.  It looks like there is a risk that New South Wales Australian rugby is going to integrate into the void.  Team management has almost single handedly cut rugby off at the knees.  So effective has been the self-consumption, one is left musing whether the the supremo of rugby in Australia--(New Zealander!)  Raeleen Castle--has actually been playing out a role as a deep cover agent for NZ Rugby all the while.

Then there has been the delicious irony of Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas--a serious sponsor of rugby in Australia--getting involved in the Israel Folau imbroglio.

Friday 26 April 2019

More Climate Change Rubbish

BBC's Lies Becoming More Brazen

James Delingpole
Breitbart London

Climate Change: The Facts was a farrago of alarmist cliches, exaggerations, and untruths which have been debunked on numerous occasions.

Paul Homewood has been through its various claims with a fine-tooth comb and found many to be misleading and inaccurate.

Among his criticisms:

1.  Attenborough shows a surface temperature chart of dramatically rising temperatures but a) fails to mention that the more accurate satellite temperature data shows no increase since 1998; b) fails to explain why temperatures rose sharply in the early 20th century, long before CO2 emissions began to rise significantly; c) fails to mention that since the 19th century, Earth has been emerging from the Little Ice Age — probably the coldest period since the end of the Ice Age.

2.  The extreme weather bogeyman. Various talking head ‘experts’ assure us that heat waves are getting more intense. But last summer’s heatwave in the UK — cited as evidence of this — was no hotter than the summer of 1976; nor was the recent one in Queensland when temperatures reached 42 degrees C — also cited — anywhere near as bad as the one in 1972 when temperatures reached 49.5 degrees C. In fact, Homewood notes, there is considerable evidence that heatwaves are actually becoming less common.

3.  Michael Mann (quoted as an expert witness): “You’re going to get more rainfall, more superstorms, worse flooding. We’re seeing the effects of climate change now play out in real time” Homewood: Maybe one of the most dishonest parts of the programme. Even the IPCC can’t find any long term trends in tropical cyclone activity or flooding. And severe tornadoes are have become much less common in the US.

4.  Attenborough: “Rising seas are already displacing hundreds of thousands of people from already vulnerable coastal areas.” Homewood: Pure hyperbole. Where is the evidence to support this claim? Sea levels have been rising steadily since the mid 19th century.

5.  On polar ice caps, it is claimed that ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland is “worse than expected”. Homewood: In fact, according to NASA, the Antarctic is actually gaining ice. It is symptomatic of the whole programme, that Attenborough does not mention this inconvenient fact. As for Greenland, I’m not sure what the experts were “expecting”, has any relevance at all. What we do know though, is that temperatures in Greenland are no higher now than they were in the 1930s.

6.  Attenborough: “In the last three years, repeated heat stress has caused a third of the world’s corals to first bleach and then die.” Homewood: There is absolutely no evidence for this, and I have not even seen that claimed about the Great Barrier Reef. And as we now know, the death of GBR corals was drastically overstated. Indeed, as scientists like Peter Ridd and local reef experts have long maintained, corals quickly recover from bleaching, which was just as bad in the 18thC.

Daily Meditation

Conforming to God’s Holiness

God is called holy not only because of what He does, but also because of who He is. Originally the term referred more to God’s being than His action or behavior.
For us to be called saints (“holy ones”), we must have a catharsis. We must be made clean. No unclean thing can stand before the presence of a holy God. That which is unclean is profane in His eyes. For us to be holy to God, our unclean, unholy moral imperfection msut be purged and our sin removed from us. That is why the absolutely necessary condition for redemption is atonement. Without atonement we would remain always and forever unclean and unholy before His penetrating gaze.
No human is holy in himself. Holiness is foreign to us. It is alien. That is why we require the righteousness of another to cover our moral nakedness. The Holy One has given us the holiness we need in the cloak of Christ’s righteousness. Therefore we pray: “God is great, God is good. And we thank Him for the food … that has come down from heaven for us.”

Coram Deo

Pray this prayer: “Cleanse me Lord. Purge my sin and remove it from me. Cover my moral nakedness.”

Passages for Further Study

Rugby Australia Is In A Dark Place

Fettered Minds

Alan Jones is a former coach of Australia's national rugby side.  He has changed roles.  Now he walks around a notional rugby ground with a big whistle dishing out penalties.  He has called out an noisome foul committed by Rugby Australia--at least as he sees it.  

Jones has taken out his filleting knife and skinning the fish.  He has decided he will stand in Israel Folau's corner and whistle the game as he sees it.  It turns out that Rugby Australia is beneath contempt--at least as Alan Jones sees it.  How refreshing to see the Chattering Classes get exposed. He writes:

Thursday 25 April 2019

Cannon Fodder

Liberal Feminist Mother Warns Transgender Activists Are Taking Control of Mental Health Profession

Trans Youth
Scott Olson/Getty Images
DR. SUSAN BERRY
1233
3:45

A liberal feminist mother of a gender-dysphoric teen warns parents that transgender activists are ensuring it will soon be “nearly impossible” to find a mental health professional who is willing to help these children evaluate their self-perceptions.

“I quickly discovered that it is nearly impossible to find therapists who do this kind of work,” wrote the anonymous mother in a piece that appeared at the Federalist Tuesday. “If a girl presents as transgender today, the vast majority of therapists will immediately affirm the girl’s declared gender identity and ask her what steps she would like to take toward transition.”
Currently, transgender activists are celebrating their success in pressing lawmakers in 16 states and the District of Columbia to ban what they call “conversion therapy.” These political supporters of gender ideology claim therapists who do not immediately affirm the perception of young people claiming to be a gender that is incompatible with their biological sex are “harmful” and “abusive” and must be outlawed.
As the anonymous Federalist writer discovered, most mental health professionals from the states in which “conversion therapy” is now banned will not be willing to help a child explore his or her feelings or perceptions about sexual identity.
The mother wrote:
I interviewed at least a dozen therapists in search of one who could help my daughter examine her feelings and motivations. I finally resorted to paying out-of-pocket for my daughter to talk online to a therapist who lives in another state. I know I am not alone. I belong to an online support group of nearly 1,500 parents of gender dysphoric youth. Finding therapists who provide standard mental health therapy rather than automatic affirmation is a frustration for most of us.
Mental health professionals who work with children in states in which the transgender activists have successfully banned traditional therapy with children would be risking their licenses and their livelihood if they took on such cases.
“The goal of anti-conversion therapy bills is to ban mental health therapists from using conversion therapy with minors,” the mother wrote. “I am afraid these bills will have a chilling effect on therapists’ ability to help girls who say they are transgender.”
At a recent Heritage Foundation panel, Walt Heyer, founder of Sex Change Regret, said his organization receives many letters from parents, and those who have begun transitioning to the opposite sex themselves, seeking help.
Heyer, as the Christian Post reported, lived as a transgender woman for eight years and underwent surgery in 1983. In his discussion, he labeled what transgender activists are doing to young people today – controlling mental health therapy and pushing hormonal treatments and surgical interventions – as “abuse.”  
“That is child abuse,” Heyer said. “We need to be calling it what it is. It’s not affirming a child. It’s causing them to be depressed and anxious about who they are.”
“The only reason I am able to speak to you today is because after 46 years dealing with this issue, I was able to de-transition in 1990 after I had psychotherapy, the very same psychotherapy [transgender activists] are trying to prevent people from having,” he explained. “Why? Because they don’t want them to de-transition.”
The Federalist author also asked:
Why are transactivists so determined to prevent youth from receiving therapy that in any other context would be considered good and ethical practice? I think it is because transactivists believe they should be exempt from the rules the rest of us follow when we seek medical care.
“What the general public does not understand is that standard mental health therapy is now considered conversion therapy when practiced with gender-dysphoric youth,” the mother asserted.
Heyer said the current situation amounts to: “We are manufacturing transgender kids.”  
“We are manufacturing their depression, their anxiety, and it has turned into a huge industry that people are profiting from after kids’ lives are completely torn apart,” he asserted.