My Personal Rants, Raves, and Ramblings

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

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"The so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke," a U.S. diplomat said in describing the Saudi efforts with released Guantanamo detainees.

Saudi officials concede its program has had its "failures" but insist that, overall, the effort has helped return potential terrorists to a meaningful life.

One program gives the former detainees paints and crayons as part of the rehabilitation regimen.

A similar rehabilitation program in Yemen was stopped because so many of the detainees quickly joined with al Qaeda or its affiliates, the official said.

"When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, - who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia." -George Mason in speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

A Christmas Eve Manifesto
By a son of Liberty

Today, most of the world from New York to Nairobi and Jerusalem to Christchurch will pause in preparation for the commemoration of one of the world’s most significant events: the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, the Savior of the world.

There will be celebrations and feasting, parades and pageants. Families will come together. Gifts will be given. Prayers uttered. Hymns sung.

And for good reason.

The birth of Christ was the heralding in of the end of unmitigated tyranny—of a world where the single most powerful force known to most sons of Adam was the State. The only law most of the world knew was that of the jungle or of the strongest bully in the neighborhood.

But it was Jesus Christ, a poor carpenter, who stood before the compromised spiritual and civil leaders of His day and before the imperial tyranny of the Roman Empire and uttered the most revolutionary statements in the history of politics. He said first, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And then before the face of the Roman Governor representing Caesar, He said, “You would have no authority if it had not been given to you from above.”

These two statements shook the foundations of Statism—and the earthquake sent aftershocks far and wide. The very idea of Caesar not having certain things under his authority was treason. The confession of faith for the Roman Empire was “Caesar is Lord.” But this Jesus said that there were certain things not under Caesar’s authority and that Caesar’s own authority came from “above.”

Jesus Christ came and proclaimed Himself King. But He did things no other kings had done. He washed the feet of His subjects; He supped with prostitutes and politicians. He called all to repentance and service to His Father in Heaven—their Liberator. And He said that those who desire to be the greatest must be the servant of all.

He performed great acts of healing, showing that he was the Great Physician. His disciples followed His example and established hospitals wherever they went. He exhorted His people to grow in wisdom and understanding, so learning flourished wherever a Christian church was planted.

And Jesus’ teachings taught mankind that self-government under the Laws of God were a much lighter yoke than the oppressive tyranny of man. That is why throughout the corrupt Roman Empire ecclesiastical courts from the Christian minority became the only place anyone—including pagans—could go to find justice and a fair hearing.

The revolution King Jesus started spread throughout the whole world and showed particular strength in America, where a government was established to “secure the blessings of liberty,” which were “endowed by our Creator.” This established government scarcely existed, because most men and women governed themselves without the need of a gun pointed at their heads. The laws of man were few, because most people governed themselves by the Laws of King Jesus.

But the extreme irony today is that, while most of the world prepares to celebrate Christmas, the federal government in America is digging up the rotting bones of Caesar to install a new king.

The passage of an act to essentially socialize medicine in this country is another direct affront to the majesty and sovereignty of King Jesus. Consequently, it is also a direct attack on liberty. It represents another area of life that Caesar is claiming for himself, when the ministry of healing has always been seen in free societies as the domain of private charity and the Church.

In America today there is scarcely any area of life void of Caesar’s fingerprints. When we have domestic squabbles, Caesar determines who gets the kids. When we grow crops, Caesar tells us what crops to grow and how much they’ll cost. When we hire employees, Caesar tells us whom we may hire and how much we are to pay them. When we decide to build a house, Caesar tells us where we can and cannot build and what materials we may use. When we buy a car, Caesar tells us how much CO2 we’re allowed to produce. When we buy a toilet, Caesar tells us how much water we may use to flush.

Now, when we get sick, Caesar will dictate how we are treated by doctors and insurance companies. He will determine how much medical procedures should cost and what level of care is appropriate.

More than 2,000 additional pages of Caesar-made law will be added to the millions already filling our libraries.

America is well into her slide of apostasy. And I don’t speak merely of religious apostasy—that has been going on for a long time. I speak of the political apostasy that follows the shadow of spiritual infidelity.

America rejected the liberating Gospel message of Christ long ago when it declared war on the Word of God. It attacked the credibility of the Scriptures through the social gospel theology of early progressives like Woodrow Wilson while he was president of Princeton, and through the insidious spread of social Darwinism through WASP pulpits and halls of academia.

A “Big Bang” of random chance replaced Jesus the Creator.

Academics belittled and discredited the miraculous virgin birth of Christ.

Scientists questioned the miracles of Jesus and deemed them impossible.

Psychologists restyled the sinfulness of man as “ignorance,” thereby rendering Christ’s death unnecessary. Education and enlightenment became all mankind needed to achieve salvation and “social justice.”

An “unnecessary” death of Christ meant that His rising from the dead was not only improbable, but pointless.

In short, belittling Christ’s person and work for man’s spiritual condition also belittled His work towards man’s political liberation.

As I noted earlier, the key component of political liberty is a population that can largely govern itself without the heavy hand of the State.

But by denying Christ’s work and His law, more and more Americans became unable to govern themselves— except according to their own desires. This created the necessity for an outside power to come in and restore the eroding social order.

That power was and is the State.

The Health Care Bill that was passed by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve is another oblation and sacrifice to our new national god. The timing is ironic but appropriate. We have a new messiah in America, and, no, he’s not Barack Obama. He’s not the Democratic Party. This new messiah is pure, unmasked and open Statism. Today in America, we have no King but Caesar.

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." -Benjamin Rush, On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic in 1806

Washington (CNN) – Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job – at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country’s chief executive.

Asked to give Obama a grade as the end of the president’s first year in office approaches, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, gave Obama high marks.

“When it comes to effort, [Obama] should get a straight A,” Schwarzenegger told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in an interview that aired Sunday on State of the Union.

“He’s out there with tremendous energy and he’s selling his ideas. And he has great enthusiasm there. He’s a great speaker, a great communicator.”

The one-time Hollywood action star also had some advice for Obama as the president tries to push his agenda through Capitol Hill’s partisanship.

“He has to hang in there,” Schwarzenegger told King, “be tough, just continue on, never give up, eventually he’s going to get all those things done.”

CNS News: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.” The words “health” and “well-being” do not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." - George Washington

A map of how California will be affected by climate change in the future was unveiled yesterday by state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The map, which demonstrates the devastating effects of global warming in just a century, shows how San Francisco Airport would be completely underwater if sea levels were to rise by 150cm (60in).

The coastline on the map was also coloured, highlighting how nearly half a million Californians are at risk from rising sea levels. - Click here for the full article

The National Weather Service says much of the area could get from a trace to an inch of snow.

But Houston only sees snow, on average, about every four years. And never this early in the season: Friday's, if it comes, would be the earliest snowfall ever in Houston, beating the record tied last year by six days. So forecasters like Fred Schmude, of ImpactWeather, are wary. - click here for the full article