Lessons for Living

Tony Marino Hangs a Lantern

OregonLive reports:

House candidate tells all in letter

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama confessed snorting cocaine in high school, and Portland mayoral candidate Sam Adams came clean with his bankruptcy.

But Tony Marino, a Tigard Republican running for the Oregon House, may be the top candidate confessor with an open letter distributed to newspaper readers listing all his flaws: bankruptcy, multiple divorces, a federal tax lien and a degree from an online university that’s not accredited in Oregon.

Way to go, Mr. Marino. Your openness is commendable. (I plan similar openness before too long in my own “campaign.”)

But five divorces?!! 😯

At least he’s been married to Number Six for at least ten years.

If you look at the second paragraph in my selected quote above, you’ll see “listing all his flaws.” But if you read the full article, you’ll also note that not all his flaws are listed. What’s with that? Don’t they make writers and reporters and editors like they used to?! 🙄

I wonder when Tony will fess up to substitute hosting for Michael Savage. (Or was it Bill Cunningham?) I’m sure he’ll just deny it. So would I.

News to Start Your Day

We start in Texas:

Texas defends separation of polygamist sect kids from moms

State officials Tuesday defended their decision to suddenly separate mothers from many of the children taken in a raid on a polygamist ranch in West Texas.

Texas Children’s Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the separation was made Monday after they decided that children are more truthful in interviews about possible abuse if their parents are not around.

When state troopers and child welfare officials seized 416 children from the compound, 139 women accompanied them on their own and had been allowed to stay with the children until Monday, when they were driven back to the compound.

Only women with children under 5 could stay at the San Angelo Coliseum where they were being held.

[…]

Authorities raided the sect’s ranch more than a week ago in response to allegations that underage girls were forced to marry older men.

About three dozen of the women who returned to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch spoke out Monday, after 11 days in temporary shelters. They said in interviews that police surrounded them Monday and gave them a choice between returning home, or relocating to a women’s shelter.

“It just feels like someone is trying to hurt us,” said Paula, 38, who like other members of the sect declined to give her full name. “I do not understand how they can do this when they don’t have a for sure knowledge that anyone has abused these children.”

[…]

The state is accusing the sect of physically and sexually abusing the youngsters and wants to strip their parents of custody and place the children in foster care or put them up for adoption.

[…]

Officials said the investigation began with a call from a young girl who has yet to be located by CPS. The women in the sect said they suspect she may be a bitter ex-member of the church.

The FLDS practice polygamy in arranged marriages, sometimes between underage girls and older men. The group has thousands of followers in two side-by-side towns in Arizona and Utah.

The church has repeatedly fought because of its lifestyle before. Men, women and children have been swept up in raids that took place in 1944 and 1953.

I’m still amazed CPS can get away with this. And I think I’m even more amazed there hasn’t been a greater outcry “out there.” Maybe this country is further gone than even I imagined.

(The rest of my comments and other news selections are below the fold.)

Read it all

Honoring Sacrifice

Michael A Monsoor
Michael Monsoor — dead, for his friends

President Bush gives Medal of Honor to Navy SEAL:

Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor had fast thinking to do when a live grenade came out of nowhere to bounce off his chest: Take the clear path to safety that he had but his comrades didn’t, try to toss it safely away, or throw himself on top of it.

With barely an instant’s hesitation on that Iraqi rooftop, Monsoor took the last course, sacrificing his life to save the men around him. For that, President Bush on Tuesday awarded him the Medal of Honor.

In an East Room ceremony, Bush presented the nation’s highest military honor to Monsoor’s still-grieving parents, Sally and George Monsoor.

[…]

After a long day of back-and-forth engagement and evidence that the enemy was closing them off, Monsoor and the two other SEALS moved to a confined outcropping of the roof for a better lookout position. An unseen insurgent lobbed a grenade, which hit Monsoor in the chest and landed on the floor in front of him. He yelled a warning, but quickly saw that his fellow SEALS, not positioned near the exit like he was, wouldn’t be able to get clear in time. Monsoor fell onto the grenade just as it exploded, absorbing the blast with his body and dying from the injuries about 30 minutes later. Others suffered shrapnel wounds, but no one else was killed.

The Garden Grove, Calif., native, was only 25 years old.

The Parents and the President
“Mr. and Mrs. Monsoor: America owes you a debt that can never be repaid.” — President Bush

A President weeps for Monsoor
a President weeps

So, Christian, would you give your life for your friend?

Your Master stated plainly, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

And how did you give your life for a friend yesterday?

How about for your Master?

He, His kingdom, and His righteousness come first, you know!

(Oh — click here to read about another type of self-sacrificing hero and warrior.)

The Olympic Torch(ing)

Unless you’re roosting in a cave near Atlanta or Atlantis or Atlantica, you know the Olympic torch is wending its way from Greece to China.

Well, this morning I thought up a “new” term: Olympic torching. But I figured I hadn’t really coined anything new. Good ole Google confirmed I was right regarding one of those statements.

Before I go further, I’ll take two paragraphs for an important disclaimer. I know I should be doing something else. I know I have customer emails to answer, Web pages to fix, and new products to add. I know I have taxes to file, bills to pay, and insurance to investigate. I know I should be writing a business newsletter, updating business records, and posting to my business blog. I know I should be spraying the garden, trimming the trees, and splitting wood.

But when the should‘s in life demand all of my time, I put my foot down (maybe even both). Once a while. And pull my nose away from the grindstone on the butcher’s block. And do something unnecessary. Such as posting to this blog. Or doing a sudoku puzzle. Or playing a game. Once in a while. Such as now.

Disclaimers and excuses aside, how about a little Olympic math?

Of the modern Olympics, which was the bloodiest?

Munich 1972, thanks to the Palestine Liberation Organization or some other Palestinian-Arab outfit. They beat the Israeli team.

How long ago was that?

36 years already.

And what was one of the new things at the Olympic Games 36 years before that one? Munich 1936.

That was the first Olympics that featured a torch as they use it today. And had some other new features apparently, including something to do with priests and rituals and mirrors and stuff.

What else about the 1936 Olympics? Adolph Hitler. You know, that guy that had something to do with Nazis and camps and holocausts. His team beat the Jewish team also. (But as a people, they outlasted him in the long haul.)

So that was the minus-36 side of 1972. And now we are on the plus-36 side of 1972.

I suppose the Tibetans are feeling torched by the current Olympic hosts. What else will China 2008 bring? Will there be an anti-Israeli tie-in somehow?

Meanwhile, you ought to read this article.

As Hank the Cowdog would say, “So there you are.”

I’m Sorry

When it isn’t enough . . . .

Living I’m Sorry

I know two people, each with a parent who made a choice that severed the parent-child relationship. In one case, a father disappeared from his son’s life for a decade. In the other, a mother chose to stay with the man who was sexually abusing her daughter. All four of these people are now professing Christians, and both parents have asked for forgiveness. So these two relationships should be fine now, right?

Christians are commanded to honor our parents, after all, and further, to forgive those who trespass against us. Something I’ve learned about sin, however, having committed more than my share of it, is that it scars those around us, sometimes even cripples them. If I run over you with my car, it doesn’t matter how repentant I am — you’ll still be in that wheelchair. Likewise, if I abdicate my responsibility as a parent, though I may grieve over it in later years, my repentance doesn’t produce the trust and communion that parents and children are supposed to have. Understandably, neither of these parents is close to his child.

But there are significant differences, and as I observe these relationships unfold, I am learning something about repentance and healing. In one case . . . .

Please read the rest of the article at the link above.

It is excellent!

Beauty and the Beholder

I read this article in World‘s print version. I’m quite impressed by it:

Acquired taste
Beauty is more than in the eye of the beholder

Christians have to battle the mindset that insists “there are no absolutes.” But Christians often do not realize what the absolutes are that they need to defend. The classic thinkers spoke of three kinds of absolutes: the true, the good, and the beautiful.

Often, Christians reject the claims that truth and morality are relative while agreeing with the postmodernists that beauty is relative. But to think that beauty is nothing more than a subjective preference — unconnected to standards that originate in God Himself — is to buy into a foundational principle of today’s anti-Christian worldview.

The Bible tells us to set our minds on “whatever” is “excellent” and “of good report” (Philippians 4:8). Beauty does involve personal taste, but our tastes need discipline. Growing in taste means learning to take pleasure in what is objectively good.

Christianity 101: God defines that which is good. And that is absolutely so.

However, I was disappointed in what struck me as an apples-and-orangesutans comparison in the third paragraph from the end.

There is nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence in junk food, though if all you eat is sugar and French fries, you will be malnourished. Similarly, there is nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence in junk culture. But just as you need the nutrition found in a home-cooked meal, you need the cultural nutrition that comes from enjoying the best.

I submit to you that “there is nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence in junk culture” flies in the face God’s thoughts in Philippians 4:8 (which Mr. Veith even references in his third paragraph above!).

Christianity 101: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9) and “approve things that are excellent” (Philippians 1:10).

Despite that, I think you should read the entire article. (It has an interesting challenge regarding music.) Update, October 27, 2012: I see it’s now available only to subscribers; too bad.

Private
Above all, love God!