Whether you like it or not

One of the libertarian proposals to building and maintaining roads without having government manage them using taxpayer money is for private companies to build and maintain them using the money from tolls. People usually scoff at the idea, but what do you do when the state asks you to do both?

Citing confidentiality, Transportation Secretary Nathan Hayward III couldn’t say whether motorists, already paying $3 at the Newark tolls, would pay more if a partnership deal is finalized.

If the state moves forward, the I-95 overhaul would be the first venture under the Public Private Partnership Act of 1995, which was passed to help the state finance big road projects. The same law allows the state to act with minimal legislative oversight and public input.

The plan is being considered because DelDOT doesn’t want to use so much of its cash to fund one project when it has so many others it wants to work on.

Because of the secrecy surrounding the plan, it is unclear how the public-private I-95 deal might work.

DelDOT turned to the private sector for help 15 months ago, soliciting proposals that would have businesses bear some of the immediate costs of the I-95 project in return for a long-term payback. Citing confidentiality, the state won’t disclose how the partners proposed being repaid.

A similar situation happened in New Orleans. The second side of the Greater New Orleans bridge was built using funds from tolls. According to the plan, the people were promised that the tolls would be removed after it was completed. The bridge has been completed for a long time and tolls were taken right up until hurricane Katrina.

Doing time

Slave labor:

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

How can this be the case? As always the answer lies in human greed: "The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself..."

There are better ways for handling crime and punishment, as libertarian Murray Rothbard has pointed out, which have benefits for both victims and criminals.

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

I always liked that line. It's from Kindergarten Cop, with Arnold Shwarznegger, a movie about a cop trying to locate a mobster's son in a elementary school. "Who is your daddy and what does he do?" is the way he roundabout asks each kid to find out what their father does for a living without giving his motive away. The questioner is leading the questioned to get the desired answer without having the questioned to realize it.

Yesterday, I got the opportunity to talk with a couple of pastor friends of mine after playing some basketball (my team won all four games). My pastor was lamenting that the schools were doing away with some Christian and patriotic holidays. His argument was that this was Christian nation (I've argued against this before) and that those days should remain as they are.

I asked him what exactly was stopping him from keeping his kids home on those days. The answer is, of course, that absolutely nothing is keeping him from doing so.

Some might argue that the child would fall behind other children, but even in the worst cases it would be easy enough to find out what the other kids did that day and go over it sometime later. School don't usually teach any more than two to four hours of material a day so that shouldn't be a problem.

Imagine if all parents did that on those days. The school, realizing that it can't drag the children into class, would just close the school for that day.

So take the day off for what you want, when you want, and whatever you want. Who's going to stop you?

Breaking the world

Slipping towards Gomorrah:

A slippage in manners is obvious to many Americans. Nearly 70 percent questioned in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll said people are ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago. The trend is noticed in large and small places alike, although more urban people report bad manners, 74 percent, then do people in rural areas, 67 percent.

Society always has a way of dealing with these types of attitudes...eventually.

My wife hates it, but I like to exact my own revenge on those who lack the civil manners that accompany a well rounded society. In one case, I was trying to get into the Cracker Barrel while carrying some delicate material, but one guy and his wife decided to stand right in doorway so no one else could pass. I politely waited 10 seconds, gave my wife a "tsk, tsk" and gently dropped my knee into the back of his own and pushed right by as he dropped. I heard him mutter something as I walked away slowly, but he didn't do anything more than that.

Did the guy learn anything? Maybe not, but at least he realizes that a lack of manners will have consequences.

On many other occasions someone will knowingly jump in front of me in a long line. Usually, not directly in front of me, as I can hold the kind of blank and emotionless stare you'd only find on a dangerous maniac, but in front of someone else. Sure I could say something directly to them, but I prefer to speak badly about them like they aren't even there just the lower lifeforms surviving on the scum of societies refuse.

However, if someone is polite by all means I will shower with manners of a Victorian gentleman.

Think of the children

Allen Iverson on the NBA dress code:

"It sends a bad message to kids. If you don't have a suit on when you go to school, is the teacher going to think you're a bad kid?"

What lovely art!

On the Mayans:

“We now know that Maya warfare was intense, chronic, and unresolvable…” and that the sadness Stephens detected long ago was due to some very nasty customs indeed:

“Captives were tortured in unpleasant ways depicted clearly on the monuments and murals (such as yanking fingers out of sockets, pulling out teeth, cutting off the lower jaw, trimming of the lips and fingertips, pulling out the fingernails, and driving a pin through the lips), culminating, sometimes years later, in the sacrifice of the captive in other equally unpleasant ways such as tying the captive up into a ball by binding the arms and legs together, then rolling the balled-up captive down the steep stone staircase of a temple.”

Mayaball!

Civilizations can produce wonderful things. Heck, I'm just thankful for running water. To think that your civilization could be summed up as a monument to bloodlust leaves a lot to be desired. Ok, I'll grant you that the conquest of the Americas might have destroyed some or many of the artifacts which one could regard with a certain awe, but I doubt it would help much.

Pyramids and blood. That doesn't look too good the archeaological resume.

Feeling up the Electorate

Homer is pulled over for having a broken tail-light. Though nothing
seems wrong until Chief Wiggum smashes it with his baton.

Homer: You know, one day, honest citizens are gonna stand up to you
crooked cops!
Chief Wiggum: [suddenly afraid] They are? Oh, no! Have they set a date?
-- ``I Love Lisa''

If the people of a fark.com comments section can be used as a barometer for a nation's feelings about it law enforcement, then the current crop of cops have nothing to look forward to.

Should cops continue to act in ways to their detriment they'll find themselves as occupiers in nation full of guerillas. Coincindentally, if I have to defend cops here with comments like "but not all of them are that way" or "my best friend is a cop and he's one of the good guys", then that also says something about the current attitude towards them i.e. that is the exception rather than the rule.

Meaningful

VS

There is only one force on Earth capable of preventing Sen. Hillary Clinton from winning the White House in 2008 - and her name is Condoleezza Rice.

That is the thrust of a new book by former Bill Clinton adviser-turned-nemesis Dick Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann. A copy was obtained by the Daily News.

In "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race," Morris and McGann paint a potential presidential catfight as a struggle between good and evil - and New York's junior senator is wearing the black hat.

If you are choosing your candidtates on the basis of their gender, then I can only assume that you have nothing meaningful to offer.

What's next? Candidates based on their musical tastes, clothing style, or number of heads?

Zaphod Beeblebronx for el presidente 2008!

Looking for love

Vox Day has postulates about the future of America:

Is motherhood instinctive or learned behavior? Both religion and science tell us that it is instinctive, much to the distaste of the feminist ideologists, who have never been overburdened by a solid grasp on either. But one need only watch the way in which a young girl mothers her stuffed animals to see the maternal instinct at work.

This is not to say behavior that contradicts these instincts cannot be learned, only that the individual will always possess a certain level of instinct – and, for the purposes of this discussion, it does not matter if those instincts are instilled by evolution or a Creator God – that must be overcome by years of propaganda and social pressure.

The pastors and I had a talk about contrceptives before church a few weeks ago. It boiled down to what exactly was God's thoughts on putting children off until whatever. We came to the conclusion that God was definitely and definitively against it.

If we are to "go forth and multiply", "subdue the earth" we can hardly do it willout a sizeable human population.

Still, the couples I know who are now trying to have children in their early thirties are finding that waiting brings as much trouble as it does benefits. In other words, we do our best to "turn off" our reproductive systems for as long as we like, then when we are "ready" to turn it back on we go straight to God when their is a problem because we hesitated.

Why should God make it work, when you totally ignored Him to focus on what you wanted?

Center of Attention

A couple of years ago I attended a seminar by a preacher named Irvin Baxter in which he said that the U.N. would move to Jerusalem, the so called "international city". Apparently, he had been saying this for some time because of the scripture in Zachariah 12:2-3: "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces..."
He goes into greater detail here.

I'm sure I thought it was quite unbelievable at the time that something like that would or could happen, but I filed it away anyway. However, in a recent speech to the U.N. General Assembly Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that the U.N. should be moved to Israel.

Why would a Venezuelan president encourage moving anything to Isreal much less the entire United Nations?

I understand that people have been burned before by these so called men of God, who proclaim that the endtimes are happening on such and such a date, then turn out to be totally wrong, but given statements such as these one has to begin to wonder.

Newspapers are for the dogs

Apparently, this is the state of the news paper.

High school teacher Mark Franek says most of his students think that a newspaper is something you use to clean up after a dog or put beneath an open can of paint. "They get most of their news from the Internet or from cable shows such as John [sic] Stewart's The Daily Show." TIME FOR A LESSON FROM THE KIDS?: "Navigating simple websites presents a challenge," says Franek, who is in his mid-30s. "There is too much on-screen commotion, and I still click on things that can't be clicked. I much prefer newspapers that I can hold and fold - and occasionally save."

News really doesn't teach anything, contrary to popular opinion. What doesn John Stewart enlighten people about? Foolish beaurocrats and bumbling media whores. What have you learned? Nothing. Tv as a medium of education is slow. One chapter in a good history book can teach you more about modern day subjects than a thousand hours of John Stewart. The names change, but human nature remains the same and in understanding that, the principals of history and the news becomes simple comparison.

Burn baby!

Burning for you

There's outrage in northern Minnesota after firefighters allowed a man's mobile home to burn.

Carl Berg had failed to pay the 25-dollar annual fee required for fire protection for homes outside International Falls city limits.Berg says he couldn't afford the fee or fire insurance. He says he lost everything in last month's fire.

We had orders not to stop the fire because the guy didn't pay. Maybe they should ask the local mafia to come in for fire protection. At least you know what you're getting.

Grown men don't...

I was making fun of my wife's music one day and just tearing it to pieces. I wasn't really listening, but I thought the music was cheesy so I started busting it up. Driving to work this morning I caught it on the radio and thought I'd at least give it one listen. By the end of the song I could feel a tear welling up. I knew exactly what was going to happen during every verse, but the dang thing beat me. That's right Tim Mcgraw! Don't take the girl indeed!

The song is so simple, yet this is where it gets you. You'd like to make fun of it, but it gets you any way. Just like the geeky kid who makes you laugh so you don't beat him up.

So dang you Tim Mcgraw!

Under Cover

Our church started a new Wednesday night class from a John Bevere video series entitled Under Cover. In it, Bevere deals with the Christian mandate to obey the higher powers. He begins with the call from the book of Romans chapter 13. If you've ever been a naughty boy or girl then you've probably heard these verses quoted often.

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil.

He correctly points out that rebellion is a form of witchcraft, but I'm unsure if he would agree with my logic. (1 Sam 15:23)

If he'd thought it out thoroughly he would realize that America was established by witchcraft. Don't agree? Well, let's follow John Bevere's reasoning.

If indeed, John Bevere was correct in his interpretation of Paul's admonishment to obey their Roman rulers means that we should do likewise with ours, then it has several reprecussions. Namely, this country is not a Godly country at all. Its very foundations were based in rebellion, ergo witchcraft. The English colonies rebelled against their God-given rulers, going so far as to war against them. In doing so they were practitioners of witchcraft.

However, since I'm French this doesn't apply to me because it was the English who were fighting against their rulers in rebellion. Since the French weren't under the authority of the English it is perfectly acceptable for them to war (if they were Christians it wouldn't be) against non-rulers. When Napolean sold the French part of America in the Louisiana Purchase, we (French colonists) merely transferred over, thus earning our good graces with the Lord.

Aint logic fun?

I don't particularly like what Paul says in Romans 13, but since it wasn't just Paul iterating the concept I have to take it into account. 1 Peter 2:13, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme, or unto governors."

Okay, so if we are to obey the state in all ways, except those that would have us do contrary to scripture, then we must follow them out fully. I assume there is an excepting law since the second most important commandment affects everything.

• If a state orders you to war, you must decline. Christians are commanded to love our enemies and to bless those that seek to harm us. (Mat 5:44, Luk 6:27) What the state and unbelievers do is entirely different.
• You must not accept welfare, even if it is lawful and except in cases where it is given freely. Money given to you by the state, which is money taken from another against their will, is stealing.
• If the state passes a law to take your church land through eminent domain, you must give it. How will you fight it if you cannot disobey and engage in a physical beatdown.

There are more of which I can't think of at the moment, but I'm sure that we will encounter them soon enough.

Many preachers and pastors like to use this as a call for obedience to them, but Paul seems to be clearly talking about government.

Rom13

2 "resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God"

If he was talking about a God ordinance he wouldn't specifically say otherwise.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

When preachers start jailing people giver me a call.

6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute [is due];

Taxes baby! There ain't no taxes in the church.

Well, that's my two cents. I'm talking with some Bible scholars about and I'll post wherever that goes.

More Information

Update!

It appears here is the real reason people are unable to see Alex Jones website, along with some others as well.

Broadband News

Both Roadrunner and Cogent users are complaining about a level 3 decision to turn off public peering with Cogent, likely because of an ongoing peering and contract spat. As a result, many broadband users can't hit websites such as Photo Bucket or The Drudge Report. Customers who call in for support are being told that the network partners are working on a resolution, but aren't given an ETA.

Some additional information is available on the NANOG newsgroup, where Cogent is blaming Level3, and Level3 is blaming Cogent. The official statement from Cogent:

"As of 5:30 am EDT, October 5th, Level(3) terminated peering with Cogent without cause (as permitted under its peering agreement with Cogent) even though both Cogent and Level(3) remained in full compliance with the previously existing interconnection agreement. Cogent has left the peering circuits open in the hope that Level(3) will change its mind and allow traffic to be exchanged between our networks. We are extending a special offering to single homed Level 3 customers.

Cogent will offer any Level 3 customer, who is single homed to the Level 3 network on the date of this notice, one year of full Internet transit free of charge at the same bandwidth currently being supplied by Level 3. Cogent will provide this connectivity in over 1,000 locations throughout North America and Europe.

However a large number of users heap the blame for the cutoff squarely in the lap of Cogent, who has a bit of a sketchy history when it comes to peering arrangements. One of our users hits it cleanly on the head.

So the real reason may be simply: money.

Old Maxims Make True

Remember the old maxim to believe something only after it has been officially denied? It seems that Alex Jones' site prisonplanet was censored by AOL-TimeWarner and some other British based media companies as proliferating hate material. Anybody who has ever been to his site will know there is no hate material to be found. Most of the material there is taken from major media outlets with some conspiracy (not as much as you might imagine) mixed in for thought provocation.

Time Warner's ISP, Road Runner, has blocked access to all of Alex Jones' flagship websites across the entire United States.

We were first alerted to this problem early this morning when several locals in Austin reported that they were unable to access Infowars.com, PrisonPlanet.com or Prison Planet.tv.

Austin Time Warner had previously shut down access to our websites on a whim, claiming they were 'hate material' but in all cases had quickly restored them after receiving complaints.

You may not like what ideas the guy has, but blocking him for hate is just reaching beyond the believable.

Free Market not so free

Gulf Firms Losing Cleanup Contracts

Companies outside the three states most affected by Hurricane Katrina have received more than 90 percent of the money from prime federal contracts for recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, according to an analysis of available government data.

The analysis by The Washington Post takes into account only the first wave of federal contracts, those that had been entered in detail into government databases as of yesterday. Together they are valued at more than $2 billion. Congress has allocated more than $60 billion for the recovery effort, and the ultimate total is expected to rise far higher.

But already the trend toward out-of-state firms is clear, despite pledges by administration officials that federal funds for Katrina relief will become an engine of local economic redevelopment. Among the contracts analyzed, 3.8 percent of the money went to companies that listed an Alabama address, 2.8 percent to firms in Louisiana and just 1.8 percent went for Mississippi contractors. Taken together, that amounts to less than $200 million.

A relatively small area of the US is devastated by a natural disater. After the disaster, people are still functioning and working who live in or near the affected areas. The government comes in throw it money around only to have none of it land in the pockets of those who are most willing to work for it.

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows public money to be spent on something like this, never the less if it is going to be spent they might as well do it right. To say the least, this will actually remove jobs and savings from the area thus devastating it even more.

Due Consideration

Here is something to consider, from the Federalist papers no less. I think it does far better to explain, than any of the media whores do, about what a poor choice Harriet Miers is for the Supreme Court.

"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity. In addition to this, it would be an efficacious source of stability in the administration."

The Federalist #76

A look at a book: The Real Heretics

David Bercot is an interesting fellow to say the least. A former attorney and Anglican priest he doesn't mind looking at what he knows might be wrong about his beliefs and exposing them. His main interest is aligning modern day Christian with the thoughts of the Patristics, the early church fathers.

In church services everywhere we never really realize how many subjects are neglected at the pulpit. While salvation should always be the center and mainstay, learning what the Bible says about war, abortion, communittee, etc is also important. In Bercot's book Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianity, he reminds us what ideas of the early church fathers we have either neglecte or missed entirely. Is he correct in every assumption and conclusion. No, but who is?

What he gives us is a brief, basic, and insightful look our modern through the eyes of our early church Apostolics.

30 Seconds

Let's see you ride The War of the Worlds in 30 seconds!

News baby!

"The mayor of New Orleans says the city has to lay off as many as 3,000 workers.

Mayor Ray Nagin says he's worked for weeks to try to find the financing that would allow him to keep the city workers on the payroll. But he says in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that isn't possible."

Let's be honest, he was wanting to keep them on the payroll even though they are probably not working, have not worked in weeks, and will not be able to do anything for the next couple of months or maybe even longer. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of them were simply bureaucratc paper pushers.

Remember, there is no right in the Constitution or anywhere that says you have a right to a job or to be paid for doing anything. This is just a different type of welfare.

If these are indeed genuine bureaucratic paper pushes then we should see an upsurge in general productivity.

Religious Indoctrination

Some college students find they are having trouble with handling their shallow beliefs:

"Each summer more than 1,200 of them come from around the country to attend a two-week workshop on how to defend their faith during college. They listen to lectures on creationism versus evolution, abortion, homosexuality, Christianity and the media, euthanasia, and postmodernism, among other topics. While the workshop is sometimes referred to as a camp, that moniker is misleading: On an average day, students sit through six hours of classes. This is not about horseback riding or leather tooling; this is serious business.

Spend a couple of days at the workshop and it becomes clear that, for many of these students, college is fraught with peril. There is the pressure to party, to drink, to have sex. There is also the subtle pressure to conform to a non-Christian worldview. There are biology courses that ask students to accept evolution, which workshop organizers and most of the students reject as untrue and ungodly. There are literature courses that see any text, including the Bible, as open to multiple interpretations. And there are philosophy classes that view absolute truth as nothing more than an illusion."

How is it possible that at the beginning of the nation and even some time before it, man through more perillous situations than what these kids are dealing with, were able to build Christian colleges and schools?

Know the truth: colleges and school both public and private need you more than you need them. Each school gets paid for each kid a certain stipend from the government. The more kids they have the more stipends they get. If more and more people remove thier kids, they'll begin teaching the basics and not their affirmative action science and political courses.

However, if there is such a desire for alternate places to embark into education then we would create them, but the truth is that Christians and others don't consider it that important to pay the price, namely tuition and time.

Conflicting Realities

I hate when this happens. How many really died? Simple question, should be simple to answer.

Loss of bodies adds to grief of many families

"Cataldie, a former medical examiner, acknowledged that identifying and releasing bodies has been painfully slow. Of the nearly 8,000 bodies taken to the morgue, he said, just 32 have been identified positively and another 340 have been identified tentatively.

Because many bodies decomposed in heat and floodwaters after being left uncollected, Cataldie said, some victims never will be identified and their cause of death never known."

La. Search for Katrina Dead Ends at 964

"The search for Hurricane Katrina victims has ended in Louisiana with a death toll at 964, but more searches will be conducted if someone reports seeing a body, a state official said Monday."

Miers/stealth, bad movie, bad nominee

"What does it tell us that the White House, in selling her to the party and press, is pointing out that Miers "has no paper trial"? What does that mean, other than that she is not a Rehnquist, a Bork, a Scalia or a Thomas?"
Pat Buchanan

Buchanan is entirely correct. Liberals and Democrats should be fuming over a nomination, not graciously accepting them. I fear that this time, the lack of a "paper trail" is not for the enemies of freedom, but for us instead. What other reason could there be? If we knew the truth we would be adamantly furious, but since we know nothing about this woman we are at a loss.

Indeed, this stealth nominee is to trick the masses not the committee.

RetroC begins again

We moved into our new church last month.

THE GOOD
I think what's great about it is that it used to be a gym. What we are using as the sanctuary has one full wall covered in mirrors, which can be distracting. All four walls are painted different colors: red, blue yellow, and green. There is a lap pool, great any kind of water ball you can imagine.

The youth now have place where they can have a separate service. In the room are three cable TVs in working condition. Our idea is to have some Playstations and Xboxs hooked up to them soon. We're also got enough room for a pool table, ping-pong table, and whatever else we can think of.

A no-remodeling-needed nursery for kids and infants. With the current influx of children this is probably the biggest God-send we could have hoped.

To help with funds, the church has decided to rent out the adjacent buildings. The faster this thing is paid off, the faster we'll be free to help the communittee more abundantly.

THE BAD
The sanctuary mirrors have got to go. There is a ton of painting and remodeling to do. It may not be cheaper to build from scratch, but moving in does have it's problems. The low ceiling can make the place very cramped if there were a large enough crowd in the sanctuary and sound could be better because there seems to be some electrical interference somewhere.

CONCLUSION
Blessed beyond all we could hope for and achieve on our own. The best thing is that it's not typical. Right when you walk in the doors you can't help but realize that just maybe we are a little closer to living the Apostolic church.

Getting Farved

I was following the Packers-Panthers game last night before I decided that it was pretty much and thought it better to hit the hay, then I look on this mornings sports page only to find that Farve nearly led his team for a comeback. Makes me sick. I watcht the first two hours when nothing much happens and when I turn away it gets really exciting. Story of my life.

Cool

That was really simple.