Onward, Christian soldiers!

God Has Granted America a Reprieve

By Rev. BOB JONES, III

Rev. Jones sent this greeting to Bush on November 3. It is now posted on his website.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America-though she doesn't deserve it-a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years-a brief time only-to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour" (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you-that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.
Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones IIIPresidentBob Jones University

BJIII:lw

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.

On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.


That about says it all, dontcha think?-the ed.

But wait! there's more:

"1. Leviticus 25.44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not to Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians? "

The anguished petitioner has more to ask here.

Frame Wars

"The conventional view of politics says that people are swayed by words, images, or facts. But that’s false, according to Frank Luntz and George Lakoff, two of the most successful practitioners of political reality construction. They believe that increasingly political forces will clash less over reality than over how it’s shaped. "

It's not facts, folks, it's perceptions. See here.

In this insightful article, the authors show what the spinmeisters are really doing. Not that's it's really news, propagandists have been creating reality for the undiscerning for a long time. Heinrich Himmler went so far as to create a myth based on the Knights of the Round Table and the SS as guardians of the Holy Grail for the Nazi party and the German nation that had the whole world wondering just what the hell those volk were up to.

But it does point out a direction that I think progressives and even moderate Democrats need to go in: a reorganizing of their thinking to recapture the American voting public, if American democracy is to survive the onslaught of the corporate pig.

What's needed here is a new Big Picture; a picture that paints a "reality" of unemployment, endless war, fear of the midnight knock at the door, bread lines and worse. Not that I personally don't believe that another big and really awful depression (not to mention a police state) is just around the corner, because I do, but as I am an optimist, I think we need to use the tools at hand: out-and-out brainwashing.

Yup. Let's attack the sons of bitches with their own weapons; exaggerations, lies, smear campaigns and blackmail. Let's see how they like it.

Yesterday's Papers

Crusin' the Web

This modern technology is a wonderful thing. Thanks to any number of inventive and driven software writers and hardware makers, even the idiotic and illiterate can spew their spittle all over the world. I refer, or course, to the amazingly ignorant and misspelled posts that one finds in reply to blogs and other web sites offering anti-war (and to a surprising amount, merely factual) sentiments concerning our involvement in Iraq. A few minutes cruising the Web and reading posts/replies finds just a staggering amount of vitriol, hate, anal language and threats. Most of the posts read as if they are written by teenagers, although a few, particularly ones from persons claiming to be vets, seem to be merely victims of bad education and poor judgment. Now and then, a pro-war writer tries to be coherent, but it reads to me like an uphill battle for these authors.

Yes, I am an elitist

Of course, I speak from an elitist viewpoint, having graduated from high school. I am also a vet, from the Vietnam era with fourteen of my high school classmates dead as a result of that war, so I may be a tad prejudiced when it comes to thinking about any war, theirs or ours. But not all vets are supporting the war, of course. To think otherwise would be silly. Damn few soldiers, when in the thick of it, if offered a choice right now between shooting one more foreigner or going home, would choose to endure one more minute of the unremitting hell which is combat. They would choose to go home and screw the war. Bet on it.

Yes, here I am, safe behind the lines, feeling righteous about having done my bit and feeling safe to criticize our government's policies. That is my job, after all; I am a citizen. So I do support our troops, and I say bring them home. Screw Iraq, forget the oil, Halliburton is a fancy briefcase, Cheny isn't dead yet but tomorrow never knows, let's get the hell out of there.

Bad loser

To the world outside America, I won't say I'm sorry, but I am pissed off. Our democracy was hijacked fair and square by some pretty sharp guys. The Democratic party is burnt out as a voice of the working man, the Greens haven't found the vocabulary, the Libertarians can't endure realpolitik and the baby boomers as a group (and I speak as one) got lost in the suburbs, leaving the body politic to illiterate bubbas and corporate swine. But we did organize and get out the vote and supported our man and we registered everybody in sight! I hear you, you were magnificent. You did a great job with what you had. But what you had was not good enough. For the future, I might suggest you get somebody to run who actually stands for something. Dean as the chair of the DNC might be a good start. And while we're on the subject, how in the hell did you advisors and planners let him get trashed in Ohio? Remind me not to hire you to organize my birthday party.