Sleep in heavenly peace...

Well, there's your trouble, Mr. Osteen.

Was noodling around the net after my first post. Found this info from a Christianity Today review of Osteen's book (see below). Looks like Mrs. Osteen was just following her hubby's idea that, by golly, these airline people need to get with the program and show her the favor that God has given Joel to parking spaces, faster seating in restaurants, and bending airline baggage rules. I'm of the persuasion that Providence is the hand of God in the glove of Circumstance. Hence, I may well get the parking space by the entrance. By the same token, I should neither demand, expect, or be ungrateful for getting it, or pitch a fit if I don't. Tsk...

One of the finest chapters shows how Christians should aim for excellence and integrity. The book undercuts the emphasis on integrity, however, by suggesting trivial examples of God's favor to the faithful: faster seating in restaurants, a last-second opening of an excellent parking space, being upgraded to first class without seeking it, and enjoying a personal exemption from an airline's baggage policy.
Osteen tells of not wanting to check an expensive television camera on a flight to India. The counter clerk insists that the airline's policy strictly forbids him from it carrying on, and Osteen asks if he can talk to someone else. A pilot walks up and offers to stow the camera behind the cockpit.
"The woman behind the counter glared at me and shook her head, clearly aggravated," Osteen writes. "I just smiled and said, 'Sorry, ma'am; it's the favor of God.'" Or was it simply that an observant pilot intervened to prevent an unnecessary conflict (which some planning on Osteen's part could have prevented) from escalating?

Victoria's not too secret, secret.

According to various news reports, it seems the wife of famed Houston evangelist Joel Osteen, Victoria Osteen, got sideways with a stewardess on a Continental Airlines flight. Seems that Mrs. Osteen refused to follow the stewardess' instructions prior to take-off and the Osteen family, on its way to a ski vacation in Vail, was asked to leave the plane. Something about a 'spill' on the tray table on Mrs. Osteen's seat in First Class. Interestingly, part of the article included a statement from the FBI. Evidently, they were called as a result of what all happened on the plane. The plane remained grounded for about an hour or so while the Osteen's luggage was retrieved for a later flight to Vail. Not a whole lot of other details, as everyone seems to have kissed and made up, and are now shutting up, but what in the world is going on here?

• You have to be pretty out-of-control to be asked to leave a plane. What, did she rush the cockpit?
• The FBI was involved?
• All those other poor folks had to sit for over an hour while the airline de-planed the luggage?

Something ain't right here, and it doesn't speak well for Mr. Osteen. House is worth 2.2MM, just recently stopped taking his $220,000 (how much?) annual salary only because his book sales have topped 3 million units, and if you look at his website, he's a 'health and wealth, name it and claim it' industry unto himself, replete with a hip "J" logo (oh, the irony!). Tsk...

Ya gotta love Chris Muir

In case you weren't aware, Senator Joe Biden, part of the 'if its Bush, its got to be bad' crowd was in Iraq for some photo ops, replete with purple finger. Talk about shameless political opportunism...guess he'll have this as part of his 2008 presidential run, and hope folks have forgotten his opposition to the war by then...

Take your Pick

By all accounts, all is going well in Iraq on the elections. Now, you can have the Iraqi perspective here...purple finger, Middle Eastern woman with the right to vote, hand raised in V for Victory salute, or...




You can take the Liberal view of Janeane Garofalo...no purple finger, arm raised in a 'Heil Hitler' salute (hey Janeane, the Nazi salute is the right hand, OK?), reflecting her perception that conservatives that support the war in Iraq are all Nazis. Take your pick.

Hey all you Secularists and assorted Christmas haters: we give up!

The AP has been reporting that several "mega" churches are closing the doors on Sunday, December 25th. Why, you might ask? Because its Christmas, of course! Here's the part that gets me the most. Read the following statement from the spokeswoman for WCCC. Do you find it odd that a church has a "spokeswoman"? How big is the PR department for this place? Where the heck is the pastor? Getting his travel plans together to be out of town for Christmas perhaps?

Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., said church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 1994, and only a small number of people showed up to pray, she said.

"If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" she said.

Hey Cally, its a dead cinch that no one will come on Christmas if the doors are closed. Maybe, just maybe, there might be someone out there that DOESN'T have any family to spend Christmas with, and a church with open doors might be a place of comfort to them. It beats going to a bar. You can bet they'll be going full blast for all those folks. Sheesh...Christmas has left the building!

They're right: Iraq is becoming another Vietnam...

So, what does that mean? The Wall Street Journal published an article recently describing the perspective of Communist North Vietnam leaders during that war. From a military standpoint (see Tet Offensive) the war was going disasterously for them. To their estimation, it took a full two years to recover from that setback. Where they were making real progress was here on the home front. They even mentioned Ramsey Clark, current Saddam advocate, as part of all that. It was a matter of waiting for public opinion here at home to force the USA out of the war, which it did.

We're getting the same thing now from Howard Dean (we can't win), John Kerry (our soldiers are terrorizing women and children in Iraq in the dead of night), Nancy Pelosi (we need out in six months), John Murtha (the army is broken down), Ramsey Clark (defending Saddam), and on down the line. You combine all of those folks with a media that supports the "I hate George Bush, therefore I must hate the war" line of thinking, and we're fighting on two fronts...there, and here at home. Might as well get Jane Fonda posing with an IED....(sigh)

If not global, there's definitely a regional war that needs fighting

Great article from Michael Ledeen here that tries to address the bigger picture of the war on terror. I would hope that there are some things in the works that ordinary citizens like myself and Mr. Ledeen aren't privy to, that are working toward that end.

Finally, a little backbone...

Politics is somewhat of a sport after all. Lets see how this latest game played out:

• Democrats continually beating the "Bush lied, people died" drum in advance of the mid-term elections, with the help of the major (in no way mainstream anymore) media.

• The Administration and other GOPers calling out the Democrats on their previous Clinton era comments on Saddam, WMDs, imminent threats, and so on, their vote to approve military action against him, and exposing the hyprocrisy, with the help of conservative media such as talk radio and the blogosphere.

• Democrats bring up a war hero, Murtha, to act as the mouthpiece to hide behind. He's been wanting to pull out of Iraq for some 18 months now, so at least he's consistent. How can you beat up a genuine war hero saying he wants an 'immediate' withdrawal from Iraq? War hero or no, you certainly can beat up the idea, not the man.

• Republicans call the bluff and request a vote...'Cut and run, or stay 'til we're done'. Dems tried their best to vote down the vote, and failed. Final numbers 403 to 3 to vote down an immediate pullout. Nothing was heard on the voice vote, but 3 Democrats recorded their support for immediate pullout. Six Dems voted 'present'.

• In the aftermath, Dems are now saying there's a world of difference between a withdrawal and immediate pullout. GOPers made it too black-and-white a question. Go look at what representative Murtha said. He said 'immediate'. You guys might want to be careful about which mouthpiece you hide behind next time.

• Score? Well, considering the endless posturing of our elected officials on both sides, I'll grudgingly give points to conservatives for backbone. The real winners? Our military. They finally got a vote of confidence to stay the course.

Ooops, sorry!

The Washington Post just published a story about Bob Woodward and the Valerie Plame blame game. These are excerpts, but I just wanted to paste in some parts of the article. They speak for themselves...OK maybe a little highlighting on my part.

Bob Woodward apologized today to The Washington Post's executive editor for failing to tell him for more than two years that a senior Bush administration official had told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame, even as an investigation of those leaks mushroomed into a national scandal.

"I hunkered down. I'm in the habit of keeping secrets. I didn't want anything out there that was going to get me subpoenaed."

Woodward said the unnamed official told him about Plame "in an offhand, casual manner . . . almost gossip" and that "I didn't attach any great significance to it."

Woodward said he had passed along a tip about Plame to Post reporter Walter Pincus, who was writing about Wilson in June 2003, but Pincus has said he does not recall any such conversation.

Woodward said he could not discuss why he decided to notify Downie about his role in the Plame matter last month. He said Downie had told him that there was "a breakdown in communications, but not a breakdown in trust." Downie said he has told Woodward he must be more communicative about sensitive matters in the future.

In past interviews, Woodward has repeatedly minimized the Fitzgerald probe, telling National Public Radio, for example, that when "all of the facts come out in this case, it's going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great." Downie said Woodward had violated the paper's guidelines in some instances by expressing his "personal views."

(sigh)