Escapees From the Welfare Trap

Progress and Accomplishment

The New Zealand government is engaged in a programmed campaign to get people off public welfare and back to work.  Opposition parties play the guilt-and-pity card constantly in the Parliament these days.  By their lights, untold suffering has fallen upon legions of victims as a result of these benighted policies.

For our part, as grass roots level, we are seeing lots of positive fruit.  Even something as simple as an official expectation of returning to work and getting off welfare is paying dividends. "You have to get a job" is a revolutionary, and liberating message at the local welfare office. Stuff carries a case study to illustrate the quiet revolution that has begun and continues to gather momentum.  In this particular case it was self-motivation that made the difference.  But the wider social and government expectations would no doubt have strengthened the resolve.

Daughter's words motivate mum to get off benefits

HARRY PEARL

Last updated 05:00 26/10/2013

A 9-year-old's comment about how "cool" it was to be on a benefit has changed a Huntly woman's life.  Until six months ago, Judy Wilson was one of about 80,000 sole parents in New Zealand receiving a benefit.  She was devoted to raising her six children but, in her own words, she was also drinking, smoking, and not doing "anything".  And she had been for close to 20 years. 

Six children being paid for by the taxpayer.  Solo-parenthood as a lifestyle choice.  These not-untypical-cases have been consigned to the very back of the closet by the welfarists.

Letter From Australia (About Climate Clowns)

Australia's Ablaze with Climate Clowns

Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph
October 28, 2013 12:00AM

 AUSTRALIA is a deeply puzzling land, especially to foreign media types. Even basic geography is sometimes a cause of bewilderment. For example, in 2011 Britain's Daily Mail tried to depict the extent of that year's Queensland floods with a helpful map of eastern Australia. This isn't a particularly difficult cartographic assignment, but the Mail managed to get it wrong, inventing the brand new state of Capricornia to Queensland's north.
 
The current NSW fires have prompted similar blunders. Last week the US television network NBC ran a graphic intended to show the range of the fires. They turned out to be far more extensive than anyone in Australia was aware.

NBC may have sourced their information from a Geoscience Australia monitoring site that lists hazard reduction burns and other non-threatening fires along with the massive conflagrations throughout NSW. The result was a graphic showing almost the entire northwest of Australia covered with flames. Darwin hasn't seen the likes of this since the Japanese bombing in World War II. Poor Capricornia copped it again as well. So did arid desert areas, which apparently now feature rare combustible dirt.

Elementary geographic and factual errors are one thing. It gets worse when ignorant outsiders lecture us about our own country.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 01

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. —I Timothy 1:5

Devotional:
Saint Paul shows that when God published his law he had before his eyes a certain end at which we also must aim; and when we do so, we shall have the true life of the law; it shall not be a dead letter to us; and not that only, but having the pure knowledge of what is contained in it, we shall be quickened.

What we have to gather from the law is, in sum, love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

Teenage Suicides

The Crown of Secular Amorality

New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed world. Often-times these appear as "outbreaks"--a cluster of suicides occurring in small communities.  The working assumption is that the news spreads amongst the small community by word of mouth, Chinese whispers, social media, and conversations around the dinner table.  Everyone knows, but no-one talks about it.

The latest spate of youth suicides (five so far, one as young as ten years old) have occurred in Taupo Bay  in the far north.  They follow a similar outbreak in Kawerau two years ago.  The tragedy is palpable.  The stupidity and senselessness of the suicides overwhelming.  The cold, hard reality is that there was nothing in these young lives so discouraging or so bad to justify such gross actions.  That they thought there was indicates that these kids had departed from the realms of reality and truth and had entered a destructive fantasy realm.  The realm in which so many of their parents live and in which our society glories.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Ted Cruz)

Clean Up to His Neck

Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

In Washington these days, in order to get anything done, you have to go along to get along, roll a few logs, scratch a few backs, and trade a few horses. But then, in order to get anything worthwhile done, you have to make everybody who matters angry. This is precisely what Ted Cruz has done.

There will be many inside the Beltway who will now insist that we must not learn the obvious lesson of these last few weeks. Washington is crammed full of people who need to learn something, and their entire livelihood and way of life depend upon them not learning it.This is why they are so slow on the uptake. They are not deficient when it comes to native intelligence. They are not lacking wit; they are lacking in motivation. We pay them trillions to stay unmotivated, and so we get what we pay for.

So step back and look at the events of the last month or so.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 31

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? —Isaiah 53:1

Devotional:
Isaiah does not include merely the men of his own time, but all posterity to the end of the world; for, so long as the reign of Christ shall endure, this must be fulfilled; and therefore believers ought to be fortified by this passage against such a scandal. These words refute the ignorance of those who think that faith is in the power of every person, because preaching is common to all.

Though it is sufficiently evident that all are called to salvation, yet the Prophet expressly states that the external voice is of no avail, if it be not accompanied by a special gift of the Spirit. And whence proceeds the difference, but from the secret election of God, the cause of which is hidden in himself? —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Beria Had His Good Points

We're The Good Guys 

The latest revelations about the UK spying programme are worrying indeed.  They demonstrate just how quickly a so-called Western liberal state can morph into a institution of sinister countenance.

To be sure, both the Left and the Right in Western liberal democracies have had their respective versions of conspiracy.  The Left version has plutocratic capitalists perverting good and just government for pecuniary advantage.  The Right version has secret societies of Marxist bent infiltrating government agencies to work their poison.  Both versions have been pretty whacko at times.  Now, however, reality is trumping weird fiction.

Along came 9/11.  Suddenly, the threat from conspirators became vivid and tangible.

Letter From America (Ask the Saudis)

Henninger: Obama's Credibility Is Melting

Here and abroad, Obama's partners are concluding they cannot trust him. 

Oct. 23, 2013 7:14 p.m. ET
Wall Street Journal


The collapse of ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg for the magical Obama presidency.

From the moment he emerged in the public eye with his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention and through his astonishing defeat of the Clintons in 2008, Barack Obama's calling card has been credibility. He speaks, and enough of the world believes to keep his presidency afloat. Or used to.

All of a sudden, from Washington to Riyadh, Barack Obama's credibility is melting.

Amid the predictable collapse the past week of HealthCare.gov's too-complex technology, not enough notice was given to Sen. Marco Rubio's statement that the chances for success on immigration reform are about dead. Why? Because, said Sen. Rubio, there is "a lack of trust" in the president's commitments.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 30

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: —John 12:42

Devotional:
"Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed on him." The murmuring and fierceness of the Jews, in rejecting Christ, having risen to such a height of insolence, it might have been thought that all the people, without exception, conspired against him. But the Evangelist says that amidst the general madness of the nation, there were many who were of a sound mind. A striking instance, truly, of the grace of God; for when ungodliness has once prevailed, it is a sort of universal plague, which infects with its contagion every part of the body.

It is therefore a remarkable gift, and special grace of God, when, amidst a people so corrupt, there are some who remain untainted.

New World Order

Playing the Long Game

Never has so much been promised to so many and been delivered to so few.  When He Who is So Smarter Than Ordinary Men was voted in to the office of the US presidency, Obama promised a new world to--well--the world.  Gone would be the histrionics of previous administrations, the faux risks, the needless wars, the brittle alignments, the rhetoric about Axes of Evil.  Instead a new world of sweet reasonableness would break out.  Big Bully US would become a polite chap in the corner. 

But President Obama has become about as imperious as its possible to get--at least in terms of attitude and in the conducting of foreign affairs.  Well, it's understandable really.  When you are by far and away the smartest guy in the room, having to put up with a bunch of under-achieving dullards would strain the patience of your average demi-god. 

It has been noised about recently that every traditional US ally in the Middle East is fed up with Obama and his government.  He has managed to offend them all.

Letter From Australia (About Deadly Greenist Policies)

Why Greenies Only Make Me See Red

Miranda Devine
The Daily Telegraph
October 23, 2013 12:00AM

BILL Leak, acclaimed cartoonist, lives in one of the loveliest places in Australia: Killcare, on the Central Coast. 

  But one of the consequences of living in the middle of the Australian bush is fire.  And in pretty seachange and treechange communities, you're likely to find yourself in a greenie council dominated by refugees from the city who haven't a clue about the real dangers of living among trees.

So it is that at the start of a dangerous bushfire season, Leak finds himself with a backyard full of trees and flammable material that he is forbidden to clear by Gosford Council on threat of fines as high as $1.1 million.
"Here I am, living on the edge of bushland that could burst into flame at any time, and I'm not allowed to clear the land in my own backyard of trees that, in the event of a fire, will bring the fire straight into my home," he says.

Council flora preservation policies warn that the removal of any native tree over 3m can attract hefty fines.
This "puts homes like mine in grave danger: the refusal of local councils to allow home owners to remove trees that can extend the bushland right up to our own back doors," Leak says.  "The only possible explanation for this is the council is hell-bent on securing Green votes. I'll accept, albeit unwillingly, the indulgence of Greens fantasies up to a point but if and when they cost me my house I think I'll have to say, 'A line has been crossed'."

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 29

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. —Psalm 123:2

Devotional:
"Behold! as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters." This similitude is very suitable to the present case. It implies that without the protection of God true believers have no comfort, are completely disarmed, and exposed to all manner of wrongs, have neither strength nor courage to resist; in short, that their safety depends entirely upon aid derived from another.

Annals of Soft Depostism

Worthy Mockery

In the Annals of Soft-Despotism we lampoon the pathetic works of the all-nannying-state.  This, we remind our readers, is the dominant idolatry of the post-Christian West.  Whereas once men looked to God and His providence to sustain their lives and provide for them, sophisticated moderns now look to the State, as their vaunted secular deity.  The Living God is so passe, so medieval, so primitive.  We are all moderns now and we worship a new shiny god--one we have made ourselves, in our own image.

God, however, sits in the heavens and mocks the rebellious kings of the earth.  This includes Western secular governments, due to their vain attempts to shake of the bonds and cords of God, their Creator.

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath
and terrify them in his fury. (Psalm 2: 4,5)

Behold the wonders of the vast realms of the secularists and their idol.  John Stewart, himself a public acolyte of secularism and statism,  leads us in a hymn of adoration--in this case, to the demi-god Obama and the idolatrous realm of the Federal Government.  The problem: the god is trying to provide health care.  Will the wonders never cease?  Stewart and his followers are miffed because their god has disappointed them, failed them. 

Let the derisive lampooning proceed:

Disingenuous European Politicians

European Parliament: Defeated LGBT-Lobby licking its wounds

Posted on | October 22, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

 

In the aftermath of their spectacular defeat on the Estrela Report, the homosexualist-abortionist Members of the European Parliament use their internet outlet to inform about their view of the unexpected – and, from their point of view, most undesired – outcome.

What I find particularly remarkable is the following part of their analysis:

“Religious and political conservatives lobbied intensely against this report with outright lies. They wrongly said, for instance, that the report would force Member States to change abortion rules, or include mandatory teaching about masturbation to 0-4 year-olds.”

Well, of course it was clear to everyone that the report, having no legally binding effect, could never force Member States to change abortion rules, or impose mandatory rules about teaching masturbation to 0-4 year olds.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 28

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; —Psalm 46:2

Devotional:
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed." He concludes by way of inference that the faithful have no reason to be afraid, since God is always ready to deliver them, nay, is also armed with invincible power.

He shows in this that the true and proper proof of our hope consists in this, that, when things are so confused, that the heavens seem as it were to fall with great violence, the earth to remove out of its place, and the mountains to be torn up from their very foundations, we nevertheless continue to preserve and maintain calmness and tranquillity of heart.

It is an easy matter to manifest the appearance of great confidence, so long as we are not placed in imminent danger; but if, in the midst of a general crash of the whole world our minds continue undisturbed and free of trouble, this is an evident proof that we attribute to the power of God the honor which belongs to him.

Encouraging Signs

Not Yet Living Within Our Means, But Progress Nonetheless

And now, a good news story.  One of the things that has bedevilled the New Zealand economy for decades is the dearth of capital.  As a nation which has practised "socialism without doctrines", as historian Michael Bassett put it, we have not saved, nor valued, nor husbanded sufficient capital.  Why save, when the state taxes and distributes, with the goal of creating cradle to the grave security? 

Consequently, the Balance of Payments has run at a deficit for a long, long time.  This econometric statistic measures whether NZ Inc is trading at a surplus or deficit, whether as a nation it is making more than it spends, or whether it is relying upon others outside New Zealand to fund our lifestyles in aggregate.  The perpetual deficit is a record of our having become accustomed to living standards way beyond our national means. 

Gradually this situation is changing.

Sir Lecturealot

Disappointed Fan

Maureen Dowd, Op Ed columnist for the New York Times, is presenting herself as someone once in love, but now realising that her spouse has flaws and faults after all.  The romance is slip slidin' away.

Cat on a Hot Stove

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: October 19, 2013  
New York Times

WASHINGTON — PRESIDENT OBAMA won big.

So why did the moment feel so small? 

At his victory scold in the State Dining Room on Thursday, the president who yearned to be transformational stood beneath an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln and demanded . . . a farm bill. He also couldn’t resist taking a holier-than-thou tone toward his tail-between-their-legs Tea Party foes. He assumed his favorite role of the shining knight hectoring the benighted: Sir Lecturealot. 

“All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict,” he sermonized. (We have met the enemy and they are . . . bloggers?) 

Certainly, the House Republicans who held their breath until the country turned blue acted like foolhardy children on what John McCain called “a fool’s errand.”  The country agreed. So it probably wasn’t necessary for papa to preach, overacting the role of weary parent watching the irresponsible kids make their mistakes.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 26

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, —Ephesians 1:18

Devotional:
We clearly perceive how utterly destitute man is of every good, and in want of all the means of salvation. Wherefore, if he seek for relief in his necessities, he must go out of himself, and obtain it from some other quarter.

It has been stated also that the Lord voluntarily and liberally manifests himself in his Christ, in whom he offers us all blessedness instead of our misery, and wealth instead of our poverty; in whom he opens to our view the treasures of heaven, that our faith may be wholly engaged in the contemplation of his beloved Son, that all our expectation may depend on him, and that in him all our hope may rest and be fully satisfied.

This, indeed, is that secret and learned philosophy which cannot be extracted from syllogisms; but is well understood by those whose eyes God has opened, that in his light they may see light.

Letters from the US (On Education)

 Desperation Drives Change

Why do we strongly favour of charter schools?  Because they represent the breaking up of government monopolies.  This is positive for two reasons.  Firstly, it represents in part the crumbling of the soft-despotic state, which is the dominant idolatry of our age.  Secondly, the all embracing, all regulating, all providing state represents a stupid overreach which becomes inevitably racked by incompetence and failure. This opens  opportunities for education to make significant progress and increase its positive impact upon the community.

Communism in the Soviet Union failed to deliver on its promises.  It built huge department stores and shops, stocked with nothing or very little.  It suffered crop failure for sixty-five years, which it blamed on inclement weather.  One of the few things which actually increased and grew in the Soviet Union throughout that time was the length of lines of people queuing up to buy food.  In a state education system there will be many achievements, but few of an educational nature.  In the end the system will break down through the necessary incompetence of the government operating in spheres beyond its competence and proper duty.

Charter schools are non-government controlled; they offer better educational results simply because they are free to excel, rather than being bound to comply with nanny-state.  Bad or inadequate charter schools fail and go out of existence, being overtaken by better schools--just like any other service business.  Bad or inadequate government schools usually linger on in the twilight for decades, cocooned and protected by Nanny, whilst educational progress stultifies.. 

A couple of recent articles on charter schools in the US illustrate the hugely positive impact they are having on the education industry in some cities and states.  The first example is New Orleans.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Like a Muddied Spring

Posted on Saturday, October 19, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

Some questions have arisen in the course of my recent posts on the responsibility of Christian leaders to know where the central evil in our day resides.

In a recent exchange, I said there are many, many bad Republicans, and no good Democrats. I should have made clear in saying this that I was talking about our options on the ballot, and not about the character of every last person in the electorate.

I also promised one commenter that I needed to develop further why there is a discrepancy between how I treat Christians who support Republicans and Christians who support someone like Obama. It is a difference made necessary by the hypocrisy of the Republican establishment, and the sincerity of the true blues in the back ranks who actually believe the party platform.

If you have two political parties, say, and one of them is formally and overtly dedicated to the proposition that every pregnant woman has a constitutional right to kill her baby, and that people who question this are filled with hate. And say that the other party is formally dedicated to the proposition that this practice of abortion should be outlawed. Suppose further that this second party is riddled with hypocrisy, and a bunch of the leaders would happily join forces with the murderous party if they could. But they cannot afford to show their true colors because they have a heavy constituency that is not hypocritical on this issue at all, and genuinely and sincerely wants to outlaw the killing of babies.

Now it can be morally culpable to believe the pro-life protestations of a hypocrite, but that is not nearly as culpable as supporting a man who says outright that the killing must continue. Obama says, as a matter of he thinks is principle, that a million Americans a year must continue to have their lives sacrificed on the altars of our lusts. Only he calls it rights, not lusts. Millions of evangelical Christians supported him, voted for him, and were grateful to God for his election.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 25

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: —I Timothy 1:5

Devotional:
Now let us fall down before the face of our good God, acknowledging our faults, desiring him that it would please him to cleanse us, and touch us so to the quick that we may learn to renounce whatever is of this world and of our flesh, and that we may take pains to come to him; yea, and that in such a sort that he may receive us as his children.

And seeing it has pleased him to bring us to faith, by the knowledge of his truth, that it would please him to guide us even to the end, and hold us fast by the hand, that we never may be turned away from his holy calling. —Sermons

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Greenist Complicity in Australian Bush Fires

From Another Planet

Australia is facing another bush fire crisis, this time in New South Wales.  It's serious.  News announcers are sonorously blaming high temperatures (typical for Australia) and strong winds (also de rigueur).  But something is missing.  In order to have bush fires, there has to be another ingredient.  Fuel.  But, you will object, why state the obvious?  Clearly the bush represents fuel, non? 

Ah, yes.  But there is bush fuel and bush fuel.  And there is much more of the latter kind than there once was.  Prior to greenism taking over the hearts and minds of Australians, bush fires used to be combated by a diversified strategy--like any good war.  One key method was to keep roads or tracks into the bush maintained, allowing effective access for firefighters.  Another was to allow cattle to graze in the bush.  Another was to put the bush to the match to conduct controlled burn offs.  The objective was to reduce the wooden detritus of the bush on the ground which, if allowed to build up naturally, becomes perfect fuel for fires.  A bush tinderbox.  Active prevention reduced the risks.

All that has gone by the wayside, courtesy of greenist folly.  Piers Akerman, recently wrote the following in the Daily Telegraph:

Letter From Europe (About Compulsory Child Abuse)

European Parliament: extremist “sexual health and rights” report to promote compulsory child abuse

Posted on | October 18, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Dear Friends, in a recent post we informed you about an “own-initiative-report” on “sexual and reproductive health and rights” that will be voted at next week’s plenary session at the European Parliament. We informed you of the dangerous content of this draft report, which seeks inter alia to turn abortion into a “human right”, subverts the freedom of conscience of medical practitioners, negates the role of parents as primary educators of their children, and the right of children to know their biological parents.

MEP Edite Estrela: does she know what she is proposing?

All this is of course not new. Indeed, when the radical gay-plus-abortion-lobby pulls all is forces together to set up a wish-list, the outcome is foreseeable, and no one should be surprised about it.

It is only upon a second, more careful, reading that I have discovered how insidious this report really is. It is actually much worse than I ever expected, and I must give the author of the draft, the Portuguese radical-left MEP Edite Estrela, the benefit of doubt: probably even she is not fully aware of what she is proposing. And if she isn’t, then the vast majority of the (predominantly socialist, communist, green and liberal) Members of the European Parliament who plan to vote for this report are not aware either.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 24

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; —Isaiah 49:2

Devotional:
The present question is not about the person of Christ, but about the whole body of the Church. We must indeed begin with the Head, but we must come next to the members; and to all the ministers of the Word must be applied what is here affirmed concerning Christ; for to them is given such efficacy of the Word, that they may not idly beat the air with their voices, but may reach the hearts and touch them to the quick.

Orwellian Prophecies

No Surprises There

All political ideologies, of whatever stripe, seek to control language and vocabulary.  George Orwell portrayed this so powerfully in 1984 and Animal Farm.  He coined the term "newspeak".  If you can legislate or require certain descriptors or nouns or verbs you can influence the way people think about issues.  You can shape the mind and opinion.

The use of the word "gay" as a noun substituting or replacing "homosexual" or "lesbian" is a classic example of modern newspeak.  Regrettably it has sullied a wonderful English adjective, and we are all the poorer for it.  Sometimes newspeak is so politicised and so connected to a government's policies an incoming administration will change some of the language of official communication and government administration to reflect its view of reality.

In Australia, the incoming Liberal Coalition is changing some nouns and adjectives used to denote folk arriving on Australian shores by boats (mainly), declaring themselves refugees and seeking asylum.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

A Tishbite at the National Prayer Breakfast

Posted on Friday, October 18, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I would like to follow up on my two previous posts found here and here with a few additional comments.
Political engagement is messy, and so welcome to planet earth. When actual political controversies are going on, they are . . . well, controversies. It takes backbone to get in there and fight. When you do that, people don’t like it.

When the controversies are over, one side won and memorials are built in honor of the victors. Sometimes the victors deserve the memorials and sometimes they don’t, but they always get them.

Now downstream, the Lord taught us that those most prone to appeal to the tombs of the prophets are the very same people who would have murdered those very prophets if given the opportunity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 23

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. —Isaiah 53:12

Devotional:
After all this, he adds: he prayed for the wicked. This is especially added to show that in his death and passion, Jesus Christ bore the priestly office. Without this we should not have everything necessary for the assurance of our salvation.

It is true that, since the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is the sacrifice by which our sins are wiped out, his blood is our cleansing, the purpose of his obedience is to abolish all our rebellions and to win righteousness for us. We have something to rejoice at in this.

But it is not all; for we are told that when we call upon the name of God we shall be saved. But how can we have access to God? What boldness it is, to come to pray to him! yes, to call him plainly and openly our Father.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Potemkin Dialogues

In New Zealand we are familiar with the tools of propaganda-by-stealth.  The way it works is like this.  A government (usually left-wing in orientation) wants to move society towards its longer term goals.  In order to do so, it must persuade the electorate to where it becomes sympathetic with, and supportive of, its programme. 

Infiltrating the schools is an obvious method.  It can work, but unfortunately, it has a very long lead time.  Usually the current crop of politicians and government administrations have long since departed for the netherworld before the crop can be reaped.  More quick payback and progress is required.

In New Zealand the following method was employed by the previous Labour administration, led by Helen Clarke, a left-wing politician who had a very clear view of where she believed society should be heading.  Firstly, fund pressure groups whose ideology and sympathies are similar to your own.

Not So Definitive After All

Problems with scientific research

How science goes wrong

Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself

The Economist

Oct 19th 2013

A SIMPLE idea underpins science: “trust, but verify”. Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better.
But success can breed complacency. Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying—to the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 22

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 1: 3

Devotional:
We must bear in mind that according to the common usage of Scripture, whenever God exhorts us to repentance, he does not regard what our capacity is, but demands what is justly his right.

Hence the Papists adopt what is absurd when they deduce the power of free-will from the command or exhortation to repent; God, they say, would not have commanded what is not in our power to do.

This is a foolish way of reasoning; for if everything which God requires were in our power, the grace of the Holy Spirit would be superfluous;