The Daily HatchSoccer Saturday: Highlights of USA v Brazil 2011 World Cup
Womens World Cup 2011 + USA vs Brazil – Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach 2:2 goal in the 122′
USA VS Brazil 2011 Womens World Cup Highlights
Hope Solo & Abby Wambach – U.S. Soccer Team (FIFA) *Interview (July19/11)
The Red Arkansas Blog enjoyed our brief respite culminating with the Labor Day holiday where we fondly remembered the days when our elementary school teachers devoted class time to a picture-drawing and letter-writing campaign to members of the local school board and administration as our teachers prepared to go on strike.
After all, using kids to further a political agenda instead of, you know, actually teaching them is a hallmark of teacher’s unions everywhere, and it is among the pantheon of things we celebrate every three-day weekend we get in September.
So it was no surprise to read about elected officials and would-be politicians of the Democratic Party of Arkansasmade sure to pander to the union label at events across Arkansas so that they may one day receive the largesse of organizations like the AFL-CIO, which spent millions of dollars of workers’ dues in Arkansas in 2010 supporting liberal politicians like Bill Halter and Joyce Elliott who, by the way, were unsuccessful.
In fact, in an article appearing in this morning’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Ms. Elliott did not equivocate as she declared before a pro-union picnic at the Governor’s Mansion that she was “labor to the core.”
One further wonders is the lefty blogosphere will call out these Democrats in much the same way they called out Secretary of State Mark Martin for letting his staff attend Tea Party functions.
Probably not.
One wonders how Gov. Mike Beebe got on with the labor bosses (if he was even there) since he has expressed concern that the current National Labor Relations Board lawsuit against Boeing Corp. for building a plant (that Arkansas tried to land) in the right-to-work state of South Carolinacould be “detrimental to Arkansas’ economic development efforts.”
Of course, this is the same NLRB action that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel refused to stand against, choosing not to join 16 other states in a legal challenge to the lawsuit and earning admirationfrom the Arkansas head of the AFL-CIO. (Mr. McDaniel was not in Little Rock. He was, instead, at a steel worker event in Texarkana in Rep. Mike Ross’ Fourth Congressional District. Coincidence?)
This is the same AFL-CIO that envisions a day when the NLRB suit against Boeing Corp. “ought to apply across the board to businesses.”
One must wonder which side Mr. McDaniel would take if the NLRB were to sue in a case involving Arkansas? The Republican Party of Arkansas wonders the same thing:
“If our own Attorney General does not fight this blatant assault on private industry, then what will he do if the NLRB comes down on an industry looking to locate in Arkansas because of our right-to-work law?”
Which leads us to the Mother of all Union Rallies attended by President Barack Obama and his opening act, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa:
That deafening silence is the looney left and their press corps enablers NOT criticizing these remarks.
So much for that “new tone.”
PARTING SHOT:
We noted in the ADG article that:
“Phynaus Wilson of North Little Rock, a Democrat who worked as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, used the event as a forum to announce his candidacy for Senate District 34.”
I guess the DPA doesn’t think highly of state Rep. Barry Hyde’s chances against state Rep. Jane English.
Posted: Sep 09, 2011 5:45 PM CDTUpdated: Sep 09, 2011 6:00 PM CDT
By JEANNIE NUSS
Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – An attorney for an Arkansas meteorologist who was found in a hot tub with a dead body earlier this week says his client has resigned.
Little Rock-based lawyer Mark Hampton says TV weatherman Brett Cummins resigned from his job with KARK on Friday.
The TV station’s general manager, Mike Vaughn, confirmed that Cummins no longer worked at the station, but he would not say whether he resigned.
Both Hampton and Vaughn declined to comment further. The TV station has removed Cummins’ biography and photo from its website.
Authorities say Cummins and the body of 24-year-old Dexter Williams were found in a hot tub at a Maumelle home on Monday.
Cummins has not been charged in the incident and his attorney says he is innocent.
Today’s THV channel 11 in Little Rock reported: MAUMELLE, Ark. (AP) – An attorney for a local meteorologist says no foul play was involved in the death of a 24-year-old Mountain Pine man. Little Rock-based lawyer Mark Hampton said Thursday that KARK meteorologist Brett Cummins is innocent. Authorities say Cummins and the body of 24-year-old […]
Drugs and alcohol have always been a pitfall that many of the wealthy fall into. We see rock bands that become famous have lots of temptations thrown their way and many fall into these traps. Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Barry McGuire fell into these traps. One joined the “27 Club” and the other left the […]
The recent events in Little Rock concerning KARK TV’s top weatherman Brett Cummins and his experience of drinking alcohol and snorting coke has left a lot of people asking questions. Since the evening ended in the tragic death of one of Brett’s friends, Dexter Williams, many questions have centered on the use of illegal drugs. […]
These are some pictures of Dexter Williams. Unfortunately his life was cut short while drinking and snorting coke with KARK weatherman Brett Cummins. Dexter Williams (Photo from family) Dexter Paul Williams (facebook photo) Related posts: Pictures of Dexter Williams September 7, 2011 – 10:22 pm These are some pictures of Dexter Williams. Unfortunately his life was […]
Youtube video about Brett Cummins story posted. TV weatherman awakens in hot tub next to naked dead man with ‘dog collar’ around his neck after drug and alcohol-fueled party By Thomas Durante Last updated at 7:24 PM on 7th September 2011 It may be part of his job to predict when a storm is […]
Brett Cummins has risen to be the top tv weatherman in the evening at KARK News 4. However, something is missing in his life. (I wish Brett would just take the time to read the story by Marvin A. McMickle | Senior Pastor, Antioch Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio at the end of this post). I […]
Brett Cummins and his friends were drinking heavily and taking drugs on Sunday night and all three of them went to sleep under the influence of alcohol and drugs and only 2 of them woke up. This reminds me of a few verses from the Old Testament. (There is hope. Check out the video interviews of Kerry Livgren […]
This is a link to the full police report. (There is hope. Check out the video interviews of Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope of the rock band Kansas. Also check out an excellent paper by Marvin McMickle on the meaning of the song “I can’t get no satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and where to find the satisfaction.) Dexter […]
Details concerning what happened are coming out now. It seems that KARK can no longer ignore the fact that Cummins was snorting coke. (There is hope, check out testimony of one who has been delivered from drugs and alcohol and his name is Marvin.)Here is a Democrat-Gazette article on the incident: Man, 24, found dead in […]
Brett Cummins was snorting coke but you could never tell it from this statement from KARK: KARK-TV anchor Bob Clausen said on the air today, “Our meteorologist Brett Cummins was at the home at the time of the death and we felt we should share this with you our viewers. Brett will not be on […]
Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 38)
This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, but from a liberal.
Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) called the newly agreed-upon bipartisan compromise deal to raise the debt limit “a sugar-coated satan sandwich.”
“This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see,” Clever tweeted on August 1, 2011.
Amash Issues Statement After Debt Ceiling Vote
Representative Votes Against Budget Control Act
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) issued the following statement after the vote on the Budget Control Act of 2011:
“The Budget Control Act trades $21 billion in cuts next year for a debt ceiling increase of $2.1 trillion. That’s one penny in cuts for each dollar of new debt. The bill does not seriously address the drivers of the federal government’s fiscal crisis. It does not improve entitlement programs. It does not include a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I cannot in good conscience vote for so little reform when so much is at stake.
“I had hoped that Democrats and Republicans would work together to develop a reasonable compromise that is fiscally responsible. I would favor a package that combines eliminating special tax breaks and subsidies with a well-structured balanced budget amendment. I believe that type of package would have broad-based support from the American people. Instead, Congress continues to kick the can down the road.
“We can do better. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle over the next several months to adopt structural reforms that will put the government back on a sustainable path.”
I have mentioned before that I thought it was sad that KARK ignored the fact that Brett Cummins was snorting coke with the young man, Dexter Williams, on Sunday night and that Williams died as a result.
Now at least the other stations in the Little Rock Market have been covering the story.
On Tuesday evening, every news station in Little Rock covered the untimely death of a 24-year-old man who was found dead in a bathtub alongside KARK meteorologist Brett Cummins.
While KARK, an NBC-affiliate, disclosed on-air that its longtime weathercaster was connected to the death, rival stations provided more in-depth coverage of the incident, even though not all of them mentioned Cummins by name.
ABC-affiliate KATV led its 6 p.m. newscast with the story, starting with the line “A man is found dead in a bath tub and a local television personality is a witness.” The station’s coverage–which also ran during the 10 p.m. newscast–featured an interview with a police lieutenant and reporting from Stephanie Simoni, who said that Cummins was found in the bathtub with the dead body.
In covering the story, KATV contacted KARK and news director Rob Heverling stated that Cummins remains employed with the station.
CBS-affiliate KTHV covered the death and the ongoing police investigation at the beginning of its 6 o’clock newscast, mentioning that one of the two witnesses was “KARK chief meteorologist Brett Cummins.”
Like KATV, KTHV interviewed Lt. Jim Hansard and reported that Cummins was found in the bathtub alongside the body. KTHV also relayed the other witness’s claim that Cummins had been snorting illegal narcotics with the man hours before he died.
At the end of its coverage, KTHV read a statement that KARK had posted to its website about the matter. The statement is the same as what KARK anchor Bob Clausen read during the station’s 5, 6, and 10 p.m. newscasts on Tuesday.
While Fox-affiliate KLRT covered the incident during its 5, 9, and 10 p.m. newscasts, the station did not mention Cummins’s name or his job with KARK.
“Since Maumelle police do not know if foul play is involved and because no one has been charged with a crime,” KLRT anchor Kevin Kelly said during the 10 p.m. newscast, “Fox 16 news is not reporting the names of the two witnesses at this time.”
Related Posts:
I have mentioned before that I thought it was sad that KARK ignored the fact that Brett Cummins was snorting coke with the young man, Dexter Williams, on Sunday night and that Williams died as a result. Now at least the other stations in the Little Rock Market have been covering the story. Rival Stations […]
KARK’s website includes these words: Thursday afternoon, Brett Cummins released the following statement to CNN through his attorney: Brett Cummins is devastated by the tragic death of his friend Dexter Williams and extends his sincere condolences to Dexter’s family. They remain foremost in his thoughts and prayers. Mr. Cummins deeply regrets the grief this incident […]
Today’s THV channel 11 in Little Rock reported: MAUMELLE, Ark. (AP) – An attorney for a local meteorologist says no foul play was involved in the death of a 24-year-old Mountain Pine man. Little Rock-based lawyer Mark Hampton said Thursday that KARK meteorologist Brett Cummins is innocent. Authorities say Cummins and the body of 24-year-old […]
Drugs and alcohol have always been a pitfall that many of the wealthy fall into. We see rock bands that become famous have lots of temptations thrown their way and many fall into these traps. Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Barry McGuire fell into these traps. One joined the “27 Club” and the other left the […]
The recent events in Little Rock concerning KARK TV’s top weatherman Brett Cummins and his experience of drinking alcohol and snorting coke has left a lot of people asking questions. Since the evening ended in the tragic death of one of Brett’s friends, Dexter Williams, many questions have centered on the use of illegal drugs. […]
These are some pictures of Dexter Williams. Unfortunately his life was cut short while drinking and snorting coke with KARK weatherman Brett Cummins. Dexter Williams (Photo from family) Dexter Paul Williams (facebook photo) Related posts: Pictures of Dexter Williams September 7, 2011 – 10:22 pm These are some pictures of Dexter Williams. Unfortunately his life was […]
Youtube video about Brett Cummins story posted. TV weatherman awakens in hot tub next to naked dead man with ‘dog collar’ around his neck after drug and alcohol-fueled party By Thomas Durante Last updated at 7:24 PM on 7th September 2011 It may be part of his job to predict when a storm is […]
Brett Cummins has risen to be the top tv weatherman in the evening at KARK News 4. However, something is missing in his life. (I wish Brett would just take the time to read the story by Marvin A. McMickle | Senior Pastor, Antioch Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio at the end of this post). I […]
Brett Cummins and his friends were drinking heavily and taking drugs on Sunday night and all three of them went to sleep under the influence of alcohol and drugs and only 2 of them woke up. This reminds me of a few verses from the Old Testament. (There is hope. Check out the video interviews of Kerry Livgren […]
This is a link to the full police report. (There is hope. Check out the video interviews of Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope of the rock band Kansas. Also check out an excellent paper by Marvin McMickle on the meaning of the song “I can’t get no satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and where to find the satisfaction.) Dexter […]
I have got several comments during the last 35 weeks that my blog has been in existence and the reaction as been positive and negative. My evangelical and conservative political views have generated the most vocal response.
Here are some of my favorite blog posts:
How should we then live? Series by Francis Schaeffer
Senator Pryor asks for Spending Cut Suggestions! Here are a few. (Over 110 blog posts with specific suggestions and all were emailed to Senator Pryor before being posted on my blog.)
Abortionist Bernard Nathanson turned pro-life activist (This long series told about the founder of NARAL and his struggle to continue to do abortions with technology convinced him that these unborn babies were feeling pain.)
The life of Ronald Wilson Reagan (I did over 100 posts on this and actually I named my son Wilson after Reagan.)
Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and should be privatized. (The young people in the USA know this very well.)
The founding fathers of the USA
Biblical Archaeology concerning the accuracy of the Bible
Exposing Unconfirmed quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers (Sadly conservatives are the bigger offenders on this.)
Here are some of my favorite video clips:
Social Security Ponzi scheme?
Raising the Debt Ceiling: It Just Makes Sense. Not
America spends money like a drug addict
The Laffer Curve, Part I: Understanding the Theory
Both Oppenneimer and Lizza have attacked Francis Schaeffer’s view, but the way to know his views best is to take time to watch his film series. I said that in my first post and I will continue to show all ten episodes of his film series “How should we then live?”
This is a series of posts concerning presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her religious beliefs. Particularly I will be looking at the identity of Francis Schaeffer who Michele said had major impact on her views. I also would say that Francis Schaeffer was the greatest christian philosopher of the 20th century.
In 1979 I first watched the film series “How should we then live?” and it was so impressive to me that I returned to my high school with permission from my former teacher to view the series again. In fact, Mr. Brink would tell the seniors at Evangelical Christian School in Cordova, TN something to this affect: “I hope you realize how important this film series by Dr. Francis Schaeffer is. Here we have Everette Hatcher who is in college now, but he is coming back to see this film again because he knows how valuable it is.”
The best way to understand Michele Bachmann’s worldview is to watch the film series “How should we then live?” by Francis Schaeffer. I have provided a 30 minute episode at the end of this post with a written outline. In this film series the humanist worldview is seen as weak because it is not able to give adequate answers to life’s tough questions while the christian worldview can. Humanism has a finite base because it is limited to finite man while the Christian worldview is based on information provided by the infinite-personal God of the Bible.
_______________________
Excellent article by Ross Douthat:
August 31, 2011, 9:48 pm <!– — Updated: 9:52 pm –>
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has posted a response to my criticisms of the way his recent profile of Michele Bachmann portrayed the evangelical writer and activist Francis Schaeffer. In his post, Lizza attempts to justify his article’s claim that Schaeffer’s 198o book “A Christian Manifesto” urges “the violent overthrow of the government if Roe v. Wade isn’t reversed.” I had disputed this point, noting that Schaeffer only urged Christians to consider acts of non-violent civil disobedience against the post-Roe abortion regime (offering examples like the non-payment of taxes and public sit-ins), while explicitly warning his readers against an “overreaction [that] crosses the line from force to violence.” Lizza counters that Schaeffer did write that actual political violence was sometimes justified, citing this passage from the “Manifesto” as an example:
There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate. The Christian is not to take the law into his own hands and become a law unto himself. But when all avenues to flight and protest have closed, force in the defensive posture is appropriate. This was the situation of the American Revolution. The colonists used force in defending themselves. Great Britain, because of its policy toward the colonies, was seen as a foreign power invading America. The colonists defended their homeland. As such, the American Revolution was a conservative counter-revolution. The colonists saw the British as the revolutionaries trying to overthrow the legitimate colonial governments.
A true Christian in Hitler’s Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state and hidden his Jewish neighbors from German SS troops. The government had abrogated its authority, and it had no right to make any demands.
This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States—the issue of abortion …
Lizza also cites the following passage, which again invokes the case of the American revolution:
The thirteen colonies concluded that the time had come and they disobeyed. We must understand that for Rutherford and Locke, and for the Founding Fathers, the bottom line was not an abstract point of conversation over a tea table; at a creation point it had to be acted upon. The thirteen colonies reached the bottom line: they acted in civil disobedience. That civil disobedience led to open war in which men and women died. And that led to the founding of the United States of America. There would have been no founding of the United States of America without the Founding Fathers’ realization that there is a bottom line. And to them the basic bottom line was not pragmatic; it was on of principle.
These and other examples lead Lizza to conclude that while “Schaeffer was sometimes coy about the case he was making and the obvious conclusions he was reaching,” those conclusions pointed inexorably toward violent revolution:
Schaeffer advocates beginning with non-lethal means: legislation, legal attacks in the courts, political action against abortion providers, and sit-ins in legislatures and courts. But if the reader has been paying attention, he knows that this is all just a warm-up for more severe measures if these fail.
But Lizza is misreading Schaeffer’s argument. To the extent that his book even hints at “more severe measures,” they aren’t being recommended if civil disobedience fails. Rather, he’s suggesting that Christians have the right to consider using “defensive force” in situations where civil disobedience isn’t permitted — as in Nazi Germany in the 1940s, or in British-occupied Boston in the 1770s. That’s the point of the line about “when all avenues to flight and protest have closed,” and it’s the point of the paragraph that follows immediately after the second one quoted above:
Please read most thoughtfully what I am going to say in the next sentence: If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the Living God. If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been put in the place of the Living God, because then you are to obey it even when it tells you in its own way at that time to worship Caesar. And that point is exactly where the early Christians performed their acts of civil disobedience even when it cost them their lives.
If there is no final place for civil disobedience. In other words, when Schaeffer discusses situations when “force in the defensive posture” may be appropriate, he’s giving his readers advice for a hypothetical authoritarian situation in the future, not for the democratic present. (And note that even when he’s talking about resisting authoritarianism, he reaches for two explicitly non-violent examples — the martyrdom of the early Christians, and the righteous Gentiles who hid their Jewish neighbors during the Nazi era — to supplement his references to the American Revolution.) He never urges “severe measures” as a legitimate response to Roe v. Wade itself, or implies that violence might be justified if the pro-life movement fails to overturn the decision. (Indeed, as Lizza himself allows, Schaeffer specifically worries that some of “many kooky people around” will misinterpret his support for civil disobedience as a warrant for violence.) Rather, he cites that the Roe decision as a symptom of a creeping illiberalism in American politics that might eventually make genuine civil disobedience impossible, forcing Christians to choose between martyrdom and revolt.
Was the late-in-life Schaeffer much too paranoid about the dangers of creeping secular authoritarianism in the United States? Absolutely. Is it fair for Lizza to link his Reagan-era paranoia to the paranoia that’s sometimes manifested by figures like Bachmann today? I would say yes again. (Though such paranoia can be a bipartisan temptation …) But is it fair to accuse Schaeffer of urging “the violent overthrow of the government if Roe v. Wade isn’t reversed”? Once again, the answer is no.
____________________________________________
E P I S O D E 1 0
FINAL CHOICES
I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option
One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes.
A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes.
B. But society has to be led by an elite: John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Theobald.
C. Daniel Bell’s prophecy of technocratic elite.
D. Bell’s warning of cultural contradiction: no absolute ethic to accompany absolute power.
II. Nature of the New Authoritarianism
A. Do not think of the model of Hitler and Stalin.
B. Probably a manipulative, authoritarian elite.
III. Possible Forms of Manipulation
A. Review from Episode Six: Koestler—chemical agents; Krantz—birth control in world’s drinking supply; Clark—political leaders should take anti-aggression pills; Lee—psychological tests for public officials; Skinner—reinforcers to modify behavior.
B. Genetic condition: Francis Crick.
1. He advocates:
a) That some group of people is to decide who should be the parents of the next generation and who should be born.
b) That some group of people should determine what kind of people they want in the future and will set out genetically to make them.
2. Once Man is no longer seen as made in God’s image, there is no reason not to “tinker” with Man genetically.
C. The mass media.
1. TV conditions by selective editing. Illustration: simulated riot filmed in San Jose.
2. No collusion needed if views of elite and newsmakers coincide. Media not monolithic, but total control not needed to achieve manipulation.
IV Authoritarianism in Government. Illustration: United States
A. The dilemma of people who speak out for civil liberties but are also committed to the government’s having a responsibility to solve every problem.
B. Christian freedoms without Christian base produce chaos.
C. In the United States an authoritarian, manipulating government could come from the administrative (executive) side, the legislature, or from the courts functioning on variable, sociological law.
V. Threat of Authoritarianism
A. Leftist or Rightist authoritarianism are only two roads to the same end.
B. With the loss of Christian consensus, no reason for young or old committed to apathy not to give in if promised personal peace and affluence.
C. Roman bridge simile: humanist values collapse under pressure.
D. Some overwhelming pressures which progressively tend to prepare modern people to accept a manipulative, authoritarian government:
1. Economic breakdown.
a) Spiral of inflation leads to economic recession.
b) Fear of economic breakdown swamps concern for liberty.
2. Random violence and political terrorism. Fear can be so great than any compromise is worth security.
3. Threat of War between the West and expansionist Communist Block. Fear of war opens the way for many to accept authoritarianism as lesser evil.
4. World food shortage and change in world distribution of wealth and goods.
a) Threat of lower living standards alters basic attitudes.
b) Authoritarianism more likely to be accepted in a descending spiral of prosperity and a country’s place of power.
E. As in the days of Caesar Augustus (Episode One), authoritarianism is most easily accepted if it is brought in while seeming to keep the outward forms of constitutionality.
VI. Two Alternatives to Chaos:
Either authoritarianism—or society’s affirming once again the original source of freedom, God’s revelation in the Bible, and His revelation through Christ.
A. Reconsidering the second alternative.
1. Nonpragmatic nature of biblical Christianity.
a) Christianity not a superior utilitarianism to mend society; Christianity is truth that gives a unity to all of knowledge and all of life.
b) Stems from the infinite-personal God who exists and who was the Maker of the heavens and the earth.
c) The acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord, living under the absolutes which the Bible gives.
d) Christians have a responsibility to influence society across its whole spectrum and the entire spectrum of life.
e) Christians can influence consensus without being a majority.
2. The message of Paul to the Greek and Roman world applied.
a) Classical-humanist answers insufficient.
b) World is guilty of suppressing God’s truth and living accordingly. The universe and its form and the mannishness of Man speak the same truth that the Bible gives in greater detail.
c) Biblical Christianity is a message that people can return to God on the basis of Christ’s work alone, but it also gives the base for form and freedom in society.
d) It is this which can give us a hope for the future.
e) It is either this or an imposed order.
B. A reminder about presuppositions.
1. People act out their thoughts, whether they know it or not.
2. All depends on the world view one accepts and lives upon.
Questions
1. The theory of human biological manipulation, granted its premises, is entirely consistent. Outline these premises and the way in which various programs of manipulation are derived from them.
2. In a world moving steadily towards authoritarian regimes, does the relative slowness of Western democracies to lose their freedoms increase or decrease the likelihood of the West’s political survival? Give reasons.
3. Can you think of ways in which you and your church’s attitudes to society betray the utilitarian approach to the world? Does this approach reflect ignorance about the Truth and guilt about our failure to live it? What is the alternative approach and what does it reflect?
Key Events and Persons
Paul’s speech in Athens: c. A.D. 53
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: c. A.D. 60
J.K. Galbraith: 1908-
Francis Crick: 1916-
Daniel Bell: 1919-
The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society: 1973
Robert Theobald: 1929-
Further Study
As an exercise, you might find it valuable to collect clippings which deal with the subjects discussed and see what attitudes are betrayed by the authors. To pool such clippings in a group for the purpose of joint examination would be very illuminating.
Daniel Boorstin, The Image (1961).
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda (1965).
Francis Crick, Of Molecules and Men (1967).
Francis Crick, Origins of the Genetic Code (1968).
Gordon R. Taylor, The Biological Time-Bomb (1969).
Daniel Bell, The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society (1973).
E.M.B. Green, Evangelism in the Early Church (1970).
Francis A. Schaeffer, Death in the City (1969).
Nevil Shute, On the Beach (1952).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Communism: A Legacy of Terror (1975).
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (1965.)
Related Posts:
E P I S O D E 1 0 How Should We Then Live 10#1 FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be led by an elite: John Kenneth […]
E P I S O D E 9 How Should We Then Live 9#1 T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads to Pessimism Regarding a Meaning for Life and for Fixed […]
E P I S O D E 8 How Should We Then Live 8#1 I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas) and Post-Impressionism (Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, […]
E P I S O D E 7 How Should We Then Live 7#1 I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act on his belief that we live […]
I have made it clear from day one when I started this blog that Francis Schaeffer, Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan and Adrian Rogers had been the biggest influences on my political and religious views. Today I am responding to an unfair attack on Francis Schaeffer’s book “A Christian Manifesto.” As you can see on the […]
E P I S O D E 6 How Should We Then Live 6#1 I am sharing with you a film series that I saw in 1979. In this film Francis Schaeffer asserted that was a shift in Modern Science. A. Change in conviction from earlier modern scientists.B. From an open to a closed natural system: […]
E P I S O D E 5 How Should We Then Live 5-1 I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Francis Schaeffer noted, “Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection. But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there was a unique improvement. A. […]
How Should We Then Live 4-1 I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer makes three key points concerning the Reformation: “1. Erasmian Christian humanism rejected by Farel. 2. Bible gives needed answers not only as to how to be right with […]
How Should We Then Live 3-1 I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer really shows why we have so many problems today with this excellent episode. He noted, “Could have gone either way—with emphasis on real people living in […]
How Should We Then Live 2-1 I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer points out that during this time period unfortunately we have the “Church’s deviation from early church’s teaching in regard to authority and the approach to God.” […]
How Should We Then Live 1-1 Today I am starting a series that really had a big impact on my life back in the 1970′s when I first saw it. There are ten parts and today is the first. Francis Schaeffer takes a look at Rome and why it fell. It fell because of inward [..
Outstanding rebuttal by Michele Bachmann to President Obama’s speech of September 8, 2011:
Unfortunately, it seems, every time the President speaks, his policies have cost the American people jobs and future prosperity.
Tonight the President under the veil of one of the most sacred deliberative forums, a joint session of Congress, delivered another political speech where he doubled down on more of the same policies that are killing the economy.
Mr. President, what among your proposals was new? What here hasn’t already been tried and failed before?
While the President’s speech comes on the heels of a trillion dollars of failed stimulus, bailouts, and temporary gimmicks aimed at creating jobs, the President continued to cling to the idea that government is the solution to creating jobs.
My conservative colleagues and I have been fighting over the last two and half years for pro growth policies.
I stand here tonight to say to the President, not only should Congress not pass your plan, I say, “stop; your last plan hasn’t worked, it’s hurting the American economy.” Instead of temporary fixes, do what has proved to work in the past, permanent pro growth policies that are driven by the free market.”
Today, unemployment is 9.1 percent. Job creation has literally been zeroed out with the worst jobs report in 66 years this last month. Since the President’s failed trillion dollar stimulus we have lost over 2.5 million jobs while adding 416,000 government jobs. One in six Americans is now on food stamps, and the average time unemployed Americans are out of work is greater than 40 weeks. Housing values have fallen 19% from 2008 to the first quarter of this year. GDP growth was an anemic .4% in the first quarter and at 1% in the last and the dollar has lost 12 percent of its value.
These are not good times for the American people. Our patience for speeches, gimmicks and excuses has run out.
The only remedies the President knows are temporary, government directed fixes. And even if the President’s plan passes, we already know it will fail. In practice, we haven’t paid for his last trillion dollar jobs program and now his latest plan would have us embrace potentially over $400 billion in new government spending!
Spending taxpayer dollars on extending unemployment benefits has proved to add only 25 cents to GDP for every dollar we spend. Even the President’s new economic advisor agrees that extending unemployment benefits discourages future employment. Spending taxpayer dollars on extending the payroll tax holiday will reduce over 111 billion dollars to the Social Security trust fund this year and continuation of this policy will put social security checks to seniors at even greater risk. Spending taxpayer dollars on more infrastructure projects failed to create lasting jobs in the last stimulus.
And, looming on the horizon is the full scale implementation of Obamacare that, according the Congressional Budget Office, will kill 800,000 jobs and steal over 500 billion from Medicare.
Candidate Obama promised to wipe out deficits and the debt. Instead the President has increased the debt by over 6 trillion dollars, and what do we have to show for it? Permanent increases in the size of government, spending and debt, with a greater dependency on government.
Four years ago President Bush’s deficit was around 160 billion dollars; today, President Obama’s is nearly ten times that amount.
The President and Vice-President’s plan to spend us to prosperity has failed. And worse, they have stolen from a generation of Americans yet unborn, the consequences of which mean a near certainty of reduced choices and a dramatically downsized lifestyle for future generations from what we enjoy today.
Generational theft is a moral and ethical issue, and I care deeply about both the present generation and generations to come.
The President is politically paralyzed and philosophically incapable of doing what needs to be done.
I do agree, the President should take immediate action. But it is the nine following steps that will put us on a path to economic growth and put Americans back to work;
1) Repatriate American business dollars earned from overseas,
2) Massively cut spending and the size of government,
3) Repeal Obamacare, which is the government takeover of America’s healthcare system,
4) Cut taxes, including corporate taxes,
5) Repeal Dodd-Frank,
6) Repeal job killing regulations,
7) Increase exports by finalizing free trade agreements,
8) Spur new investment in America, inspire innovation,
9) Provide job creating energy solutions, including decreased regulations on developing new energy supplies from our abundant domestic energy resources.
The way forward needs to be based on permanent solutions grounded in the private sector. That is how we will once again restore economic prosperity to our country.
God Bless the United States of America.
This is a series of posts concerning presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her religious beliefs. Particularly I will be looking at the identity of Francis Schaeffer who Michele said had major impact on her views. I also would say that Francis Schaeffer was the greatest christian philosopher of the 20th century.
In 1979 I first watched the film series “How should we then live?” and it was so impressive to me that I returned to my high school with permission from my former teacher to view the series again. In fact, Mr. Brink would tell the seniors at Evangelical Christian School in Cordova, TN something to this affect: “I hope you realize how important this film series by Dr. Francis Schaeffer is. Here we have Everette Hatcher who is in college now, but he is coming back to see this film again because he knows how valuable it is.”
The best way to understand Michele Bachmann’s worldview is to watch the film series “How should we then live?” by Francis Schaeffer. I have provided a 30 minute episode at the end of this post with a written outline. In this film series the humanist worldview is seen as weak because it is not able to give adequate answers to life’s tough questions while the christian worldview can. Humanism has a finite base because it is limited to finite man while the Christian worldview is based on information provided by the infinite-personal God of the Bible.
____________________________________________
E P I S O D E 9
T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce
I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought
II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads to Pessimism
Regarding a Meaning for Life and for Fixed Values
A. General acceptance of selfish values (personal peace and affluence) accompanied rejection of Christian consensus.
1. Personal peace means: I want to be left alone, and I don’t care what happens to the man across the street or across the world. I want my own life-style to be undisturbed regardless of what it will mean — even to my own children and grandchildren.
2. Affluence means things, things, things, always more things — and success is seen as an abundance of things.
B. Students wish to escape meaninglessness of much of adult society.
1. Watershed was Berkeley in 1964.
2. Drug Taking as an ideology: “turning on” the world.
3. Free Speech Movement on Sproul Plaza.
a) At first neither Left nor Right.
b) Soon became the New Left.
(1) Followed Marcuse.
(2) Paris riots.
4. Student analysis of problem was right, but solution wrong.
5. Woodstock, Altamont, and the end of innocence.
6. Drug taking survives the death of ideology but as an escape.
7. Demise of New Left: radical bombings.
8. Apathy supreme. The young accept values of the older generation: their own idea of personal peace and affluence, even though adopting a different life-style.
C. Marxism and Maoism as pseudo-ideals.
1. Vogue for idealistic communism which is another form of leap into the area of non-reason.
2. Solzhenitsyn: violence and expediency as norms of communism.
3. Communist repression in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
4. Communism has neither philosophic nor historic base for freedom. There is no base for “Communism with a human face.”
5. Utopian Marxism steals its talk of human dignity from Christianity.
6. But when it comes to power, the desire of majority has no meaning.
7. Two streams of communism.
a) Those who hold it as an idealistic leap.
b) Old-line communists who hold orthodox communist ideology and bureaucratic structure as it exists in Russia.
8. Many in West might accept communism if it seemed to give peace and affluence.
III. Legal and Political Results of Attempted Human Autonomy
A. Relativistic law.
1. Base for nonarbitrary law gone; only inertia allows a few principles to survive.
2. Holmes and sociological (variable) law.
3. Sociological law comes from failure of natural law (see evolution of existential from rationalistic theology).
4. Courts are now generating law.
5. Medical, legal, and historical arbitrariness of Supreme Court ruling on abortion and current abortion practice.
B. Sociological law opens door to racism, abrogation of freedoms, euthanasia, and so on.
IV. Social Alternatives After Death of Christian Consensus
A. Hedonism? But might is right when pleasures conflict.
B. Without external absolute, majority vote is absolute. But this justifies a Hitler.
V. Conclusion
A. If there is no absolute by which to judge society, then society is absolute.
B. Humanist thinking—making the individual and mankind the center of all things (autonomous) — has led to death in our culture and in our political life.
Note: Social alternatives after the death of Christian consensus are continued in Episode Ten.
Questions
1. What was the basic cause of campus unrest in the sixties? What has happened to the campus scene since, and why?
2. What elements — in the life and thought of the communist and noncommunist world alike — suggest a possible base for world agreement?
3. “To prophesy doom about Western society is premature. We are, like all others who have lived in times of great change, too close to the details to see the broader picture. One thing we do know:
Society has always gone on, and the most wonderful epochs have followed the greatest depressions. To suggest that our day is the exception says more about our headache than it does about our head.” Debate.
4. As Dr. Schaeffer shows, many apparently isolated events and options gain new meaning when seen in the context of the whole. How far does your own involvement in business, law, financing, and so on reveal an acquiescence to current values?
Key Events and Persons
Oliver Wendell Holmes: 1841-1935
Herbert Marcuse: 1898-1979
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 1917-
Hungarian Revolution: 1956
Free Speech Movement: 1964
Czechoslovakian repression: 1968
Woodstock and Altamont: 1969
Radical bombings: 1970
Supreme Court abortion ruling: 1973
Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago: 1973-74
Further Study
Keeping one’s eyes and ears open is the most useful study project: the prevalence of pornographic films and books, more and more suggestive advertising and TV shows, and signs of arbitrary absolutes.
The following books will repay careful reading, and Solzhenitsyn, though long and horrifying, should not be skipped.
Os Guinness, The Dust of Death (1973).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: Parts I-II (1973), Parts III-IV (1974).
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E P I S O D E 9 How Should We Then Live 9#1 T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads to Pessimism Regarding a Meaning for Life and for Fixed […]
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KARK’s website includes these words:
Thursday afternoon, Brett Cummins released the following statement to CNN through his attorney:
Brett Cummins is devastated by the tragic death of his friend Dexter Williams and extends his sincere condolences to Dexter’s family.
They remain foremost in his thoughts and prayers. Mr. Cummins deeply regrets the grief this incident has caused those who know him, especially his co-workers and family members.
Mr. Cummins continues to cooperate fully with authorities investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr. Williams’ passing and, like them, looks forward to a conclusion of the inquiry, secure in his own innocence and confident that no foul play was involved.
In an attempt to assist the Maumelle Police Department as they gather information in this regard, and so that all resources can be properly focused, no further public statements will be made at this time.
Brett will not be on the air as he continues mourning the loss of his friend.
___________________
I can understand that Brett (33 yrs old) does not want to mention in his statement that he was drinking heavily and snorting coke with his friends the night that Dexter Williams (24 yrs old) died. However, it seems strange to me that KARK does not run the story the same as the other stations that have exposed all of these facts.
I wish Brett would turn over the name and phone number of his drug dealer to the police. That would be a helpful step to take down the major criminal behind all of this and at the same time it would save many future tragic events from occurring.
Dexter Paul Williams (facebook photo)
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