Midwest Ramblings 

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2005 in Prophecy

In a Church of God related matter I see Living Church of God’s recent Tomorrow’s World is another hair raiser. It starts out “The most horrifying time of death and destruction is coming within the lifetimes of most of you”. Apparently the lessons of 1975 and Prophecy along with the many times it was spoken with certainty that Christ was returning in your lifetime have been forgotten. Many of the people those words were spoken to are now either deceased or getting senior’s discounts. When I hear people say “ We never said that” I think, yes we did. I was there. I heard it. Unfortunately some continue to make the same mistakes. That is not to say the biblical prophecies of the end time should not be preached. They are there and they should be preached but no one can possibly say they are coming within any person’s lifetime. Could it happen in our lifetime? Possibly, but we can’t say that with certainty. Are we better than the disciples who thought it would happen in their lifetimes? All we accomplish with that is to bring ridicule and make God out to be a liar. What the motivation is to say that I don’t know. In some cases it probably is sincere. In some it is probably ego. In some it is probably the knowledge that proclaiming the end of the age is going to get more responses than a message on some Christian living topic. I am not necessarily singling out LCG. Other groups and people are guilty also. I just happened to run across it today. I wonder if that particular program was put out intentionally to coincide with Rita. I hope it wasn’t.

Bonds Chasing Aaron

Barry Bonds continues to climb towards Babe Ruth’s 714 and Henry Aaron’s home run record. In a way I was hoping he would not come back and the home run chase would be over. There is just something about a steroids enhanced player passing Ruth and Aaron that is wrong. Please don’t give me the there is no proof story. Of course vials of steroids haven’t fallen out of his pocket while running the base paths similar to the Vaseline falling out of Gaylord Perry’s pocket while sliding into home but anyone with their eyes open can see what has been going on. Take a look at pictures of him at 25 and take a look now. Compare his hitting stats during what is normally an athlete’s prime and after he turned 35. Then see how many other players have the same trend. Virtually none and I am willing to guess that any who do are probably within the last 10 years and part of the steroid crowd. I’m still not sure if he will catch Aaron. He could do it with a great year next year of a couple of subpar years. If he does catch Aaron though that is one record that will lose its importance.

Houston we have a problem

How would you like to be a Katrina evacuee in Houston staring at another whopper of a hurricane coming? I think I would be moving to someplace like Indiana. I'm waiting for people now to start blaming the feds for moving people to where they could be in the path of another hurricane.

No Thank You

So parts of New Orleans will be open soon. I wonder who will be brave enough to go to some of the restaurants and bars. Can you imagine going into those places, some of which had water several feet high full of sewage, dead animals, chemicals and dead people? YUCK! Who can be really sure proper clean up has been done? Anyone going in there is trusting the owners have sanitized the place. I wouldn’t be willing to take that chance.

The Speech

Between listening on the radio and watching TV I caught most of the president’s speech on reconstructing New Orleans last night. Still trying to digest a lot of it. It seems to have caused quite a bit of consternation from conservatives who see it as another big government project and of course most liberals who if Bush announced the sun were going to rise tomorrow would call him a liar. At first blush it does seem like a huge government project because, well it is. Sometimes we let ideology get in the way of the facts. The fact is that this is an unprecedented modern day natural disaster in this country. The federal government cannot simply say“ Hope it works out for you. Best of luck.” There is a role for government. The announcements of tax breaks, enterprise zones, waiving of some rules and the like are conservative ways of helping. Giving priority to locals when it comes to jobs and contracts down there is the smart way of doing it. Keep the money there. Help the displaced who want to return to get on their feet. At the same time assistance is being given to those who don’t want to return but rather start over someplace else. His direction that the feds will be providing most of the funds and that local government will be the ones responsible for reconstruction is part of the conservative philosophy of limited federal government. Of course the down side is that Louisiana and New Orleans has proven itself previously to be a cesspool of ignorance and corruption. Certainly there will be abuse and misuse of aide. It will happen and the federal government should have oversight and perhaps pass special legislation enacting laws carrying draconian punishments for the inevitable graft that will happen. Of course Alabama and Mississippi are part of this as well. People keep forgetting about them.

We are already hearing stories about the disaster relief debit cards turning up a strip clubs and the like. There are many reasons for poverty. A large one is stupid decision making. If someone is given a 2000$ card and they spend it at a strip club then tough for them. They were probably the same people making stupid decisions before the hurricane. I believe though that most people will use the aid properly and it is a better alternative than creating a bureaucracy to try to distribute every essential need.

Showing that every cloud does have its silver lining this has gotten Cindy Sheehan out of the news although today she is trying to get attention by calling for the military to get out of “occupied New Orleans and Iraq.” Please, go away, my head hurts.

I Pledge Allegiance

The 9th Federal Circuit ruling again dissing the pledge of allegiance couldn’t come at a better time. It only serves to highlight a runaway judiciary at the time a future Supreme Court chief justice is in the approval process. The Robert’s hearing is just for show. Short of him being found wondering the streets drunk while wearing women’s clothing he is going to be confirmed. The real fight will be over the next nomination. These hearings are showing though the utter idiocy of some senators. At least come prepared with some facts. While Roberts is there reciting case law, briefs and court rulings from memory some senators look like befuddled senile old men. The bad news for conservatives is that they are not learning much about him either and some have to be concerned that he is David Souter with a smile

A Tale of Two Cities

There have been a lot of comparisons about the response from 9-11 and hurricane Katrina. I don’t know you can really draw too many comparisons. Although 9-11 was horrendous the destruction was really in a small area of New York City whereas the hurricane impacted thousands of square miles. One comparison that can be drawn though is the leadership. Rudy Giuliani was out there obviously in control while the mayor of New Orleans was obviously overwhelmed. Another thing to keep in mind that at that time NYC was a city on the rise. The economy was humming and crime had been decreasing for years. New Orleans had the exact opposite trend. Crime had been on the rise. The police department was considered to be corrupt. The economy was poor. It was ripe for a societal breakdown. Once that happened it was all over but the chaos. It will be an interesting study 10 years ago to see what has happened with those that relocated and what the city of New Orleans looks like.

The more things change

The more things change the more they stay the same. The cast may change but the play is the same for the Cleveland Browns. This past game was awful. On the bright side they ran the ball well but the defense stunk. Looks like another long year

So much for a perfect season

Well, Texas knocked off Ohio State. At least it was a good game. Tressell finally pushed the wrong buttons with the quarterback rotation and the 50 yard field goal attempt instead of the punt. Even though they lost I would like to see more of these games from OSU and other schools. Hopefully they see the publicity and excitement that is generated. OSU gets a rematch next year and they also have games scheduled the next several years with USC and Miami of Florida.


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