Job 37:2-6:
‘Listen closely to the thunder of His voice,
And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth.
‘Under the whole heaven He lets it loose,
And His lightning to the ends of the earth.
‘After it, a voice roars;
He thunders with His majestic voice,
And He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.
‘God thunders with His voice wondrously,
Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.
‘For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’
Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative:By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying ‘millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.’
Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller ‘The Purpose-Driven Life.’
‘For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority,’ the statement said. ‘Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough.‘”
Take that to mean, “We have stopped listening.” Thankfully, clearer minds in the evangelical community are witholding support.
Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, “Global warming is not a consensus issue.” Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.Their letter was addressed to the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of churches and ministries, which last year had started to move in the direction of taking a stand on global warming. The letter from the 22 leaders asked the National Association of Evangelicals not to issue any statement on global warming or to allow its officers or staff members to take a position.
E. Calvin Beisner, associate professor of historical theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., helped organize the opposition into a group called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. He said Tuesday that “the science is not settled” on whether global warming was actually a problem or even that human beings were causing it. And he said that the solutions advocated by global warming opponents would only cause the cost of energy to rise, with the burden falling most heavily on the poor.
Amen to that.
From theosebes:
Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1) Pizza delivery guy
2) Detasseler
3) Satellite flyer
4) System engineering drone
Four Movies I Could Watch Over & Over
1) Casablanca
2) The Four Feathers (w/Alec Guiness)
3) Raising Arizona
4) Galaxy Quest
Four Books I Could Read Over & Over
1) Any Patrick O’Brian
2) Ender’s Game
3) The Final Battle (C.S. Lewis)
4) LOTR
Four Places I’ve Lived
1) Hudson, Illinois
2) West Yarmouth, Massachusetts
3) Diyarbakir, Turkey
4) Dhalgren, Virginia
Four TV Shows I Watch
1) Numbers
2) Iron Chef
3) Iron Chef American
4) Mythbusters
Four Websites I Visit Daily
1) Drudge
2) Current Update of Kilauea Volcano
3) Astronomy Picture of the Day
4) Llama Butchers
Four Favorite Foods
1) Chicken Divan
2) Barbecued Pork
3) Miso soup at Akasaka’s
4) Chicken Katsu
Four Places I’d Like to Be Right Now
1) Kwajalein
2) Retired
3) Portsmouth, UK
4) Flyfishing the South Platte
So can we finally put the global warming nonsense to bed?
From UPI NewsTrack: “Scientist predicts ‘mini Ice Age’
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 7 (UPI) — A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a ‘mini Ice Age’ in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
The coldest period will occur 15 to 20 years after a major solar output decline between 2035 and 2045, Abdusamatov said. Dramatic changes in the earth’s surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun’s energy output and ultraviolet radiation.
The Northern Hemisphere’s most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.”
Consulate Library Use Blasted:
By PERRY SWANSON THE GAZETTE
The Colorado Springs Gazette
The Pikes Peak Library District risks helping illegal immigrants by letting the Mexican government use one of its buildings, state Rep. Dave Schultheis said. The district has offered free use of a room in its Sand Creek branch Saturday for officials from the Mexican Consulate in Denver to issue passports, identification and other services.
‘This event is a maneuver to obscure the fact that this local government is potentially aiding those in this country illegally,’ Schultheis said in a statement issued Friday. ‘The library should not place itself in that position.’
A library official on Monday dismissed the allegation. Spokeswoman Dee Vazquez said the library allowed free space to the Mexican Consulate on two occasions last year. The Mobile Consulate events also take place around a vehicle parked outside the library, she said.
The library frequently provides space for nonprofit groups and other agencies that offer public services, Vazquez said. ‘It’s business as usual for the library district, nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we’re concerned,’ she said.
Schultheis’ statement said federal law prohibits helping, assisting or encouraging illegal aliens. He said Monday that wasn’t meant to suggest the library was violating the law.”
Technorati Tags: Colorado Springs, illegal immigration, Pikes Peak Library
Tags: Colorado Springs, illegal immigration, Pikes Peak Library
Just to keep things in perspective, here is what He said in Psalm 2:
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Do we need more evidence of the fallacy of human evolution? As I’ve chewed over the situation surrounding the Great Cartoon Riots, it’s become clear to me that there’s no evidence of moral or social progress apart from that imparted by God. From the whiny petulance of Danish newspaperists to the immature “kill them all” response of the islamists around the globe, there is just no evolving happening here. It’s not a free speech issue, it’s a respect issue.
Perhaps I could understand if the Jyllands-Posten was acting in response to Islamic treatment of Jews or women or minorities, but it’s not. It’s simply mockery of religion, in this case Islam. The editor of France Soir (later sacked over the issue) said he had republished the images in full to show “religious dogma” had no place in a secular society.
Now there’s a healthy, evolved attitude.
On the other side, people have died in protests from Afghanistan and Indonesia to the Sudan and Somalia. Buildings and numerous flags have been burned. (By the way, where did the muslim world come up with so many Danish flags to burn so quickly?)
All of it points to a picture of natural man as described by Thomas Hobbes, “worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
The antithesis of this mess is clearly spelled out by Christ, who said, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Now that’s an evolution.
BBC NEWS has piece on demonstrations in Afghanistan:
“Hundreds of people took part in the morning demonstration in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, in a second day of protests in the city.The province’s director of information, Hamraz Ningarhari, told the BBC that three people were killed, and a policeman and a number of other people were injured.
Demonstrators shouted ‘death to Denmark’ and ‘death to France’, and called for diplomats and soldiers from both countries to be kicked out of Afghanistan. Both France and Denmark sent troops to Afghanistan as part of international efforts in the US-led ‘war on terror’.
‘They want to test our feelings,’ protester Mawli Abdul Qahar Abu Israra told the BBC. ‘They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and to their newspapers,’ he said. “
I think he answered his own question.
Europe has obviously become openly hostile to religion, organized or otherwise. The Danish paper Jyllands-Posten has been joined by quaking journalists across the continent in ridiculing the “prophet of Islam”. Muhammed certainly had issues, as does the alleged religion of peace, but does that give Jyllands-Posten license to mock them? The euro-Journos are acting pretty schoolboyish, daring each other to shake a stick at a rabid dog. I think they are so gleefully focused on ridiculing religion that they don’t think it possible (or relevant) that someone could take offense.
Truth be told, the cartoons were pretty tame compared to those shown in muslim papers. The folks at Honest Reporting.com share a random sampling of cartoons taken from muslim papers. HR is admittedly pro-Israel, but they are fairly even-handed.
“Not a week goes by in the Arab world without a “political” cartoon portraying Jews as either blood-suckers, Nazis, or the indiscriminate killers of Palestinian children.A major theme in Arab cartoons is the blood-loving or blood-thirsty Jew. In today’s Arab world this image of unbridled hatred has mutated into the alleged quest for Palestinian blood.”
