Ramsfeld's slip

Uhh... did I hear right?

Implanted with a chip from a distance

With this ID Sniper Rifle you can be implanted with a identity microchip from a distance and not even notice. It will feel like a mosquito-sting, and you will probably think that is all it was. Welcome to the brave new world of privacy infringement. Did I say privacy? What privacy?

New World Order

It would seem that my suspicions were not unfounded. How many paranoid prophets will it take to agree and propagate that the New World Order is on the way before the masses take head?

The Infamous "We the People"/"Second American Revolution" Videos

Tyranny vs Liberty

When the people fear the government there is tyranny; when the government fear the people there is liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson

Post 9/11 Blues

China's Fur Production

I posted some of PETA's anti animal cruelty campaigns before. Although PETA sometimes give biased accounts, they often reflect the truth too. And the truth are at times worse.

I didn't watch through the whole of the video below. It is disturbing. It shows animals being skinned for fur while they are still alive. You may wish to give it a skip.


Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.

The real question is, how can we make a difference? PETA suggests the following:

The globalization of the fur trade has made it impossible to know where fur products come from. Skins move through international auction houses and are purchased and distributed to manufacturers around the world, and finished goods are often exported. China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States. Even if a fur garment's label says it was made in a European country, the animals were likely raised and slaughtered elsewhere—possibly on an unregulated Chinese fur farm.

Because a fur's origin can't be traced, anyone who wears any fur at all shares the blame for the horrific conditions on Chinese fur farms. The only way to prevent such unimaginable cruelty is never to wear any fur.

CCTV Game

Starting tomorrow I'm going to begin to play a new game. I'm going to attempt to avoid being captured by CCTV cameras. Where I cannot avoid them, I'm going to use hats and baseball caps and other types of manoeuvring, turning away and covering up, to avoid unnecessary photos taken of me.

It is not that I'm camera shy, having anything to hide or suffer from major paranoia -- I am, however, against societies turning into Big Brother conglomerates and don't want to be a blind drone, mindlessly following the stream. There's not much I can do about it, I know -- but at least I can play the game, fully aware that it exists.

The past several years has seen a dramatic increase in CCTV surveillance of public space. Video cameras peer at us from the sides of buildings, from ATM machines, from traffic lights, capturing our every move for observation by police officers and private security guards that often act with very little public or legislative oversight. While the effectiveness of these devices in reducing crime is dubious at best, recent cases of misuse by public and private authorities serve to question the appropriateness of video monitoring in public space. [From i-See.]

We just don't know how often CCTV surveillance is abused -- with any of us being potential victims.

Instead of it bothering me too much, I'm going to make a game of it and turn "normal" outings into "extraordinary" cloak-and-dagger events. Who's joining in?

Another Reason for Disliking Facebook

I've ranted about the dangers of Facebook in the past -- but did you ever consider this...

Other people posting things about you on Facebook. Take for instance this guy, who literally has his most humiliating moments photographed and posted on Facebook.

Another New York Calamity?

Will New York City be struck by more tragedies, as the one that befell it in 2001? Some “prophets” seem to think so.

David Wilkerson, a New York based pastor, is one such a “prophet” that seems to think so. Yes this is the same David Wilkerson of "The Cross and the Switchblade".

Recently Wilkerson said that he has been impressed by the Holy Spirit that :

“An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen. It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.

“For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.”

Wilkerson is not the first to have impressions of New York City on fire. A lady, thought by many to be a prophet of God, named Ellen White, wrote about it over a century ago, before there were majestic skyscrapers decorating the cityscape of New York.

“On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify the owners and builders. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used. Those to whom these buildings belonged were not asking themselves: “How can we best glorify God?” The Lord was not in their thoughts.

“The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fire-proof buildings and said: “They are perfectly safe.” But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines.”

Also the politicians seem to prophecy doom for America. Remember Joe Biden’s ghastly prediction:

“Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy [Obama]. And he's gonna have to make some really tough - I don't know what the decision's gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it's gonna happen.”

I’m forced to ask, like blogger Adam asked, how does Joe Biden know this? Is it all part of a masterminded plan? Or is he also a “prophet” in tune with the inspiration of God? I don’t know.

What I do know is that I won’t be surprised if the visions of Wilkerson and White, or the political rhetoric of Biden comes to pass. Calamity is in the air. You can smell it, can't you?

Atheism Campaign in UK

Apparently there's an atheism campaign (instigated by Richard Dawkins) running in the UK. These are some of their ads... What d'ya think?

Politically Correct Holiday Greetings

From Good Clean Fun Archives.

To all my Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all;

PLUS

A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or choice of computer platform.

(Disclaimer: By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher who assumes no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)

To all my Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Factory Farming & The Meatrix

Do you know where the meat you eat comes from? The documentary below is a rather moderate depiction of the actual realities of factory farming. The days of happy farmers loving their animals is mostly long gone. When you decide to eat meat, make sure it is an informed decision.

Or for a more animated disillusionment, follow funny "The Meatrix"-series.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?!

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?!” This lamentation by Jesus Christ while hanging on the cross, is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27.

For a long time I could not understand what this meant. Did God really forsake his Son?

I heard many explanations trying to solve this enigmatic exclamation of Jesus in his dying hour. Some said that because the sin of the world was placed on the Jesus, he in fact “became sin for us”, God who despises sin, therefore removed Himself from his Son. And so the explanations go on.

My personal opinion is not that Jesus were forsaken by his Father, or that Jesus succumb in his dying moments under his human-nature. Instead, I believe that Jesus was making a very clear reference to an Old Testament prophecy that foretold in shocking detail this very scene happening.

In Jesus called out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” he was in fact reciting directly the first line of Psalm 22. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Psalm 22:1). The Jews standing close by, familiar with the Hebrew Psalms, would immediately have recognised this line from the famous Psalm. They would also have made the obvious connections.

In Psalm 22:7, 8 it is written: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” Recounting the Crucifixion Matthew writes: “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads... Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said... He trusted in God: let him deliver him now, if he will have him...” (Matthew 27:39-43).

Psalm 22:16 says: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” This is a clear reference to Jesus’ crucifixion.

Verse 18 says: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Matthew (27:35) recounts: “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots...”

It is my understanding that when Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”, he was deliberately reminding the spectators of Psalm 22 that described the death of the Messiah. Those that knew this psalm would easily have made the connection, seeing that Jesus’ crucifixion (piercing of hands and feet), even the gambling over his clothes, were foretold by Scripture centuries in advance.

Jesus Christ’s exclamation was clearly not merely a hopeless lament; rather it was a deliberate quote from a Messianic Prophecy foretelling the last moments of his death. Even in his hour of death, He was proving his claim as the Messiah.

Fundamentalist Fanatical Extremists -- not all bad...

The terror attacks in Mumbai, India, considered the worst terror attacks since 9/11, has come to an end with Indian commandos killing the last three gunmen on Saturday. The terrorists were after Americans (or anyone that looked American, i.e. any Westerners) and Jews. But the range of foreigners that died also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis, British, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Australians and Singaporeans – 195 deceased not counting the killed terrorists.

Few people doubt the religious motivation behind such attacks by Islamic militants. It is for this very reason that critical dialogue about religions should not be stifled.

A while back fellow blogger, Adam, sent me a link to an article by Fox News about a UN resolution “intended to curtail speech that offends religion – particularly Islam”. This is a serious concern. When people are acting out in such terrible ways, and that in the name of their religion, how can we “curtail speech”? I’m not saying hate speech – but a spade needs to be called a spade. If a religious group acts in an aggressive and brutal way one shouldn’t be afraid of offending the sensibilities of skewed religious views.

I have been told that Islam is not a militant religion – these are just a small extremist section of the religion. I know some Muslims, so I’m not taking the stereotypical route of accusing all of Islam of being militant. That would not only be unfair, but not the truth. However, we cannot sugarcoat dangerous sectarian groups.

Still, one should be careful. It can be easy to call all sectarians groups (any religious group that is different from the mainstream) extremist and fanatical and mean it derogatorily. I really don’t think there is anything wrong with extremists and fanatics; as long as their extremist or fanatical behaviour doesn’t harm others. Take the Amish as an example. They would probably be labelled extremists or fanatics, but they don’t bother anybody and there Anabaptist background means that they practise non-resistance. In other words, they won’t turn into terrorists. So even if they are fundamentalist fanatical extremists – that’s okay. Fanaticism is not a danger to society in and of itself. In fact, it might even be a good thing: I’m sure the Amish are better at protecting the environment; they don’t consume much energy or add substantially to pollution; they are self-sustaining and therefore do not rely on government assistance like Social Security; they encourage family life and simple living (opposed to the overindulgence that caused the worldwide financial crisis), etc.

Banned from the Bible

Upon watching History Channel’s “Banned from the Bible” I’m wondering why it is that people always endeavour to complicate things.

The documentary tries to give answers to why certain books did not make it into the Christian canon. The ideas that these people come up with astounds me. Why complicate it so?

There are three basic principles to remember when thinking of the Christian Bible.

Firstly, Christianity resulted as a metamorphosis out of Judaism. Like a caterpillar and butterfly, they might look very different, but in essence they are the same thing. The latter is merely the fruition of the former. Christianity is the fulfilment of the religion of Abraham, Moses and the Hebrew Prophets. Therefore, the Old Testament books of the Christian Bible, are in fact books from the Judaic religion – the Torah and the Tanakh. The Torah (or Pentateuch) being the first five books of the Bible, also known as the five books of Moses. The Tanakh is the rest of the primary books used in the Hebrew religion and usually called the Old Testament in the Christian tradition.

For this reason, any books written later in history and not from this Hebrew origin (i.e. from the Tanakh) is by default considered fraudulent. It makes very much sense that such fake books would not be included in the Old Testament section of the Bible, for they are not of the orthodox Hebrew origin. For example the text “The Life of Adam and Eve”, written a couple of thousand years after Moses wrote Genesis, is clearly not authentic.

Secondly, the New Testament books are collections that were written shortly after the earthly ministry (life, death and resurrection) of Jesus and the apostolic church (the very first generation or two of converts). The authors of the New Testament scriptures were primarily eye-witnesses and these texts therefore eye-witness accounts and teachings based there on.

Therefore, any books that came afterwards, after these disciples (known as apostles or saints) died, are considered unauthentic accounts of what happened. These apocryphal books may have the names of disciples attributed to them (e.g. the Gospel of Thomas), but it is well accepted that these texts only came into existence many years, often centuries, after the life of Jesus on earth, or the life of his disciples. Such later texts were not included into the Christian canon for the obvious reason that their origin is questionable.

Thirdly, the Biblical texts (Old and New Testaments) are in discourse with each other and they are all basically retelling the same themes that was set down in the Torah. There is an internal harmony in their motifs, often merely building out, clarifying, extending the same ideas. For example the Torah tells about the fall of man into sin, and God's promise to save man from sin, through the sacrificial death of the innocent "lamb". The New Testament Gospels retells this narrative as God saving sinful mankind through the death of the "Lamb of God", which is in fact God-Incarnate, i.e. Jesus the Christ. Any book which themes are wholly different than the rest of the Bible is clearly not part of the same discourse and such books were not included in the Christian canon.

And just in case you wonder how the possible inclusion or exclusion of a text from the Canon will influence Christian doctrine, well...not much. Sound Biblical doctrines are never based on single texts, but on a “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1), i.e. many texts throughout the canon. Consequently, these extra-biblical books doesn’t shake the sound doctrines of the Bible, since good biblical doctrine are based not on isolated ideas, but a combination of mutually affirming and balancing teachings.

Bible Prophecy 101

Eschatological prophecies (prophecies about the end-time) is an exciting study, and not that difficult once you understand the basic principles of interpreting Bible prophecies.

A basic rule of thumb is that the Bible usually interprets itself. It is seldom necessary for us to do too much guess work. Once you’ve deciphered the symbolism (all of which are revealed in Scripture) it is fairly easy to get the general idea of eschatological prophecies. Add to this some archeology and historical research and you would stand amazed at the Bible. No other religious text does what the Bible does, in predicting future events hundreds and sometimes thousands of years in advance.

To get an idea for Bible Prophecy look at the prophecy in chapter 2 in the Book of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had a dream which no one could interpret. But then Daniel, the man of God, comes to the rescue.

Here is the dream (Dan. 2:31-36):

As for you, O king, while you were in your bed your thoughts turned to future things. The revealer of mysteries has made known to you what will take place. As for me, this mystery was revealed to me not because I possess more wisdom than any other living person, but so that the king may understand the interpretation and comprehend the thoughts of your mind. “You, O king, were watching as a great statue – one of impressive size and extraordinary brightness – was standing before you. Its appearance caused alarm. As for that statue, its head was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of bronze. Its legs were of iron; its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay. You were watching as a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its iron and clay feet, breaking them in pieces. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were broken in pieces without distinction and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away. Not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth. This was the dream. Now we will set forth before the king its interpretation.

Daniel then continues (Dan. 2:37-49) to explain that the golden head represents Babylon, the arms of silver is the next kingdom to conquer Babylon, the hips of bronze is the kingdom that overthrew the silver kingdom, which in turn is followed by the last great kingdom, represented by the legs of iron. This last kingdom would not be followed by one great kingdom, but instead would splinter into smaller kingdoms (“fear…partly of iron and partly of clay”). Lastly, everything will be destroyed and replaced with God's Kingdom.

A simple look at history makes everything quite clear. The kingdom that conquered Babylon was the combined kingdom of Medo-Persia, represented by the chest and arms. Medo-Persia was conquered by Greece, the hips of bronze. Greece in turn was followed by the iron empire of Rome. Rome was never followed by any single great kingdom, instead the Roman Empire splintered into many smaller kingdoms. We are now living in the final stages of the feet-era.

Daniel lived at the end of the great Babylonian Empire and was still alive to see the Medo-Persians conquer Babylon.

The accuracy of this prophecy still astounds scholars to this day.

Hebrew Document - Older than Dead Sea Scrolls - Found

A pottery shard a thousand years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found, with Hebrew inscriptions on it. That would make it the oldest Hebrew document ever found. You can listen to the short podcast, or read more, here.

It's in His Message, not His Tomb

Photo by AP

In Jerusalem Christian monks brawled yesterday at the supposed sight of Jesus’ tomb, and the supposed cross that was used to crucify Jesus and discovered in the 4th Century. The brawl broke out between monks from the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches.

The New York Daily News has as its story headline: “Not Very Christian!”

These claims to holy sites and religious artefacts are very much outside of Jesus Christ’s legacy. Jesus did not leave any tangible stuff behind – knowing fully well that man would be tempted to worship such earthly things. He did not even write anything down. There are no manuscripts written by him. The one occasion He wrote, he wrote in the sand. We are not to be tempted to worship things or places. What Jesus left us was a message, which we call the Good News – the Gospel. Jesus is not to be found in objects or special holy sites. It is in his message that we can find him, and nobody (and no church) has a monopoly over that message.

The Daily News is correct. Such emphasis on things and places are not very Christian.

The Aftermath of Barack Obama's Victory - some satire from the Onion News Network

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are