The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
RT @Kimberlinunmask: “Out of 175,554 registered voters, 247,713 vote cards were cast in St. Lucie County, Florida, on Tuesday” http://t. ... 1 month ago
Palin/West for President 2012
Ted Cruz for US Senate (Texas)
Jamie Radtke for US Senate (Virginia)
Mia Love for US House (Utah 4)
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A thief pauses for a moment, before entering the inviting red doors1 of the local Episcopal Church. The air is cool, the nave dark and quiet, the setting solemn and contemplative. Looking around, he sees the parish priest, who is carefully dusting the altar rail, walks up to him very respectfully and says, “Father, I have my heart set on this really big score, an amazing heist, one which will allow my family and me to live comfortably for the rest of our lives on the proceeds. Father, may I have your blessing for this endeavor?”
Now, just what do you believe the priest would respond? Would he tell the thief, “Certainly, my son. Please, be seated, for I need to don my alb and chasuble and stole, and then we will begin the blessing.”
Or, does the priest say, “My son, that is impossible. The LORD has commanded us, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’”2
Perhaps it might be something different. Perhaps a young lady enters those red doors, and says to he priest, “Father, I am supposed to be a witness in a criminal trial tomorrow. I saw my neighbor’s son shoot that little boy across the street. My neighbor wants me to testify that no, her son didn’t shoot that little boy, and that I saw her son out back, minding his own business when the gunshot went off. Father, I’m so nervous about this; can you give me a blessing to help me get through saving my neighbor’s son?”
Does the priest say to her, “Of course, my daughter, I know how much this frightens you, and I have just the blessing for you to help you through this?” Or does he say, “I’m sorry, but the LORD has commanded us, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?’”3
A third scenario. Two young men step through those solemn red doors, and now the parish priest is at the altar itself, gently wiping away any dust which has settled there. The men slowly, quietly, but with determination, approach the priest, and say, “Father, please forgive our intrusion, but, you see, we are very much in love with each other, and we would like your blessing as we move in together to share our lives.”
Does the priest say to the two young men, “Well, of course, my children, God loves you and most certainly has a blessing upon your union?” Or does he tell them, “I’m sorry, my young friends, but there can be no blessing for this, for the LORD has declared such unions to be sinful.”4
The obvious answer, in each of the three scenarios, is that the good, educated and faithful priest would give the supplicants the second answer, for there is and can be no blessing by the church for anything which is sinful in the eye of the LORD. However, if you read THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL last week, you will remember that I addressed this issue, and it seems that, at least in the Episcopal Church, the obvious answer is not the correct one.
Episcopalians approved a churchwide ceremony Tuesday to bless same-sex couples, the latest decisive step toward accepting homosexuality by a denomination that nine years ago elected the first openly gay bishop.
At the Episcopal General Convention, which is divided into two voting bodies, about 80 percent of the House of Deputies voted to authorize a provisional rite for same-sex unions for the next three years. A day earlier, the House of Bishops approved the rites 111-41 with three abstentions during the church meeting in Indianapolis.
Supporters of the same-sex blessings insisted it was not a marriage ceremony despite any similarities. Called “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant,” the ceremony includes prayers and an exchange of vows and rings. Same-sex couples must complete counseling before having their unions or civil marriages blessed by the church.
Much more at the link.
This article is filed under the heading of Freedom of Religion on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL,5 and in the United States everyone is perfectly at liberty to believe anything he wishes. But freedom of religion and freedom of conscience do not somehow cover for dishonesty, and there is really no other way to describe this new position of the Episcopal Church. The Church states, quite formally:
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 236).
It is our foundation, understood through tradition and reason, containing all things necessary for salvation. Our worship is filled with Scripture from beginning to end. Approximately 70% of the Book of Common Prayer comes directly from the Bible, and Episcopalians read more Holy Scripture in Sunday worship than almost any other denomination in Christianity.
What the Episcopal Church says about its “Core Beliefs and Doctrines” is obviously not true; this new policy has put the lie to it. It is certainly understandable that the church, its bishops, its priests, and its people, would have a great deal of sympathy for those who are inclined to homosexuality. The church is supposed to have sympathy for sinners, for all sinners — and it is a standard Christian belief, across all denominations, that we are all sinners6 — and all of the Christian denominations hold that our sins can and will be forgiven, if we both ask for forgiveness and turn away from sin. In the well-known parable of the woman about to be stoned for adultery, Jesus shamed the crowd that was about to stone her, and they all left, and Jesus said that he did not condemn her, yet he did not come up with some blessing for adultery, but told her to go and sin no more.7 The good-hearted bishops of the Episcopal Church have just stood all of the teachings of Jesus Christ on their heads, and said to those for whom they have such great sympathy, we needn’t forgive your sins, because they aren’t sins anymore.
The Episcopal bishops are free, of course, to teach anything that they wish, but they have just lost the ability to call themselves Christians. You cannot teach something directly contrary to the Bible, and call yourself a Christian. They will persist in calling themselves Christians, but they are lying to you and, worse, they are lying to themselves.
_________________________________________ 1 – Traditionally, Episcopal Churches have red doors, though it is not actually a church requirement. As it happens, though I am not an Episcopalian, I do like the friendly and inviting look of red doors, and the doors shown in the illustration for this article are fairly similar to those on my house. 2 – Exodus 20:15 3 – Exodus 20:16 4 – Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 5 – Our host does not maintain that category on TRUTH BEFORE DISHONOR, and it is filed under Christianity on this site. 6 – For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) 7 – John 8:1-11
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Cross posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.
The US House of Representatives voted today to repeal ObamaCare, with five Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans. As I predicted, Harry Reid has declared the US Senate will not vote on the bill, just like Harry Reid prevented a similar House Bill from being voted on in the Senate in 2011.
More on this later, as I build the article. And apologies for the lateness as I was in the midst of writing an article responding to the radical Leftist Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, and his unhinged, fact-free rant about Texas, which included the “severe drought” and how everything was going kaput, when I had to take a 3-hour break due to a strong thunderstorm which caused rivers of water down the gravel drive and heavy ponding in the yard, and caused an internet outage for me.
The five Democrats who supported repeal were Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (Ark.).
Matheson voted against the original law but did not vote for its repeal last year.
In a statement after the vote, Matheson, who faces a tough reelection bid, said he had voted against the healthcare bill “at every opportunity” but did not mention last year’s opposition to repeal. He cited statistics showing that healthcare costs are still projected to rise at a greater rate than the economy, indicating the law has had little if any impact.
“With the Supreme Court ruling behind us, and as I reflect on my conversations with Utahans, I think about protecting the future of our economy,” he said. “We must scrap this flawed effort once and for all, start over and do it right.”
Note: Jim Matheson (D – Utah) is up against Truth Before Dishonor endorsed Mia Love, and in a fight for his political life. That could very easily explain both his vote and his dishonest and dishonorable statement after his vote.
Kissell, also in a tough reelection fight, had earlier announced his intention to switch his position on repeal, citing the law’s continued unpopularity with his constituents.
The other three — Boren, McIntyre and Ross — all voted to scrap the law in 2011 and opposed its enactment.
I have updated my ObamaCare Roll Call page with today’s vote, with an extremely modified version of a roll call. If you wish to see the actual Roll Call as provided by the Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, it is provided here.
Well of course our Editor wants to claim a pattern here, but he isn’t willing to peel back the curtain here, realizing that there is more to the quality of life than so-called business friendliness.
Consider this:
* Unemployment is higher than the national average,
* TX has a serious budget shortfall,
* TX has had to seriously cut back on education,
* TX is running out of groundwater, with no solution in sight,
* TX is currently in the second year of a serious drought,
* cattle and grain production has dropped precipitously,
* highest uninsured health care in the country,
* TX is turning down the medicaid expansion federal money,
* John Hitchcock lives in TX,
* and the highest number of death penalties in the country.
You name it, problems in TX are severe.
“Unemployment [in Texas] is higher than the national average.” From his very comment, he includes — but does not link to — something said on CBS last autumn, which included this dandy little statement: Texas’ unemployment has nearly reached the national unemployment level. We’ll check out that claim soon, but let’s point out here that Perry Hood’s claim at the top of his comment is directly contradicted by his link-free quote (something he does with regularity, quoting something without providing a link or a name) at the bottom of his comment.
As I previously noted in an article which made “Post of the Day” at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion on June 21, the May unemployment figures showed Texas has had a lower unemployment rate than the national average for 65 straight months (and that will only continue to be the case). It’s some strange alternate universe in which Perry the Delaware Socialist lives where Texas’ 6.9 percent May unemployment rate is somehow worse than the US 8.2 percent unemployment rate.
From June 2006 to June 2011, Texas was one of only nine states plus DC that added jobs. During that time-frame, Texas added 537,500 jobs, or over 73 percent of the total jobs added (a rate of 2,138 new jobs per 100,000 population). At the same time the US lost 4,818,000 jobs (a rate of 1,561 jobs lost per 100,000 population). And, point in fact, during 2006 and up till March, 2007, the US was still adding jobs at a rate fast enough to easily keep pace with the population growth. So that only amplifies the rate at which the US lost jobs while Democrats held control of Congress.
In an article I wrote noting again how the Leftist-ruled states of California and Illinois are shedding jobs and productive people with their tax-heavy and regulation-heavy (especially in California) agenda, I pointed out yet another Leftist state’s demise. Maryland, in its anti-Tenth Commandment “soak the rich” Class Envy and Class Warfare mentality created a new tax on the wealthy, most productive residents. What happened? They fled the state and went to more Conservative, more business-friendly, less tax-heavy states. And, in violating the Tenth Commandment, Maryland’s tax revenue stream actually shrank. By quite a bit. Maryland raised taxes on “the rich” and lost money in the process. That’s an outcome we Conservatives have been loudly declaring would be the case with the Leftists’ Class Warfare “soak the rich” mentality. Of course, the “economics experts” are completely shocked to find when the Federal Government puts policies in place that closely track what those self-same “experts” espouse, the results are very notably dismal — again and again and again and again, providing the absolutely knee-slappingly hilarious, yet sobering “unexpected” mantra that those “experts” have been everpresently spouting for the past three and a half years.
Now, Texas does have its share of problems. Barack Obama’s Contempt of Federal Court activities in shutting down off-shore oil drilling and exploration, one of Texas’ largest industries. Barack Obama’s EPA working feverishly to shut down some of Texas’ electric generating plants while Texas is growing much more quickly than the rest of the nation in terms of both population and jobs. And, of course, Texas’ decades-long (or should I say Century-Long) explosive population growth, far exceeding that of the US as a whole, which means Texas has to produce far greater numbers of jobs per 100,000 population than the US as a whole — just to keep pace with population growth.
And how is Texas doing? The state’s unemployment numbers have remained well below that of the US for years and the unemployment rate is dropping faster than the US as a whole. As forecast by the Conservatives among us.
“Texas has a serious budget shortfall.” No, that would be Illinois, California, Maryland, New York, etc, etc. Places the Democrats have run into the ground. Texas has a Constitutional requirement to run a balanced budget. And its biennial Budget is balanced and was balanced without raising taxes, much to the chagrin of Paul Burka, Leftist Senior Editor of Texas Monthly magazine, whose rants I documented and shredded in an 8,500 word article that Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion also named “Post of the Day”. If you don’t want to read the entire thing (and you should), drop down near the bottom where Paul Burka rants and raves about the absolutely demanding, governing-free Conservatives and their orgasmic feeding frenzy of not eating. It’s a real knee-slapper.
“TX has had to seriously cut back on education.” Let’s let IowaHawk handle this one. In his first article, IowaHawk provides this:
So how does brokeass, dumbass, redneck Texas stack up against progressive unionized Wisconsin?
2009 4th Grade Math
White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national average 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)
To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8, above average in 8.
Perhaps the most striking thing in these numbers is the within-state gap between white and minority students. Not only did white Texas students outperform white Wisconsin students, the gap between white students and minority students in Texas was much less than the gap between white and minority students in Wisconsin. In other words, students are better off in Texas schools than in Wisconsin schools – especially minority students.
In his second article on the subject, IowaHawk provides even more evidence that destroys the Leftist meme.
Average ACT Composite Score 2010
White students: Wisconsin 23.5, Texas 23.3 (national 23.1)
Black students: Texas 17.6, Wisconsin 16.9 (national 17.5)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 19.8, Texas 18.7 (national 19.4)
…
As an aside, reader Dr. William Borland (Principal Research Engineer, Georgia Institute of Technology, lah-tee-dah) points out that 2010 state-specific public high school dropout rates are now available- and bolster my case.
2010 Public High School Event Dropout Rates
White students: Wisconsin 1.4%, Texas 1.8% (national average 2.8%)
Black students: Texas 6.3%, Wisconsin 7.8% (national average 6.7%)
Hispanic students: Texas 5.3%, Wisconsin 5.4% (national average 6.0%)
While no dropout event is good, Texas is hardly the outlier national shame claimed by Krugman. In fact, it has below national average dropout rates for all 3 ethnic groups considered, consistently in both 2007 and 2010 measures. Among white students, Wisconsin had the second lowest state event dropout rate (NJ #1), where Texas was tied for 7th. Among black students, Wisconsin was #39, Texas tied for #24. Among Hispanic students, Wisconsin was tied for #21, Texas was tied for #17.
Here’s a chart from a September17, 2009 article at Demablogue:
We have been dumping more money per student into Public Education for over 40 years without seeing any improvement in test scores. Obviously, to any reasonable person, dumping even more money into the broken system will not fix the broken system. Continuing on with IowaHawk:
Hey, it’s been a fun two days based on a simple 30-minute study of educational statistics. As regards the effect of teacher collective bargaining on student learning, I wouldn’t call what I did conclusive; just pointing out the fallacy of aggregate statistical comparisons. For a definitive study of the effect, I would point to Caroline Hoxby’s (Harvard/ MIT /Stanford, lah tee dah) 1996 QJE paper [pdf], which statistically controls for additional variables. Her main conclusions: collective bargaining increases the input provided to schools (spending, construction and the like), but actual decreases school output (test scores and the like). If you don’t like Greek letters, here’s Hoxby discussing the effect on YouTube.
[Video added.]
Perry would do very well not to listen to Paul Krugman as the above very clearly shows the fraudulent huckster’s tomfoolery. Also, from IowaHawk:
But hey, if credentials and oak-framed vellum degrees are your bag, let me share this email with you:
Dear Mr. Burger:
I edit educationnext.org. I have a blog on the site. I would like to do a blog that will depends heavily on your material,quoting you at length, as I also think Krugman is a nobel prize winning fraud and because your data are intrinsically interesting… I will link the piece to your site, obviously.
Paul E. Peterson
Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government
Director, Program on Education Policy and Governance
Harvard University
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Degrees-y enough for you? Despite getting my name wrong, I accepted Prof. Peterson’s request and encouraged him to go at my results hammer-and-tongs. His comments are here.
As for Mr. Krugman, I’ll only note the remarks of his former ombudsman at the New York Times, Daniel Okrent:
“Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults.”
No shit, Sherlock.
“TX is running out of groundwater, with no solution in sight.” “TX is currently in the second year of a serious drought.” I don’t know what “groundwater” Perry is talking about. Perhaps it’s the water that’s on the ground, which is directly affected by rain. Because there’s plenty of water under the ground. And I had to stop researching and writing this article for about 3 hours as a strong thunderstorm swept through the area, providing rivers of water running down the gravel drive and ponding heavily in the yard. But Perry doesn’t want people to know that Texas has had one of its rainiest Springs in many years, far above average precipitation.
“Cattle and grain production has dropped precipitously.” Because only Texans eat the beef from Texas cattle. There’s no export to other states or other countries. And no other states ever get effected by droughts (the Carolinas and Georgia a few years ago) or floods (the Great Plains states a few years ago). What foolish claptrap. And with the far wetter-than-average Spring, which is continuing into Summer, the cattle-and-grain issue will very easily resolve itself, without government intervention. That’s not to say the same thing about California’s very agriculturally rich Central Valley, where radical Leftist environmentalist wackos in the California EPA and the US EPA turned the water off, destroying the agriculture, destroying businesses, destroying employment, destroying private wealth, destroying lives. California’s Central Valley problem could be very easily solved. Turn the water back on, you radical Leftist nutjobs!
“Highest uninsured health care in the country.” That may or may not be the case, but Texans are a very Independent, Liberty Loving people on the whole. If they do not want to buy health insurance, that should be their prerogative, and absolutely no concern for the Socialist busy-bodies like Perry. Heck, for individual adults under 30, health insurance is a bad investment, overall. They don’t tend to get all that sick, so their overpayments just go to take care of other people and not themselves. That’s not what makes a good investment.
“TX is turning down the medicaid expansion federal money.” Imagine that. A principled position for Independence and Liberty, refusing “free” OPM (other people’s money) with all the Federal regulations, restrictions, throat-slashing strings attached, coming from an “entitlement” program that is quickly becoming bankrupt. How dare Texas stand up for fiscal responsibility, Liberty, Freedom and Principle! Texas should help bankrupt the US so we can become a Socialist dictatorship that much faster!
“John Hitchcock lives in TX.” That’s just a hate-filled personal attack coming from The First Street Journal’s resident hater. That is all.
“And the highest number of death penalties in the country.” This is a good thing. A very good thing. Violent felons who snuff out innocent lives, be warned. Try that in Texas and you lose your own life. Also, Texans are among the most heavily armed, and we have the Castle Doctrine. Enter my property uninvited after dark at your own risk.
The economic strength rankings of the US’s 366 metropolitan areas is out, and the Killeen-Fort Hood-Temple area (where I live and work) is 30th nationally. Dover, Delaware is ranked 158, Detroit is 215, Cleveland, Ohio is 185.
Overall, Texas is doing very well, with Austin at 5, San Antonio 10, Houston 12, Dallas-Fort Worth 14, Killeen-Temple 30, and Corpus Christi 49.
Among other things, cost of living and job growth are strongly considered to create the rankings.
Let’s do a little math. Of the 366 metropolitan areas in the US, Texas has 6 in the top 49. Washington DC, with its absolute dependence on Federal Government jobs and not economy-growing jobs, ranks number 1. With 6 metropolitan areas in the top 49, each of those six Texas metropolitan areas is guaranteed to have outperformed at least six entire states. With 4 of the top 14 metropolitan areas, each of those four Texas metropolitan areas is guaranteed to have outperformed at least 39 entire states. Is it any wonder Texas is the number one state in the Union, economically?
Dana Pico
Hube
Yorkshire
John Hitchcock
A thief pauses for a moment, before entering the inviting red doors1 of the local Episcopal Church. The air is cool, the nave dark and quiet, the setting solemn and contemplative. Looking around, he sees the parish priest, who is carefully dusting the altar rail, walks up to him very respectfully and says, “Father, I have my heart set on this really big score, an amazing heist, one which will allow my family and me to live comfortably for the rest of our lives on the proceeds. Father, may I have your blessing for this endeavor?”
