Befitting of what the not-so-opposition party has become...
CR: It becomes clearer every day that there are not only two parties in Washington, D.C., but there are also two wings of the Republican Party. Conservatives who fight for limited government, fewer taxes, less regulation, more freedom, devolving federal power to the states, prudent immigration, and constitutional principles.
The other wing?
Whether you call them RINOs (Republican In Name Only), liberal Republicans or the Establishment, for them, it’s all about retaining the power that comes from working their well-established connections around “town.”
Some have raised the question, ‘You don’t really think that these members want to help/support/defend Obama’s agenda and policies – do you?’
Hopefully not, but their actions seem to align a lot closer with liberals than conservatives on many issues, so it’s hard to say.
Continue reading this piece to learn of the 8 RINO rules that guide these liberals Republicans. Levin previously encapsulated what's going on with the surrender caucus...
On Monday's Mark Levin Show: Republican Senators are prepared to surrender in the face of victory over President Obama's amnesty. They're being led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and others that don't represent the Republicans but only themselves. Any Republican Senator that votes for funding the DHS, with the amnesty spending, is voting to undermine the Constitution and separation of government powers.
ADDENDUM: Referencing the above 8 rules, it's evident that McConnell uses Reid tricks against conservatives...
CR: In the last two years there have been two major attempts by conservatives to defund catastrophic policies. One attempt was Obamacare in October of 2013 and the other attempt was executive amnesty this week.
In both attempts, the Republican House-passed bills were amended in the Senate to reinstate funding for Obamacare and executive amnesty. ...
In both attempts the exact same parliamentary tricks were used to reinstate funding. In the Obamacare fight it was liberal Harry Reid using the trick to reinstate Obamacare funding. In the executive amnesty fight it was newly elected Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who today used the exact same parliamentary trick to reinstate funding for Obama’s executive amnesty with 51 votes instead of 60.
The only difference was one majority leader was labeled Republican and the other labeled Democrat, but they both took the exact same course of action to restore funding for a major Obama priority that will change our country forever.
At some point between now and last November, Mitch McConnell woke up one morning, stared into the mirror and had to admit he lied. He lied that a Republican Congress, specifically a Republican Senate, would act to stop Obama’s executive amnesty. ...
Now that McConnell is Majority Leader and no longer needs voters his tune has changed. What we have here is classic evidence of RINO Rules #1 and #8, Bait-&-Switch and Preemptive Surrender.
Surrender, surrender, surrender. What good is the Republican Party as an opposition party anymore?
TRS: Mark Levin opened his show tonight talking about Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty and how Republicans are allowing it to happen without a fight — one party brazenly pushing tyranny and the other surrendering without a fight.
Levin called what is happening in the US Senate a disgrace and said we have a political system that simply does not work for the American people and is not moored to the Constitution.
On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show: We have a political system that is unbefitting of the American people. President Obama's unconstitutional amnesty is giving illegals access to entitlement benefits and fast tracking them to citizenship. If a Republican President tried to pass this the media would be jumping up and down about a Constitutional crisis. The Democrats know exactly what they're doing; they have a strategy and they unify behind it. Meanwhile, we have the worst group of Republicans in Congress in American history. They lie and manipulate us, and now so called conservative news outlets are their mouth-pieces for deception.
Where the MSM disregards, hides, or outright misinforms, we must remain resolute in the pursuit of truth and fact.
Here's two ESSENTIAL reasons why the so-calledGOP leadership, as well as establishment bullies like McCain, cannot be allowed to pretend as if DHS funding is something more than what reality dictates. Nor can they be allowed to continue furthering the lawlessness by ignoring what's on the books...
First, as far back as 2011, we found out that even in a so-called 'shutdown', 80% of DHS is deemed 'essential' and therefore continues working!
ABCNews: Department of Homeland Security: Working But Limited Services Over 80% of the DHS workforce has been deemed to be "essential" personnel for agencies such as TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Coast Guard, FEMA and Immigration Customs Enforcement. The host of employees from intelligence analysts to cyber security officials are also considered "essential" and will continue working.
Secondly, did you know that there already exists an extensive list of visas for nearly every letter of the alphabet? So, again, why do we need comprehensive immigration reform? We don't! All we need is ENFORCEMENT!
A-1 Visa: Foreign Government Officials: Ambassador, Public Minister, Career Diplomat or Consular Officer, or Immediate Family. A-2 Visa: Foreign Government Officials: Other Foreign Government Official or Employee, or Immediate Family. A-3 Visa: Foreign Government Officials: Attendant, Servant, or Personal Employee of A-1 or A-2, or Immediate Family. B-1 Visa: Temporary Visa for Business Travelers and domestic servant. B-2 Visa: Visitors ("tourists"): Temporary Visitor for Pleasure or Medical Treatment. C-1 Visa: Alien in Transit. C-1/D Visa: Combined Transit and Crewman Visa. C-2 Visa: Alien in Transit to United Nations Headquarters District Under Sec. 11.(3), (4), or (5) of the Headquarters Agreement. C-3 Visa: Foreign Government Official, Immediate Family, Attendant, Servant or Personal Employee, in Transit. C-4 Visa: Transit without Visa, see ATP D-1 Visa: Crewmember departing on same vessel of arrival. D-2 Visa: Crewmember departing by means other than vessel of arrival. E-1 Visa: Treaty Trader, Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). E2 Visa: Treaty Investor, Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). E-2 Visa: Employee Treaty Trader, Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). E-3 Visa: Special category for Australian nationals who will work in a Specialty Occupation (Profession), Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). It is called an "Australian H-1B". EB-5 Visa: Green Card for investors of $1 million or $500,000 in a "Pilot Program". F-1 Visa: Academic Student. F-2 Visa: Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). G-1 Visa: Principal Resident Representative of Recognized Foreign Government to International Organization, Staff, or Immediate Family. G-2 Visa: Other Representative of Recognized Foreign Member Government to International Organization, or Immediate Family. G-3 Visa: Representative of Nonrecognized Nonmember Foreign Government to International Organization, or Immediate Family. G-4 Visa: International Organization Officer or Employee, or Immediate Family. G-5 Visa: Attendant, Servant, or Personal Employee of G-1 through G-4 or Immediate Family. H-1B1 Visa: Professionals who come temporarily to the U.S. to perform a specialty occupation. H-1B2 Visa: Aliens who come temporarily to the U.S. to perform cooperative research and development projects. H-1B3 Visa: Aliens who come temporarily to the U.S. as a fashion model. H-1C Visa: Nurse coming to areas of health professional shortage. H-2A Visa: Aliens who come to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of temporary or seasonal nature. H-2B Visa: Aliens who come to the U.S. not to perform agricultural labor or services but to perform work in temporary nature. H-2R Visa: Special type of H-2B visa which was temporarily provided as a way to bypass the quotas for the H-2B for individuals who had been previously issued H-2B status (enacted in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005, P.L. 109-13, 119 Stat. 231, signed into law by the President on May 11, 2005). H-3 Visa: Aliens who come to the U.S. to participate in a training program. H-4 Visa: Spouses and children under the age of twenty-one (21). I Visa: Representative of Foreign Information Media, Spouses and Child. J-1 Visa: Exchange Visitor. J-2 Visa: Exchange Visitor. K-1 Visa: Fiance(e) of United States Citizen. K-2 Visa: Minor Child of Fiance(e) of U.S. Citizen. K-3 Visa: Spouses of a U.S. Citizen under LIFE Act. K-4 Visa: Children of K-3 under LIFE Act. L-1A Visa: Intracompany Transferee (Executive, Managerial) Continuing Employment with International Firm or Corporation. L-1B Visa: Intracompany Transferee (Specialized Knowledge Personnel) Continuing Employment with International Firm or Corporation. L-2 Visa: Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). M-1 Visa: Vocational Student or Other Nonacademic Student. M-2 Visa: Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). N-8 Visa: Parent of an Alien Classified SK-3 Special Immigrant. N-9 Visa: Children under the age of twenty-one (21) of N-8 or of an SK-1, SK-2, or SK-4 Special Immigrant. NATO-1 Visa: Principal Permanent Representative of Member State to NATO (including any of its Subsidiary Bodies) Resident in the U.S. and Resident Members of Official Staff; Secretary General, Assistant Secretary General, and Executive Secretary of NATO; Other Permanent NATO Officials of Similar Rank, or Immediate Family. NATO-2 Visa: Other Representative of member state to NATO (including any of Subsidiary Bodies) including Representatives, its Advisers and Technical Experts of Delegations, Members of Immediate Art. 3, 4 UST 1796 Family; Dependents of Member of a Force Entering in Accordance with the Provisions Status-of-Forces Agreement or in Accordance with the provisions of the Protocol on the Status of International Military Headquarters; Members of Such a Force if Issued Visas. NATO-3 Visa: Official Clerical Staff Accompanying Representative of Member State to NATO (including any of its Subsidiary Bodies) or Immediate Family. NATO-4 Visa: Official of NATO (Other Than Those Classifiable as NATO- 1) or Immediate Family. NATO-5 Visa: Expert, Other Than NATO Officials Classifiable Under the NATO-4, Employed in Missions on Behalf of NATO, and their Dependents. NATO-6 Visa: Member of a Civilian Component Accompanying a Force Entering in Accordance with the Provisions of the NATO Status-of- Forces Agreement; Member of a Civilian Component Attached to or Employed by an Allied Headquarters Under the Protocol on the Status of International Military Headquarters Set Up Pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty; and their Dependents. NATO-7 Visa: Attendant, Servant, or Personal Employee of NATO-1, NATO-2, NATO-3, NATO-4, NATO-5, and NATO-6 Classes, or Immediate Family. O-1A Visa: Aliens possessing extraordinary abilities in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. O-1B Visa: Aliens of extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry. O-2 Visa: Accompanying Alien. O-3 Visa: Spouses or Children under the age of twenty-one (21). P-1 Visa: Athletes, Entertainement Groups and Support Personnel. P-2 Visa: Artistic Exchange (reciprocical exchange program). P-3 Visa: Artistic Exchange (culturally unique program). P-4 Visa: Spouses and Children under the age of twenty-one (21). Q-1 Visa: Participant in an International Cultural Exchange Program. Q-2 Visa: Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program (Walsh Visas). Q-3 Visa: Spouses and children under the age of twenty-one (21). R-1 Visa: Aliens in a religious occupation. R-2 Visa: Spouses or Children under the age of twenty-one (21). S-5 Visa: Certain Aliens Supplying Critical Information Relating to a Criminal Organization or Enterprise. S-6 Visa: Certain Aliens Supplying Critical Information Relating to Terrorism. S-7 Visa: Qualified Family Member of S-5 or S-6. T-1 Visa: Victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons. T-2 Visa: Spouse of a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons. T-3 Visa: Child of victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons. T-4 Visa: Parent of victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons (if T-1 victim if under twenty-one (21) years of age). TN Visa: Professional Workers under NAFTA. TD Visa: Spouses and children under the age of twenty-one (21). TPS Visa: Temporary Protected Status. TWOV Visa: Transit Without Visa Program (Passenger and Crew) SUSPENDED: this program was SUSPENDED at 11:00 a.m., Saturday August 2, 2003 (EST). U-1 Visa: Victim of Certain Criminal Activity. U-2 Visa: Spouse of U-1. U-3 Visa: Child of U-1. U-4 Visa: Parent of U-1, if U-1 is under the age of twenty-one (21). V-1 Visa: Spouse of an LPR who is the principal beneficiary of a family-based petition (Form I-130) which was filed prior to December 21, 2000, and has been pending for at least three years. V-2 Visa: Child of an LPR who is the principal beneficiary of a family-based visa petition (Form I-130) that was filed prior to December 21, 2000, and has been pending for at least three years. V-3 Visa: The derivative children of a V-1 or V-2.
Levin repeated these two facts numerous times throughout last week. Yet, McConnell still refuses to listen in an attempt to splinter the bill in two, while Boehner strategizes his next cave to divert blame.
Breitbart: Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin defended Rudy Giuliani’s comments regarding President Obama’s love of America on Thursday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
“Rudy’s exactly right, and I would add, and I’ve said this many years on my radio program, when somebody says they want to fundamentally transform America, well, then you must not love America. It’s like saying i’m going to fundamentally transform my wife, or my girlfriend, that means you must not love your wife or your girlfriend. And Obama has shown no indication that he loves the Constitution. He never talks about capitalism. He’s always bringing up the past. He’s always picking at scabs. Even now he’s a patsy for Islamic terrorism. Half of his speeches are about how terrible America is and America shouldn’t react in [a] negative way” he stated.
LEVIN: "I want to remind this president, he likes to bring up Jesus in a certain context, and I say this as a Jew, you know, there’s an awful lot of Christians in America and in Europe who have died, who’ve been maimed, who’ve been harmed trying to defend innocent, peace loving Muslims in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and so forth, and it would be nice every now and then if he would acknowledge that. And I would also say this man is the most preposterous and absurd president, in modern american history maybe, any time in American history. And here’s the sad fact: The sad fact is because of what he’s doing or not doing, It’s going to be left to the next president to deal with this, and it’s going to be much worse. The genocide, much more widespread. they’re going to have much more geography, much more resources because this guy’s not going to do it for whatever reason, he is not up to the task.
He’s no defender of Muslims. Muslims are being slaughtered all over the Middle East, they’re being slaughtered in Africa along with Christians, along with nonbelievers and a certain sect of Islam. This man is not defending them. It’s those of us who speak out that who are insisting that we take effective military steps to put an end to this. We are the ones speaking out for Muslims and so forth.
I think Obama is a religious and historical illiterate. I think he really does have contempt for this country. He has contempt for our military, he’s demonstrated that. And Rudy’s exactly right. And you had mentioned this early on, who did he hang out with? He hangs out with this guy [Rashid] Khalidi who was a mouthpiece for Arafat…He’s exactly right, Rudy. His great mentor was a well-known Soviet communist sympathizer in Hawaii. His father, the same thing, and so this is who indoctrinated Obama. He doesn’t think like us. he doesn’t react the way we do…Obama, as I said, is a patsy for Islamic terrorism the way [Neville] Chamberlain was a patsy for the Third Reich.”
THAT'S RIGHT! He said it!
Levin's point about loving something and not wanting to fundamentally transform it can be applied to so much of life. Here's a little something I'd like to add to the equation and perhaps meditate and pray on during this Lenten season, reminding myself and the rest of my Christian brethren:
You don't 'fundamentally transform' the Word of God if you love it!
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. ~ II Timothy 4:3-4
Have you ever, EVER, heard this guy defend Judaism or Christianity with as much vigor and compassion? Never...
"We must never accept the premise that they put forward. Because it is lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy they seek. They are not religious leaders, they are terrorists. We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam. ... Of course, the terrorists do not speak for over a billion Muslims who reject their hateful ideology. They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills innocents in the name of God represents Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism. No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism."
Not religious leaders?Perverted Islam? Yes, we are not at war with Islam, but those who choose this violent Islamic path to a new caliphate are certainly at war with us! And it is extremely religious in nature, however much too many westerners, secular or religious, including this president, even including moderate Muslim reformers, choose to deny that...
TheAtlantic: The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.
Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal. ...
That the Islamic State holds the imminent fulfillment of prophecy as a matter of dogma at least tells us the mettle of our opponent. It is ready to cheer its own near-obliteration, and to remain confident, even when surrounded, that it will receive divine succor if it stays true to the Prophetic model. Ideological tools may convince some potential converts that the group’s message is false, and military tools can limit its horrors. But for an organization as impervious to persuasion as the Islamic State, few measures short of these will matter, and the war may be a long one, even if it doesn’t last until the end of time.
Nonetheless, the White House continues to roll apologist after sympathizing apologist out to the microphones to muster as much sopping political correctness as they can slobber...
"We in the administration and the government should give voice to the plight of Muslims living in this country and the discrimination that they face. And so I personally have committed to speak out about the situation that very often people in the Muslim community in this country face. The fact that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and the Islamic faith is one about peace and brotherhood."
Something else to irreverently turn into another supposed civil rights cause? And saying 'peace and brotherhood' while the inhabitants of the Middle East are in such turmoil may be a romantic idea, but it doesn't make it so.
What's developed into Obama's Islamic apologetics summit is so detached from reality that even reasonable Democrats, RINOs and conservatives alike see it, know it, and can articulate the truth beyond it!
"I think one of the things that is important to note is that the administration is misidentifying the enemy and their motivation by saying that they are motivated out of materialistic aspirations, that they're motivated out of poverty, of a lack of jobs or education or opportunity and as a result, the courses of action that the administration is proposing are also materialistic in nature, saying that if we just go in and alleviate poverty, if we go in and create jobs and increase opportunity and institute this Western style of democracy, that somehow this is going to solve the problem, when really, that's not the case.
We can look to the past and see many different examples of where this has occurred, whether you look at Libya, you look at Egypt, you look at what's being proposed with Syria. In each of these different instances, a dictator has been removed, there has been an attempt to institute a Western-style democracy in each of these cases. ISIS and Islamic extremists are more powerful and presenting a greater threat than they did before. So that's why it's so important that we recognize that these people are being motivated from different parts of the world by a spiritual, a theological motivation, which is this radical Islamic ideology."
"It was the president himself who called the three-day summit. It sounds like a community organizer talking about outreach to aggrieved communities. If you listen to the president today and his emphasis on Islamic grievances on reaching out, on making the Muslims feel comfortable and not excluded, you would think that we are responding to the execution and the beheading of 21 Muslims on behalf of 21 extreme Christians somewhere in the world. It is so divorced from reality, as if the problem is the lack of understanding of Muslim grievances, particularly in the Middle East.
We talk about root causes as if that's going to make any difference whatsoever. There are rich people in ISIS, there are poor; there are educated, there are uneducated. The idea that somehow if you can eradicate poverty which in and of itself is an absurdity as if it's going to make any difference is sort of a fantasy. And it's a way to avoid the issue, as is the president's language. He said I don't want to legitimize these people by using the word Islamist. It's as if you refused to call Nazis Nazis because they were not authentic socialists and they had a perverted idea of nationalism. I mean, you simply have to say, of course they are a branch of Islam, a very important one. They are all over the world, and unless you address the Islamic roots of it, you will get absolutely nowhere in trying to stop the recruiting and to stop their advances."
"What undermines the global effort is for the president of the United States to be an apologist for radical Islamic terrorists, to analogize it to the Crusades from 700 years ago. You know, what would be far better to see is the kind of courage that was demonstrated just a few weeks ago by Egyptian President el-Sisi.
Now, President el-Sisi in Cairo gave a speech that was courageous when he called out the radical Islamic terrorists -- and President el-Sisi is a Muslim -- and he said we Muslims need to stand up together against these radical terrorists who are perverting our faith and turning it into a mandate for murder. Why don't we see the president of the United States demonstrating that same courage just to speak the truth about the face of evil we're facing right now?"
Unfortunately, for the current generation of Americans living in a country founded on Judeo-Christian principles -- which however much the secularists want to deny, has been integral in the correction of our ailments as much as in the strengthening of our civil society -- we find ourselves subjugated by a one-size-fits-all, authoritarian-swaggering Big Government with media apparatchiks in tow, apologizing for the genuine ONE who made this country great, while defending another unequivocally foreign, and to the majority, false.
One who refuses to see is more dangerous than one who can't see at all.
This is one of the hardest prayers, I find, to humbly and sincerely pray; yet, it is so desperately needed and required...
O LORD our Governor, whose glory is in all the world; We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and to all in Authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness; and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
"Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return!"
With the entrance of Ash Wednesday, so begins the season of Lent...
RC: So may we well begin this Holy Season of Lent which so much reminds us of the transience of this life and, in contrast, the joys of heaven to come.
In a sense, there is both joy and sadness in Lent - sadness at death but joy at life, the life to come. Lent signifies the 40 days that our Lord spent in the desert fasting and doing penance for us and giving us an example of the way in which we can discipline ourselves to withstand the temptations of the world, grow in grace and virtue and become more truly ourselves, rather than our appetites.
This is our recollection behind the imposition of ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. We are reminded of our mortality and that we shall return unto the dust from which man was originally made.
The words said by the priest come from Genesis 3:19 when Adam and Eve were made subject to the corruption of death and dying with the words of God ringing in their ears:
"for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return"
The English word 'Lent' that we use to describe this special season before Easter comes from the 'lengthening' of daylight hours as we progress from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring. However, other languages have a name for this season that is derived from the word for forty. As such, this is the season of forty days...
CI: OK, we do penance for forty days because Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness. But did you ever wonder why he was out there for forty days rather than seven or ten or fifty?
Think back to the Old Testament. Noah and company in the Ark watched rain fall for 40 days and forty nights. Moses was up on Sinai receiving the 10 commandments for 40 days. The Israelites wandered around the desert for 40 years.
So why all these forties? Probably because it is forty weeks that a woman carries her developing baby before a new life can come forth from the womb.
All these “forties” are a necessary and not-so-comfortable prelude for something new. In Noah’s case, it’s the rebirth of a sinful world that had been cleansed by raging flood waters. In Moses’ case, it was the birth of the people of the covenant. For the nomadic Israelites, it was the start of a new, settled existence in the Promised land.
And Jesus? What did his forty days mean? The birth of a new Israel liberated from sin, reconciled to God, and governed by the law of the Spirit rather than a law chiseled in stone.
But think back to the story of Moses and the Israelites. There was someone who did not want them to go out into the desert to offer sacrifice to their God. Pharaoh did not take the loss of his cheap labor lying down. When Jesus begins his mission of liberation, there is another slave master who is no more willing than Pharoah to let his minions go without a fight.
Since the sixties, it has been fashionable in some quarters to dismiss the devil as a relic of ancient mythology or medieval fantasy. The guy with the pointy tale and the pitchfork comes in handy in cartoons and costume parties, but how can we take such an image seriously? In the Bible, they say, let’s read “Satan” merely as a symbol of human evil.
Such a view is clearly at odds with Scripture, Tradition, and recent teaching of the Magisterium. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, says St. Paul. If you don’t know your enemy and his tactics, you are bound to lose.
The temptation of Jesus in the desert shows us the tactics of the “Dark Lord.” Bread, a symbol for all that sustains our physical life, is a great blessing. But Satan tries to make material things the ultimate, distracting us from a deeper hunger and a more enduring food. Political power and all leadership is intended by God for the sake of serving the common good; Satan twists things to make leaders self-seeking, oppressive tyrants like himself. The lust for power and fame ironically leads not to dominion but to slavery to the Dark Lord (remember what happened to the Nazghoul in the Lord of the Rings). Then there’s religious temptation, the trickiest of them all-- Manipulating God for our own glory, using his gifts to make people look at us rather than at Him. Sounds a lot like the Pharisees.
Jesus triumphs in this first wrestling match. He shows us how to keep from being pinned. Fasting breaks undue attachments to material blessings and stimulates our spiritual appetite. Humble service breaks the stranglehold of pride. The reverent worship of authentic faith breaks the full nelson of superstition, magic, and all arrogant religion. And the word of God is shown as the sword of the Spirit, the secret weapon that slashes through the enemy’s lies.
So our forty days? Time to use the tactics modeled by our captain and break the strongholds. Prayer, fasting, humble service. The heavenly bread of the Eucharist and the Word of God. If we make use of them diligently during this season, pregnant with possibilities, we can enter into greater freedom. Darkness can give way to increasing light. Something new and wonderful can be born in us.
Remember the temptations defeated by Christ, and allow his victories to fill you with strength this penitential season...
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered,
“It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him,
“Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him,
“Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. ~ 1 Corinthians 9:27
Carnival. Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. Pancake Day. From the hedonistic to the mundane, these secularized namesakes all point to the original: Shrove Tuesday. And perhaps it might do our souls good to remember, and maybe even recover, the real meaning beneath the syrup...
CT: Can eating pancakes enrich Christian piety? As a part of the traditional celebration of Shrove Tuesday, I believe flapjacks can build our faith. For those of us who love Jesus and Aunt Jemima, this is very good news. Shrove Tuesday is essentially the British take on Mardi Gras or Carnival. But instead of flamboyant parties filled with riotous excess, the understated British gather calmly in their homes on the day before Lent to fill themselves with pancakes. Why pancakes? In medieval Europe, Christians often gave up eating rich foods like meat, eggs, and milk for the 40-day period of penance, prayer, and preparation leading to Easter. The practice and duration of the ritual corresponded to Christ’s 40 days of fasting in the desert. During Lent, perishable goods would spoil, so pancakes—traditionally just eggs and milk mixed with flour—were the ideal meal for consuming Lenten no-no foods. But Shrove Tuesday wasn’t just about cleaning out the kitchen. It was also about cleaning out the heart. Shrove is the past tense of shrive, which means to confess sins and to have sins absolved. Priests would ring shriving bells to call pancake-laden parishioners to church to confess their sins—perhaps starting with their gluttony! During the Reformation, many Protestants, especially my English Puritan ancestors, dismissed Lent and Shrove Tuesday as superstitious Catholic observances aimed at earning God’s favor through human works. Thus, strict Lenten observance declined among English-speaking people. But the palate proved mightier than the Puritans. Most Britons didn’t want to give up pancakes—even if, without an austere Lent, there wasn’t any real reason to use up all the eggs and milk. Eating pancakes was reason enough for a party. To this day, people all over Britain and in scattered Anglophone countries eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. But with the underlying religious motivation largely gone, the occasion is now more commonly known as Pancake Tuesday. And what a pity. Without the “Shrove” in Shrove Tuesday, it’s just another Tuesday, but with more calories. I now live in England, and the last two years I’ve been asked to give talks on the “real meaning of Shrove Tuesday” to students at Cambridge University. Holding Shrove Tuesday pancake feasts is as a low-key—though definitely not low-carb—opportunity to offer simple hospitality and share something of the Christian message with friends and neighbors. Call it flapjack evangelism, if you will. Of course, I feel a bit silly as an American reminding native Brits of the meaning of their holiday. But, for me, the situation is similar to American Thanksgiving. Reducing Shrove Tuesday to Pancake Tuesday is like calling Thanksgiving “Turkey Day.” Pancakes and turkey are delicious—though probably not together—but eating them loses spiritual and cultural meaning without the shriving and the thanksgiving. Just as American Christians are fond of hearkening back to the original godly purpose of the “First Thanksgiving,” so too we can recover the Christian underpinnings of Shrove Tuesday—as part of the Lenten preparation for Easter. Lent is to Easter what Advent is to Christmas. Lent gets us in the “Easter spirit,” and helps us appreciate that Easter is theologically more significant than Christmas—even if contemporary Western culture gets it backward.
Christians don’t worship a baby who stayed in a manger. We worship a Savior who died for us and rose again that we might, through him, have victory over sin and death. He is risen, so we can be shriven. The season of Lent focuses our hearts and minds on this wonderful truth. And it all begins with pancakes. The quaint and seemingly anachronistic feast of Shrove Tuesday helps us transition from the everyday world to a time of preparation for the most important day in the Christian calendar—and the most important day in human history.
'Cause a job will give them the confidence and skills to stop waging murderous jihad against Jews, Christians and even other Muslims? Definition of naive. It's about an ideology, not a 9-to-5'er!
(First part applies to previous post; this discussion starts @ 3:29)
FNI: State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said on MSNBC that the U.S. cannot "kill our way out" of the war against ISIS, bringing up job creation as a long-term solution to stopping the terror army.
"We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them, so are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them, we cannot kill our way out of this war," Harf said. "We need, in the longer term, medium and longer term, to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs."
"We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies, so they can have job opportunities for these people."
Laura Ingraham said on "Fox and Friends" that the Obama administration's strategy in the fight against ISIS is growing "increasingly untenable."
She pointed out that many of the people who have joined ISIS were actually middle class and upper middle class citizens who were employed and had plenty of opportunities.
"This is an insult to all the people in the world who are actually poor and are not blowing people up and not targeting Christians," Ingraham said. "This is a religious war. The rest of the world is waking up to this and there's one person ... who doesn't get this, and it's the President of the United States"
Ingraham asserted that Obama and people like Harf are hurting the cause of destroying evil because they refuse to call it what it is.
Morons or, again I wonder, something more sinister afoot?
NEWSFLASH:Murderous jihad IS their job! And they seem to revel in it...
Not so fast on that unconstitutional executive amnesty. A federal judge who understands the separations of powers and that a president can't just make law?! The Lawbreaker-in-Chief won't be happy about this...
WashingtonTimes: A federal judge late Monday halted President Obama’s deportation amnesty, ruling he overstepped his powers in trying to grant legal status and “benefits and privileges” to millions of illegal immigrants, in a stunning decision that chides the president and throws the White House’s plans into disarray just a day before applications were to be accepted.
The White House said it will appeal Judge Andrew S. Hanen’s decision, but it’s unclear whether the case could reach the circuit court in New Orleans or even the Supreme Court before Wednesday, which is when the Homeland Security Department had planned to begin accepting the first applications under the new amnesty.
“The DHS was not given any ‘discretion by law’ to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the DHS itself labels as ‘legal presence,’ ” Judge Hanen wrote in issuing an injunction. “In fact, the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed. The DHS has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions. These changes go beyond mere enforcement or even non-enforcement of this nation’s immigration scheme.”
In the immediate sense, the ruling will become a major part of the debate over homeland security funding that has roiled Capitol Hill, with Republicans insisting Mr. Obama’s actions were unconstitutional and should be halted through Congress’s spending power, and Democrats backing their president by filibustering to block funding for the Homeland Security Department altogether.
The ruling doesn’t mean those illegal immigrants are going to be deported immediately — indeed, Judge Hanen said they are likely not to be deported at all under Mr. Obama, who had set “priorities” putting them in little danger of ever being kicked out of the country, even without the formal amnesty.
The judge said Mr. Obama does have the right to set those priorities, but said it is likely a step too far for him to have set up a proactive program to grant them other benefits.
Maybe this will inject more solidity into Boehner's spine! (If only the same could be done for McConnell) This fight is far from over, but a positive legal step towards the rule of law nonetheless. Now if we can get some legal acknowledgement that enforcement of existing law is an essential part of the solution!
On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show: Texas federal judge Andrew Scott Hanen deserves our praise for standing up to President Obama's lawlessness. He figured out Obama's game, to turn things upside down so fast that courts couldn't catch up until it was too late. Hanen, with support from 26 states, stopped Obama's executive amnesty in its tracks. Meanwhile, Congress couldn't shut down the Department of Homeland Security even if they wanted to. Over 80% of DHS employees are considered essential personnel, and would continue to work if a government shutdown were to occur. Despite this, John McCain, Jeff Flake, and the rest of the knee-jerk Republicans will buckle because of a Washington Post editorial. By funding Obama's executive amnesty now, they'd be undermining a Federal court decision.
