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“Anger, be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus’ anger, doomed and ruinous, that caused the Akhainans loss on bitter loss… Begin it when the two men first contending broke with one another-- The Lord Marshal Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, and Prince Akhilleus.” (Homer, Illiad, Book 1, line 1, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, “Everyman’s Library”) A humble man, a decent man, a man truly interested in his nation might, upon receiving near unanimous correction at the hands of the judiciary, take a moment and reconsider. Is there even a scintilla of a possibility he may be wrong and they may be right? But not this man. Oh, no. It is all just a huge personal power-struggle for him. It is all ego, all ‘me,’ This man’s hubris knows no bounds and will not be restrained. This man's hubris-induced-anger is going to bring this nation to its knees--just as that Gadianton robber, Bannon, has planned and intends. This man and his crimes will make Richard Nixon look like a choir boy. Hubris: “a foolish amount of pride or confidence.” “Conceit,” “haughtiness,” “pride,” “self-importance,” “egotism,” “pomposity.” SEE: "that man."
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From 2005 to 2015, over 300,000 Americans were killed by guns; 94 were killed by jihadists.
'Nuff said? From that man's fear mongering intent on feeding the public's irrational fears, we can see just how psychologically effective terrorism is. But when it comes to killing, no one does it like Americans. In this thing, at least, America's exceptionalism is truly unmatched. I am going to offer a little free advice to the American press. First, a little history.
In 2003 when the duplicitous and warmongering administration of George W. Bush foolishly sent the U.S. military into Iraq under false pretenses, Iraqis received their information concerning the American invasion from one, “Bagdad Bob.” Even as the American bombs dropped all around, and American forces entered the city, he assured his audience with a straight face that there were, in fact, no American military personnel anywhere to be seen… and even if there were, well, the elite Iraqi Republican Guard had them in full-fledged retreat. Eventually, much to the dismay of the comedic world, the U.S. military turn off the power, thus silencing poor old “Bagdad Bob.” I suggest that the American press turn off the power to their cameras and mics, and leave the press room each time Sean Spicer—A.K.A., “Bagdad Bob”—stands to defile the presidential pulpit by conducting one of his absurdist misinformation sessions. Please stop subjecting us to his sickening and smug hubris and his incessant and damnable lies. These people have no shame. You people in the press, as you were during the election, are being used. Made fools of. Putty in that man’s filthy hands. Putting your addiction to profit before the interests of the nation, you gave free airtime to that man’s clown show—and yes, unlike my fellow Americans, I turned you off every time you did it. Day, after day, after day, you gave him and his lackeys airtime during which they spouted their lying mumbo jumbo. It was then, and is now, not enough to have them on and attempt, a time or two, to challenge the constant flow of their insidious lies. You should have then, and must now, cut off the mic and pull the plug on their air time. Stop it. Grow up. Get a spine. Please, please be the liberal press so many falsely think you are. Report, report, report on the evils of this administration. But do it without giving them airtime. What Spicer is doing is not a news conference. It is a cynical absurdist and vile misinformation campaign in which you are manipulated by a brilliant demon behind the curtain, while the nation is placed in peril. What you have done, and continue to do is not good journalism. It is embarrassing puppeteering for the sake of destructive profiteering. Yes, I am aware that FOX—or, better, RBC, The Republican Broadcasting Company—an organization without conscience, and filled with cynics only interested in ratings and mammon, will keep the lights on and broadcast “Bagdad Bob’s” lies. And, yes, they will, make a ton of money murdering the truth and telling the American people, as Bagdad Bob did for Iraqis, exactly what they want to hear and nothing but what they want to hear, so help them God. And yes, much of the American public will enjoy every drop of slop that they splatter into their disgusting trough. Though you may not experience the joy of hearing the single of money in your pockets, at least you can have a clear conscience, and begin to make amends for your past sins. Dare we ask; is it unpatriotic to ask: WHY SHOULD AMERICA WIN? WIN AS NEVER BEFORE?
Are we better than other of God’s children? To what is that man appealing with this message? Is he appealing to that part of us that wishes to be a blessing, as Abraham’s children are called to do, to the rest of the world’s disadvantaged and oppressed? Is he even inviting us to win so that we can be a blessing to our own poor? “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’” (“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus) I fear that this is not his appeal. I fear that he is appealing to something base and selfish and ugly. He is appealing to the covetousness that has always been part of the American DNA, and has grown in recent years into a cancer. He is appealing to the idolatrous demon that resides within each of us, and drives us to gobble up every scrap of materialistic crap that we can lay our grubby little hands on. He is appealing to the brutish and violent side of our fallen nature; the one that justifies our pushing everyone aside so that we can be the first to feed from the trough. Are we still, after all these millennia, really nothing more than animals? Monkeys led by the latest and most aggressive silver back? His is not a voice calling us to Zion, pleading for us to “go ye out of Babylon.” NO! His is a voice tempting, seducing us to leave Zion in order to defile ourselves with “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And many Americans are licking it up. If I had a penchant for prophesy, I would predict that the Republican house and senate will end up “repealing and keeping” (I know it makes your head spin doesn’t it!) so-called “Obama-care,” while loudly declaring that they have won a dramatic victory against the forces of evil.
The regular visitor may have noticed an unusually long period of inactivity on this site. I have, here, been very quiet for the past several weeks. The outward quiet is the result of an inner disquiet—a disquiet brought on by a disheartening unannounced LDS policy in regard to gay men and women and their children. It is a disquiet that has stymied and immobilized me, silencing and bringing my muses to a halt.
In my disquiet I have counted. I have counted to ten—counted to ten over and over and over again—fearful of what may come out if I give voice to my disquiet. . At some point, after I have counted to ten many, many more times, I may very well give voice to my disquiet. But, not yet. The wound is still too raw.. For now, the Christmas Season is upon us. I am so very grateful for the Christmas Season; a Christmas Season that seems, this year, divinely timed to quiet my disquiet and reawaken the muses; a Christmas Season that whispers its invitation to do as I have always done—take refuge in, hide in my Jesus; a Christmas Season during which we reopen the pages of this site, and, together, follow the invitation of the Psalmist, “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8); a Christmas Season during which we bear witness to the majesty that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to whom be glory forever and ever. After a couple of week's labor, today I finally finished constructing and doing some initial populating of my new website, "Pondering the Scriptures." My hope is that visitors will be informed, inspired, and, at times, even challenged. I hope it is all done humbly, charitably, without dogmatism or polemic (all too prevalent in this impersonal environment of cyber space). There are a few, a mere handful perhaps, certainties that I hope will be affirmed and strengthened through this website. After that, there is an immense cosmos of endless possibilities. POSSIBILITIES!! This site is as much about imagination as "reality." Who knows how often we shape reality by imaging?
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