Where does liberalism lead? Look at Norway and you will see them letting mass murderers out in a few years!!!

In Norway we read of Breivik and what he did at age 32 by killing those people in Norway and now we find out that this socialist country in Europe knows better than us and is letting mass murderers out in just a few years. 

Take a look at this story below: 

Norway | Anders Behring Breivik | 21 Years in Prison 

The alleged mass murderer who killed nearly 100 people in Norway on Friday may be facing just 21 years in prison if convicted. Norway does not have the death penalty.

Oslo police chief of staff Roger Andresen told the San Francisco Chronicle that the maximum prison term suspected killer Anders Behring Breivik could face is 21 years under Norwegian law.

Two law professors at the University of Oslo confirmed Andresen’s assessment.

“21 years in prison is the maximum,” Professor Per Ole Johansen told The Daily Caller.

“The max punishment may — theoretically — be increased, but not for crimes which are already committed,” he said, when asked whether it was possible for the punishment to be increased considering the scale of this specific mass crime.

“[I]f the prisoner behaves, he or she will probably be released several years earlier,” Professor Nils Christie told TheDC while also confirming that 21 years is the maximum penalty in Norway.

Christie, however, said it is theoretically possible for the perpetrator to be held in prison longer than 21 years, though it almost never happens.

“If, however, the person is seen as a particular danger to society, the person might receive a sentence that authorize prison authorities to keep him or her even longer when the 21 years are coming close to the end,” he added. “This wish must again be brought up for a court. As far as I know, such a situation nearly never appear.”

Police are labeling the attacks as acts of terrorism, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Breivik, 32, is suspected of being behind attacks Friday that killed at least 94 people and injured many others. A car bombing in the Norwegian capital of Oslo killed at least seven and a shooting spree at a youth camp on the island of Utoya outside of Oslo killed at minimum 87, many of whom were teenagers.

________________________________

I am a Christian and because of that I firmly believe that capital punishment is clearly taught in the Bible. Below is an article that makes this clear. Also I do believe it is a deterrent. Greg Koukl rightly noted, “I was listening a couple of years ago to KABC and talk show host Michael Jackson. He was making the point that capital punishment never works. And of course, he’s thinking of it as a deterrent. My response is, capital punishment works every time. Every time it’s used, the prisoner dies.”

Also I agree with Koukl that in the case of the Oklahoma City Bombing the murderer deserved to die. The same should be said about this case in Norway!!!

Reasons for Capital Punishment

  

Gregory Koukl

There’s a reason both the Old and the New Testaments promote capital punishment. That reason was applicable then and still applies today.divider

Apparently, Jesse Jackson made some comments on “Meet the Press” this morning referring to the possibility of capital punishment for Timothy McVeigh. He said, allegedly, that executing McVeigh would just be a trophy that the people of Oklahoma City would like to get in their trophy case to make them feel better.Jackson should have been ashamed of his comment. To refer the punishment of a man who is a convicted killer of 168 citizens of Oklahoma City by those who are deeply interested in justice as simply a quest for trophies is an insult to every person who lost a loved one in that explosion. It’s an absolute insult, and it should be an insult to every clear-thinking American.

Capital punishment is not about getting trophies in any trophy case, any more than life imprisonment is about putting man in a cage as a trophy in a human zoo. It’s about justice. What the people in Oklahoma City want– and all Americans who are in favor of capital punishment for a man who violently snuffed out the lives of 168 people– is not a trophy. They want justice.

I’m actually stunned, to be honest with you, that there are so many Christians who oppose capital punishment on biblical grounds. It ought to be clear to anyone familiar with the biblical record that God is not against capital punishment. It was His idea. He started it.

Go back to Genesis 9:6 and you’ll find this: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”

You see, the crime of murder is not principally based on the idea that you robbed a person of his life. That confuses the Fifth Commandment with the Seventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not steal.” It’s wrong to take someone else’s possessions, including his life.

No, murder is not a crime of theft, but of destruction. We have destroyed the life of one made in the image of God . God says such a crime deserves the most extreme punishment. You take a life, you surrender your own life.

By the way, read through the Old Testament and you’ll find 21 different offenses that called for the death penalty. Only three include an actual or potential capital offense by our current definition. Six are for religious offenses, ten are for various moral issues, and two relate to ceremonial issues.

So if you’re going to call anybody frivolous about using capital punishment, you can start with God. God instituted it for a wide range of offenses, not just murder. But it included murder, and would certainly be justified, in God’s eyes, for someone who murdered 168 people.

I’m not suggesting we reinstate capital punishment for the offenses of the Old Testament or even that capital punishment is obligatory. I am saying that it’s a moral alternative that is, at least in principle, totally approved by God.

Some feel that even though capital punishment was approved in the Old Testament, the New Testament has changed all of that. I will tell you why that is not a good way to argue. They say Jesus, or some teaching in the New Testament, has somehow changed that. My response is, “Where?”

Actually, capital punishment is strongly assumed in the New Testament. In Romans 13, Paul argues that governing authorities are set there by God. He says, “If you do what is evil, be afraid, for the government does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is minister of God and avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” God ordains the governing authorities, and those governing authorities have a God-ordained responsibility to execute justice with the sword.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13-14 that these authorities were sent by God for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do right.

People say, “Well capital punishment is just revenge.” My response is they’re right in a sense. It is revenge. In fact, it’s just revenge. It’s God’s vengeance based on justice, executed through the machinery of government that God ordained.

Paul uses the word “sword” here. I don’t think he had in mind paddling people with the broad side of the sword. No, capital punishment is in view here as a proper tool government would use to express the vengeance of God in a just fashion against gratuitous evil. That’s the biblical teaching.

What about Jesus? Some say Jesus’ ethic of love and forgiveness requires us to end the death penalty. This was the appeal Mother Theresa made when Robert Alton Harris was facing the gas chamber here in California. She appealed to the governor saying Jesus would forgive.

With no disrespect towards Mother Theresa, I think her comments were mistaken because her view simply proves too much. What should be done instead with capital criminals? Should we put them in prison for the rest of their lives? But Jesus would forgive. Should we put them in prison for ten years? But Jesus would forgive. Should we put a murderer in prison for one day? But Jesus would forgive.

You see, if this argument works it becomes justification for the abolishment of any kind of punishment whatsoever. This argument proves too much.

Further, that Jesus would forgive is a different issue from whether the governmentshould forgive. God can forgive evil. That doesn’t mean the government should forgive it in terms of its exercise of justice.

In fact, Jesus never challenged the validity of the death penalty when He had perfect opportunity to do so. Even in John 8, with the woman caught in adultery, he never challenged the death penalty itself. He didn’t enforce it under what seemed to be an unjust situation because all the witnesses fled. Remember, Jesus said, “Is there no one here to condemn you? Then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” The Law required witnesses to convict someone.

Jesus did not speak against the death penalty here. It was required by law. Jesus upheld the law. He just realized there was a nasty situation of injustice that was going on and so He found some other way to get around it.

And when Jesus was on the cross He asked God to forgive, not Caesar. He never suggested that capital punishment was inappropriate.

I think that we have to argue for the coherence and consistency of both Testaments on this issue. The question is not, “Was Jesus right or was Moses right?” The question is trying to find a way to bring them all together. Clearly, there was no abrogation of capital punishment in the New Testament.

In fact, if you recall Paul in the book of Acts (25:11) made this appeal for his life: “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.” Paul didn’t take exception with capital punishment, even for himself. His point was that he wasn’t guilty, not that capital punishment was wrong.

Which, by the way, brings us to another point that Mr. Jackson raised this morning on TV. He said Jesus was crucified. Jesus died at capital punishment. To which I respond, “So? What follows from that is…what? The significance of that is…what?” The answer is: nothing. The issue regarding Jesus was not capital punishment, but his innocence. In Acts 2, Peter condemns the act of handing over the innocentJesus to godless executioners.

Now, God’s mercy is always available in God’s court. But man’s court is another matter, ladies and gentlemen. It is governed by different biblical responsibilities. So one can’t say that capital punishment is patently immoral on biblical grounds. It just isn’t. There’s a good reason why. It has to do with something I explained very carefully to the man who interviewed me for US New and World Report on this very issue.

Capital punishment is important. The Bible–Old and New Testament–is for it, not against it. There is nothing in the New Testament that would give us any reason to think otherwise. In fact, it presumes capital punishment in many places.

I was listening a couple of years ago to KABC and talk show host Michael Jackson. He was making the point that capital punishment never works. And of course, he’s thinking of it as a deterrent.

My response is, capital punishment works every time. Every time it’s used, the prisoner dies.

You see, the reason for capital punishment is obviously not to rehabilitate somebody. The deterrent may be a secondary factor. But that isn’t why we use capital punishment. We use capital punishment to punishsomeone (pardon me for stating the obvious).

You see, all of this relates to your view of what human beings are. If human beings are machines determined either by genetics or by environment, then what do you do when a machine goes bad? You fix it. And if you can’t fix it, you throw it away. That’s the basis behind the rehabilitation idea. And of course, the throwaway mentality we see in a lot of other ethical areas.

however, if you think that human beings are personal creatures capable of choosing and, therefore, have moral responsibilities–when they do good we praise them, (which everybody wants), and when they do bad we punish them–then punishment makes sense. Punishment of all kinds. Even capital punishment.

Human beings are moral creatures who either deserve praise or blame depending on the circumstances–when they choose well, we praise them and when they violate a serious moral mandate, we punish them. (When we praise and blame, by the way, in both cases we’re expressing respect for the dignity of man in virtue of the fact that human beings are made in the image of God and have the capability of choosing.)

Punishment may range from a parking ticket to death. What determines which punishment? An ancient principle called lex taliones , “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”–the point being that the punishment must fit the crime. If somebody steals a loaf of bread, we don’t whack their arm off.

By the same token, if somebody kills 168 people, we don’t just put him in a cage for the rest of his life. He took 168 human lives! He should be punished in a way that fits his crime. He should sacrifice his own life.

That’s the basic question: What is a human being? I think he’s a free moral agent. If he is, then we should praise him when he does well. But if he doesn’t, then he deserves to be punished, and the punishment should fit the crime.

 

This is a transcript of a commentary from the radio show“Stand to Reason,” with Gregory Koukl. It is made available to you at no charge through the faithful giving of those who support Stand to Reason. Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only. ©1997 Gregory Koukl

For more information, contact Stand to Reason at 1438 East 33rd St., Signal Hill, CA 90755
(800) 2-REASON (562) 595-7333 www.str.org

Related post:

Max Brantley and Betsey Wright on Death Penalty

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com (2 min Mike Huckabee on Death Penalty in Republican Primary) Max Brantley rightly noted that “no one has been executed in Arkansas since 2005″ (Death Penalty in Decline, Arkansas Times Blog, Dec 27, 2010). However, the debate is clearly not over. In the July 13, 2006 article “Waiting for Death” by Max Brantley and […]

July 24, 2011 – 10:16 am Categories: Capital Punishment, Current Events | Post a comment

Critical review of Woody Allen’s latest movie “Midnight in Paris”

I love the movie “Midnight in Paris.” However, here is a negative review below:

Woody Allen’s current film, “Midnight in Paris,” is his most enjoyable work in many years.  In it Allen captures his constant preoccupations — mortality, time travel, the coreless, nebbish protagonist — in a new and amusing way.  Still, it — like all of Allen’s work — falls short of great art.  Here are six reasons:

1.  The hero isn’t heroic.  Actually, Allen’s films have gotten worse in this regard — from his highly imaginative early works like Bananas and Take the Money and Run where, despite the films’ surrealistic anticness, the main character is engaged in an heroic struggle.  In “Paris,” Owen Wilson is engaged to a woman he dislikes from a family he disrespects.  That he needs to escape from their grasp is so self-evident from the start that there not only is no suspense to that effort, but viewers can’t respect the character who is stuck in this predicament.  Great art never mocks its own themes and characters.  Charlie Chaplin’s tramp, no matter how ridiculous he appears to be, is never less than heroic.

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2.  The supporting characters are unmotivated.  It is often fun to see the array of more or less talented acters Allen has assembled for a wide range of supporting — usually cameo — appearances, where they serve as props for the main character’s amusement and to fuel his ruminations on life and people.  But they are obviously not real human beings.  In “Paris,” the subsidiary characters are — even more than usual in Allen’s films — props and side shows.

3.  Allen’s self-conscious riffs about intellectuals get in the way.  Allen is a brilliantly talented man who didn’t graduate college and still hasn’t gotten over it.  He — and his protagonists — are preoccupied with “pseudo-intellectuals.”  But what is worse is that his own main character’s idea of displaying his intellectual chops is to outdo the pedants in pedantry — as though understanding and appreciating art were a matter of time-lining the artists’ mistresses and wives.  And, of course, the cameo appearances by the great artists of the twentieth century simply reinforce popular caricatures of each — in “Paris,” Allen’s preoccupation with Hemingway as his own antithesis takes up way too much time and energy.

4.  The hero can’t love.  Wilson, as the Allen stand-in, bests Hemingway in winning the love of his beautiful heroine.  But the film has no real love scenes — even Allen’s love goddess is a prop for the Allen stand-in character.  Compare this to Charlie Chaplin’s classic films — like “The Gold Rush,” “City Lights,” and “Modern Times.”  In the first two films, the Chaplin characters’ hearts are broken by their unrequited longing for the beautiful women whose regard they cannot hope to obtain.  In “Times,” Chaplin creates a remarkable partnership with the Paulette Goddard character with whom he walks down the road at the film’s end.  Many years ago, the New York Psychoanalytic Society staged a film festival in which the “The Gold Rush” was shown.  When the analyst who selected the film was questioned about his off-beat choice, he said: “When I was a youngster and I saw The Gold Rush, I laughed.  When I was an adult and I saw it, I cried.”

5.  You can’t summarize a great film in one sentence.  Ironically, Owen Wilson’s — and “Paris”‘s — concluding insight is the same as the point that the pedant pseudo-intellectual first makes on hearing the theme for Wilson’s novel — that being lost in nostalgia for an unrealizable past is simply an escape from living in the present.

6.  Allen’s cityscape montages.  The best thing about “Paris” — as was also true of “Manhattan” — are the cityscape montages of the two cities.  Allen really loves Paris and New York, in a way he seemingly does not love people (Owen Wilson’s love interest is the Paris of the 1920s), and viewing the snapshots is a tremendous pleasure.  Great directors like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock also use iconic scenes — see Ford’s use of Monument Valley in “The Searchers” and Hitchcock’s use of Mount Rushmore in “North by Northwest.”  But they don’t include these to savor the scenery  — the scenes of which they are a part are intimately connected to the plot and the main characters’ lives and struggles.  That is, the films are integrated wholes.

I apologize in advance to Woody Allen fans.  It is great to have a contemporary director who is so seriously engaged in film-making and who tackles serious matters confronting society, the psyche, and the soul.  I admire his dedication and constant work.  I ony wish that Allen and his films could transcend their artistic limitations.

July 24, 2011 – 5:56 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Senator Pryor asks for Spending Cut Suggestions! Here are a few!(Part 99)

Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:

Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

On May 11, 2011,  I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:

Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner.  I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.

Here are a few more I just emailed to Senator Pryor myself:

Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them—costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually—fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.

  • Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers—the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.
  • Medicare officials recently mailed $50 millionin erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.
  • Audits showed $34 billionworth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
July 24, 2011 – 5:31 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

What happened in the two hours on the island for the campers in Norway?

Norway’s island survivors on 2-hour fight for life

SHAWN POGATCHNIK – 7/23/2011 8:43:42 PMBookmark and Share

 

When the blond man in the police uniform started firing his assault rifle, many of the youths couldn’t believe it was real. It had to be a sick prank. Something this crazy could never happen in quiet, sensible Norway.

 

 

 

Then terror flared in the eyes of friends with a better view: of teens and young adults crumpling to the ground, blood streaming from point-blank bullet wounds. Hundreds turned and ran to every corner of Utoya Island. They opted to cower silently or swim for their lives.

 

One day after a gunman posing as their protector killed at least 85 campers at a youth retreat for Norway’s ruling Labor Party, survivors and the local boatmen who helped save them recounted their two hours of horror, confusion and fear.

 

3:30 p.m.:

 

Three days into their annual summer camp, some 600 Labor Party youth activists from all over Norway hear the first, vague news of a bombing in the capital, Oslo, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) away. Far too distant to see billowing smoke or hear sirens. No way to tell how bad the explosion, just four minutes before, might be.

 

For some, a main concern is whether the camp will continue, and whether Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will still visit their lake-locked retreat that weekend.

 

4:30 p.m.:

 

As footage of destruction and news of deaths confirm the huge scale of the Oslo explosion, Utoya’s campers gather in worried huddles and talk quietly at tentsides, in the cafeteria, at fir-lined coves and the island’s tiny harbor. They touch foreheads while watching news on their smartphones. Those from Oslo call parents and siblings to confirm they’re all right.

 

“We consoled ourselves that we were safe on an island. No one knew that hell would break out with us too,” one Oslo Labor activist, Prableen Kaur, writes on her blog the next day.

 

5 p.m.:

 

Amid the coming and going of several small boats, a lone policeman arrives.

 

The officer _ armed, unusually, with two firearms visible on his hip and shoulder _ says he’s there to boost security. To ensure they’re safe.

 

Then, witnesses say, he raises his assault rifle and opens fire with bursts of automatic fire. His hunt of defenseless left-wing political activists has begun.

 

5:10 p.m.:

 

At the camp’s food hall, Jorgen Benone is still talking with friends about the Oslo attack as they “hear panic down by the water.”

 

“We were wondering: What’s happening? Is it some balloons exploding or is somebody kidding?” he says. “Then we started to understand that people actually had been shot. Chaos broke out everywhere, and everyone started to run.”

 

People at the camp report trying to call Norway’s emergency services but are told to keep off the line unless they’re calling about the Oslo bomb.

 

5:15 p.m.:

 

Witnesses say the gunman enters a village of tents, the residential heart of the weeklong retreat, and spots desperate individuals hoping he’ll spare them if they run back inside their homes. But the killer is seen working his way tent by tent, shooting many point-blank, one by one.

 

5:20 p.m.:

 

Kaur joins a group of panicked, confused campers. They are running from the approaching gunman, his “POLICE” moniker crystal-clear to see from even middle distance.

 

“My first thought was: Why are the police shooting at us? What the hell?” she writes.

 

More than a dozen crowd into a dark corner of a camp building, and all lie down on the floor. She cries quietly _ then sees her best friend from camp, a boy, through a window.

 

“I wondered if I should go out and bring him to me. I did not. I saw fear in his eyes,” she writes.

 

5:25 p.m.:

 

Kaur says a burst of gunfire extremely close to the building triggers panic and the entire group leaps out of a far window. Several suffer injuries, including a girl with a broken ankle, but the shooter doesn’t immediately pursue them. She takes new cover behind a low brick wall, telephones her mother on her cell phone, and sends a text to her father.

 

“Many were there,” she writes. “I prayed, prayed, prayed. I hope that God saw me.”

 

5:30 p.m.:

 

As the gunman picks off lone campers who run from their hiding spots as he draws near, many find themselves at the shoreline with only one apparent escape route _ the water.

 

Kaur says the gunman tries to draw out the hiders near the brick wall, shouting, “I’m from the police!” Campers shout back, “Prove it!” He shoots at those who move. She lies still, on top of the legs of a teenage girl covered in blood.

 

5:38 p.m.:

 

Police say an armed SWAT team is deployed from Oslo. They drive rather than take a helicopter, police say _ because the chopper would take too long to prepare for flight.

 

5:45 p.m.:

 

At another camp site on the mainland shore near Utoya Island, camp owner Brede Johbraaten has been listening to the sound of gunfire _ sometimes lone pops, other times staccato bursts _ waft across the humid evening air for more than half an hour.

 

But it’s only now that he discovers the horror unfolding some 800 meters (yards) of frigid water away.

 

The first survivors, among the strongest and luckiest, have swum the full distance. They aren’t wounded but say many of their campmates are dying in the water behind, some bleeding to death from bullet wounds, others cramping up and drowning.

 

Johbraaten, 59, and other campers rally several small craft to join a local flotilla converging on the island from several points, including another island to the north. They pluck both flailing swimmers and lifeless bodies from the surface.

 

“It was hard for some of these youngsters to swim a distance of 800 meters under these conditions,” Johbraaten said.

 

Amid the chaos, the arriving police SWAT team complains that no boats have remained on shore as they’d expected, compounding the delay.

 

6 p.m.:

 

Witnesses lying low behind rocks, aware that the “policeman” is really the threat, watch helplessly as four campers run to the officer for help _ and are each killed with shots to the head.

 

6:20 p.m.:

 

Police say the SWAT team finally reaches the island and fans out, still unaware of how many gunmen they’re trying to find.

 

Benone has remained behind the same boulder, trying not to move.

 

“I felt it was best not to sit quietly, not to run in the open because then he could see me. … I thought of all the people I love, and how I just wanted to go home.”

 

6:35 p.m.:

 

Police say they find the gunman and order him to lay down his weapons. He complies and is arrested.

 

Around this time, Kaur says she finally plucks up the courage to stand up _ and sees that she’s been lying on a lifeless teenage girl: “My guardian angel,” she calls her. She jumps into the water to join a group of campers clinging to a large innertube. A passing rescue boat throws them all life vests but is too full with other rescued campers and can’t collect them too.

 

7 p.m.:

 

The private rescue flotilla continues to circle the island in search of survivors. The boats come closer now that the shooting has stopped. Kaur is scooped from the water. But many campers fear leaving their hiding spots.

 

Benone sees several boats approaching but wonders if these rescuers might be killers, too, and hesitates.

 

“I didn’t know if I could trust them. I didn’t know who I could trust anymore,” he says. “But I started waving and jumped into the water. I was crying, that’s how happy I was. But I was so cold. Ice cold.”

July 24, 2011 – 4:04 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Brantley and Krugman: Don’t stop stimulus or we are doomed to repeat 1937

 

Back in June of 2010 Max Brantley posted on the Arkansas Times Blog:

Paul Krugman has a timely column as Republicans continue to block extension of unemployment benefits. He argues that stimulus, not austerity, is what’s needed now, both here and in Germany.

 

Many economists, myself included, regard this turn to austerity as a huge mistake. It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.

 

… In America, many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple: They’re eager to slash benefits for those in need, but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy. Thus, Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can’t afford $77 billion in aid to the unemployed, was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.

______________________________________________

Does that hold any water? 

President Obama, Paul Krugman Botch History

David Weinberger

July 23, 2011 at 2:35 pm

Proponents of government spending are fond of citing 1937 as an example of when government implemented sharp austerity, and the economy derailed. This argument is dead wrong.

On Thursday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that fiscal austerity right now would make our economic crisis worse. “Even if we manage to avoid immediate catastrophe, the deals being struck on both sides of the Atlantic are almost guaranteed to make the broader economic slump worse,” writes Krugman. As his proof, he offers that “if the negotiations succeed, we will be set to replay the great mistake of 1937: the premature turn to fiscal contraction that derailed economic recovery …”

Likewise, in Cleveland Park, Maryland, while speaking about debt negotiations, President Obama made the same erroneous claim. According to Daily Kos, Obama explained how in 1937 FDR cut spending after the launch of the new deal, leading to economic dip. “We’ve got to be careful that any efforts we have to reduce the deficit don’t hamper the economic recovery,” Obama said.

But both Professor Krugman and President Obama have their history entirely incorrect. Total government spending never decreased in the 30s, certainly not after 1937. Rather, total government spending went up:

 

Heritage economist Bill Beach adds that then-Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, in 1939, after seven years of New Deal spending, noted, “We have tried spending money. We have spent more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.”

In fact, not only does history deny their narrative, but, as the New York Times pointed out, many recent studies have actually found that spending cuts propel economic growth:

Recent studies, however, have found the opposite: Countries that rely primarily on spending cuts tend to experience less economic pain in the short term. Moreover, in some cases, the cuts seem to spur faster growth.

The monetary fund study reported that a 1 percent fiscal consolidation achieved primarily through tax increases reduced economic activity by 1.3 percent over two years, while an identical consolidation driven primarily by spending cuts reduced activity by 0.3 percent.

Fortunately, the American public disagrees with Dr. Krugman and President Obama, but agrees with conservatives that spending cuts now wouldn’t hurt our economy, but would help it.

July 24, 2011 – 3:24 am Categories: President Obama | Post a comment

Amy Winehouse’s song rehab tells the story of her life, how Christ can fill that void

 

Drama: Members of the press and local residents watch as Winehouse's body is taken to the vanDrama: Members of the press and local residents watch as Winehouse’s body is taken to the van

I read this article in Christianity Today about Amy Winehouse a couple of years ago and it rings more true today than ever.

How to share your faith using Amy Winehouse‘s ‘Rehab’ 

by Jane Dratz, Guest ColumnistPosted: Monday, February 25, 2008, 10:14 (GMT)

In the midst of her success as a singer, Amy Winehouse was a tortured soul. Riding the crest of a highly successful album and recent winner of five Grammy awards, her music career stands in stark contrast to her personal challenges that get splashed across the headlines. Personal battles with drug and alcohol addiction, a husband in prison awaiting trail for assault and for attempted trial fixing, paint a picture of a life spiraling out of control.

Before Amy finally headed for rehab, her husband, Blake Fielder-Civic, acknowledged from prison that

“Every day I fear the prison chaplain is going to walk into my cell and break the news that Amy is dead [from a drug overdose].”

Fielder-Civic admitted that he and Winehouse were blowing $1000 a day on heroin and cocaine before he was arrested and put behind bars.

Fortunately Winehouse recently entered rehab, a definite positive first step toward pulling herself out of her downward spiral, even though ironically her biggest hit song is about refusing to go into rehab. Check out these lyrics in her song that recently won Record of the Year.

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said no, no, no.
Yes I been black, but when I come back
You won’t know, know, know.

I ain’t got the time
And if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me go to rehab
I won’t go, go, go…

I don’t ever wanna drink again
I just, ooo, I just need a friend
Im not gonna spend 10 weeks
Have everyone think im on the mend

It’s not just my pride
It’s just til these tears have dried.

Can you hear the pain, hurt, defiance and desperation shouting through? Substance abuse or any form of self-harm, from cutting to harming, are symptoms of deeper problems. Self-harming behaviors reflect hurting individuals’ desperate efforts to fill the God-shaped hole every human has deep in the soul. When God isn’t invited in to fill that hole, many individuals try to fill the emptiness with other things…alcohol, drugs, sex, cutting, material things. The list is as varied as the hurts crying to be stifled.

In the end, the only real answer to filling the God-shaped hole in the human soul is GOD. Without Him in our lives we will bounce from one attempt to another to mask the hurt or pain that life will eventually dish out to us. But the Good News is that Jesus extends his offer of grace and love and rescue to all with His words:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Do you have friends who are either dabbling in or trapped by addictive behaviors? Friends who need to experience the reality of God pouring Himself into their souls and filling their God-shaped hole? If you do, try prayfully using Amy Winehouse’s song Rehab as an opportunity to turn the conversation toward God-talk. Here are a few ideas to help you:

The lyrics to Amy Winehouse’s song Rehab communicate both pain and defiance. Which do you think comes through louder?

Have you ever been in a place were you identified with the lyrics to this song? Or do you know someone who’s in that place now?

Why do you think people sometimes find themselves struggling with substance abuse? Do you think it’s a symptom of a deeper problem? Listen and then share what you believe about God creating us with a God-shaped hole in our souls that only He can fill.

Find out if your friends are familiar with Jesus words in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Explain what those words mean to you in your personal experience.

If you or a friend are struggling with self-harming behaviors, you need to know that God’s love and grace extend to the darkest places. You also need to be aware that many, many people have found that they need outside help and accountability in order to overcome addictive behaviors. It helps to know you’re not alone, so prayfully bring God’s light, love and truth to the darkness.

Jane Dratz works for Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., a ministry committed to energizing and equipping teens to know, live, share and own their faith in Jesus. For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, please visit http://www.dare2share.org. Send feedback to jane@dare2share.org.

Contrast the life of Shawn McDonald:

Redemption Songs: The Music and the Journey of Shawn McDonald

By Jennifer E. Jones
CBN.com Producer

CBN.com – It’s easy for a guy to feel insecure sometimes. You wouldn’t know it by looking at his album sales and nationwide tours, but soft-spoken Shawn McDonald is not entirely comfortable in the spotlight. “I’m not a person who likes attention and likes being up in front of others. I’m kind of quiet,” he tells CBN.com

It’s an odd description for the Sparrow Records artist who recently released Live in Seattle, a concert album where he plays many of the hits from his debut record Simply Nothing. Strange indeed but nothing about this Oregon native’s life is typical. Shawn is a walking, breathing testimony of how far God is willing to go to rescue one of His own.

It’s been almost seven years since Shawn saw rock bottom. “I can’t communicate how crazy I was,” Shawn says. “Who I was then and who I am now is like night and day. You name the drug and I was selling it and doing it. I was a confused kid, and my confusion boiled up into bitterness and anger. My life had become a hard, closed shell. I was extremely rebellious, miserable, and lost.”

No one would have picked him to be successful at life, let alone at music. He didn’t sing or play an instrument. Raised by his grandparents, Shawn was constantly in and out of jail, and his extreme party lifestyle was driving him over the edge. At one point, police rang up nine felony charges against him for drug abuse. Although he’d tried to mix his deadly habits with the spirituality of Hinduism and Rastafarianism, like his idol Bob Marley, he realized that there had to be something more to life. With the help of his college roommate, Shawn found Christ.

“What God has done in my life is amazing,” he says.

In spite of his inability to play, Shawn always loved music. After getting saved, he found the easiest way to express his feelings for God was through song. “I was sitting in my room. I had this old, beat-up guitar that I would learn worship songs on – just in the quiet of my own house,” he recalls. “That’s where it started, and it was very simple — just chords. I never expected it to go anywhere else.”

Unbeknownst to him, those simple songs were the humble beginnings of Shawn’s remarkable music career. “It’s really fun and exciting,” he says. “It’s almost like you plant a seed. The seed sprouts, it begins to grow and out comes this bud. When you finish a song, it’s like that bud finally decides to bloom, and you see this beautiful flower. It doesn’t always happen that way but that’s the way I look at it. I think our goal is to make something bloom.”

Shawn still doesn’t consider himself a guitarist although his smooth urban-folk style of music would beg to differ. Shawn is among a growing genre of singer/songwriters (such as Paul Wright and Mat Kearney) who play hip-hop rhythms on guitars and sing with an honesty and vulnerability that’s almost uncomfortable. And yet, it’s a quality that’s clicking with fans.

“People never cease to amaze me. It blows me away when people come up and say, ‘God uses you to draw me closer to Him’ or ‘God saved me through one of your songs’. I hear that kind of stuff, and it’s crazy [to think] God’s at work and using me,” he says. “I’m just an average joe like everyone else. I’m just this kid that somehow, for some reason, God decided to instill some songs in.”

Today, Shawn is one of CCM Magazine‘s “Artists You Should Know”. With a solid debut that unleashed radio hits “Gravity” and “All I Need”, a brand new live album, and a new studio record slated to hit stores in the summer, Shawn is one “Sparrow” that’s flying high. However, staying grounded doesn’t seem to be a problem.

“It’s very humbling. Who am I to write something that someone else enjoys? How is it different from another? It’s random. I think it’s easy to want to take the credit for that [but] it’s a gift. It’s a miracle.”

Related posts:

Amy Winehouse’s song rehab tells the story of her life, how Christ can fill that void

  I read this article in Christianity Today about Amy Winehouse a couple of years ago and it rings more true today than ever. How to share your faith using Amy Winehouse‘s ‘Rehab’  by Jane Dratz, Guest ColumnistPosted: Monday, February 25, 2008, 10:14 (GMT) In the midst of her success as a singer, Amy Winehouse was a […]

A Christian response to Papa Roach’s song “The Last Resort” (Part 2)

Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version) This series of posts concerns the song “The Last Resort.” Amy Winehouse died today and it was a tragic loss. That really troubled me that she did not seek spiritual help instead of turning to drugs and alcohol. This post today will give hope to those we feel like […]

Heartbreaking story of Amy Winehouse

  I am in the middle of a series on the Papa Roach song “Last Resort” which deals with suicide and then today I hear this sad story about Amy Winehouse. Inside Amy Winehouse’s troubled life With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, […]

A Christian response to Papa Roach’s song “The Last Resort” (Part 1)

Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version) Amy Winehouse died at the young age of 27 and she had lived a life filled with drug and alcohol addiction. This series on Papa Roach is meant to provide answers to those who feel trapped. Hopefully it will people to avoid  troubles like Amy Winehouse experienced.  Today I […]

July 24, 2011 – 12:57 am Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Mark Pryor supported the stimulus but did it work?

Mark Pryor has supported about every bill that President Obama has pushed. The stimulus was probably the biggest budget busting bill so far. Did that help get our economy going? Not according to Kathy Fettke:

President Obama is urging Congress to raise the $14.3T debt ceiling or else, he warns, the U.S. would be forced to default. Perhaps our representatives need a little lesson on good debt vs. bad debt.

Good debt gives the borrower the potential to create more money. Bad debt gives the borrower something he can’t afford but wants anyway.

In real estate, for example, good debt might be a loan used to purchase an investment property. The borrower acquires an asset that creates income. That income is used to pay off the debt. The borrower then owns an asset free & clear that continues to produce income, long after the original debt is gone.

Bad debt serves a need for instant gratification by borrowing income from the future.

An example of bad debt is getting a loan to purchase a new car. The car is worth less the moment it’s driven off the lot. From day 1, the borrower owes more than the car is worth, and the “asset” doesn’t create monthly income. It becomes a liability, unless it is used as a rental, trucking or any other profitable business use.

Is Obama asking for more good debt or more bad debt?

Politicians are expert wordsmiths who can spin facts into a slick campaigns designed for getting what they want. That’s why President Obama and the money magicians at the Federal Reserve are preaching that more debt would help the economy.

Has their plan worked so far? Let’s take a look:

During the past 5 years, the federal government has borrowed 4.5 trillion dollars to stimulate the economy. That’s a 40% increase in government debt! 

Did the stimulus work?

Political spin doctors say it did, claiming that US GDP climbed 1.9% in Q1 of 2011. But how much did that increase cost us?

We spent $4.5 Trillion over 5 years to create $690 Billion in GDP growth.  Doing the math, that means the US will receive 14 cents for every dollar of debt incurred to stimulate the economy.

With losses like this, the “stimulus” plan is really a bad debt deal – one in which borrowing results in more liabilities, not assets. And now our leaders are trying to talk us into more of it.

Just say “NO!” to raising the debt ceiling! It’s not just bad debt, it’s ugly debt.

The cure for bad debt is pretty simple and boring: cut spending and increase income. If you can’t do either, you default.

Borrowing just to keep up with interest payments and avoid default is reckless and only exacerbates the problem. It does not fix it.

Politicians must agree to cut spending. And they must avoid increasing income through taxation. As much as the general population would love to rob the rich, that method doesn’t work. Business owners who get punished for making money will stop producing and hiring.

Instead of taxing productive businesses to extended ugly government debt, offer businesses good debt so they can continue to grow.

Members of our society with solid business plans should be the ones borrowing – not the government.

Kathy Fettke is CEO of www.RealWealthNetwork.com, an educational resource for new and experienced real estate investors.

July 24, 2011 – 12:25 am Categories: President Obama, spending out of control | Post a comment

A Christian response to Papa Roach’s song “The Last Resort” (Part 2)

Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version)

This series of posts concerns the song “The Last Resort.”

Amy Winehouse died today and it was a tragic loss. That really troubled me that she did not seek spiritual help instead of turning to drugs and alcohol. This post today will give hope to those we feel like it is all hopeless. 

The band’s place in the pop music landscape was established with the release of their breakout single, “Last Resort,” which was quickly picked up by MTV and nominated for a “Best New Artist Video” award at the 2000 Video Music Awards. The song is a gut-wrenching first-person chronicle of hopelessness that’s gone so deep the singer is seriously contemplating suicide.   But the band is adamant about the fact that the song is about fighting to survive by overcoming depression, rather than allowing it to lead to suicide. “It’s not saying I can’t go on living. It’s saying I can’t go on living this way,” says Dick (Spin, 10/00).

I know there are some curse words in the following song. I have eliminated both times the curse word is used. I really think that there needs to be a response to the young people who are saying things like the words in this song Here are some of the words:

Do you even care if I die pleading, Would it be wrong, would it be right, If I took my life tonight, Chances are that I might, and I’m contimplating suicide, ‘Cause I’m losing my sight, losing my mind, Wish somebody would tell me I’m fine, Nothing’s alright, nothing is fine, I’m running and I’m crying, I never realized I was spread too thin, Till it was too late andI was empty within, Hungry, feeding on my chaos and living in sin, Downward spiral, where do i begin, It all started when i lost my mother, No love for myself and no love for another,Searching to find a love upon a higher level, finding nothing but QUESTIONS AND DEVILS, I can’t go on living this way, Cut my life into pieces, This is my last resort. 

My response to these words:”Do you even care if I die pleading, Would it be wrong, would it be right, If I took my life tonight, Chances are that I might, and I’m contimplating suicide” is that you should plead to someone who can do something about your situation and that is Christ!!!!

Below David Powlison asserts:

How do you get the living hope that God offers you in Jesus? By asking. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Suicide operates in a world of death, despair, and aloneness. Jesus Christ creates a world of life, hope, and community. Ask God for help, and keep on asking. Don’t stop asking. You need Him to fill you every day with the hope of the resurrection.

Below is a portion of the article “Papa Roach—Infesting and reflecting youth culture by Walt Mueller.  

Papa Roach’s Music

In a day and age where the walls are crumbling between what had been a variety of distinctive popular music genres, Papa Roach is like many other chart-topping bands whose music combines sounds that were once distinct. Coby Dick’s raspy and throat-wrenching vocals join with music that incorporates sounds of rap, rock, thrash, funk and metal. Listeners familiar with popular music will hear the influence of Faith No More, the band Dick cites as one of his early favorites. Similar contemporary bands include Korn, Limp Bizkit, The Deftones and P.O.D. 

Reviewer Tim Kennedy of Spin describes the resulting sound as “an amalgam of below-the-belt guitar riffage, punk-rock urgency, and half-sung, half-rapped vocals (10/00). Rolling Stone’s Anthony Bozza says listening to Papa Roach is “like standing on a precipice—sustained tension and the threat of a tumble” (8/31/00). 

The sound combines with Dick’s lyrics in a powerful and emotional blend that addresses the reality of life for kids who have been burned over and over again. Tobin Esperance says, “We write about things that have happened to our singer, specifically, and friends around us. It’s real life stuff. We’re not writing about s___ that we don’t know about, like girls and cars and money … we only know real life bulls___ that happens” (nyrock.com). Coby Dick says of his autobiographical music, “I’m venting my emotions. It’s blunt” (Rolling Stone, 8/31/00). He says “Papa Roach, lyrically, is my counseling” (Billboard,6/10/00). 

Infest (2000)

Papa Roach released the album they now consider their first in April of 2000. The album quickly began to sell as a result of radio and MTV exposure, went gold after two months thanks to scoring with MTV’s Total Request Live audience, and had gone double platinum by September 2000.  

Papa Roach offers an introduction to their music, mission, message and intentions on the album’s title cut. After introducing himself to his listeners, Coby Dick informs them his “God-given talent is to rock all the nations.” In this, the band’s “first manifesto,” the group lays out their plan to “infest” the world and young minds (“wrap you in my thoughts”) with an angry musical message of anarchy and rebellion against a messed-up world that’s let them down: “We’re going to infest/We’re getting in your head/What is wrong with the world today/The government, media or your family.” Institutions and people are not to be trusted. In fact, “First they shackle your feet/Then they stand you in a line/Then they beat you like meat/Then they grab you by your mind … people are the problem today.” Dick admits the struggle so many young people feel: “the game of life is crazy.” Alone in this sea of brokenness and hopelessness, Dick asks, “Would you cry if I died today/I think it be better if you did not say.” 

The band’s place in the pop music landscape was established with the release of their breakout single, “Last Resort,” which was quickly picked up by MTV and nominated for a “Best New Artist Video” award at the 2000 Video Music Awards. The song is a gut-wrenching first-person chronicle of hopelessness that’s gone so deep the singer is seriously contemplating suicide. (See lyrics on page 7.) The fact that “Last Resort” is part of the mainstream pop music landscape indicates it is connecting with more and more kids who see it as an expression of their own inner struggles. For casual listeners, the song is very confusing. Listening to the song reveals the criticisms claiming the song promotes suicide could certainly be warranted. Kids who are riding the fence because of numerous other problems in their lives could interpret the song in a way that would give them permission to go over the edge, especially if they don’t know the story behind the song. But the band is adamant about the fact that the song is about fighting to survive by overcoming depression, rather than allowing it to lead to suicide. “It’s not saying I can’t go on living. It’s saying I can’t go on living this way,” says Dick (Spin, 10/00). He also says, “Last Resort” has “a positive edge to it, as far as like, ‘Don’t succumb to it. Keep yourself afloat.’ With these problems in your life, find a friend you can confide in” (Sonicnet.com). Based on the band’s resolve to survive like a roach, one would have to take them at their word. The song chronicles the suicide attempt of one of Coby Dick’s former roommates. After his “unsuccessful” attempt, the young man “turned to God” … Dick claims the attempt was what killed the rotting part of his roommate’s soul. The song has definitely connected. “We’ve gotten so many e-mails from people who tell us ‘Last Resort’ saved their lives,” says Dick. “It makes some people feel less alone” (Rolling Stone,8/31/00). 

The album’s third cut is equally powerful. Released as a single and put in heavy rotation on MTV, “Broken Home” (See lyrics) is an overt lyrical, sonic and visual cry from the heart of one whose young life has been shattered by family breakdown. Written by Dick about his feelings after his parents’ divorce, the song offers listeners an emotional window into the reality of kids beaten up by our current culture of divorce. Every parent considering divorce should sit and watch this video. It is powerful. 

“Dead Cell” has been called “a darkly sarcastic paean to Columbine kids the world over” (Alternative Press, 10/00). If that’s the case, the sarcasm is not easily heard. The dead cells are described as “born with no soul/lack of control/cut from the mold of the anti-social … sick in the head/living but dead.” Loud, angry and fast, the song could be interpreted by some who are young and angry as a call to arms: “I’m telling ya the kids are getting singled out/Let me hear the dead cells shout.” 

“Between Angels and Insects” is an insightful rant against American greed and materialism. Dick says he wrote the song to remind himself that the things the band’s success will bring are not the things that make one happy. The lyrics are powerful and excerpts could serve to spark discussion with teens about the false promises of materialism: “Diamond rings get you nothing/But a life-long lesson/And your pocketbook stressin’/You’re a slave to the system/Working jobs that you hate/For s___ that you don’t need/It’s too bad the world is based on greed/Step back and stop thinking ‘bout yourself … ‘cause everything is nothing/And emptiness is in everything … Possessions they are never gonna fill the void … the things you own, own you.” When discussing the message of the song Buckner says, “all the worldly things that people equate with happiness—do they necessarily make you happy? You can have Rolexes and diamond rings and cars and houses … but really the things that make you happy are peace of mind and passion in your life” (Alternative Press, 10/00). 

Relational selfishness and greed are the subject of “Blood Brothers,” a song offering powerful evidence of the depth of sin’s hold on humanity: “It’s our nature to destroy ourselves/It’s our nature to kill ourselves/It’s our nature to kill each other/It’s in our nature to kill, kill, kill.” The song speaks about allegiance in a world where you can’t trust anybody and you’ve got to watch your back. The lyrics leave one thinking the song could serve as an anthem for a street gang or other fringe subculture: “Blood brothers keep it real to the end.” 

Themes of severe relational breakdown and the resulting pain continue in “Revenge,” a song about a girl who was “abused with forks, knives and razorblades” and who finally left the man who abused her in fits of rage. Listeners who have been abused will identify with the song’s mention of the ever-present and visible emotional scars they so often feel: “Chaos is what she saw in the mirror/Scared of herself/And the power that was in her/It took over and weighed heavily on her shoulders/Militant insanity is now what controlled her.” The song indicates that she exacts revenge on him, although the method and outcome is unclear. 

Backstabbers are the subject of “Snakes,” an angry and threatening rant at those who betray friends. The song reflects the distrust so many kids feel because of the parade of letdowns they’ve experienced. The chorus asks, “Do you like how it feels to be bit in the neck by the snake that kills?/Do you know how it feels to be stabbed in the back then watch the blood spill?/I don’t like how it feels.” 

Coby Dick chronicles his wrestling match with alcohol on “Binge,” a song that serves as a personal confession. “All I need is a bottle/And I don’t need no friends/Now wallow in my pain/I swallow as I pretend/To act like I’m happy when I drink till no end/I’m losing all my friends, I’m losing in the end … When I’m sober, life bores me/So I get drunk again.” The song is a heart cry about what drives the binge drinker, how he really feels inside and his desire to see it end. In the song’s final lines, Dick sings, “I wish things would change/Wish they’d rearrange.” 

“Never Enough” is another cry for help from a confused and tortured young soul that is deeply longing for redemption. “Life’s been sucked out of me/And this routine’s killing me … somebody put me out of my misery,” Dick sings. The song will resonate with kids who are lost, purposeless and without peace. The song’s conclusion is a loud cry for help: “I feel as if I’m running/Life will knock me down.” 

“Thrown Away” offers a view of life through the eyes of a kid struggling with ADD, something Coby Dick knows well as he watched his brother’s personal struggle with the disorder. “My heart is bleeding and the pain will not pass … I want to be thrown away … I am a mess, I’ve made a huge mess/I can’t control myself/I’m losing it, I’ve lost it/I’ve spilt all my marbles … sometimes I want to be thrown away.” 

The album concludes with an unlisted hidden cut called “Tightrope.” The track is stylistically unlike any other cuts on the album as it is done in reggae style. The lyrics are a confusing mix of thoughts where Dick calls his words “weapons in which I murder you.” The song offers a confession regarding the ethical dilemmas faced by kids in these confusing times: “there is a thin line between what’s good and what is evil/I will tiptoe down that line/But I feel unstable/My life is a circus and I’m tripping down the tightrope/There’s nothing left to save me now so I will not look down.”

Help for the Suicidal

God offers you true, living hope–not a false hope based on your death.
By David Powlison

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

It’s easy to see the risk factors for suicide—depression, suffering, disillusioning experiences, failure—but there are also ways to get your life back on track by building protective factors into your life. 

Ask for help

How do you get the living hope that God offers you in Jesus? By asking. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Suicide operates in a world of death, despair, and aloneness. Jesus Christ creates a world of life, hope, and community. Ask God for help, and keep on asking. Don’t stop asking. You need Him to fill you every day with the hope of the resurrection.

At the same time you are asking God for help, tell other people about your struggle with hopelessness. God uses His people to bring life, light, and hope. Suicide, by definition, happens when someone is all alone. Getting in relationship with wise, caring people will protect you from despair and acting out of despair.

But what if you are bereaved and alone? If you know Jesus, you still have a family—His family is your family. Become part of a community of other Christians. Look for a church where Jesus is at the center of teaching and worship. Get in relationship with people who can help you, but don’t stop with getting help. Find people to love, serve, and give to. Even if your life has been stripped barren by lost relationships, God can and will fill your life with helpful and healing relationships.

Grow in godly life skills

Another protective factor is to grow in godly living. Many of the reasons for despair come from not living a godly, fruitful life. You need to learn the skills that make godly living possible. What are some of those skills?

    • Conflict resolution. Learn to problem-solve by entering into human difficulties and growing through them. (See Ask the Christian Counselor article, “Fighting the Right Way.”)
    • Seek and grant forgiveness. Hopeless thinking is often the result of guilt and bitterness.
    • Learn to give to others. Suicide is a selfish act. It’s a lie that others will be better off without you. Work to replace your faulty thinking with reaching out to others who are also struggling. Take what you have learned in this article and pass it on to at least one other person. Whatever hope God gives you, give to someone who is struggling with despair.     

Live for God 

When you live for God, you have genuine meaning in your life. This purpose is far bigger than your suffering, your failures, the death of your dreams, and the disillusionment of your hopes. Living by faith in God for His purposes will protect you from suicidal and despairing thoughts. God wants to use your personality, your skills, your life situation, and even your struggle with despair to bring hope to others. 

He has already prepared good works for you to do. Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). As you step into the good works God has prepared for you—you will find that meaning, purpose, and joy.

Related posts:

 

A Christian response to Papa Roach’s song “The Last Resort” (Part 2)

Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version) This series of posts concerns the song “The Last Resort.” Amy Winehouse died today and it was a tragic loss. That really troubled me that she did not seek spiritual help instead of turning to drugs and alcohol. This post today will give hope to those we feel like […]

Heartbreaking story of Amy Winehouse

  I am in the middle of a series on the Papa Roach song “Last Resort” which deals with suicide and then today I hear this sad story about Amy Winehouse. Inside Amy Winehouse’s troubled life With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, […]

A Christian response to Papa Roach’s song “The Last Resort” (Part 1)

Papa Roach – Last Resort (Censored Version) Today I am starting a series of posts on this song  “The Last Resort” by Papa Roach. The band’s place in the pop music landscape was established with the release of their breakout single, “Last Resort,” which was quickly picked up by MTV and nominated for a “Best […]

July 24, 2011 – 12:20 am Categories: Adrian Rogers, Current Events | Post a comment

Heartbreaking story of Amy Winehouse

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I am in the middle of a series on the Papa Roach song “Last Resort” which deals with suicide and then today I hear this sad story about Amy Winehouse.

Inside Amy Winehouse’s troubled life

With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, two things are clear: the music world lost one of its most passionately soulful voices, and this is a tragedy that has surprised no one. Winehouse’s struggles with drugs and alcohol were often in the public eye and even addressed in her own music, like her best-known hit “Rehab.”

Throughout her colorful, troubled life, Winehouse fought many demons: addiction, an eating disorder, and a particularly tumultuous love life. 

Her struggles to stay sober

Although she first broke through to international audiences with a song that found her saying “no, no, no” to her record company’s claims that she belonged in rehab, it didn’t take long for fans to realize she did have a problem with alcohol abuse, frequently appearing in what appeared to be a drunken state while onstage (one time she exited the stage to vomit) and during TV appearances. Hospitalizations, allegedly related to drug or drinking binges, were frequent. A leaked video of a woman alleged to be Winehouse smoking what appeared to be crack pipe and snorting cocaine caused a tabloid sensation and caused police to investigate the matter, though charges weren’t brought against her.

Winehouse was aware of her problems: while she initially resisted her record company’s attempt to put her in rehab, she willingly checked in to a center around that time. And in 2009, Winehouse’s father Mitch-who had frequently voiced his concerns over her healthto the media-said she had entered a program to deal with her drug addiction, but he admitted that there were “slight backward steps — not drug backward steps, more drink backward steps if you follow my drift.”

Her father wasn’t so coy about her addiction issues: he once told UK reporters that his daughter had lung damage from smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes and that her body was giving signs of what could lead to early stage emphysema.

Also in the smoking rotation was marijuana: in 2007, Winehouse and her then-husband were arrested in Norway and fined for marijuana possession.

Winehouse herself resisted confessional 60 Minutes-type interviews, but she didn’t exactly try to hide her history with drugs and alcohol either. When asked by Rolling Stone in 2006 what her worst vice was, she simply responded, “Mainly that I’m quite reckless and always throw caution to the wind.”

Her friend and fellow British bad girl singer Lily Allen once had this to say about her:

“I know Amy Winehouse very well. And she is very different to what people portray her as being. Yes, she does get out of her mind on drugs sometimes, but she is also a very clever, intelligent, witty, funny person who can hold it together. You just don’t see that side.”

Health problems

Even before she gained the international celebrity that probably helped enable her addictions, Winehouse was open about other health problems, admitting to struggling with an eating disorder, self-cutting and depression on numerous occasions. Photos of an emaciated Winehouse were always popping up over the years, causing fans to worry she wasn’t taking good care of her fragile body-a fear once again publicly validated by her own father when he spoketo the media about her bulimia in 2007.

As for her cutting problems, Winehouse seemed to have moved past that as she grew up: However, during an interview with a reporter from Spin magazine, Winehouse inexplicably began carving her the name of her then-boyfriend (and future ex-husband) Blake Fielder-Civil into her stomach with a piece of glass.

Public Brawls

As with many of those who abuse alcohol, Winehouse had a tendency toward physical fighting. In 2008 she admitted to slapping a man in public and apologized for the common assault, receiving just a police warning. But a few months later, she descended into the audience tothrow a punch at a fan who had allegedly grabbed at her breasts.

Love Life

Similarly violent was Winehouse’s long-time flame Blake Fielder-Civil. It was breaking up with him that fueled much of her songwriting on her acclaimed Back to Black album, so it was a surprise to family and friends when she secretly married him in 2007. But married life hardly helped settle down her tumultuous life. Not long after tying the knot, the couple were photographed arm-in-arm, each of them bloodied and bruised amid reports that they had been fighting the night before. Winehouse defended her husband and said the wounds were self-inflicted, a claim that was met with public skepticism.

Fielder-Civil was jailed from July 2008 to February 2009 after pleading guilty to assaulting a bartender, among other charges. The two divorced not long after his release, with Winehouse claiming: “Our whole marriage was based on doing drugs.” Before Fielder-Civil initiated divorce proceedings, Winehouse had allegedly began dating a younger actor for a short period.

Family

Her father, who recently cancelled a jazz performance in New York of his own to fly back to London, has been expressing alarm and concern over his daughter’s well-being for years now, publicly referring to her heroin, cocaine and alcohol problems when Winehouse’s publicists remained mute. He even took issue with her smoking, saying in an interview with Sky News (via Access Hollywood) earlier this month: “She has got a serious health problem. My biggest fear is that she would die and she won’t die from an overdose, she will die from emphysema. We would be talking about a very slow and painful death, gasping for air.”

Recent Trouble

As recently as last month, however, Winehouse unwittingly revealed that all was not well. Video captured of her performing in Belgrade-at a show that was to launch her immediately cancelled European tour-showed her forgetting lyrics, stumbling around and being booed by disgruntled fans. Whether she was intoxicated or not, it was clear that Winehouse hadn’t released herself from the demons that plagued her. Hopefully now she has found some peace.

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July 23, 2011 – 11:59 pm Categories: Current Events | Post a comment

Breaking down Senator Mark Pryor’s speech on debt ceiling, Do the Republicans want to send granny over the cliff? (Part 2)

For Senator Mark Pryor it is time to get back to his liberal democratic roots. Blame the evil Republicans for wanting to end Medicare as we know it and push granny off the cliff. For heavens sake we better not cut a dime out of the government now, but maybe promise to cut 6 trillion out of it about 7 or 8 years from now and call that a 10 year plan.

The Arkansas Times Blog reported on July 22, 2011:

Senator Mark Pryor on July 22  made the following statement on the Senate floor to encourage his colleagues to end the budget gimmicks and move forward with a comprehensive debt-reduction plan as part of a debt ceiling solution. A portion of his statement is below:

Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

We need to bring people the facts about our nation’s debt. People in my state see through the games being played in Washington. They want solutions, courage and leadership — the kind that puts us on a more secure fiscal path for the future.

… Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last summer said, “Our national debt is our biggest national security threat.”

___________________

Mark Pryor is not going to lift a finger to cut down our national deficit. That is why he did not want to pass the “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan.

Pryor notes, “We need to bring people the facts about our nation’s debt.” However, he does not believe in a Balanced Budget Amendment. How does that make sense?

Then he complains, “People in my state see through the games being played in Washington.They want solutions, courage and leadership — the kind that puts us on a more secure fiscal path for the future.” Nevertheless, he will vote for a responsible plan like “Cut, Cap and Balance.”

Finally Pryor asserts, “… Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last summer said, “Our national debt is our biggest national security threat.” But Pryor’s inaction on cutting the deficit is speaking volumes. He just can’t break away from those old favorite tactics of the liberals. He travels across Arkansas screaming “The Republicans want to send granny over the cliff!!”

Abdication: Senate Votes to Do Nothing Unless It Can Hike Taxes for the President” by David S. Addington July 22, 2011 at 2:54 pm, seems to be perfectly describing Pryor’s own actions. Here is a portion of that article:

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, to get federal spending under control and balance the budget.  That legislation passed with 234 votes in the House.  The House is a legislative body, and it has legislated.  The House has done its job.

In contrast, the Senate is a legislative body that has failed to do its job.  So far, the Senate has come up with lots of bad plans, but no votes.  The Senate plans that have cropped up in the last week — the McConnell-Reid “Just Borrow More” Plan, the Coburn Plan with its tax hikes, and the Gang-of-Six Plan with its tax hikes — have among them exactly zero votes, because the Senate has not voted on any of them.

Today, the Senate voted 51 to 46 to not even consider the House-passed Cut, Cap and Balance bill, even though two-thirds of Americans, according to the CNN Poll dated July 21, support such legislation.  The Obama Administration chimed in that, even if the Senate passed the bill, the President would veto it anyway.  Therefore, if, ten days from now, America fails temporarily to meet its obligations because the Treasury lacks sufficient money to pay them when due, the responsibility for that failure falls squarely upon President Obama and the Senate liberals, who let it happen because they wanted to raise taxes.  Conservatives have commendably pursued legislation to ensure that the government pays its most important obligations first when the Treasury has a shortage of money to pay all its bills, but even on that liberals have been no help.

President Obama and the Senate liberals may represent well that ever-shrinking tax-spend-and-borrow crowd of liberal special interests, but most of the American people want to cut government spending, cut the size and scope of government, and cut up and throw away the national credit card.

So far, only the House conservatives have acted responsibly.

A week is still plenty of time to pass legislation to get the spending-cut job done.  The time to put America on the path to driving down federal spending and borrowing, while preserving our ability to protect America, and without raising taxes, is now.

newscasters debt ceiling
July 23, 2011 – 4:37 pm Categories: President Obama, spending out of control | Post a comment

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