My Night With Chuck Colson

"Character is not taught, it is caught" -Chuck Colson. I heard this man speak tonight and had the privilege of speaking with him for a good amount of time. He spoke in detail about integrity. This is a man who went to prison, got released, then went back to serve the least of these. He is arguably one of the most powerful men in the world, and his life right now is truly something special. It really spoke to me. He spoke of the problems in this country, and how they are a result of secular humanism and moral relativism. There is a right and there is a wrong. Be a role model the people in your life, stand up for what is right. Never back down and comprise on principles and morality, never surrender.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWHnE0CmbqU

Michael Johnson shreds on the Guitar

Young conservative musician, Michael Johnson, drops this track on youtube.

Facebook Debate

A friend from Dartmouth Facebook chatted me late tonight and we decided to debate about liberalism and conservatism. This is what we came up with. *Conservative is me, and liberal is him*

12:39am (Liberal)
everything aside, lemme ask you something

12:39am (Conservative)
ok...

12:40am (Liberal)
do you worry that some of the tea party people that support you music wise the tea party in particular

12:40am (Conservative)
that wasn’t coherent to me
i don't understand the question

12:41am (Liberal)
yeah it wasnt
i got caught in a convo n then didnt realize i typed that idiotically
il restart
do you worry that some of the tea party supporters, are hiding behind the issues that they dont know much about because they are more worried about race?
not all obviously
but ive watched some footage of tea party rallies

12:43am (Conservative)
lol not at all
i think people that are concerned about race are a lot (not all) of people that vote for Alvin Greene and Obama
I would argue that a lot of people voted for Obama voted for him because he was black than people who didn't vote for him b/c he’s black

12:45am (Liberal)
i wont lie, there obviously is a race factor that helps obama with some people

12:45am (Conservative)
a lot of people
95% of black females voted for obama


12:45am (Liberal)
yeah, but id argue that most of the time black females vote democrat anyway

12:45am
i have been to several tea parties and have seen a multitude of people from many different cultures

12:45am (Liberal)
obviously not 99%
i always said if a black man got the democratic nomination he would win

12:46am (Conservative)
there are a lot of "tea party" candidates running in the mid-term elections that are black
look specifically to Lt. Col. Allen West
(who is the man btw, should run for pres in 2016 hopefully)

12:47am (Liberal)
ill look him up
but then what do you think is the reason that there are so many people ignorant to the real issues but so adamant in the fact that its this administrations fault

12:48am (Conservative)
bc it is this administrations fault in their opinion
he had a mission to "fundamentally change America"
new health care, new business regulations, quadrupled debt, cap and trade
things they believe that are detrimental to growth in this country

12:49am (Liberal)
but most of these people don’t have any clue what the actual policies are

12:49am (Conservative)
i would argue tea party people have a much better understanding of spending and debt than the average democrat
you believe a majority of those people show up because they hate black people?

12:50am (Liberal)
ok spending and debt aside, most dont understand what the health care bill is at all
i dont know if it's a mojority

12:50am (Conservative)
this is where we come to an ideological stand off

12:50am (Liberal)
id say it most likely isnt a majority
id say a minority in fact
but id say that it is at least a part.

12:51am (Conservative)
i believe the average citizen is capable of understanding those issues, most liberals (not necessarily you) believe a group of intellectualized elite are the only ones capable of understanding things
i don’t think it's too hard for people to realize that when you subsidize something you get less of it

12:52am (Liberal)
what i think needs to happen is in terms of everything political, we need to intellectualize the country so everyone understands everything

12:52am (Conservative)
the govt subsidizes tobacco and makes smoking cheaper, then wants us to pay health insurance for people who smoke 3 packs a day
a private business would never do something so counterproductive
^ to your last point, fighting teachers unions and privatizing education would be a good start

12:53am (Liberal)
ooh with my dad as a teacher ill have to disagree with that wholeheartedly
but

12:54am (Conservative)
is ur dad a good teacher or a bad teacher?
ur a smart guy, he’s probably a smart guy

12:54am (Liberal)
yeah he taught for 35 years at a public high school and is now a professor at a community college

12:54am (Conservative)
i imagine he is a good teacher. Does he not think he should be compensated for the hard work he puts into his students as opposed to teachers who just throw in a movie and don't do anything extra to help kids

12:55am (Liberal)
he thinks the teachers that do that should be fired
however, there isnt enough young people that are bright that are willing to teach

12:56am (Conservative)
teachers unions make it practically impossible to fire bad teachers

12:56am (Liberal)
bc it isnt lucrative enough
so in return you get people that are average usually

12:56am (Conservative)
maybe with incentives for better teachers people would try harder?

12:56am (Liberal)
possibly
but how would you rate a god vs bad teacher?

12:56am (Conservative)
definitely, if you know u can slack and get away with it why wouldn’t you?

12:56am (Liberal)
good*
thats where the issue on this is

12:57am (Conservative)
it's all about incentives in my opinion
reward good teachers penalize the bad
you will find a lot of people rise to the occasion when given the chance

12:58am (Liberal)
i dont disagree with that
but how do you decide who's doing well opposed to not doing well

12:58am (Conservative)
their kids test scores
and there are some other things as well

12:58am (Liberal)
what tests?
standardized tests?

12:59am(Conservative)
idk what tests, i know some people think those tests are racists (/sarc)
it should be improvement based i think
beginning and end of the year kind of stuff
I don't claim to be an expert here but I am sure some people out there have good ideas
this isn't my area of expertise

1:00am (Liberal)
fair, but then you are teaching a kid how to teach a test in order to get paid more yourself rather than teaching a kid important things in life
or feeding into their interests
here's my opinion on how to get better teachers

1:00am (Conservative)
i do know the system is completely backwards though

1:01am (Liberal)
id say offer higher pay to start
and begn attracting the best minds out there

1:01am (Conservative)
we spend 10x as much money on less intellectually gifted children as we do the gifted
then we are paying the crappy teachers more and they can’t get fired
i don't believe throwing money at the problem helps
it is structurally based
we have spent an incredible amount of money in the last 50 years, test scores have not gone up
dropout rates are still depressingly high

1:02am (Liberal)
agreed but th money has been thrown everywhere but the teachers

1:02am (Conservative)
not true
they get free health care for life, a 3 month vacation, and benefits for their entire families
a lot of private citizens see that as a good gig

1:03am (Liberal)
i meant recently thrown
bc those are nice
but the base salary is low
and teaching, especially in poor urban areas ranges from stressful to dangerous at times

1:04am (Conservative)
agreed
imagine if parents had the ability to send their kids anywhere they wanted
location meant nothing

1:04am (Liberal)
education is a tough subject but probably the most important one for the countrys future

1:05am (Conservative)
there won't be a future if we keep spending money like this
so i would respectfully disagree and say we need to get a balanced budget

1:05am (Liberal)
there is open enrollment
you can send your kid pretty much wherever you want

1:06am (Conservative)
Chris Christie (R) and Mayor Booker (D) are doing some good things together in NJ to try and fix their broken school system
not true

1:06am (Liberal)
and im not sure what good a balanced budget does if the rest of the country suffers

1:06am (Conservative)
kids have to go to certain public schools
otherwise no one would choose to go there

1:06am (Liberal)
naw i was in public school
and went to the one i wanted to

1:06am(Conservative)
i went to public school too

1:06am (Liberal)
not the one i lived in the district of
you just have to fill out the paperwork

1:07am (Conservative)
i am pretty sure the way it works not anybody can do that

1:07am (Liberal)
and explain why you want to go somewhere else
i lived in sheffield lake ohio, and went to lorain city schools

1:07am (Conservative)
shouldn't everybody have that opportunity? than when no one wants to go to bad schools, those people will figure out how to make it a better school to keep their jobs
or they will higher better teachers or whatever

1:08am (Liberal)
i mean if open enrollment isnt nationwide it should be
i dont disagree with that

1:09am (Conservative)
do you think Obama is spending too much money?
not necessarily Obama, but congress and then Obama allows it I guess

1:10am (Liberal)
yes and no
because
i feel like there are alot of places that need money infused because so much of the economy in those areas is dead
places where peoples pentions are gone
where there is nowhere to work

1:11am (Conservative)
do you think the government does a good efficient job of spending people's tax dollars?

1:11am (Liberal)
and cities are literally dissapearing

1:11am (Conservative)
I personally believe a lot of that money is wasted and goes to earmarks and wasteful backroom deals

1:12am (Liberal)
in honesty i do wonder alot of times where the money goes because it doesnt seem to help where its supposed to

1:12am (Conservative)
the cities that are disappearing I would argue are the ones that have been dominated by liberal policies (Detroit for example)
exactly
787 billion $ stimulus

1:13am (Liberal)
but i dont think the answer is spend less... i think its spend smarter

1:13am (Conservative)
they could have given 100 grand to every single unemployed person in this country
instead it goes to "govt programs"
butt load of people lost jobs, taxes will increase, debt increases
horribly inefficient in my opinion

1:14am (Liberal)
well giving out money to individuals would have been a temporary and overall bad solution too
and the things that killed detroit werent local
but really i know this is where our divergence in political beliees begin
so im not going down that road

1:15am (Conservative)
i wouldn’t advocate for giving the money to those people, just an analogy to put in perspective how much money that was and how ineffective it was

1:15am (Liberal)
fair enough
but back to my original point about what i think needs to be done
and what we can possibly do
we should make a feature ill call it
me jmath you and ruf
sit down and really explain all of what we believe and why

1:17am (Conservative)
we all want the same thing

1:17am (Liberal)
then try to explain the issues

1:17am (Conservative)
have different ideas on how to get there

1:17am (Liberal)
agreed

1:17am (Conservative)
that's why it's so frusturating to hear ignorant people calling us greedy, selfish, etc

1:18am (Liberal)
i agree... same happens opposingly to us
so why not really educate everyone
we should do it... study the issues and explain them
same with current policies
and film it all
throw it on the internet

1:19am (Conservative)
i think again it comes down to belief on the strength and capableness of the individual
every issue stems from that
i think less government more individual

1:20am (Liberal)
i think in some issues less, i some issues more

1:20am (Conservative)
in every area of life, politicians gain more power by increasing the size and scope of government, so anyone with the aim of increasing govt aims to give themselves more power

1:21am (Liberal)
i see the logic in that theory, but i dont know if i applies all the time though id say it does some of the time
because certain times the government has to have regulations or else things get out of hand

1:22am (Conservative)
I'm out though. early Bible study tomorrow morning.

1:23am (Liberal)
ight, think about what i was talking about though in terms of educating people
because i really think it could help out

1:23am (Conservative)
I encourage you at some point to go to a Tea Party. See if the tone is Anti-Obama-because he's black
or anti big government and out of control spending
i think you would be surprised

Ivy Grad Publishes 2nd Book

Travis Rowley's first book, Out of Ivy, revealed how a liberal Ivy, Brown University, turned him into a committed conservative. Providence Journal editor Robert Whitcomb wrote, "Mr. Rowley's description of incidents on Brown's politically correct campus are by turns hilarious, infuriating, and intriguing as he provides one of the sharpest and most detailed inside looks at elite higher education seen in a long time, Tom Wolfe's 'I am Charlotte Simmons' included."

Mr. Rowley's new book released last week does not attack Brown University, but the last 70 years of Rhode Island's left-wing activists, unions, and Democrats who have propelled RI into bankruptcy and achieved the 10th highest total state and local tax burden in the country. When asked what he hopes to accomplish, Mr. Rowley says, "Nothing short of a wholesale power shift will satisfy me... My political experience, coming out of Brown University, has been with the far left. And I think that has put me in a unique position to be able to point out the radical elements that have infiltrated Rhode Island government." Mr. Rowley is currently the chairman of the "oldest political youth organization in the United States" RI Young Republicans.

The Original 4th of July Essay

There is only one 1,337 word essay in history that has been celebrated with a national holiday for the past 234 years. This essay of essays, is our Declaration of Independence.

In practicality, the Declaration firmly announced the American colonies a country of her own, free from British sovereignty, and justified the separation by laying out the injustices inflicted on the Colonies by their former mother country. In doing so, this remarkable document cemented natural law into written word, laying out the intrinsic rights of Man as the foundation of our freedom, and building into our government a respect for individual liberty.

It is unquestionably a brilliant essay, and it was written the way it was written for a reason – and it was not because the Founding Fathers were diehard conservatives in their political or their personal lives. Clearly, some of them were not. But regardless of their own political opinions or personal lifestyle choices, our Founding Fathers recognized that the surest way to protect the liberty of American citizens was to protect each person’s right to any lifestyle or life philosophy.

Accordingly, for 234 years and counting, individuals in this country have been free to choose their own way of life. Liberal philosophy or conservative philosophy, the Declaration of Independence acknowledges the fundamental freedom of every human being to think for themselves and act as they see fit (providing, of course, that they don’t infringe on anybody else’s rights). Because of this freedom, we can conserve our wealth or donate it to the poor. We can educate our children as we see fit or send them to be educated by others. We can practice our religions privately, publicly, or not at all. We can pay for our own healthcare or choose to buy health insurance. We can choose to eat what foods we want, live in what housing we want, drive what kind of vehicle we want, and choose what kind of job we want.

In our extraordinary country, we truly have the best and the freest opportunity of any country in the world to live, choose our decisions, and prosper. The choice is ours. Our Founding Fathers realized the value of this freedom as they declared our independence with a brilliant essay on the 4th of July, 1776.

Shh, Someone Might Hear Democrats Talking About Healthcare

You never hear the Democratic leadership talking about healthcare anymore. Why is this? Shouldn’t the passage of the healthcare legislation – heralded just a few short months ago as “a historic victory” - be an accomplishment worth bragging about? Have confidence in us! We passed the healthcare bill – we can handle this next problem without trouble!

Clearly Democrats don’t think it is in their best interest to broadcast their accomplishment since we rarely hear one of them mention healthcare.

Could it be that Democratic leadership realizes that trumpeting their healthcare “victory” has the complete opposite effect from the upswing of approval they were counting on? Ironic, isn’t it? Instead of inspiring America’s confidence in the ability of Congress and the Democratic leaders, discussion of healthcare stirs and motivates the American People even more deeply to protect themselves and hold Congress accountable for the laws they pass.

The Democrats in Congress and President Obama must find that inconvenient.

Even with the silence, 63% of the American People want to repeal the healthcare bill. For the past month the numbers have only been getting higher. Imagine if the Democratic leadership wasn’t avoiding any mention of the subject.

So don’t expect bragging any time soon. The healthcare bill is a political loser and the Democrats know it. There is nothing they can do about it either, without sacrificing their own agenda. Of course they aren’t willing to do that. They paid almost any price during Obama’s candidacy for approval, but meddle with the core of their agenda now that they have power and their limit has been reached. There is no price they can be paid to sacrifice that, even at the cost of support.

Surely they won’t be quick to throw in America’s face how they refused to consult with the People and how blatantly we and our opinions were ignored during the passage of the healthcare bill.

Maybe someday they will realize that if they act in the interest of the People and listen to what the People say, they will receive the support they then deserve. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t count on it. Until then, they will continue to underestimate the intelligence of the People by believing that the least said about healthcare, the sooner the breach of trust with America will be mended.

Waterboard that Terrorism?

The libs love to claim that following the will of Jesus and participating in war (and actions necessary in war such as waterboarding) are a contradiction. What would Jesus have to say about it? Let's look at one of my favorite sites to discover. Similar to Serious C, this guy is Seriously Christian. Check out his site here

I am a Sunday School teacher and I gave my class the following question to answer: Is the US justified in declaring war on Osama bin Laden, and what is the Christian response to a call for war? Are we to be pacifists? I would be interested in you take on this issue.

Todd

Hi Todd,

Thank you for writing and for giving of your time and talent to help educate others in a strong Christian worldview. As we come into these uncertain times, a solid foundation will go a long way in understanding how we as Christians should react to the various issues we're facing.

Our first reaction to war is usually one of repugnancy. It entails massive death and destruction from all parties and we can see how this type of "problem solving" is outside of God's perfect will for humanity. However, God's perfect will for humanity was for man to never sin. Since man has a sin nature, it may not be possible to live in a world where wars don't exist. Let's try and unravel what position the Bible takes in respect to Christianity and war.

Before going too far, we need to establish first that the Bible makes a distinction between individual moral responsibility and governmental responsibility. As free moral agents, Paul tells us "See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people." (1 Thess 5:15) Individual Christians should show Christ's love to those who personally wrong them. But this does not mean that if someone physically threatens us we should not fight back. Nor does it imply that we shouldn't use physical force to aid another person being threatened. In such situations it would be a greater sin to stand by and do nothing that to help a person who is in danger.

The same type of responsibility God requires of governments. They are specifically put in a position of power to protect their citizens. Paul shows us this in Romans 13: 3-5 where he writes,

"For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake."

Note how the Scriptures say that the ruling body "does not bear the sword for nothing." In other words, governments are to function in a guardian role, both dealing with crime inside its own borders (such as the police) and also any enemy who would attack its citizens from outside.

This brings up another concept that in recent years people have forgotten; that there exists such a thing as a just war. The Romans passage above is very clear on this point. A government can function as an avenger of God to bring His judgment upon them. The Old Testament is replete with examples of this, but I'd like to look at a more modern situation.

In World War II Hitler was bent on conquest of Europe. He also sought to exterminate the Jewish race from the face of the planet. Those allied against Hitler and his plan were just in fighting him and his armies. To ignore him is morally the same as a police officer who does not try to stop a mugging attempt. There were good reasons, moral reasons to go to war in that instance and it would have been more immoral for the United States not to get involved.

The question that we must ask, then, is does our current situation fit the criteria for a just war? Is the United States justified in using its considerable military might against bin Laden and other terrorists? Let's look at what we know already.

1. The terrorists have attacked United States property and people before in the bombings of our two embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole.
2. They have intentionally killed thousands of innocent civilians for no other purpose than to try and hurt us.
3. There will be a continuing threat of danger to U.S. citizens as it is highly likely the terrorists will try other acts in the future.

Taken together, I believe that it is the God-given responsibility of the United States government to protect all its citizens by declaring war on those who would seek us intentional harm. I believe that Romans 13 commands the government to not shirk its role of protector and guardian of all those who fall within its care, just as a police officer should not shirk his role of protecting those who fall within his care. To ignore such a dangerous threat to our population would be a bigger sin.

I hope this has helped clarify how Christians should approach this very sensitive topic. Although this is a very emotional issue, I think that we can thoughtfully discern the will of God and how He would want us to proceed. Please let me know how your class goes. I'd be interested in their reactions to this question.

Read more: http://comereason.org/soc_culture/soc005.asp#ixzz0m8HCqwzu


This guy is legit. He argues for a contradictory free bible Atlas Shrugged style. If you find a contradiction. Check your premises. You will find one of them is wrong.