The Great Separation

Representative Conyers Says It's Pointless to Read the Health Care Bill.

Say what!!? - You must be joking with me. A US House of Representative member says there's no point in reading the Health Care bill because it is too long and you will need two lawyers to interpret it?

See it for yourself:

To which I ask, WHY PASS IT THEN!!!????

Good grief. This is taxation without representation. What's more it's asinine.

If a bill is so large and so convoluted that someone with a highschool education can't understand it then it shouldn't be passed.

Uzbekistan: "Joy" Children's Holiday Camp Under Criminal Investigation.

They hate you because of me - I just received this press release from Forum 18, an organization which monitors and promotes religious freedom.

This report is about the religious persecution by the government which a Baptist organization is currently undergoing.

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org>

Uzbekistan's Baptist Union is facing criminal charges brought by Tashkent
City Prosecutor's office for allegedly unlawfully teaching children
religion, and for supposedly misusing their property in a resort area as a
summer camp, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Local Baptists are very
concerned by the claims and think that Pavel Peichev, the Baptist Union's
Chair faces huge fines, the confiscation of the property, imprisonment, or
some combination of these penalties. No officials from either the state
Religious Affairs Committee or Uzbekistan's Ombudsperson's office were
willing to discuss the case with Forum 18 on 28 July.

The criminal charges brought by Tashkent City Prosecutor's are against the
Baptist leaders in charge of "Joy," a children's summer camp run in
Bostanlyk in the Tashkent Region, which belongs to Uzbekistan's Union of
Baptists. The charges relate to the Criminal Code's articles 145 part 2 and
190 part 2 point b and accuse the Baptists of:

- violating the rules of arrangement and maintenance of children's health
camps;

- violating the fire-prevention rules in the period 2006-2009;

- unlawfully using Baptist property for a children's camp;

- selling vouchers for the camp in cash;

- and "involving under-age children in religious organisation as well as
teaching them religion against the will of the children, their parents or
persons substituting them".

Bible School Raided by Chinese Public Security Bureau.

They hate you because of me - I received this press release today from China Aid:

JIANGSU – A Bible school run by Vice-President of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) Pastor Shi Enhao was raided on July 16 at 11:30 a.m. (Beijing time) in Suqian city, Jiangsu province. Pastor Shi and 11 students were taken to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) office and questioned. They were all released around 5 p.m. the same day. The students were sent back to their hometowns and warned not to come back for Bible study. The school is part of a Bible education school run by CHCA, and has been in existence for several years without any problems from authorities.

It's hard to imagine being told that you can't go to Bible school. Can you imagine here in America the FBI or say the Homeland Security Agency raiding your Bible study class on Wednesay? And then they tell you not to return again? Would you disobey that order?

China Aid offers this course of action if you would like to speak against this action taken against the school:

Contact the Chinese embassy on behalf of the Bible school and ask that students be allowed to study the Bible and worship freely. 
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
3505 International Place, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 495-2000
Fax: (202) 588-9760

NOTE: If you are a citizen of another country, please click here to find the contact information of the Chinese embassy in your own nation http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/2490/.

For further information on Christian persecution around the globe the Christian Persecution Blog is a good source.

Thought on Hate Crime Legislation

Coming quickly with four horseman - Last night, as I lay my head down to sleep following a busy weekend and a good Bible study at church on 1 Peter 4, a thought came to mind about hate crime legislation. And no, it's not that it's a redundant term since crime involves hate of someone or something, like law.

My thought was:

Hate crimes legislation is designed not to enable justice among the people but instead it is designed to engender fear and produce inequalities.

The times in which we find ourselves.

Is your watch wound? - I increasingly get the sense that there is something coming. I don't mean to seem melodramatic or alarmist. But events seem to be winding up. Things are happening from earthquakes to plane accidents with a frequency that is almost becoming numbing.

Add to this a sense of discontent flowing like an underground river in our fellow man across the globe and I think we are perhaps on the cusp of a change. I'm sure that this change will be all that good given the level of socialism/fascism our country is now courting and actively engaging in.

During my quiet time with the Lord that I strive to have every morning I was reading from Provers sixteen and verse nine made me think about these things with some hope.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

It also made me think about my own life, how a couple of my big dreams have yet to come to fruition. But in that last part there is a measure of hope in the knowledge that the Lord of the universe has determined my steps.

Something to dwell upon.

Sega's Robotic Pet Cat

Meow-oddity - Some news items make me want to scratch my head and ask, "Whaaat?"

For those of you who don't want all the hassle of pet care:

Sega Toys' Dream Cat Venus is sure to be your favorite fake pet ever

Dream Cat Venus -- as this one's been dubbed -- has sensors in its forehead, and touch sensors in its body so that it can react when petted. Apparently more lifelike than previous version Smile, Venus also purrs when certain words are spoken. Sega Toys says this is the right choice for those who just don't have the time for a real pet. We're also pretty sure it's non-allergenic (unlike real felines), cheaper to own (doesn't eat or need to see the vet), and totally won't mind if you head out on vacation for three weeks at a pop without telling him. We'll still feel the guilt though. This kitty's going to be available starting July 30th in Japan for about $110. 

I suppose our government might think about about getting some of these robotic cats for all those elderly women we are reading.

Our Government Needs a Reminder.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton