Year: 2008

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Thought this was funny, my caption would be “Sorry Pooh, thought you were a Koopa Troopa, I’m getting old my eyes don’t work so well”

Original post: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RagamuffinSoul/~3/444642906/

Caption Please…
Los

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We have a lot to learn as Christians and what the Kingdom of God is really about – for me it has never been about America and never will be – I love being an American, I thank God for the freedoms I am given in this nation, but I live in God’s kingdom, and live by His principles, not man’s nor America’s.  We must stop trying to legislate morality, and begin expressing where true freedom comes from – knowing Jesus – and out of that real change will happen in the individual, and the fabric of our communities will change.

The following comes from: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2008/11/the_hansen_repo.html

The view of America from Manhattan was pretty bleak on the morning after November 2, 2004. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, typically a levelheaded observer of world affairs, watched America become “two nations under God.”

“We don’t just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is,” Friedman wrote about the “Christian fundamentalists” who helped propel President Bush to reelection against Sen. John Kerry. “Is it a country that does not intrude into people’s sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn’t trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us—instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?”

The view north of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, was even more ominous. Northwestern University adjunct history professor Garry Wills declared November 2, 2004, “the day the enlightenment went out.” No longer did America take after France, Britain, Germany, Italy or Spain. No, Bush’s America harbored “fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity.” In short, the new America shared more in common with Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Sunni loyalists. Christian fundamentalists, still fuming over the embarrassment of the Scopes trial in 1925, had finally enacted a jihad Wills dubbed “Bryan’s revenge.” Now these Christians would be able to impose their irrational, bigoted opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Thinkers like Wills could only ask: “Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?”

Four years later, perhaps Wills can answer this question more to his liking. If Sen. Barack Obama defeats Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, does that mean the Enlightenment’s flame has been rekindled? Has science won the tug-of-war with religion? Would Friedman conclude that two Americas have become one again?

Elections make intelligent people say and do unintelligent things. But they also make faithful people talk and act as if they had little faith. Focus on the Family Action is circulating a hypothetical letter from 2012 that explains how the United States has changed in President Obama’s first term. According to Focus on the Family Action, Obama rallied support from Democratic majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives to mandate same-sex marriage across the country, eliminate restrictions on abortion, and reinforce the wall that separates church from state. Each of these developments is plausible, given Obama’s track record and campaign statements.

But Focus on the Family Action goes further. They speculate that “Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity, Navigators, Baptist Campus Ministry, and Reformed University Fellowship have shrunk to mere skeleton organizations, and in many states they have simply ceased to exist” due to restrictions on “hate speech” including opposition to homosexuality. In response to new educational standards, many home-school families have emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. Some Christian publishers have gone out of business, since protests have led many chains and Amazon.com to ban their books. Christians can hardly work in the health-care industry, since they can no longer opt out of procedures that violate their consciences. On top of everything else, inner-city violence has increased, because private citizens of eights states can no longer bear arms.

Who’s to blame for this doomsday scenario? Focus on the Family Actions tells us that many evangelicals voted for Obama since they wanted change and didn’t understand his true agenda. Yet despite their culpability in the horror unleashed in 2008, “Christians on both sides should continue to respect and cherish each other’s friendship as well as the freedom people have in the United States to differ on these issues and to freely speak our opinions about them to one another,” Focus on the Family Action writes.

At this point, you might wonder where trust in a sovereign God fits in this scenario. Indeed, Focus’s hypothetical “Christian from 2012” writes, “Personally, I don’t know how we are going to get through tomorrow, for these are difficult times.” And yet the writer could affirm, “I still believe that God is sovereign over all history, and though I don’t know why he has allowed these events to come about, it is still his purpose that will ultimately be accomplished.”

Perhaps this profession of faith would ring true if the letter were true. But as a projection of conservative Christians’ greatest fears before the fact, the letter stokes fear and encourages faith in government as the ultimate arena for advancing the gospel and promoting biblical morality. It tempts Christians to hope and trust in government as if they were the very progressives Focus decries, the ones who have leveraged political power in recent decades to advance their social agenda with and without popular support.

The Sunday after Election Day, many evangelicals may feel as if they have lost hope. Some may rejoice with hope they never even feel in God. Maybe everyone will still be shocked by an unexpected election result. No matter what happens, pastors can reassure church members that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Rom. 13:1). No matter who becomes the next president, he won’t be more hostile to the Christian faith than Emperor Nero, who ruled over the Roman Christians who received this letter. And yet the apostle Paul told them “he is God’s servant for your good” (Rom. 13:4).

Faith is not blind hope that everything will turn out okay. This election will affect how Christians live among their neighbors for decades to come, for better and worse. But faith must at least lead Christians to leave the scare tactics to the skeptics.

 

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This is disgusting, especially the part where he quotes the answers that were given in the presence of the people doing the investigation.

This week marks the second of three HPV immunisation jabs for 11-13 year olds in the UK. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer. We will be keeping our 13 year old out of school because they jabbed her last time without our consent and despite her not wanting it either. Some of you have been asking about this so here is the skinny.

Question: Can they jab your 11-13 year old daughter without parental consent in the UK?

Answer:Yes. According to the guidance in this Consent To Treatment form that was handed to us at our meeting with the NHS.

Children under the age of 16

Children in this age group are not deemed to be automatically legally competent to give consent. The courts have determined that such children can be legally competent if they have “sufficient understanding and intelligence to enable him or her to understand fully what is proposed”.

. . . The emphasis in the Department of Health’s guidance is that the families of children in this age group should be involved in decisions about their care, unless there is a very good reason for not doing so. If however, a competent child under the age of 16 is insistent that their family should not be involved, their right to confidentiality must be respected, unless such an approach would put them at serious risk of harm.

We don’t have a big problem with that particular law in the UK. In fact, we wish it were followed in our case, especially the parts about families being involved and children being given ‘sufficient understanding’. You may have read our story in my blog or in the national papers. Abigail, who has Type 1 diabetes, did not have ‘sufficient understanding’ regarding this process. She was told to sign a form and she obeyed. She did not know it was a consent form or that she was giving permission to something that neither she nor us wanted. The jab came unexpectedly, taking her by surprise. You can imagine the trauma our family has gone through, especially reading of deaths and injuries young girls have sustained in the USA.

We met with NHS officials after we lodged our complaint. The report from our meeting with NHS arrived yesterday. Pretty disappointing! We were expecting an apology for the coerced vaccination of our daughter and probably some disciplinary action for the doctor involved, but we didnt get either. Instead, their report ruled in their favour. Their conclusion:

Technorati Tags: hpv

“On the balance of probability: the GP did discuss the issues with Miss Jones :Miss Jones gave consent for the vaccination, which was contrary to her mother’s position.”

We dont agree with this conclusion. Actually, we think it sucks! It makes our daughter into a liar and we firmly believe her story. She is, after all, COMPETENT to explain what happened.

” . . .I believe that on the balance of probabilities Miss Jones clearly did understand the consent form and what she was signing.



6. Recommendations

I believe the report shows that NHS Orkney did seek consent in a correct and proper manner and that all protocols were followed in respect of the HPV vaccination programme.

Its hard to believe they arrived at this conclusion when the report also contains the questions I asked Abigail in their presence at this “fact finding investigation”.

“MrJones asked Miss Jones if she knew she had signed a consent form –

Miss Jones – “No”

Mr Jones asked if she knew what she was agreeing to –

Miss Jones – “No”

Mr Jones asked Miss Jones if she had been asked directly if she wanted the vaccine –

Miss Jones – “No”

My next question and statement [not in their official report] – “Were you surprised when the doctor gave you the injection? Abigail replied “Yes”. Then I turned to the group and said

“So, from our perspective, Abigail was coerced into getting this immunisation.” No one objected or contradicted me. It seemed pretty obvious but I guess that wasn’t reflected in the final outcome.

So here we are – at a stalemate. Debbie is exhausted and worn out. We don’t have any more energy or time to give to this and we are not sure where to go. Maybe its enough to just tell our story here and hope that it helps other families that go through the same situation.

Needless to say, Abigail is staying home from school tomorrow.

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YES! So true.

Los

[ht:bunk]

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Oh Yeah Baby! Can’t wait for the new season!

Sometimes I dream I’m Hurley.

Los

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This is something that encourages me, the last line says a lot!

8 or so months ago an older couple were having lunch at my restaurant when they happened to mention that they had inherited an orphanage in Haiti, and had no means to feed them. as we sat and talked i realized that something had to be done so i asked a couple of club members, who happened to be waiting on tables, if we should do something. we voted and adopted an orphanage. we had no committees to run it through, no old members to placate. there were no financial balance sheets to reconcile. the kids needed to eat.

so i went to my little group of club members – 30 or so mostly teens and young adults and we talked about what we could do. that saturday we took an “offering” (i hate that word) and the kids got to eat for a month. within a couple of weeks we had 4 months worth of money. the giving never ended. let me assure you, i had very little to do with this. young adults signed over their whole paychecks, others gave 50% or more of their income. it was a marvel to watch.

a couple months later we found out that a local pastor that had been helping ‘our kids’ had died falling off a roof and his body was stuck in the morgue, no money to release it for a funeral. so i told the peeps and that night, on top of the money they already shelled out, they raised $400. there was about 15 teens and young adults, and a few others, there that night.

sometime later we found out that if we could somehow raise $800 bucks in 6 months the kids could have a teacher and books come in and have school. 2 or 3 weeks later we sent the money.

last night a guy from haiti was here and i interviewed him. i asked him what they needed – $200 bucks for more books and approximately $300 bucks for shoes for all 30 kids. i put it out there, we have a month to raise it, and the kids ponied up $680 plus change. i couldn’t get my head around it.

one of the seniors who was visiting last night asked me how i could get young people to give and live so sacrificially. i simply said, “i told them if we don’t give they don’t eat’. i really did nothing else. they are rough and rude, loud and unpolished, authentic and sacrificial.

maybe the problem with today’s youth isn’t that they aren’t committed. maybe the problem is that we haven’t given them anything of value to be committed to.

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Hmm interesting thought.