Dictionary of Desperation

While arguing with George Stephanopoulos about taxes and the auto industry, President Obama drops this gem:

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition.

I love Obama’s reasoning here. "Because you looked up something in the dictionary, you’re stretching. If you weren’t stretching…you wouldn’t have looked up something in the dictionary."

He makes no effort at refutation.

When I was in debate, definitions were absolutely necessary to having a clean and effective round. But for liberals, confusion is not a bane but a tool. Or so it often seems.

And while we're talking about Obama and his amazing policies, here are two articles that discuss the wonders of socialized health care. Hot Air's take includes Canada's failures. World View Times gives an amusing list of the "reforms" Obama has already had a hand in, including health care changes.

In This College Useful Knowledge

This is a must watch. It had me in stitches, even though it's a bit sobering. (These places are accredited???) Anyway, makes me glad I don't have to put up with professors that don't know the answer to basic history questions.

Make sure you stay through to the end. The last 30 seconds or so contains one of the best interviews.



In this college,
Useful knowledge
Ev'rywhere one finds,
And already,
Growing steady,
We've enlarged our minds.

Happiness is the Lord

"... yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." - Psalm 144:15

This is something that has been on my mind of late.

Can anyone who is saved truly be sad? Tragedy is inherent in this world - but even if loved ones pass away or cause us pain, will not happiness return? God is always there; our griefs are not.

You may think, "Well, easy for him to say that. He hasn't been through the mess I'm in!" And that may be true. In fact, it probably is. After all, I'm only 19. But if what I am saying is true, then my experience (and yours) does not matter. Let me say that again: Human experience does not change truth. Philosophers may disagree, but I cannot see how truth can be what it is if it is defined by human experience, something malleable and emotional - exactly what truth is not.

But let's examine a bit of that truth:

But the righteous shall be glad;
they shall exult before God;
they shall be jubilant with joy! (Psalm 68:3, ESV)

This is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Do right, you will be blessed. Do wrong, you will be miserable. That does not mean that riches and comfort are for the righteous, or that the wicked will never prosper temporarily. Blessing is not riches and comfort - not in the fullest sense. How simpleminded of us it would be to decree that we are blessed simply because we have all the comforts Americans hold dear! That is nothing - nothing compared to what we have in God. The problem is remembering that.

In Job 7:7, the title character of that history said:

Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never see happiness again. (ESV)

But they did. He was happy again. His outbursts, though very poetic, did not take into account that God works wonders for all of us, weather today, tomorrow, or years ahead.

Perhaps I should back up and examine this on a smaller scale.

After reading a tragedy, rather than feeling depressed for the rest of the day, I feel cleansed. In the literary world, they call that catharsis. Wikipedia, Knower of All Earthly Things, puts it this way:

The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional climax that evokes overwhelming feelings of great sorrow, pity, laughter or any other extreme change in emotion, resulting in restoration, renewal and revitalization in members of the audience.

But the renewal and revitalization that I am talking about does not spring simply from well-deployed literary devices. There is a joy that cannot be garnered from books or plays or music, though those things certainly offer glimpses of it. They point to a better joy - one had through obedience to and love of God. Once we are saved, we have the greatest happiness on earth.

But even that happiness is not the end. We would be fools to think that the joy we know now on account of our salvation to be the end product of Christ's sacrifice. If the blessings of music and reading point us towards the blessings of salvation on earth, then the joy of being saved today points us towards the ultimate Joy. That is, being in the presence of God.

See what I mean? Sure, griefs will touch us, and the fleeting pleasures afforded by earthly things will inflate us occasionally, but the real joy of our lives is something much more stable. Who is more stable than God?

Remember the kids' song, "Happiness is the Lord"? I always remember liking this one as a 12-year-old. Looking at it again, I can see why:

Happiness is to know the Savior,
Living a life within His favor,
Having a change in my behavior,
Happiness is the Lord.

Happiness is a new creation,
Jesus and me in close relation,
Having a part in His salvation,
Happiness is the Lord.

Real joy is mine, no matter if teardrops start;
I've found the secret, it's Jesus in my heart!

Happiness is to be forgiven,
Living a life that's worth the living,
Taking a trip that leads to Heaven,
Happiness is the Lord,
Happiness is the Lord,
Happiness is the Lord!

Musing of the Day

If health care is a right, who can be denied for any type of care? Can the eldery claim their right to health care and demand some cancer treatment instead of "end of life counselling?"

Let's listen to other people's ideas...as long as they agree with mine! This is a classic President Obama speech, embodying equally classic liberal ideals:



Doesn't it give you a warm feeling inside?

Beacon of Governmental Benevolence Encounters Trouble

That's right, the very model of that wonderful socialism we're learning about first-hand has a little problem. You could say their economy is in the toilet.

Cuba is running short on toilet paper supplies for its people. Some interesting nuggets from the article:

"Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently
have enough raw materials to make it, he said."

"Cuba imports about 60 percent of its food."

Surely there must be some intrepid entrepreneurs who love to make toilet paper and work the rich Cuban farmland...oh wait...nevermind. Oh yeah, Communism.

"Despite the shortages, prices will be cut between 5 percent and 27 percent for
some food, drugs and personal hygiene products, officials said.

A visit to a store in Havana's Vedado neighborhood on Friday found that prices had
dropped for mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and canned squid."

Wouldn't easier access to mayonnaise, BBQ sauce and canned squid compound the the toilet paper problem?

"Cubans receive a subsidized food ration from the government each month that
they say meets their needs for about two weeks."

Well what good is simple math, anyway? Let's just assume two weeks of food is enough for a month.

"Cuba has long blamed the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the island for
many of its economic problems."

Of course. No other country produces toilet paper?

"President Raul Castro told the National Assembly last week that the government
had cut its spending budget for the second time this year and has been
renegotiating its debt and payments with foreign providers.

Castro, who
replaced his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president last year, also has
complained that Cuba's productivity is too low.

He has taken various
steps to boost output, including putting more state-owned land in private hands
and pushing for salaries to be based on productivity. "

Hopefully this is the beginning of an awakening, Raul. And for Obama as well. That is, if they actually had the good of their people in mind.

My point of highlighting this article is of course to show that liberals' utopian dreams of communism are a fraud. If only they could see this case study - and every single other Communist example - and come to a position of honesty about what is good for societies.